POST IT NOTES
**Rewind-A-Wai #116 was released on Tuesday with a review of WCW Starrcade 1995 featuring the World Cup of Wrestling between WCW and NJPW as selected by Espresso Executive Producer Kishan Ameerali. The show is available for all POST Wrestling Café members where we discuss:
-The World Cup of Wrestling concept
-Ric Flair wins his latest WCW title and an excerpt from his book about the match
-The commentary of Dusty Rhodes, Bobby Heenan & Tony Schiavone
-A heavily offensive segment with Kimberly Page and Sunny Onoo
-Randy Savage wrestling with an injured arm
-WCW spoils the Raw Bowl on Nitro
-The introduction of the Billionaire Ted skits
-The status of Ultimate Warrior and WWF
-Vader going to the WWF
-Xanta Klaus is done
-Razor Ramon working with Goldust
-Kishan Ameerali chats Starrcade, Scramble Vision viewing, Sunny Onoo, “The Age Game”
-Your feedback from the POST Wrestling Forum and our next review coming Oct. 4
The video version is available for those that have joined the POST Wrestling YouTube “members only” section:
**Rewind-A-Dynamite is live at 10 p.m. ET tonight with a big review of the first night of AEW Grand Slam from Arthur Ashe Stadium. We will also discuss other news from the day including the WWE Raw performance against both NFL games, NXT 2.0 on Tuesday & more. Tune in live on the POST YouTube channel and we’ll have coverage of the show on the site from Andrew Thompson as John Siino will be attending Grand Slam.
**On Thursday at 3 p.m. ET, The Wellness Policy returns with Jordan Goodman & Neal Flanagan discussing navigating one’s career in 2022 & beyond. The show will be live for patrons with a link sent out Thursday morning and available for everyone later in the day.
**MCU L8R returns on Thursday night with Rich Fann joined by Karen Peterson as they discuss episode six of She-Hulk on the POST Wrestling Café.
**Next Tuesday, the ASK-A-WAI Mailbag Show returns and you can post your questions on the thread in the POST Wrestling Forum.
POST SCHEDULE
Tonight: Rewind-A-Dynamite with John Pollock & Wai Ting (Live at 10 p.m. ET)
Thursday: The Wellness Policy with Jordan Goodman & Neal Flanagan (Live at 3 p.m.)
Thursday: MCU L8R with Rich Fann & Karen Peterson (She-Hulk Ep. 6)
Friday: Rewind-A-SmackDown (Special start time at Midnight ET)
Saturday: The N.W.A. Podcast with Nate Milton, Kris Ealy & Andrew Thompson
Sunday: Wrestlenomics Radio
Sunday: POST Puroresu with John Pollock & WH Park
WRESTLING NEWS
**A tremendous message from Eddie Kingston regarding mental health issues, speaking openly about your issues and understanding that “normal” doesn’t exist.
“You may think people don’t [care], but one person always does." @MadKing1981 shares his story.
September is Suicide Prevention Month. AEW is committed to the mental well-being of our talent, staff & our fans. We encourage anyone struggling to reach out & get help: @afspnational pic.twitter.com/2m6tKDaDYK
— All Elite Wrestling (@AEW) September 21, 2022
**AEW will hold its annual Grand Slam event from Arthur Ashe Stadium in Queens, New York tonight with one of the most loaded shows in recent memory combining Dynamite and Rampage. There are five title matches scheduled for Dynamite and eight matches on Rampage in addition to whatever is taped for Dark Elevation. While AEW will not sell as many tickets as last year’s show, the tickets are scaled higher with Tony Khan noting they have surpassed last year’s gate figure and are closing in on the promotion’s fourth $1 million gate this year and first for a non-pay-per-view card.
AEW is coming off two strong numbers for Dynamite and this week’s show should be close to Raw in several demos including 18-49 and 18-34 (last week’s episode of Dynamite beat this past Monday’s Raw in Adults 18-34, Males and Females 12-34 and were nearly identical among Males 18-49 with Raw doing 364,000 and Dynamite at 357,000 last week). This week isn’t a fair representation of both shows because it’s an unusual amount of NFL competition for Raw with two games as opposed to one going against an exceptionally big edition of Dynamite but if AEW continues this trend, the fall season will be close as the NFL has taken a chunk out of Raw’s audience two weeks into the new season.
Here is the lineup for tonight:
Dynamite at 8 p.m. ET on TBS and TSN 2 in Canada:
*AEW Championship (vacant): Jon Moxley vs. Bryan Danielson
*AEW Tag Team Championship: Swerve in Our Glory (champions) vs. The Acclaimed
*Interim Women’s Championship: Toni Storm (interim champion) vs. Dr. Britt Baker vs. Serena Deeb vs. Athena
*ROH Championship: Claudio Castagnoli (champion) vs. Chris Jericho
*All-Atlantic Championship: PAC (champion) vs. Orange Cassidy
In terms of booking, Jon Moxley and Bryan Danielson are the strongest options to carry the AEW title and you can make arguments both ways. Moxley has a set program with MJF, the only question is whether that program needs the title, and having Moxley vs. MJF and Danielson defending the title gives you two strong programs for Full Gear. Danielson as champion opens a lot of potential options with the uniqueness that Danielson can play babyface or heel for whatever the situation calls for and the freshness of a new person holding the AEW title. Moxley has been the MVP for the company throughout the year and took a position as interim champion that could have been viewed as a lame duck period until CM Punk returned and ended up having a summer of terrific matches and a compelling case to keep the title once Punk returned (and even more so in hindsight). I don’t think there is a bad option and the match should be stellar. The winner will have an automatic opponent set after the Golden Ticket Battle Royal, which you would assume is done on television for any of the big shows coming up, or even Battle of the Belts, which is only two weeks away and is a concept that hasn’t taken off this year.
Swerve in Our Glory and The Acclaimed is a highly-anticipated rematch after catching fire at All Out and going from just another match on the card to some people’s choice for match of the night at All Out. It seems like there is no other possibility than The Acclaimed getting their big win as all the pieces have come together for the act with Billy Gunn being the final touch that just works. Swerve Strickland and Keith Lee have been as consistent as any team this year as all their big matches deliver and frankly, I don’t think it’s time for them to drop the titles but in this setting, it seems pointless to book this match without delivering on the title switch. They have a lot to live up to as the pay-per-view match was tremendous and they had over 22 minutes for that one and it’ll be tough to replicate that length given the lineup.
Castagnoli versus Jericho feels like the start of a chase for Jericho rather than the crowning moment. Long-term, having the belt on Jericho would be wise for the significance of Ring of Honor. On a show where you’re crowning a new AEW champion, I wouldn’t want an ROH title change to come off as an afterthought and unless there is a secret pending television deal, there doesn’t seem an urgency to get the ROH title onto someone of Jericho’s star level. Ultimately, Jericho having the title for Daniel Garcia to challenge for is a great story and should be the climax down the road.
The card for Rampage this Friday at 10 p.m. ET on TNT:
*No Disqualification: Sting & Darby Allin vs. Brody King & Buddy Matthews
*TBS Championship: Jade Cargill (champion) vs. Diamante
*Hook & Action Bronson vs. Matt Menard & Angelo Parker – Bronson is going to perform Hook’s theme “The Chairman’s Intent” before wrestling. Bronson has been training at the Create-A-Pro Wrestling school in preparation for the match.
*Eddie Kingston vs. Sammy Guevara
*Rey Fenix vs. Jungle Boy
*Powerhouse Hobbs vs. Ricky Starks
*Golden Ticket Battle Royale
*Samoa Joe & Wardlow vs. Josh Woods & Tony Nese
**As of Tuesday, WrestleTix reported just over 12,000 tickets distributed for tonight’s show with last year’s drawing 18,300 paid and 21,177 total for a gate of just over $960,000, per the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
**Prior to Grand Slam, Keith Lee & Swerve Strickland appeared at KIPP AMP Middle School in Brooklyn:
Thank you @swerveconfident and @RealKeithLee. Y’all had the kids on 100! Love it. 🙌🏽 pic.twitter.com/TwehCKsbsy
— Victor Taylor Perry (@wallflowerperry) September 21, 2022
**BetOnline has released odds for tonight’s Dynamite lineup. In the AEW title match, Bryan Danielson is a -400 favorite while Moxley is the +250 underdog. The Acclaimed are big favorites at -700 against Swerve in Our Glory at +375, Toni Storm is a -900 favorite to retain the interim women’s title, PAC is a -700 favorite against Orange Cassidy at +400, and Claudio Castagnoli is -800 against Chris Jericho at +425.
**The New York Daily News has a feature on Anthony Bowens.
**Bryan Danielson noted in the “Road to” preview that his only losses in AEW have been to Hangman Page, Daniel Garcia, Chris Jericho, and Jon Moxley and he has avenged three of those losses and Moxley is the only one left.
**Brandon Walker of Barstool Sports spoke with Tony Khan to preview both nights of Grand Slam. Tony Khan noted that the members of the Dark Order that are cleared to compete will be in the Golden Ticket Battle Royale, he was unsure about Alex Reynolds noting he was dealing with an ankle injury since All Out.
**Trish Stratus is returning to Canada’s Got Talent next season to reprise her role as one of the judges alongside Howie Mandel, Lilly Singh, Kardinal Offishall, and host Lindsey Ell. The first season aired earlier this year on CityTV and auditions for season two will take place next month at Fallsview Casino in Niagara Falls. We also want to wish Trish a speedy recovery after she had her appendix removed last week.
**C*4 Wrestling out of Ottawa, Ontario will launch its fifteenth season this Friday with a show at the Preston Event Centre (525 St. Anthony’s Street) with Evil Uno vs. Warhorse, Davey Richards vs. Junior Benito, Stu Grayson vs. Tony Deppen, Janai Kai vs. Trish Adora vs. Jody Threat vs. Ava Lawless, T.D.T vs. Philly & Marino Experience, James Stone vs. Evan Rivers vs. Harlon Abbott, and a C*4 Underground Championship Open among the matches scheduled. VIP tickets are sold out with general admission tickets still available with bell time scheduled for 7:30 p.m.
**The Wrestle Universe streaming platform has added the House of Glory match between Naomichi Marufuji and Eddie Kingston from last month’s High Intensity card.
**MLW’s next card is Fightland on Sunday, October 30th in Philadelphia at the 2300 Arena. The promotion is advertising Alex Hammerstone, Taya Valkyrie, Mance Warner, Willie Mack, Jacob Fatu, Samoan Swat Team, Hustle & Power, Alex Kane, and the Bomaye Fight Club, Microman, Shun Skywalker, and Cesar Duran to appear on the card.
MMA NEWS
**Floyd Mayweather Jr. is openly discussing a rematch with Conor McGregor, telling TMZ that if such a fight were to happen it would be a real boxing fight as opposed to an exhibition bout and his 50-0 record would be at stake. Mayweather Jr. threw out the potential of fighting McGregor at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas and claimed a money figure has already been discussed where the undefeated boxer would be making nine figures for a theoretical rematch. In August 2017, Mayweather Jr. and McGregor generated a reported figure of 4.3 million buys for their boxing fight where Mayweather stopped McGregor in the tenth round.
**Dana White’s Contender Series was highlighted by the signing of the youngest fighter in the promotion’s history. Seventeen-year-old Raul Rosas Jr. defeated Mando Gutierrez by unanimous decision and was awarded a contract along with the other four winners on the show. Rosas Jr. was born October 8, 2004, (three months before the first season of Ultimate Fighter premiered and three years after Julia Hart was born) and made his pro debut two years ago with a 5-0 record prior to Tuesday night, winning all five fights by stoppage. Below are the results from Tuesday’s show:
*Jafel Filho def. Roybert Echeverria by TKO at 1:09 of Round 3
*Nurullo Aliev def. Josh Wick by TKO at 4:36 of Round 1
*Austen Lane def. Richard Jacobi by TKO at 4:34 of Round 1
*Raul Rosas Jr. def. Mando Gutierrez by unanimous decision (30-27 all)
*Brunno Ferreira def. Leon Aliu by TKO at 1:35 of Round 1
**ESPN reported that Cody Garbrandt is off the UFC Fight Night card on October 1st in Las Vegas. Garbrandt was set to fight Rani Yahya, who had just pulled out of the fight due to a neck injury prior to Garbrandt’s removal due to his own injury. The Fight Night event will be headlined by a strawweight contest between Mackenzie Dern and Yan Xiaonan.
**Eddie Alvarez confirmed that he has left ONE Championship after the news was reported by the South China Morning Post:
Confirmed ,I am no longer with ONE. We parted ways amicably and I remain on good terms with the ONE team. I want to thank Chatri for the opportunity and I look forward to watching their continued success. I’m officially a free agent and Ready to Hunt.
Alvarez signed with the promotion in 2018 after leaving the UFC. Alvarez fought four times for ONE with a 1-2 record with one no contest. He last fought in April 2021 losing by decision to Ok Rae Yoon in Singapore.
**Bellator 285 takes place this Friday afternoon from Dublin, Ireland with the main card airing at 4 p.m. ET on Showtime with the following fights on the main card:
*Benson Henderson (29-11) vs. Peter Queally (13-6-1)
*Yoel Romero (14-6) vs. Melvin Manhoef (32-15-1)
*Mads Burnell (16-4) vs. Pedro Carvalho (13-5)
*Leah McCourt (5-2) vs. Dayana Silva (10-7)
*Ciaran Clark (5-0) vs. Rafael Hudson (5-2)
ON THIS DATE
One of the best fights in UFC history took place in Toronto in 2013 when Jon Jones defended the UFC light heavyweight title against Alexander Gustafsson for the first time. The fight was added to the Fight Wing of the UFC Hall of Fame as part of the 2020 induction class.
Hulk Hogan wrestled One Man Gang (George Gray) at Madison Square Garden in 1987 with the two wrestling to a no contest:
Bill Goldberg defeats Triple H for the World Heavyweight Championship at the Unforgiven event in 2003. After retaining the title the previous month in the Elimination Chamber at SummerSlam, Triple H dropped the title at the follow-up pay-per-view and Goldberg held the belt for three months before losing it back to Hunter.
*****
SHOT IN THE DARK
John Siino reviews this week’s editions of AEW Dark, AEW Dark: Elevation, IMPACT Wrestling, Women of Wrestling, NXT Level Up, NJPW Strong, NWA USA, NWA Powerrr, and WWE Main Event in under 15 minutes on Shot In The Dark.
*****
upNXT: House of Dragunov
Braden Herrington is joined by Chris Walder to chat about WWE NXT from September 20th, 2022 headlined by Tyler Bate vs JD McDonagh.
*****
REWIND-A-WAI #116: WCW Starrcade 1995 – WCW vs. NJPW
Seven of WCW’s best are chosen to defend America from the threat of Sonny Onoo and his evil contingent of Japanese wrestlers. Diplomats Tony Schiavone, Bobby Heenan and Dusty Rhodes guide us on commentary – what could go wrong?
*****
REWIND-A-RAW
John Pollock and Wai Ting chat WWE Raw from San Jose with Bobby Lashley vs. Seth Rollins for the U.S. title, WarGames at Survivor Series & MJF speaks.
*****
WRESTLENOMICS RADIO
What would a merger between Warner Bros. Discovery and NBCUniversal, major TV partners for AEW and WWE, mean for the wrestling business? Plus, the state of wrestling popularity, WWE board changes, and more
*****
REWIND-A-SMACKDOWN
John Pollock & Wai Ting review Friday Night SmackDown & AEW Rampage featuring Logan Paul appearing on the show, and Samoa Joe defending the ROH Television Championship
*****
MCU L8R: She-Hulk Episode 5 Review
This week, it’s just WH Park and Rich Fann as the POST Pair talk Man-Thing, D23 MCU reveals, and of course, Jen’s journey in justifying her ownership of the She-Hulk property in She-Hulk: Attorney at Law Episode 5.
*****
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