POST IT NOTES
**I want to thank everyone that has checked out all the shows from the past week, this was probably the busiest week in the history of the site and I was happy with all the different shows we have produced. For those that missed out, below are some of the highlights from the past few days:
–UFC 225 review show that I did with my friends, Phil & Ziggy
–NJPW Dominion review with WH Park and I and a big review of the card for POST Wrestling Café members
–A new Rewind-A-Wai on the POST Wrestling Café with Wai & I reviewing the King of the Ring from June 1993, as chosen by Espresso Executive Producer Ian Kuchner
-Brian Mann & Nate Milton welcomed Lance Storm to Keep It 2000 to review the August 7th episode of WCW Monday Nitro where Lance challenged Booker T. for the WCW title and shared many stories
-We have a 1-on-1 interview with Colt Cabana discussing the civil trial, his reaction when the verdict was read and the many issues stemming from this case that lasted over three years
-WrestleZone reporters Nick Hausman & Ross Berman joined Wai Ting and I at the beginning of Rewind-A-SmackDown to discuss the CM Punk & Colt Cabana legal victory over Dr. Christopher Amann
-Our first edition of the POST PROFILE on Ken Shamrock
**Wai Ting is on a well-deserved vacation this week so I will be handling the shows with a few guest co-hosts. On Monday night, I’ll be reviewing Raw with upNXT’s Davie Portman and on Tuesday, I’ll be joined by Keep It 2000’s Nate Milton to review SmackDown Live.
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WRESTLING NEWS
**Saturday’s New Japan Dominion card produced one of the greatest matches ever with the coronation of Kenny Omega as IWGP heavyweight champion defeating Kazuchika Okada and ending the two-year title reign that began at Dominion 2016. The 2/3 falls match went 65 minutes and 2 seconds if you exclude the two-minute rest periods between falls. It was a classic match with many layers full of callbacks and all built to the final One-Winged Angel that Okada was never able to kick out of and Omega scored the winning fall with the maneuver. The post-match saw the reunion of Omega and Kota Ibushi with The Young Bucks to form “The Golden Elite” and a tease of Cody interrupting before turning his back and walking backstage from the ramp. The indication was that Cody will receive the first shot at Omega’s title following his win over Omega at Supercard of Honor and booked strong in the six-man tag on Saturday by pinning Jushin Thunder Liger.
The show was a loud statement from New Japan regarding their goals of worldwide expansion and it’s the impetus of Omega in this role of New Japan’s worldwide leader to take the promotion to the level after Okada took it as far as he could. This was accentuated with Chris Jericho’s Intercontinental title win over Tetsuya Naito, confirming that Jericho will be working additional dates and set up a future match with EVIL, who came to the aid of his stablemate after the match and chased Jericho away. It is possible that Jericho could work the Cow Palace card against EVIL and that would be very noteworthy if he chose to work a non-WWE show in the United States, which is viewed very differently than a match in Japan outside of the company. The Young Bucks and Michael Elgin were the other foreigners to win titles on the show and I would expect both to be defended at the Cow Palace. It was essentially confirmed that Elgin will defend against former Hirooki Goto, who was not pinned in the three-way with Taichi. They also set up Juice Robinson challenging Jay White for the United States title, which also seems like for the Cow Palace.
**After CM Punk’s loss to Mike Jackson, WWE commentator Corey Graves took to Twitter and released details of their friendship falling apart and indicating that Punk ended their friendship over his association with the WWE. Below are the comments posted by Graves:
Maybe abandoning everybody who stood by your side, even when we weren’t supposed to, only to have you turn your back on us wasn’t the right move after all? No anger. Only sadness.
Awww. Seems the “fans” are disappointed. Maybe you guys should know that “That Dude” held my first son before I did because I was on tour and I trusted him.
I had dinner with him the week after he quit.
The first rule of “punk rock” is loyalty, and this guy betrayed it all.
I still love you, “friend” and I’m sorry you got lost.
Don’t worry, hey@VinceMcMahon this has nothing to do with you.
You either@TripleH
This isn’t corporate. This is real life.
Calm down internerds.
Dude, I’m far from distraught. I’m in a good place. I’m just really bummed that I had a true friend turn his back on me for no other reason than the company that employs me.
Hey@CMPunk, call me tomorrow. I still love you.
Sean Ross Sapp at Fightful.com reached out to Graves for clarification on the tweets. Graves told Sapp that he had texted with Punk prior to his fight with Mickey Gall. Punk would not have dinner with Graves and didn’t want to associate with anyone from the WWE. Graves added that others at WWE lost their friendship with Punk over where they work.
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**Monday’s episode of Raw takes place from North Little Rock, Arkansas and is the final Raw before Money in the Bank next weekend. The following matches are being advertised for the show:
*Roman Reigns vs. Jinder Mahal – this was set up over the weekend with Mahal challenging him to a match prior to the Money in the Bank match
*Kevin Owens vs. Finn Balor vs. Braun Strowman vs. Bobby Roode
*Natalya vs. Ember Moon vs. Sasha Banks vs. Alexa Bliss
**The opening round matches of the WWE’s U.K. tournament have wrapped up with the majority taking place this weekend at the Download Festival. The remaining eight men will continue next week on the two Royal Albert Hall shows with the winner facing U.K. champion Pete Dunne on the second night. Below are the quarter-final matches:
*Zack Gibson vs. Jack Gallagher
*Jordan Devlin vs. Flash Morgan Webster
*Dave Mastiff vs. Joe Coffey
*Travis Banks vs. Ashton Smith
The two Royal Albert Hall cards will air on a one-week delay on the WWE Network with the shows airing Monday, June 25th, and Tuesday, June 26th at 3 pm Eastern.
**House of Glory out of New York has announced that Enzo Amore will be appearing for the promotion’s “High Intensity 7” event on Friday, August 17th in Jamaica, New York. This will be Enzo’s first booking since being let go by the WWE this past January. Following sexual assault allegations, the Phoenix Police Department announced last month that they would not be pursuing the case due to a lack of evidence. Enzo has since released a rap single based on the allegations and maintaining his innocence, as well as indicating there could be a future civil case involving the woman that made the accusations.
**Madison Rayne & MJF defeated Brandi Rhodes & Flip Gordon at Friday’s WrestlePro card to gain spots on the “All In” event on September 1st and continuing the story of Gordon not being booked. There was also a segment at Dominion where The Young Bucks invited Don Callis to call the event in September. This confirms that there will be some form of an outlet for the show to be viewed.
**The WWE received positive news on Friday with the Golden State Warriors sweeping the Cleveland Cavaliers in the finals and avoiding Game 5, which would have gone up against Raw Monday night. Raw will be smooth sailing for the rest of the summer competition wise until Monday Night Football resumes in September.
**The WWE has announced that Ronda Rousey will be working four dates this November for the European tour. Rousey has been added to the shows on November 3rd in Madrid and November 4th in Barcelona, Spain, as well as November 9th in Bologna and November 10th in Rome, Italy.
**Toni Storm dropped the World of Stardom championship to Kagetsu on Saturday in Yokohama. The match is already up on Stardom World.
**In an interesting coincidence, today marks the 434th day of Brock Lesnar’s Universal title reign and it equals the number of days CM Punk held the WWE title from November 2011 – January 2013. When Lesnar breaks Punk’s record on Monday, he will have held the title longer than any WWE champion since Hulk Hogan’s 1,474-day title run from January 1984 – February 1988.
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MMA NEWS
**Our full report on UFC 225 can be read on the main page of the site.
**Here are the results from the UFC 225 card on Saturday night in front of an announced crowd of 18,117 and a gate of $2,550,000:
*Dan Ige def. Mike Santiago by TKO at 0:50 of Round 1
*Charles Oliveira def. Clay Guida by guillotine choke at 2:18 of Round 1
*Sergio Pettis def. Joseph Benavidez by split decision (30-27, 28-29, 29-28)
*Anthony Smith def. Rashad Evans by KO at 0:53 of Round 1
*Chris de la Rocha def. Rashad Coulter by TKO at 3:53 of Round 2
*Mirsad Bektic def. Ricardo Lamas by split decision (30-27, 28-29, 29-28)
*Claudia Gadelha def. Carla Esparza by split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
*Curtis Blaydes def. Alistair Overeem by TKO at 2:56 of Round 3
*Mike Jackson def. CM Punk by unanimous decision (30-26 all)
*Tai Tuivasa def. Andrei Arlovski by unanimous decision (29-28 all)
*Holly Holm def. Megan Anderson by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-26, 30-26)
*Colby Covington def. Rafael dos Anjos by unanimous decision (49-46, 48-47, 48-47) to become the interim welterweight champion
*Robert Whittaker def. Yoel Romero by split decision (48-47, 47-48, 48-47) in a non-title fight
**The Fight of the Night was Whittaker vs. Romero but because Romero missed weight by 0.2 pounds, he was not eligible for the bonus and Whittaker received the full $100,000. The Performance bonuses were awarded to Curtis Blaydes and Charles Oliveira.
**Following the UFC 225 card, UFC president Dana White was asked about CM Punk’s future and indicated that this was likely his last fight with the organization but did praise Punk. For what it’s worth when I spoke to Dana White immediately after Punk’s loss to Mickey Gall in 2016, White had the same feeling after the fight and they still gave him a second fight. It was an ugly fight and the skill level is glaring in comparison to even the lowest level of fighters in the UFC. Punk is 39-years old, he stated during the week he would continue to fight, and I would not be stunned at all to see him take another fight. If you’re the UFC, there is no debate whether his skill set is UFC level as it clearly isn’t, but his interest level is still high and despite it not being at the level of the first fight he felt like the biggest star on the card throughout fight week. As silly as it sounds after witnessing a fight like Punk vs. Mike Jackson, the idea of Punk fighting for the UFC again will not shock me, although for Punk’s well-being he should not be fighting there. Punk seems legitimately invested in fighting, his teammates rave about his work ethic and he’s hurting himself by fighting at this level as opposed to smaller shows where he has less of a spotlight and can truly improve. His stardom is his curse and his fortune as it’s allowed him to have an opportunity few could attain but it has stunted his ability to grow and prosper.
**CM Punk released the following statement after the fight:
You win some, you lose some! I’m 1-1 this week and I’ll take it! Thanks to my team, my family, my friends, and THE FANS! Wouldn’t be here without any of you. Respect to @TheTruthJackson, thanks for the fight! You only live once, and… I’M ALIVE!
**It was announced on the UFC 225 broadcast that the final entrant into this year’s UFC Hall of Fame class will be former bantamweight champion, Ronda Rousey. Rousey will be inducted into the Modern Wing of the Hall of Fame during International Fight Week next month with the ceremony scheduled for Thursday, July 5th. The announcement signals that Rousey is unlikely to ever fight again, although you can never guarantee where someone will be in their life and whether the competitive edge she has had her entire life will have to push her to want to compete again. Rousey is expected to attend the ceremony and will be working at Madison Square Garden on July 7th, which is the night of UFC 226. They produced a big video package on Rousey and positioned her as an iconic figure, which she was and was among the most influential fighters in the history of the sport.
**The UFC has officially announced that Demetrious Johnson will defend the UFC flyweight title in a rematch with Henry Cejudo at UFC 227 on August 4th at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. The two fought in April 2016 with Johnson stopping Cejudo in the first round after a vicious knee to the body.
**Dana White is adamant that they are moving weigh-ins back to 4 pm the day before the card. This is something the UFC can automatically do for the shows they regulate but will need the cooperation of the commissions to make those changes. A lot of fighters are against the move back to afternoon weigh-ins for several reasons. The most concerning is the time to rehydrate being reduced and making it more dangerous for fighters to go into the cage dehydrated. The other argument is that this rewards the fighters that missed weight and harms the ones that were professional and did make weight at the earlier time on Fridays. I side with allowing more time to rehydrate and if that means moving the weigh-ins to Thursdays, I would not oppose that. No option comes without negatives and the argument to Thursdays will be the idea that fighters can cut even more weight because of the additional time to rehydrate or add on more weight after weigh-ins with more than 48 hours before fight time. Additional weight classes would ease things to a degree with the example of Yoel Romero, who probably shouldn’t be attempting to fight at middleweight any longer, however, it’s a big jump to go from 185 pounds to 205 pounds, even for someone as large as Romero. Rehydration is very important and eliminating time as opposed to adding time to recover seems like a step back.
**The UFC is off next weekend and return on Saturday, June 23rd with a Fight Night card from Singapore, which is headlined by a welterweight fight between Donald Cerrone and Leon Edwards.
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*****
UFC 225 POST SHOW with John Pollock, PHIL & ZIGGY
https://postwrestling.podbean.com/mf/download/a9bhqe/POST-UFC-225-Review.mp3
*****
NJPW DOMINION REVIEW with John Pollock & WH Park (Patreon)
https://www.patreon.com/posts/19347819
*****
THE POST INTERVIEW: Colt Cabana
https://postwrestling.podbean.com/mf/download/f68qvi/POST-WRESTLING-Colt-Cabana-June-2018.mp3
*****
REWIND-A-WAI – WWF King of the Ring 1993 (Patreon)
https://www.patreon.com/posts/19301977/
*****
upNXT 6/7/18: Don’t Stop B’leeding with Braden Herrington & Davie Portman
https://upnxt.podbean.com/mf/download/mqruer/upNXT-June7.mp3
*****
KEEP IT 2000 – Ep. 32 “Tank Sintra” with Lance Storm
https://keepit2000.podbean.com/mf/download/bertfj/KEEP_IT_2000_EP_32.mp3
*****
POST PURORESU with John Pollock & WH Park
https://postwrestling.podbean.com/mf/download/gbgp7t/POST-PURORESU-June-2018.mp3
*****
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