POST IT NOTES
**The live edition of ASK-A-WAI that we recorded at Starrcast this past weekend will be available on the POST Wrestling Café Friday for members. It is a 90-minute show taking questions from the crowd as well as some from the POST Wrestling Forum.
**If you sign-up for the “Double Double” tier or higher, you will be able to watch a live edition of our WWE Hell in a Cell POST Show on Sunday, September 16th. We will be live for those members and then the podcast will be uploaded as usual for everyone else.
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WRESTLING NEWS
**While his re-signing was expected, Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter confirmed in this week’s issue that Bryan Danielson has re-signed with World Wrestling Entertainment. His deal was set to expire on September 1st and set the table for an interesting scenario if he opted to leave the WWE and return to the independent scene, which is thriving. Meltzer reports that Bryan signed the deal and they were awaiting the WWE to sign off on the deal, which was considered a formality and may already be completed. It was evident once Bryan was being advertised for Hell in a Cell and the Super Show-Down, as well as his appearance on television this week after the expiration of the old deal, that seemed a lock he would stay. Bryan was on the Sam Roberts podcast during SummerSlam week and called it “very likely” he would re-sign with the likelihood pegged at “higher than 90%” that he would stay.
Bryan has had three stints with the company dating back to 2000 when he was signed to a developmental deal and assigned to Memphis when Memphis Championship Wrestling was a developmental promotion for the group. When the affiliation with Memphis dissolved in 2001, Bryan was released and began his independent run where he became one of the biggest stars outside WWE. Bryan would train at New Japan’s Dojo in Los Angeles and lead to his involvement in New Japan’s junior heavyweight division during the lean years of the company. His biggest mark came working for the upstart Ring of Honor promotion, a group out of Philadelphia that launched in February 2002 to sell videotapes through the independent scene. Danielson’s run as ROH champion from September 2005 – December 2006 was one of the great runs of the decade and established himself as one of the top performers in the world. He signed with the WWE in 2009 along with Nigel McGuinness, with Bryan reporting to Florida Championship Wrestling and later involved with the first season of NXT in February 2010.
It became apparent early on, that Bryan was not going to be utilized in a prominent position and became the punching bag on NXT under his mentor The Miz and was beaten each week on television. NXT was a not a big success, but it led to one of the better angles on WWE programming in recent years with the formation of Nexus, consisting of the NXT cast, attacking the established WWE talent in a wild scene on Raw in June 2010. It was a rejuvenation for the NXT members, although during the attack Bryan improvised by choking announcer Justin Roberts with a tie and because of the sensitive response to business partners, they fired Bryan over the act. Bryan joked in his book that company officials seemed more upset about it than him because he wasn’t making great money in the WWE, he would probably make more on the independents and loaded up his calendar from the controversy. Bryan returned two months later at SummerSlam to join Team WWE in their 10-man tag against Nexus.
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Bryan would spend the next few years toiling in the mid-card. He was bumped from the main card of WrestleMania 27 with Sheamus to the pre-show and one-year later, the two opened WrestleMania with Sheamus pinning Bryan for the World championship in 18 seconds. It was a finish designed to make Sheamus, but instead, the audience was furious they didn’t get the match and led to the audience chanting “YES” the following night on Raw and made Bryan the star coming out of it. He formed a team with Kane as Team Hell No that got over well, but Bryan still wasn’t seen as a top guy. As late as January 2014, Bryan wasn’t set for anything major at that year’s WrestleMania having just joined The Wyatt Family and was scheduled for his third match with Sheamus at a WrestleMania. The combination of CM Punk leaving the company and opening up a slot for Triple H’s opponent at ‘Mania, along with a planned main event between Randy Orton and Dave Bautista not clicking forced their hand and led to Bryan’s big break. He defeated Triple H in the opener to enter the World title match three-way and won the title at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in one of the most memorable closing moments at WrestleMania.
Following two great moments in his life, his wedding to female performer Brie Bella and his championship win at WrestleMania, he experienced the loss of his father unexpectedly and then suffered a neck injury that would begin a tumultuous year on the sidelines. Bryan returned in January 2015 and worked through April, before a concussion sidelined him again. In February 2016, he was forced to retire and was placed into the role of General Manager of SmackDown in July. After seeking out various medical experts, the unthinkable occurred this past March when Dr. Joseph Maroon reversed course and cleared Bryan to return, with the caveat that he would undergo testing after every match. He had his first match in two years at WrestleMania this past April, at the same stadium in New Orleans where he had his 2014 championship victory.
**Tuesday’s episode of SmackDown Live averaged 2,319,000 viewers on the USA Network, which was down by a minuscule margin from last week’s average of 2,350,000.
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**Mike Hogewood, who served as the voice of Ring of Honor when the promotion aired on HDNet, has passed away. Hogewood was a traditional sports announcer that had called ACC football and basketball, NASCAR races and worked for various regional sports networks throughout his career. Hogewood was added to the Ring of Honor broadcast team in 2009 alongside Dave Prazak to call their weekly television, despite a limited knowledge of professional wrestling. He ended his tenure with ROH after Sinclair purchased the company in May 2011 and Hogewood retired two years later from broadcasting. He was 63 years old at the time of his passing and we send our condolences to his friends and family. Ring of Honor has issued a statement on Hogewood’s passing and his tenure with the promotion.
**Dey Street Books, which is part of Harper Collins, has announced an upcoming book project with World Wrestling Entertainment. Journalists Craig Marks and Rob Tannenbaum will be producing an oral history on the company that is being promoted as a “tell-all book”. Vince McMahon is attached to the project and will provide access to the writers, stating in the release, “This will be an unapologetic look at the good, the bad and the ugly, and the journey that made WWE into the global phenomenon it is today. Past and present wrestlers, producers, business executives, and celebrities will be interviewed for the book, which doesn’t list a release date. Marks and Tannenbaum previously released “I Want My MTV: The Uncensored Story of the Music Video Revolution” in 2011.
**Here are the matches scheduled for tonight’s episode of Impact Wrestling at 8 pm Eastern on POP TV and Fight Network in Canada:
*oVe & Sami Callihan vs. Zachary Wentz, Trey Miguel & Ace Austin
*Rich Swann vs. Petey Williams
*Tessa Blanchard vs. Su Yung for the Knockout’s title
*Eli Drake’s Open Challenge
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TELEVISION REVIEW
Mae Young Classic Episode 1 (Sept. 5th)
-Results: Tegan Nox over Zatara, Rhea Ripley over MJ Jenkins, Lacey Lane over Vanessa Kraven, Meiko Satomura over Killer Kelly
-The show featured Meiko Satomura and Killer Kelly being placed in the main event slot, although no match hit eight minutes so they were kept short. Satomura looked great in this match with a tremendous cartwheel into a kick to the head of a downed Kelly. She won with the Death Valley Driver and they focused on her match on Monday Nitro when she was 16 years old and is now 38. Kelly was in tears after the match and bowed to Satomura.
-Michael Cole shines in these types of shows much like he did for the UK Tournament in January 2017 and helped guide along Renee Young and Beth Phoenix. Young had a lot of energy that made the show feel important to them with Phoenix playing the expert on the panel.
-Lacey Lane was given a strong push on the show as the underdog defeating 14-year veteran Vanessa Kraven, who was much bigger with a crucifix bomb. Lane was trained at the Team 3-D Academy and was signed by the WWE ahead of the Mae Young Classic. She has a lot of personality and came off well both on the Bracketology special and on this show.
-It will be interesting to see how they handle Tegan Nox’s story throughout the tournament. They did a big feature on her torn ACL she suffered last year to miss the inaugural Mae Young Classic. Her match with Zatara was the only that tried to push a babyface versus heel dynamic with Zatara inciting the crowd and playing the villain.
-There were cameos from Alexa Bliss and Lio Rush in the crowd with Natalya interviewed backstage, she specifically named Mia Yim and Io Shirai as the ones she was rooting for.
MMA NEWS
**This Saturday night, the UFC 228 pay-per-view takes place from the American Airlines Arena in Dallas, Texas with two championship fights as Tyron Woodley defends the welterweight title against Darren Till and Nicco Montano will defend her flyweight title for the first time against heavy favorite Valentina Shevchenko. Till has become the betting favorite going into the weekend, although there are those concerned about his ability to make the championship weight limit after missing weight against Stephen Thompson in May. The UFC has brought Kamaru Usman to Dallas to make weight, although Woodley has made it clear he is not fighting anyone besides Till this weekend and puts Usman in a tough spot. The weigh-ins will take place Friday morning in Texas with 14 fights scheduled for Saturday’s show. We will have a POST show up Sunday with a rundown of the event.
**MMA Fighting’s Shaun Al-Shatti reported that according to Darren Till’s nutritionist, the challenger weighed 178 pounds as of Thursday afternoon.
**Jon Anik will be calling Saturday’s card with Joe Rogan and dual champion Daniel Cormier.
**The New Zealand Herald reported on Wednesday that lightweights Edson Barboza and Dan Hooker are scheduled to fight on the final UFC on Fox card on Saturday, December 15th in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Hooker has won his last four fights with stoppages over Ross Pearson, Marc Diakiese, Jim Miller, and Gilbert Burns dating back to June 2017. Barboza is coming off a pair of losses to Khabib Nurmagomedov and Kevin Lee over the past year.
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**The UFC has announced that strawweights Nina Ansaroff and Claudia Gadelha will meet at UFC 231 on Saturday, December 8th in Toronto at the Scotiabank Arena.
**Here is the third episode of this week’s UFC Embedded series going into Saturday’s card from Dallas:
*****
BRITISH WRESTLING EXPERIENCE 9/5/18: Progress Chapter 75, OTT Wrestlerama 2, Defiant Stacked ’18, WOS, Wrestling MediaCon
https://www.postwrestling.com/2018/09/05/bwe-9-5-18-progress-ch-75-ott-wrestlerama-2-defiant-stacked-18-world-of-sport-wrestling-mediacon/
*****
THE DOUBLE SHOT 9/5/18: “King of Strong Style” by Shinsuke Nakamura & John’s “Mystery Review”
https://www.postwrestling.com/2018/09/05/double-shot-9-6-18-king-of-strong-style-by-shinsuke-nakamura-johns-mystery-review/
*****
REWIND-A-SMACKDOWN 9/4/18: Bryan & Brie chase Miz & Maryse, MMC returns
https://www.postwrestling.com/2018/09/05/rewind-a-smackdown-9-4-18-bryan-brie-chase-miz-maryse-mmc-returns/
*****
REWIND-A-RAW 9/3/18: The Shield arrested, Shawn Michaels promotes a match
https://mcdn.podbean.com/mf/download/iw7x77/180903_RAR.mp3
*****
ALL IN Road Trip Epilogue (Patreon audio & video)
John Pollock & Wai Ting review their trip to Chicago with highlights from Starrcast and All In, extra notes, their tour of the Pro Wrestling Tees store, deep dish pizza & more
https://www.postwrestling.com/2018/09/03/all-in-road-trip-epilogue-starrcast-pro-wrestling-tees/
*****
ALL IN POST Show
John Pollock, Wai Ting, Braden Herrington & Davie Portman review the “All In” card they attended live at the Sears Centre in Hoffman Estates with tons of notes from the show
https://www.postwrestling.com/2018/09/02/all-in-post-show-w-john-pollock-wai-ting-braden-herrington-davie-portman/
*****
EGGSHELLS PODCAST COMPANION: 1999 with Dan “The Mouth” Lovranski
Chris Charlton is joined by Dan “The Mouth” Lovranski to chat the major Tokyo Dome events of 1999, including the Shinya Hashimoto vs. Naoya Ogawa feud, All Japan running the Dome & the passing of Giant Baba
https://www.postwrestling.com/2018/09/01/eggshells-podcast-companion-1999-w-dan-lovranski/
*****
ALL IN ROAD TRIP & PREVIEW
John Pollock, Wai Ting, Braden Herrington & Davie Portman are live inside the car during their long drive to Chicago to chat their trip so far, a preview of the “All In” card and more.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2018/09/01/all-in-road-trip-preview-w-john-pollock-wai-ting-braden-herrington-davie-portman
*****
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