POST IT NOTES
**There is no Rewind-A-Raw tonight and in its place, is the Best & Worst of 2024 Show with John Pollock, Wai Ting, Davie Portman & Braden Herrington available on the POST Wrestling Café. We will rewind the entire year and share our picks in the following categories as well as go through “Likely or Unlikely” for 2025.
1. BEST WRESTLER (Female)
2. BEST TAG TEAM
3. BEST WRESTLER (Male)
4. BEST FEUD
5. WORST FEUD
6. BEST NON-WRESTLING MEDIA
7. BEST ENTRANCE
8. MOST IMPROVED
9. BIGGEST SETBACK
10. BEST ON THE MIC
11. WORST ON THE MIC
12. BEST CHARACTER
13. WORST CHARACTER
14. BEST WEEKLY TV SHOW
15. BEST PPV
16. WORST PPV
17. BEST PROMOTION
18. WORST PROMOTION
19. MATCH OF THE YEAR
20. WORST MATCH OF THE YEAR
21. BIGGEST STORY OF THE YEAR
22. BEST MOMENT OF THE YEAR
**Wai Ting and I appeared on the #AskGRAPPL Year End Spectacular along with many other guests including several from POST Wrestling.
**I’m also on the Wrestle Stiffmas special along with many other guests focusing on New Japan Pro Wrestling in 2024.
FINAL RAW ON USA NETWORK
**The final Raw on the USA Network will air from the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas, and will be one of the largest episodes of the year with approximately 14,500 tickets distributed, according to WrestleTix.
While it’s the end of the Monday night institution on USA Network, SmackDown will continue as it expands to three hours per week this Friday. It’s a benefit to the network as it went from four weeks per week with Raw & NXT last year to three with SmackDown in 2024. The unknown is the financial impact of the third hour for WWE as the initial reporting for SmackDown was an average annual value of $287 million per year over the five-year pact. If that figure covers the third hour, it’s a deceptive increase from the $265 AAV Raw was generating and with escalators, it likely topped the new figure by year five not to mention the inflationary effect when comparing the figures.
Beginning next week, there are going to be eight hours of WWE programming between its three brands compared with four hours of AEW programming after the elimination of Rampage not including ROH on Honor Club.
Timing-wise, WWE is adding more programming when it’s hot and about to heat up further as its most engaging period of the year commences with the lead-up to WrestleMania coupled with John Cena’s return and year-long retirement run. There will be weeks where the “ask” of its audience is going to be incredibly high as it attempts to peak for events like the follow-up Saturday Night’s Main Event on January 25, which comes one day after a three-hour broadcast and one week before the Royal Rumble. It will be noticeable how WWE constructs its second SNME event after a rather average viewing audience for the December 14 special, which had a pay-per-view level main event and promotion for Cody Rhodes vs. Kevin Owens. If the argument is that fans get enough WWE programming in each week then that will only intensify with SmackDown’s additional hour and making SNME less of a priority unless they throw something exceptional on that NBC broadcast. The other side is that they are going to receive immense exposure on Netflix in the coming weeks likely accompanied by a major media push along with the Cena return.
Announced for tonight’s show, which goes against the Detroit Lions vs. San Francisco 49ers game:
*CM Punk and Seth Rollins to appear
*Intercontinental Tournament – Semi-Final: Dakota Kai vs. Zoey Stark
*Intercontinental Tournament – Semi-Final: Lyra Valkyria vs. IYO SKY
*Damian Priest & War Raiders vs. Finn Balor, Dominik Mysterio & JD McDonagh
*Chad Gable vs. Otis
*R-Truth vs. Pete Dunne
WWE HOLIDAY TOUR
**WWE has a live event at Little Caesars Arena in Detroit tonight to conclude its annual holiday tour. It’s the first time the Motor City Machine Guns are wrestling in Detroit since joining WWE and will include a steel cage match between Cody Rhodes and Kevin Owens. The show has approximately 9,300 tickets distributed. So, that means WWE is going to draw in the neighborhood of 25,000 tonight between both shows.
**Regarding this year’s WWE holiday tour, WrestleTix has been tracking the average attendance for this year’s tour compared with the year’s past. This year’s set of shows has averaged just over 8,800 per event led by the shows at Madison Square Garden and the Allstate Arena. This year’s attendance is up 65 percent from 2021 (which was when WWE was still fresh back to touring after the pandemic, although the period of the Omicron virus still impacting live events), and up 23.3 percent from 2022. However, this year’s attendance is 9 percent below the level of 2023 shows, which were led by bigger events at The Garden in New York and the Kia Forum in Inglewood (which they didn’t run this year).
**CM Punk shared a message on Instagram and stated that two of the shows (presumably New York and Chicago) did $1 million at the gate and that Houston is close:
New York, Pittsburgh, Baltimore, Chicago. Thank you to everyone who bought a ticket to see us. Chicago. What can I say? I love you with all my heart. Been over ten years since I was able to wrestle in what I will always call the Rosemont Horizon. It is my privilege. Two million dollar houses, on our way to a third in Houston. Proud of everyone on the crew who worked hard and made it all possible except little [Dominik] Mysterio who is a greasy twat.
BIG EVENTS IN JAPAN
**Abema TV is streaming the NOAH The New Year pay-per-view this Wednesday it’s restricted to certain regions. Outside of Japan, the only territories where you can purchase it are in the U.S., South Korea, Thailand & Philippines. POST Wrestling spoke with a representative from NOAH, who confirmed the geo-restrictions but stated that the event is expected to be added to Wrestle Universe at a later date. There will be coverage of the show from Karen Peterson this Wednesday.
**AJPW will hold its Carnival of Champions year-end show tonight at 11 p.m. ET on AJPW.tv at Yoyogi National Stadium #2 with the following matches:
*Triple Crown: Davey Boy Smith Jr. © vs. Jun Saito
*All Asia Tag Titles: Rising Hayato & Yuma Anzai © vs. Kento Miyahara & Ryo Inoue
*Yuma Aoyagi & Atsuki Aoyagi vs. Ryuki Honda & Ren Ayabe
*Rei Saito, Naruki Doi & Senor Saito vs. Hokuto Omori, Cyrus & Jack Kennedy
*Daisuke Sekimoto vs. Dan Tamura
*New Year’s Rumble – Announced: Suwama, Hideki Suzuki, Hikaru Sato, Shotaro Ashino, Kuma Arashi, Ultimo Dragon, Minoru Suzuki, Kuroshio TOKYO Japan, Hartley Jackson, Aizawa Number One & Kumagoro Hokkai
*MUSASHI, Seiki Yoshioka & Taishin Nagao vs. Fuminori Abe, Yuko Miyamoto & Seigo Tachibana
**STARDOM ended its year with the annual Dream Queendom event, which drew 4,023 to Nippon Budokan and aired as a pay-per-view. The highlights included Saya Kamitani winning the World of Stardom title from Tam Nakano in the main event and Starlight Kid becoming the Wonder of Stardom champion by defeating Natsupoi. So far, I have only seen the Wonder of Stardom match and it was off the charts and right at the level of Mercedes Mone and Kris Statlander from several hours earlier with some praising it among the best women’s bouts of the year. The broadcast included English commentary, and Walker Stewart was phenomenal on this show and it’s so apparent how hard this guy studies and knows the products he is calling inside and out. Again, I’ve only seen the one match, but he knew the story inside and out, all the moves, and it’s a major difference maker in this generation where English commentary is going to expand your reach for big events.
The promotion returns with its New Year Dream event on Friday and streams as a pay-per-view at 2 a.m. ET. A press conference was held earlier today to confirm the full lineup:
*Tam Nakano vs. Unagi Sayaka
*Saori Anou, Natsupoi & Sayaka Kurara vs. Dump Matsumoto, ZAP & Natsuko Tora
*Mayu Iwatani, Hazuki & Koguma vs. AZM, Miyu Amasaki & Mei Seira
*Maika & HANAKO vs. Chihiro Hashimoto & Yuu
*Sendai Girls World Jr. Championship: Chi Chi © vs. Aya Sakura
*Hanan & Manami vs. Ruaka & Rina
*High Speed Battle Royal: Saki Kashima vs. Yuna Mizumori vs. Waka Tsukiyama vs. Cohaku vs. Matoi Hamabe
*Mina Shirakawa & Tay Melo vs. Athena & Thekla
*ZONES & Soy vs. Hina & Ranna Yagami
*Nanami & Lady C vs. Saya Iida & Momo Kohgo
*Mizuki Kato & Yuma Makoto vs. Rian & Honoka
NEWS & NOTES
**The final episode of Friday Night SmackDown on Sportsnet 360 in Canada averaged 192,800 viewers and 87,200 in the 25-54 demographic. It ranked ninth for the night among sports programming. This Friday’s episode airs on the WWE YouTube channel in Canada and the January 10 episode will be the first SmackDown to stream on Netflix.
**A match between Orange Cassidy and Hangman Page has been added to Wednesday’s AEW Fight for the Fallen special in Asheville, North Carolina. It joins the Trios match with Jon Moxley, Claudio Castagnoli & Wheeler Yuta vs. Rated FTR, Jamie Hayter vs. Julia Hart, and Jeff Jarrett’s announcement.
**GCW’s New Year’s Eve card streams on TrillerTV+ on Tuesday at 8 p.m. ET at The Mecca in Ridgefield, New Jersey. The card features Joey Janela vs. Dr. Redacted, Dominic Garrini vs. Cole Radrick, Kevin Ku vs. Alec Price (a preview of their tag title match at The People vs. GCW), John Wayne Murdoch vs. Megan Bayne, and Homicide & Grim Reefer vs. Kerry Morton & Griffin McCoy.
**ZERO1 is returning in February under new management and includes Megumi Kudo and Masato Tanaka in roles with the new venture. The promotion, which launched in 2001 and was initially conceived as a sub-brand for NJPW and became its own standalone, was sold to Daiko Holding Group during the pandemic in 2020. The license is now under the auspices of Studio Backdrop Co, Ltd, and is starting fresh including a new blue-based logo. The new group has announced a return on February 9 at Shin-Kiba 1st Ring among its eleven announced shows for 2025 including its Fire Festival in June & July at Shinjuku Face.
**An eight-woman tag will be featured on this Thursday’s edition of Impact Wrestling, which is the debut episode on Sportsnet 360 in Canada. Knockouts Champion Masha Slamovich teams with Jordynne Grace, Dani Luna & Jody Threat against Rosemary, Tasha Steelz, and Ash & Heather by Elegance.
**MLW has added a match between Averno and Mascara Dorada for its beIN Sports taping on January 11 in North Richland Hills, Texas. The taping will occur the same night as its Kings of Colosseum event, which streams on YouTube that night.
**Check out the POST Wrestling Match Guide for all the major shows this week including where and when to watch them. This includes AJPW’s New Year’s Eve show, NOAH The New Year, Tokyo Dome events, and more.
