POST IT NOTES
**Monday’s edition of Rewind-A-Raw is up on the site with Wai Ting and I running through the show from Nashville with the highs and lows of Raw. Plus, a discussion on the NXT and AEW ratings that came out Monday, Tommaso Ciampa’s interview with Lilian Garcia, Mauro Ranallo returning to NXT, Bill Goldberg advertised for Austin’s next interview, and a new match added to AEW Dynamite.
**Unbelievable.
**Tonight, on the POST Wrestling Café, Wai Ting and I present Rewind-A-Wai #50 covering the WWF’s Royal Rumble 2000 show from Madison Square Garden. This show was selected by Espresso Executive Producer Tony Arthur and will cover the show in-depth including:
-The talent roster in 2000 and the upcoming additions to the roster
-Life without Steve Austin after his neck surgery
-The circumstances that led to Mick Foley getting this huge program with Triple H
-How close Foley was to retire in late 1999
-One of the most important matches of Triple H’s career
-The state of WWF’s tag division
-The rise of The Dudleys after debuting in September
-One of the worst segments in pay-per-view history
-Tazz debuts
-How the finish to the Royal Rumble was handled
-Rikishi’s popularity takes off & lots more
**Andrew Thompson spoke with AEW’s Joey Janela about wanting to change the perception he has gained and wants to showcase that he can wrestle with a technical style. He also discussed the following Game Changer Wrestling has acquired, wrestling for EVOLVE in the past, his thoughts on Darby Allin, and more.
**On Wednesday, we will be back with Rewind-A-Dynamite and upNXT with Braden Herrington & Davie Portman.
POST WRESTLING VIDEO
WRESTLING NEWS
**The next episode of Steve Austin’s Broken Skull Sessions will feature Bill Goldberg as the guest. The interview will air on the WWE Network following the TLC pay-per-view on Sunday, December 15th. Their careers in the WWE just missed each other with Goldberg debuting on Raw the night after Austin’s final match at WrestleMania 19 in 2003. Obviously, had the match taken place, even by 2003, it would have done monstrous business on pay-per-view. Goldberg being involved with the WCW invasion would have been big but there is hardly a guarantee they wouldn’t have screwed up the invasion regardless. WWE wasn’t about to upset their salary structure to being in Goldberg, who was being paid a huge from Time Warner to sit at home and be with his family. Once his existing deal was up with Time Warner, it opened the doors to strike a deal with WWE with Dwayne Johnson pushing for it. The two only had one match at the Backlash card in April 2003 and never did the rematch. Goldberg floundered in the WWE’s system in 2003 where it was a classic example of taking someone with a clearly defined presentation and altering it to suit their needs and it led to a watered-down version of Goldberg, who was vocal about how much he hated his year in WWE and left after WrestleMania 20 in 2004. The second stint in 2016 was a total change and they handled Goldberg so well in the Brock Lesnar program culminating with a great, albeit quick, match at WrestleMania 33 in 2017.
**All Elite Wrestling and InDemand have announced a partnership that guarantees quarterly events from the wrestling outfit through June 2021. The deal was announced Tuesday with the language signifying ‘a minimum of one PPV event per quarter’. In its short history, AEW has run three pay-per-view beginning with last May’s Double or Nothing show followed by All Out in August and Full Gear last month from Baltimore. The company has not announced its next event for the first quarter of 2020 but has previously stated that Memorial Day and Labor Day are expected to become traditional weekends they run. In terms of possible dates, January seems too quick and with the addition of the Conor McGregor vs. Donald Cerrone card one week before Royal Rumble weekend, it would signal that month is likely out. In February, they could run the night before the Super Bowl as that was a strong night for the UFC including Brock Lesnar’s debut for the company in 2008. The following weekend is the Jon Jones vs. Dominick Reyes fight and leaves February 15th (the night before NXT TakeOver), 22nd, and 29th along with the month of March where they could face big competition from college basketball.
**Due to the delays from Thanksgiving last week, the Raw ratings will be delayed until Wednesday.
**Mauro Ranallo is expected to be back on NXT this Wednesday night with Ryan Satin of Pro Wrestling Sheet reporting it first. Ranallo missed last week’s show following Survivor Series weekend where he left Chicago after TakeOver and didn’t appear at the pay-per-view on Sunday. This followed a pair of tweets from announcer Corey Graves critical of Ranallo’s commentary during TakeOver. Graves did issue an apology on his podcast last Wednesday while the WWE has not publicly commented on the story behind the cover reason from Michael Cole at the Survivor Series that Ranallo had blown out his voice. Beth Phoenix wished Ranallo well last week on NXT and said they looked forward to seeing him this week.
**NWA Power will air its final episode from the October 1st tapings at GPB Studios at 6:05 pm Eastern tonight. The episode will lead to the December 14th ‘Into the Fire’ pay-per-view and will include Jim Cornette’s commentary with Joe Galli from these tapings along and an announcement of Cornette’s replacement for the pay-per-view. Tonight’s season-finale features Thomas Latimer & Royce Isaacs defending the NWA tag titles against The Rock ‘N’ Roll Express and they will reveal Colt Cabana’s opponent for the pay-per-view. Regarding Cornette, the NWA issued the following statement on Tuesday:
Lastly, it’s the final episode of the NWA Powerrr called by analyst and pro wrestling legend Jim Cornette. We thank Jim for his support of the National Wrestling Alliance in Season 1, and his over thirty plus years with the organization. His call of the Rock N Roll Express match is an exemplary display of his many talents, and we wish Jim nothing but the best moving forward.
**Chris DeJoseph and MLW are no longer working together with the news first reported by Mike Johnson at PWinsider.com that DeJoseph notified the group he was leaving on Monday night. DeJoseph joined the promotion in October to serve as a co-executive producer and worked with the company for their Saturday SuperFight pay-per-view and the Blood & Thunder television tapings in Orlando in November. It was later reported by Mike Johnson that DeJoseph is going back to WWE where he worked from 2004-10.
**PWinsider.com reports that Jeff Hardy is scheduled for a court appearance this Friday stemming from his arrest on October 3rd in Moore County, North Carolina. Hardy was pulled over after driving erratically and admitted to having two shots of vodka earlier that night. He failed a field sobriety test and was said to be uncooperative. Hardy has been out of action for several months due to injury.
**Paul Levesque recently discussed WWE’s business in India, the potential of setting up a local pool of talent in the country, and NXT’s role. He reiterated what was said during the recent NXT conference call about talent speaking privately if they have issues with the company rather than voicing their displeasure on social media:
I don’t agree with it at all. Obviously in any organisation, there are arguments and disagreements. Athletes need to be professional about it and not take to viewing their opinions in public. If they want to see out their contracts or leave the company, they need to do it internally — not try to ‘break the internet’ as has become the norm these days!
**NXT has added a match between Rhea Ripley and Dakota Kai for this week’s episode on Wednesday night. They had previously announced that Damian Priest will face Killian Dane, as well.
**Tonight’s episode of WWE Backstage will feature an interview with Seth Rollins along with Stephen Amell appearing on the program. CM Punk confirmed he will not be on tonight’s show and added that he is ‘90% sure’ he will be back next Tuesday.
**AEW is advertising that Brandi Rhodes will speak on Wednesday night’s episode of Dynamite with Awesome Kong. Below are the matches for Wednesday night’s show on TNT from Champaign, Illinois:
*Kenny Omega vs. Joey Janela
*The Young Bucks & Dustin Rhodes vs. Santana, Ortiz & Sammy Guevara
*Rey Fenix vs. Trent
*Pentagon Jr. vs. Christopher Daniels
*Hikaru Shida vs. Kris Statlander
**Auto Week covered Kyle Busch’s 24/7 title win on Raw Monday night in Nashville.
**New Japan’s World Tag League has three more shows with the final night of the tour on Sunday. It is effectively down to EVIL & Sanada (22 points), Juice Robinson & David Finlay (20 points), and the Guerrillas of Destiny (20 points) with three matches left for each team. Tomohiro Ishii & Yoshi-Hashi, Colt Cabana & Toru Yano, and Minoru Suzuki & Lance Archer have 16 points. Cabana & Yano only have two matches left so they are mathematically out while the others have there matches left but wouldn’t expect a logjam with a first-place tie, so it’s essentially the top three vying for the win.
Below is the lineup for Thursday’s show in Fukuoka:
*Tomohiro Ishii & Yoshi-Hashi vs. Hirooki Goto & Karl Fredericks
*Bad Luck Fale & Chase Owens vs. Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima
*KENTA & Yujiro vs. Jeff Cobb & Mikey Nicholls
*Hiroshi Tanahashi & Toa Henare vs. Zack Sabre Jr. & Taichi
*EVIL & Sanada vs. Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma
*Kazuchika Okada & Roppongi 3K vs. Kota Ibushi, Jushin Thunder Liger & Tiger Mask
*Guerrillas of Destiny vs. Shingo Takagi & Terrible
*Juice Robinson & David Finlay vs. Minoru Suzuki & Lance Archer
**The remaining Tag League shows take place Friday morning in Kumamoto and the final night is Sunday from Hiroshima.
**MLW has added a match between Savio Vega and Gino Medina to the Opera Cup tapings this Thursday night at the Melrose Ballroom. Below is the updated card for the Fusion tapings on Thursday:
*Jacob Fatu, Ikuro Kwon & Simon Gotch vs. CIMA, El Lindaman & Shigehiro Irie
*Shinjiro Otani vs. Davey Boy Smith Jr. in the opening round of the Opera Cup tournament
*Alex Hammerstone vs. MJF in the opening round
*Timothy Thatcher vs. Richard Holliday in the opening round
*Brian Pillman Jr. vs. TJP in the opening round
*Mance Warner vs. Jimmy Havoc in a Prince of Darkness match
*Tom Lawlor vs. A Von Erich member
**The WWE stock closed at $61.88 on Tuesday.
**GCW has confirmed that Josh Barnett’s Bloodsport will be part of ‘The Collective’ over WrestleMania weekend. The popular concept event takes place Thursday, April 2nd from The Cuban Club in Ybor City, Florida with an 8 pm start time.
**The Collective has also revealed several talk shows for the week. The Corner Podcast, hosted by Andreas Hale and Kel Dansby will host a discussion about race, gender, and minority representation on Thursday, April 2nd at Noon at The Theatre at the Cuban Club. Colt Cabana will host a live ‘Art of Wrestling’ on Friday, April 3rd at the same location from 4-6 pm.
**Ring of Honor is advertising the following matches for their final set of television tapings for 2019. The tapings will take place on Sunday, December 15th from the 2300 Arena in Philadelphia two days after Final Battle in Baltimore:
*Kenny King vs. Rhett Titus
*Alex Shelley vs. Jonathan Gresham
*Tyler Bateman vs. Tracy Williams
*Rey Horus vs. Flip Gordon
*Marty Scurll & PCO vs. Jeff Cobb & Dan Maff
*Sumie Sakai vs. Nicole Savoy
**Greektown Wrestling has a card in Toronto on Sunday, December 15th at 310 Danforth Avenue at Eastminster United Church. The show features Frankie ‘The Beast King’ vs. Channing Decker in a Steel Cage match for the Greektown title, 2 Cold Scorpio vs. PUF, Jake Something vs. Bill Collier, RJ City vs. Jock Samson, and TDT vs. Brent Banks & Tarik.
**This weekend, Combate Americas holds its pay-per-view featuring Tito Ortiz fighting Alberto El Patron in the promotion’s most publicized event and fight to date. While Ortiz and Alberto are doing a lot of media, I think this is an example of a fight that will be hurt being on pay-per-view. I don’t sense anything close to the level of coverage Ortiz and Chuck Liddell received last year and that show bombed on pay-per-view. If this was airing on free television, I would think it would do surprisingly well, but pay-per-view is going to be difficult. It’s also hurt going against a free UFC card on ESPN with Alistair Overeem facing Jairzinho Rozenstruik.
*****
RAR 12/2/19: “Calm, Cool, Collected”, AEW-NXT Ratings
John Pollock and Wai Ting review WWE Raw featuring Seth Rollins’ apology and Lana & Lashley getting arrested. We also discuss last week’s delayed AEW and NXT ratings and the rest of the day’s news.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/12/03/rar-12-2-19-calm-cool-collected-nxt-aew-ratings/
*****
THUNDERSTRUCK: Jushin Thunder Liger vs. El Samurai (April 30, 1992)
WH Park and Dylan Fox of The Eastern Lariat podcast have a fun discussion on the finals of the Top of the Super Junior III tournament from April 30, 1992, between Jushin Liger and El Samurai.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/12/01/thunderstruck-6-jushin-liger-vs-el-samurai-4-30-92-w-dylan-fox/
*****
BRITISH WRESTLING EXPERIENCE
Martin & Jamesie are joined by JP Houlihan of GRAPPL Spotlight to discuss all the European representation over Survivor Series Weekend including Pete Dunne’s two matches and WALTER. JP gives his live report from the Rev Pro British J Cup.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/11/29/bwe-11-29-19-rev-pro-british-j-cup-survivor-series-weekend-mail-bag/
*****
Café Hangout – Nov. 28, 2019
John Pollock and Wai Ting open up the phone lines for an entire hour taking your calls about any current topics in wrestling and MMA. We then review this week’s WWE NXT following up on the brand’s dominance at Survivor Series.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/11/28/unlocked-live-link-for-todays-cafe-hangout-3-pm-et/
*****
REWIND-A-DYNAMITE 11/27/19: A Little Bit of the Foilies
John Pollock and Wai Ting review AEW Dynamite featuring Chris Jericho vs. Scorpio Sky for the AEW title. We also discuss today’s news.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/11/28/rad-11-27-19-a-little-bit-of-the-foilies/
*****
upNXT 11/27/19: Prince Meet King
Braden Herrington and Davie Portman are back to chat all about the November 27 edition of NXT featuring a huge main event between Tommaso Ciampa vs Finn Balor.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/11/28/upnxt-11-28-19-prince-meet-king/
*****
ASK-A-WAI – December 2019
John Pollock and Wai Ting answer their patrons’ questions from the POST Wrestling Forum in the December 2019 edition of Ask-A-Wai.
https://www.patreon.com/posts/31885914
*****
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