POST IT NOTES
**Rewind-A-Raw is live at 11 p.m. ET tonight at YouTube.com/POSTwrestling and available to download on your podcast app. Wai Ting and I will be reviewing Raw and chatting about the latest involving William Regal, Friday night viewership figures, and all the latest news items.
**On Tuesday, Rewind-A-Wai #121 will be looking at the May 30, 1992, edition of WWF Superstars with the debut of Nailz and the latest involving the curse that Papa Shango placed on the Ultimate Warrior. You can still leave feedback on the show on the Forum and the show will be released on Tuesday night for all POST Wrestling Café members.
**We have three Café shows this week for members between Rewind-A-Wai, Rewind-A-SmackDown, and the ROH Final Battle POST Show on Saturday night with Wai Ting and Kate from Montreal.
**The N.W.A. Podcast held its 2022 wrap-up show this past weekend with a bonus-sized edition of the show hosted by Nate Milton, Kris Ealy & Andrew Thompson.
POST SCHEDULE
Tonight: Rewind-A-Raw with John Pollock & Wai Ting (11 p.m. ET)
Tuesday: Rewind-A-Wai #121 – WWF Superstars (Patreon)
Tuesday: upNXT with Davie Portman & Braden Herrington
Wednesday: Shot in the Dark with John Siino
Wednesday: Rewind-A-Dynamite (10 p.m. ET)
Friday: Rewind-A-SmackDown (Patreon)
Saturday: NXT Deadline POST Show with Braden & Davie
Saturday: ROH Final Battle POST Show with Wai & Kate (Patreon)
Sunday: UFC 282 POST Show with John Pollock & Eric Marcotte (1 p.m. ET)
Sunday: Wrestlenomics Radio
WRESTLING NEWS
**We want to send best wishes to Barry Windham, who is in ICU following a heart attack over the weekend and went into cardiac arrest. At his peak, Windham was one of the best and smoothest wrestlers in the world, who always had terrific timing and many gifts as a performer. The family of Windham has set up a Go Fund Me campaign to assist with the medical bills he is facing.
**NBC Universal CEO Jeff Shell spoke at the UBS media conference on Monday and updated the paid subscriber count for Peacock. The streaming service has now exceeded 18 million paid subscribers, which is up from the figure of 15 million they announced in October for the end of the third quarter total. Peacock has now doubled its number of paid subscribers since the start of the year when it had 9 million paid subs as of 12/31/2021. This comes after WWE’s own successes they have touted with the 11/5 Crown Jewel event becoming the most-streamed international event they have ever had and Survivor Series on 11/26 becoming the most-streamed event in the history of the franchise.
**WWE Raw takes place from the Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C. as the company goes through a lull until things ramp up next month toward the Royal Rumble. The show airs against the Monday Night Football game between Tampa Bay and New Orleans. Thus far, they have announced the following:
*Undisputed WWE Tag Team Championship: The Usos (champions) vs. Matt Riddle & Elias
*Becky Lynch vs. Nikki Cross vs. Alexa Bliss
*Bayley vs. Asuka vs. Rhea Ripley
*JBL’s high-stakes poker game
**The winners of the two women’s triple threat matches on Raw will square off next Monday with the winner earning a future title shot against Bianca Belair.
**As of its last update on Monday, WrestleTix reported that over 8,000 tickets have been distributed for tonight’s edition of Raw in Washington.
**Paul Lazenby informed us that he will be part of the Pro Wrestling NOAH broadcast at Nippon Budokan on January 1st in Tokyo. Lazenby, who fought in Pancrase, will sit in on several matches with the English commentary team including the six-man tag involving Masakatsu Funaki. Lazenby fought Funaki in May 1997 on a Pancrase card and is deeply knowledgeable about the roots of Pancrase and Funaki’s history. The 1/1 card will include Kaito Kiyomiya defending the GHC heavyweight title against Kenou, and The Great Muta facing Shinsuke Nakamura.
**Being the Elite Ep. 325: Legacy Game.
**The IWS promotion in Montreal has announced a show with Game Changer Wrestling for March 11th in Montreal with Nick Gage sending a video. They held a card on Sunday in front of 650 fans with Jay White defeating Zak Patterson in the main event. The rest of the card saw Benjamin Tull over FTM, Myung Jae Lee & Karl Jepsen for the IWS title, Melanie Havok over Kristara to keep the IWS women’s title, Green Phantom over LuFisto to keep the IWS Canadian title, Lince Dorado & Fresh Air over TDT & Buxx Belmar, Alex Maze & Sonny Solay over Nathan Yarymovitch & Steven Manzano, Sexxxy Beasts over Bay City Choir Boys and Casanova Productions, Sway Archer over Leon Saver, and Dani Leo over Katrina Creed. (Thanks to Pat Laprade)
**ROH Final Battle is this Saturday and is a big test for the brand with the addition of Chris Jericho to one of its pay-per-views in the main event with Claudio Castagnoli. The event is being priced at $39.99 on B/R Live in the U.S. with a 3 p.m. ET start for the “Zero-Hour” pre-show and pay-per-view portion at 4 p.m. It is unknown what factor the NXT Deadline card will have, not in terms of head-to-head competition but if a viewer is only allocating themselves to watch one show that day, are they paying $40 for the ROH one or the streaming alternative? It’s also a big weekend of live sports between the World Cup, college football, and a UFC pay-per-view that night (although not a major one). To me, the show is completely reliant on the main event because the undercard has been thrown together with minimal interest in the programs but none of that matters if the main event clicks and people see it as important because of Jericho’s involvement and his title run has been the main focus for months.
**The WWE stock dropped over 2 percent on Monday and closed at $78.80.
**New Japan’s World Tag League is down to four teams alive with just over one week remaining. Aussie Open is in first place at 7-1 with fourteen points and one match remaining. Tetsuya Naito & SANADA (who have a win against Aussie Open), TMDK, and Hirooki Goto & YOSHI-HASHI have 5-2 records with ten points each, but all three teams have two matches left. The top two teams will meet in the final on 12/14 in Sendai.
**The Super Jr. Tag League is led by Chris Bey & Ace Austin with 12 points followed by TJP & Francesco Akira, BUSHI & Titan, Alex Zayne & El Lindaman, and Lio Rush & YOH with 10 points each, and all teams having two matches left. Their tournament continues Wednesday in Nagasaki with TJP & Akira (5-2) vs. KUSHIDA & Kevin Knight (1-6), Lio Rush & YOH (5-2) vs. Ryusuke Taguchi & Clark Connors (3-4), Yoshinobu Kanemaru & DOUKI (2-5) vs. SHO & Dick Togo (1-6), Titan & BUSHI (5-2) vs. Robbie Eagles & Tiger Mask (2-5), and Bey & Austin (6-1) vs. El Lindaman & Zayne (5-2).
**Monday’s World Tag League card at Karatsu City Bunka Gymnasium drew 1,091 headlined by Hiroshi Tanahashi & Toru Yano beating TMDK in the main event. (Purolove.com)
MMA NEWS
**Stephen Thompson and Kevin Holland had one of the best fights of the year on Saturday in Orlando, Florida. Thompson had a career-defining performance by finishing Holland after four rounds and using his striking in a brilliant way against an opponent who was game to have that type of fight. Combined, the two threw 470 significant strikes with Thompson connecting with 163 or 62 percent of his output while Holland landed 119 of 210 for 56 percent. Holland won the first round after rocking Thompson, who was briefly stunned but rallied to win the next several rounds. The fourth round was just brutal where Holland took an ungodly amount of damage and the fight was thought to be over when referee Dan Miragliotta waved it off. The replay saw Thompson appearing to hit Holland clean above the belt line, but Holland protested it was a low blow and the fight resumed, but it felt like Holland was done. Holland made it to the end of the round and his corner ended it, which is a move they should be applauded for and more corners should be encouraged by. Many were critical of Holland, who had two chances when he landed in top position and allowed Thompson back to his feet. It is a fair argument, but this will also go down as a classic fight for both men and the winner and loser are secondary. It was a major win for Thompson, who turns 40 years old in February and had lost his last two fights. The favorite to win ‘fight of the year’ is the Jiri Prochazka vs. Glover Teixeira one from UFC 275 but this one is close.
**Holland ended up breaking three bones in his right hand. Holland’s manager Oren Hodak told ESPN that the fighter broke his third, fourth, and fifth metacarpal bones during the first round on Saturday and is set to have surgery on the hand today. Holland, 30, has fought at an incredible pace over the past 2 ½ years with twelve fights since May 2020.
**ONE Championship has announced it will make its U.S. debut on Friday, May 5th in Broomfield, Colorado. The card will stream on Amazon Prime Video and feature Demetrious Johnson (31-4-1) defending the promotion’s 135-pound title against Adriano Moraes (20-4) in the main event in a rubber match with each holding a victory in their series. Johnson is 4-1 since joining ONE and suffered a knockout loss to Moraes in April 2021. This past August, Johnson avenged that loss by a knockout against Moraes after landing a flying knee and winning ONE’s flyweight title. It was the first time Moraes has been stopped in his career, which began over eleven years ago.
**The UFC 282 pay-per-view is Saturday night in Las Vegas at the T-Mobile Arena with the second-to-last card of the year. The change to the main event is weaker from a marque standpoint as Jan Blachowicz and Magomed Ankalaev are now fighting for the vacant 205-pound title. The two were already scheduled to fight in a three-round contest when Jiri Prochazka suffered his shoulder injury and vacated the title with the UFC bypassing Glover Teixeira and making this fight for the title. Teixeira had offered to fight Blachowicz on the card, but the UFC wanted Ankalev in the spot and Teixeira said he needed another month to prepare for the new opponent and UFC went in this direction. Draft Kings lists Ankalaev as a -245 favorite and has won his previous nine fights. Paddy Pimblett has the highest profile fight of his career in the number two position on the pay-per-view against Jared Gordon. Pimblett is 3-0 in the UFC but he has question marks especially with his striking and defensive capabilities, but he is a notable favorite at -230 against Gordon, who is 19-5.
**The UFC has released the first episode of UFC Embedded for this Saturday’s card.
**We had a big discussion on Rewind-A-SmackDown on the betting scandal going on with UFC and leading to the release of Darrick Minner and prohibiting fighters associated with James Krause from competing. This is a major story with the potential of severe ramifications for the individuals involved and the UFC’s ability to navigate its business. New Jersey has imposed restrictions for fighters associated with Krause while the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Alberta have outright halted the ability for consumers to bet on UFC fights due to integrity issues and leaving millions of Canadians without the ability to bet. It is one of the biggest stories of the year and the ripple effect could be gigantic.
ON THIS DATE
Vince McMahon fires Eric Bischoff from his on-screen role as commissioner of Raw in 2005:
*****
WRESTLENOMICS: WWE might buy international wrestling companies
Brandon Thurston is joined by Chris Gullo and Jesse Collings to talk about WWE possibly acquiring smaller international wrestling promotions.
*****
THE N.W.A. PODCAST: The 2022 Rap-Up!
Nate, Andrew, & Kris discuss the biggest stories of the year, hand out some awards, and play another round of “Who All G’on Be There?”
*****
REWIND-A-SMACKDOWN
John Pollock & Wai Ting are back to review Friday Night SmackDown & AEW Rampage. Plus, Nick Khan & Stephanie McMahon speak, Kota Ibushi’s future, CM Punk, the UFC betting scandal & more.
*****
Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special Review
Wai Ting & WH Park are joined by John Pollock to discuss Christmas movies, Dave Bautista and Kevin Bacon in our spoiler review of The Guardians of the Galaxy Holiday Special. Plus, their reactions to the Guardians of the Galaxy 3 trailer.
*****
REWIND-A-DYNAMITE
John Pollock & Wai Ting review AEW Dynamite from Indianapolis featuring Match #3 between Death Triangle and The Elite
*****
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