POST IT NOTES
**The Café Hangout is posted for everyone to listen to and watch. This week’s show featured Tony Maglio from The Wrap discussing his reporting on the AEW-TNT television negotiations, the deal points, the questions unanswered, and the next steps for the promotion after this week’s news. This was a great discussion that covered a lot of ground on the deal. Plus, we took your phone calls and previewed this Sunday’s Money in the Bank show.
**Rewind-A-Wai #36 was released today with Wai Ting and I reviewing the WWF’s One Night Only U.K. event from September 1997. This show was chosen by Espresso Executive Producer Shaun Pickles, who attended the show at the NEC Arena in Birmingham, England. There was a lot to discuss from this show, led by the booking in the main event with Davey Boy Smith defending the European title against Shawn Michaels. We go into the details regarding the original plan, why they changed the finish and what they were building to, the tackiness involved, and our favorite game “What if?”. This show also includes a classic between Bret Hart and The Undertaker, Owen Hart as a babyface in 1997 going against Vader, and red-hot crowd in England.
**On Saturday, it’s the return of the Rocky Maivia Picture Show with host Nate Milton being joined by Jason Chapa to review the 2005 film “Doom”.
**Wai Ting and I will return Sunday night with the Money in the Bank POST Show with a complete review of the card. You can call in and listen/watch the show live if you’re a Double Double, Iced Capp, or Espresso member of the POST Wrestling Café.
WRESTLING NEWS
**Bleacher Report’s Kenny Herzog has a lengthy feature on All Elite Wrestling, including interviews with president Tony Khan, Cody Rhodes, The Young Bucks, and Jim Ross. Here are the highlights:
-The Young Bucks didn’t want to announce the formation of the company until closer to May, or even at Double or Nothing, but it was Tony Khan’s call to announce as soon as possible.
-Nick Jackson said that it was within ROH and New Japan’s power to keep them if they had offered the duo the deals they wanted. Nick felt New Japan never saw the value of the team and were not paid well. They were paid better in Ring of Honor and suggested that the two promotions get together to offer them a dual contract, but they didn’t do that.
-When asked about a union, there was a hesitancy to commit to it and rather go with an idea of raising pay for the talent, covering their in-ring injuries along with rehab and recovery, and some will have benefits and health care.
-Khan said outright he wouldn’t run on Monday or Friday nights against WWE, go against the NFL, or pay to get onto television
-There will be no offseason, but they won’t be running a full-time schedule like WWE with talent being given lots of time to recover and rest.
-It is brought up in the piece the question of how the dynamic will exist between Tony Khan and his EVPs. Cody has spoken at length about allowing wrestling people to handle wrestling and not micromanaging a product to death while Khan states in the piece he will be very hands-on and begs the question if both philosophies can co-exist.
**Ric Flair was scheduled to undergo a heart procedure sometime between Thursday night and Friday morning in Georgia, but it has been postponed until Monday morning, according to Will Nunley of FOX 5 in Atlanta. The outlet reported that the heart issue has been affecting Flair for years and the family was aware this was a procedure he was going to need. We wish Flair all the best and as speedy a recovery as possible. Flair’s wife Wendy Barlow gave the following statement to TMZ:
Ric’s surgery has been postponed until Monday to address some complications that needed to be taken care of first. Thanks for all the well wishes.
**The WWE’s European tour ends today and the crew flies back to the U.S. for the Money in the Bank event Sunday night at the XL Center in Hartford, Connecticut.
**Fite TV has confirmed that they will carry “Double or Nothing” for non-U.S. residents, including those in Canada. For those in the U.S., the exclusive digital partner is B/R Live. The “Buy-In” pre-show at 7 pm Eastern will stream free on the AEW’s YouTube channel and on B/R Live.
**Jim Ross was a guest on the Sports Media podcast this week with host Richard Deitsch. Ross speculated that AEW’s television show would be two-hours beginning in the fall and airing on Tuesday or Wednesday nights. Regarding differences, he would like to see from the WWE’s product is the elimination of commercial breaks during matches. He said the three-man team with Excalibur and Alex Marvez will feature each playing a specific role. He noted Excalibur would be the “wrestling guy” that knows the holds and has the perspective of a former wrestler, Marvez he compared to their version of Jay Glazer, who can introduce meaningful stats that help tell the story of the match.
**Ring of Honor will be bringing in talent from CMLL, New Japan Pro Wrestling, and the NWA for their Summer Supercard in Toronto on Friday, August 9th at the Mattamy Athletic Centre. The card will take place during SummerSlam weekend in Toronto and coincides with the final weekend of the G1 Climax tournament, so talent available from New Japan will be limited to those not booked for the tour. Here is the current line up of shows scheduled for Toronto that week, including the WWE’s events:
Wednesday, August 7th:
-Smash Wrestling vs. Progress Wrestling at The Midtown Event Theatre at 8 pm
Thursday, August 8th:
-wXw Ambition 11 at The Midtown Event Theatre at 4 pm
-Progress Wrestling at The Midtown Event Theatre at 8 pm
Friday, August 9th:
-wXw in Toronto at The Midtown Event Theatre at 4 pm
-ROH Supercard at the Mattamy Athletic Centre at 7:30 pm
-Destiny Wrestling at Anapilis Halls in Mississauga at 8 pm
-Smash Wrestling’s Super Showdown VII at The Midtown Event Theatre at 8 pm
Saturday, August 10th:
-The Summit (Smash, SHIMMER, RISE, Femme Fatales) at The Midtown Event Theatre at 11 am
-An Evening with Mick Foley at The Rec Room at 4 pm
-NXT TakeOver: Toronto at the Scotiabank Arena
Sunday, August 11th:
-WWE SummerSlam at the Scotiabank Arena
Monday, August 12th:
-WWE Raw at the Scotiabank Arena
Tuesday, August 13th:
-WWE SmackDown at the Scotiabank Arena
**The final episode of Viceland’s Dark Side of the Ring series averaged 200,000 viewers on Wednesday. The episode on Fabulous Moolah was a drop of 11% from the previous week’s episode on Gino Hernandez. After six episodes, the series averaged 201,000 viewers and internally, was considered a big hit for Viceland. The network will introduce a new series this Wednesday with “The Wrestlers” hosted by Damian Abraham, which previously aired in Canada. The first episode of the series focuses on the EVOLVE promotion featuring booker Gabe Sapolsky and wrestlers Austin Theory, Fred Yehi, and Darby Allin.
**The Best of the Super Juniors tournament resumes Saturday with a card streaming live on New Japan World from Yamagata at 5:30 am Eastern with the following tournament card:
*Bandido & Yota Tsuji vs. Taichi & Douki
*El Phantasmo & Gedo vs. Robbie Eagles & Jado
*Will Ospreay, Juice Robinson & Ren Narita vs. Rocky Romero, YOH & Shota Umino
*Tetsuya Naito & Bushi vs. Ryusuke Taguchi & Toa Henare
*SHO (0-2) vs. Taka Michinoku (0-2)
*Tiger Mask (2-0) vs. Marty Scurll (1-1)
*Taiji Ishimori (2-0) vs. Titan (1-1)
*Dragon Lee (1-1) vs. Jonathan Gresham (1-1)
*Shingo Takagi (2-0) vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaru (0-2)
**Sunday’s A Block tournament matches will feature Rocky Romero vs. Ren Narita, Bandido vs. Douki, Robbie Eagles vs. El Phantasmo, Will Ospreay vs. YOH, and Ryusuke Taguchi vs. Bushi. After Sunday, they have two nights off and return Wednesday for three consecutive nights at Korakuen Hall.
**Here are tonight’s matches scheduled for Impact Wrestling from the tapings at the 2300 Arena in Philadelphia:
*Rosemary vs. Su Yung in a Demon Collar match
*Knockout’s Battle Royal
*Killer Kross vs. Eddie Edwards
*Rob Van Dam appears
**Ring of Honor has announced that Shane Taylor will defend the ROH Television title against Bandido at their Best in the World pay-per-view on Friday, June 28th in Baltimore, Maryland at the UMBC Event Center. Taylor just won the title last week at the War of the Worlds card in Toronto in a four-corners match with champion Jeff Cobb, Hirooki Goto, and Brody King. Taylor pinned King to become champion.
**WrestleMania Weekend plans are already taking shape. Game Changer Wrestling has announced that The Collective group of events will return, and they have booked The Cuban Club in Ybor City, Florida for April 2nd, 3rd, and 4th. This past year’s umbrella event known as The Collective featured events promoted by IWS, AIW, Black Label Pro, CHIKARA, Black Craft Wrestling, and GCW’s in-house shows for Joey Janela’s Spring Break, Bloodsport, and an Orange Cassidy themed event. Joey Janela noted that the venue they are running in 2020 has a capacity of 4,500 people.
**Chinlock Wrestling is running a huge charity event on Saturday, June 15th at the Leon’s Centre in Kingston, Ontario. The one-day event will feature a legends convention during the day with Bret Hart, Arn Anderson, Tully Blanchard, Mark Henry, Tommy Dreamer, Fred Ottman, Swoggle, and others set to appear. The wrestling portion will take place at the arena that night and have announced the following matches:
*Willie Mack vs. Sami Callihan for the House of Hardcore title with Jimmy Korderas as the referee
*Jessie Mack vs. Madison Rayne vs. Beautiful Beaa vs. Addy Starr for the Chinlock title
*Billy Gunn & Tommy Dreamer vs. Tyson Dux & Tarik
*25-person Battle Royale
*CJ Felony vs. Bill Welychka
**Destiny Wrestling’s Icons 2 event on Friday, August 9th is advertising SCU, Joey Ryan, Sami Callihan, oVe, Tenille Dashwood, and Josh Alexander for their card at Anapilis Halls in Mississauga, Ontario. Tickets range from $30-100.
MMA NEWS
**The UFC is in Rochester, New York on Saturday for their first card in the city at the Blue Cross Arena. The weigh-ins took place Friday morning and all 26 fighters came in on weight. Below is the card and results from the weigh-ins.
MAIN CARD (8 pm Eastern on ESPN+, TSN 5 in Canada)
*Rafael dos Anjos (170.4) vs. Kevin Lee (170.2)
*Antonio Carlos Junior (185.6) vs. Ian Heinisch (185.6)
*Megan Anderson (145.8) vs. Felicia Spencer (145.6)
*Vicente Luque (170) vs. Derrick Krantz (170.2)
*Nik Lentz (155.6) vs. Charles Oliveira (154.2)
*Austin Hubbard (155.4) vs. Davi Ramos (156)
PRELIMINARY CARD (5 pm on ESPN+, TSN 5 in Canada)
*Sijara Eubanks (134.8) vs. Aspen Ladd (135.4)
*Charles Jourdain (153.6) vs. Desmond Green (155.2)
*Michel Pereira (170.6) vs. Danny Roberts (170.6)
*Mike Trizano (145.6) vs. Grant Dawson (145.8)
*Patrick Cummins (205.2) vs. Ed Herman (206)
*Trevin Giles (185) vs. Zak Cummings (185.8)
*Julio Arce (145.6) vs. Julian Erosa (146)
**Brett Okamoto of ESPN reported Friday that former welterweight champion Tyron Woodley will be unable to fight Robbie Lawler on June 29th due to a hand injury. The rematch between the two was scheduled for Minneapolis, Minnesota and the report states the UFC is seeking a new opponent for Lawler. The two fought in July 2016 at UFC 201 where Woodley stopped Lawler in the first round to win the welterweight title.
**Sage Northcutt made his debut Friday morning for ONE Championship in Singapore. Competing at 185 pounds, Northcutt was knocked out by Cosmo Alexandre in 29 seconds after being dropped by a right hand. The 23-year old signed with ONE last November following a three-year stint with the UFC. While competing in the UFC, Northcutt competed at lightweight and welterweight and went 6-2 and left the organization at the expiration of his deal following wins over Michel Quinones, Thibault Gouti, and Zak Ottow. Alexandre is a decorated kickboxer with a record of 69-19 along with an MMA record of 8-1 following Friday’s victory. He had not competed in MMA since September 2016.
*****
Café Hangout – AEW on TNT details with Tony Maglio
John Pollock & Wai Ting are joined by The Wrap’s Tony Maglio to discuss details of AEW’s television deal with TNT. We then preview Sunday’s Money In The Bank.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/05/17/aew-on-tnt-details-with-tony-maglio-mitb-preview-cafe-hangout-5-16-19/
*****
REWIND-A-WAI #36: WWF One Night Only 1997
John Pollock and Wai Ting review WWF One Night Only 1997, a UK-only PPV headlined by British Bulldog vs. Shawn Michaels for the WWF European Championship with a controversial ending.
https://www.patreon.com/posts/26918316
*****
upNXT 5/16/19: Killing Me Strongly
Braden Herrington and Davie Portman review this week’s edition of WWE NXT featuring Viking Raiders vs. Street Profits for the NXT Tag Team titles.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/05/16/upnxt-5-16-19-killing-me-strongly/
*****
DOUBLE SHOT: Bret Hart vs. Tom Magee, The Fabulous Moolah, BOSJ Night 3, BTE
John Pollock & Wai Ting review the Bret Hart vs. Tom Magee match, The Fabulous Moolah edition of Dark Side of the Ring, BOSJ Night 3 & Being the Elite Ep. 151.
https://www.patreon.com/posts/26896477
*****
BWE 5/15/19: Progress Super Strong Style 16, Rev Pro Epic Encounter, ITV/AEW
Martin is joined by Will Cooling and JP Houlihan to talk Progress Super Strong Style 16 (Trent Seven vs. Walter), Rev Pro Epic Encounter (Suzuki-Gun vs. Aussie Open) and Pro Wrestling EVE.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/05/15/bwe-5-15-19-progress-super-strong-style-16-rev-pro-epic-encounter-itv-aew/
*****
RASD 5/14/19: Lars Sullivan fined, MITB Go-Home, Kabuki Warriors, BOSJ Day 2
John Pollock is joined by Wai Ting to review the final WWE SmackDown before Money in the Bank from the O2 Arena in London, England. We also discuss WWE fining Lars Sullivan for past message board remarks.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/05/15/rasd-5-14-19-lars-sullivan-fined-mitb-go-home-kabuki-warriors-bosj-day-2/
*****
RAR 5/13/19: WWE Raw in London, BOSJ Day 1, Super Showdown notes
John Pollock is back with Wai Ting to review WWE Raw from London, England featuring a match between Braun Strowman and Sami Zayn for a spot in the MITB Ladder match and closing promos from Seth Rollins and AJ Styles before MITB.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/05/14/rar-5-13-19-wwe-raw-in-london-bosj-day-1-super-showdown-notes/
*****
UFC 237 POST SHOW: Namajunas vs. Andrade, Bellator 221, The Passing of Silver King
John Pollock is solo to review the UFC 237 and Bellator 221 cards, plus the details on Silver King’s passing after collapsing during a match in London on Saturday.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/05/12/post-show-ufc-237-bellator-221-the-passing-of-silver-king/
*****
Browse the new POST Wrestling Store
https://store.postwrestling.com
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
