WRESTLING NEWS
**NXT Roadblock saw several angles shot with implications for Stand & Deliver. The expected main event between Bron Breakker and Carmelo Hayes was made official with the story that they represent the top of the NXT 2.0 era with mutual respect as their paths finally cross. The major news on the show was the return of Johnny Gargano, who had not appeared in NXT since December 2021 when his contract ended, and representing the heart and soul of the brand against the guy that wants to kill it, Grayson Waller. Waller was exceptional during the segment with Shawn Michaels and is the best talker they have in NXT and among the best in the entire company. He has something special and could be a big player one day. The show closed with Roxanne Perez fainting inside the ring after the beating by Meiko Satomura during their title match, which Perez won. It was very similar to the angle that propelled Michaels into a main event level draw in late 1995 when he did the same angle collapsing at the end of a match with Owen Hart and setting up his return at the Royal Rumble and then winning the title at WrestleMania 12.
**AEW Dynamite is at the Golden 1 Center in Sacramento, California following a terrific pay-per-view, which would rank among the best in the promotion’s history. They will be airing the Dallas Mavericks vs. New Orleans Pelicans game on ESPN. Here are the announced matches and segments for the show:
*TNT Championship: Wardlow © vs. Powerhouse Hobbs
*All-Atlantic Championship: Orange Cassidy © vs. Jay Lethal
*No Disqualification: Hook vs. Stokely Hathaway
*Jon Moxley & Claudio Castagnoli vs. Alex Reynolds & John Silver
*Chris Jericho, Sammy Guevara & Daniel Garcia vs. AR Fox & Top Flight
*Ruby Soho vs. Skye Blue
*Hangman Page & Ricky Starks to speak
**Liv Morgan appeared on WWE’s The Bump on Wednesday and reacted to the viral clip from Tuesday night when the performer was courtside at the New York Knicks game. Morgan was seated next to WWE SVP of Live Events Justin Scalise and appeared to be ignoring him but was actually just paying attention to the game and half listening to him. Twitter had a field day with it.
She definitely didn’t hear one word you just said bro pic.twitter.com/wL5oFRIyHS
— KnicksNation (@KnicksNation) March 8, 2023
**Wardlow posted a video of his rental car being broken into and all the belonging being stolen. He stated that the TNT belt, his wrestling gear, and boots were among the items stolen.
**NOAH runs its Star Navigation event at Korakuen Hall on Thursday morning at 4:30 a.m. ET and will be streaming on Wrestle Universe with the following card:
*GHC Jr. Heavyweight Championship: AMAKUSA © vs. Hi69
*Kaito Kiyomiya & Atsushi Kotoge vs. Jake Lee & Anthony Greene
*Chris Ridgeway vs. Yoshinari Ogawa
*Eita vs. HAYATA
*Kenoh, Katsuhiko Nakajima & Manbu Soya vs. Masa Kitamiya, Yoshiki Inamura & Daiki Inaba
*Takashi Sugiura, Kazuyuki Fujita & Hideki Suzuki vs. Naomichi Marufuji, Masaaki Mochizuki & Shuhei Taniguchi
*Daisuke Harada Retirement Match – 1 Minute Exhibition: Daisuke Harada vs. Atsushi Kotoge
*YO-HEY, Alejandro & Seiki Yoshioka vs. Super Crazy, Xtreme Tiger & Lancelot
*Shuji Kondo, Tadasuke & Hajime Ohara vs. inya Okada, Yasutaka Yano & Taishi Ozawa
**Last week, NOAH announced that Daisuke Harada was retiring after being urged by his doctors to do so. Harada, 36, has not wrestled since last August due to a neck injury. He came up in Osaka Pro’s system and debuted for the group in 2006 at the age of 19 and became their champion twice and formed a team with his Atsushi Kotoge (who he will have his retirement match with) and won the tag titles on three occasions. Harada moved to NOAH in 2013 and became a four-time junior heavyweight champion between 2014 and 2020 – last winning the title from Kotaro Suzuki and losing it to Seiki Yoshioka in February 2021. With Kotoge, they won the GHC Jr. Heavyweight tag titles four times with Harada also winning the tag titles with Tadasuke and Hajime Ohara. The match with Kotoge on Thursday will be a one-minute exhibition.
**The Nashville Scene spoke with Jeff Jarrett about the passing of his father, Jerry. It looked at the influences the elder Jarrett introduced in Memphis with remnants of the territory permeating into the WWF and TNA products over the years. In the piece, Jeff noted:
My father liked to tell stories with emotions, and he was a very innovative mind. He was the first to do so many different stipulation matches, like the scaffold match. We did hardcore wrestling years before anyone called it that. We did intergender wrestling in Tennessee in the late 1980s, something that had never been done before.
**MLW has added a match between Real1 and Willie Mack for 4/6 in New York City at the War Chamber event at the Melrose Ballroom.
**IMPACT will host two nights in London, Ontario on 5/26 and 5/27 for its Under Siege special on IMPACT Plus and television tapings the following night. The shows will be staged at the Western Fair District Agriplex with tickets going on sale this Friday at 10 a.m. ET. The promotion has several Canadian dates in Ontario coming up with Sacrifice later this month in Windsor, Rebellion in Toronto next month, and London in May.
**Stardom returns this Friday with a card at Korakuen Hall headlined by Ami Sohrei defending the Future of Stardom Championship against Lady C. The show will also feature Yuu & Nanae Takahashi defending the Goddesses of Stardom titles against Natsuko Tora & Ruaka, Hina vs. Rina vs. Miyu Amasaki to determine the next challenger for the Future of Stardom title, and Himeka’s retirement tour continues against Natsupoi among the top matches.
**Stardom’s Cinderella tournament will kick off on 3/26 with a pay-per-view featuring all eighteen opening-round matches. The second round takes place 4/1 in Tochigi, the quarter-finals are 4/2 at Korakuen Hall, and the semi-finals & final are set for 4/15 at Yoyogi Arena and will also be a pay-per-view.
**Ring of Honor’s second episode of its new era will stream on Thursday night on Honor Club. The show from Universal Studios will include the following matches from the tapings:
*ROH Television Championship: Samoa Joe © vs. Tony Deppen
*ROH Women’s Championship: Athena © vs. Willow Nightingale
*ROH Pure Championship: Wheeler Yuta © vs. Timothy Thatcher
*Eddie Kingston vs. Ben Dejo
*Aussie Open vs. Rhett Titus & Tracy Williams
*Dalton Castle & The Boys vs. Cody Chhun, Guillermo Rosas & Marcus Kross
*Rush & Dralistico vs. Angelico & Serpentico
*Trish Adora vs. Billie Starkz
*Jake Crist & Man Scout vs. Slim J & Ari Daivari
**Thursday’s episode of IMPACT from the Las Vegas tapings will include Mickie James vs. Gisele Shaw for the Knockouts Championship, Jonathan Gresham vs. KUSHIDA, and Rhino vs. Callihan at 8 p.m. ET on AXS TV.
**Pro Wrestling NOAH has stated that there will be English commentary on Wrestle Universe for its upcoming events tomorrow at Korakuen Hall, 3/19 at Yokohama Budokan, 4/16 in Sendai, 4/29 at Korakuen Hall, and 5/4 at Sumo Hall. NOAH’s English commentary team consists of Stewart Fulton and Mark Pickering.
**When Edge wrestles at WrestleMania this year, it will be his 145th pay-per-view match in WWE and will rank sixth all-time among performers. He is currently tied with Chris Jericho at 144 for that spot on the list. The most in history are 181 by Randy Orton followed by Kane at 176, The Undertaker at 174, Triple H at 173, and John Cena at 163.
**The WWE stock closed at $81.66 on Wednesday.
**Fight Network has released its second episode of Diary this season that features IMPACT performer Jordynne Grace. The first episode covering Josh Alexander was excellent and it’s a very talented team that works on these documentaries including producer Jorge Barbosa.
MMA NEWS
**The AP wrote a fairly damning story on Power Slap as Dana White’s series heads into its finale this Saturday on the free Rumble streaming platform (it was originally scheduled for pay-per-view but was recently moved to Rumble). The key move to give life to this venture was Nevada’s decision to sanction Power Slap and provide a license to White to run events at the Apex in Las Vegas. Then-chairman Stephen J. Cloobeck spoke with the AP and said he was sold on the legitimacy of Power Slap by White and Lorenzo Fertitta, but now regrets that decision and said, “I made a mistake”. Cloobeck stepped down from the commission in December. The AP spoke with Chris Nowinski of the Concussion Legacy Foundation, who has been vocal about the dangers of Power Slap and calling it, “one of the stupidest things you can do.” Perhaps the most disappointing comment came from Nevada commission chairman Anthony Marnell III, who stated that while health and safety is the top priority, “it seems like there is a market for this, whether you like it or not.” The role of the commission should not be to adjudicate based on the public’s demand but to serve as the arbiter of health and safety, it is the primary role of the commission. If the line for sanctioning is public appetite, it lowers the bar for any type of fight regardless of the difference in skill level or any other measure if a profitable outcome equals proper decision-making.
**John Nash of Bloody Elbow has a breakdown of the recent earnings report from Endeavor with an estimate of what percentage of revenue was paid to fighters last year. When assessing its sports properties (primarily UFC and Professional Bull Riding), the division’s operating expenses increased by 14.2 percent in 2022 but noted that the increase in expenses was “partially offset by lower athlete costs for UFC” with Nash estimating what the percentage of revenue was for fighters if they lowered fighter expenses by as little as one percent from the previous year.
**Lee Murray, who had one fight in the UFC in January 2004, is the subject of an upcoming documentary on Showtime and Paramount+. A four-part series titled “Catching Lightning” is set to premiere on 4/7 and details Murray’s involvement in the largest heist ever pulled off in the United Kingdom. Murray started competing in MMA in 1999 and gained notoriety after a street fight erupted in June 2002 where Murray allegedly knocked out Tito Ortiz, who was then the UFC light heavyweight champion, although Ortiz denied he was knocked out. It led to Murray getting a fight at UFC 46 in January 2004 where he submitted Jorge Rivera but never competed for the promotion again. He had one more fight in September 2004 where he lost a decision to future UFC champion Anderson Silva in Cage Rage. Murray was part of the massive Securitas depot robbery, which was the largest heist of its kind in U.K. history and led to his June 2006 arrest when he was found in Morocco. His sentence was eventually set at twenty-five years in 2010. Jon Wertheim, the author of “Blood in the Cage”, wrote a long-form piece on Murray for SI in 2008.
**Former bantamweight champion Miesha Tate (19-9) is returning to her normal weight class after one fight at flyweight. Dama de Ferro MMA reported that Tate will fight Mayra Bueno Silva on 6/3. Tate came out of retirement in July 2021 and defeated Marion Reneau but lost a decision in her next fight to Ketlen Vieira, which led to a move down to 125 pounds where Tate lost by decision to Lauren Murphy last July. The UFC has yet to formally announce the event in June or the fight.
**Bellator 292 this Friday at the SAP Center in San Jose features the start of the World Lightweight Grand Prix. Champion Usman Nurmagomedov (16-0) will defend his title in the opening round against former UFC champion Benson Henderson (30-11) in the main event. The other Grand Prix fight will see Tofiq Musayev (20-4) take on Alexandr Shabily (22-3) with both fights scheduled for five rounds. The main card rounds out with Valentin Moldavsky (11-2, 1 NC) taking on Linton Vassell (22-8, 1 NC) and Michael “Venom” Page (20-2) returning after a loss to Mike Perry in BKFC last August as he takes on Goiti Yamauchi (28-5) on Showtime at 10 p.m. ET.
**It is a rare UFC Fight Night card in Las Vegas that will not take place at the Apex this weekend. Due to the Power Slap finale at the Apex, the UFC is running its card at the Theatre at Virgin Hotels with a terrific bantamweight main event. Former champion Petr Yan (16-4) is fighting Merab Dvalishvili (15-4). After losing his first two fights in the UFC, Dvalishvili has won eight fights in a row and is coming off a decision win against former featherweight champion Jose Aldo last August. The issue with Dvalishvili is that he has stated he will not fight his trainer partner Aljamain Sterling, who is the current 135-pound champion, and limits where Dvalishvili can go if he continues this winning streak.
POST IT NOTES
**Rewind-A-Dynamite is live at 10 p.m. ET tonight for a review of Dynamite in Sacramento, and a breakdown of the major news stories today including WWE in Puerto Rico, CNBC story on WWE and gambling, the MLW amended complaint, TV ratings news, and your feedback from the POST Wrestling Forum.
**This month’s ASK-A-WAI Mailbag Show covered a lot of interesting topics including a look back at the pandemic and how it could have impacted our business, drawing a line regarding how far heels can go, naming conventions in pro wrestling and how limiting a poor one can be, labor rights in wrestling, freezing of contracts, and much more. It is available now for all patrons.
**Beginning next month on the ASK-A-WAI Mailbag Show, we will be accepting questions from Memo.fm/POSTwrestling where you can record and submit your question. The ability to ask questions is free and open to everyone while the mailbag show itself is available to POST Wrestling Café members. You can always send in questions through the POST Wrestling Forum thread, as well.
**If you missed it, we have added our POST Road Diary onto the Café documenting our recent trip to Montreal to cover the WWE Elimination Chamber show.
**Next Tuesday’s edition of Rewind-A-Wai will cover the Great American Bash from July 10, 1988, headlined by Ric Flair vs. Lex Luger for the NWA Worlds Heavyweight Championship in Baltimore.
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NXT Roadblock POST Show
Braden Herrington and Davie Portman review WWE NXT Roadblock featuring Roxanne Perez vs Meiko Satomura for the NXT Women’s Championship.
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ASK-A-WAI Mailbag Show
John Pollock and Wai Ting answer their patrons’ questions about anything and everything in the March 2023 edition of Ask-A-Wai.
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POST ROAD DIARY: Montreal
John Pollock & Wai Ting travel from Toronto to Montreal to cover the WWE Elimination Chamber event at the Bell Centre.
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REWIND-A-RAW
John Pollock and Wai Ting review WWE Raw with the return of John Cena, an appearance by Logan Paul, and Sami Zayn takes on Jimmy Uso in Boston.
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AEW REVOLUTION POST SHOW
John Pollock & Wai Ting review AEW Revolution with MJF defending the AEW Championship against Bryan Danielson in a 60-minute Ironman match.
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WRESTLENOMICS RADIO
We demonstrate declines in various consumer metrics for AEW over the last year. Brandon Thurston, Jesse Collings, and Chris Gullo discuss possible causes ahead of AEW’s Revolution pay-per-view in San Francisco.
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