POST IT NOTES
**We will have Rewind-A-SmackDown tonight at 10 p.m. ET for members of the POST Wrestling Café. In addition to the SmackDown review, we will also speak about the Netflix announcement for the Mr. McMahon series, the passing of Villano V, and previews of Bash in Berlin & NXT No Mercy this weekend.
**The August edition of the ASK-A-WAI Mailbag Show is available on the POST Wrestling Café with nearly two hours of mailbag questions. This includes ones on CM Punk’s exit from AEW last year and reflecting one year later, John Cena going for the championship next year, Bob Backlund’s heel turn in 1994, Raw moving to Netflix next year, and many more topics.
**We have an audio version of my obit on Sid Eudy available for all members of the POST Wrestling Café. The written version is available on the site.
**Wai Ting and Neal Flanagan will have a review of the WWE Bash in Berlin on Saturday immediately after the event on the POST YouTube channel. John Siino & Kate from Montreal are live on Saturday at 10 p.m. ET with Collision Course on the POST Café, and the NXT No Mercy show will be covered by Braden Herrington & Andrew Thompson on Sunday night.
**Beginning next Wednesday, Pollock & Thurston will be starting at 1 p.m. ET and this is a permanent move.
POST SCHEDULE
Tonight: Rewind-A-SmackDown with John Pollock & Wai Ting (POST Wrestling Café)
Saturday: WWE Bash in Berlin with Wai Ting & Neal Flanagan
Saturday: Collision Course (POST Wrestling Café)
Sunday: NXT No Mercy with Braden Herrington & Andrew Thompson
WRESTLING NEWS
**Villano V (Raymundo Diaz Mendoza Jr.) died on Thursday at the age of 62 with Record reporting that it was due to a heart attack. The Cubs Fans has an extensive breakdown of his career on Luchablog. He was part of a legendary family with five brothers who followed their father, Ray Mendoza, into the professional wrestling industry. Mendoza Jr. would debut in 1975 after he completed his education, which was mandatory by his father. Due to his younger brother Tomás finishing school first, the older Raymundo settled for Villano V while Tomás wrestled as Villano IV. He started his career as Rokambole and didn’t adopt the famous moniker until 1983. Los Villanos were big stars in the UWA and had a famous Triple Mask match in October 1988 in Monterrey against Los Brazos. Villano V had a pair of tours with New Japan Pro Wrestling in 1988 and 1990 including challenging for Jushin Thunder Liger once for the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight title. He wrestled for the major groups in Mexico and received added exposure when he and Villano IV began wrestling for WCW during its boom period. He was mixed among the company’s Luchadores and largely kept to enhancement roles and wrestling on Saturday Night and Worldwide. In 1998, during a tag match with Raven & Chris Kanyon, Villano IV suffered a neck injury and Villano V worked as a single for the next year. He would wrestle in WCW until April 2000. He was part of several high-profile matches including taking the mask of Blue Panther in 2008 at CMLL’s Anniversary card. The next year, Villano V was unmasked by Último Guerrero and wrestled under his real name. An attempt to retire in March 2013 ended quickly when he lost a fortune promoting the show and had to continue wrestling. Los Villanos were inducted into the Wrestling Observer Newsletter Hall of Fame in 2022 when they garnered 63% of the votes on the Mexican ballot. His sons followed in his footsteps and wrestled as Villano V. Jr. and Rokambole Jr.
**Wrestlenomics noted there was a minor miscalculation by Nielsen with the AEW Dynamite figures on Wednesday. The show ended at 10:06 p.m. ET the figures reported covered the period until 10:09 p.m. with the final three minutes featuring an airing of Modern Family. The original figures were 691,000 viewers and 301,000 (0.22) in the 18-49 demographic and the updated numbers are 697,000 viewers and 303,000 (0,23) in the 18-49 demographic.
**New Japan Pro Wrestling has its Capital Collision event tonight at the Entertainment & Sports Arena in Washington, D.C. It is a very strong card on paper with Mercedes Moné and Momo Watanabe headlining the card for the STRONG Women’s Championship, which was mentioned on AEW Dynamite. The last report from WrestleTix listed just over 1,800 tickets distributed. The show will air at 7 p.m. ET as a pay-per-view through New Japan World for $19.99 U.S with the following:
*STRONG Women’s Championship: Mercedes Moné vs. Momo Watanabe
*STRONG Openweight Championship: Gabe Kidd © vs. Lio Rush
*Hiromu Takahashi vs. Mustafa Ali
*STRONG Openweight tag titles: Shane Haste & Mikey Nicholls © vs. Virus & Hechicero
*Non-Title Match: Tetsuya Naito vs. TJP
*Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Titan
*Tom Lawlor & Fred Rosser vs. Royce Isaacs & Jorel Nelson
*David Finlay, Clark Connors & Drilla Moloney vs. Rocky Romero, YOSHI-HASHI & Kevin Knight
*#1 Contenders Match: Hiroshi Tanahashi & Tomohiro Ishii vs. GYV vs. Robbie Eagles & Bad Dude Tito
*Pre-show: Matt Vandagriff vs. Allan Breeze
*Pre-show: Mina Shirakawa & HANAKO vs. Trish Adora & Viva Van
**Friday Night SmackDown took place earlier today from the Uber Arena in Berlin, Germany. On the broadcast, they announced the attendance topped 12,000. The show includes the following:
*Women’s Championship – Street Fight: Nia Jax © vs. Michin
*Andrade vs. Carmelo Hayes
*Angel & Berto vs. Baron Corbin & Apollo Crews
*U.S. Championship: LA Knight vs. TBA
*Face-to-face between Cody Rhodes and Kevin Owens
**AEW Rampage airs at 10 p.m. ET on TNT with the following matches taped in Champaign, Illinois:
*Konosuke Takeshita vs. Beast Mortos vs. Lio Rush vs. Komander
*Nyla Rose vs. Aminah Belmont
*Grizzled Young Veterans vs. The Outrunners
*Mina Shirakawa vs. Missa Kate
*Private Party vs. Jay Lethal & Jeff Jarrett vs. Matt Taven & Mike Bennett
**WWE will hold its first pay-per-view/premium live event in Germany on Saturday following today’s taping of Friday Night SmackDown at the Uber Arena. The five-match show is highlighted by Gunther’s championship defense against Randy Orton with the champion appearing in his adopted home country (was born in Austria but spent the formative years of his career in Germany) and WWE hasn’t shied away from the belief Gunther will be embraced as a babyface. The Cody Rhodes and Kevin Owens match should be a strong match although the promotion of the match has been questionable with Owens not believing he deserved the title match. It feels like the match is more based on whether Owens will turn on Rhodes rather than him winning the title, and this could be the first of a multi-match program. Like many of the international shows, the audience will be a major part of the show and should be a red-hot audience to amplify the matches.
Here is the lineup with the Countdown to Bash in Berlin streaming at 11 a.m. ET on Saturday and the main show airs at 1 p.m. on the WWE Network/Peacock:
*World Heavyweight Championship: Gunther © vs. Randy Orton
*Undisputed WWE Universal Championship: Cody Rhodes © vs. Kevin Owens
*Strap Match: CM Punk vs. Drew McIntyre
*Mixed Tag: Liv Morgan & Dominik Mysterio vs. Damian Priest & Rhea Ripley
*Women’s Tag Team Titles: Isla Dawn & Alba Fyre © vs. Jade Cargill & Bianca Belair
**WWE will host back-to-back shows at the Ball Arena in Denver, Colorado with NXT No Mercy followed by Raw on Monday. No Mercy currently has six matches including five titles on the line. In Tuesday’s episode, Roxanne Perez confronted Jaida Parker during a sit-down interview segment. After the interview, there was a hint regarding a mystery figure off-camera, which could be revealed on this show or saved for television. Everyone knows Giulia and Stephanie Vaquer are coming to NXT, so those would be the candidates. It’s a big match for Parker, who has developed into a strong performer, but this is the biggest match of her short career. The show has Ethan Page vs. Joe Hendry for the NXT title with Trick Williams as the special referee, Perez vs. Parker for the Women’s title, Chase U vs. Nathan Frazer & Axiom for the tag titles, Oba Femi vs. Tony D’Angelo for the North American title, Kelani Jordan vs. Wendy Choo for the Women’s North American title, and Wes Lee vs. Zachary Wentz.
**Joe Hendry and Zachary Wentz are working tonight’s TNA Emergence show (and possibly the TV tapings on Saturday) and then going to Denver for No Mercy.
**The TNA Emergence card is promoted around a rare 60-minute Ironman match with Nic Nemeth defending the TNA title against Josh Alexander. After Alexander turned heel in the match at Slammiversary where Nemeth won the title, the two had a 30-minute draw on television to set up this rematch with the story that Alexander never lost the TNA title. Nemeth has quietly been having an engaging post-WWE career and while this isn’t the largest platform, the type of match they are doing will generate some curiosity if the word of mouth after tonight is strong among those who buy the show. It is a very cluttered night with TNA going head-to-head with SmackDown, New Japan, and Rampage. The show begins at 8 p.m. ET on TNA+:
*TNA Championship – 60-Minute Ironman Match: Nic Nemeth © vs. Josh Alexander
*X Division Championship – Ultimate X Match: Speedball Mike Bailey © vs. Hammerstone vs. Riley Osborne vs. Jason Hotch vs. Laredo Kid vs. Zachary Wentz
*Jordynne Grace, Dani Luna & Jody Threat vs. Alisha Edwards, Masha Slamovich & Ash by Elegance
*Moose, Brian Myers, Eddie Edwards & JFC vs. The Hardys, Joe Hendry & Mike Santana
*Steve Maclin vs. Eric Young
*Pre-Show: PCO vs. TBA
*Pre-Show: Frankie Kazarian vs. KUSHIDA
**Of all the matches this weekend, the one that could be the best of all is Sunday’s N-1 Victory final between Kaito Kiyomiya and Kenoh. The final of the tournament has the added stipulation that Kiyomiya is putting the GHC Championship on the line. The show will air Sunday morning from Edion Arena in Osaka and will stream on Wrestle Universe.
**GCW’s Live Fast, Die Young airs Saturday at 9 p.m. ET on TrillerTV+ from Thalia Hall in Chicago. Mance Warner will defend the GCW title against Gringo Loco, Mustafa Ali faces Sidney Akeem, Megan Bayne takes on Miyu Yamashita, Kylie Rae vs. Brooke Havok, Blake Christian vs. Zilla Fatu, John Wayne Murdoch vs. Ciclope, and a Violence is Forever defend the GCW tag titles against Effy & Dark Sheik.
**Speedball Mike Bailey and Miyu Yamashita are the latest talent announcements for Maple Leaf Pro Wrestling’s set of shows this October. Bailey and Yamashita will be appearing at the October 19 & 20 events at St. Clair College in Windsor, Ontario, which will stream on Triller TV.
**The TKO stock price closed at $118.23 on Friday.
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ASK-A-WAI: Ask Us Anything! (August 2024)
John Pollock and Wai Ting answer their patrons’ questions about anything and everything in the August 2024 edition of Ask-A-Wai.
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REWIND-A-DYNAMITE
John Pollock and Wai Ting review AEW Dynamite after All In with Bryan Danielson revealing his plans as champion, the in-ring debut of Ricochet, and the return of Jon Moxley.
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POLLOCK & THURSTON
John Pollock and Brandon Thurston discuss all the news following AEW’s return to Wembley Stadium for All In London.
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upNXT
Braden Herrington and Davie Portman review WWE NXT from August 27th, 2024 featuring a face-to-face between Wes Lee and Zachary Wentz!
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REWIND-A-RAW
John Pollock and Wai Ting discuss the career of Sid Eudy and review WWE Raw with Uncle Howdy’s in-ring debut against Chad Gable.
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AEW All In London 2024
John Pollock and Wai Ting review AEW All In 2024 from Wembley Stadium featuring Swerve Strickland vs. Bryan Danielson in a Title vs. Career match.
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