POST IT NOTES
**Rewind-A-SmackDown airs tonight at 10:05 p.m. ET with Wai Ting & Neal Flanagan covering the season premiere of Friday Night SmackDown on the USA Network. They will be taking calls and going through the day’s news on the POST Wrestling Café tonight.
**The Cubs Fan from Luchablog will have a CMLL 91st Anniversary report coming to the site on Saturday.
**Jack Wannan will have coverage of UFC 306 throughout the show on Saturday. The two of us also have a preview of the card and the novelty of running a show at The Sphere, which is available to all members of the POST Wrestling Café today (including those on the free tier).
**Eric Marcotte and I will have a UFC 306 review this Sunday at 11 a.m. ET and we will be joined by a friend of the site Robert Pearson, who is attending the show at the Sphere in Las Vegas.
POST SCHEDULE
Tonight: Rewind-A-SmackDown with Wai Ting & Neal Flanagan (POST Wrestling Café)
Saturday: Collision Course with John Siino & Kate from Montreal (POST Wrestling Café)
Sunday: UFC 306 with John Pollock & Eric Marcotte
Sunday: The N.W.A. Podcast
WRESTLING NEWS
**Friday Night SmackDown kicks off its new era on the USA Network tonight from the Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle, Washington. It is a return to the network where SmackDown aired from 2016 until leaving for Fox in 2019. Staying on Friday nights would theoretically enhance WWE’s move toward more international destinations for large site fees using SmackDown as a vehicle to piggyback off a PLE in the location such as they did in Saudi Arabia this past May (and with Raw when they returned to the country in November). It is a pivotal time in cable’s history as homes continue to diminish and USA Network is down to 67,549,000 as of June. Broadcast has become more of a premium because of its reach in a declining cable universe while streaming is seen as the long-term growth option. The positive is that SmackDown is receiving a nearly 40% average annual increase in USA as the cable property aims to offset cable cutters and WWE is the network’s most valuable property. In five years, when SmackDown’s deal is up, we have no clue what the environment will be and whether there is a floor for cable homes. The calculus between SmackDown’s price is different between Fox and USA. For Fox, they could not sell enough commercial inventory to justify the $205 million average annual price while noting that SmackDown wasn’t enough of a factor to affect carriage fees despite often being the #1 program on Friday nights. For USA, they are paying that much more for SmackDown but banking on wrestling fans keeping cable/USA due to SmackDown rather than going exclusively to streaming. It’s a near guarantee that the 67 million homes subscribing to USA will continue to shrink but the hope is it is mitigated by SmackDown replacing Raw & NXT as its WWE content on the network.
The season premiere of the show has more than 13,200 tickets distributed, according to WrestleTix. The show will begin with a steel cage match between Cody Rhodes and Solo Sikoa in a SummerSlam rematch for the Undisputed WWE Championship. The other announced matches are A-Town Down Under vs. Kevin Owens & TBA, and the latest match between Andrade and Carmelo Hayes.
**The major show of the weekend is the 91st Anniversary card CMLL, the oldest promotion in the world and experiencing a boom throughout 2024. Arena Mexico is the traditional site and typically this is one of the best atmospheres for any show all year and should be no exception tonight. The ability to watch the show is available on CMLL’s YouTube subscription site at its top tier for $35 U.S. per month. CMLL has opted to place Chris Jericho and Místico in the main event slot ahead of the four-way mask match with conventional thinking that Jericho and Místico are pulling the greater number of new fans. This will be the sixth-anniversary card where Místico has been in the main event beginning in 2006 when first broke out as a major star. His last headlining appearance on the anniversary show was in 2020 (without fans due to the pandemic) teaming with Mistico II (now Dralistico) against Rey Cometa & Espíritu Negro. Jericho wrestled for CMLL as Corazon de Leon from 1993-95 and was the first company where he became a top star, yet never wrestled on an anniversary card during those years.
Below is the lineup with the card airing at 10:30 p.m. ET tonight:
*Chris Jericho vs. Místico
*Mask vs. Mask: Hechicero vs. Esfinge vs. Euforia vs. Valiente
*Volador Jr., Atlantis Jr. & Último Guerrero vs. Orange Cassidy, Rocky Romero & Satoshi Kojima
*Copa Independencia – Final: Máscara Dorada vs. Titán
*CMLL World Women’s Championship: Willow Nightingale © vs. Zeuxis
*Templario, Neón & Star Jr. vs. Soberano Jr., Ángel de Oro & Niebla Roja
*Magnus, Rugido & Magia Blanca vs. Hombre Bala Jr., Futuro & Max Star
**TNA will be holding shows in San Antonio, Texas this weekend beginning with tonight’s Victory Road special on TNA+ from the Boeing Center. It is their last special before Bound for Glory on October 26 with television tapings set for Saturday in the same location. After losing the TNA Championship at Slammiversary without being pinned, Moose gets his rematch against Nic Nemeth in the main event. There is minimal NXT involvement as Wendy Choo is the only performer advertised tonight as she faces Jordynne Grace for the Knockouts title in a storyline that seems so counter to the presentation you would want from Grace by doing the supernatural elements with Choo and Rosemary. One major stipulation is Jody Threat & Dani Luna promising to break up as a team if they cannot win the Knockouts tag titles from Tasha Steelz (replacing Alisha Edwards, who is not cleared) & Masha Slamovich. The Hardys beat Brian Myers & Eddie Edwards clean on Thursday’s episode and should set up a title match for The Hardys next month regardless of whoever comes out as champions tonight. TNA has announced that tonight’s show is sold out.
The countdown special airs at 7:30 p.m. ET with the main show at 8 p.m. on TNA+ and we will have coverage on the site from John Siino:
*TNA Heavyweight Championship: Nic Nemeth © vs. Moose
*Knockouts Championship: Jordynne Grace © vs. Wendy Choo
*X Division Championship: Zachary Wentz © vs. Speedball Mike Bailey
*TNA Tag Team Championships: ABC © vs. Brian Myers & Eddie Edwards
*Knockouts Tag Team Championship: Masha Slamovich & Tasha Steelz © vs. Dani Luna & Jody Threat
*Josh Alexander vs. Joe Hendry
*The Hardys vs. AJ Francis & KC Navarro
*PCO & Rhino vs. Matt Cardona & Steph De Lander
*Pre-Show: Steve Maclin & Eric Young vs. Jake Something & Hammerstone
*Pre-Show: KUSHIDA vs. Frankie Kazarian
**AEW Rampage airs at 10 p.m. ET on TNT with the following matches taped in Lexington, Kentucky:
*Orange Cassidy, Mark Briscoe & Kyle O’Reilly vs. Dark Order
*Konosuke Takeshita vs. Action Andretti
*Saraya & Harley Cameron vs. Allysin Kay & Marti Belle
*Roderick Strong vs. Beef
*Kamille vs. Robyn Renegade
**TNA producer Gail Kim revealed she ruptured a tendon in her biceps muscle but is foregoing surgery. Kim didn’t experience any immediate pain when it occurred and was told surgery was optional. She said that due to the recovery process, she is opting to go without surgery and is still able to work out daily. Kim had a retirement match in 2019 with Tessa Blanchard but came back for last September’s Impact #1000 episode.
**NJPW’s Road to Destruction tour is in Hokkaido on Saturday with a main event featuring a NEVER Openweight Six-Man title match as Hiroshi Tanahashi, Oleg Boltin & Toru Yano defend against EVIL, Yujiro & Dick Togo.
**Saturday’s episode of AEW Collision was taped on Thursday in Dayton, Ohio. The non-spoiler match listing features Jack Perry vs. Christopher Daniels, Beast Mortos & Premier Athletes vs. Mark Briscoe, Kyle O’Reilly & Hologram, Wheeler Yuta vs. Anthony Henry, Private Party & Komander in action, Bang Bang Gang vs. Cage of Agony, Serena Deeb vs. Yuka Sakazaki, Queen Aminata vs. Robyn Renegade, and FTR vs. GYV.
**MLW Fightland streams on YouTube this Saturday at 9 p.m. ET with Satoshi Kojima vs. Mads Krule Krugger for the MLW World Heavyweight title, CW & Brock Anderson vs. Alex Kane & Mr. Thomas, Donovan Dijak vs. Timothy Thatcher, Okumura vs. Adam Priest, and Matthew Justice vs. Ikuro Kwon. Plus, the semi-finals and final of the Opera Cup with Mistico vs. Bad Dude Tito and KENTA vs. TJP in the final four.
**GCW Bad One airs on Saturday at 8 p.m. ET on TrillerTV+ featuring Mance Warner vs. Danhausen for the GCW title.
**There is a great fan-created video hyping up Bryan Danielson vs. Nigel McGuinness.
MMA NEWS
**We might never see an MMA event presented at the scale of Noche UFC ever again. The most ambitious live event that UFC has presented (or at least on par with securing Yas Island during the pandemic) will take place at the Sphere in Las Vegas this Saturday. The $2.3 billion structure is considered the future for live entertainment and without a parallel for those who have been in person for concerts and shows. No sporting event has ever taken place in its short history and follows performances by U2, Phish, Dead & Company, and the NHL Draft. Dana White has cited production costs of $20 million making it easily the most expensive in UFC’s history but is also expected to set its all-time gate record, which is currently held by UFC 205 at Madison Square Garden at $17.7 million set by Conor McGregor and Eddie Alvarez in 2016. A lot has been made about the ticket pricing and the demand but the result is going to be a live gate that few events in combat sports history have achieved.
While the margins are thin between the costs and the live gate, UFC is also receiving a giant (undisclosed) sponsorship fee from Riyadh Season and giving up the title rights for the first time. That is coupled with the traditional pay-per-view licensing fee from ESPN+ and its sponsorship, which should be notable for this scale of a show. A lot has been made about the competition that night in Las Vegas as Canelo Alvarez will be fighting Edgar Berlanga at the MGM Grand Garden Arena. It is not a significant fight for Canelo but it’s still Canelo fighting on Mexican Independence Day weekend.
It is one of the few UFC events where the venue and production are as much of a draw as any fights on the card. Will the live in-person experience be replicated on pay-per-view? The curiosity of that question seems high and in a post-PRIDE industry where the look and feel of most UFC events blend, this is a breath of fresh air.
TKO executives including Dana White himself have repeatedly stated that this is, “One and done” and not to expect an annual tradition. The success of this show will dictate that as I don’t doubt it’s going to be a huge spectacle, but it comes at a huge cost for a company that likes profit margins and keeping costs at a conservative level while maximizing revenue.
The top three fights are very strong led by Sean O’Malley, who has broken out as a major star, defending the bantamweight championship against phenom Merab Dvalishvili. The latter has a ten-fight winning streak while demonstrating unlimited cardio as a takedown machine with a relentless pace. However, Dvalishvili has only gone five rounds once in his career when he beat Petr Yan last year. O’Malley burst onto the scene as the first highlight generated from season one of Dana White’s Contender Series seven years ago and ascended into top competition over the past two years. He was considered in over his head when he fought Petr Yan two years ago and won an exceptionally narrow split decision (on MMA Decisions, all but one media member scored the fight for Yan). It was enough to earn a title fight and looked impressive stopping Aljamain Sterling by TKO and followed with a title defense against Marlon Vera where he went the full five rounds and dominated the bout avenging his only loss. O’Malley is a precision striker and isn’t afraid to be taken down and it’s a given Dvalishvili will take him down, it’s a question of how O’Malley defends and gets back up. Despite his impressive resume, Dvalishvili doesn’t have a high finish rate in the UFC with only one among his twelve fights.
The third fight between Alexa Grasso and Valentina Shevchenko follows a season of The Ultimate Fighter where they coached. Grasso pulled off one of the largest upsets in recent memory when she submitted Shevchenko in March 2023. Grasso was losing the fight when Shevchenko made an error going for a spin kick and Grasso capitalized to take her back and apply a face crank to end Shevchenko’s incredible run as champion. Their rematch headlined last year’s Noche event and was an excellent fight, in which I scored 48-47 for Grasso and came down to the scoring of round one. One judge scored the fight 47-47 and gave Grasso a 10-8 round in the fifth, which I didn’t see as plausible, and if not for that 10-8, Shevchenko would have regained the title.
The third fight of note is the featherweight bout between Brian Ortega and Diego Lopes. This was scheduled for UFC 303, but Ortega withdrew due to illness on the day of the fight. It led to a wild change as Dan Ige took the fight on several hours’ notice and lost by decision to Lopes. Ortega was dominated by Max Holloway in their December 2018 title fight which led to Ortega taking nearly two years off but looked excellent in his return beating Chan-sung Jung. He earned another title fight, losing to Alexander Volkanovski over five rounds, and then suffered a shoulder injury in the opening round of his fight with Yair Rodriguez in July 2022 and was out until this past February, when he submitted Rodriguez. Lopes has been an exciting fighter to watch and has won four in a row but this is a major step up and is an indication of where Lopes will stand in the featherweight mix and if he is championship-ready.
Below is the full lineup and we will have coverage on Saturday from Jack Wannan and a review on Sunday at 11 a.m. ET with Eric Marcotte joining me to chat about the show.
MAIN CARD (10 p.m. ET on pay-per-view)
*UFC Bantamweight Championship: Sean O’Malley (18-1, NC) vs. Merab Dvalishvili (17-4)
*UFC Flyweight Championship: Alexa Grasso (16-3-1) vs. Valentina Shevchenko (23-4-1)
*Brian Ortega (16-3, 1 NC) vs. Diego Lopes (25-6)
*Daniel Zellhuber (15-1) vs. Esteban Ribovics (13-1)
*Ronaldo Rodriguez (16-2) vs. Ode Osbourne (12-7, 1 NC)
PRELIMINARY CARD (8 p.m. on ESPNews & ESPN+)
*Irene Aldana (15-7) vs. Norma Dumont (11-2)
*Ignacio Bahamondes (15-5) vs. Manuel Torres (15-2)
*Kelten Souza (14-4) vs. Yazmin Jauregui (11-1)
*Édgar Cháirez (11-5) vs. Joshua Van (10-2)
EARLY PRELIMS (7:30 p.m. on ESPN+ & Fight Pass)
*Raul Rosas Jr. (9-1) vs. Aoriqileng (25-11, 1 NC)
**Earlier this week, the UFC hosted a panel discussion led by its Chief Content Officer Craig Borsari on the production of Noche UFC at the Sphere. Jack Wannan has a story at the Knockdown News on the panel chat and the construction of this ambitious idea.
**UFC 306 Embedded: Episode 4.
***
POLLOCK’S AUDIO: Noche UFC Preview
John Pollock is joined by Jack Wannan to preview Noche UFC at the Sphere this weekend in Las Vegas, Nevada.
***
POLLOCK & TING: TALK
In this edition of TALK, John Pollock & Wai Ting drink coffee in the Pollock backyard as they discuss their latest adventures in parenthood, the types of people they were in high school, and the 2024 United States presidential election.
***
REWIND-A-DYNAMITE
John Pollock and Wai Ting review AEW Dynamite as Jon Moxley explains his All Out attack on Bryan Danielson and challenges Darby Allin for his title opportunity.
***
POLLOCK & THURSTON
John Pollock and Brandon Thurston react to the news of WWE moving Raw to a two-hour format in October.
***
MCU H8R: Madame Web
The MCU H8R experiment concludes (for now) as Rich Fann & WH Park drag Wai Ting in to review the 2024 cinematic happening, Madame Web!
***
Subscribe to POST Wrestling
https://postwrestling.com/subscribe
POST Wrestling Forum
https://forum.postwrestling.com
Support our Patreon – The POST Wrestling Café
http://www.patreon.com/POSTwrestling
