POST IT NOTES
**If you are a member of the POST Wrestling Café, we have an early release of the G1 Climax Primer that WH Park, Wai Ting and I did. We previewed both blocks and went through all the participants, the key stories of the tournament, our picks for the finals, and lots of discussion heading into the biggest tournament of the year. This show will be available for everyone on Thursday.
**This week’s edition of Rewind-A-SmackDown features a rundown of Tuesday’s show from San Antonio, differences from Raw, more announcements for Extreme Rules, the Kevin Owens angle to end the show, a great segment involving Kofi Kingston and Samoa Joe, Ali’s promo, and more. Plus, we go through Raw’s viewership on Monday, AAA’s announcement of the TripleMania card, Seth Rollins apologizes to Will Ospreay, and we discuss Kevin Owens’ interview with Lilian Garcia from earlier this week.
**Damian Abraham of ‘The Wrestlers’ on Viceland will be in-studio with Wai Ting and I on the Café Hangout at 3 pm Eastern on Thursday. We will be discussing the final two episodes that air tonight, the possibilities of a second season, reaction to the series, and taking your phone calls. Plus, we will look ahead to this weekend’s G1 Climax kickoff in Dallas and the Slammiversary card in the same city. If you are a Double Double, Iced Capp, or Espresso member of the POST Wrestling Café you can listen & watch LIVE and call into the show.
**Braden Herrington and Davie Portman will have a new edition of upNXT out on Thursday.
**On Thursday, Cody Saftic will be joining me for a preview of UFC 239 and discussing all the major stories happening this week in MMA.
WRESTLING NEWS
**This week’s episode of SmackDown Live averaged 1,890,000 viewers on the USA Network and was down 1.6%. The 10% increase Raw enjoyed on Monday didn’t translate into a stronger viewership figure the following night. It was the show’s fifth-lowest number of 2019 and down 6% year-over-year.
**On Tuesday, we wrote that a notice was sent out to those that purchased tickets to a live episode of Raw in Glasgow, Scotland in November. In lieu of a live Raw, there will be a house show on Monday, November 11th at the SSE Hydro with the advertised talent. The new plan is to have a double taping from the Manchester Arena on Friday, November 8th with Raw and SmackDown taking place from England on the same day.
**Eric Bischoff was not at the SmackDown tapings on Tuesday night in San Antonio.
**Kofi Kingston’s middle finger to Samoa Joe was censored on Sportsnet 360 in Canada. A listener from New Zealand said the segment was also censored on Sky.
**Tuesday’s episode of SmackDown was presented closer to the usual style of recent WWE programming. It became painfully obvious for me on the show that the commercial breaks are becoming a disaster to deal with. In the main event, Daniel Bryan, Rowan and New Day began brawling and when they returned from break the bell rung to re-start the match. There isn’t even a need to find a reason to restart the match, so you may as well ring the bell after every commercial break without any rhyme or reason. Coming up with these scenarios and incorporating this edict was described to me as a ‘nightmare’ and comes off like it on the show. It’s funny because one of the reasons given was real sports don’t play during commercials and neither should they, yet this new rule makes the matches so preposterous because it’s illogical to start-and-stop in the fashion they are presented. The strongest segment was the promo between Kofi Kingston and Samoa Joe where both were great. They didn’t rely on any gimmicks, attacks, weapons, or anything to assist in gaining heat beyond two guys that dislike each other and are going to fight. It was one of the better set ups for a title match in a while. The angle at the end of the show leaves with you with the impression Kevin Owens is a babyface again, which he indicated on Lilian Garcia’s podcast is a role he wants to explore. It’s unknown what effect that has on Sami Zayn, but it seems like it’s a way to separate them again with Zayn staying on Raw as a heel and Owens working SmackDown.
**One of the major discussions following Raw was the angle involving Mike & Maria Kanellis with the pregnancy announcement. Maria Kanellis is legitimately pregnant with the couple expecting their second child. The two recently signed new contracts with WWE, which were reported to be five-year deals. Up until this week, the two had been working on 205 Live and were back on the show Tuesday night in San Antonio, Texas.
**Here are the matches for tonight’s episode of NXT at 8 pm Eastern on the WWE Network from last month’s tapings at Full Sail University:
*Mia Yim vs. Aliyah
*KUSHIDA vs. Jeff Parker
*Isaiah Scott (Shane Strickland) vs. Cameron Grimes (Trevor Lee) in the Breakout tournament
*Bianca Belair vs. Priscilla Zuniga
*Roderick Strong vs. Tyler Breeze
**PWG has announced that Jonathan Gresham is the second entrant of this year’s Battle of Los Angeles tournament in September. Gresham, who is signed to Ring of Honor, joins A-Kid as the first among the field. The tournament begins on Thursday, September 19th at The Globe Theatre and continues Friday and Sunday that weekend.
**A correction from Rewind-A-SmackDown, Cody was not introduced as Cody Rhodes at Fyter Fest. Justin Roberts’ introduction said ‘Cody and Brandi Rhodes’. He is listed as Cody Rhodes on the poster for TripleMania, which was displayed during AAA’s press conference on Tuesday.
**MLW has announced that Ace Austin will take on Air Wolf this Saturday at the Kings of the Colosseum television taping at Cicero Stadium in Illinois.
**Impact Wrestling is doing a live special called ‘Bash at the Brewery’ this Friday night at 8 pm Eastern on Impact Plus & Fite.tv and the pre-show airing on Twitch at 7:30. They have announced a an Extreme Rules match between Rob Van Dam and Sami Callihan in the main event along with Brian Cage vs. Moose for the Impact title, LAX vs. Josh Alexander & Ethan Page for the tag titles, Michael Elgin vs. Eddie Edwards, Rich Swann & Willie Mack & Tessa Blanchard vs. Madman Fulton & The Crists, Jessicka Havok vs. Jordynne Grace, and Su Yung vs. Rosemary.
**The WWE stock closed at $74.64 on Wednesday.
MMA NEWS
**ESPN’s Brett Okamoto reports that a strawweight fight between former champion Joanna Jedrzejczyk and Michelle Waterson is close to be signed. Okamoto reports that the fight has been verbally agreed to for a Fight Night card on Saturday, October 12th with Ariel Helwani adding that the card is expected to take place from the Chase Center in San Francisco, California. Jedrzejczyk last fought at UFC 231 last December where she lost to Valentina Shevchenko in a flyweight fight for the vacant championship. The fight with Waterson will see Jedrzejczyk return to the weight class where she held the championship from March 2015 until November 2017. Waterson has won her last three fights over Cortney Casey, Felice Herrig, and Karolina Kowalkiewicz.
**After fighting for the UFC for over seven years, John Lineker is no longer with the organization with MMA Junkie reporting the release. Lineker debuted for the promotion in May 2012 and has gone 12-4, although missed weight four times during that run. He last fought in April where he dropped a split decision to Cory Sandhagen in Florida. Lineker was scheduled to fight Rob Font two weeks ago but pulled out of the fight the day before weigh-ins and has subsequently been released.
**Here is the third episode of UFC Embedded for UFC 239:
*****
RASD 7/2/19: Knock Knock Who’s There?
John Pollock and Wai Ting review Tuesday’s WWE SmackDown featuring a must-see promo exchange between Kofi Kingston and Samoa Joe.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/07/03/rasd-7-2-19-knock-knock-whos-there/
*****
REWIND-A-RAW 7/1/19: Raw E. Dangerously
After last week’s news that Paul Heyman has been named the Executive Director of WWE Raw, John Pollock and Wai Ting review Monday’s show to see what changes, if any, would be evident.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/07/02/rar-7-1-19-raw-e-dangerously/
*****
CRUEL SUMMER #10: Manabu Nakanishi vs. Kensuke Sasaki (2000)
WH Park is joined by JP Houlihan of the GRAPPL Spotlight podcast to discuss the finals of NJPW’s tenth annual G1 Climax tournament: Manabu Nakanishi vs. Kensuke Sasaki from August 13, 2000.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/06/30/cruel-summer-10-manabu-nakanishi-vs-kensuke-sasaki-2000-w-jp-houlihan/
*****
AEW FYTER FEST POST SHOW
Wai Ting & Davie Portman review AEW Fyter Fest from Daytona Beach, FL headlined by Jon Moxley vs. Joey Janela in an Unsanctioned Match.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/06/30/aew-fyter-fest-post-show/
*****
NJPW SOUTHERN SHOWDOWN POST SHOW
WH Park and Chris Thunder review NJPW’s Southern Showdown event from Melbourne, Australia featuring Will Ospreay vs. Robbie Eagles for the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Championship.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/06/29/njpw-southern-showdown-post-show-w-wh-park-chris-thunder/
*****
CRUEL SUMMER #9: Manabu Nakanishi vs. Keiji Mutoh (1999)
WH Park and the returning Matt McEwen come together again to talk about the finals of NJPW’s ninth G1 Climax tournament: Manabu Nakanishi vs. Keiji Mutoh from August 15, 1999.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/06/29/cruel-summer-9-manabu-nakanishi-vs-keiji-mutoh-1999-w-matt-mcewen/
*****
REWIND-A-WAI #39: WWF In Your House ‘Canadian Stampede’
John Pollock and Wai Ting review WWF In Your House 16: Canadian Stampede (1997) from Calgary, Alberta featuring The Hart Foundation vs. Team Austin in one of the most acclaimed PPVs in WWF/E history.
https://www.patreon.com/posts/27959134
*****
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