POST IT NOTES
**Friday’s Audio News Update is posted for all POST Wrestling Café members (including the free tier) with Jack Wannan joining me to discuss the preliminary approval by Judge Boulware in the Cung Le suit, PFL’s pay-per-view last weekend, a preview of UFC 308 and Jack’s experience attending Winnipeg Pro Wrestling’s big show on Thursday night.
**We have isolated the interview with Greg Gutzler from Thursday’s edition of Pollock & Thurston. Gutzler is the lawyer representing the five ex-WWF ring boys, who filed a civil suit on Wednesday against Vince & Linda McMahon and TKO/WWE. For those unfamiliar with Gutzler, he was the lawyer representing the survivors in the massive case against Canadian fashion mogul Peter Nygard, who was sentenced to eleven years in prison last month and is documented in the Evil by Design series available on Max in the U.S. and CBC Gem in Canada.
**Rewind-A-SmackDown is live at 10:05 p.m. ET tonight with John Pollock & Wai Ting on the POST Wrestling Café and we will be taking calls.
**There is a free edition of Collision Course on Saturday at 10:05 p.m. ET with Wai Ting joining Kate from Montreal to review the show from Cedar Rapids, Iowa. John Siino will be covering Bound for Glory on the site and will do a review with me on Sunday morning.
**POST Wrestling has released the free edition of the Queen of Villains review hosted by Karen Peterson and JP Houlihan from GRAPPL.
POST SCHEDULE
Tonight: Rewind-A-SmackDown with John Pollock & Wai Ting (POST Wrestling Café)
Saturday: Collision Course with Wai Ting & Kate from MTL (FREE)
Sunday: TNA Bound for Glory with John Pollock & John Siino (POST Wrestling Café)
Sunday: NXT Halloween Havoc with Davie Portman & Braden Herrington
Monday: Rewind-A-Raw
RING BOY LAWSUIT
This week was a significant one in terms of coming to grips with one of the most heinous scandals in pro wrestling’s history with the filing of the civil suit by the five ex-WWF ring boys. It’s an uncomfortable subject for many and puts into question the loyalty displayed for a company or industry that essentially turned a blind eye to these atrocities for years. The key figures involved are not alive including Mel Phillips who is at the forefront of this suit.
The suit is not seeking to question whether the abuse occurred but who knew about it and ultimately, proving Vince and Linda McMahon turned a blind eye to the abuse. That is the objective being set forth by the plaintiffs and it’s a very detailed complaint and a heavyweight law firm in DiCello Levitt behind it. For those unfamiliar with lawyer Greg Gutzler, he represented countless victims of Peter Nygard and comes with a significant reputation in the field.
Key to the case is establishing the circumstances behind Mel Phillps’ removal from the company in 1988 and subsequent re-hiring under the provision that he “steer clear of kids”. This information was shared by Vince McMahon during on-the-record calls with reporters Phil Mushnick and Dave Meltzer and reiterated by Mushnick in his sworn deposition after being sued by McMahon & WWF in 1993 for defamation. The case was ultimately settled where Mushnick and the New York Post admitted no wrongdoing and paid $0. Among the examples used that they were defamed, the McMahon suit never included the statement in Mushnick’s 1992 article about the on-the-record phone call and the circumstances surrounding Phillips’ firing and re-hiring.
WWE and TKO have yet to comment on the suit and it’s a question whether anyone will be asked in a public setting such as Paul Levesque’s next press conference, which would likely be on November 30 at the Survivor Series in Vancouver.
The 82-page complaint is a horrific series of descriptions of the abuses committed but also a necessary read to fully understand what is involved and what occurred. For most, pro wrestling is an escape mechanism, and for lifelong fans, a battle of maintaining the fictitious make-believe world they grew up in and not allowing these harmful scandals to ruin that façade. This is part of the industry’s DNA and one that has never fully been reckoned with. There are countless victims, and we will never know the true scope for myriad reasons. This week, hopefully, we are one step closer to really addressing these issues forcing people to confront this history and having sympathy for those directly impacted who have dealt with the effects of the abuses for decades.
For many trying to learn about the history of this complex story, I would recommend the following:
* Between the Sheets – A four-part series on Titangate (Free)
* Titangate to TKO with David Bixenspan
* San Diego Union-Tribute article by Jeff Savage
* Sex, Lies, and the WWF by Phil Mushnick
* Business Insider feature on the scandal by David Bixenspan
* Babyface v. Heel article on videotape involving Mel Phillips
* Now It Can Be Told with Geraldo Rivera
* Tom Cole Protest at WWF HQ
* History of the Ring Boy Scandal with John Pollock & David Bixenspan
* Tom Cole, at the center of the WWF’s ’90s scandal, passes away
WRESTLING NEWS
**Earlier this week, TKO Group Holdings announced plans to purchase the IMG agency, On Location, and the Professional Bull Riders from Endeavor for $3.25 billion in an all-stock transaction with plans to close the deal within the first six months of 2025. Ari Emanuel conveyed to investors that UFC & WWE would still dominate TKO’s balance sheet as it appeared Emanuel was bracing for stockholder reluctance to the purchase. He added that TKO expects to generate $30 million in “run-rate synergies” from the deal. The stock deal will see TKO move over 26 million shares for the three outfits as Endeavor increases its stake in TKO to 59% and shareholders with the remaining 41%. This was accompanied by the news of a $2 billion stock buyback program and launching dividend payments beginning with a $75 million payout. Sportico noted that in the SEC filing, EuroLeague Basketball is also being transferred under the TKO umbrella in the stock deal.
John Ourand at Puck wrote the following in his weekly newsletter about the transaction:
Guggenheim, for its part, kept its “buy” rating on TKO, but noted negative feedback on “governance, credibility and diluting what had been a pure-play sports story.” Meanwhile, the team over at LightShed wrote, “The challenge of the deal is TKO has benefitted from the simplicity and investors’ understanding of the growth trajectory. … These are assets investors don’t know well and don’t know how to forecast. Investors likely would rather have had the capital return with the original simplicity.”
The TKO stock was trading at the $126 mark before the announcement and has experienced pushback with the stock closing at $115.25 on Friday.
**Tickets for WrestleMania 41 went on sale on Friday with combo packages available at exorbitant prices. The two-night event at Allegiant Stadium next April should become the largest-grossing pro wrestling event of all time.
**GCW announced that The Collective series of shows will take place April 17-19 in Las Vegas at The Pearl Theatre at The Palms, which is the venue TNA has run several times in 2024.
**Jason Cruz at MMA Payout received a breakdown of AEW’s WrestleDream event at the Tacoma Dome in Washington through the state’s Department of Licensing. The event fee report lists 6,373 tickets sold ranging from $54.32 for the cheapest tickets up to $175.00. This led to a live gate figure of $456,513.85 with $33,893.88 in fees paid back to the state. There were also 724 comp tickets distributed resulting in an additional $130.05 in fees.
**Friday Night SmackDown is at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York tonight for a double taping (next week’s show is taped due to Crown Jewel in Saudi Arabia). WrestleTix reports that 10,811 tickets have been distributed as of Thursday. The following is advertised:
*#1 Contenders Match: DIY vs. Motor City Machine Guns
*Match #7: Carmelo Hayes vs. Andrade w/ guest referee LA Knight
*Face-to-face between Cody Rhodes and Gunther
**Fox will air Game 1 of the World Series between the New York Yankees and L.A. Dodgers tonight head-to-head against SmackDown on the USA Network. There are huge expectations for the audience of this year’s World Series given the two largest markets in the country being involved. Fox is going to have a blockbuster night as Game 1 is followed by the Rutgers vs. USC game (which will air after SmackDown) but Fox is going to dominate television. Game 3 of the World Series airs on Monday against Raw and Game 4 is played on Tuesday against NXT. If the series extends to five games, Game 5 airs on Wednesday against Dynamite.
**Damian Priest appeared in a promotional video for the New York Yankees heading into the first game of the World Series.
**CMLL is at Arena Mexico with the Women’s Grand Prix Torneo Cibernetico match headlining. The show includes a defense of the CMLL World Light Heavyweight title between champion Averno and Zandokan Jr and streams at 10:30 p.m. ET on its YouTube membership channel.
*Torneo Cibernetico: Team Mexico (Lluvia, Sanely, Reyna Isis, Kira, Hera, Amapola, Dark Silueta, Princesa Sugehit, Skadi & Zeuxis) vs. Team World (Willow Nightingale, Unagi Sayaka, Alex Windsor, La Catalina, Tessa Blanchard, Red Velvet, Samantha Black, Viva Van, Persephone & Sumika Yanagawa)
*CMLL World Light Heavyweight Championship: Averno © vs. Zandokan Jr.
*Mistico, Mascara Dorada & Templario vs. Barbaro Cavernario, Euforia & Soberano Jr.
*Magnus & Rugido vs. Angel de Oro & Niebla Roja
*Difunto vs. Dulce Gardenia
**The lineup for tonight’s edition of AEW Rampage will feature the following matches taped in Salt Lake City:
*Ricochet vs. Nick Wayne
*Beast Mortos vs. BEEF
*Anna Jay vs. Leila Grey
*Matt Taven & Mike Bennett vs. Gates of Agony vs. Shane Taylor & Lee Moriarty
**Saturday’s episode of AEW Collision is a live show from Cedar Rapids, Iowa with Ricochet vs. Lio Rush, FTR vs. Rush & Dralistico, and Penelope Ford vs. Robyn Renegade announced.
**TNA’s marquee event on the calendar goes down on Saturday with the 20th edition of Bound for Glory. The show airs from the Wayne State Fieldhouse in Detroit and streaming on TrillerTV. It’s a big show as TNA continues to ride an upswing from the effects of the NXT crossover, although this show has minimal involvement of NXT talent. However, talent like Joe Hendry and Jordynne Grace have greatly benefited from the past months of crossovers and both are in top matches, The Hardys in their signature match, and Speedball Mike Bailey and El Hijo del Vikingo could be one of the best matches in TNA history with the bar raised high.
*TNA World Championship: Nic Nemeth © vs. Joe Hendry w/ Frankie Kazarian as the special referee (the story is that Kazarian above Santino Marella’s head to the Anthem executives and convinced them to put him into the match, so Leonard Asper is the higher power pulling the strings)
*Knockouts Championship: Jordynne Grace © vs. Masha Slamovich
*X Division Championship: Speedball Mike Bailey © vs. El Hijo del Vikingo
*TNA Tag Titles – Full Metal Mayhem: Brian Myers & Eddie Edwards © vs. The Hardys vs. ABC
*Josh Alexander vs. Steve Maclin
*Moose vs. Mike Santana
*Knockouts Tag Titles: Dani Luna & Jody Threat © vs. Rosemary & Wendy Choo
*TNA Digital Media Championship – Monster’s Ball: PCO © vs. Matt Cardona
*Call Your Shot Gauntlet Match – AJ Francis gets to enter last (Pre-show)
*Ash by Elegance & Heather by Elegance (Heather Reckless) vs. Brinley Reece & Xia Brookside (pre-show)
**The Countdown to Bound for Glory is advertising a 6:45 p.m. ET start and will include the TNA Hall of Fame induction ceremonies for Rhino and the late Bob Ryder. John Siino and I will have a review of Bound for Glory on Sunday morning at the POST Wrestling Café.
**NXT runs Halloween Havoc from the Hershey Center in Hershey, Pennsylvania on Sunday beginning at 7 p.m. ET. WWE is running the arena on back-to-back nights with Raw on Monday. Halloween Havoc has distributed over 5,100 tickets while Raw is just over 7,200 tickets out. The latest lineup for Sunday’s card is:
*NXT Championship – Devil’s Playground: Trick Williams © vs. Ethan Page
*North American Championship – Tables, Ladders & Scares: Tony D’Angelo © vs. Oba Femi
*North American Championship: Kelani Jordan © vs. Fatal Influence member
*Ambulance Match: Ridge Holland vs. Andre Chase
*Roxanne Perez & Cora Jade vs. Stephanie Vaquer & Giulia
**NJPW’s Super Jr. Tag League tournament continues on Saturday with a show in Kanagawa with champions KUSHIDA & Kevin Knight vs. TJP & Francesco Akira, Taiji Ishimori & Robbie X vs. Ninja Mack The DKC, and The Velocities vs. Rocky Romero & YOH in the tag league matches. Sunday’s show at Korakuen Hall features TJP & Akira vs. Romero & YOH and Clark Connors & Drilla Moloney vs. Robbie Eagles & Kosei Fujita.
MMA NEWS
**A hearing for the final approval of the $375 million settlement in the Cung Le antitrust lawsuit is scheduled for February 6, 2025, in Las Vegas. Preliminary approval was made this past week by Judge Richard Boulware. The settlement figure will be divided between the lawyers for the plaintiffs and roughly 1,200 fighters during the class period between December 16, 2010, and June 30, 2017.
**The UFC 308 card airs Saturday afternoon from Abu Dhabi with one of the best fights of the year between Ilia Topuria and Max Holloway for the featherweight championship. Topuria beat Alexander Volkanovski by knockout earlier this year and is undefeated going into the fight and has exploded in popularity, especially in Spain. Holloway is one of the longest-tenured fighters in the UFC and is only 32 years old but has had some of the most memorable fights and moments in the promotion’s history. At UFC 300, he knocked out Justin Gaethe in the closing seconds when both swung for the fences, and was one of the best finishes to a fight in the modern era. Outside of his three losses to Volkanovski, Holloway has not lost at featherweight since August 2013 when he lost by decision to Conor McGregor, so this would be no small feat for Topuria. The co-feature is a five-round contest between former middleweight champion Robert Whittaker and Khamzat Chimaev. Chimaev burst onto the scene during the pandemic fighting twice in ten days in July 2020 and again in September that year with three first-round stoppage victories. He endured the effects of COVID and his career has been stalled over the past few years with only three fights in the past four years and had a terrible weight cut in September 2022 for his fight with Nate Diaz and had to switch opponents to fight at a catchweight. He is returning after one year off when he beat former champion Kamaru Usman by a majority decision but slowed down in the third round. Whittaker is as tough a fighter as Chimaev has fought and is going to be the test of where Chimaev is headed.
MAIN CARD (2 p.m. ET on pay-per-view)
*UFC Featherweight Championship: Ilia Topuria (15-0) vs. Max Holloway (26-7)
*Robert Whittaker (26-7) vs. Khamzat Chimaev (13-0)
*Magomed Ankalaev (19-1-1) vs. Aleksandar Rakić (14-4)
*Lerone Murphy (14-0-1) vs. Dan Ige (18-8)
*Shara Magomedov (14-0) vs. Armen Petrosyan (8-3)
PRELIMINARY CARD (10 a.m. ET on ESPN+)
*Ibo Aslan (13-1) vs. Rafael Cerqueira (11-0)
*Geoff Neal (15-6) vs. Rafael dos Anjos (32-16)
*Myktybek Orolbai (13-1-1) vs. Mateusz Rębecki (19-2)
*Abus Magomedov (26-6-1) vs. Brunno Ferreira (12-1)
*Chris Barnett (23-8) vs. Kennedy Nzechukwu (12-5)
*Victor Hugo (25-4) vs. Farid Basharat (12-0)
*Bruno Silva (23-11) vs. Ismail Naurdiev (23-7)
*Rinat Fakhretdinov (23-2-1) vs. Carlos Leal (21-5)
**Karim Zidan has released the second episode of his audio documentary series In The Red Corner covering the UFC’s relationship with Donald Trump. Zidan was a guest on Pollock & Thurston this past Wednesday to chat about the series, the UFC’s alignment with Trump throughout this campaign, and more.
**Episode 5 of UFC Embedded before Saturday’s UFC 308 card.
RECENT SHOWS
The Queen of Villains: Review & Discussion
Karen Peterson (POST Puroresu) and JP Houlihan (GRAPPL Spotlight) review Netflix’s The Queen of the Villains, the historical dramatic presentation of the rise of Dump Matsumoto.
***
POLLOCK & THURSTON: Former Ring Boys Launch Lawsuit
John Pollock and Brandon Thurston are joined by Greg Gutzler and Lee Cole to discuss the lawsuit filed by five ex-WWF ring boys against Vince & Linda McMahon and TKO.
***
REWIND-A-DYNAMITE
John Pollock and Wai Ting review AEW Dynamite featuring a Briscoe vs. Jericho Ladder War. David Bixenspan joins to discuss the new lawsuit filed by former WWE ring boys.
***
POLLOCK & THURSTON: Donald Trump and the UFC
John Pollock and Brandon Thurston discuss the long ties between the UFC and Donald Trump with guest Karim Zidan.
***
upNXT
Braden Herrington and Davie Portman review the Halloween Havoc “Go-Home” edition of WWE NXT headlined by Giulia & Stephanie Vaquer vs Fatal Influence.
***
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