POST IT NOTES
**Our latest Marvel Cinematic Universe review is up for members of the POST Wrestling Café. Wai Ting and I recently reviewed the 2008 film “The Incredible Hulk” starring Edward Norton and Liv Tyler. Wai and I are now going in order reviewing all the MCU films and all Café members have access to each review. On this show, we discuss the casting of Edward Norton as Bruce Banner, the decision to go with Mark Buffalo for future films, Norton’s chemistry with Tyler, the controversy involving the script of the film, the proximity of this film’s release to “Ironman” the prior month, and the scenes shot in Toronto.
**Wai Ting and I have released our weekly POST Production video with an update on all the projects we are working on, behind-the-scenes notes at POST Wrestling, what is working/not working, ideas for the future and a general update on how everything is running. This is available now for Double Double, Iced Capp & Espresso members of the POST Wrestling Café.
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**On Saturday, Chris Charlton will be joined by author Lee Daly on the EGGSHELLS Podcast Companion to review the big matches from the Tokyo Dome in 2002. The two will chat about the influence of Bob Sapp during this era, Joanie “Chyna” Lauer going to New Japan, the UFO promotion and more. This show is a free one and will available on the main POST Wrestling feed.
**Wai Ting and I are back on Sunday afternoon with our NJPW Destruction in Kobe POST Show to review Sunday’s card with Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Kazuchika Okada. This show will be exclusive to members of the POST Wrestling Café.
WRESTLING NEWS
**The Raw crew has a house show in Butte, Montana tonight with Roman Reigns vs. Braun Strowman advertised for the main event. The building they are running was built in 1952 and is one of the oldest venues they have run in a long time. On Saturday, the Raw crew will hold a show in Billings, Montana. The SmackDown crew begins Saturday in Tucson, Arizona with AJ Styles vs. Samoa Joe and a four-way with Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Randy Orton vs. Jeff Hardy vs. Rusev advertised.
**On Thursday’s episode of Impact Wrestling, it was announced that Abyss (Chris Parks) would be inducted into the promotion’s Hall of Fame over Bound for Glory weekend. The Hall of Fame ceremony will be taking place from McHale’s Pub in New York City and will be open to the public. Abyss appeared on the inaugural NWA TNA pay-per-view in June 2002 and would later adopt the Abyss moniker for the duration of his tenure with the company. In 2012, he appeared as Joseph Park, his alter ego that was played so well by Parks and a total contrast to the monster character. His best presentation came early when he was paired alongside Father Jim Mitchell as they complimented each other well with Mitchell’s strong promos and Abyss’ style as a monster worked so well with the variety of the roster. The Joseph Park character was a much-needed breather from Abyss, as he had upped the ante in his matches to the point that he was taking so much punishment in his pay-per-view matches and it became a staple that he always had to use weapons, thumbtacks and they lost their novelty with the high frequency of usage. Previous inductees into the TNA Hall of Fame were Sting, Kurt Angle, Team 3-D, Jeff Jarrett, Earl Hebner, and Gail Kim.
**Impact Wrestling dropped 11% and averaged 229,000 viewers on Thursday night. The show went against the Cleveland Browns vs. New York Jets games on the NFL Network that did 8,632,000 viewers.
**The season-premiere of Total Divas didn’t get off to a great start with 454,000 viewers tuning in on E! This week’s number was well under last season’s average of 581,750 and lower than any episode of the prior season that ran from November 2017 – January 2018.
**Kairi Sane will be defending the NXT women’s title against Shayna Baszler at the Evolution pay-per-view on Sunday, October 28th on Long Island.
**Pro Wrestling Guerrilla has announced their next card will be “Smokey and the Bandido” on Friday, October 19th with the following card: WALTER vs. Jeff Cobb for the PWG title, Dezmond Xavier & Zachary Wentz vs. Santana & Ortiz for the PWG tag titles, Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Hechicero, Bandido vs. Rey Fenix, Joey Janela vs. Darby Allin, Timothy Thatcher vs. Brody King, and Flamita vs. Rey Horus vs. Puma King. This card looks incredible on paper and tickets will go on sale next Thursday at 11 pm Eastern.
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**The WWE has announced that due to injury, Sasha Banks has been replaced by Mickie James in the Mixed Match Challenge with James teaming with Bobby Lashley. There were no details provided on Banks’ injury or how long she will be out of action for. Lashley & James are scheduled to take on Jinder Mahal & Alicia Fox on next Tuesday’s episode in the round robin tournament.
**Adam “Hangman” Page is auctioning off his trunks, knee pads and the telephone used against Joey Janela from “All In” to raise funds for the North Carolina Disaster Relief Fund. The auction is already over $1,000 and goes towards those affected by Hurricane Florence. The deadline to bid is Sunday night at 6 pm Eastern.
**Here are the matches for tonight’s episode of MLW Fusion at 8 pm Eastern on beIN Sports:
*PCO vs. Brody King
*The Hart Foundation vs. The Stud Stable
*MJF & Aria Blake vs. Joey Ryan & Taya Valkyrie
**Wednesday’s episode of Lucha Underground averaged 97,000 viewers on the El Rey Network with Pentagon Dark dropping the Lucha Underground title to Marty the Moth Martinez to close the show. The number was up 22.7% from last week’s figure of 79,000. From July 11th – August 8th, the show averaged 129,000 viewers per week but since then has averaged 91,700 viewers.
**New Japan Pro Wrestling wraps up their Destruction tour with “Destruction in Kobe” this Sunday airing at 3 am Eastern on New Japan World. Below is the lineup:
*Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Kazuchika Okada for the Wrestle Kingdom title shot
*KUSHIDA vs. Bushi in the IWGP junior heavyweight title tournament
*Tetsuya Naito, Sanada & EVIL vs. Minoru Suzuki, Zack Sabre Jr. & Taka Michinoku
*Juice Robinson, David Finlay & Toa Henare vs. Jay White, Will Ospreay & Yoshi-Hashi
*Killer Elite Squad vs. Chuckie T. & Beretta
*Yuji Nagata, Satoshi Kojima, Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Manabu Nakanishi vs. Togi Makabe, Tomoaki Honma, Ryusuke Taguchi & Ayato Yoshida
*Yoshinobu Kanemaru & El Desperado vs. Jushin Thunder Liger & Tiger Mask
*Roppongi 3K vs. Ren Narita & Shota Umino
*Yota Tsuji vs. Yuya Uemura – these two have had 14 singles matches and each one has ended in a 10-minute draw
**The Knoxville News Sentinel has a story on Glenn Jacobs accepting a series of dates with the WWE this fall, beginning with the Super Show-Down event on October 6th. Jacobs spoke to the newspaper and said, “Basically, WWE contacted me, and they wanted to do a really big show, or series of shows, that they wanted to do. Of course, I was like, ‘Hey man, Vince (McMahon), I’m most likely going to be mayor’, and was the arrangement we came up to.” Earlier this week, it was announced that the WWE would be donating $100,000 to the Knoxville Public Safety Foundation as a favor for Jacobs going to work these upcoming events for the company. Jacobs recently hired an assistant, Brad Hair, who will stand in for any events that Jacobs cannot attend with the Knox County Law Department and human resources approving the hiring of Hair.
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**Ring of Honor has added a Tables match to next Friday’s Death Before Dishonor pay-per-view with Bully Ray & Silas Young taking Colt Cabana & Flip Gordon. Below is the updated card for next Friday at the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas and airing at 9 pm Eastern:
*Jay Lethal vs. Will Ospreay for the ROH title
*Cody, The Young Bucks, Marty Scurll & Hangman Page vs. Kazuchika Okada, Tomohiro Ishii, Rocky Romero, Trent Beretta & Chuckie T.
*Sumie Sakai vs. Tenille Dashwood for the Women of Honor championship
*The Briscoe Brothers vs. Christopher Daniels & Frankie Kazarian for the ROH tag titles
*Punishment Martinez vs. Chris Sabin for the ROH Television title
*Kenny King vs. Jushin Thunder Liger
*Bully Ray & Silas Young vs. Colt Cabana & Flip Gordon in a Tables match
**Bret Hart will be appearing at the Toronto Sports Expo this Sunday at The Hangar Sport & Event Center (75 Carl Hall Road, Unit #1). Hart will be appearing at 1 pm with an autograph for any item available for $50, a photo op for $50 and a combo deal for $80.
**Brody King will be taking on Tommy Dreamer at MLW’s “Fury Road” event on Thursday, October 4th at the Melrose Ballroom in Queens, New York. The show will also feature L.A. Park vs. PCO, Jimmy Havoc vs. Sami Callihan in a “Spin the Wheel, Make the Deal” match, Shane Strickland vs. Tom Lawlor, and Rich Swann, ACH & Marko Stunt vs. Davey Boy Smith Jr., Teddy Hart & Brian Pillman Jr.
**Tony Schiavone is set to call the NWA championship match between Cody and Nick Aldis at the NWA’s 70th Anniversary card on Sunday, October 21st in Nashville, Tennessee.
**Northeast Wrestling will be holding one of the biggest U.S independent shows of the year on Friday, November 9th from the Mid-Hudson Civic Center in Poughkeepsie, New York. The promotion has announced the card will be headlined by Kenny Omega taking on Rey Fenix, which is a huge match. They have also announced Pentagon Jr., Rob Van Dam, PCO, and Darby Allin for the event. Tickets are available now on their site and range from $35-100 and there will also be a pre-show meet-and-greet with tickets going from $20-250.The meet-and-greet will feature autograph and photo opportunities with Kenny Omega, Rey Fenix, Rob Van Dam, and Pentagon Jr.
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TELEVISION REVIEW
Lucha Underground (Sept. 19th)
-RESULTS: Fenix over Aerostar, Marty The Moth over El Dragon Azteca Jr. to win the Gift of the Gods championship, Pentagon Dark over King Cuerno and Mil Muertes to retain the Lucha Underground title, Marty the Moth over Pentagon Dark to win the Lucha Underground title
-Fenix is playing a character that has been possessed since being brought back from the dead and played this role throughout his match with Aerostar. He played the role well getting it over strong through his facial work despite the mask. This match had its big flying spots but was more designed around Fenix’s character work. Fenix won with a Fenix Driver and continued to attack his former partner after the match. Melissa Santos pleaded for him to get help and he got into her face and grabbed her by the shoulders before Dragon Azteca Jr. got in the middle. This led to Fenix attacking Azteca Jr and hitting a Fenix Driver onto the floor. Santos is a very underrated actress as she does a great role as the ring announcer but is also effective when called upon to react and play off other characters such as Fenix.
-Azteca Jr. was forced to defend his Gift of the Gods championship immediately after the attack and was beaten by Marty the Moth Martinez. Martinez won with a double underhook implant DDT.
-The main event was short with Pentagon pinning King Cuerno after the Pentagon Driver. After the match, Marty the Moth attacked Pentagon and used his title as a weapon.
-Antonio Cueto came out and announced that the one week’s notice to cash in the Gift of the Gods title match has been waived and Marty can challenge Pentagon now.
-Chelsea Green interfered in the match, she kicked Pentagon low and gave him a Canadian Destroyer. Marty returned to the ring and hit the package piledriver onto Pentagon to win the title. The audience chanted “bullshit” as Marty and Green celebrated to end the show.
-The show focused on making Marty the Moth into a top character on the show by winning the Gift of the Gods championship, the Lucha Underground title, receiving a partner in Chelsea Green and he is also the chosen champion of Antonio Cueto. It’s hard to assess or nitpick any booking decisions on the show as it has its audience and I don’t see a title switch or specific character being elevated changing the level of interest most have in the product. Lucha Underground’s appeal is that the storylines are wild and unbelievable, the wrestling is generally very good and it’s a quick watch each week.
MMA NEWS
**The UFC has begun releasing their mini-documentaries in conjunction with the promotion’s 25th anniversary this November. The second release came out Wednesday entitled “The Lion’s Den: The Story of the First Mixed Martial Arts Team”. The documentary featured some great archival footage of Ken Shamrock’s fights in Pancrase, including his debut against Masakatsu Funaki in 1993 and competing for the group days prior to the first UFC event. Ken Shamrock is a tremendous storyteller and the producers leaned heavily on Shamrock to weave the viewer along from his early experiences into the development of The Lion’s Den. Where the documentary lacked was the variety of past members appearing to reflect on the camp. Besides Shamrock, the only subjects interviewed were Vernon White and Guy Mezger. The most notable name absent was Frank Shamrock, which would have added so much discussing the fallout he had with Ken, his running of the team when Ken went to the World Wrestling Federation and their differing philosophies, but it didn’t come as surprise he wasn’t featured. I would have loved to have heard from other members such as Jerry Bohlander and Mikey Burnett and even someone like Pat Miletich to compare the Lion’s Den to the team he built with MFS in Davenport as the next evolution of fighter camps. Tito Ortiz was briefly shown in clips, including Guy Mezger’s victory in May 1997, but nothing about the feud between Ortiz and the team, which was huge for the UFC. The strength was Shamrock as he was the most important figure for such a piece and I enjoyed the archived footage from some of the old training sessions, but I felt it suffered from a lack of interview subjects directly involved.
**Glenn Robinson, who helped launch The Blackzilians camp out of Florida, died on Thursday. The camp was launched in 2011 featuring fighters associated with Robinson’s Authentic Sports Management group. The team was bolstered with the addition of Rashad Evans, who had a very public split with Jackson-Winkeljohn at the time and linked up with the Blackzilians. Besides Evans, fighters included Anthony Johnson, Eddie Alvarez, Michael Johnson, Matt Mitrione, Jorge Santiago, Thiago Alves, Alistair Overeem, J.Z. Cavalcante, Volkan Oezdemir and many others that spent time training at the camp. In 2015, Robinson was prominently featured in the 21st domestic season of the Ultimate Fighter, which pitted fighters from the Blackzilians against American Top Team, led by owner Dan Lambert. In time, the Blackzilians splintered with striking coach Henri Hooft relocating and several fighters leaving with him. At one time the Blackzilians were one of the top camps in the world. A memorial service for Robinson will be held this Sunday in Davie, Florida.
**Thursday’s UFC 229 press conference was described by Dana White as “the darkest press conference” he has ever put on. Conor McGregor attacked Khabib Nurmagomedov on several fronts, including references to Khabib’s father and relationship to Chechen dictator Ramzan Kadyrov, bringing up Russian oligarch Ziyavudin Magomedov and exchanging words with Nurmagomedov’s manager Ali Abdel-Aziz. Bloody Elbow’s Karim Zidan has reported on these individuals and their connection to MMA for years. Zidan has a new piece up discussing who these figures are, their connection to Khabib Nuramgomedov and the world politics that McGregor has introduced in the lead up to the fight as a tactic.
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**Bellator 205 takes place tonight from the CenturyLink Arena in Boise, Idaho. Below are the main cards fights airing at 9 pm Eastern on the Paramount Network:
*A.J. McKee vs. John Teixeira –The show is headlined by undefeated featherweight A.J. McKee, who is 11-0 with every one of his pro fights taking place at Bellator. He was originally scheduled to fight former featherweight champion Pat Curran, but Curran was replaced by John Teixeira. Teixeira is coming off losses to Daniel Weichel and Curran in his last two outings with decision losses.
*Rafael Lovato Jr. vs. John Salter –Lovato, Jr. is one of the most decorated grapplers in the sport, who made his MMA debut in September 2014. He is 4-0 with Bellator with recent victories over Chris Honeycutt and Gerald Harris. Salter has won his last seven fights and is undefeated in Bellator. Salter last fought in November last year submitting Jason Radcliffe.
*Veta Arteaga vs. Denise Kielholtz –Kielholtz is the Bellator Kickboxing flyweight champion and this will be he fourth professional mixed martial arts fight. In Bellator, she submitted Jessica Middleton last November and followed that victory with a decision nod over Petra Castkova. Arteaga has been fighting professionally since February 2016 and entered Bellator for her second fight. After dropping a split decision to Bruna Ellen in August 2017, she rebounded this past July with a unanimous decision victory over Emily Ducote.
*Patricky “Pitbull” Freire vs. Roger Huerta –this Patricky’s 20th fight with Bellator dating back to March 2011. Since his knockout loss to Michael Chandler in June 2016, Patricky has won three-straight with victories over Josh Thomson by knockout, Benson Henderson by split decision and he stopped Derek Campos this past February at Bellator 194. Huerta returned to Bellator this past April and was submitted by Benson Henderson.
**The main story coming out of Friday’s UFC weigh-ins in Sao Paulo, was former bantamweight champion Renan Barao missing weight by five pounds. Barao stepped onto the scale at 141.75 pounds for his bantamweight fight with Andre Ewell and will be fined 30% of his purse with the fight being contested at a catchweight on Saturday. The other 27 fighters on the card successfully made weight and below are the results of the weigh-ins:
MAIN CARD (10:30 pm Eastern on FS 1, TSN 5 in Canada)
*Thiago Santos (203.7) vs. Eryk Anders (205.6)
*Alex Oliveira (171) vs. Carlo Pedersoli (170.3)
*Sam Alvey (205.6) vs. Antonio Rogerio Nogueira (205.3)
*Renan Barao (141.75*) vs. Andre Ewell (135)
*Randa Markos (115.7) vs. Marina Rodriguez (115.4)
PRELIMINARY CARD (8:30 pm on FS 2, Fight Network in Canada)
*Charles Oliveira (153.9) vs. Christos Giagos (155.6)
*Evan Dunham (156) vs. Francisco Trinaldo (155)
*Luis Henrique (204.8) vs. Ryan Spann (203.8)
*Augusto Sakai (265.6) vs. Chase Sherman (257.1)
FIGHT PASS CARD (6:30 pm)
*Sergio Moraes (170.8) vs. Ben Saunders (170.3)
*Gillian Robertson (125.6) vs. Marya Bueno Silva (125.4)
*Thales Leites (185.9) vs. Hector Lombard (185.7)
*Elizeu Zaleski dos Santos (170.6) vs. Luigi Vendramini (170.4)
*Livia Renata Souza (116) vs. Alex Chambers (115.8)
*****
POST MOVIE REVIEW – The Incredible Hulk (Patreon)
John Pollock & Wai Ting continue their MCU reviews with the 2008 film “The Incredible Hulk” that stars Edward Norton, Liv Tyler & a cameo from Rickson Gracie. The two discussed the forgotten MCU film, the casting of Norton, the switch to Mark Ruffalo, the chemistry of Norton & Tyler, and the Toronto landmarks featured.
https://www.patreon.com/posts/21549471
*****
upNXT & Forever Young 9/20/18: Title vs. Title
Braden Herrington & Davie Portman chat this week’s episode of WWE NXT featuring Ricochet vs. Pete Dunne, plus the WWE 2018 Mae Young Classic featuring Allison Kaye vs. Mia Yim.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2018/09/20/upnxt-forever-young-9-20-18-title-vs-title/
*****
BRITISH WRESTLING EXPERIENCE 9/19/18: Fight Club Pro, MediaCon, British J Cup, WOS
Martin Bushby & Benno are back to chat about Fight Club Pro’s recent card featuring Tyler Bate vs. Jordan Devlin, Rev Pro’s British J Cup, World of Sport Ep.8, and Benno chats his live coverage of Wrestling MediaCon
https://www.postwrestling.com/2018/09/19/bwe-9-19-18-fight-club-pro-mediacon-british-j-cup-world-of-sport-la-triple-w/
*****
DOUBLE SHOT 9/19/18: CMLL’s 85th Anniversary, Mick Foley’s WWE Network Special
John Pollock & Wai Ting have more to chat about with John’s review of the CMLL Anniversary card from Arena Mexico last Friday, both discuss the Mick Foley special on the anniversary of the Hell in a Cell and Wai recaps the latest edition of Ten Pounds of Gold.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2018/09/19/double-shot-9-19-18-cmlls-85th-anniversary-mick-foleys-wwe-network-special/
*****
REWIND-A-SMACKDOWN 9/18/18: Queen Becky…Bitch, Mixed Match Challenge
John Pollock & Wai Ting review SmackDown in Tulsa, the top program on the show, Becky’s character, Aiden English turns on Rusev, AJ Styles vs. Andrade Cien Almas, a review of Mixed Match Challenge and all the news from the day.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2018/09/19/rasd-9-18-18-queen-becky-bitch-rusev-day-mixed-match-challenge/
*****
REWIND-A-RAW 9/17/18: Lots of Baron Corbin, Saudi Arabia main event set
John Pollock & Wai Ting review Raw from Dallas, the announcement of the second event in Saudi Arabia with the main event announced, news of the day, feedback & more.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2018/09/18/rar-9-17-18-lots-of-baron-corbin-saudi-arabia-main-event-set/
*****
WWE HELL IN A CELL POST SHOW
John Pollock & Wai Ting review the Hell in a Cell card, a match-by-match rundown, Brock Lesnar appears during the main event, Becky Lynch wins the women’s title, the finish of Styles-Joe, the red cage and more.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2018/09/17/wwe-hell-in-a-cell-post-show-with-john-pollock-wai-ting/
*****
NJPW DESTRUCTION IN HIROSHIMA POST SHOW
John Pollock & Wai Ting review New Japan’s Destruction card from Hiroshima with the IWGP title match between Kenny Omega and Tomohiro Ishii and several future matches set up on the undercard from the current tour.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2018/09/15/njpw-destruction-in-hiroshima-2018-post-show-w-john-pollock-wai-ting/
*****
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