POST IT NOTES
**Wai Ting and I are back tonight with Rewind-A-SmackDown airing LIVE at 10:15 pm Eastern for all members of the POST Wrestling Café. We will have a review of SmackDown, discuss the latest news, and then open the phone lines for the rest of the show.
**On Saturday, our UFC 251 coverage begins with Phil Chertok & Eric Marcotte at 10 pm Eastern on the POST YouTube Channel with a live watch-along during the pay-per-view. Our UFC 251 POST Show begins immediately after the main card with Phil & I streaming live on the YouTube channel and taking calls through the POST Discord chat. The podcast version will be out early Sunday morning for everyone.
**Wai Ting and I will welcome Mike Murray on Sunday night for our NJPW Dominion POST Show with a review of the Osaka cards for Café members.
**The latest edition of the British Wrestling Experience features Benno & Jamesie welcoming back Emma from the Journey Through Guerrilla Island podcast.
**Phil Chertok and I did a preview show for UFC 251 with a rundown of the main card fights including the new main event of Kamaru Usman vs. Jorge Masvidal along with expectations for this big card.
WRESTLING NEWS
**Friday Night SmackDown tonight is a taped show from last week at the WWE Performance Center as part of a double taping combined with last week’s episode. The following has been advertised for tonight’s show at 8 pm Eastern on Fox:
*New Day vs. Shinsuke Nakamura & Cesaro for the SmackDown tag titles
*Bayley & Sasha Banks vs. Alexa Bliss & Nikki Cross in a non-title match
*Jeff Hardy appears on Miz TV
*The re-airing of Braun Strowman vs. Bray Wyatt from Money in the Bank
**For the first time since February, New Japan Pro Wrestling will hold its first shows in front of fans this weekend at Osaka-jo Hall. They will begin Saturday with the New Japan Cup Finals followed by Sunday’s Dominion card that sees the winner of the tournament challenge Tetsuya Naito for the IWGP heavyweight & IWGP Intercontinental titles. The arena will be set-up to hold 1/3 its capacity with numerous protocols in place including the request that fans restrict themselves from yelling and cheering. Below are the matches set for Saturday’s card at Osaka-jo Hall and streaming at 4 am Eastern on New Japan World:
*Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma vs. Yuya Uemura & Yota Tsuji
*Satoshi Kojima & Hiroyoshi Tenzan vs. Hirooki Goto & Gabriel Kidd
*Master Wato vs. Douki (it’s risky putting the main event on third)
*Sanada & Bushi vs. Taiji Ishimori & Yujiro
*Hiroshi Tanahashi, Kota Ibushi, Yuji Nagata & Ryusuke Taguchi vs. Minoru Suzuki, Zack Sabre Jr., Taichi & El Desperado
*Tetsuya Naito, Shingo Takagi & Hiromu Takahashi vs. Tomohiro Ishii, Toru Yano & SHO
*Kazuchika Okada vs. EVIL in the New Japan Cup Final
**On Sunday, Dominion begins at 2 am Eastern (late Saturday/early Sunday) with the following matches announced and several more to be added after Saturday’s show:
*Tetsuya Naito vs. Okada or EVIL for the Double Championship
*Hiroshi Tanahashi & Kota Ibushi vs. Zack Sabre Jr. & Taichi for the IWGP tag titles
*Shingo Takagi vs. SHO for the NEVER Openweight title – This should be incredible as their previous two matches have been classics with the series tied 1-1 in singles matches
**New Japan’s Lion’s Gate Collision airs tonight at 10 pm Eastern on New Japan World with the following matches:
*TJP vs. Danny Limelight
*The DKC vs. Rust Taylor
**AJ Styles addressed his move from Raw to SmackDown on his Mixer account. Styles dismissed rumors he was bullied on Raw and led to his move to the other brand and denied any issue with Paul Heyman regarding Karl Anderson & Luke Gallows and Heyman “didn’t take out” for them, who were both released in April. Styles was vague with his reasoning but did refer to Heyman as a “bold-faced liar”. Styles indicated that Anderson and Gallows would be going into further details about everything on a future podcast, but Styles wouldn’t be speaking about it.
**Ring of Honor’s next episode will be a tribute for Hana Kimura including the airing of her six-woman tag at the G1 Supercard event at Madison Square Garden last year. Kimura teamed with Stella Grey and Sumie Sakai against Kagetsu, Hazuki & Jenny Rose on that card.
**Beginning this weekend, MLW will be airing classic shows featuring matches from the group’s first iteration from 2002-04 and Joey Styles on commentary. Below are the matches for this weekend’s episode airing Saturday at 6:05 pm Eastern on their YouTube channel and 10 pm on beIN Sports:
*Vampiro vs. Christopher Daniels
*Jerry Lynn vs. LA Park
*Taiyo Kea vs. Malice (the late Jerry Tuite, who performed as “The Wall” in WCW)
**Isiah Kassidy of Private Party turns 23 years old today.
MMA NEWS
**The UFC 251 weigh-ins took place earlier today in Abu Dhabi ahead of Saturday’s card, which is the promotion’s first of four on the island this month. Vanesa Melo and Raulian Paiva missed weight for their preliminary fights. Melo came in at 141 for her bantamweight fight with Karol Rosa, and Paiva was 129 for his bantamweight fight with Zhalgas Zhumagulov.
Below are the results from today’s weigh-in:
MAIN CARD (10 pm Eastern on pay-per-view)
*Kamaru Usman (170) vs. Jorge Masvidal (170) for the UFC welterweight title – Masvidal needed the towel when he got onto the scale
*Alexander Volkanovski (145) vs. Max Holloway (145) for the UFC featherweight title
*Petr Yan (135) vs. Jose Aldo (135) for the vacant UFC bantamweight title – Aldo also needed the towel but made the weight
*Jessica Andrade (115) vs. Rose Namajunas (116)
*Paige VanZant (126) vs. Amanda Ribas (126)
PRELIMINARY CARD (8 pm on ESPN/ESPN+)
*Volkan Oezdemir (205.5) vs. Jiri Prochazka (205)
*Elizeu Zaleski dos Santos (171) vs. Muslim Salikhov (171)
*Danny Henry (146) vs. Makwan Amirkhani (146)
*Leonardo Santos (156) vs. Roman Bogatov (155.5)
EARLY PRELIMS (6 pm on ESPN/ESPN+, Fight Pass outside the U.S.)
*Marcin Tybura (252) vs. Maxim Grishin (223)
*Raulian Paiva (129*) vs. Zhalgas Zhumagulov (126)
*Vanessa Melo (141*) vs. Karol Rosa (136)
*Davey Grant (136) vs. Martin Day (136)
**TSN1 and TSN4 in Canada will be airing all the prelim fights beginning at 6 pm Eastern on Saturday night.
**The UFC came out and addressed a disturbing video involving Mike Perry this week. The fighter was shown punching a man inside of a restaurant in Texas with Marc Raimondi of ESPN reporting that the Lubbock Police Department is investigating the matter, although no arrest has been made and no charges have been filed. ESPN obtained the incident report that accuses Perry of striking multiple people at the restaurant with the video of the incident surfacing where Perry is yelling several racial slurs. In the police report, Perry accused others of putting their hands on him and struck one man because he grabbed at his face and shirt.
The UFC issued the following statement on the matter:
UFC is aware and troubled by the video that was released last night concerning Mike Perry. The conduct displayed by Perry is not reflective of that of our organization. Perry apologized for his behavior and acknowledged he was disappointed with himself that his actions may have reflected poorly on UFC. He further acknowledged that he believes he has some issues related to alcohol abuse and has informed UFC that he has committed to immediately seek professional treatment, including substance and behavioral counseling. At this time, UFC has informed Perry that he will not be offered a bout, and the parties have agreed to evaluate next steps for Perry following the completion of his treatment program.
**The UFC has confirmed that VENUM will become its new global outfitting and apparel sponsor beginning in 2021. The deal was brokered by IMG and will take the role held by Reebok since 2015.
**Combate reports that a fight between Emily Whitmire and Polyana Viana has been set for the UFC Fight Night card on Saturday, August 29th in Las Vegas. The two almost fought at UFC 248 in March but Whitmire missed weight and was hospitalized due to complications with the fight taken off the card.
ON THIS DATE
*****
BWE: #SpeakingOut (Continued), WWE releases, Matt Riddle, wXw, OTT
Benno & Jamesie are again joined by Emma of the Journey Through Guerrilla Island podcast to continue the conversation about the Speaking Out movement. The three talk about the news coming out of WWE with releases of Ligero and Travis Banks, the suspension of Joe Coffey, as well as the allegations against Matt Riddle and his video statement.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2020/07/09/bwe-speakingout-continued-wwe-releases-matt-riddle-wxw-ott/
*****
UFC 251 PREVIEW SHOW: Usman vs. Masvidal
John Pollock & Phil Chertok are back with their UFC 251 Preview Show ahead of this Saturday’s card from Abu Dhabi on Yas Island.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2020/07/09/ufc-251-preview-show-usman-vs-masvidal/
*****
REWIND-A-DYNAMITE: AEW Fyter Fest Part 2
John Pollock and Wai Ting review AEW Fyter Fest Part 2 featuring Chris Jericho vs. Orange Cassidy, plus a rundown of the news including Matt Riddle’s video statement, WWE ratings, and a review of WWE 365: Ricochet.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2020/07/09/rewind-a-dynamite-7-8-20-aew-fyter-fest-part-2-wwe-365-ricochet/
*****
upNXT 7/8/20: “The Great American Bash” Part Deux
The BDE chat all about Night 2 of The Great American Bash featuring a “Winner Takes All” DOUBLE Championship main event between North American Champion Keith Lee and NXT Champion Adam Cole.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2020/07/09/upnxt-7-8-20-the-great-american-bash-part-deux/
*****
REWIND-A-WAI #65: “Lonesome Dove” starring Bret Hart (1995)
John Pollock and Wai Ting review Lonesome Dove: The Outlaw Years – “Day of the Dead” (S2E10) from December 14, 1995 guest-starring Bret Hart as “Luther Root”.
https://www.patreon.com/posts/39084209/
*****
upNXT MOVIE REVIEW: Hamilton – The Musical (2020) w/ Nate Milton
Braden Herrington is joined by friend of the show, Nate Milton to review the smash-hit sensation: Hamilton: An American Musical – The Movie!
https://www.postwrestling.com/2020/07/07/upnxt-movie-review-hamilton-the-musical-2020-w-nate-milton/
*****
REWIND-A-RAW 7/6/20: Eye Rolling Stipulation
John Pollock and Wai Ting review WWE Raw featuring Bayley vs. Asuka, the latest COVID-19 news in WWE, the contractual status of Rey Mysterio, UFC 251 updates and more.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2020/07/07/rewind-a-raw-7-6-20-eye-rolling-stipulation/
*****
POST INTERVIEW: Emily Pratt talks Speaking Out movement
John Pollock & Wai Ting are joined by Emily Pratt (freelance writer for FanFyte and Deadlock; formerly of Uproxx) to discuss the Speaking Out movement, responses from wrestling promotions, fan perceptions of accused talent, the media’s handling of the stories, and more.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2020/07/06/post-interview-emily-pratt-talks-speaking-out-movement/
*****
THE LONG & WINDING ROYAL ROAD
The Long & Winding Royal Road’s first episode with WH Park looks at a hidden gem as he and Scrump of the PWTcast take a look at a match from the 1997 Real World Tag League (Day 10): Hayabusa & Jinsei Shinzaki vs. Mitsuharu Misawa & Jun Akiyama.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2020/07/05/lwrr-1-hayabusa-jinsei-shinzaki-vs-mitsuharu-misawa-jun-akiyama-11-27-97-w-scrump/
*****
POST PURORESU: New Japan Cup, Master Wato, G-1 Update
John Pollock & WH Park chat about the New Japan Cup, G-1 Climax news, Master Wato, Jun Akiyama to DDT, AJPW Dojo doc, talent leaving Zero1, and light tubes!
https://www.postwrestling.com/2020/07/04/post-puroresu-new-japan-cup-master-wato-g-1-update/
*****
Browse the POST Wrestling Store
https://store.postwrestling.com
Subscribe to POST Wrestling
https://postwrestling.com/subscribe
POST Wrestling Forum
https://forum.postwrestling.com
Support our Patreon – The POST Wrestling Café
http://www.patreon.com/POSTwrestling
