POST SCHEDULE
Tonight: Rewind-A-Raw with John Pollock & Wai Ting
Tuesday: Super Tuesday Super Review with John Pollock, Wai Ting, Davie Portman & Braden Herrington
Wednesday: Pollock & Thurston – Super Tuesday Ratings (4 p.m. ET)
Thursday: POSTmarks with David Meyers & Bruce Lord with guest Mannie from Pacoima
Friday: Rewind-A-SmackDown with John & Wai (POST Wrestling Café)
Saturday: NJPW Royal Quest III review with Karen Peterson & Bruce Lord (POST Wrestling Café)
Saturday: Collision Course with Kate from Montreal & John Siino (POST Wrestling Café)
Sunday: MCU L8R with WH Park & Rich Fann – Loki Ep. 2 (POST Wrestling Café)
Sunday: The N.W.A. Podcast with Nate Milton, Kris Ealy & Andrew Thompson
John Pollock is now providing audio versions of the news updates for Double Double & Espresso members of the POST Wrestling Café.
WRESTLING NEWS
**TKO issued a press release trumpeting the success of Fastlane with several percentages compared to past events of the same branding. They stated viewership for Fastlane was up 71% from the Fastlane event in February 2021 (which was Peacock’s first WWE event to stream live and was also the final one to stream on the WWE Network for U.S. subscribers as the deal went into effect). Of course, Peacock has a lot more subscribers today than in Feb. 2021. It also boasted a new gate record for Fastlane, topping the February 2016 record by 31% at the Quicken Loans Arena in Cleveland, which the Wrestling Observer reported it drew 14,406 but no gate figure. Sponsorship revenue for this past weekend’s event was up 60% from Fastlane in Feb. 2021. WrestleTix reported 12,928 tickets distributed for this past Saturday’s show.
**We want to send our best wishes to Bill Dundee, who was a major historical figure in the Memphis territory and a renowned booker for that territory as well as Mid-South in 1984-85. His son Jamie Dundee recently spoke with Dutch Mantel and stated his father is battling dementia and it sounds really bad with Dundee stating he’s hoping his father makes it to his 80th birthday later this month. Dundee was born in Scotland but was raised in Australia and came to the U.S. in the mid-70s with partner George Barnes with the duo becoming a hot act in Memphis before Barnes returned to Australia and Dundee remained in the U.S. throughout his career. He went on to become Jerry Lawler’s longest-tenured foe and drew tons in Memphis for their Loser Leaves Town matches over the years, a famous angle where Dundee put his hair up against Lawler and then put his wife Beverly’s hair on the line with both losing their hair. Dundee was also the father-in-law to the late Bobby Eaton, who married Dundee’s daughter. Dundee was scheduled to be honored at The Gathering convention in Charlotte this past summer and was unable to attend due to health issues.
**WWE Raw is at the CHI Health Center in Omaha, Nebraska tonight following the Fastlane event with over 8,900 tickets out, per WrestleTix. The show has announced the following for tonight’s broadcast:
*NXT Women’s Championship: Becky Lynch © vs. Tegan Nox
*Viking Rules Match: Ivar vs. Kofi Kingston
*Nia Jax vs. Raquel Rodriguez
**Raw goes up against the Green Bay Packers vs. Las Vegas Raiders tonight on ABC & ESPN as well as Game 2 of the Philadelphia Phillies vs. Atlanta Braves and Game 2 of the Arizona Diamondbacks vs. L.A. Dodgers in the MLB playoffs. Both MLB games are airing on TBS back-to-back beginning at 6 p.m. ET.
**AEW and NXT’s sports competition on Tuesday will be on Fox with the Baltimore Orioles vs. Texas Rangers.
**As of Monday afternoon, AEW’s Title Tuesday has 2,725 tickets distributed for the show at the Cable Dahmer Arena in Independence, Missouri. For a loaded show and Adam Copeland’s first match in AEW, it’s a very disappointing figure with just over 24 hours remaining for a late surge. WrestleTix reports that the last time Dynamite was at the venue this past March, they had 3,912 tickets out.
**There was a lot of news coming out of Monday’s NJPW show at Sumo Hall including the confirmation of SANADA vs. Tetsuya Naito for the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship at Wrestle Kingdom 18 on January 4. SANADA beat EVIL in a 28-minute lumberjack death match with the match built around the involvement of House of Torture and Just Five Guys. It was overly booked to the max, and probably not everyone’s cup of tea for the main title picture but the audience was into it and the final minutes had some big near-falls and ended with SANADA going over. Afterward, SANADA brought Keiji Muto into the ring and remarked how it’s come full circle with Naito as the two were part of the same tryout with New Japan selecting Naito and rejecting SANADA. Tama Tonga beat David Finlay for the NEVER Openweight Championship in a really strong match with several awesome counters by Tonga using the Gun Stun and won with the Jay Driller. Hikuleo & El Phantasmo won the STRONG Openweight tag titles from the War Dogs of Gabe Kidd & Alex Coughlin, and Yuya Uemura returned after a two-year excursion to fill the role of Yoshinobu Kanemaru in Just 5 Guys. Kevin Kelly was in Japan for the show (and missed Collision this past Saturday) and won’t be back in Japan until January when he will call his final shows with Wrestle Kingdom 18 and New Year Dash.
**The announced attendance for Destruction in Ryogoku was 5,002. Last year’s Sumo Hall card on October 10, 2022, with Jay White vs. Tama Tonga and Kazuchika Okada vs. JONAH (Bronson Reed) drew 4,059.
**Becky Lynch (Rebecca Quin) will be releasing her biography next year titled, Not Your Average Girl through Simon & Schuster. The book is set to be released on March 26, 2024, to coincide with WrestleMania and is available now for pre-order.
**Monday’s Destruction in Ryogoku capped off the latest tour for the promotion with its next show this Saturday for Royal Quest III in London, England. The Super Jr. Tag League tournament begins on October 21.
**Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling held its Wrestle Princess IV event in Tokyo on Monday in front of 868 fans. In the main event, Miyu Yamashita defeated Mizuki to become the new Princess of Princess Champion and became a four-time champion. Yamashita was the very first champion when the belt was introduced in January 2016. Hikari Noa and Nao Kakuta (Free WiFi) won the vacant Prince Tag Team Championship in a decision match against Yuki Kamifuku & Mahiro Kiryu and Nyla Rose was sent by AEW where she defeated Maki Itoh. NWA Women’s TV Champion Max the Impaler became a double champion on the card by defeating Rika Tatsumi to win the International Princess Championship. (Purolove.com)
**All Japan Pro Wrestling drew 1,687 fans to the Kakuda City General Gymnasium on Monday with a title change in the main event. Jun & Rei Saito became the new AJPW World Tag Champions by defeating Kento Miyahara & Yuma Aoyagi in a match that lasted over 37 minutes. It is the first time the Saito Brothers have held the titles and ends Miyahara & Aoyagi’s second reign together as champions. Below are the results (Courtesy: Purolove.com):
*AJPW World Tag Titles: Rei & Jun Saito over Kento Miyahara & Yuma Aoyagi © in 37:20
*Hideki Suzuki, Jinsei Shinzaki & Koji Iwamoto over Suwama, Dan Tamura & Ryo Inoue in 14:48
*Ryuki Honda & Yuma Anzai over Hokuto Omori & Kouki Iwasaki in 11:18
*Takuya Nomura & Hikaru Sato over Atsuki Aoyagi & Rising HAYATO in 11:58
*KONO over Black Menso-re & Aizawa No. 1 in 3:33
*Takao Omori over Yoshitatsu in 6:04
**GLEAT posted its entire card from Monday on its YouTube channel from Korakuen Hall. The show was headlined by G-REX Champion T-Hawk defending the title against Shuji Ishikawa.
**This Friday, DEFY Wrestling is running at the Yakima Sundome in Washington. The card will include Swerve Strickland vs. El Hijo del Vikingo, Juventud Guerrera teaming with Super Crazy & Red Hot Rosas against Midnight Heat & Miles Deville, Masato Tanaka vs. Bryan Keith, Gringo Loco vs. Arez vs. Galeno del Mal, Vert Vixen vs. Nicole Matthews vs. Karisma vs. Dulce Tormenta for the DEFY Women’s title, and Ultimo Dragon & Nick Wayne & Cody Chhun vs. The Sovereign.
**MLW has added a match between Tracy Williams and Griffin McCoy for this Saturday’s Fusion tapings as part of Slaughterhouse at the 2300 Arena in Philadelphia.
**WWE is placing tickets on sale for the Royal Rumble on Friday, October 20 at 10 a.m. ET. The Royal Rumble will be held at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg, Florida on Saturday, January 27, 2024.
**Being the Elite Ep. 368: “Private Jet”.
**The late Eddy Guerrero would have turned 56 years old today. He died at the age of 38 on November 13, 2005, after being found in his Minneapolis hotel room by his nephew Chavo Guerrero Jr. and died due to heart failure.
**Pro Wrestling Revolver held a doubleheader on Saturday from Dayton, Ohio beginning with the Women’s Grand Prix in the afternoon on FITE+. The Grand Prix was an eight-woman tournament with Billie Starkz, Allysin Kay, Marina Shafir, Rachel Armstrong, Trish Adora, Vert Vixen, Emi Sakura, and Janai Kai with a pair of non-tournament matches between rounds. It was a very easy-to-watch show with several standout performances including Starkz, who won the tournament with wins over Armstrong, Adora, and Shafir. The finals saw Shafir attack the shoulder of Starkz, who sold it throughout the match and limited her offense while fighting off the submission attempts by Shafir. After being caught in a rear-naked choke, Starkz flipped on top for the reversal and caught Shafir with the pin to win. I would also recommend the match between Starkz and Adora in the semi-finals. Shafir has such a cool and unique style that differentiates her from all the women in AEW but it’s an acquired taste with such a grappling-heavy presentation and has not demonstrated the personality to stand out from the pack. However, in a small setting like this with a tournament to tell a one-show story, she shines and becomes the big threat to the other women and tells a great underdog story for Starkz. The show was hosted by Renee Paquette, who attended alongside Jon Moxley (who was scheduled to wrestle on the evening show but was not cleared to wrestle) and she did commentary with Veda Scott and Gia Miller for the entire card. Scott has to be one of the busiest broadcasters in the industry as she is constantly doing shows all over the place and seems poised for that major break with a big company.
MMA NEWS
**As of Saturday night, Conor McGregor was not officially back in the USADA testing pool. Last week, McGregor posted online that he had “submitted my stuff” to Jeff Novitsky with Dana White clarifying that his paperwork has been submitted and hopes that the fighter will be back in the pool this week. McGregor removed himself from the pool and the protocol is that a fighter returning to the pool requires a six-month testing period before they can fight, although UFC has the power to override that time frame. McGregor last competed in July 2021 where he shattered his leg in a loss to Dustin Poirier.
**It was first reported by Ag. Fight that Curtis Blaydes is off the UFC Fight Night card on November 4 in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Blaydes was set to fight Jailton Almeida but the new fight will see Derrick Lewis step in as the replacement and will serve as the new heavyweight main event. Lewis (27-11, 1 NC) last competed in July at UFC 291 where he snapped a three-fight losing streak by beating Marcos Rogerio de Lima by TKO. Almeida (19-2) is undefeated in the UFC and won fourteen fights in a row and is coming off a submission win against Jairzinho Rozenstruik in May.
**Paulo Costa stated that he had elbow surgery three weeks ago and shared graphic photos of the injury and recovery process. Costa is scheduled to fight Khamzat Chimaev later this month at UFC 294 in Abu Dhabi on October 21.
**Bellator 300 went down on Saturday night from San Diego with three championship fights on the main card with all the champions retaining. In the main event, Usman Nurmagomedov defeated Brent Primus on scores of 50-45 from the three judges. Nurmagomedov improves to 18-0 with the second defense of his championship. Cris Cyborg stopped Cat Zingano by TKO at 4:03 of the first round in their featherweight championship fight with Cyborg’s seventh consecutive win and is 6-0 since joining Bellator. Liz Carmouche beat Ilima-Lei Macfarlane by TKO due to leg kicks in the fifth round to retain the flyweight championship. Macfarlane missed weight on Friday and therefore, the title would have become vacant if Macfarlane had won. Carmouche is now 7-0 since joining Bellator in 2020 and this was her third title defense.
**Scott Coker spoke at the press conference after Bellator 300 and was asked about the state of the promotion. He said, “These things take time” and wouldn’t confirm or deny what the future of the promotion is or whether a sale is going down. Coker emphasized that the company is owned by Viacom and is not his to sell or not sell unlike Strikeforce, which he did have a stake in. Coker hopes to have some clarity soon.
**Bobby Green was the standout performer of Saturday’s UFC Fight Night card in Las Vegas. The 37-year-old veteran stopped rising star Grant Dawson in 33 seconds of their lightweight main event and handed Dawson his first loss since 2016 and first in the UFC. It was Green’s third fight this year and he wants to fight in December. It was Green’s second consecutive Performance of the Night bonus after beating Tony Ferguson in his last outing. The other performance bonuses were awarded to Joe Pyfer, Drew Dober, and Nate Maness.
**The light heavyweight fight between Ion Cutelaba and Philipe Lins was dropped from Saturday’s UFC Fight Night card at the last minute. After both men made the weight on Friday, the fight fell apart due to an illness to Lins. On the broadcast, they mentioned the fight was off the card and would be attempting to rebook it for this Saturday’s card at the Apex.
**Mateusz Gamrot will serve as the backup fighter at UFC 294 for the main event between UFC lightweight champion Islam Makhachev and Charles Oliveira on October 21. Gamrot (23-2, 1 NC) is coming off wins against Jalin Turner and Rafael Fiziev this year and has won six of his last seven fights with a decision loss to Beneil Dariush in that stretch.
**ESPN’s Marc Raimondi has a big feature on the history of Bellator going back to April 2009.
*****
MCU L8R: Loki Season 2 Ep. 1 Review [FREE]
A freebie from the POST Café — WH Park and Rich Fann are back to discuss the return of Marvel’s Loki with a review of Season 2 Episode 1, “Ouroboros”.
*****
WWE FASTLANE REVIEW
Wai Ting and John Siino review WWE Fastlane 2023 featuring John Cena & LA Knight vs. The Bloodline, and Seth Rollins vs. Shinsuke Nakamura in a Last Man Standing Match.
*****
COLLISION COURSE
Kate From MTL and Bruce Lord review AEW Collision featuring Adam Copeland, Bryan Danielson vs. Kyle Fletcher, and Eddie Kingston vs. Komander.
*****
REWIND-A-SMACKDOWN
John Pollock & Wai Ting discuss Friday Night SmackDown with appearances by Cody Rhodes, Jey Uso & Judgment Day.
*****
POST PURORESU
Karen Peterson joins WH Park to speak about NJPW’s October schedule, Suzu Suzuki winning the Stardom 5 Star Grand Prix, Katsuhiko Nakajima’s future, Yuya Uemura & more.
******
REWIND-A-WAI #140: Predator (1987 film)
John Pollock and Wai Ting review the 1987 sci-fi action film Predator, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger and Jesse Ventura as soldiers trapped in a rainforest who attempt to survive a mysterious and very violent alien threat.
*****
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