POST IT NOTES
**We are live tonight at 11:15 p.m. ET for Rewind-A-Raw for a review of the “season premiere” of WWE Raw. Plus, Wai and I will discuss the WWE’s pay-per-view calendar for 2022 and the rest of today’s news along with taking your questions & feedback from the POST Wrestling Fourm. POST Wrestling Café members at the Double Double, Iced Capp & Espresso level can watch/listen live and the show will be out for everyone Tuesday morning.
**On Tuesday, we are releasing Rewind-A-Wai #97 covering WrestleMania 19 from March 2003 in Seattle at Safeco Field. Wai Ting and I will rewind to this time period and look at all the key stories and matches and take your feedback, which can be posted on the POST Wrestling Forum. This show is exclusive for members of the POST Wrestling Café.
**A special Sunday night edition of Rewind-A-Dynamite is available for all listeners. Wai Ting and I share our thoughts on Saturday’s episode of AEW Dynamite and discuss the Charlotte Flair and Becky Lynch story from SmackDown, Bound for Glory thoughts, Bloodsport and GCW’s War Ready, and more. The show is available for download and on the POST Wrestling YouTube channel.
POST SCHEDULE
Monday: Rewind-A-Raw with John Pollock & Wai Ting (11:15 p.m. ET)
Tuesday: Rewind-A-Wai – WrestleMania 19 (Patreon)
Tuesday: upNXT with Braden Herrington & Davie Portman
Wednesday: Shot in the Dark with John Siino (upNXT feed)
Wednesday: Rewind-A-Dynamite (10:15 p.m.)
Thursday: Bushby & Thompson’s Wrestling Adventure (King of the Ring 2002)
Friday: Rewind-A-SmackDown with John & Wai (11:15 p.m. ET for all Patrons)
Saturday: UFC 267 POST Show with John & Phil Chertok
Sunday: POST Puroresu with John & WH Park
WRESTLING NEWS
**The “season premiere” of Raw is tonight from the Toyota Center in Houston, Texas with the roster changes going into effect. Below are the matches and segments announced so far:
*Raw Tag Team Championship: Randy Orton & Riddle (champions) vs. AJ Styles & Omos
**WWE Raw is coming off its lowest 18-49 number of the data that is out there, although last week has enormous competition from both Monday Night Football and the MLB playoffs. Tonight’s NFL game is between New Orleans and Seattle while the World Series doesn’t begin until Tuesday night. The World Series will go against both Halloween Havoc and Dynamite this Tuesday and Wednesday with Game 3 scheduled for Friday (the reason SmackDown is on FS1 this week) and Game 4 is set for Saturday. If the series is extended, the wrestling conflicts would be next Tuesday’s NXT 2.0 that would go against Game 6 and if Game 7 is needed, it would be played on Wednesday, November 7th against Dynamite. So, Raw is in the clear without any baseball competition for the duration of the playoffs and should see numbers stabilize to pre-playoff levels.
**WWE released its pay-per-view schedule for 2022, although it is not complete with shows to be added for February and October of next year, which are expected to be the cards in Saudi Arabia. There is also a floating date for Labor Day weekend where WWE will run a show on either Saturday, September 3rd or Sunday, September 4th with no location announced. A few observations:
*There is a strong focus on Saturday night events with only three Sunday night shows listed (WrestleMania Night 2, and the May and June events). Nick Khan outlined the strategy for this past year’s SummerSlam in Las Vegas making the case that Vegas is a Saturday night city when it comes to drawing fans from out of town and running a big event as opposed to Sunday. It proved an effective strategy with a successful event at Allegiant Stadium and returning next July for Money in the Bank at the same stadium. The promotion is moving many of its pay-per-views to Saturday including SummerSlam and Survivor Series in 2022.
*The two-night WrestleMania format will continue for the third consecutive year. There is no doubt the shows have come off much better broken up rather than the marathon shows that had become the norm over the past few years. The reality is that most traveling to Texas that weekend are likely to go to both shows and I would expect strong gates for both nights regardless of whether they sell out or not. It’s also another night of WWE’s premium show for Peacock to stream.
*The September PPV announcement will be the one people are most interested to see. Years ago, Chris Jericho shared a story speaking with Vince McMahon about “All In” and McMahon’s belief at the time that Labor Day wasn’t a good weekend to run, and obviously, AEW has proven that theory incorrect. It could lead to a scenario where both WWE and AEW run pay-per-views that weekend as AEW has made that weekend a staple on their calendar. There have been reports about WWE exploring the potential of running a pay-per-view from the U.K., which Fightful Select reports is slated as of now for the September show.
**Below is the list of matches scheduled for AEW Dark: Elevation tonight at 7 p.m. ET on the AEW YouTube channel:
*Preston “10” Vance vs. QT Marshall
*Paul Wight vs. Cole Karter, Carlie Bravo & Arjun Singh
*Leyla Hirsch & Ryo Mizunami vs. Diamante & Xtina Kay
*FTR vs. Toa Liona & Mike Reed
*Emi Sakura vs. Reka Tehaka
**IMPACT is holding their third straight show at Sam’s Town Live in Las Vegas tonight. Tonight’s television tapings will include a match between Minoru Suzuki and Josh Alexander to air on a future episode. The promotion will return to Sam’s Town Live next month for the Turning Point special on November 20th and two additional days of television tapings.
**Over the weekend, it was reported that Alberta independent manager Vinnie Valentine (real name Ryan Pollard) passed away due to COVID-19 after being on a ventilator for over a week. Greg Oliver at SLAM! Wrestling has a story on Pollard’s passing, which was announced by his spouse, Jerri-Lynn Wilson stating that Pollard died early Sunday morning. Pollard started out as a ring announcer and later focused on his role as a manager primarily for Pure Power Wrestling out of Lethbridge. Pollard was 55 years old.
**Bobby Lashley was scheduled for a meet-and-greet on behalf of WWE with Cricket Wireless but was pulled from the appearance and replaced by The Street Profits. The event took place in Houston, which is the site of tonight’s Raw, and no reason was provided for the switch.
**Dark Side of the Ring presents its season finale this Thursday covering the steroid trial where Vince McMahon and the World Wrestling Federation were facing charges of possession with the intent to distribute and one count of conspiracy to distribute steroids. In the trailer released, it includes interview subjects Jerry McDevitt (who represented the defendants alongside Laura Brevetti), journalist Dave Meltzer (who covered the trial in-person in Uniondale, New York), Jim Ross, John Arezzi, and Terry “Warlord” Szopinski. The episode airs at 9 p.m. ET this Thursday on Vice TV.
In the ’90s, the US government attempted to take down Vince McMahon and the WWF amid a series of steroid scandals.
The season finale episode: “The Steroids Trials,” premieres Thursday at 9pm on @vicetv. pic.twitter.com/pK9xq6q77N
— Dark Side of the Ring (@DarkSideOfRing) October 25, 2021
**Brandon Thurston at Wrestlenomics has gone through the recent financial reporting from NJPW covering August 2020 through this past June (which is when their new fiscal year ends) where the company staged events with restrictions due to the pandemic. For that period, the company reported approximately $60,000 (U.S.) in net income, which is a fraction of what the company had been generating in years past. Thurston has a chart outlining their net income going back to 2007 and this past year’s net income figure would be its lowest since the period ending in July 2012. They are down from a net income of $1,850,000 (U.S.) that was reported in July 2020.
**AEW is returning to Garland, Texas on Wednesday, December 15th for Dynamite and Rampage at the Curtis Culwell Center. The last time the company ran the venue was July 14th and drew 5,400 paid and 5,688 overall, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Tickets for the show go on sale this Friday.
**Rey Mysterio spoke with TMZ to promote tonight’s episode of Raw. In the conversation, Mysterio shared his lofty expectations for his son Dominik:
I’ve told my son from the beginning, you’re gonna be better than your old man and I keep saying this over and over and over to him. I can’t wait for the day for him to become his own man, although in a way he already is and for me it’s hard as a father to kind of let him go and fly on his own, but I truly believe in my heart, and I don’t just say this so he can stamp it in his head, but he’s gonna be better than his old man.
**Masashi Takeda won the GCW Ultraviolent Championship from Drew Parker on today’s Big Japan card in Tokyo. Takeda is returning to the U.S. for GCW’s events on November 12th in Detroit and the Nick Gage Invitational on November 13th in Chicago. In Detroit, Takeda is scheduled to team with Alex Colon against Jeff King & Neil Diamond Cutter.
**Ring of Honor will be presenting a card on Saturday, November 14th titled “Honor for All” and will be airing exclusively for members of its Honor Club streaming service.
**New Japan Pro Wrestling ran the second show of its Road to Power Struggle at Korakuen Hall on Tuesday. The card only drew 290 fans (down from 598 the night prior at the same venue). The show featured an Elimination match in the main event with Hiroshi Tanahashi, Kazuchika Okada, Tomohiro Ishii, Hirooki Goto & YOSHI-HASHI defeating KENTA, EVIL, Guerrillas of Destiny & Yujiro with Tanahashi sending KENTA over the top rope to win.
**NJPW runs its third straight day at Korakuen Hall with the Road to Power Struggle tour on Tuesday morning and a show that streams at 5:30 a.m. ET on New Japan World. Below is the lineup:
*IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Championship: El Desperado & Yoshinobu Kanemaru (champions) vs. Robbie Eagles & Tiger Mask
*Shingo Takagi & BUSHI vs. Zack Sabre Jr. & DOUKI
*Kazuchika Okada, Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima vs. Guerrillas of Destiny & Jado
*Hiroshi Tanahashi & Togi Makabe vs. KENTA & Gedo
*Great O-Khan & Aaron Henare vs. Toru Yano & Tomoaki Honma
*Tomohiro Ishii, Hirooki Goto, YOSHI-HASHI & Master Wato vs. EVIL, SHO, Yujiro & Dick Togo
*Yuji Nagata & Ryusuke Taguchi vs. SANADA & Hiromu Takahashi
**MLW has added a match between Holidead and Willow Nightingale for its War Chamber event on Saturday, November 6th at the 2300 Arena in Philadelphia.
**Jon Moxley’s autobiography will be released next Tuesday through Permuted Press and is available for pre-order on Amazon. From those that have read the book ahead of time, it has received strong reviews. The following is from the description:
Ride alongside Jon Moxley as he retraces some of the highways traveled on his remarkable journey. Revel in the never-before-told stories about his early life in Cincinnati, Ohio; the gritty independent wrestling scene where he cut his teeth; the complicated corporate landscape of the WWE where he bucked against authority; and the rebellious upstart AEW, where he won the championship in 2020 and was finally free to achieve the vision of the wrestler he’d always wanted to be.
**Being the Elite Ep. 279: “Budge”.
**Corey Graves (Matthew Polinsky) and Carmella (Leah Van Dale) announced their engagement over the weekend with Graves proposing on her birthday. The couple has been together for several years and are both part of the Raw brand following the draft.
MMA NEWS
**There was an ugly incident at Monday’s weigh-ins for Dana White’s Contender Series. Bantamweights Oron Kahlon and Javid Basharat squared off at the weigh-ins and were seen exchanging words. Afterward, Basharat (who is from Afghanistan) posted the video and stated that Kahlon called him a “terrorist” and added that Khalon missed weight by three pounds:
View this post on Instagram
**Below is the card for Tuesday’s episode of Dana White’s Contender Series that streams at 8 p.m. ET on ESPN+ and airs in Canada on TSN 5:
*Jansey Silva (7-1) vs. Gadzhi Omargadzhiev (12-0)
*Christian Quinonez (15-3) vs. Xiao Long (16-6)
*Oron Kahlon (16-0) vs. Javid Basharat (10-0)
*Karine Silva (13-4) vs. Yan Qihui (11-3)
*Manuel Torres (11-2) vs. Kolton Englund (9-3)
*Xie Bin (8-2) vs. Olivier Murad (5-0)
**After his five-round decision loss to Marvin Vettori on Saturday, Paulo Costa revealed that he had a left biceps injury that affected his weight cut. Costa announced last Wednesday that he weighed 211 pounds two days before he was scheduled to weigh in for their middleweight fight and would have to lose 25 pounds. The fight was originally changed to a 195-pound catchweight fight, and later, a light heavyweight fight where they both made weight.
**Jason “Mayhem” Miller is facing a pair of felony charges stemming from an incident at a bar. TMZ reported that is facing charges for felony assault and felony battery after Miller was allegedly part of a bar fight with an individual that claims to have suffered broken ribs and pressed charges. The incident is said to have taken place last month in the San Fernando Valley in California. Miller, 40, had a multitude of legal problems over the past decade and has not fought since 2016. During his career, he became a noted personality in the sport while competing for UFC, Strikeforce, and DREAM among many organizations. He was the host of the MTV series “Bully Beatdown” and returned to the UFC in 2011 as a coach on Ultimate Fighter against Michael Bisping, who he fought in December 2011. He fought one more time for the UFC in 2012 and didn’t fight for the next four years.
**UFC has released the first Embedded episode going into UFC 267 this Saturday in Abu Dhabi. The card features Jan Blachowicz defending the UFC light heavyweight title against Glover Teixeira and an interim bantamweight title fight between Petr Yan and Cory Sandhagen.
ON THIS DATE
Halloween Havoc aired on this date in 1998 from Las Vegas featuring the rematch between Hulk Hogan and Ultimate Warrior from WrestleMania 6. This show was a disaster in several ways from a horrific match between the two as well as a screw-up with the run time of the show that led to a significant portion of the viewers getting cut off before the pay-per-view ended. Due to the screw-up, they replayed the main event between Bill Goldberg and Diamond Dallas Page on Nitro the next night with the replay of the match doing a 7.18 rating, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
Mitsuharu Misawa defends the Triple Crown against Kenta Kobashi on this date in 1995 at Budokan Hall as part of AJPW’s 23rd-anniversary card. The show also featured Toshiaki Kawada submitting Gary Albright and Rob Van Dam working the opener against Kentaro Shiga:
After being listed on the NASDAQ exchange for one year, WWF stock was officially listed on the New York Stock Exchange on this date in 2000 that included a major event at the NYSE featuring live matches and appearances from the top talent:
*****
REWIND-A-DYNAMITE 10/24/21: Black vs. Rhodes III, Charlotte-Becky
John Pollock & Wai Ting review Saturday’s AEW Dynamite featuring Cody Rhodes vs. Malakai Black and a scary moment involving Lance Archer. They discuss the Charlotte-Becky story and highlights from the weekend’s events.
****
DEEP IMPACT: Bound for Glory 2021 Review
Davie Portman and John Siino review IMPACT Bound For Glory 2021 featuring Christian Cage vs Josh Alexander for the IMPACT World Heavyweight Championship!
*****
REWIND-A-SMACKDOWN: Season Premiere, PAC vs. Andrade 2
John Pollock & Wai Ting review the season premiere of WWE SmackDown following Crown Jewel and AEW Rampage with the highly-anticipated rematch between PAC and Andrade El Idolo.
*****
WWE Crown Jewel/NJPW G1 Climax 31 Final POST Show
John Pollock & Wai Ting review WWE’s return to Saudi Arabia for Crown Jewel 2021 and NJPW‘s G1 Climax 31 Final featuring an unfortunate injury in the main event and a shocking return.
*****
G1 CLIMAX POST SHOW: Day 18 – B Block Final
John Pollock & Wai Ting review NJPW G1 Climax 31 Day 18 (B Block Final) as Kazuchika Okada vs. Jeff Cobb determines who will advance to Thursday’s G1 Final. They also discuss WWE Raw ratings and this week’s NXT 2.0.
*****
SHOT IN THE DARK: Ilja Dragunov/A-Kid on NXT UK
John Siino reviews this week’s editions of AEW Dark, AEW Dark: Elevation, NXT UK, 205 Live, NJPW Strong, NWA Powerrr, Ring of Honor, and Main Event in under 15 minutes on Shot In The Dark.
*****
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