POST Wrestling News Update
By: Andrew Thompson
**The second episode of NXT on the USA Network brought in 1.006 million viewers, per Showbuzz Daily. Last week’s episode drew 1.179 million viewers. The first hour of NXT on the USA Network featured Keith Lee vs. Dominik Dijakovic, Dakota Kai versus Taynara Conti and the main event of the show saw Matt Riddle defeat Killian Dain in a Street Fight. For a recap of NXT, head over to our coverage article of hour one and two of the show.
**According to PWInsider, former IMPACT World Champion John Hennigan has signed a deal to return to WWE. Hennigan is coming off a run in IMPACT Wrestling that lasted from the Summer of 2017 to July of 2019. This past July, PWInsider reported that Hennigan’s contract with IMPACT Wrestling expired a few weeks prior to Slammiversary XVII where he challenged Rich Swann for the X Division Championship.
**WWE and FOX Sports confirmed that Renee Young and WWE Hall Of Famer Booker T will host a weekly one-hour show entitled ‘WWE Backstage’ on FS1. The show is slotted for Tuesdays at 11 PM EST beginning on November 5th. Booker T and Renee will be joined by a number of guests and personalities throughout the duration of the show. FOX Sports is hosting a preview of ‘WWE Backstage’ on October 5th so that Booker T and Renee can reveal the set for the show at the FOX Studios lot in Los Angeles. WWE also made announcements concerning the new broadcast teams for RAW and SmackDown. On RAW, Vic Joseph, Jerry “The King” Lawler and 205 Live commentator Dio Maddin will be calling the action. On SmackDown, Michael Cole and Corey Graves are on the call with Renee Young as a “special contributor”.
**ROH World Champion Matt Taven spoke with Jay Reddick of the Orlando Sentinel and was asked about his pending free agency. Taven said that he is keeping his decision “close to the vest”:
“You don’t get to have too many surprises in this business, but I’m keeping this one close to the vest,” Taven said. “This is a life-changing decision and a million different things go into it, so I have to weigh my options. No matter what, I’m grateful for every opportunity I’ve been given so far in my career and I don’t forget where I came from. I’m just going into this with an open mind and let the chips fall where they may.”
**On September 30th, the National Wrestling Alliance will hold a press conference at the Hard Rock Café in Atlanta, Georgia ahead of their television tapings later that day and on October 1st. Appearing at the press conference are all champions of the NWA. Also, Billy Corgan will reveal the name of NWA’s weekly television series and where viewers can watch the show.
**Heavy Machinery (Otis Dozovic & Tucker Knight) are challenging Robert Roode and Dolph Ziggler for the RAW Tag Team Championships on the 9/30/19 edition of RAW.
**Triple H surprised a few individuals who were present at this week’s NXT show by showing up at their NXT post-show hangout spot.
**Tucker Knight of Heavy Machinery shared on Twitter that his vehicle was broken into on Tuesday evening.
**The Washington Post profiled several stars of All Elite Wrestling ahead of the company’s debut show on TNT in Washington, DC. The publication also spoke with Brett Weitz, who is the general manager for TNT, TBS, and truTV. Brett said that he is surprised WWE Chairman Vince McMahon “went to defense” as quick as he did in regards to NXT going head-to-head with AEW:“It’s really rare for a challenger to be on offense right out of the gate and I’m surprised Vince went to defense as fast as he did,” TNT’s Weitz says, adding, “I don’t think a monarchy can last forever.”
**All Elite Wrestling announced that they are partnering with DC Comics.
**New Japan Pro-Wrestling announced that their Road To Tokyo Dome shows will take place from December 19th through December 21st at Korakuen Hall.
**WWE United Kingdom Champion WALTER is not appearing at wXw’s show this coming Sunday. WALTER took to Twitter and revealed that he asked for that day off to lighten his travel schedule and apologized to those who were looking forward to seeing him live.
**NFL.com ran a story about George Kittle and fellow members of the San Francisco 49ers appearing on the 9/24/19 edition of SmackDown Live in San Francisco.
**Linda McMahon was included in Fortune’s Top 25 Most Powerful Women In Politics list.
**On a recent edition of the ‘X-Pac 12360’ podcast, Sean Waltman expressed his excitement for Candice LeRae who’ll be challenging Shayna Baszler for the NXT Women’s Championship on the October 2nd edition of NXT TV:
“I just want to congratulate Candice, cause to me she’s kind of along the same lines as [Johnny] She’s like that, as far as the women go, and not just women but she’s just one the best babyfaces in the industry, man or woman, and also, not the first choice, she’s not the one that they look at and go, ‘She’s the chosen one’ but yet she still comes up and rises up past that … and the people love her and I don’t know, I am just really happy for her.” Waltman expressed.
**According to PWInsider, IMPACT Wrestling paid a bonus to talents for being a part the lengthy pre-tape day that included Brian Cage and Melissa Santos’ wedding segment that will air on the 9/27/19 episode of IMPACT on the Pursuit Channel.
**NJPW1972.com published a story which takes a dive into Jushin Thunder Liger’s alter ego, Kishin Liger.
**According to John Ourand of the Sports Business Journal, Dish Network has dropped FOX channels.
**Prior to the 9/25/19 edition of NXT on the USA Network, Austin Theory defeated Ridge Holland, and Reina Gonzalez defeated Santana Garrett in dark matches.
**Stone Cold Steve Austin took to his ‘Steve Austin Show’ podcast to review his match with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson from WrestleMania XIX. At the conclusion of the podcast, Austin talked about the possibility of coming out of retirement for one more match:
“For the last couple of weeks, down there at the RAW Reunion in Tampa, down there at the Madison Square Garden show at Monday Night RAW a couple weeks ago, people always ask me, ‘Hey man, you’re still in really good shape. You got one more match left in you?’ And, I tell them — I say, ‘It’s a tough thing to think about’. Physically, would I be capable of having one more match? Yes, most definitely, and I could make it through that match without being injured.” Austin said. “Although the risks are always there just because all the surgeries. I had the fusion, opening where I had the spinal stenosis and getting that bone spur taken off my spinal cord. I’m in a good place. Nerves feel a lot better than they used to. So, in theory, could I have a match? In theory, yes. But, would it be great to have a match? I don’t know. I think that night in Seattle, at Safeco Arena [T-Mobile Park] in front of 54,000 people, working with The Rock — as they always say in any sport, leave it all on the field. That night, I left it all on the field.”
**The National Wrestling Alliance announced that David Marquez and Kyle Davis are joining the broadcast team as correspondents for the organization’s upcoming TV tapings in Atlanta. Joe Galli and Jim Cornette will be on commentary for the tapings.
**DS Shin of Ring The Belle interviewed WWE Hall Of Famer Alundra Blayze at Starrcast III. During the interview, Alundra talked about her 2015 WWE Hall Of Fame induction and seeing Vince McMahon for the first time since she dropped the WWF Women’s Championship in a trash can as a part of her return to WCW:
“When I was being inducted into the Hall Of Fame in 2015, I hadn’t seen Vince since that time [Dropping the WWF Women’s Title in a garbage can]. I’m standing at the podium, my hair in rollers, no makeup — haven’t seen Vince and I’m practicing what I’m going to say.” Alundra continued, “All of a sudden I hear, ‘Alundra!’ and I’m like, ‘Oh my God. I know that voice’. It’s Vince, and I’m like, ‘Oh my God. Oh my God’. I turn around and he’s smiling and I said, ‘Sir, this is amazing. Thank you so much’ and [the] first thing across my mind of course was the belt incident. I haven’t said anything to him since that day. So I walked up to him, I hugged him and we hugged — it seemed like forever. I hugged him tight and the first words are, ‘I’m sorry’ and he’s like, ‘It’s alright’ and so after that he said, ‘You know, you are the woman that we want to bring back — kick start the women’s division again and you’re the style, you’re the type, you’re the kind, you’re the one we want’ so, I knew everything was okay because look at what happened with the women’s division and he knew the aggressive, the toughness and what they wanted to bring back. Now look at it. So I feel really honored on that little thing that we shared.” She concluded.
Alundra then shared that she was seven months post-surgery and had both of knees replaced when she competed in the Evolution Battle Royal at WWE’s first-ever all women’s pay-per-view Evolution in October of 2018: “So you know why I went out like that? I just want to tell everybody: There’s a lot of things that people don’t know so people will put you down, they’ll do negativity, they’ll do this, but no one knows the backstory of anything that’s going on in anybody’s life.” She said. “I just want you to know, that in that match, I was only seven months post-surgery and a double knee replacement. Nobody knew that and there you go. It’s called sucking it up b*tches”.
**PWInsider is reporting that All Elite Wrestling applied to trademark Chris Jericho’s catchphrase, “A Little Bit Of The Bubbly” on September 18th but on September 10th, Jericho applied to trademark the phrase.
**Ronda Rousey’s road to recovery after breaking her knuckle at WrestleMania 35 and severely injuring her finger on the set of 9-1-1 is being documented by ‘FyzioGym And Revolution Physical Therapy’.
**Brandi Rhodes spoke with Scott Fishman of TV Insider for an exclusive interview. Brandi talked about some of the negative comments that are sometimes directed at her on social media and brought up how some fans were worried that she would become the first-ever AEW Women’s World Champion:
“Fans also tend to vocalize their fears. If they’re afraid something might happen or afraid something may happen to lose their trust or make them unhappy, they will create it like it’s already happening and real. The best thing I can say for people like that is just be patient. Don’t do things like that. We aren’t even on television yet. I saw a lot of people at one point that were very scared I was going to win the first women’s world championship, and I’m not in the title match.” Brandi said. “How that happens, I’m really not sure. But that was a nod to remind people to stop worrying about things you don’t have to worry about.”
**Natalya wrote about the Hart House in Calgary, Alberta, Canada for her latest piece for the Calgary Sun.
**On October 7th, SANADA and Kazuchika Okada will sign a contract inside of Korakuen Hall to make their IWGP Heavyweight Championship match at NJPW’s King Of Pro Wrestling show official. The contract signing will take place just a few hours out from the October 7th New Japan Road show which will be headlined by a tag match pitting Kota Ibushi and IWGP Heavyweight Champion Kazuchika Okada against EVIL and SANADA.
**The Jackson Clinics are the official physical therapy providers for All Elite Wrestling’s debut show on TNT in Washington DC.
**Newsweek interviewed Ring Of Honor C.O.O. Joe Koff. Koff opened up about ROH’s partnership with New Japan Pro-Wrestling and NJPW wanting a stake in America and touring the country independently without the assistance of other promotions:
“They [partnerships] are important in the development of your organization. We’ve been very generous in that regard because we think wrestling as an industry is important, not just being the promotion or ‘that’ promotion. So whenever an opportunity arises, we are open to taking it. I think right now what you are seeing is, as more eyes are on it, you have people saying, ‘Let’s get in it’, and getting in it today is a lot different than the past,” Koff explained. “One thing Sinclair has always afforded us, and one reason we got into professional wrestling, is that I had distribution. I have a lot of distribution via our over-the-air, free coverage, be it at our emerging network like on Stadium or Charge. Hopefully, soon, nothing is finalized yet. Plus we have our own streaming platform. I don’t have to go out and find it. That will always be an advantage. Right now it’s a good time for a lot of these promotions to start to come out on their own. New Japan is a wonderful partner. I don’t want you to think MSG was all Ring of Honor. It was a combination at the right time with a good card, and it was a good partnership. We would have done the same for them at Wrestle Kingdom and their Japan shows. But they want a stake in America as well and not be associated with it, which is why you’re seeing New Japan touring independently of other promotions. I don’t blame them. It’s a business and that’s their business.”
**The Young Bucks chatted with Bleacher Report and dove into the discussion about being wrestlers and Executive Vice Presidents of AEW. Nick Jackson stated that Tony Khan has the final say on all decisions and recalled two occasions when he and Matt offered to lose a match and Tony Khan decided that The Young Bucks should win those matches:
“There’s a fine line, but when it’s all said and done, Tony is the last call to order,” Nick says. “He has final say on everything. There have been two times now where Matt and I have actually said, ‘OK, we want to lose tonight’ and it gets to Tony and he goes, ‘Nope, you guys are winning.’ We tried to dispute and we’ve failed both times. Of course, fans aren’t going to see that and will probably think I’m even lying by saying it, but it’s the truth.”
**Longtime WWE music producer Jim Johnston has created a new theme song for PCO. The theme song will be used at the Death Before Dishonor pay-per-view where all members of Villain Enterprises will be in action in their respective matches.
**Britt Baker talked to Wrestlezone about suffering a concussion at the hands of Bea Priestley at AEW Fight For The Fallen:
“My left eye — I lost peripheral vision for five days.” Baker revealed. “The doctors, everyone kept telling me, ‘It’s going to come back, it’s going to come back, this is going to be a recovery.’ People can tell you that every single day,” Baker said, “but until the vision actually comes back it’s hard to believe. It’s hard to stay optimistic because it’s terrifying. You need your vision and I especially need my vision to do dentistry as well and I missed some time off of work because of that injury as well.”
**Flip Gordon told Justin Barrasso of Sports Illustrated that he wants to become ROH World Champion and he will continue chasing that goal until he accomplishes it.
**RAW Women’s Champion Becky Lynch will be featured on Golden Crips cereal boxes and Big Show will be featured on boxes of Honey Comb.
**WWE Games announced the following details about the ‘Universe Mode’ in WWE 2K20 that releases on October 22nd:
*Major and minor show match limits have increased from 7 to 9.
*Pay-Per-View match limits have doubled from 7 to 14.
*The number of championship titles per major show has increased from 6 to 7.
*Simultaneous rivalries on major shows have increased from 3 to 4.
*Pay-Per-Views can be co-hosted by up to 3 major shows versus the previous 2.
*Players have more freedom to delete and add promos and matches.
*50 of the most-used cutscenes have been reshot with female mocap actors to look more authentic when female Superstars are used.
*25 new cutscenes have been added.
*3,040 new promo lines are in the game.
*Custom Matches can now be included in Match Tables, along with new Mixed Tag Matches.
*New Championship Match setting in Match Tables can be used to make certain matches a title match.
*Main Event matches in Match Tables have been tweaked so that those match types are more likely to occur on the show (Example: Royal Rumble match at the Royal Rumble Pay-Per-View).
*New rivalry content includes options such as low-intensity enemies making peace after a single Pay-Per-View or low to mid-intensity allies slowly falling out over several weeks instead of a sudden turn.
*The overall menu flow has been streamlined to make it more accessible to those new to Universe Mode. All deeper options are still available for experienced players.
**Washington City Paper has a feature up about AEW Women’s World Title contender, Nyla Rose.
**WWE Hall Of Famer Mark Henry joined Macquarie Sports Radio to promote WWE’s string of live events in Australia in October.
**Johnny Gargano vs. Shane Thorne has been added to the October 2nd edition of NXT on the USA Network.
**Glenn “Kane” Jacobs, D-Von Dudley, Joey Ryan, Tito Santana, and Renee Michelle are scheduled to appear at Maryland Championship Wrestling’s ‘Tribute To The Legends’ convention/show on October 5th in Joppa, Maryland.
**Davey Boy Smith Jr. vs. Tom Lawlor is official for MLW’s ‘Blood & Thunder’ show in Orlando on November 9th.
**Washington D.C.-based promotion, Prime Time Pro Wrestling was spotlighted by The Washington Post.
**Due to injury, Eddie Kingston has been pulled from AAW’s ‘Defining Moment’ show on September 28th. He was set to team with David Starr to take on Curt Stallion and Jake Something. AAW has since announced that Jake Something will be defending the AAW Heritage Championship against David Starr.
**The current Mexican National Light Heavyweight Champion Barbaro Cavernario has been announced for the 2019 British J-Cup.
**Jim Varsallone of the Miami Herald interviewed WWE interviewer and correspondent, Charly Caruso.
**FOX 11 Los Angeles talked to NXT founder and senior producer Triple H at the WWE Performance Center in Orlando, Florida.
**AEW co-Executive Vice President Kenny Omega chatted with TV Guide and praised the AEW roster. Omega stated that most of the talent on the roster made it to where they are on their own merits, did not have help from outside influences and used their own ideas and ingenuity to make it where they are now.
**Ring Of Honor C.O.O. Joe Koff appeared on Wrestling Observer Live.
**WWE Hall Of Famer “Superstar” Billy Graham took to his personal Facebook page and shared that he is home from the hospital after suffering a heart attack:
“Hey fans, I am back home from the Mayo Clinic Hospital. I wanted to thank everyone for their well wishes and prayers. I need rest right now but by this coming Sunday evening I will give all my Facebook fans an in-depth report on the status of my heart. All I will say for now is that I have suffered a heart attack and am in constant heart failure. I am of course on medications for my heart and will be for the remainder of my life. I am keeping the faith and will fight !!!”
**Jake “The Snake” Roberts joined Wrestling Inside The Ropes with Mike Riley to promote his “Dirty Details Tour” that’ll be stopping through Newburyport, Massachusetts on November 5th.
**For those in San Diego, California or near the area, FOX 5 San Diego has on-going sweepstakes and four tickets to WWE’s live event in San Diego on October 5th are up for grabs.
VIDEO
**The WWEPC YouTube channel has a video up in-which Lio Rush opened up about his return to NXT after being away from WWE for five months.
**Brandi and Cody Rhodes joined Collider Live and talked about AEW’s debut on TNT, Nyla Rose’s positive impact on the company and CM Punk stating during an interview with ESPN that AEW offered him a contract through text message.
**Inside The Ropes released their interview with Jimmy Havoc. Havoc was asked about the forthcoming “Wednesday Night Wars” between NXT and AEW and described it as two rosters filled with talents from the independent scene who are competing against one another on national television:
“It doesn’t change our mindset. For me, the biggest thing was it shows that WWE is scared. They do consider us… as much as they wanna slack us off in the press conferences or whatever or the sponsored phone calls or whatever. They’re scared.” Havoc feels. “If they weren’t scared, they wouldn’t be putting another show directly in competition with us, and I think it’s quite nice because the guys that are going to be on NXT, are the guys that we were wrestling together with back on the indies, so I think it’s quite cool that it’s basically two big indies competing together on national TV every Wednesday night. We’ve got the Wednesday night wars now. The reason the best wrestling was the Monday Night Wars was because the competition. We’re all trying to push each other to be that better product.”
**NXT Champion Adam Cole appeared on Isaiah “Swerve” Scott’s ‘Swerve City’ podcast.
**Cody and Brandi Rhodes did promotional work on behalf of All Elite Wrestling by appearing on KTLA 5.
*****
Cafe Hangout
John Pollock and Wai Ting discuss WWE’s new Raw & SD broadcast teams, John Hennigan re-signing with WWE, AEW’s UK TV situation, NXT Week 2 ratings. Nate Milton joins us to discuss Impact’s transition to AXS TV.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/09/26/cafe-hangout-new-wwe-broadcast-teams-aew-uk-tv-nxt-rating-nate-milton/
******
THE FINAL SHOT
On the final edition of the DOUBLE SHOT, John Pollock and Wai Ting discuss WWE Untold’s profile of Kane’s debut and the first HIAC, Road to AEW on TNT Ep. 4, Being The Elite 171, WWEPC’s Roderick Strong feature and NWA Ten Pounds of Gold.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/09/26/the-final-shot-wwe-untold-road-to-aew-roderick-strong-ten-pounds-of-gold/
*****
upNXT 9/25/19: Kushdango!
Braden Herrington and Davie Portman are back to chat all about this week’s WWE NXT featuring Matt Riddle vs Killian Dain in a Street Fight for the Number One Contendership of the NXT Title, KUSHIDA & Breezango vs Imperium, Cameron Grimes vs Raul Mendoza and much, much more!
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/09/26/upnxt-9-25-19-kushdango/
*****
RASD 9/24/19: Farewell to USA, Impact Wrestling on Tuesdays
The final Tuesday night edition of SmackDown saw Shane McMahon and Kevin Owens set up one final match with a major stipulation, Roman Reigns and Daniel Bryan come together for a match against Erick Rowan and Luke Harper at Hell in a Cell.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/09/25/rasd-9-24-19-goodbye-usa-impact-wrestling-on-tuesdays/
*****
RAR 9/23/19: Fatal Five-Rey, Lacey vs. Canada, POST’s new schedule
John Pollock and Wai Ting review WWE Raw featuring a Fatal Five-Way to become #1 contender and more details about next week’s Raw Season Premiere. Plus, we reveal the new fall schedule at POST Wrestling.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/09/24/rar-9-23-19-fatal-five-rey-lacey-vs-canada-posts-new-schedule/
*****
NJPW Destruction in Kobe POST Show (Patreon)
John Pollock & Wai Ting review NJPW’s Destruction in Kobe featuring Tetsuya Naito defending the IWGP Intercontinental title against Jay White and a major angle involving Jushin “Thunder” Liger and Minoru Suzuki.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/09/23/njpw-destruction-in-kobe-2019-post-show/
*****
upNXT’s EVOLVE 135 & 136 POST Show
Davie Portman is back to chat all about this weekend’s two EVOLVE cards taking place from Brooklyn and Queens, New York with Jesse from the Six and John Siino.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/09/21/upnxt-9-21-19-evolve-135-136-post-show/
*****
POST MOVIE REVIEW: Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017)
John Pollock and Wai Ting review the fifteenth Marvel Cinematic Universe film, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017). We discuss James Gunn’s sequel to his 2014 surprise hit, the comedic talents of Dave Bautista as Drax, Yondu’s fantastic babyface turn, the incredible emotive abilities of a CGI raccoon, and how Awesome Mix Vol. 2 stacks up against the original.
https://www.patreon.com/posts/30096101
*****
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