POST IT NOTES
**Monday’s edition of Rewind-A-Raw features our review of Raw and a big recap of The Undertaker’s interview on the Broken Skull Sessions with Steve Austin. On the show, we also discussed the latest on the Corey Graves/Mauro Ranallo story, the announcement of NXT vs. NXT UK at Worlds Collide in January, SmackDown’s final number from Friday, and your feedback & questions at the end of the show.
**Wai Ting and I will be doing our monthly ASK-A-WAI mailbag show late tonight for members of the POST Wrestling Café. You can submit questions in the thread on the POST Wrestling Forum.
POST WRESTLING VIDEO
**Andrew Thompson speaks with Impact Wrestling referee Kris Levin:
WRESTLING NEWS
**Brian Keck, who was a successful amateur wrestler and MMA coach has died after going missing this past weekend in Mexico. Keck, who was a Division I wrestler with Bloomsburg University, and later trained out of the U.S. Olympic facility in Colorado Springs, Colorado. He competed in both Freestyle and Greco-Roman, including a gold medal at the 2003 Pan-American Championships in freestyle and a bronze at the 2004 championships.
He was heavily involved in the amateur wrestling scene in Iowa and had a history in professional wrestling.
Keck was signed by the World Wrestling Federation in August 2000 and was part of the star-studded class in Ohio Valley Wrestling that included Brock Lesnar, Shelton Benjamin, John Cena, Randy Orton, and Dave Bautista. His time was short-lived in OVW and was let go in the months after the WWF purchased WCW and had an influx of talent. Later, he was involved with the Real Pro Wrestling concept that included Daniel Cormier and Muhammed ‘King Mo’ Lawal.
In later years, he joined Xtreme Couture as the head wrestling coach in Las Vegas in 2009 and stayed until 2012. He worked with Alliance MMA in San Diego.
According to reports, Keck had gone to Tijuana, Mexico, went missing and later declared dead. He was 48 years old. Keck recently did a sit-down interview with the Shake Hands Wrestling Podcast with the video of the interview posted.
USA Wrestling Executive Director Rich Bender gave the following statement on Keck’s passing:
The news last night of Brian Keck’s untimely passing sends a shock wave through our community. Brian was an incredible ambassador for USA Wrestling and the entire sport. His tireless contributions, first as a fierce athlete and later as a top administrator, will be sorely missed. Known by many as just the ‘Kecker,’ his kind spirit, quick wit and passionate love for our sport will leave a lasting legacy. Our thoughts and prayers go out to the Keck family and the thousands of young wrestlers that he impacted.
**James Keck, his brother, has set up a Go Fund Me campaign to cover the costs of having Keck’s body sent home from Mexico.
**Craig Sesker at Intermat wrote a tribute about Keck following the news of his passing.
**WWE has announced two matches for the Starrcade special this Sunday that will feature a one-hour airing on the WWE Network. In a fatal-four-way match for the WWE women’s tag titles, the Kabuki Warriors will defend against Sasha Banks & Bayley, Becky Lynch & Charlotte Flair, and Nikki Cross & Alexa Bliss. This will be Bliss’ first match back since being sidelined since Hell in a Cell in October. The show will also feature a Last Man Standing match between Bobby Lashley and Rusev with the show airing at 7 pm Eastern from Duluth, Georgia.
**Ryan Satin at Pro Wrestling Sheet is reporting that Lana (C.J. Perry) has signed a new five-year deal with WWE. Perry, 34, signed with WWE in 2013 and was assigned to NXT where she was eventually paired with future husband Rusev. The two were brought to the main roster in 2014 with Rusev becoming the United States champion by the end of the year and defending it against John Cena at WrestleMania 31 in 2015. Since then, the two were added to the Total Divas reality series for seasons six through eight. The couple was married in 2016 and are currently part of a storyline with Lana filing for divorce from Rusev and leaving him for Bobby Lashley.
**After a tumultuous week that included the resignation of Jim Cornette, NWA Power returns tonight at 6:05 pm Eastern. The show will include an Empty Arena match, the next challenger revealed for Nick Aldis, an interview with Melina, and the continuation of the Thunder Rosa documentary. I thought Wai Ting had an excellent idea that the NWA should use the first few minutes during the countdown portion with Billy Corgan and David Lagana addressing last week’s issues and not avoiding the elephant in the room.
**Impact Wrestling has switched up it’s annual Thanksgiving week episode and will present the ‘Throwback Throwdown’ that was taped last month in Mississauga, Ontario. It is being presented as a time warp taking the roster members back to 1983 with the same feel of Southpaw Regional Wrestling but for a full two-hour episode. The marketing of the show by Impact and AXS TV has been strong and Impact is trying their hardest to create a buzz about themselves so trying outlandish ideas is encouraged. I have no doubt this should be very entertaining for a one-show show providing the joke doesn’t get old after two hours. The show airs at 8 pm Eastern tonight on AXS TV, Fight Network in Canada and streams on Twitch. Next week is the start of the last set of tapings from the Melrose Ballroom and begins the promotion for the Hard to Kill pay-per-view in January. Below are the matches listed:
*Julian Cumberbun (Ethan Page) vs. Downtown Daddy Brown (Willie Mack)
*Agnus Beerheart (Alisha) vs. Jazzy Fitbody (Madison Rayne)
*The Body Slam Challenge with Kongo Kong
*Johnny Swinger vs. Buck Gunderson
**WWE Backstage returns tonight at 11 pm Eastern on FS 1. Triple H will be a guest on the show while CM Punk is off this week. It was established from the beginning that Punk would not be a weekly regular and I would expect the audience level to reflect his appearances during this period. Last week’s show saw a big increase to 180,000 viewers after a week of promoting Punk speaking on the show following his unannounced reveal the week prior.
**Here are the matches for tonight’s episode of AEW Dark at 7 pm Eastern featuring Excalibur and Shawn Spears on commentary:
*Kenny Omega vs. Jack Evans for the AAA Mega heavyweight title
*Big Swole vs. Shanna
*Pentagon Jr. vs. Trent
**Corey Graves’ guests on the After the Bell podcast on Wednesday will be Kevin Owens, Shayna Baszler, and the Viking Raiders. Obviously, the bigger subject is whether Graves will address the story with Mauro Ranallo or not.
**Marty Scurll posted a video announcing he would be teaming with Flip Gordon against Bandido & Flamita at ROH Final Battle on Friday, December 13th in Baltimore. The tag match is going to open the pay-per-view according to Scurll.
**The WWE stock closed at $61.00 on Tuesday.
**Rev Pro’s next major show is Sunday, December 15th at York Hall featuring a rematch between Michael Oku and PAC. Both were finalists in the four-way elimination match this past Sunday with Oku winning the British J-Cup.
**MLW has announced that Muhammed ‘King Mo’ Lawal will be wrestling at next week’s Opera Cups on December 5th. They have stated that Lawal has signed an open contract and hasn’t revealed his opponent. Lawal debuted for the promotion earlier this month on the day after his retirement fight with Bellator.
**WWN has stated that their WrestleMania week events will include two shows from EVOLVE, the WWN Supershow, and a card from SHIMMER along with ‘some new show concepts featuring our friends.’ All the WWN-related events will take place from the Bryan Glazer JCC, which is near the Amalie Arena in Tampa, Florida. WWN will be releasing more information next week.
**New Japan’s World Tag League resumes on Wednesday in Hamamatsu with the following card that will be airing on delay on New Japan World:
*Karl Fredericks & Hirooki Goto (4) vs. Shingo Takagi & Terrible (6)
*Tomohiro Ishii & Yoshi-Hashi (12) vs. Yuji Nagata & Manabu Nakanishi (2)
*Lance Archer & Minoru Suzuki (8) vs. Satoshi Kojima & Hiroyoshi Tenzan (8)
*Juice Robinson & David Finlay (12) vs. Jeff Cobb & Mikey Nicholls (10)
*Zack Sabre Jr. & Taichi (4) vs. Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma (6)
*Jay White & Gedo vs. Tetsuya Naito & Bushi in a non-title match
*Guerrillas of Destiny (8) vs. Bad Luck Fale & Chase Owens (4)
**All Japan’s Real World Tag League continues on Wednesday with two tournament matches scheduled for the show and will be available on their streaming service:
*Parrow & Odinson vs. Takashi Yoshida & Gianni Valletta
*Kento Miyahara & Yuma Aoyagi vs. Tajiri & KAI
**Due to a personal reason, LuFisto is unable to work this Friday at the C*4 Wrestling show in Ottawa, Ontario. She was scheduled to face Tony Deppen and will be replaced by Danhausen. The card will also feature Josh Alexander taking on Daniel Garcia at St. Anthony’s Hall at 525 St-Anthony Street at 7:30 pm.
MMA NEWS
**One of the biggest potential fights for 2020 is in negotiations as the UFC attempts to put together the lightweight fight that has alluded them. UFC president Dana White spoke to Brett Okamoto of ESPN stating they are attempting to put together the long-awaited fight between lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov and Tony Ferguson for April 18th at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. This would mark the fifth time that they have attempted to stage the fight after injuries to both men curtailed past efforts. In the report, ESPN states that Nurmagomedov has signed the bout agreement and that Ferguson is ‘has not signed yet but is interested in making the bout, pending further negotiations.’ Nurmagomedov fought this past September and defeated Dustin Poirier to retain his championship at UFC 242. Ferguson is unquestionably the number one contender as he has won his last 12 fights and stopped Donald Cerrone in his last outing this past June.
**Gina Carano did a rare interview on her MMA past when she appeared on Ariel Helwani’s MMA Show on Monday. From 2007-09, Carano was among the biggest stars in the sport and did so outside of the UFC. While female mixed martial arts was promoted through ground-breaking promotions like Jeff Osborne’s Hook ‘N’ Shoot, Carano was the first female superstar in the sport. When Elite XC held its first card in February 2007, the main event featured Renzo Gracie fighting Frank Shamrock but the fight with the legacy from that card is Carano fighting Julie Kedzie in a fantastic fight that promoter Gary Shaw had to fight for Showtime to allow on the card. Carano and Kimbo Slice were the top stars with Elite XC and opened the door for the promotion to air on CBS in May 2008 where Kimbo defeated James Thompson and Carano defeated Kaitlin Young. The company would go out of business later that year and Carano was brought into Strikeforce by Scott Coker and led to the biggest women’s MMA fight at that point in history when she fought Cris ‘Cyborg’ Justino. The August 2009 fight was a big success drawing just under 14,000 to the SAP Center and their fight being watched by 856,000 viewers, which was the most-watched MMA fight in Showtime’s history at the time.
Carano never fought again but went into details about her talks with UFC during the interview with Helwani. Carano noted that she had spoken with the UFC while she was under contract and they wanted her for the WEC and Carano wasn’t going to violate her contract even though she was told by the UFC they could get her out of it.
Years later, she met with company officials and verbally agreed to fight Ronda Rousey for $1 million. Carano asked them to keep the negotiations quiet so she could assemble or join a gym/team to and needed six months to put everything together and earn a team’s trust before the news could be revealed about the fight with Rousey. Carano stated that the next day, Dana White started discussing they were in talks and kept discussing a potential fight with Rousey. Carano was not happy with that but the real killer was when White sent a text message to her that said something to the effect of ‘this bitch is f—ing us around’. Carano responded to the text stating she thought it must have been meant for someone else, which White replied it wasn’t. Carano did not want to do business with the UFC after that and what would have been one of the biggest pay-per-views of all-time with Rousey, never happened. Carano did add that an event to honor her father (former Nevada Athletic Commission member Glenn Carano) that White gave Carano a sincere apology that she accepted.
In 2011, Carano was expected to return and fight Sarah D’Alelio in Strikeforce but the fight fell apart and Carano was transitioning to movies and essentially moved on from fighting at that time in her life. Carano is now a cast member on The Mandalorian series streaming on Disney+.
**Cindy Dandois, who has fought for Invicta FC and Bellator, was recently attacked with a report out of Belgium stating the attacker was an ex-boyfriend. MMA Junkie translated a report from the Het Laatste Nieuws with quotes from Dandois stating she was attacked by her ex and was unprepared when it occurred. The attacker slapped her in the face, broke her nose and used a key as a weapon. Dandois sustained a deep cut that required seven stitches to close and will leave a scar. Dandois is not pressing charges but has lodged a complaint in hopes of the individual covering her medical costs. Dandois was set to fight in Belgium this week and is off of the card but hopeful of fighting December 15th on the promotion’s next event.
**Anthony Pettis is going to return to the division he was once champion of with his next fight taking place at lightweight. MMA Junkie was the first to report that Pettis is set to fight Diego Ferreira in a lightweight contest on January 18th. The January card is being constructed with the hopes of Conor McGregor headlining the show and would be a pay-per-view with McGregor’s addition. Pettis fought his last two fights at welterweight defeating Stephen Thompson this past March and then losing by decision to Nate Diaz in August. Pettis won the UFC lightweight title in August 2013 submitting rival Benson Henderson in Pettis’ hometown of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He held the title until March 2015 where he dropped it to Rafael dos Anjos. Since losing the title, Pettis has gone 4-6 and jumped across multiple weight divisions with fights at featherweight, lightweight, and welterweight during that stretch. Ferreira, 34, is 7-2 during his UFC stretch and has won his previous five fights. He earned decision wins over Rustam Khabilov and Mairbek Taisumov this year, although Ferreira missed weight in February for the fight with Khabilov.
**MMA Fighting reported that Paige VanZant will fight Amanda Ribas at a yet-to-be-announced UFC card on Saturday, March 14th in Brazil. VanZant last fought in January where she submitted Rachael Ostovich at flyweight. The fight against Ribas will see VanZant return to the strawweight division at 115-pounds. Ribas is coming off a decision victory over Mackenzie Dern last month.
**The UFC has added a Fight Night card in Rio Rancho, New Mexico on Saturday, February 15th at the Santa Ana Star Center. They have also added a Fight Night show for the O2 Arena in London, England on Saturday, March 21st.
*****
RAR 11/25/19: “Twitter Seth”, Austin-Undertaker Interview
John Pollock and Wai Ting review WWE Raw following the Survivor Series featuring Seth Rollins’ Town Hall. Plus, we discuss Steve Austin’s interview with The Undertaker on the Broken Skull Sessions.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/11/26/rar-11-25-19-twitter-seth-undertaker-austin-interview/
*****
WWE SURVIVOR SERIES POST SHOW
John Pollock & Wai Ting are joined by upNXT’s Braden Herrington & Davie Portman to review WWE Survivor Series 2019 featuring Raw vs. SmackDown vs. NXT.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/11/24/live-link-for-tonights-wwe-survivor-series-2019-post-show-11pm-et/
*****
NXT TAKEOVER: WAR GAMES POST SHOW
Braden Herrington and Davie Portman are back reviewing NXT TakeOver: War Games III from the Allstate Arena featuring two War Games matches.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/11/23/nxt-takeover-war-games-iii-post-show/
*****
THUNDERSTRUCK: Jushin Thunder Liger vs. The Great Muta (October 20, 1996)
WH Park and Matt McEwen discuss Jushin Liger vs. The Great Muta from October 20, 1996 featuring the first appearance of Kishin Liger.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/11/24/thunderstruck-5-jushin-liger-vs-the-great-muta-10-20-96-w-matt-mcewen/
*****
Cafe Hangout: WWE Survivor Series & NXT TakeOver: War Games Preview
On today’s Café Hangout, John Pollock and Wai Ting are joined by The BDE to preview Sunday’s NXT TakeOver: WarGames and Survivor Series. Plus, your calls discussing Jim Cornette, CM Punk and more.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/11/21/the-bde-in-studio-for-todays-cafe-hangout-3-pm-et/
*****
upNXT 11/20/19: Seth’s Not Cool!
Braden Herrington and Davie Portman are back to chat all about this week’s go-home edition of NXT, Raw & SD talent appearing, CM Punk on WWE Backstage & more.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/11/21/upnxt-11-13-19-seths-not-cool/
*****
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