POST IT NOTES
**The latest Ask-A-Wai for the month of January is available for all members of the POST Wrestling Café. This month’s show featured some fantastic questions and Wai and I spent almost two hours going through all of them. The topics are always wide-ranging on this show involving wrestling and non-wrestling ones asked. We hope you enjoy this month’s show and new questions can always be submitted on the POST Wrestling Forum.
**We will have two shows up tonight with Rewind-A-Dynamite and upNXT with Braden Herrington and Davie Portman. You can also watch upNXT live at 10:30 pm Eastern on their YouTube channel.
**The Café Hangout returns on Thursday at 3 pm Eastern. We will have Gareth from the GRAPPL app joining us to discuss the popular app, the data they analyze and the GRAPPL 100. Plus, we will go through the latest news, take your phone calls and go through the AEW and NXT ratings at the end. The show is available live for all Patrons at any level and then gets released as a podcast later that night.
POST SCHEDULE
*Tonight: Rewind-A-Dynamite with John Pollock & Wai Ting
*Wednesday: upNXT with Braden Herrington & Davie Portman
*Thursday: Café Hangout w/ guest Gareth Hodgson from GRAPPL (Live at 3 pm ET for all Patrons)
*Friday: Rewind-A-SmackDown (Patreon)
*Sunday: Thunderstruck with WH Park & guest Rich Kraetsch of Voices of Wrestling (Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Tiger Mask III, 1/4/1994 at the Tokyo Dome)
*Sunday: New Beginning in Sapporo POST Show (Patreon)
WRESTLING NEWS
**The biggest story concerns the state of Pro Wrestling NOAH, which is now under new management as a subsidiary of CyberAgent Incorporated with the news first reported by Tokyo Sports. Just last year, 75% of the company had been sold to LIDET from Estbee Co. Ltd. CyberAgent has acquired 100% ownership of NOAH.
CyberAgent is a publicly-traded company founded in 1998 by Susumu Fujita and Yusuke Hidaka. They are an advertising and marketing company and involved in other media sectors including the development of PC and mobile content.
CyberAgent purchased DDT (Dramatic Dream Team) in 2017 and is going to lead to the two companies working together in several capacities.
A press release was issued regarding the acquisition by CyberAgent with the following from Sanshiro Takagi:
DDT Pro-Wrestling and PRO WRESTLING NOAH will be working together under CyberAgent Inc. going forward. By partnering within the same CyberAgent group, I believe that we will be able to bring about a new scenery in the pro-wrestling industry. Going forward, the two promotions will be sharing certain mid-ad back-office functions as companies within the same group. I, Sanshiro Takagi, will be assuming the position of President for both Companies, but at PRO-WRESTLING NOAH I will focus on managing the company, and leave the in-ring completely to talent and staff at PRO-WRESTLING NOAH. DDT Pro-Wrestling will continue to provide fun, exciting, and absurd Dramatic stories to the fans. We hope you will continue in your support for both promotions.
The @DDTpro_eng handle translated Wednesday’s press conference and provided the following notes:
*Sanshiro Takagi will serve as President of both DDT and NOAH while Naomichi Marfuji is listed as the Executive Vice President of NOAH
*Takagi is designated to work on the business end and leave the creative day-to-day with Marufuji and former NOAH President Arihiro Takeda
*It was Takagi who got the ball rolling after NOAH’s finances were hit and approached Susumu Fujita about saving NOAH with Takagi and Takeda beginning to speak in November
*NOAH’s relationship with LIDET (the previous owners)will continue with the group staying on board as a corporate sponsor
*NOAH will be running a free show on Thursday on DDT Universe, which is their streaming service and is the first time NOAH has been linked to a streaming service with several shows airing on YouTube over the past year. The plan is for DDT Universe to carry 1-2 NOAH shows per month. They have already added a NOAH section on the service.
*They also announced that DDT and NOAH will run back-to-back nights at Sumo Hall on November 21st and 22nd
*NOAH will still be featured on Samurai TV, G+, and will start streaming on AbemaTV in February
**Here are the matches for tonight’s episode of AEW Dynamite at the Wolstein Center in Cleveland, Ohio at 8 pm Eastern on TNT:
*Chris Jericho, Santana & Ortiz vs. Darby Allin & Private Party
*Cody vs. Kip Sabian
*The Young Bucks vs. The Butcher & The Blade
*Jon Moxley to speak after his win against Pac
**On NXT tonight, the following matches and announcements have been made for the show airing at 8 pm Eastern on the USA Network
*Adam Cole’s opponent at TakeOver: Portland to be revealed
*Pete Dunne & Matt Riddle vs. Zack Gibson & James Drake in the finals of the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic
*Tegan Nox vs. Dakota Kai
*Chelsea Green will compete
**Brie Bella (Brianna Monique Danielson) and Nikki Bella (Stephanie Nicole Garcia-Colace) revealed to People Magazine that the sisters are both pregnant and are expecting two weeks apart. Brie said that she and husband Bryan Danielson had been trying for several months and assumed they would not be having a second child. After feeling off during a trip to France, Brie took a pregnancy test right before Thanksgiving and revealed she was pregnant with their second child. Nikki started feeling sick and led to her taking a pregnancy test and called it a ‘total surprise’. The next season of Total Bellas is slated to air this spring and I would assume this would become the focal point of the series with the twins each expecting.
**I would recommend watching the final segment of NWA Power this week for the sit-down chat between Nick Aldis and Marty Scurll. When we often discuss ‘carrying yourself like a champion’, there is probably no one that has that element down as much as Aldis of the current generation beyond Kazuchika Okada when he was champion. But Okada isn’t doing segments like this one.
**It sounds like the match between Josh Alexander and Vikingo from Tuesday’s episode of Impact is worth going out of your way to see.
**Ahead of the Impact Wrestling tapings in Las Vegas on February 7-9, Impact is making Tessa Blanchard and Daga available today and tomorrow for media in Las Vegas. So, it’s notable they are putting Blanchard out there where you would have to imagine the accusations levied against her would be a subject that comes up.
**In what should be a contender for ‘match of the weekend’ in Tampa, WrestleCon has announced that Bandido will face Shingo Takagi at the Mark Hitchcock Memorial Supershow. The event takes place Thursday, April 2nd at 8 pm at the Ritz Ybor. Among the events going on the same night are the WWE Hall of Fame and Josh Barnett’s Bloodsport III.
**A mass was being held in Mexico City today in memory of La Parka (Jesus Alfonso Huerta Escoboza), who died earlier this month at the age of 54 following complications from the injuries he sustained after diving to the floor in a match last October.
**Ring of Honor has added a streaming option for next weekend’s ‘Free Enterprise’ card in Baltimore. The event, which is free to attend, will be streaming at 3 pm Eastern on Honor Club. They have announced the following for the show: Brody King vs. Rey Horus, Bandido & Flamita vs. The Briscoes, Slex vs. Flip Gordon, Jay Lethal & Jonathan Gresham vs. Jeff Cobb & Dan Maff in a Proving Ground match, Dalton Castle & Joe Hendry vs. Bateman & Vincent, Sumie Sakai vs. Session Moth Martina, Alex Zayne vs. Andrew Everett, and a battle royal.
**The WWE has announced its return to Japan will take place in July with three shows scheduled. On July 2nd, they will be at Edion Arena in Osaka followed by shows July 3rd and 4th at Yokohama Arena. While lineups can easily change, they are listing Shinsuke Nakamura, AJ Styles, Karl Anderson, Luke Gallows, Seth Rollins, Drew McIntyre, Andrade, Asuka, Kairi Sane, Bobby Lashley, Becky Lynch, and Charlotte Flair among the talent set to appear.
**Richard Holliday will face a mystery opponent chosen by Mance Warner this Saturday at the MLW Fightland card at the 2300 Arena in Philadelphia.
**Amazing Red and Petey Williams are the latest additions to the TNA ‘No Place Like Home’ show on Friday, April 3rd at WrestleCon.
**To mark her appearance in the women’s Royal Rumble, Tegan Nox got a tattoo of the number ‘28’.
**Greg Oliver at SLAM Wrestling wrote about living in the ‘golden age of research’ when it comes to professional wrestling and how far the industry has come in terms of availability and access to legitimate information. Given that it is professional wrestling, there is always that inherent pessimism that what is being said is a lie (for some reason, this called ‘working’ in pro wrestling but to the real world it’s lying). As someone that has worked in this field in some capacity since 2003, I have seen great advancements when it comes to the openness of most. Fans are more perceptive than ever and can smell bullshit at a more advanced level because of the information out there and the same goes for the quality of reporting out there – there will always be good and bad reporters and outlets but I can easily say the number of quality reporters out there has never been higher. Greg Oliver is in a small class of legitimate historians and it’s a field that I hope continues to grow because there are forgotten eras, forgotten performers, and major events that will get glossed over without people doing the legwork to get to the root of the story. I’m very optimistic about where wrestling media coverage is heading and hope to be a part of that, but Greg brings up a lot of great points in this piece regarding tools at our disposal that provide so many advantages than even a decade ago.
**Below is the NOAH card that will stream Thursday on DDT Universe from Korakuen Hall and features the finals of the Global Jr. League:
*El Hijo de Dr. Wagner Jr. vs. Kinya Okada
*HAYATA, Yo-Hey & Tadasuke vs. Kotaro Suzuki, Chris Ridgeway & Atushi Kotoge
*Akitoshi Saito & Masao Inoue vs. Mohammed Yone & Quiet Storm
*Hajime Ohara vs. Daisuke Harada in the semi-finals of the Global Junior League
*Yoshinari Ogawa vs. Dick Togo in the semi-finals of the Global Jr. League
*Naomichi Marufuji, Minoru Tanaka, Kaito Miyomiya, Hitoshi Kumano & Junta Miyawaki vs. Kenoh, Masa Kitamiya, Yoshiki Inamura, Hoah & Nioh
*Takashi Sugiura, Kazuyuki Fujita & Hideki Suzuki vs. Go Shiozaki, Katsuhiko Nakajima & Shuhei Taniguchi
*The finals of the Global Jr. League
**On this date in 2006, 2012, and 2017 the Royal Rumble took place in those respective years. In 2006, Rey Mysterio won the Rumble from the #2 position and eliminating Randy Orton last. This era was just covered in an edition of ‘WWE Untold’ and led to a big push for Mysterio to win the world title at WrestleMania 22, which Vince McMahon had to be strongly convinced of. McMahon relented in the end with Mysterio defeating champion Kurt Angle and Orton in a triple threat match that year but had a lame-duck run as champion and dropped it in July. In 2012, the Rumble was won by Sheamus and its legacy is connected to the quick win by Sheamus at WrestleMania 28 defeating Daniel Bryan to get Sheamus over and it kick-started the movement for Bryan. In 2017, they returned to the Alamodome that was the site of the 1997 Royal Rumble. That year’s show featured Randy Orton winning the match for the second time in his career and leading to a dreadful match with Bray Wyatt at WrestleMania 33. The show was highlighted by a rematch between John Cena and AJ Styles.
**The WWE PC account released a video Wednesday of Matt Riddle reacting to his appearance in the Royal Rumble and alluded to the reports of his incident with Brock Lesnar when saying he wants a match with Lesnar and doesn’t care if Lesnar doesn’t want it:
**Renee Young, Christian, Booker T., and Roman Reigns discuss Edge’s return on WWE Backstage:
**Chris Van Vliet sits down with NWA champion Nick Aldis:
*****
ASK-A-WAI: Ask Us Anything! (January 2020)
John Pollock and Wai Ting answer their patrons’ questions from the POST Wrestling Forum in the January 2020 edition of Ask-A-Wai.
https://www.patreon.com/posts/33528466
*****
RAR 1/27/20: Edge Speaks, WrestleMania Takes Shape
John Pollock and Wai Ting review WWE Raw featuring Royal Rumble fallout and the return of Edge. Plus, today’s news and the results of our 2020 Royal Rumble Pool!
https://www.postwrestling.com/2020/01/28/rewind-a-raw-1-27-20-edge-speaks-wrestlemania-takes-shape/
*****
WWE ROYAL RUMBLE 2020 POST SHOW
John Pollock & Wai Ting are joined by Mike Murray to review WWE Royal Rumble 2020 featuring 30-Man Men’s and Women’s Royal Rumble matches, Becky Lynch vs. Asuka, and Daniel Bryan vs. “The Fiend” Bray Wyatt.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2020/01/26/live-link-for-tonights-wwe-royal-rumble-2019-post-show-1130pm-et/
*****
THUNDERSTRUCK: Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Shinjiro Otani (3/17/1996)
WH Park and Martin Bushby of The British Wrestling Experience discuss a classic match between Jushin Liger and one of his greatest opponents, Shinjiro Otani. This match for the IWGP Jr. heavyweight title took place on March 17, 1996.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2020/01/26/thunderstruck-14-jushin-liger-vs-shinjiro-otani-3-17-96-w-martin-bushby/
*****
upNXT 1/25/2020: Worlds Collide POST Show
Braden Herrington and Davie Portman are back reviewing Worlds Collide 2020 from Houston, Texas featuring Imperium taking on The Undisputed Era.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2020/01/26/upnxt-01-25-2020-worlds-collide-2020/
*****
RASD 1/24/20: SmackDown, Hard Times & Royal Rumble Preview
John Pollock & Wai Ting have a special live show to review Friday Night SmackDown & NWA Hard Times, plus a preview of Worlds Collide and Royal Rumble, and your calls.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2020/01/25/rasd-1-24-20-smackdown-hard-times-royal-rumble-preview/
*****
BRITISH WRESTLING EXPERIENCE: The Best of the 2010s
Martin is back with Benno and Jamesie to discuss their favorite matches, moments and memories from the 2010s of European wrestling.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2020/01/24/bwe-1-24-20-best-of-the-2010s/
*****
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