TODAY’S NEWS STORIES
**Conor McGregor was found civilly liable for sexual assault in Dublin court on Friday. The jury rendered their verdict after the two-week trial with McGregor required to pay damages of approximately $258,000 U.S. to plaintiff Nikita Hand. Because this was a civil trial, the jury had to determine their outcome based on the preponderance of evidence rather than “beyond a reasonable doubt”, which is the threshold a criminal case would have to meet. The UFC has yet to comment on the verdict, but this will be a massive stain on the reputation of McGregor, who has had many allegations over the years but nothing to this extent where a jury of his peers ruled and found him liable for sexual assault. This was a major story in Dublin over the past two weeks, but it had scant coverage worldwide, although now that the verdict has been rendered, I would anticipate more attention on a worldwide level due to McGregor’s star. As recently as this past Saturday, Dana White had said McGregor would fight in late 2025, and while that sounds preposterous after today’s news, we are living in a time where the public is more forgiving than ever when it comes to athletes, entertainers, and politicians where instances of abuse can be overlooked. We will discuss this outcome later tonight on Rewind-A-SmackDown.
McGregor issued a statement on X that he will appeal the decision:
I will be appealing today’s decision. The judge’s instruction and the modest award given was for assault, not for aggravated or exemplary damages. I am disappointed that the jury did not hear all the evidence that the DPP reviewed. I am with my family now, focused on my future. Thank you to all my support worldwide
**The selection of Linda McMahon to serve as Education secretary in the forthcoming Trump administration has cast further light on McMahon’s history and link to the Ring Boy lawsuit where she is a named defendant.
Trump announced that the former head of the Small Business Administration would serve in the education role pending congressional approval. McMahon served in Trump’s first administration before leaving amicably in 2019 launching the America First Policy Institute and being a major donor for the incoming president.
The primary focus of these selections has been reserved for the most extreme picks with Matt Gaetz receiving the most scrutiny as the potential attorney general. Gaetz has removed himself from the running and replaced by new nominee Pam Bondi. By the standards of Gaetz, McMahon is a rational choice among a sea of five-alarm fires, but she is not without scrutiny and scandal.
First, was the lack of education experience McMahon possesses and a 2010 story resurfacing where it was discovered that McMahon had misled the public about having a bachelor’s degree in education when it was in fact, a degree in French (a common mix up among scholars).
Second, is the several-week delay in mainstream outlets realizing she is a defendant in the lawsuit filed by five “John Does”, who allege that Vince & Linda McMahon had knowledge of sexual abuse they suffered while working as ring boys for the WWF and they opted to ignore. It forced Linda McMahon’s representative, lawyer Laura Brevetti, to address the lawsuit and called it, “baseless” and “filled with scurrilous lies, exaggerations, and misrepresentations” without offering specific examples. Should the case move forward, the argument is not about the abuse occurring or not occurring, but rather, what Vince and Linda McMahon knew. It becomes very difficult to prove when so many key parties are not live but the consistent issue that feels like the determining factor is the circumstances behind Mel Phillips’ firing in 1988 and subsequent rehiring, which is information Vince McMahon offered up in separate phone calls to Phil Mushnick and Dave Meltzer in 1992.
Also offered by Brevetti was the worst kept secret, that Vince & Linda McMahon are separated and allowing that headline to receive as much, if not more, oxygen than the Ring Boy lawsuit.
Linda has been able to obfuscate her ties to Vince McMahon throughout the public scandals since June 2022 and has barely been asked about him until now. A federal investigation into Vince McMahon has been ongoing with a stay imposed on the civil suit filed by Janel Grant with the pause on that case expiring on December 11.
It is hard to imagine that if any Trump selections are rejected, McMahon would be among them. There are plenty of reasons for political opponents to strike down her nomination but we’re in an era where lack of education experience is not enough of a deterrent to handle the education system and being accused of turning a blind eye to child sex abuse is not automatically disqualifying.
**Netflix has reached out to various international subscribers of the WWE Network, confirming that the service will be shutting down (in the industry, they prefer to call this “sunsetting”) effective January 1 with those territories being directed to Netflix. The immediate concern is, “What about Mid-South Wrestling?”
The language being used in its notifications is that “Select programming and historic PLEs from the archive” will be available on Netflix to accompany the live programming.
The WWE library is the most robust of any wrestling content owners, well more than 100,000 hours and only a fraction making it onto the network over the past decade. It is understood that the archived content from territorial wrestling is not widely viewed. It is watched by a passionate fanbase and anytime you are paying for a service and receiving less it will create friction in the short term. It remains to be seen how much the international versions of the WWE Network are mirrored on Netflix.
The other issue will be the content itself and whether we will undergo another period of analyzing past angles and material that doesn’t cross the threshold of proper taste in 2025. This was an issue when Peacock licensed the WWE Network in 2021 and there was a lot of focus on the problematic content in WWE’s library. I’m a strong believer in leaving everything as is because it reflects what the company felt was suitable for the era – whether right or wrong – it gives us a proper context to view and discuss these angles rather than sanitize its history. But a streamer and/or WWE isn’t thinking like that and it’s much easier to omit shows and content that a very small percentage are viewing.
**Tony Khan Media Day occurred on Thursday as he took questions for an hour to promote Full Gear. Khan was vague regarding the future of Rampage, although noted it’s not part of the new WBD deal, which only listed Dynamite & Collision along with the Max component. Khan stated there were active negotiations for AEW & ROH programming and cited various international options to keep the door slightly ajar for Rampage’s future. In AEW’s schedule release this past week, no listed Rampage tapings were piggybacking off Dynamite. He said that “thousands of tickets” have been sold for Grand Slam next February in Brisbane, Australia when the promotion makes its debut in the country. He acknowledged the issues of airing the show as a pay-per-view due to the time zone problems with the broadcast rollout unknown. When asked about Max being able to provide access to live pay-per-views, it sounded like that’s a longer wait as Max doesn’t have the capabilities yet and the interim will see AEW relying on third-party hosting services including Triller, PPV dot com, and YouTube for streaming of its major shows. There was a subtle acknowledgment by Khan of the less lively crowds on television and opting to run some more compact venues. It’s been a major deterrent to the on-screen product when they are drawing less than 3,000 people in larger buildings and the crowd engagement is low.
**Emmy Award winner Paul Walter Hauser will be part of AEW’s Zero Hour broadcast before Full Gear on Saturday with Renee Paquette, Jeff Jarrett & RJ City.
**Freedom Ramsey of City Championship Wrestling has received a WWE ID deal. POST Wrestling has an ongoing catalog of all the ID performers & schools.
**The Countdown to AEW Full Gear airs at 11 p.m. ET tonight after Rampage on TNT.
LINEUPS
Friday Night SmackDown (Double taping for Nov. 22 & Nov. 29)
Location: Salt Lake City, Utah at the Delta Center
Time: 8 p.m. ET on USA Network
Matches:
*Women’s U.S. Title Tournament: Chelsea Green vs. Blair Davenport vs. Bianca Belair
*Face-to-face between Cody Rhodes and Kevin Owens
CMLL
Location: Arena Mexico
Time: 9:30 p.m. ET on YouTube (subscription required)
Matches:
*Leyenda de Azul – Semi-Final: Místico vs. Ángel de Oro vs. Soberano Jr. vs. Star Black vs. Gran Guerrero vs. Blue Panther vs. Euforia vs. Hechicero vs. Soberano Jr. vs. Esfinge
*Dragón Rojo Jr., Volador Jr. & Templario vs. Bárbaro Cavernario, Stuka Jr. & Terrible
*Tessa Blanchard vs. Persephone
*Capitán Suicida, Max Star & Futuro vs. Dark Magic, Raider & Espanto Jr.
* Pequeño Olímpico, Pequeño Violencia & Pierrothito vs. Full Metal, Pequeño Polvora & Rostro De Acero
AEW Rampage (Taped Nov. 20)
Location: Reading, Pennsylvania at The Santander Arena
Matches/Segments:
*Mark Briscoe, Tomohiro Ishii & Rocky Romero vs. John Silver, Alex Reynolds & Evil Uno
*Mariah May & Mina Shirakawa vs. Nyla Rose & Harley Cameron
*Juice Robinson vs. The Butcher
*Weigh-in between QT Marshall and Big Justice
NJPW World Tag League – Day 4
Date: Saturday, November 23
Location: Fujisawa, Kanagawa
Time: 4 a.m. ET on New Japan World
Matches:
*BLOCK B: Tetsuya Naito & Hiromu Takahashi (1-0) vs. Oleg Boltin & Toru Yano (0-1)
*BLOCK B: HENARE & Great O-Khan (0-1) vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi & Jado (0-1)
*BLOCK B: EVIL & Ren Narita (1-0) vs. Taichi & Taka Michinoku (1-0)
*BLOCK B: Shane Haste & Mikey Nicholls (0-1) vs. The Natural Classics (1-0)
*Shingo Takagi, Yota Tsuji & BUSHI vs. Gabe Kidd, SANADA & Gedo
*Jeff Cobb, Callum Newman & Jakob Austin Young vs. KENTA, Taiji Ishimori & Chase Owens
*Zack Sabre Jr., Kosei Fujita & Ryohei Oiwa vs. Alex Zayne, Katsuya Murashima & TBA
*Hirooki Goto, YOSHI-HASHI & Shoma Kato vs. Shota Umino, Tomoaki Honma & Tiger Mask
*Daiki Nagai vs. Masatora Yasuda
UFC Fight Night
Date: Saturday, November 23
Location: Macau, China
Time: 3 a.m. ET on ESPN+ and Fight Pass
Fights:
*Bantamweight: Petr Yan (17-5) vs. Deiveson Figueiredo (24-3-1)
*Strawweight: Xiaonan Yan (18-4) vs. Tabatha Ricci (11-2)
*Welterweight: Muslim Salikhov (20-5) vs. Kenan Song (22-8)
*Flyweight: Cong Wang (6-0) vs. Gabriella Fernandes (9-3)
*Light Heavyweight: Volkan Oezdemir (20-7) vs. Carlos Ulberg (10-1)
*Light Heavyweight: Ozzy Diaz (9-2) vs. Mingyang Zhang (17-6)
*Road to UFC – Bantamweight Final: Su Young You (13-3) vs. Balgyn Jenisuly (19-5)
*Road to UFC – Flyweight Final: Dong Hoon Choi (8-0) vs. Kiru Sahota (12-2)
*Road to UFC – Strawweight Final: Ming Shi (16-5) vs. Xiaocan Feng (10-2)
*Flyweight: Carlos Hernandez (9-4) vs. N. Tumendemberel (8-0)
*Flyweight: Jose Ochoa (7-0) vs. Lone’er Kavanagh (7-0)
*Bantamweight: Quang Le (8-1) vs. Long Xiao (26-9)
*Lightweight: Maheshate Hayisaer (10-3) vs. Nikolas Motta (14-5)
GCW Dream On
Date: Saturday, November 23
Location: East Rutherford, New Jersey
Time: 2 p.m. ET on TrillerTV+
Matches:
*GCW World Championship: Mance Warner © vs. Effy
*GCW Tag Titles: Violence is Forever © vs. Joey Janela & Megan Bayne
*Matt Cardona vs. 1 Called Manders
*Sidney Akeem vs. Speedball Mike Bailey
*Ricky Morton vs. Little Guido
*Alec Price & Cole Radrick vs. Arez & Gringo Loco
*Tony Deppen vs. Marcus Mathers
*Masha Slamovich vs. Santana Jackson
AEW Full Gear
Date: Saturday, November 23
Location: Newark, New Jersey at Prudential Center
Time: 8 p.m. ET
Matches:
*AEW Championship: Jon Moxley © vs. Orange Cassidy
*AEW International Championship: Konosuke Takeshita © vs. Ricochet
*TNT Championship: Jack Perry © vs. Daniel Garcia
*AEW Tag Team Titles: Private Party © vs. Malakai Black & Brody King vs. The Outrunners vs. The Acclaimed
*TBS Championship: Mercedes Moné © vs. Kris Statlander
*Will Ospreay vs. Kyle Fletcher
*MJF vs. Roderick Strong
*Swerve Strickland vs. Bobby Lashley
*Jay White vs. Hangman Page
*QT Marshall vs. “Big Boom” A.J. (pre-show)
NJPW World Tag League – Day 5
Date: Saturday, November 24
Location: Korakuen Hall
Time: 4 a.m. ET on New Japan World
Matches:
*A BLOCK: Shingo Takagi & Yota Tsuji (1-0) vs. Gabe Kidd & SANADA (0-1)
*A BLOCK: Hirooki Goto & YOSHI-HASHI (1-0) vs. Shota Umino & Tomoaki Honma (0-1)
*A BLOCK: Zack Sabre Jr. & Ryohei Oiwa (1-0) vs. Alex Zayne & Ryusuke Taguchi (0-1)
*A BLOCK: Jeff Cobb & Callum Newman (1-0) vs. KENTA & Chase Owens (1-0)
*Mikey Nicholls, Shane Haste & Kosei Fujita vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi, Jado & Katsuya Murashima
*Tetsuya Naito, Hiromu Takahashi & BUSHI vs. Taichi, Taka Michinoku & DOUKI
*Ren Narita, EVIL & Dick Togo vs. HENARE, Great O-Khan & Jakob Austin Young
*Taiji Ishimori & The Natural Classics vs. Oleg Boltin, Toru Yano & Tiger Mask
*Shoma Kato vs. Daiki Nagai
Josh Barnett’s Bloodsport XII
Date: Sunday, November 24
Location: Jersey City, New Jersey
Time: 7 p.m. ET on TrillerTV+
Matches:
*Josh Barnett vs. MVP
*Masha Slamovich vs. Lei Ying Lee
*Dominic Garrini vs. Kevin Ku
*Charlie Dempsey vs. AKIRA
*Josh Alexander vs. Speedball Mike Bailey
*Karmen Petrovic vs. Sumie Sakai
*Marina Shafir vs. Jody Threat
*Myles Borne vs. Royce Isaacs
*Calvin Tankman vs. Lou Nixon
*Matt Makowski vs. Davit Modzmanashvili
WORTH CHECKING OUT
**Dana White spoke with SBJ about the UFC’s domestic rights and the potential of splitting them up in the next cycle:
I think as we go into our negotiations in 2025, this thing could play out in a lot of different ways. Obviously we could be with Disney and ESPN for however many years or you could see all our content get chopped up like WWE and NFL does and different products going to different networks. I don’t know how that’s going to play out as we get closer to getting into these negotiations, but it is a possibility.
**Dana White to The New Yorker after Donald Trump’s re-election:
“I’m never f–king doing this again. I want nothing to do with this s–t. It’s gross. It’s disgusting. I want nothing to do with politics.”
**Brett Lauderdale appeared on The Business of The Business Podcast and spoke about AEW opting to run three consecutive nights at the Hammerstein Ballroom one month before GCW’s return to the venue:
I don’t know Tony Khan personally and I don’t know enough of their people well enough to know or to speculate that they would particularly do something like that just to hurt us. Without that being said, the traditional etiquette would be, there is a window where you don’t go to the same buildings. Should that window exist? You can call it an unwritten rule, or in many cases it’s a written rule. I’m sure when AEW goes to venues, they probably have a rule written in that no other wrestling show can go there within 30 days or 60 days. It’s a pretty standard practice in the wrestling business and a lot of entertainment industries, both written and unwritten. Do I think they literally set out to look for a way to hurt GCW? I’m not ready to go that far with it. Do I think that maybe it wasn’t the most polite thing to do? Maybe. They are a billionaire company with endless resources and they run multiple television shows every week so they could run an event there anytime they wanted. They don’t have to do it in December or January. They can do it in February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September. They could do it every month if they wanted to, but they chose to do it in late December, which is less than 30 days before we are there. It’s not the greatest of circumstances for us. (Transcription courtesy: Jeremy Lambert at Fightful)
**Lyric Swinton has an article on Sandy Parker, who died in June 2022, but the news only came to light recently. Swinton also found a September 1975 article in the Eugene-Register Guard profiling Parker and one of her regular opponents, Jean Antone with comments from both in the piece.
**Saraya noted she is taking a “little break” from AEW and shared that she will be co-hosting a series called ‘Catfish’.
UPCOMING SHOWS
Tonight: Rewind-A-SmackDown
Hosts: John Pollock & Wai Ting
Where: POST Wrestling Café
Saturday: AEW Full Gear review
Hosts: John Pollock & Wai Ting
Where: POST Wrestling on YouTube (Free)
RECENT SHOWS
ASK-A-WAI: Ask Us Anything! (November 2024)
John Pollock and Wai Ting answer their patrons’ questions about anything and everything in the final Ask-A-Wai of 2024.
REWIND-A-DYNAMTE
John Pollock and Wai Ting review AEW Dynamite with an All-Star 8-man tag match leading into Full Gear.
POLLOCK & THURSTON
John Pollock and Brandon Thurston discuss Linda McMahon’s role in Trump’s administration, Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson & AEW’s third-quarter performance.
upNXT
Braden Herrington and Davie Portman review WWE NXT featuring Andre Chase vs Ridge Holland where if Chase loses, Chase U must disband.
THE WELLNESS POLICY
What are you listening to? On this month’s Wellness Policy, Jordan Goodman, Neal Flanagan & Wai Ting return for their annual music episode.
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
Follow us
Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | YouTube | Bluesky
