POST IT NOTES
**Rewind-A-Dynamite is live at 10 p.m. ET tonight to discuss Dynamite from Boston, and we’ll go through all of today’s news at the beginning. You can stream the show live on the POST YouTube channel or download it from the free POST Wrestling feed on your podcast app.
**We are ten days away from the POST Wrestling 5-Year Anniversary Show at QXT’s Nightclub in Newark, New Jersey on Saturday, November 19th. The event will begin at 1 p.m. ET including a Q&A hosted by Wai Ting and I, Braden Herrington & Davie Portman will be hosting an interactive game, plus many of the POST family including Andrew Thompson, WH Park, Mike Murray, Kris Ealy, Neal Flanagan, Benno & more will be in attendance. General admission tickets including the Q&A and stage shows for $30, and VIP tickets are available that come with an event t-shirt and access to a meet-and-greet after the show. Tickets are available at POSTwrestling.com/live.
**Alan Counihan a.k.a. Alan4L from the PW Torch site previews the Japanese candidates on the Observer Hall of Fame ballot this year. On Thursday, thecubsfan will preview the Mexican candidates.
**The latest edition of Small Talk is out for Double Double, Iced Capp & Espresso members of the POST Wrestling Café as Wai and I have our non-wrestling chat of the month.
**The Wellness Policy will be live on Thursday at 3 p.m. ET with Wai Ting, Jordan Goodman & Neal Flanagan discussing Religion & Spirituality. The show will stream for patrons and be available on the free feed later in the day.
POST SCHEDULE
Tonight: Rewind-A-Dynamite (10 p.m. ET)
Thursday: The Wellness Policy – Religion & Spirituality (3 p.m. ET)
Friday: Rewind-A-SmackDown with John & Wai (Patreon)
Saturday: POST Puroresu with WH Park & Karen Peterson
Sunday: UFC 281 POST Show with John Pollock & Eric Marcotte (1 p.m. ET)
Sunday: Wrestlenomics Radio
WRESTLING NEWS
**AEW Dynamite returns to the Agganis Arena in Boston tonight with WrestleTix reporting about 3,400 tickets distributed. Boston is another market where AEW has noticeably decreased from its last time in the market as they drew 5,900 and 5,600 paid this past April following WrestleMania weekend. Below are the announced matches and segments for tonight’s show on TBS and TSN 2 in Canada:
*2-of-3 Falls: Bryan Danielson vs. Sammy Guevara
*Title Eliminator Tournament: Eddie Kingston vs. Ethan Page
*The Acclaimed & FTR vs. Swerve in Our Glory & The Gunn Club
*Jamie Hayter vs. Skye Blue
*Face-to-face between Dr. Britt Baker and Saraya
*Jon Moxley and MJF to appear
**Dynamite doesn’t have the World Series to contend with, so we will see what a regular edition of the show generates as they inch closer to the pay-per-view. The “x factor” for Full Gear is The Young Bucks & Kenny Omega where the video teases have led you to believe that they will return for a match with Death Triangle but I think it would be worthwhile to officially announce that match in advance, perhaps next week but definitely not the night before as they did for All Out where you didn’t know the Trios final until Rampage.
The television has essentially laid out the key matches and you could piece together the pay-per-view. Saraya and Baker need to have a big segment tonight as this feud has fizzled and Saraya’s first match in five years should be a big deal for Full Gear. Once they booked Saraya to engage in physicality, I felt that eliminated any mystery regarding her in-ring status and could have been teased and hinted at before the big announcement that she’s been cleared instead, they have all but said she is cleared and it lacked suspense.
The other question attached to Full Gear is this approach to the main event where Jon Moxley and MJF are going into the match with babyface portrayals, with the caveat that MJF could be playing the fans and doubles down as his devil character to win the title at Full Gear. That’s a nice twist for the story, but is the actual selling of the show more effective with MJF as a clear-cut heel to oppose Moxley? It was only a few weeks ago that MJF was mocking Moxley for his alcoholism and now the audience is being asked to support MJF. We’ll only know the answer if this shades-of-grey version of MJF is effective when the buys are known for Full Gear.
**Ric Flair has stated the Plane Ride from Hell allegations levied against him from the May 2002 incident will be addressed in his upcoming documentary. The project is being directed by Tom Rinaldi and Fox Sports with WWE involved as well. In his To Be The Man podcast, Flair addressed the episode of Dark Side of the Ring where Flair was accused of sexual misconduct during a WWE flight in 2002 by flight attendant Heidi Doyle, who appeared on the episode and later was part of a lawsuit against WWE and Flair, which was eventually settled. Flair called it “all bullshit” and that he would “explain it thoroughly” in the soon-to-be-released documentary. Flair was very upset that the controversy led to his removal from the opening signature of WWE programming where his familiar “Woo” was removed on the subsequent programming, and later restored. Flair said he expects the documentary to be out before the end of the year.
**One of the most famous matches of the era took place twenty-five years ago today with the Survivor Series in 1997 and Bret Hart’s championship title loss to Shawn Michaels. The finish of the match has been immortalized with countless recollections and perspectives, documentaries, books, re-enactments (and pretty much all of them horrible in execution), and in time, a reunion of the two adversaries to make an angle out of it and have a match twelve years later at WrestleMania in 2010.
The issues surrounding the finish have been discussed to death and there are so many facts readily available that for anyone not to grasp the major points involved, it’s not worth adjudicating. There was a major ripple effect and there is no argument that WWF capitalized on the incident while WCW bungled what was handed to them by the most sympathetic figure of the whole mess, who was trivialized in 1998. The powerplay between Hart and Michaels in the lead-up to Survivor Series was fascinating on many fronts, not the least was so much playing itself out on television and made for captivating drama but turmoil in the locker room.
The odd part is that the two pillars of the company would both be gone within months of the fallout of Montreal with Hart leaving for WCW and Michaels facing a career-threatening back injury that he gutted his way through WrestleMania with and it appeared his career was over at the age of 33. If you play “what if?” of Hart staying with WWF, it’s an enormous contract on the books for the ensuing two decades with only a fraction of that term focusing on his in-ring career before winding down for an office and ambassador position.
1998 is a different year for WWF if it’s Hart in the lead role opposite a top babyface Steve Austin (who I believe gets to that spot regardless of the Hart-Michaels shake-up) and likely extends his program with Hart well into 1998 to extend their existing rivalry. With Hart’s contract, is there any pause when it comes to the hiring of Mike Tyson for the reported figure of $3.5 million? Tyson was a sizable gamble that paid off in a big way but given where the company was prior to raising its pay-per-view prices in September 1997, it’s reasonable to question if they would pay a large amount when Hart was still on the books.
The fate of the company is impossible to determine with these questions because if Hart doesn’t leave, there is no Survivor Series controversy, and therefore, no heel Vince McMahon and that’s a major omission from its history and having Hart as Austin’s foil instead of McMahon likely doesn’t generate anywhere near the business in 1998 as they produced with that generational feud that transformed the company and led it going public the following year.
**Fightful Select reports that Lady Frost has been granted her release by IMPACT Wrestling and states that the release was granted before the tapings in Las Vegas.
**Congratulations to Pat McAfee and his wife Samantha, who have disclosed the couple is expecting their first child with the completion of the first trimester. McAfee spoke about the past issues the couple has experienced with two lost pregnancies in the past and utilizing IVF treatment this time.
I'm incredibly proud of you @MrsMcAfeeShow & I can't wait to be a father#PMSLive pic.twitter.com/g6m7oE3rqE
— Pat McAfee (@PatMcAfeeShow) November 9, 2022
**Chris Jericho turns 52 years old today. It was recently disclosed by AEW that he is signed through the end of 2025 where Jericho will be 55 by the time this new deal expires. It is impossible to assess the landscape in three years and whether Jericho signs another contract as an active performer but locking him up for that amount of time is a coup for AEW given the interest Jericho would have had as a free agent.
**Speaking of Jericho, he is a guest on Howie Mandel Does Stuff discussing his career, breaking into the business, long-term storytelling, and alien abductions. There was an interesting portion where Jericho brought up the lack of unionization in the industry but noted he is part of SAG (Screen Actors Guild) but not through his wrestling work. He acknowledged that for merchandise they are paid a percentage but should probably be higher.
**The following matches are scheduled to air on IMPACT Wrestling on Thursday night on AXS TV:
*Knockouts Championship: Jordynne Grace (champion) vs. Gisele Shaw
*The Last Rodeo: Mickie James vs. Chelsea Green
*Digital Media Championship: Brian Myers (champion) vs. Joe Hendry
*X Division Tournament: Trey Miguel vs. Speedball Mike Bailey
*Bully Ray vs. Zicky Dice
*Bhupinder Gujjar vs. G Sharpe
*Before the Impact: Killer Kelly vs. Sandra Moone
**The WWE stock closed at $74.88 on Wednesday.
MMA NEWS
**Cain Velasquez is out of custody after bail was finally set for the former UFC champion at $1 million. After being denied three times, a different judge heard Velasquez’s case and granted him bail after being in custody since February on charges of attempted murder and multiple gun-related charges. KRON-4 in the Bay Area posted a video of Velasquez exiting the courthouse and briefly addressed the media:
**City Kickboxing out of New Zealand has four fighters competing at UFC 281 this Saturday including middleweight champion Israel Adesanya, who headlines the card against Alex Pereira. Adesanya, Dan Hooker, Brad Riddell, and Carlos Ulberg all appeared on Monday’s edition of The MMA Hour with Ariel Helwani as well as CKB’s head coach Eugene Bareman. It was a very interesting show focused on the camp with so many of its guys fighting on the same card and a breaking point during the preparation. Bareman was the first guest and shared a speech he had with the gym where he felt people were getting complacent and the issues had to be addressed. After that, Helwani got the perspective of the other four fighters regarding their response to this speech and it was fascinating to hear the different perspectives. Bareman stated that Hooker was the first fighter to get on board while Adesanya was the last, which Adesanya pushed back on when he appeared in-studio and felt he was already working above and beyond and thought it was unnecessary but understood where Bareman was coming from.
**Episode 3 of UFC Embedded for UFC 281 this Saturday.
**Luke Thomas of Morning Kombat has a 45-minute sit-down interview with Israel Adesanya ahead of UFC 281 this Saturday.
**Jon Anik will be calling UFC 281 alongside Joe Rogan and Daniel Cormier.
**Dustin Poirier and the UFC have entered a multi-year marketing partnership for Poirier’s Louisiana Style hot sauce, which will serve as the official hot sauce of the UFC. The agreement will see the hot sauce marketed on UFC’s social and digital channels with the campaign going into effect with UFC 281 this week.
ON THIS DATE
Yes, there were other matches on that card in 1997:
AEW presents its third pay-per-view, Full Gear in 2019 feat. The Lights Out match between Kenny Omega and Jon Moxley:
*****
upNXT: Joe Blow
Braden Herrington and Davie Portman chat all about the November 8th, 2022 edition of WWE NXT featuring Kayden Carter & Katana Chance vs Nikkita Lyons & Zoey Stark for the NXT Women’s Tag Team Championship!
*****
REWIND-A-RAW: Austin Theory’s failed cash-in
John Pollock and Wai Ting review WWE Raw from Wilkes-Barre, the handling of WWE Crown Jewel, Raw is XXX, Logan Paul’s injury & all the latest news.
*****
WRESTLENOMICS: WWE praises Saudi government
Brandon Thurston, Jesse Collings & Chris Gullo talk about the latest wrestling business news, including WWE praising the Saudi government at Crown Jewel and Jeff Jarrett joining AEW.
*****
NJPW Battle Autumn POST Show: Ospreay vs. Naito
John Pollock is solo to review NJPW’s Battle Autumn 2022 featuring Will Ospreay defending the IWGP U.S. Championship against Tetsuya Naito.
*****
WWE Crown Jewel POST Show
John Pollock and Kate from Montreal review WWE’s Crown Jewel event headlined by Roman Reigns defending against Logan Paul.
*****
THE LONG & WINDING ROYAL ROAD
WH Park welcomes New Japan Pro Wrestling’s “Filthy” Tom Lawlor to talk about a hidden gem of a match between Yoshinari Ogawa vs. Masahito Kakihara from January 15, 1999.
*****
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