Photo courtesy: Ring of Honor
POST IT NOTES
**Braden Herrington & Davie Portman have a new edition of upNXT where they review the final episode going into TakeOver this Saturday. They are also running a contest where they have a single ticket to give away for TakeOver, where you can sit with one of our listeners who is offering one of his tickets. Tune in to find out how you can win. You can also subscribe to upNXT on iTunes and wherever you listen to the podcast.
**If you missed the “Double Shot”, Wai Ting and I have a show for members of the Café with a review of last week’s episode of Lucha Underground, this week’s Being the Elite, and I review the new book on the history of WCW Monday Nitro by Guy Evans. The show is over an hour in length and covered a lot of ground, so we hope you enjoy it.
**On Friday, we are back with Rewind-A-Wai as Wai Ting and I review the WCW’s Bash at the Beach 1998 card from San Diego, which has been chosen by Espresso Executive Producer Thorsten Wendelmuth. The show will be available for all members of the POST Wrestling Café.
WRESTLING NEWS
**Here are the matches scheduled for tonight’s episode of Impact Wrestling at 8 pm Eastern on POP TV:
*Santana & Ortiz vs. Homicide & Hernandez in a Street Fight
*Su Yung vs. Allie
*Sami Callihan vs. Fenix
*Johnny Impact vs. Jimmy Jacobs
*Eli Drake vs. Joe Hendry
**On Thursday’s edition of the “Art of Wrestling” podcast, Colt Cabana acknowledged the lawsuit that was filed last week against CM Punk but wasn’t going to discuss it in any detail. He did state that the story of him being backstage a WWE house show after the lawsuit by Dr. Amann had been filed, was incorrect. Cabana stated the last time he was at a WWE show was probably around four years ago when he recorded a podcast with Hornswoggle.
**The NXT crew has a house show in Lowell, Massachusetts tonight and Asbury Park, New Jersey on Friday before Saturday’s card at the Barclays Center.
**A big issue over the past 24 hours centered around comments made by Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter regarding Peyton Royce’s appearance since coming up to the main roster. The initial comments were made on an edition of Wrestling Observer Radio. Meltzer commented on the change she had undergone and worded his observations very poorly where it came across as him insinuating she has gained weight and was more attractive when she was in NXT. He did clarify on the show he was not stating she was unattractive, but by contrasting her looks before and after, it angered a lot of people. It was apparent in listening that he was not talking about Royce gaining weight but a veiled reference to her having breast implants prior to her main roster call-up.
Royce was obviously very upset at the comments and responded to Meltzer on Twitter, “So what would you have me do Dave…starve myself? This is how nightmares for young women start. The females in your life must be proud.”
Meltzer did respond by stating, “I’d like to apologize to you. You are an exceedingly attractive woman. I do realize the lengths and pressures on women in the entertainment world to maintain unnatural looks at times and am glad you pointed this out.”
Since then many performers have responded, defending Royce and it has grown into a big story. Meltzer addressed the comments at length on his show Thursday and stated it was not what he meant, alluding to the comment about her being “lighter” in NXT because it was prior to her operation. I would encourage those upset with Meltzer’s comments to listen to Thursday’s show and draw your own conclusion rather than the transcript alone that is out there, which I didn’t feel painted the context accurately. That said, Meltzer worded it very badly and an apology was owed for how it came off in the context presented. The line about being attractive before and after was not a fair one.
**This Saturday’s NXT TakeOver Brooklyn card is listed from 7 – 9:30 pm Eastern and there is always the possibility of it going longer, which was the case for TakeOver card in New Orleans this past April. There will also be a pre-show from 6 – 7 pm. They have announced that a U.K. title match between Pete Dunne and Zack Gibson will be taped at the Barclays Center beforehand to air on next Wednesday’s show.
**Brian Cage has been added to the Over Budget Battle Royal at “All In” on September 1st at the Sears Centre. The battle royal will air on WGN American at 6 pm Eastern and the winner will face ROH champion Jay Lethal on the pay-per-view.
**Sin Cara underwent surgery on his right knee this past Tuesday to have scar tissue removed from it. It is not known how long he will out of action for.
**Ring of Honor has announced that KUSHIDA will be working the television tapings on September 29th in Las Vegas. The tapings take place the night after the Death Before Dishonor pay-per-view, although KUSHIDA has only been announced for the television tapings. That weekend also features New Japan’s return of Long Beach, California on Sunday, September 30th at the Walter Pyramid.
**Denny Burkholder at CBS Sports has a big piece on the history of Randy Savage, focusing on the summer of 1988 when he was WWF champion. Ricky Steamboat, Ted DiBiase, Jake Roberts, Gene Okerlund, Bruce Prichard, Jim Duggan and others were interviewed for the lengthy piece on this time in Savage’s career.
**Lance Storm is working as a guest trainer at the WWE’s Performance Center this week in Florida.
**Legendary performer Aretha Franklin passed away on Thursday at her home in Michigan. Franklin sang “America the Beautiful” at WrestleMania 3 in Pontiac with her introduction by Vince McMahon being a well-remembered moment from show’s start. Franklin returned in 2007 when the WWE held WrestleMania 23 at Ford Field in Detroit with the same Vince McMahon voiceover from 1987 introducing her 20 years later. Franklin was 76 years old when she passed away.
TELEVISION REVIEW
WWE NXT (Aug. 15th)
-This was such a great show on Wednesday as the final episode before TakeOver. The main event between Roderick Strong and Tyler Bate featured two of the best performers in the entire company having a great 10-minute television main event. Bate won with the Tyler Driver ’97 to go into TakeOver with a win over one-half of the tag champions and was a tremendous television match. Bate’s comebacks never fail to generate a huge reaction regardless of where he is working, his striking sequences stand out and he has enormous physical charisma as a babyface, that offsets his promos, which are the only criticism people seem to have of Bate. Personally, I’m drawn to babyfaces that come off likable, relatable and if they generate the type of responses Bate receives, then it works for what he is conveying. He is a supremely talented performer at such a young age and has been a major positive on WWE programming over the past year.
-They re-aired the video of Cathy Kelley breaking down the list of suspects for the Aleister Black attack. I really liked the idea put forward they’ve introduced multiple suspects with a degree of motives. It isn’t often that the WWE introduces mysteries that are played out for a long period, but they could have a lot of fun with this one and lead to a match by the next TakeOver when Black is ready.
-Kairi Sane defeated Aliyah with the story that she was there to show Shayna Baszler that she did possess a killer instinct by continuing to punish Aliyah even though she had the match won. She won with her Anchor submission while Baszler was on commentary.
-The show opened with a promo segment between Velveteen Dream and EC3. I think this has been the best scenario for both to work off each other as they have tremendous chemistry on camera. Their match has a high standard to live up to with the competition of that lineup so their placement on the card will be interesting. These are two guys with great personalities, which is their strength and now it’s time for the match. Overall, the program has been positive for both.
-This was a very effective “go home” show for a card that has a lot of expectations given the lineup.
205 LIVE (Aug. 14th)
-The best match of the night, including the SmackDown portion, was the Cedric Alexander vs. Jack Gallagher match. They went about 14 minutes and was one of the better Gallagher matches I’ve seen in a while. It’s always a challenge with the audience, but they got into the end of the match and concluded with Alexander hitting a standing Spanish Fly out of nowhere for the pin. I liked Alexander switching up the finish and training audiences to expect a finish from a move other than the Lumbar Check. They did this on Raw, where Baron Corbin won with the Deep Six against Tyler Breeze as opposed to that move being a near fall and End of Days is reserved for the finish. This was a very good main event, and both worked hard.
-Lio Rush won his rematch against Akira Tozawa so he is 2-0 against Tozawa. I sense that Alexander will retain the title this Sunday and Rush will be the next challenger for the title. Rush’s character work has developed quickly, and I like the little things he does in the match to establish it. He has such a tremendous style that it’s easy to get behind him, but he’s aware of that and isn’t afraid to play the cowardly role and draw people in that way.
-Hideo Itami destroyed “Trent Newman” with the running dropkick into the corner setting up the referee’s stoppage. They are getting the dropkick over following last week’s angle with Mustafa Ali where he was unable to continue during the match after taking the move.
MMA NEWS
**The Professional Fighters League is back tonight with a card from Atlantic City, New Jersey with the preliminary fights airing at 7 pm Eastern on Facebook Watch and the main card at 10 pm on NBC Sports Network with the following fights with their point totals for the season in brackets:
*Ray Cooper (5) vs. Pavlo Kusch (5) – Welterweight
*Magomed MagomedKerimov (6) vs. Bojan Velickovic (5) – Welterweight
*Kayla Harrison vs. Jozette Cotton in a non-seasonal fight
*Abubakar Nurmagomedov (0) vs. Jonatan Westin (0) – Welterweight
*Yuri Villefort (0) vs. Joao Zeferino (6) – Welterweight
*Rick Story (3) vs. Carlton Minus (0) – Welterweight
*Jake Shields (0) vs. Herman Terrado (0) – Welterweight
*Bruno Santos (3) vs. John Howard (5) – Middleweight
*Abus Magomedov (6) vs. Anderson Goncalves (0) – Middleweight
*Rex Harris (3) vs. Shamil Gamzatov (3) – Middleweight
*Louis Taylor (4) vs. Andre Lobato (0) – Middleweight
*Eddie Gordon (0) vs. Gasan Umalatov (0) – Middleweight
**Bellator 204 takes place Friday night on the Paramount Network from Sioux Falls, South Dakota. Bantamweight champion Darrion Caldwell is taking a fight at the featherweight division in the main event against 12-3 fighter Noad Lahat. The card will also feature rising star James Gallagher taking on Ricky Bandejas, undefeated Logan Storley meets A.J. Matthews and the main card will open with Tywan Claxton taking on Cris Lencioni.
**While the UFC 229 pre-sale began on Wednesday, tickets for the public go on sale Friday for the card headlined by Khabib Nurmagomedov taking on Conor McGregor for the UFC lightweight title. The cheapest seats are going for $205 with the highest tiered tickets priced at $1,005, $2,005 and tops out at $2,505. The card will take place on Saturday, October 6th at the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada. It will be McGregor’s first MMA fight since November 2006 when he defeated Eddie Alvarez at Madison Square Garden.
**The UFC is currently without a main event for their Fight Night event on September 22nd in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Earlier this week, ESPN’s Ariel Helwani reported that Glover Teixeira was forced to withdraw from his bout with Jimi Manuwa due to a shoulder injury. Teixeira just lost in July to Corey Anderson and was looking to return quickly to fight Manuwa. It is unknown yet if Teixeira will require surgery on the injured shoulder.
*****
upNXT 8/16/18: Brooklyn’s Kindest
Braden Herrington & Davie Portman review the final episode of NXT before TakeOver featuring Roderick Strong vs. Tyler Bate, they preview TakeOver and explain how you can win a free ticket to Saturday’s show at the Barclays Center
https://upnxt.podbean.com/mf/download/g2riyy/upNXT-August16.mp3
*****
THE DOUBLE SHOT: Lucha Underground, Being the Elite, NITRO book review
John Pollock & Wai Ting present this show for members of the POST Wrestling Café with reviews of last week’s Lucha Underground episode, the latest Being the Elite & Pollock reviews the new book on the history of WCW Monday Nitro by Guy Evans
https://www.patreon.com/posts/20771225
*****
REWIND-A-SMACKDOWN 8/14/18: Miz & Bryan, SummerSlam Preview
John Pollock & Wai Ting review SmackDown heading into SummerSlam, the Miz & Bryan videos, closing angle with Samoa Joe’s letter, discussion on Jeff Jarrett’s lawsuit against Anthem, the passing of Doc Dean & your feedback
https://mcdn.podbean.com/mf/download/858c84/180814_RASD.mp3
*****
REWIND-A-RAW 8/13/18: Jim Neidhart Remembered, Cabana vs. Punk suit, Dean Ambrose Returns
https://mcdn.podbean.com/mf/download/u8jrw5/180813_RAR.mp3
*****
G1 CLIMAX FINALS 8/12/18: John Pollock, Wai Ting & WH Park review the finals of the G1 from Budokan Hall
https://postwrestling.podbean.com/mf/download/xbma79/180812_G1.mp3
*****
EGGSHELLS Podcast Companion: 1996 w/ Damian Abraham
https://postwrestling.podbean.com/mf/download/hvvbkx/EGGSHELLS_Podcast_Companion__1996_w__Damian_Abraham.mp3
*****
BWE 8/10/18: Daniel Richardson Interview
Martin Bushby chats with Daniel Richardson a.k.a. James Dixon about his 14-year career, coming up with Neville, working with 1PW, booking for What Culture Pro Wrestling and later Defiant Wrestling, as well as his consulting role with World of Sport & lots more.
https://britishwrestlingexperience.podbean.com/mf/download/8v4sh7/BWE_Daniel_Richardson_Interview.mp3
*****
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