POST IT NOTES
**We have released today’s Pollock Audio News Update for all members of the POST Wrestling Café including the free tier. Jack Wannan joined me to speak about Thursday’s RNC in Milwaukee and the inclusion of Dana White & Hulk Hogan and the interesting political dynamic at the top of TKO. In addition, the Nate Diaz & Jon Jones legal issues, Jake Paul vs. Mike Perry this weekend & more. The audio news updates are released multiple times per week on the Double Double & Espresso levels of the POST Wrestling Café.
**Rewind-A-Wai #161 is out covering the WWF Invasion event from July 2001. This is a nearly three-hour show covering the most successful non-WrestleMania pay-per-view in the company’s history. Wai Ting and I dive deep into the summer of 2001, the failure of the invasion, how ECW was added to the story, and the legal maneuverings in the lead-up to the pay-per-view. After the show review, we air an archived chat I had with Jim Ross discussing the invasion and why the company didn’t bring in many of the top stars of WCW, who had guaranteed deals. This show was selected by Espresso Executive Producer Andrew MacDonald.
**Rewind-A-SmackDown is LIVE tonight at 10:05 p.m. ET on the POST Wrestling Café.
**John Siino & Kate from Montreal present a rare free edition of Collision Course on Saturday immediately after AEW Collision on the POST YouTube channel.
**The G1 coverage begins on Sunday with Bruce Lord & Karen Peterson covering the first two nights in Osaka on the POST Wrestling Café. There will be 12 G1 podcasts over the next month and if you join the POST Café today, you will have access for the next 30 days to all the G1 shows.
**Finally, check out our chat with the recently retired Daniel Makabe as he spoke about his final match with Kevin Ku at SCI last weekend and why he chose to wrestle Ku. Plus, the one person that will bring him out of retirement, the impact of the pandemic on his career, why he is retiring now, and reflections on his career. I really enjoyed this interview with Makabe and he was very open on a lot of topics.
POST SCHEDULE
Tonight: Rewind-A-SmackDown with John Pollock & Wai Ting
Saturday: Collision Course with John Siino & Kate from Montreal [FREE]
Saturday: TNA Slammiversary with John Pollock
Sunday: G1 Climax – Day 1 & 2 with Bruce Lord & Karen Peterson
Monday: Rewind-A-Raw
HOGAN & WHITE SPEAK AT RNC
It was impossible to escape the overlap on Thursday night with Linda McMahon, Hulk Hogan, and Dana White speaking at the RNC in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. McMahon has been among Trump’s closest allies since he was elected in 2016 and was one of the few surviving members of the first administration. She spoke briefly about her history with Trump including his role in past WWE storylines citing his ratings success. Earlier in the day, McMahon spoke with Scott Johnson of News 4 Jacksonville and was asked how the (McMahon) family was doing with an “up and down year” and McMahon responded, “We’re all doing great”.
Hogan received the lion’s share of the attention among the three as he delivered a total pro wrestling presentation from entering to “Real American”, cupping the ear, going into promo mode, and even tearing off his shirt to reveal a Trump & JD Vance shirt, whom he referred to as the greatest tag team. It was completely over the top but was the intent to include him and rally the Republican base around Trump. It was not that long ago that Hogan was asked about who he supported in the race and didn’t want to step into those waters and tiptoed around his support of Trump. He said on Thursday that after Saturday’s assassination attempt in Pennsylvania, he wasn’t going to be quiet any longer and it wouldn’t be surprising if he becomes a Republican voice throughout the race due to his appearance at the RNC. Due to Hogan’s profile, it was inevitable that the audio of his racist rant would be spread across media platforms along with a video of Hogan mocking Trump in an online video years ago. The last time Hogan made any type of major political endorsement was in 2008 when he was interviewed by Jimmy Kimmel and was supporting Barack Obama against John McCain.
.@margaretbrennan on the "machismo" on display at the RNC, where Hulk Hogan and the UFC's Dana White are speaking on the final night:
"Nothing up here is about policy. It's about quick fix. It's about, put the strongman up there, he'll take care of it." pic.twitter.com/cPhpug6Mlz
— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) July 19, 2024
White was the final speech of the night as he was introducing Trump. He had been in Italy on a vacation was his wife but interrupted the trip when asked by Trump to speak. It emphasized how much White’s capital in Trump’s orbit has grown since 2016 when White was among the sea of speakers and this year, he was the one introducing Trump. Like Hogan, White’s past was revisited online throughout the day with the video of him slapping his wife on New Year’s Eve in 2022. The tie between Trump and the UFC has been inseparable with so many appearances by the former president at events to the point, he has crafted his entrance at the end of the pay-per-view prelims on many shows where he enters the arena flanked by White as “American Bad Ass” by Kid Rock is played in the arena and the broadcasters fawn over him followed by multiple cutaways throughout the broadcast and fighters referencing him in their post-fight speeches. It is an interesting dichotomy as the UFC has become a canvas for the Trump campaign trail while TKO CEO Ari Emanuel is a massive Democratic donor and whose brother Rahm was Obama’s chief of staff.
G1 CLIMAX 2024
**The annual G1 Climax begins on Saturday with back-to-back nights at Edion Arena in Osaka featuring nineteen matches over both shows. While there is no replacing Kazuchika Okada or Will Ospreay you cannot deny that the intrigue for this year’s tournament is heightened with several major alterations. The tournament is back to two blocks with ten members on each side, the time limits are back to 30 minutes per match, and most notably, the elimination of tournament cornerstones Hiroshi Tanahashi and Tomohiro Ishii. It’s a critical period for New Japan as it’s in a state of flux with the crown up for grabs regarding who will steer this company into the next generation. There will be a laser focus on the booking of Yota Tsuji, Yuya Uemura, Shota Umino, and Ren Narita as the native stars in waiting that need the rocket fuel this year’s G1 can provide. Zack Sabre Jr. stands out among the favorites as someone capable of ascending to the top mix but isn’t the long-term answer. The outsiders are Jake Lee from Pro Wrestling NOAH, who hasn’t lit the world on fire since leaving All Japan and his inclusion has been met with criticism, and Konosuke Takeshita, who stands to have an excellent showing as the lone AEW representative.
The middle tier includes Shingo Takagi, Gabe Kidd, HENARE, and David Finlay where all four are contenders to at least advance to the playoffs but would be surprised to go to the final much less win it all. However, this is a year to take some booking chances on guys and it’s a more wide-open field than past years where you can make compelling cases for multiple candidates.
Oleg Boltin and Callum Newman earned the final spots by winning the qualifying tournaments. Boltin needs at least a few key wins while Newman could easily be in the role of losing all his matches but showing fire in defeat.
This year’s format will see the top three in each block advance to the playoff stage. The point leader in each block earns a bye while #2 and #3 in each block will have matches to determine who goes to the semi-final with the final set for August 18.
Tetsuya Naito enters the G1 as the IWGP World Heavyweight Champion and is the second oldest participant behind Hirooki Goto. It is going to be a strenuous tournament for both with Naito turning in a lackluster performance with Jon Moxley at Forbidden Door and needing nine big performances as the number grew with this year’s format.
Here is the lineup for the first two nights:
Saturday, July 20 at 4 a.m. ET:
*B BLOCK: Ren Narita vs. Oleg Boltin
*A BLOCK: Shota Umino vs. Callum Newman
*B BLOCK: HENARE vs. El Phantasmo
*A BLOCK: Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Great O-Khan
*B BLOCK: Jeff Cobb vs. Hirooki Goto
*A BLOCK: Jake Lee vs. SANADA
*B BLOCK: David Finlay vs. Yuya Uemura
*A BLOCK: EVIL vs. Gabe Kidd
*B BLOCK: Yota Tsuji vs. Konosuke Takeshita
*A BLOCK: Tetsuya Naito vs. Shingo Takagi
Sunday, July 21 at 1 a.m. ET (late Saturday night):
*A BLOCK: SANADA vs. Callum Newman
*B BLOCK: HENARE vs. Oleg Boltin
*A BLOCK: Gabe Kidd vs. Great O-Khan
*B BLOCK: El Phantasmo vs. Ren Narita
*A BLOCK: Jake Lee vs. EVIL
*B BLOCK: Yuya Uemura vs. Hirooki Goto
*A BLOCK: Shingo Takagi vs. Shota Umino
*A BLOCK: Tetsuya Naito vs. Zack Sabre Jr.
*B BLOCK: Yota Tsuji vs. David Finlay
WRESTLING/MMA NEWS
**John Ourand at Puck reported that officials at the NBA have formally presented WBD with the pertinent documents regarding its next set of domestic television deals. This process initiated a five-day window for WBD to issue a matching offer by the end of Monday. Ourand (and many others) believe that WBD will attempt to match the Amazon offer rather than the largest rights package that Disney is targeting. The two options for WBD are 1) Abandon the hope of retaining the NBA rights package and accept the turbulence of losing its crown jewel programming with the expectation that its carriage fees could be impacted, or 2) Fight this battle in a legal arena and force their way into business with the NBA, which is going to take a compelling argument that they are making a meaningful matching offer to Amazon’s. WBD is already carrying great debt, so committing to NBA programming over the next contract cycle will add weight to that albatross. The burning question on this side of the fence is how this outcome affects WBD’s negotiations with AEW and if a loss of the NBA makes the wrestling property a “must retain”. The option of taking the NBA to court over the matching rights is going to prolong the process and will WBD be reticent to commit to AEW when their NBA strategy is still up in the air?
**WWE is holding a double taping at the CHI Health Center in Omaha, Nebraska tonight. Next week’s SmackDown is being taped due to the crew heading to Japan for three shows in Osaka & Tokyo. WrestleTix reports over 8,900 tickets are out for the show with the following matches and segments listed:
*Cody Rhodes addresses The Bloodline’s attack on Randy Orton
*Logan Paul appears
*Carmelo Hayes vs. Andrade
*Tiffany Stratton vs. Michin
**AEW Rampage airs at 10 p.m. ET on TNT with the following matches taped on Wednesday in North Little Rock, Arkansas with a strong lineup:
*Minoru Suzuki vs. The Butcher
*Chris Jericho & Big Bill vs. The Outrunners
*Kris Statlander vs. Sydni Winnell
*Roderick Strong, Mike Bennett & Matt Taven vs. Kyle O’Reilly, Orange Cassidy & Tomohiro Ishii
*Lucha Bros. vs. Private Party
**TNA has one of its biggest shows in years with Slammiversary at the Verdun Auditorium in Montreal, which they are advertising as a sell-out of the arena’s configuration. They gathered significant momentum around the rebranding in January for Hard to Kill and it appeared to subside but then were injected with the NXT crossover arrangement and this is the first real test to see if they can expand their pay-per-view audience with the crossover. They have teased surprises on the show and added Wes Lee and the No Quarter Catch Crew to the lineup. Montreal is a great wrestling city and with several thousand in attendance, it should provide a much livelier environment than is typical with a TNA event. PCO is the major local draw and has done a lot of promotion for the event and Speedball Mike Bailey is in a prominent match for the local attention. Below is the lineup:
*TNA World Championship: Moose © vs. Nic Nemeth vs. Joe Hendry vs. Josh Alexander vs. Frankie Kazarian vs. Steve Maclin
*X Division Championship: Mustafa Ali © vs. Speedball Mike Bailey
*Knockouts Championship: Jordynne Grace © vs. Ash by Elegance
*Digital Media Championship: AJ Francis © vs. PCO
*TNA Tag Titles: Brian Myers & Eddie Edwards © vs. ABC
*Matt Hardy vs. JDC
*Mike Santana vs. Jake Something
*The Rascalz vs. No Quarter Catch Crew
*KUSHIDA vs. Jonathan Gresham (pre-show)
*Knockouts Tag Team Titles: Alisha Edwards & Masha Slamovich © vs. Dani Luna & Jody Threat (pre-show)
*Gisele Shaw vs. Tasha Steelz vs. Xia Brookside vs. Faby Apache (pre-show)
**Brandon Thurston at Wrestlenomics reported on the quarter-hour performance for AEW Dynamite. The show averaged 795,000 viewers and 0.27 in the 18-49 demo, which was the show’s largest audience since April 10 and the largest demo audience since June 5. The first hour averaged 842,000 viewers and 368,000 in the demo while the second hour did 761,000 and 345,000. The Will Ospreay vs. MJF match did bleed into the second hour, so the second half of the show did have a small bump from that match and saw decreases through the second hour and dropped as low as 685,000 viewers and 305,000 for the seven-minute overrun segment. The second hour also had five ad breaks compared to three in the first hour. The high point for viewership was the first quarter but the peak in the 18-49 audience was the conclusion of the Ospreay vs. MJF match between 9 and 9:15 p.m. ET with 388,000 viewers.
**We didn’t have a post this week on the NXT viewership figures but the show averaged 610,000 viewers and 260,000 (0.20) in the 18-49 demographic airing against the MLB All-Star Game. Its overall viewership dropped by seven percent while the demo audience fell by 16 percent from the previous week. The All-Star Game averaged 7,443,000 viewers and 1.58 in the 18-49 demo on Fox. (Programming Insider & Wrestlenomics)
**In Canada, NXT averaged 105,000 viewers and 42,200 in the 25-54 demographic on Sportsnet 360. It ranked #4 among sports for the day and was #2 in the demo behind the All-Star Game.
**Dave Bautista appeared on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon.
**GCW presents “So High” at Pop’s Nightclub in Sauget, Illinois tonight at 9 p.m. ET on TrillerTV+. The show is headlined by Mance Warner defending the GCW title against Hoodfoot and includes Danhausen vs. Masha Slamovich, Myron Reed vs. Sidney Akeem (the former SCRYPTS), Effy & Dark Sheik vs. John Wayne Murdoch & Reed Bentley, Davey Bang & August Matthews vs. Arez & Gringo Loco, Joey Janela & Megan Bayne vs. Blake Christian & Shane Mercer, 1 Called Manders vs. Broski Jimmy, and Jack Cartwheel vs. Galeno del Mal.
**Jake Paul was scheduled to fight Mike Tyson this weekend with the boxing bout set for Netflix. It has been postponed until November due to a medical issue for Tyson. Paul booked another fight with Mike Perry, and they will meet on pay-per-view on Saturday from the Amalie Arena in Tampa, Florida. WrestleTix reports that 12,993 tickets have been distributed and it follows the Nate Diaz vs. Jorge Masvidal card that drew a $1.2 million gate at the Honda Center in Anaheim but reportedly bombed on pay-per-view. Perry has become the top star for BKFC with an undefeated record in that promotion, but this is a boxing fight and there are a lot of factors favoring Paul from the size, the discipline, and he should be favored to win but Perry is hardly a pushover. The question is whether this fight could have any impact on the Mike Tyson fight if Paul were to lose, or get injured and put that November date in jeopardy.
**Due to a medical issue, Jun Yong Park is off Saturday’s UFC Fight Night card and his fight with Brad Tavares has been canceled. Both fighters did weigh in on Friday morning and it’s unknown what the specifics of the medical issue are. The card will move forward with the following eleven fights from the UFC Apex in Las Vegas:
MAIN CARD (8 p.m. ET on ESPN & ESPN+)
*Amanda Lemos (14-3-1) vs. Virna Jandiroba (20-3)
*Seungwood Choi (11-6) vs. Steve Garcia (15-5)
*Kurt Holobaugh (20-8) vs. Kaynan Kruschewsky (15-2)
*Bruno Silva (13-5-2) vs. Cody Durden (16-5-1)
*Dooho Choi (14-4-1) vs. Bill Algeo (18-8)
*Jeong Yeong Lee (11-1) vs. Hyder Amil (9-0)
PRELIMINARY CARD (5:30 p.m. on ESPN2 & ESPN+)
*Brian Kelleher (24-15) vs. Cody Gibson (19-10)
*Miranda Maverick (13-5) vs. Dione Barbosa (7-2)
*Trey Ogden (17-6) vs. Loik Radzhabov (18-5-1)
*Lucie Pudilova (14-9) vs. Luana Carolina (10-4)
*Thomas Petersen (8-2) vs. Mohammed Usman (10-3)
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[FREE] POLLOCK’S AUDIO: RNC coverage w/ Jack Wannan
John Pollock is joined by Jack Wannan to chat to speak about Thursday’s speeches at the RNC including ones from Dana White & Hulk Hogan.
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REWIND-A-WAI #161: WWF Invasion 2001
John Pollock & Wai Ting review WWF Invasion from July 22, 2001, featuring a series of matches between WWF and the invading WCW-ECW Alliance.
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REWIND-A-DYNAMITE
John Pollock and Wai Ting review the 250th episode of AEW Dynamite in Arkansas with Will Ospreay vs. MJF for the International Title.
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POST INTERVIEW: Daniel Makabe
John Pollock chats with the recently retired Daniel Makabe about his match with Kevin Ku at SCI.
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MCU L8R: Deadpool (2016)
This week in their Deadpool & Wolverine ReWatch prep, Rich Fann & WH Park are graced with GRAPPL’s JP Houlihan to review the first Deadpool movie from 2016!
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POLLOCK & THURSTON
John Pollock and Brandon Thurston are joined by Karen Peterson to discuss the G1 Climax tournament.
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