POST IT NOTES
**Rewind-A-Dynamite will be live at 10 p.m. ET tonight as we discuss the life of Jerry Jarrett and review AEW Dynamite.
**This month’s edition of Small Talk is available for Double Double, Iced Capp & Espresso members of the Café discussing the frightening effects of AI technology, some of my notes on putting together a major obit piece for the site, and this week’s trip to Montreal.
**On Thursday, we will have a special interview with John Nash of Bloody Elbow discussing his recent reporting on the changes to UFC contracts. Later this week, I’ll also be speaking with Pat Laprade as Montreal gets set for one of the biggest shows in the city in decades and the rise of Sami Zayn.
**The Wellness Policy will be live on Thursday at 3 p.m. ET as Wai Ting, Jordan Goodman, and Neal Flanagan will be chatting about the subject of friendship.
**WH Park is a guest on The Eastern Lariat Podcast with Dylan Fox discussing the recent NJPW and Pro Wrestling NOAH cards in Osaka and next week’s retirement match for Keiji Muto at the Tokyo Dome.
POST SCHEDULE
Tonight: Rewind-A-Dynamite with John Pollock & Wai Ting (10 p.m. ET)
Thursday: Interview with John Nash of Bloody Elbow
Thursday: The Wellness Policy (3 p.m. ET)
Friday: Interview with Pat Laprade of TVA Sports
Friday: Rewind-A-SmackDown – Live in Montreal (Patreon)
Saturday: The Long & Winding Royal Road with WH Park & John Siino (Dan Kroffat vs. RVD, June 1995)
Saturday: Elimination Chamber POST Show with John & Wai
Sunday: Wrestlenomics Radio
Sunday: Battle in the Valley POST Show with WH Park & Karen Peterson (Patreon)
WRESTLING NEWS
**We will be discussing the life and career of Jerry Jarrett on Rewind-A-Dynamite tonight. There is so much history that comes with the passing of a figure of Jarrett’s standing in the industry. He promoted his first towns for Nick Gulas and Roy Welch as a teenager and was a constant in Tennessee until selling his share of the territory to Jerry Lawler in 1997 nearly forty years later. First and foremost, he was a bottom-line promoter and ran a stringent operation that often left him unpopular among talent because the territory could be a low paying one, which allowed Jarrett to outlast so many other dying regions going into the ‘90s. It was this identical mindset that fueled his interest in trying to purchase WCW near the end with the idea of slashing the budget dramatically to get the promotion into financial solvency. The WCW purchase never came to fruition with the loss of the television time slots and the purchase by the WWF for a fraction of the amount the Jarrett group was willing to spend. His last major role in the industry was the launch of NWA TNA with his son Jeff in 2002, which was a passion project more than a financially viable one at the beginning. There was an inevitable clash of ideologies with Jeff leaning on both his father and Vince Russo, which is a formula that could not sustain. Jerry and Jeff had a massive falling out in 2005 after Jerry made an unexpected appearance at WWE headquarters to set up a meeting with Oleg Prudius a.k.a. Vladimir Kozlov. The WWE website posted a story with photos on its website of the meeting and sent shockwaves throughout TNA seeing one of the minority owners appearing at the headquarters of its chief competitor and what it meant for TNA. Jeff did not speak with his father for years after this incident, although they reconciled years ago and were on good terms. Jerry Jarrett was among an exclusive class of promoters and bookers from a bygone era that is largely down to Bill Watts among those still alive. It is a major chapter of professional wrestling history that ends with the passing of Jerry Jarrett.
**The Commercial Appeal newspaper in Memphis has a big story on the passing of Jerry Jarrett with comments from long-time voice Dave Brown and historian Mark James, who “The Best of Times” with Jarrett in 2011. The story noted that Jarrett died at his home in Franklin, Tennessee on Tuesday and had been suffering from cancer in his esophagus. Brown noted in the piece that
Jerry understood the audience better than any other promoter. He gave the audience what they wanted, but he held back enough to keep them coming back for more.
**SLAM Wrestling has a fantastic story on Jarrett from Ryan Nation, who corresponded with Jarrett for the past twenty years and shared some of their exchanges including Jarrett’s thoughts on his life in 2006:
I can tell you without a single reservation that it is the journey and not the destination that is important. Enjoy every step along your path and if you’re not having fun, and if you don’t feel fulfilled, take the next fork in the road. Don’t be afraid to travel down the road less traveled (just another way to say do not fear doing something others don’t understand).
I thought I had reached the end of my journey last year and the experience gave me a new insight into a soul’s journey through life. When the end comes, you will not measure your life by your money or material possession, and I can say that having accumulated great wealth. You will not judge your journey by the status of position you have obtained, and I can say that because I’ve had some pretty good accomplishments in both the wrestling and construction business. No, you will judge your life by the content of your character. My relationship with my wife, my children and my friends are the thoughts that gave me comfort during these trying times. I felt ready to leave this plain because I felt I had been a good dad and a good husband.
**WWE presents Elimination Chamber this Saturday and has become one of the most anticipated shows in recent memory that promises a live atmosphere that will make for an all-time memorable scene. Sami Zayn challenges Roman Reigns for the Undisputed WWE Universal Championship in front of a sold-out Bell Centre, the same arena where a 13-year-old Rami Sebei sat in the rafters for the Survivor Series to see his hero screwed out of the WWF Championship in what became Bret Hart’s final night in the company. WWE has a rare embarrassment of riches with two extremely hot babyfaces in Zayn and Cody Rhodes with the ultimate villain in Reigns. WWE is genuinely on a hot streak and it’s being led by these three as seen by recent house show figures, merchandise sales, and quarter-hour performances – not to mention back-to-back nights at the Bell Centre, which will be full this week. While Reigns vs. Rhodes appears locked in for WrestleMania down to the tag lines of “Rhodes to WrestleMania” and “Finish the Story” being incorporated into the promotion, Zayn has the hot hand and it becomes a question of whether Paul Levesque steers the ship in another direction or remains steady with the plan at hand. The moment of Zayn coming up short with Jey Uso siding with his blood, allowing Kevin Owens to return and embrace his best friend in front of the Montreal crowd would still end the show on a high note, and gives Zayn & Owens, arguably the second biggest match at WrestleMania with The Usos, but should Zayn be in the biggest match at WrestleMania? This was the same dilemma in 1999 when Mick Foley got hot and the idea of adding him to the Steve Austin vs. The Rock main event was tabled and ultimately, turned down even though Foley was the most sympathetic babyface that had exploded in popularity that year. For the long-term, there is viability is Zayn challenging Rhodes later this year as their chemistry was instantly evident on Raw this week and was the highest-performing quarter-hour of the show and eclipsing two million viewers. The most important element of Saturday is the handling of Zayn and understanding the value he and Kevin Owens hold in that market and protecting him at all costs while not making him feel like another in the long line of Reigns’ opponents. It is a delicate balancing act and will give us a stronger insight into the booking prowess of Levesque and how he handles the clear signs of a character that has broken through to the upper level during the biggest time of the year.
**AEW Dynamite takes place from the Sames Auto Arena in Laredo, Texas with under three weeks until the Revolution pay-per-view. Tonight’s show at 8 p.m. ET has the following advertised:
*Texas Tornado Match: Jon Moxley & Claudio Castagnoli vs. Rush & Preston Vance
*Orange Cassidy, The Acclaimed & Billy Gunn vs. Jeff Jarrett, Jay Lethal, Satnam Singh & Sonjay Dutt
*Mark Briscoe vs. Josh Woods
*Dr. Britt Baker vs. Toni Storm vs. Ruby Soho
*Hangman Page vs. Kip Sabian
*Brian Cage vs. Jack Perry
*MJF must appear on the show
*Renee Paquette interviews Adam Cole
*Jim Ross interviews Wardlow
**This week’s Raw number in Canada was through the roof averaging over 325,000 viewers for the program. It was the third highest for an episode of Raw on Sportsnet 360 over the past year behind the Raw after WrestleMania 38 and Raw is XXX last month.
**Jimmy Hart mentioned on Busted Open Radio that three nights ago, Jerry Jarrett called him out of the blue to reminisce about their days working in Memphis together. Hart said that Jarrett conveyed how much Hart meant to the territory especially when Jerry Lawler went down with his broken leg and building the show around Hart as the top heel manager. When Lawler returned, he feuded for years with Hart and his First Family and was one of the enduring programs throughout the history of the territory. Hart left in 1985 to join the WWF and it left a big void in the territory.
**Blake Murphy at Sportsnet 590 The FAN has a lengthy story after speaking with Sami Zayn and this Saturday’s match with Roman Reigns. The article notes the influence of other television programs on his current story and the involvement of Kevin Owens along the way:
Kevin’s involvement was a point of contention, as far as how much and when. Especially with me and Kevin, because we’re hypersensitive to the fact that we’ve done so much together. We’re delicate about how we’re used together, because we don’t want fans to ever get sick of this. And it’s challenging to constantly keep something you’ve been doing for 20 years, for fans to not only not be to the point where they’re saying ‘this again,’ but to actually be okay with it, and never mind being okay with it, but excited to see it. Even though these are two guys I’ve seen together across the room from each other, literally thousands of times, and you still get them excited, that’s very, very, very hard to do.
**Sami Zayn appeared at Tuesday’s Montreal Canadiens game at the Bell Centre ahead of his big week in the city:
Sami Zayn getting the love at tonight’s Canadiens game in Montréal pic.twitter.com/VUcuttwEKU
— Ariel Helwani (@arielhelwani) February 15, 2023
**Cody Rhodes was interviewed on BBC Sounds in the U.K. about his match with Roman Reigns at WrestleMania 39. Cody said he misses his brother and would love to see Dustin in some fashion be able to be at WrestleMania even if it’s backstage and hopes that can be worked out but isn’t sure. The interview begins around the 90-minute mark of the program.
**All Japan Pro Wrestling’s annual Champion Carnival tournament will begin on April 8th with the full list of participants to be announced this Sunday at the show at Korakuen Hall. The Carnival will take place over ten shows with the final on May 7th at Ota City Gymnasium. Yuma Aoyagi was the winner of 2022 tournament.
**Bet Online has released odds for this Saturday’s Elimination Chamber event with the following lines being set:
*Roman Reigns (-2000) vs. Sami Zayn (+700)
*Austin Theory (-300) vs. Seth Rollins (+375) vs. Bronson Reed (+600) vs. Montez Ford (+800) vs. Damian Priest (+1200) vs. Johnny Gargano (+1600)
*Asuka (-1250) vs. Raquel Rodriguez (+400) vs. Liv Morgan (+900) vs. Nikki Cross (+1400) vs. Carmella (+2000) vs. Natalya (+2500)
*Brock Lesnar (-400) vs. Bobby Lashley (+140)
*Edge & Beth Phoenix (-400) vs. Finn Balor & Rhea Ripley (+250)
**The WWE stock closed at $87.41 on Wednesday.
**Jalin Turner has a new opponent for UFC 285 on March 4th as he now fights Mateusz Gamrot. Turner’s original opponent, Dan Hooker, is off the card after breaking his hand. Gamrot (21-2, 1 NC) had won four fights in a row before losing to Beneil Dariush by unanimous decision at UFC 280 last October. Turner (13-5) has won his last five fights and is coming off a submission win against Brad Riddell at UFC 276 last July. (First reported by Kanal Sportowy)
ON THIS DATE
Eddy Guerrero wins the WWE Championship from Brock Lesnar in 2004 at the Cow Palace in San Francisco, California, and was among Guerrero’s biggest matches of his career. Lesnar would leave the company one month after to secure a position in the NFL and signed an onerous non-compete clause that he would fight WWE in court over. Guerrero only held the title until June but was among the top performers in the company and a viable main event star by the time he won the title.
*****
upNXT
Braden Herrington and Davie Portman review WWE NXT featuring Roxanne Perez & Meiko Satomura vs Kayden Carter & Katana Chance.
*****
REWIND-A-RAW
John Pollock and Wai Ting review WWE Raw with Sami Zayn calling out Cody Rhodes, and we chat about Billy Two Rivers, MLW lawsuit update, New Japan news, ratings & more.
*****
WRESTLENOMICS: Viewership for Royal Rumble on Peacock
Brandon Thurston and Chris Gullo discuss Royal Rumble viewing data on Peacock, SmackDown ratings on Fox, and reasons why Comcast wouldn’t want to own WWE.
*****
UFC 284 POST SHOW
John Pollock and Eric Marcotte review the UFC 284 card with UFC lightweight champion Islam Makhachev defending against Alexander Volkanovski.
*****
REWIND-A-SMACKDOWN
John Pollock & Wai Ting review Friday Night SmackDown & AEW Rampage and go through all the latest news from the past day.
*****
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