POST DAILY NEWS SHOW
John Pollock & Wai Ting discuss:
– Forbidden Door updates
– Jon Moxley discusses seeking treatment last year
– Paul Levesque states he’s “back” while speaking at Performance Center
– NXT 2.0 ratings
– IMPACT tonight
– Pollock’s interview with Bellator featherweight champion Cris Cyborg
Audio version available for POST Wrestling Café members.
POST SCHEDULE
Tonight: MCU L8R with Wai Ting, WH Park & guest Ahmad Butt (Patreon)
Friday: POST Daily News (1 p.m. ET on POST YouTube)
Friday: Rewind-A-SmackDown with John & Wai (11 p.m. ET for Café members)
Saturday: The N.W.A. Podcast with Nate Milton, Kris Ealy & Andrew Thompson
Saturday: POST Puroresu with WH Park & Karen Peterson
Sunday: Wrestlenomics with Brandon Thurston & Chris Gullo
Sunday: Forbidden Door POST Show with John & Wai (Live after the PPV on POST YouTube)
WRESTLING NEWS
**Jon Moxley spoke about his decision to seek treatment last year while appearing on The Sessions with his wife Renee Paquette. Moxley said there was no one incident that led to the decision, but it was a growing dependency on alcohol that was affecting him daily, and finally decided on Halloween night he needed to go to rehab. He said it took him a while after rehab to find his groove in wrestling and not have the same adrenaline, but something clicked in the match with Bryan Danielson at Revolution this past March. He said it was freeing once everyone knew and he didn’t have to hide it any longer and went without the use of his phone during his stay in rehab, which he also found to be greatly beneficial. He said he has no desire to drink but is conscious of this metamorphosis he is undergoing on national television for everyone to see him adapt to his new way of living. He said it was a trying year with his stay in rehab, having a baby, moving from Las Vegas to Cincinnati, and releasing his book (which was released the week he entered rehab).
He also spoke about Forbidden Door this weekend and felt he help bridge the gap between AEW and NJPW since he worked for both and said he signed a six-month contract with New Japan back in 2019 prior to signing with AEW. He said this match with Tanahashi on Sunday means a lot to him and mentioned how often he watched Tanahashi’s match with Minoru Suzuki from October 2012 while Moxley was in FCW. He said the name and distinction of Tanahashi as the ‘Ace’ means more than the ‘200 f—king belts we’ve got between these two companies’.
**Marc Raimondi of ESPN also released a feature on Jon Moxley covering his decision to seek treatment last year. The piece includes comments from Moxley, Renee Paquette, Eddie Kingston, and Tony Khan. From the story:
It was affecting his life. When he was younger, he said he could drink a 750-milliliter bottle of Jack Daniels at night, get up in the morning to run 5 miles and then work a 25-minute main-event match in the evening.
Before going into rehab, a routine of waking up feeling terrible, chugging water, hitting the sauna and downing countless aspirin to feel somewhat normal became common. Moxley said when he arrived for matches or segments at AEW, he had to shake the brain fog caused by his hangovers and mentally prepare himself to get ready to perform in character.
Paquette contacted AEW to alert them of Moxley’s decision to enter treatment with Moxley’s blessing for them to disclose the truth about why he would be off of television:
Khan said he was surprised when Paquette told him what was going on, but he was clear that AEW was behind Moxley and their family. Khan had to make “major” changes to his creative plans, but he said it was a small price to pay to get someone he considers a friend the help they need.
**Paul Levesque spoke at the WWE Performance Center on Wednesday with multiple sources telling POST Wrestling that the message he conveyed was that he was “back”. One person stated to us that during his address, he said he was looking forward to working with all the new people he hadn’t had a chance to work with yet. Levesque also alluded to something exciting coming up, which is why he was down there, but Levesque couldn’t say what it was.
Levesque has been removed from the process at NXT since his cardiac event last year with Shawn Michaels assuming a lot of those duties. It is unknown to what extent Levesque’s role will entail but certainly indicates a heavier presence from Levesque. It is not known if he will be attending the tapings next Tuesday when NXT returns with a live episode after two taped editions of the show.
**Kazuchika Okada appeared on Wednesday’s edition of Dynamite, entering to a thunderous reaction, and setting up a four-way match for the IWGP heavyweight title with Jay White, Hangman Page, and Adam Cole at Forbidden Door. It’s the match that has been stung by several factors and received plenty of complaints about its buildup. The first handicap was waiting until Dominion ended when White won the championship from Okada. Meanwhile, on AEW programming, Page and Cole were arguing over who should get the match. Page stated he doesn’t expect to receive another AEW title shot any time soon, which is probably a long-term story to explain why he is shut out of the title picture but begs the question of who is allowing him to fight for this title? White explained on Dynamite that Cole shouldn’t be wrestling for the title after losing twice to Page, so that negated him as a challenger without using the Owen Hart Tournament win as a counterargument against White. Overall, this has been a messy build for a match that most likely wanted to see a 1-on-1 scenario – even with Okada and Page wrestling without a title on the line. It’s four tremendous performers and that’s the conclusion for many of the matches – questionable promotional choices but a solid match in the end.
The loss of Bryan Danielson hurts the show as his match with Zack Sabre Jr. would have been one of the highlights of the entire card. Instead of naming ZSJ’s opponent, they are leaving it a mystery. I felt watching the segment on Wednesday that you were already delivering bad news to the audience that Danielson isn’t cleared and then holding off on the news of the replacement. There are times when the mystery creates last-minute buzz, but this is one where it feels overdone, but it’s hard to say without knowing who is pegged for the spot on Sunday. If it turns out to be Cesaro, I think a short video introducing him on Dynamite and promising a classic with Zack Sabre Jr. would create equal if not more buzz given that it’s Cesaro’s first match since leaving WWE against a world-class opponent.
**A press conference for “Ric Flair’s Last Match” was held on Thursday in Nashville where Flair spoke about his ambitions for the match. He wants to prove the skeptics wrong and that he may not be the Flair of 1989 but better than the Flair of 2009. He said he has trained hard for this and doesn’t want people worried about him doing this match. He joked that Jay Lethal is “pissed off at him” right now when mentioning how much training he can get in from now until the match. Regarding his pacemaker, he said there was a risk he could become unplugged but then it could be plugged back in. He also has had an inner ear problem four times in his life but was assured after taking bumps and running the ropes in preparation to convince himself he could do it. He said the reason he went to IMPACT Wrestling was due to divorces and paying an attorney and alimony that totaled $50,000 per month. Now, he said he’s back on his feet financially and doesn’t need to do this. Flair said he isn’t booking this and couldn’t share details about the specifics of his match. He said his ideal opponent doesn’t have to have a big name and just needs some “that can work”.
Jeff Jarrett said he was partners with Conrad Thompson but not involved in the actual match with Flair.
The first two official matches for the card are Josh Alexander vs. Jacob Fatu for the IMPACT Championship and the Motor City Machine Guns against Davey Richards & Eddie Edwards. The card takes place on Sunday, July 31st at the Nashville Municipal Auditorium.
**IMPACT Wrestling airs tonight at 8 p.m. ET coming off Slammiversary this past Sunday. The television tapings took place earlier this week from Nashville with the following matches scheduled to air tonight:
*Josh Alexander vs. Deaner
*Chelsea Green vs. Mia Yim
*Before the Impact: Andrew Everett vs. Black Taurus
**IMPACT’s next special is Against All Odds on Friday, July 1st featuring Josh Alexander defending the IMPACT Championship against Joe Doering in the main event from Center Stage in Atlanta.
**CNBC’s Alex Sherman was a guest on Recode Media with Peter Kafka and spoke about David Zaslav running Warner Brothers Discovery. Sherman said to expect the company to rein in its spending with an emphasis on quality programming without exorbitant spending. A big example was seen earlier this year when CNN+ was shelved a month after its launch after huge resources were put into the streaming platform. Sherman states that HBO Max will be the company’s flagship streaming service but expects the Discovery content to have a larger role alongside HBO content on the service and could undergo a name change. Sherman said it’s the non-HBO exclusive content that the WBD could pull back spending on because Discover fills the niche of complimentary programming to HBO on the streaming service. How this relates to AEW is far down the food chain but it’s in AEW’s best interest that there are competitive bids for their programming when they come due.
**Ric Flair shared on his podcast that there is an issue between him and Jay Lethal, which led to Lethal not appearing on his podcast as planned. Flair stated that feelings were hurt when Lethal indicated he wanted to be part of the event in Nashville when Flair wrestles his last match. Flair, who noted he’s a co-owner of the venture, didn’t have the authority to book him on the card but that Lethal will get over it. The two have been training throughout this lead-up with several videos circulating of Flair training at Lethal’s gym.
**MLW presents Battle Riot IV tonight at the Melrose Ballroom in New York City featuring their annual 40-person battle royal. The event is being taped for future editions of MLW Fusion with the following card announced:
*MLW World Heavyweight Championship: Alex Hammerstone (champion) vs. Bandido
*National Openweight Championship: Alex Kane (champion) vs. Davey Richards
*World Middleweight Championship: Myron Reed (champion) vs. Lince Dorado vs. La Estrella vs. Arez
*Women’s Featherweight Championship: Taya Valkyrie (champion) vs. Brittany Blake
*Jacob Fatu vs. Real 1
*Killer Kross vs. Matt Cross
*Marshall & Ross Von Erich vs. Samoan SWAT Team
*Scarlett Bordeaux vs. Clara Carreras
*Battle Riot Match: Jacob Fatu, Killer Kross, Davey Richards, Mads Krugger, Lince Dorado, EJ Nduka, Calvin Tankman, Micromanage, Alex Kane, The Von Erichs, Matt Cross, Savio Vega, La Estrella, Richard Holliday, Myron Reed, Juicy Finau, Lance Anoa’i, Warhorse, Little Guido, Ace Romero, KC Navarro, Gangrel, Arez, Dr. Dax, Mr. Thomas, Mini Abismo Negro, Ken Broadway, and Los Maximos
**West Coast Pro out of California recently posted the full match between Konosuke Takeshita and Speedball Mike Bailey which has received tremendous reviews.
ON THIS DATE
One of the greatest MMA fights of all time took place in 2002 between Don Frye and Yoshihiro Takayama at Pride 21:
Brock Lesnar wins the King of the Ring on this date in 2002 defeating Rob Van Dam in Columbus, Ohio. The win set up Lesnar to challenge for the WWE Championship at SummerSlam two months later and defeated The Rock:
*****
REWIND-A-DYNAMITE
John Pollock & Wai Ting review AEW Dynamite 6/22/22 as Bryan Danielson addresses his status ahead of Sunday’s Forbidden Door PPV. Plus, a rundown of the updated card so far.
*****
SHOT IN THE DARK: Moustache Mountain Disrupts, Aces & Eights Reunion
John Siino reviews this week’s editions of AEW Dark, AEW Dark: Elevation, NXT UK, IMPACT Wrestling, NXT Level Up, NJPW Strong, NWA USA, NWA Powerrr, and Main Event in under 15 minutes on Shot In The Dark.
*****
POST DAILY NEWS: Tony Khan interview
Wai Ting is joined by Bruce Lord to discuss Tony Khan at Collision Conference in TO and Pollock’s interview, AEW Dynamite tonight, and recent notable matches from the indies including Nick Wayne vs. Will Ospreay and “Speedball” Mike Bailey vs. Konosuke Takeshita.
******
upNXT: Nothing But Trouble
Braden Herrington and Davie Portman review NXT from June 21st, 2022 featuring Carmelo Hayes vs Tony D’Angelo for the North American Championship!
*****
ASK-A-WAI: Ask Us Anything! (June 2022)
John Pollock and Wai Ting answer their patrons’ questions about anything and everything in the June 2022 edition of Ask-A-Wai.
******
REWIND-A-RAW
Wai Ting & Kate from MTL review WWE Raw as Becky Lynch faces Asuka in a MITB Qualifying Match. Meanwhile, Ezekiel is reunited on Raw with his older brother Elias.
*****
IMPACT Slammiversary POST Show
John Pollock is solo to review IMPACT Slammiversary 2022 as Josh Alexander defends the IMPACT Championship against Eric Young.
******
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