Photo courtesy: Ring of Honor
POST IT NOTES
**We have our Extreme Rules POST Show up on the site with Wai and I reviewing the card from Philadelphia and taking your calls on the event.
**Wai Ting and I will be back with Rewind-A-Raw tonight with a review of the show from Long Island, all the news coming out of the weekend and we will take your questions and feedback at the end of the show. Each Monday, we give out a POST Wrestling prize pack with all members of the POST Wrestling Café entered in the draw to win.
**We will also have our G1 Climax podcast out later this evening for members of the Café.
POST WRESTLING SCHEDULE
*Tonight: G1 Climax Night 4 with John Pollock & Wai Ting (Patreon)
*Tonight: Rewind-A-Raw
*Tuesday: Rewind-A-SmackDown
*Thursday: G1 Climax Night 5 (Patreon)
*Thursday: Café Hangout with guests James Lynch of The Score and Independent wrestler Buck Gunderson (3 pm Eastern for Double Double+ Patrons)
*Thursday: upNXT with Braden Herrington & Davie Portman
*Friday: G1 Climax Night 6 (Patreon)
*Saturday: G1 Climax Night 7 (Patreon)
*Saturday: Cruel Summer with WH Park & Davis Storm (Masahiro Chono vs. Kazuyuki Fujita, 2005)
*Sunday: Cruel Summer with WH Park & Dan “The Mouth” Lovranski (Satoshi Kojima vs. Hiroyoshi Tenzan, 2006)
WRESTLING NEWS
**Tonight’s episode of Raw takes place from NYCB Live at the Nassau Coliseum on Long Island, New York. It’s a rare Monday with a SmackDown house show scheduled in Poughkeepsie, New York.
**While tonight’s Raw should receive a viewership increase following the pay-per-view and title switch along with a less competitive week, the big push is on next week’s Raw Reunion from Tampa. On Sunday’s pay-per-view, they announced the special edition of Raw with numerous names announced many more expected. The big attraction is Steve Austin returning to the show along with Hulk Hogan, Ric Flair, Kevin Nash, Scott Hall, Kurt Angle, Ted DiBiase, Christian, Jimmy Hart, Jerry Lawler, Santino Marella, The Boogeyman, Shawn Michaels, D-Von Dudley, and Eric Bischoff.
The last time they did a major show with old names from the past was for the 25th anniversary episode in January 2018 and was their most-watched Raw since March 2015 with 4.5 million viewers. It’s interesting they would do this type of show in July as opposed to saving it for the launch on Fox or spread out some names over several weeks. It’s also an eight-day promotion as opposed to the 25th anniversary and 1,000th episode where they spent weeks promoting to the big episode. It should do a very good number, regardless and hopefully it’s a better show than the 25th anniversary, which was a letdown given how large an audience they had and did little with it.
**Steve Austin’s upcoming show series on the USA Network premieres on Monday, August 12th after Raw, so I would expect a heavy push for ‘Straight Up Steve Austin’ over the next month.
**Ring of Honor announced Monday that they will begin streaming matches at all future television tapings on Honor Club. The new policy goes into effect this Saturday with the tapings from the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City. They will stream six matches at tapings while keeping four matches exclusive for television viewers when the episodes air. The matches that will stream on Honor Club will be Matt Taven vs. Jay Lethal for the ROH title, Villain Enterprises vs. LifeBlood, Dragon Lee vs. Jonathan Gresham, Rush vs. TK O’Ryan, and The Bouncers vs. Coast 2 Coast vs. Soldiers of Savagery beginning at 8 pm Eastern.
**Over the weekend, there was an interesting story that came out of Bayley’s appearance on the FS 1 show ‘Fair Game’. Bayley was being interviewed by host Kristine Leahy and the subject of traveling on the road was brought up. Bayley described the long drives and being worried about running out of gas in strange cities. Leahy was aghast when realizing that WWE performers drive themselves from city to city without the assistance of company transportation or drivers. Bayley tried to place a positive spin that they bond on the road and it becomes fun, but Leahy was shocked and then followed up by asking about the performers having a collective bargaining agreement, which Bayley said they don’t have, and Leahy remarking how much money they make for WWE. It was a fascinating segment because it wasn’t like Leahy came in with the intention of a hard-hitting segment but just stumbled into this subject matter and you got to see someone from outside wrestling provide an honest reaction.
Since the clip circulated, FS 1 took down the Twitter post with the clip, although David Bixenspan did save it and you can watch it. The quick removal of the clip shows the type of relationship you can expect between Fox and WWE and neither is going to do anything to upset the other side with segments such as ‘Fair Game’ designed to simply promote their in-house programming as opposed to having a journalistic approach to their coverage of WWE.
**The G1 Climax takes a short hiatus with no shows scheduled until Thursday and will hold three straight nights of cards at Korakuen Hall. Below are the standings after the first four nights of the tournament:
A BLOCK: Kazuchika Okada, Lance Archer & KENTA (4 points), Will Ospreay, EVIL, Sanada & Bad Luck Fale (2), Kota Ibushi, Hiroshi Tanahashi & Zack Sabre Jr. (0)
B BLOCK: Tomohiro Ishii, Jon Moxley & Juice Robinson (4 points), Shingo Takagi, Taichi, Toru Yano & Hirooki Goto (2), Jeff Cobb, Jay White & Tetsuya Naito (0)
**Thursday’s G1 card is an A Block show with Will Ospreay’s status in limbo as he’s recovering from a neck injury. Ospreay is scheduled to headline Thursday’s card against Kota Ibushi in a rematch from Wrestle Kingdom, so the expectations are through the roof, to begin with. Thursday’s card will also feature KENTA vs. Lance Archer, EVIL vs. Sanada, Kazuchika Okada vs. Bad Luck Fale, and Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Zack Sabre Jr.
**Dr. Britt Baker suffered a concussion during the tag match at Fight for the Fallen this past Saturday. Baker was teaming with Riho against Bea Priestley and Shoko Nakajima.
**MLW put tickets on sale Monday for their pay-per-view on November 2nd at Cicero Stadium. The company announced that they sold out the first row of tickets within 60 seconds. The venue has been their best-drawing arena with MLW selling out their last three shows at Cicero Stadium. No matches have been announced this far out but they are advertising four title fights for the pay-per-view, which will go for $19.95 on traditional pay-per-view and streaming on Fite.
**Dominic DeAngelo of WrestleZone attended Jim Ross’ live show on Sunday in which Ross spoke about his invitation to appear at next Monday’s Raw. Ross said he was extended an invitation to appear and was granted permission from Tony Khan at AEW, but Ross declined the invitation.
**New Japan Pro Wrestling has announced that the Super Junior Tag League will return in 2019 and take place in October and November. The tournament will kick off October 16th at Korakuen Hall with fourteen shows during the tour and the finals will take place on November 3rd at Power Struggle in Osaka at the Edion Arena.
**Bryan Alvarez of the Wrestling Observer site has a new book coming out Tuesday called “100 Things WWE Fans Should Know and Do Before They Die”. The foreword in the book is written by Lance Storm.
**OTT has announced a match between PAC and Speedball Mike Bailey on August 25th in Cork at Neptune Stadium.
MMA NEWS
**Bellator has released the opening round fights for their Featherweight Grand Prix. The 16-man tournament will see the opening round spread out over two cards on September 7th at the SAP Center in San Jose and on September 28th at The Forum in Inglewood, California. Below are the participants and first-round fights:
September 7th at the SAP Center in San Jose:
*Daniel Straus vs. Derek Campos
*Pat Curran vs. Adam Borics
*Emmanuel Sanchez vs. Tywan Claxton
*Pedro Carvalho vs. Sam Sicilia
September 28th at The Forum in Inglewood:
*Patricio ‘Pitbull’ Freire vs. Juan Archuleta for the Bellator featherweight title
*Darrion Caldwell vs. Henry Corrales
*Daniel Weichel vs. Saul Rogers
*A.J. McKee vs. Georgi Karakhanyan
Excluding the featherweight title fight, all the first round matches will be three three-minute rounds. The second round and finals will all be five five-minute rounds. The featherweight title will be defended throughout the tournament just as they did with the Welterweight title in this year’s Grand Prix.
G1 CLIMAX REVIEWS
July 14 – Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. KENTA
July 13 – Hirooki Goto vs. Jay White
Opening Night from Dallas [FREE PODCAST]
*****
WWE EXTREME RULES POST SHOW
John Pollock & Wai Ting review WWE Extreme Rules headlined by Seth Rollins & Becky Lynch defending their championships against Baron Corbin & Lacey Evans.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/07/15/wwe-extreme-rules-2019-post-show/
*****
CRUEL SUMMER: Hiroyoshi Tenzan vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi (2004)
WH Park and Joey Bay discuss the finals of NJPW’s 14th annual G1 Climax tournament: Hiroyoshi Tenzan vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi from August 15, 2004.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/07/14/cruel-summer-14-hiroyoshi-tenzan-vs-hiroshi-tanahashi-2004-w-joey-bay/
*****
AEW FIGHT FOR THE FALLEN POST SHOW
John Pollock & Wai Ting review AEW Fight for the Fallen from Jacksonville, FL headlined by The Young Bucks vs. Cody & Dustin Rhodes.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/07/14/aew-fight-for-the-fallen-post-show/
*****
EVOLVE 131: 10TH ANNIVERSARY POST SHOW
Braden Herrington and Davie Portman are back with a very special episode of upNXT! The BDE chat all about EVOLVE 131: 10th Anniversary from Philadelphia.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/07/14/evolve-131-10th-anniversary-post-show/
*****
CRUEL SUMMER: HIROYOSHI TENZAN VS. JUN AKIYAMA (2003)
WH Park reunites with his former Japanese Audio Wrestling co-host, JoJo Remy to discuss one of their favorite G1 Climax finals, Hiroyoshi Tenzan vs. Pro Wrestling NOAH’s Jun Akiyama from August 17, 2003.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/07/13/cruel-summer-13-hiroyoshi-tenzan-vs-jun-akiyama-2003-w-jojo-remy/
*****
CAFÉ HANGOUT
On this week’s Café Hangout, John Pollock and Wai Ting talk to Wrestling Arcade’s Brendan Docherty and Rob Naylor about their new book. Court Bauer then joins us to discuss MLW’s first PPV, Saturday Night SuperFight.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/07/12/mlws-court-bauer-wrestling-arcade-cafe-hangout/
*****
REWIND-A-WAI #40: NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 11 (Patreon)
John Pollock and Wai Ting review NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 11 featuring Kazuchika Okada vs. Kenny Omega in their legendary 6-star match from the Tokyo Dome on January 4th, 2017.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/07/11/rewind-a-wai-40-njpw-wrestle-kingdom-11/
*****
upNXT 7/11/19: “Shirai Gets Me High”
The BDE chat all about WWE NXT including Io Shirai’s new “heel” look, Boa vs. Jordan Myles from the NXT Breakout Tournament, The Brit-Am Brawlers vs. The Street Profits for the NXT Tag Team Championship and Damien Priest in action.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/07/11/upnxt-7-11-19-shirai-gets-me-high/
*****
BWE 7/10/19: Progress Ch. 90 & 92, EVE Wrestle Queendom 2, Riptide Wrestling
Martin and Jamesie are back with Benno to talk Pro Wrestling EVE Wrestle Queendom 2 (Kay Lee Ray vs. Viper), Riptide Wrestling Point Break (PAC vs. Cara Noir) and Zack Sabre Jr. & Will Ospreay in this years NJPW G1 Climax.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/07/10/bwe-7-10-19-progress-ch-90-92-eve-wrestle-queendom-2-riptide-wrestling-rev-pro-ungovernable/
*****
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