POST IT NOTES
**Rewind-A-Raw is live at 11 p.m. ET tonight with a review of the show from San Jose and going through all the news.
**This Wednesday, John Arezzi is our guest on Pollock & Thurston and is a really fascinating figure in wrestling media. Arezzi was at the forefront of coverage in the early ‘90s during the WWF scandal as the host of Pro Wrestling Spotlight. He also had known former ring announcer Mel Phillips since 1974 when they met at the WFIA fan convention but would start to keep away from Phillips when rumors were whispered about Phillips and was constantly seen hanging around younger boys. Then, the scandals became public, and Phillips was at the center of the accusations regarding sexual abuse. Arezzi knew many of the people involved, which emboldened his coverage of the scandals. This is covered in his 2021 book Mat Memories which he wrote with Greg Oliver.
POST SCHEDULE
Tonight: Rewind-A-Raw with John Pollock & Wai Ting
Tuesday: upNXT with Davie Portman & Braden Herrington
Wednesday: Pollock & Thurston – TKO Earnings & John Arezzi
Wednesday: Rewind-A-Dynamite
Friday: POST Puroresu with WH Park & Karen Peterson
Friday: Rewind-A-SmackDown (POST Wrestling Café)
Saturday: Collision Course with Kate from Montreal & Bruce Lord (POST Wrestling Café)
Sunday: AEW Revolution with John Pollock & Wai Ting
WRESTLING NEWS
**We had a special edition of Pollock & Thurston on Monday and aired our interview with Nick Kiniski where he spoke about allegations of being sexually propositioned during his WWF run. Kiniski outlined how he was propositioned by former official Terry Garvin, turned Garvin down, and went to Vince McMahon to complain. Kiniski said nothing changed and Garvin was not punished for his inappropriate conduct. Seeing the writing on the wall that his career was not going to advance, he gave his notice to McMahon and left the company in 1987. After a short run with the AWA, he exited the business entirely the next year and had several careers after wrestling including as a fire captain and later, opening a pair of restaurant bars and continues to run Kiniski’s Reef in Port Roberts, Washington. Greg Oliver at SLAM Wrestling also spoke with Kiniski and disclosed that Kiniski informed the reporter of the incident in 2006 but requested he not run the story until now.
**Becky Lynch spoke with Alex McCarthy of Inside the Ropes and was asked about the allegations by Janel Grant against Vince McMahon. Lynch said it was “hard to reconcile” and that “the allegations are horrible.” She stated that her own experience as a woman in WWE has been “amazing”
**Tonight’s episode of Raw is at the SAP Center in San Jose, California coming off Elimination Chamber. WrestleTix’s last update states there are 11,665 tickets distributed with WWE’s business on fire going into WrestleMania 40. The following matches are being advertised for Raw:
*Street Fight: Kofi Kingston & Xavier Woods vs. Ludwig Kaiser & Giovanni Vinci
*Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Sami Zayn
**TKO will be releasing its fourth-quarter and year-end earnings report on Tuesday with a call at 5 p.m. ET with analysts. The last call was hosted by Ari Emanuel and Mark Shapiro and had far less information than past calls for the WWE’s earnings reports led by Nick Khan, who was very forthcoming with predictions on the future of sports media. The stock closed at $84.45 on Monday and was down 1.6 percent for the day. Despite the awful attention that the Janel Grant lawsuit has generated and led to the removal of Vince McMahon, the stock has remained steady since the Netflix announcement. That could curb any significant questions regarding McMahon even though the story is far from over and could still have an impact on company business with McMahon remaining a significant shareholder in TKO. We will have a breakdown of the earnings report and call on Pollock & Thurston this Wednesday.
**This Friday’s episode of SmackDown is sold out at the Desert Diamond Arena in Glendale, Arizona with The Rock set to appear. WrestleTix lists 11,457 tickets distributed.
**WWE returns to Mexico in July for a set of live events. The company has announced shows for July 13 at Arena Ciudad in Mexico City (the site of this past weekend’s UFC Fight Night card), and July 14 at Arena Monterrey. The lineups will feature talent from both brands and they are advertising Cody Rhodes, Seth Rollins, Rey Mysterio, and Rhea Ripley among those scheduled to appear.
**Several people are raving about the professional wrestling debut of former J-Pop star Takechi Kaisei over the weekend for DDT. Kaisei, 25, teamed with Yuki Ueno & Shunma Katsumata against Tetsuya Endo, Hideki Okatani & Takeshi Masada in the main event of Sunday’s show at Korakuen Hall in front of 1,600 fans. Kaisei was part of the group, THE RAMPAGE (from the super group EXILE TRIBE).
📺君は衝撃のデビュー戦を目撃したか!?
会場沸騰の激闘、“THE RAMPAGE”武知海青プロレスデビュー戦はWRESTLE UNIVERSEで独占見逃し配信中！
今なら1週間無料トライアル実施中‼
🔽視聴ページhttps://t.co/zwFNgV1mwj
🔽登録方法https://t.co/rnSbUPTNAM#THERAMPAGE #武知海青 #ddtpro pic.twitter.com/ktdTh4LIfM— DDT ProWrestling (@ddtpro) February 25, 2024
**Cassidy Haynes at Bodyslam.net reported that North Carolina independent wrestler and trainer Patrick Scott has been hired as a writer’s assistant on SmackDown. Patrick had a send-off on Saturday’s PWF event and left his boots in the ring, tweeting that he would have more to say in the coming days. Scott has updated his bio on X and is listing his new role as a writer’s assistant for Friday Night SmackDown. Scott, 27, has been wrestling since 2016 and has wrestled enhancement matches on NXT in the past.
**Independent wrestling personality and host Arkady Aura (Arkady Unterleidner) has announced that she has joined AW and posted the following message on Instagram:
Not sure I can even put into words how I feel. I’ve cried a few times, screamed with joy and overall let myself burst with excitement the last few weeks.
If you’ve followed me awhile you’ll know I tend to chase a lot of dreams and pursue whatever path feels the most fulfilling to me. If you’re friends or family, you’ll know I question that in myself often and if I’m making the right choice. At this moment though, to sit and think every step I’ve taken, whether that was musical theater, pro wrestling, acting or Highland Games, every path has been intertwined and I know leads here for a reason.
To the handful of people who’ve believed in me every step of the way, ever since I got into a ring 7 years ago, and who’ve taken a chance on me now, I’m forever grateful.
To my love @simmons_strength, without you being the best father in the world, and your support in everything I’ve done, I wouldn’t be here and I know that for a fact. Thank you for everything, always
**Tuesday’s edition of NXT will include Noam Dar defending the Heritage Cup against a member of the No Quarter Catch Crew, Von Wagner vs. Lexis King, Dijak vs. Luca Crusifino, Edfris Enofe & Malik Blade vs. Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson, and Kelani Jordan vs. Kiana James.
MMA NEWS
**The UFC has confirmed that UFC 303 will take place Saturday, June 29 as part of International Fight Week (and was the date Conor McGregor mentioned when hyping a fight with Michael Chandler, which has not materialized yet). UFC 303 will take place at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada with the week to include the Hall of Fame induction ceremony. The promotion has announced Frankie Edgar and Wanderlei Silva as the first set of inductees in this year’s class.
**UFC 306 will take place at The Sphere in Las Vegas on Saturday, September 14, and will be a pay-per-view event.
**Brandon Royval defeated Brandon Moreno in the main event of this past Saturday’s UFC Fight Night card at Arena Ciudad in Mexico City. Royval won by split decision with a high-action tempo throughout the fight. Royval’s output was incredible with over 500 strikes thrown but his connection rate was only 28 percent. It will be tough to see Royval receiving a title fight from this win as he has two losses against current champion Alexandre Pantoja including one from this past December.
**Rey Mysterio attended the card on Saturday night in Mexico City and continues further integration between WWE and UFC personalities. Over the past week, Michael Chandler was featured on Raw while Tai Tuivasa attended Elimination Chamber and did a shoey with Grayson Waller on the broadcast.
**A bantamweight fight between Raul Rosas Jr. (8-1) and Ricky Turcios (12-3) was scrapped from Saturday’s UFC card at the last minute when Rosas Jr. fell ill on the night of the fight. The UFC is pushing the fight back by one week and has rescheduled it for this Saturday’s card at the Apex in Las Vegas. Dana White stated that since both made weight on Friday, they will compete at a catchweight, so they don’t have to cut weight again.
**This Saturday’s UFC Fight Night event is headlined by a heavyweight fight between Jairzinho Rozenstruik (13-4) and Shamil Gaziev (12-0). It’s an afternoon card beginning with the prelims at 1:30 p.m. ET and the main card at 4 p.m. streaming on ESPN+.
