POST IT NOTES
**Due to the Elimination Chamber on Saturday, there is no Rewind-A-SmackDown tonight. Instead, we will be live on Saturday at Noon ET on the POST YouTube channel.
**Saturday’s shows on the POST Wrestling Café will include a review of the New Beginning cards with Karen Peterson & Bruce Lord, and Collision Course with John Siino & Kate from Montreal.
**The latest Rewind-A-Wai focuses on WrestleMania 24 from 2008 with Edge vs. The Undertaker, Ric Flair’s career-threatening match with Shawn Michaels, and Floyd Mayweather Jr. vs. Big Show. We rewind to 2008 and go over the show in-depth including a conversation with Jimmy Korderas, who was the referee for the main event and shared many details about the match and his role. The show is available now for all POST Wrestling Café members and the interview with Korderas is available on the POST YouTube channel.
POST SCHEDULE
Saturday: WWE Elimination Chamber with John Pollock & Wai Ting (Noon ET)
Saturday: New Beginning in Sapporo with Bruce Lord & Karen Peterson (POST Wrestling Café)
Saturday: Collision Course with John Siino & Kate from Montreal (POST Wrestling Café)
Monday: Rewind-A-Raw
WRESTLING NEWS
**Kazuchika Okada’s final match with NJPW will take place late tonight at the New Beginning in Sapporo event. It’s the end of a major era as the promotion’s biggest star is leaving with the expectation of landing in AEW. While closely linked to New Japan, he was brought up through the Toryumon/Dragon Gate system and trained by Ultimo Dragon before heading to Mexico and later, joining NJPW. His excursion was an abysmal failure, infamously being wasted as “Okato” in TNA, which led to bitter feelings by New Japan for the treatment of their future star. Booker Gedo saw Okada as his franchise player when he returned and booked a quick win over YOSHI-HASHI at Wrestle Kingdom in January 2012 as a set-up to become the next challenger for IWGP champion Hiroshi Tanahashi the next month. Tanahashi was in the middle of an excellent title run and surprised many by dropping the title to the unheralded 24-year-old to spark the feud of the decade. There was endless debate regarding the choice of Okada and ending Tanahashi’s reign, but Okada quickly converted skeptics including a phenomenal match with Tetsuya Naito the next month. The title reign was short-lived as it returned to Tanahashi in June but the two would be linked for the rest of their careers. Their matches included Tokyo Dome main events in 2015 and 2016 and earned multiple awards together in the Observer, Tokyo Sports, and Nikkan Sports. It coincided with New Japan’s international expansion through the Ustream site where worldwide viewers could follow major New Japan shows in real-time and the word-of-mouth from Okada and Tanahashi’s matches was the best form of advertising. His accolades include seven IWGP title reigns including a two-year run as champion from 2016-18, a four-time G1 Climax winner, two New Japan Cup wins, a five-time Tokyo Sports MVP winner, WON Wrestler of the Year in 2017, five-time match of the year winner in the Observer, and headlining eleven Wrestle Kingdom cards.
On Friday, Okada scored the winning fall in an eight-man tag against the United Empire by pinning Callum Newman after hitting the Rainmaker. It’s beyond questionable that New Japan is not trying to maximize the value of Okada for a younger star on the way out. Instead, he’s part of a ten-man tag and is in the second match even though his farewell is the biggest part of the show.
New Beginning in Sapporo streams tonight at Midnight ET with the following lineup:
*IWGP World Heavyweight Championship: Tetsuya Naito © vs. SANADA
*Hair vs. Hair: Yuya Uemura vs. Yota Tsuji
*Shingo Takagi vs. Taichi
*Hiromu Takahashi vs. DOUKI
*BUSHI vs. Taka Michinoku
*Nic Nemeth & Ryusuke Taguchi vs. David Finlay & Gedo
*Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa vs. Hikuleo & El Phantasmo
*Kazuchika Okada, Hiroshi Tanahashi, Tomohiro Ishii, YOSHI-HASHI & Hirooki Goto vs. Matt Riddle, Jeff Cobb, Great O-Khan, HENARE & Francesco Akira
*EVIL, SHO, Ren Narita, Yujiro & Yoshinobu Kanemaru vs. Shota Umino, El Desperado, YOH, Togi Makabe & Oleg Boltin
*Frontier Zone: Toru Yano & Tomoya vs. Tomoaki Honma & Katsuya Murashima
**It was another destructive night in journalism with Vice Media Group laying off hundreds of employees and ceasing online content for its site. This news comes less than one year after it filed for bankruptcy protection. The Vice story is specific to this industry as Tim Marchman and his colleague Anna Merlan were doing some of the best coverage of the WWE scandals involving Vince McMahon and John Laurinaitis as it relates to the Janel Grant suit and the Ashley Massaro case. If you are indifferent to layoff stories like this or have questions about the function of the media, ask yourself if you are better off as a consumer with or without the reporting by Vice over the past month.
**Friday Night SmackDown is a taped show on Fox from Salt Lake City, Utah last week. The show will see Drew McIntyre vs. LA Knight, Street Profits vs. Authors of Pain, Tyler Bate & Pete Dunne vs. Dominik Mysterio & JD McDonagh, and Bron Breakker makes his SmackDown debut.
**The WWE’s Elimination Chamber event will stream on Saturday at 5 a.m. ET from Optus Stadium in Perth, Western Australia. In December, TKO COO Mark Shapiro revealed that the company had secured $16 million from the Government of Australia for a combination of events (no UFC events have been announced yet for Australia this year) and adding to the list of regions paying significant money for WWE and UFC events. WrestleTix’s latest update is that 48,777 tickets have been distributed for the show and should be an incredible atmosphere. The show has added one match with the Women’s tag titles being defended on the kickoff portion of the show, which begins at 4 a.m.
*Women’s World Championship: Rhea Ripley © vs. Nia Jax
*Men’s Elimination Chamber: Drew McIntyre vs. Randy Orton vs. Bobby Lashley vs. LA Knight vs. Logan Paul vs. Kevin Owens
*Women’s Elimination Chamber: Liv Morgan vs. Becky Lynch vs. Bianca Belair vs. Raquel Rodriguez vs. Tiffany Stratton vs. Naomi
*Undisputed WWE Tag Team Titles: Finn Balor & Damian Priest © vs. Pete Dunne & Tyler Bate
*The Grayson Waller Effect with Cody Rhodes & Seth Rollins
*Women’s Tag Team Titles: Kabuki Warriors © vs. Indi Hartwell & Candice LeRae (Kickoff)
**For those curious, BetOnline lists Drew McIntyre as a -2000 favorite to win the Chamber match and is followed by Randy Orton at +500, LA Knight at +700, Logan Paul at +1400, Bobby Lashley at +2000, and Kevin Owens at +2000. Becky Lynch is the -2000 favorite to win the women’s match followed by Bianca Belair at +500, Raquel Rodriguez at +600, Liv Morgan at +1400, Naomi at +2500, and Tiffany Stratton at +2500. Rhea Ripley is a -8000 favorite to retain the title against Nia Jax.
**AEW Rampage returns at its normal start time of 10 p.m. ET on TNT tonight with the following matches set to air:
*Penta El Zero M, Komander & Bryan Keith vs. Private Party & Matt Sydal vs. Top Flight & Action Andretti
*Anna Jay vs. Mariah May
*Roderick Strong vs. Jake Hager
*Young Bucks in action
*Sammy Guevara appears
**Saturday’s episode of Collision is in Springfield, Missouri, and includes the first-ever 1-on-1 match between Bryan Danielson and Jun Akiyama (they have had several tag matches in the past but have not wrestled together since 2008). The line-up includes FTR vs. Shane Taylor & Lee Moriarty, Jay White teams with Billy & Colten Gunn, and separate matches involving Thunder Rosa and Serena Deeb.
**AEW has announced a combined Dynamite/Collision taping for April 3 at the DCU Center in Worcester, Massachusetts. That will mean it’s a taped edition of Collision airing against the first night of WrestleMania 40 and is likely going to be the toughest night of the year for Collision’s audience.
**Thursday’s episode of IMPACT featured a great six-man tag in the main event. The System of Moose, Brian Myers & Eddie Edwards defeated Alex Shelley, KUSHIDA & Kevin Knight in an all-action match that tore it up for the final minutes. Kevin Knight had an unbelievable performance, specifically his chemistry with Moose, and Knight seems like one of those talents that everyone should have their eyes on.
**TNA returns with its first set of shows since Scott D’Amore’s termination by Anthem. TNA presents No Surrender tonight and television tapings on Saturday from the Alario Arena in New Orleans, Louisiana. PWinsider.com reports that a talent meeting is scheduled to take place on Saturday and these will be the first shows under the new leadership with Anthony Cicione as president. The show will stream on TNA+, and YouTube for its Ultimate Insiders members. The show is also available for $9.99 U.S. on TrillerTV+. Below is the card:
*No Surrender Rules for the TNA Championship: Moose © vs. Alex Shelley
*Knockouts Championship: Jordynne Grace © vs. Gisele Shaw
*X Division Championship: Chris Sabin © vs. Mustafa Ali
*Match #3 in Best-of-3 for TNA Tag Titles: Chris Bey & Ace Austin © vs. Grizzled Young Vets
*Josh Alexander vs. Simon Gotch
*Knockouts Tag Titles: Rosemary & Havok © vs. MK Ultra
*Frankie Kazarian vs. Eric Young (Winner receives a TNA title shot)
*PCO vs. Kon
*Eddie Edwards & Brian Myers vs. KUSHIDA & Kevin Knight (Countdown at 7:30 p.m. ET)
*Speedball Mike Bailey & Trent Seven vs. The Rascalz (Countdown)
**For Saturday’s TNA tapings in New Orleans they have advertised Crazzy Steve vs. Rhino for the Digital Media title, Masha Slamovich vs. Dani Luna, Laredo Kid vs. Jake Something, Tasha Steelz vs. Xia Brookside, Mustafa Ali vs. Kevin Knight, and AJ Francis & Deaner vs. Joe Hendry & Rich Swann.
**TNA has a short turnaround as its next TNA+ special is the Sacrifice event on March 8.
**GCW Touch the Sky streams at 9 p.m. ET on Triller TV+ with Mance Warner vs. Allie Katch in a Texas Bullrope match, Jacob & Zilla Fatu vs. Los Macizos, Violence is Forever vs. Alex Zayne & Lance Archer for the GCW tag titles, Blake Christian vs. Fuego Del Sol for the GCW title, Pagano vs. John Wayne Murdoch, Latigo & Gringo Loco & Arez vs. Aramis & Oni El Bendito & Microman vs. Broski Jimmy vs. Billie Starkz, Joey Janela vs. Sam Stackhouse, and 1 Called Manders & Sawyer Wreck & Effy vs. Jordan Cruz & Max Heights & Kari Wright.
**C*4 Wrestling in Ottawa tonight is headlined by Junior Benito vs. Starboy Charlie for the C*4 Championship along with Dustin Walker & Kylon King vs. Stu Grayson & Evil Uno vs. Vaughn Vertigo & Gabriel Fuerza for the IWTV Independent tag titles, Santana vs. Kevin Blackwood, Alexia Nicole vs. LuFisto vs. Haley Dylan vs. Little Mean Kathleen vs. Kennedi Hardcastle for the C*4 Underground title, and Pretty Ricky Willdy & Puf defend the C*4 tag titles against Sexxxy Eddy & Bob Anger in the top matches. The show will be taped and premiere at IndependentWrestling.tv next Tuesday at 8 p.m. ET.
MMA NEWS
**The UFC is back in Mexico for the first time since 2019 with its Fight Night event on Saturday at Arena Ciudad. The top fights are Brandon Moreno vs. Brandon Royval and Yair Rodríguez vs. Brian Ortega, and both are scheduled for five rounds. Moreno beat Royval in November 2020 by TKO in the first round which led to Moreno getting a flyweight title fight three weeks later. Moreno’s last six fights have been championship fights while Royval is coming off a five-round decision loss to current Alexandre Pantoja in December. Rodríguez and Ortega could be an excellent fight and is a rematch from July 2022. In that fight, Ortega injured his shoulder in the first round and caused the fight to end prematurely. Rodríguez last fought in July where he lost to then-champion Alexander Volkanovski. Since a brutal loss to Max Holloway in 2018, Ortega has only fought three times and has not competed since July 2022 when he suffered the shoulder injury which leads to plenty of unknown factors regarding his status among the top fighters in the weight class.
MAIN CARD (10 p.m. ET on ESPN+ and Sportsnet 360 & SN 1 in Canada)
*Brandon Moreno vs. Brandon Royval
*Brian Ortega vs. Yair Rodríguez
*Francisco Prado vs. Daniel Zellhuber
*Raul Rosas Jr. vs. Ricky Turcios
*Yazmin Jauregui vs. Sam Hughes
*Chris Duncan vs. Manuel Torres
PRELIMINARY CARD (7 p.m. ET on ESPN+, Sportsnet 360 & Fight Pass)
*Raoni Barcelos vs. Jose Quinonez
*Mateus Mendonca vs. Jesus Aguilar
*Edgar Chairez vs. Daniel Lacerda – Both fighters missed weight
*Claudio Puelles vs. Fares Ziam
*Ronaldo Rodriguez vs. Denys Bondar
*Victor Altamarino vs. Felipe dos Santos
*Erik Silva vs. Muhammad Naimov
**PFL and Bellator will host its pay-per-view event on Saturday afternoon from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. The card lost a fight on Friday as Gabriel Braga withdrew from his bout against Patricio “Pitbull” Freire before the weigh-ins and first reported by Nolan King at MMA Junkie. No reason has been provided for Braga’s withdrawal. While running an event of this caliber on pay-per-view seems insane, it’s unknown how much money the promotion is being paid by Saudi Arabia to understand the economics of it. It’s a fine concept to match the top fighters from each promotion if this was a televised card because a fraction of their already niche audiences will be buying this card.
MAIN CARD (3 p.m. ET on pay-per-view)
*Renan Ferreira vs. Ryan Bader
*Impa Kasanganay vs. Johnny Eblen
*Ray Cooper III vs. Jason Jackson
*Bruno Cappelozza vs. Vadim Nemkov
*Thiago Santos vs. Yoel Romero
*Clay Collard vs. A.J. McKee
PRELIMINARY CARD (Noon on ESPN+)
*Henry Corrales vs. Aaron Pico
*Biaggio Ali Walsh vs. Emmanuel Palacio
*Claressa Shields vs. Kelsey De Santis
*Abdullah Al-Qahtani vs. Edukondala Rao
*****
REWIND-A-WAI #151: WrestleMania 24
John Pollock and Wai Ting review WWE WrestleMania XXIV from March 30th, 2008 featuring Shawn Michaels vs. Ric Flair in a Career Threatening Match.
*****
REWIND-A-DYNAMITE
John Pollock and Wai Ting review AEW Dynamite as Sting speaks, Jon Moxley & Claudio Castagnoli face FTR, and RVD returns to team up with Hangman Page & Hook.
*****
POLLOCK & THURSTON
John Pollock and Brandon Thurston continue their coverage of allegations of sexual abuse in WWE, with new comments surrounding the ring boy scandal from the 1980s and Ashley Massaro’s claims from the 2000s.
*****
upNXT
Braden Herrington and Davie Portman review WWE NXT from February 20th, 2024 featuring Lyra Valkyria vs Shotzi for the NXT Women’s Championship!
*****
THE WELLNESS POLICY
The non-wrestling podcast gets inside the ropes as The Wellness Policy’s Wai Ting, Jordan Goodman and Neal Flanagan explore the escapism, unique storytelling and community to be found in professional wrestling.
*****
THE N.W.A. PODCAST
The Advocates are back to discuss Cody Rhodes vs. The Bloodline, the latest regarding the Vince McMahon investigation, and their favorite Afrocentric moments in pro wrestling history.
*****
UFC 298 REVIEW
John Pollock and Eric Marcotte review UFC 298 with Alexander Volkanovski defending the UFC Featherweight Championship against Ilia Topuria.
*****
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