POST IT NOTES
**Rewind-A-Raw is live at 11 p.m. ET tonight with a review of tonight’s show from Dallas and the go-home edition of the show before Crown Jewel as well as a lot of news from the past couple of days. We will be live on the POST YouTube channel immediately after Raw.
**On Tuesday night, we are doing a special Watch Along version of Rewind-A-Wai for POST Wrestling Café members at 8 p.m. ET. Wai Ting, Brandon from New Jersey, and I will be watching the WBF pay-per-view from June 1992 and providing our live commentary over the show. Brandon is this week’s Espresso Executive Producer that has selected this event.
**Tom Lawlor returns to POST Wrestling this Saturday on The Long & Winding Royal Road with WH Park. The two will be discussing the January 1999 match between Yoshinari Ogawa and Masahito Kakihara and should be a terrific show. Lawlor is coming off a busy weekend working the New Japan shows in New York City and then faced Minoru Suzuki this past Saturday for DEFY Wrestling.
**Saturday’s edition of The N.W.A Podcast covers the CM Punk-Elite saga and the issues facing AEW moving forward. On this month’s show, Rich Fann from PW Torch joined the panel for the entire show:
POST SCHEDULE
Tonight: Rewind-A-Raw with John Pollock & Wai Ting (11 p.m. ET)
Tuesday: Rewind-A-Wai “Watch Along” of WBF pay-per-view (Live at 8 p.m. for POST Wrestling Café members)
Tuesday: upNXT with Braden Herrington & Davie Portman
Wednesday: Shot in the Dark with John Siino
Wednesday: Rewind-A-Dynamite with John & Wai
Thursday: WWE Q3 Earnings Report Analysis with John Pollock & Brandon Thurston (Live at 1 p.m. ET)
Friday: Rewind-A-SmackDown with Wai Ting & Kate from Montreal (Patreon)
Saturday: WWE Crown Jewel POST Show with John Pollock & Kate from Montreal (Live at 3 p.m. ET)
Saturday: The Long & Winding Royal Road with WH Park & Tom Lawlor (Yoshinari Ogawa vs. Masahito Kakihara, January 1999)
Sunday: Wrestlenomics Radio with Brandon Thurston, Chris Gullo & Jesse Collings
WRESTLING NEWS
**Friday Night SmackDown averaged 835,000 viewers and 0.23 in 18-49 on FS 1 this past Friday night airing against the World Series and being on a different network. AEW Rampage dropped to 378,000 viewers and 0.12 in 18-49 on TNT. Both shows aired against the World Series, which averaged 11.5 million viewers and 2.85 in 18-49 on Fox along with back-to-back NBA games on ESPN that were the top programs on cable for the night. Among cable originals, SmackDown ranked #5, and Rampage was #27. Rampage was not hurt badly among its younger audience, in fact, 18-34 was up this week but it was the 50+ demo that dropped from 0.24 to 0.17 and was likely a culprit of the World Series. (Brandon Thurston of Wrestlenomics and Showbuzz Daily)
**We will have more on the Friday night viewership figures on Rewind-A-Raw tonight.
**Friday Night SmackDown did a huge number in Canada this past week with 237,000 viewers, which is the show’s second-largest audience of the year. The show was sixth among sports, which included the World Series, CFL, and a Toronto Raptors game, so it was a heavily competitive night which makes the number even more impressive. It did coincide with Fox carrying the World Series, so Sportsnet 360 was the only outlet to carry SmackDown in Canada on Friday night and would have helped the 360 number (the weekly numbers for SmackDown in Canada don’t include the numbers from the Fox affiliates). However, looking at last October, SmackDown aired on FS 1 twice in October and averaged 166,000 and 129,000 viewers those weeks, so the boost was significantly higher this year.
**Tonight’s edition of WWE Raw takes place from the American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas, and is the company’s last show before Crown Jewel with SmackDown being taped last Friday. It is a very competitive night as Raw will be airing against Game 3 of the World Series and the Monday Night Football game between Cincinnati and Cleveland on top of the show airing on Halloween. The major elements advertised include appearances from Roman Reigns and Brock Lesnar to promote their matches for Saturday in Saudi Arabia. The following matches and segments have been advertised for tonight’s show:
*Trick or Street Fight: Otis vs. Matt Riddle
*Non-Title Match: Bianca Belair vs. Nikki Cross
*Roman Reigns to appear
*Brock Lesnar to appear
**WrestleTix reports that over 8,400 tickets are out for tonight’s show in Dallas, so it’s a strong advance at the American Airlines Center.
**WWE Raw returns to Sportsnet 360 tonight after airing on OLN last week, which is a much smaller station in Canada. Due to NHL coverage, NXT will only be streaming on Sportsnet NOW on Tuesday night.
**The SmackDown crew ran a show in Stuttgart, Germany earlier today and continues its European tour on Tuesday in Dortmund and wraps up Wednesday in Geneva, Switzerland. Due to Crown Jewel, there are no live events this weekend with the Raw crew returning to the U.S. for next Monday’s show in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania.
**The major match announcement from the weekend is that WWE is allowing Shinsuke Nakamura to work against The Great Muta at Nippon Budokan for Pro Wrestling NOAH on January 1st. The latest details from Tokyo Sports are that the deal was only finalized last Wednesday, and the announcement was made on Sunday during NOAH’s event at the Ariake Arena. Nakamura has only worked for NOAH on a handful of occasions including one singles match with Go Shiozaki in 2010. Muto beat Nakamura for the IWGP title in 2008 and defended the title against Nakamura later that year with Muto winning both matches. This is not unprecedented as WWE did allow KENTA/Hideo Itami to go back to NOAH in 2018 for one night as part of Naomichi Marufuji’s 20th Anniversary when Itami lost to his former partner. It does give a sense of the mentality of the current regime and some benefit of the doubt regarding the Karl Anderson situation with New Japan for those doubtful of Anderson returning to lose the NEVER Openweight title. Muto will face Nakamura on January 1st and then team with Sting on January 22nd prior to his retirement match at the Tokyo Dome in February, which will be a major deal.
**Prior to Battle Autumn this Saturday, NJPW has three shows over the next three days. On Tuesday, they are in Echizen City with Tetsuya Naito, BUSHI & Titan against Aaron Henare, TJP & Francesco Akira in the main event. On Wednesday, the tour hits Komatsu City with the same main event as Tuesday. Thursday’s show is in Osaka headlined by Tetsuya Naito, SANADA & Hiromu Takahashi against Ren Narita, Master Wato & Alex Zayne. Only Thursday’s card is streaming on New Japan World with a 5 a.m. ET start.
**GCW promoter Brett Lauderdale stated on The Business of The Business podcast earlier this month that they would have an announcement regarding their streaming situation by November 1st, so an announcement is likely imminent.
**Pro Wrestling NOAH drew 3,739 to the Ariake Arena on Sunday for its Pro Wrestling Love Forever 3 card headlined by Kaito Kiyomiya and Kazuyuki Fujita and the ongoing retirement tour for Keiji Muto. Kiyomiya retained the GHC championship in the main event, which I’m hoping to watch later today. I did see the six-man tag where Muto teamed with Naomichi Marufuji & Yoshiki Inamura against Hiroshi Tanahashi, Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma, which was a fine six-man but I wouldn’t say it was a wild response from the audience or a six-man that over delivered. The novelty was seeing Muto and Tanahashi together one last time and the two trading dragon screws and Muto using countless shining wizards. Muto teased going to the top for a moonsault but was stopped by Makabe with his chain. It scared the hell out of me that Muto is building towards one final moonsault at the Tokyo Dome, which he should not do under any circumstance with the damage those knees have incurred over the past thirty years. Muto’s entrance was phenomenal and when he enters the Tokyo Dome in February, it’s going to be a very cool moment as it feels like a big deal given all the promotions that working with NOAH for this final run.
**WBEZ has produced a 40-minute documentary on the history of wrestling in Chicago with an in-depth analysis and discussion of the wrestling hotbed.
**Fightful Select reported on Monday that Black Label Pro is joining the Fite+ streaming service where their events will be available beginning November 12th with its Slamilton event.
**The 24/7 title was in use on the shows in Mexico over the weekend. Dana Brooke lost the title to Nikki Cross, who lost it to Tamina, and Brooke beat Tamina to leave with the title. The belt has basically been non-existent since the regime change over the summer when it comes to being utilized on television.
**El Fantasma, the father of Santos Escobar, walked out with his son on Sunday’s show in Mexico City against Dolph Ziggler. There was also a ten-bell salute at the start of the show for Humberto Garza.
**DEFY Wrestling held its Kingdom Come card on Saturday night at Washington Hall. The results from the show included Minoru Suzuki over Tom Lawlor, Ultimo Dragon & Nick Wayne beating Gringo Loco & La Estrella, Vert Vixen over Liiza Hall to become the first DEFY women’s champion, Davey Richards over Cody Chhun, Mance Warner & Matthew Justice over State of Emergency to win the DEFY tag titles, and SCHAFF won the BMF Battle Royal. The promotion returns on November 26th with a card in Seattle, Washington.
**Tales from the Territories will cover Stampede Wrestling on Tuesday night on Vice TV. The panel will include Bret Hart, Abdullah the Butcher, Dr. D David Schultz, and Bobby Bass.
**The WWE stock closed at $78.89 on Monday.
MMA NEWS
**Jake Paul was victorious against Anderson Silva on Saturday with a unanimous decision win in their eight-round contest. Paul knocked Silva down in the eighth round with the judges scoring the fight 78-73, 78-73, and 77-74. All three gave Paul rounds 1, 4, 6, 7, and 8 with two judges also giving him round three. Afterward, Paul was angling for fights with Saul “Canelo” Alvarez and Nate Diaz with Diaz attending the card with teammate Chris Avila competing on the main card. The hold-up will be Diaz’s contractual obligations to the UFC and how long the exclusive negotiating period lasts. Paul versus Diaz is probably the biggest fight Showtime can realistically put together for Paul as few assume the Canelo option is a legitimate one. Paul would be a clear favorite against Diaz but the promotional hype for the fight would be huge given the fanbase that Diaz brings and the novelty of Diaz doing a boxing fight.
**Cain Velasquez was denied an appeal last week by the Sixth Appellate Court of California. MMA Junkie reported that Velasquez’s defense submitted a 246-page request that challenged past rulings by the judge to deny Velasquez bail and has remained in custody since February. Velasquez is set for a pre-trial hearing next week in San Jose where he faces charges connected with his arrest where he allegedly shot at a vehicle containing Harry Goularte, who faces a felony charge for lewd acts with a minor. If found guilty, Velasquez faces 20 years to life in prison and has previously pleaded not guilty to the charges.
ON THIS DATE
5 years ago today! Thank you for finding us.@iamjohnpollock @wai0937https://t.co/WGXRmeJQU5 pic.twitter.com/85RBANaTyB
— POST Wrestling (@POSTwrestling) October 31, 2022
The match of the year from 1998:
John Cena appears as Vanilla Ice on the Halloween edition of SmackDown in 2002:
*****
WRESTLENOMICS: WWE Q3 2022 Earnings Preview
Brandon Thurston, Jesse Collings & Chris Gullo talk about the latest wrestling business news, including a preview of WWE’s Q3 2022 earnings ahead of Wednesday’s report.
*****
THE N.W.A. Podcast: Spooky SZN
Nate, Andrew, & Kris are joined by Rich Fann (PWTorch) to break down the month’s biggest stories including the latest in the situation involving CM Punk, The Elite, Tony Khan and AEW.
*****
REWIND-A-SMACKDOWN
John Pollock & Wai Ting review Friday Night SmackDown and AEW Rampage and chat about the latest details on The Elite and CM Punk, and take your feedback.
*****
REWIND-A-DYNAMITE
John Pollock & Wai Ting are back to review AEW Dynamite featuring Jon Moxley defending the AEW Championship against Penta El Zero M.
*****
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: If Ya Smell What the Schism is Cookin
Braden Herrington and Davie Portman chat all about the October 25th edition of WWE NXT featuring Ilja Dragunov vs JD McDonagh in the main event.
*****
ASK-A-WAI: Ask Us Anything! (October 2022)
John Pollock and Wai Ting answer their patrons’ questions about anything and everything in the October 2022 edition of Ask-A-Wai
*****
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