POST IT NOTES
**Rewind-A-Raw is live at 11 p.m. ET as Wai Ting & I will review the show from Greensboro and preview a very big week coming up for professional wrestling. Join us live on the POST YouTube channel or download onto your podcast app of choice by searching for POST Wrestling.
**This Thursday, Karen Peterson will join us on Rewind-A-Wai to cover the All Japan Women’s Dream Slam II event from April 1993 including that year’s Match of the Year as voted by the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. You can leave feedback on the POST Forum.
**Brandon Thurston and I will be speaking with reporter Tony Maglio this Friday. Maglio is attending the upfront presentations in New York this week including the WBD presentation on Wednesday.
POST SCHEDULE
Tonight: Rewind-A-Raw with John Pollock & Wai Ting
Tuesday: upNXT with Davie Portman & Braden Herrington
Wednesday: Rewind-A-Dynamite
Thursday: Rewind-A-Wai – AJW Dream Slam II (Patreon)
Friday: Pollock & Thurston – Tony Maglio of IndieWire
Friday: Rewind-A-SmackDown (Patreon)
Saturday: The Long & Winding Royal Road
Saturday: The N.W.A. Podcast
Sunday: Wrestlenomics Radio
Sunday: NJPW Resurgence POST Show with Bruce Lord & Karen Peterson (Patreon)
WRESTLING NEWS
**Superstar Billy Graham (Eldridge Wayne Coleman) is on life support, according to the latest update from his wife Valerie. Sadly, his condition has been worsening with each ensuing update and this is not unexpected that it’s reached this dire stage. The 79-year-old has been through so many health problems over the past three decades including a liver transplant twenty-one years ago. It was shortly after the transplant when he made amends with the WWE and Vince McMahon after visiting at the following year’s SummerSlam. It opened the door for Graham to have a relationship with the company including a Hall of Fame induction, the release of his biography with writer Keith Elliot Greenberg, and a DVD release. Over the past several months, he has been hospitalized for most of the time with an infection affecting his skull and eliminating his hearing along with kidney ailments with Graham losing over eighty pounds.
**Brandon Thurston of Wrestlenomics reports that both WWE cards in San Juan, Puerto Rico generated gates of more than $1 million. Thurston received confirmation through the Puerto Rico Convention Center District Authority (PRCCDA) that Backlash drew 15,145 paid attendees to the Coliseo de Puerto Rico for a gate of $1,447,558 with an additional 1,351 comps. SmackDown the night prior sold 14,282 tickets and had a live gate of $1,048,295. There is additional information and a breakdown of the merchandise numbers and portions of the contract from WWE available on the Wrestlenomics Patreon.
**This is a very important week for professional wrestling specifically, for AEW. The NBA & Fox upfront presentations are in New York today with Warner Bros. Discovery holding its presentation on Wednesday. The main news from the wrestling side is the pending announcement regarding AEW’s long-term future with WBD and the specifics of this Wednesday’s deal. There are varying reports regarding the deal and how much it could be worth and what all is tied into the deal. Wade Keller of the PW Torch reports it will be a $240 million per year deal that will include the weekly two-hour prime time show on Saturday and a streaming content agreement with Max. If this figure is accurate, it would be an approximate 5.5x increase on its existing deal that has an average annual value of $44 million, and will place AEW into another stratosphere as a long-term viable entity in the industry. We will have much more to discuss this week and Brandon Thurston & I are planning to do a bonus show on Wednesday once the deal is announced.
**WrestleTix is currently listing AEW’s All In at 65,979 tickets distributed and estimating that 61,346 are paid. Brandon Thurston has reported that around 15,000 seats are being held back for a variety of reasons. The last gate figure released by Tony Khan was $7.7 million U.S. when the show had sold 60,000 tickets.
AEW ALL IN
Sun, 27 Aug 2023 18:00
Wembley Stadium, London, UKAvailable Tickets => 8,046
Current Setup => 74,025
Tickets Distributed => 65,979
Estimated Paid => 61,346Notes: Resale is resale on this map only (not Stubhub). Max setup is every possible seat on this map (96,476)… pic.twitter.com/1PBe55xirN
— WrestleTix (@WrestleTix) May 15, 2023
**MJF wrestled on Saturday night at Create-A-Pro’s Homecoming event in Melville, New York. After Leo Sparrow beat Nick Robles, he cut a promo on the crowd about being vegan and ended with, ‘I’m better than you, and you know it’, which prompted MJF to enter to a giant pop. He stated there was a dirty rumor he doesn’t like to wrestle much and just doesn’t like wrestling in ‘shi—y states’ for AEW fans but does like wrestling in the most magical place in the world, Long Island. This led to an impromptu match, which Create-A-Pro has posted on its YouTube channel. MJF landed a low blow behind the referee’s back and submitted Sparrow with a Crossface. MJF was trained at Create-A-Pro and last wrestled for the group in May 2019.
**WWE Raw is in the historic Greensboro Coliseum tonight, the site of many of JCP’s biggest cards including the first four Starrcade events. There are no NBA games for Raw to contend with tonight, which is a big advantage. However, they will air against Game 7 of the Seattle Kraken vs, Dallas Stars series. The NHL is not as big of a factor in the U.S. but a Game 7 is going to enhance that audience. WWE has announced the following:
*Women’s Tag Team Championships: Raquel Rodriguez & Liv Morgan © vs. Sonya Deville & Chelsea Green
*Battle Royal to determine the #1 contender for the Intercontinental title
*Shinsuke Nakamura vs. The Miz
*Gunther returns
*Cody Rhodes responds to Brock Lesnar
*Becky Lynch addresses Trish Stratus
**The Canadian viewership figures will be interesting this week due to the Toronto Maple Leafs and Edmonton Oilers being eliminated in the second round of the NHL playoffs. Both teams had been pulling incredible figures, especially the Leafs, and coincided with a downturn for pro wrestling over the past month.
*AEW Dynamite airs against Game 1 of the conference final between the Miami Heat and Boston Celtics this Wednesday.
**WWE stock closed at $107.19 on Monday with a nearly two percent increase during the day and a market cap of $7.99 billion.
**Due to the Saturday night airing, AEW Rampage numbers won’t be released until Tuesday.
**The NJPW Best of the Super Juniors tournament has its busiest stretch this week with four shows in four days beginning on Tuesday in Akita. Each member will have four singles matches with each card including ten matches. The A Block is led by Lio Rush, Speedball Mike Bailey & Taiji Ishimori with 3-0 records while the B Block has a logjam with six people tied with 2-1 records. KUSHIDA, Ryusuke Taguchi, and BUSHI are 0-3 after three shows. Below is the card for Wednesday’s show at 5:30 a.m. ET on New Japan World:
*B BLOCK: El Desperado (2-1) vs. YOH (1-2)
*A BLOCK: KUSHIDA (0-3) vs. Taiji Ishimori (3-0)
*B BLOCK: Master Wato (1-2) vs. Dan Moloney (2-1)
*A BLOCK: Speedball Mike Bailey (3-0) vs. Titan (2-1)
*B BLOCK: Yoshinobu Kanemaru (2-1) vs. Robbie Eagles (2-1)
*A BLOCK: Lio Rush (3-0) vs. DOUKI (1-2)
*B BLOCK: Francesco Akira (2-1) vs. Clark Connors (2-1)
*A BLOCK: SHO (1-2) vs. TJP (1-2)
*B BLOCK: Kevin Knight (1-2) vs. BUSHI (0-3)
*A BLOCK: Hiromu Takahashi (1-2) vs. Ryusuke Taguchi (0-3)
**Wednesday’s BOSJ card in Sendai is headlined by El Desperado vs. YOH, Thursday in Iwate features Robbie Eagles vs. Master Wato, and Friday’s card in Aomori has Hiromu Takahashi vs. TJP.
**Rob Van Dam is launching a weekly podcast on the Premier Streaming Network called “One of a Kind with RVD”. The show debuts this Friday on Premier and will be available through all podcast platforms next Monday.
**Vice Media has officially filed for bankruptcy which will cause layoffs while the media group continues its day-to-day operations. A group of lenders has received a $20 million loan to continue operations with the expectations of those lenders purchasing Vice for $225 million. The outlet was once valued as high as $5.7 billion. (New York Times, Awful Announcing)
**The Washington Post had a big story on Chris Nowinski and his contributions to education on concussions and how it has affected those closest to him.
**Sami Callihan will team with Rich Swann and one other mystery partner against Deaner, Kon & Angels of The Design at IMPACT’s Under Siege event on 5/26 in London, Ontario.
**AJPW will hold an event at Shin-Kiba 1st Ring this Thursday and will determine the next challenger for the Triple Crown. Due to Shotaro Ashino breaking his arm, Yuji Nagata is without a challenger for his title defense on 5/29. Thursday’s card will see T-Hawk (the finalist of the Champion Carnival) face Ryuki Honda to determine who gets the Triple Crown shot at the end of the month at Korakuen Hall.
**Roderick Strong will face Speedball Mike Bailey at the Pro Wrestling Revolver card on July 1 in Clive, Iowa, and streaming live on Fite+.
**DEFY Wrestling is running a major event called PrimoLucha on 10/13 at the Yakima Valley Sun Dome in Washington State. The card will feature El Hijo del Vikingo, Ultimo Dragon, and Juventud Guerrera with tickets on sale this Friday at 10 a.m. local time for the all-ages event.
**During Saturday’s DEFY card at Washington Hall, they announced they would partner with Game Changer Wrestling for two shows on 11/17 and 11/18 in Seattle. DEFY returns to Washington Hall on 6/3 for a card with KENTA, in Portland on 6/10 at Wonder Ballroom with El Hijo del Vikingo vs. Komander, a co-promoted event with Progress Wrestling on 6/25 in Toronto at The Rec Room (the afternoon of Forbidden Door), and 8/26 at The Electric Ballroom in London, England.
**Being the Elite: Ep. 347: “Betrayed”.
**NXT has the following matches & segments announced for Tuesday night’s show on the USA Network:
*Women’s Championship – Quarterfinals: Cora Jade vs. Fallon Henley
*Women’s Championship – Quarterfinals: Roxanne Perez vs. Jacy Jayne
*The Creeds vs. The Dyad
*Wes Lee & Tyler Bate vs. Drew Gulak & Charlie Dempsey
*The Supernova Sessions with guest Dragon Lee
**Bellator will return to Dublin, Ireland on 9/23 with Johnny Eblen(13-0) defending the Bellator Middleweight Championship against Fabian Edwards (12-2). Edwards defeated Gegard Mousasi by unanimous decision this past Friday in Paris, France over five rounds to secure the next title fight. Edwards is the brother of current UFC Welterweight Champion Leon Edwards. The Bellator card in Ireland will include Mads Burnell (17-5) taking on Daniel Weichel (42-14) and Brian Moore (16-9) vs. Otto Rodrigues (13-1).
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WRESTLENOMICS RADIO
AEW and WBD will reportedly announce a new TV deal at Wednesday’s upfronts, WWE discloses timeline of process that led to merger with UFC, and more news in the business of pro wrestling.
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REWIND-A-SMACKDOWN
Wai Ting & Kate from MTL review WWE SmackDown featuring the return of Roman Reigns and matches to determine SmackDown’s World Heavyweight Championship Tournament finalist at Night of Champions
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MCU L8R: Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3
Wai Ting, WH Park, Neal Flanagan & Scrump review Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, the final instalment of James Gunn’s trilogy.
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MCU L8R: Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3
Wai Ting, WH Park, Neal Flanagan & Scrump review Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, the final instalment of James Gunn’s trilogy.
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REWIND-A-DYNAMITE
John Pollock & Wai Ting review AEW Dynamite with a Steel Cage Match between Kenny Omega and Jon Moxley, and discuss the AEW-WBD report.
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POLLOCK & THURSTON: Richard Deitsch of The Athletic
John Pollock and Brandon Thurston chat with reporter Richard Deitsch from The Athletic and the Sports Media Podcast.
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