POST IT NOTES
**Rewind-A-Dynamite is live at 10 p.m. ET with Wai Ting & John Pollock. We will review the show from Hamilton and discuss today’s news along with reading your feedback. Immediately following RAD, we go live on the POST Café with a review of “The Junkyard Dog” edition of Dark Side of the Ring. Join us tonight for the doubleheader.
**The audio from our Forbidden Pour Q&A has been released for patrons on the POST Café.
**On Thursday, Brandon Thurston and I will be live at 1 p.m. ET with Insider Gaming reporter Mike Straw to chat about the release of the AEW Fight Forever game. Brandon and I will also chat about our live coverage at Forbidden Door, the AEW Collision ratings for week two, and the rest of the news.
**Davie Portman was joined by B Detroit for this week’s edition of upNXT to discuss the second Gold Rush episode that saw Carmelo Hayes retain the NXT Championship against Baron Corbin and an unannounced appearance by Rhea Ripley.
POST SCHEDULE
Tonight: Rewind-A-Dynamite with John Pollock & Wai Ting
Tonight: The Double Shot – Dark Side of the Ring “Junkyard Dog (Patreon)
Thursday: Pollock & Thurston w/ Insider Gaming’s Mike Straw (1 p.m. ET)
Friday: Rewind-A-SmackDown with John & Wai (Patreon)
Saturday: MCU L8R – Secret Invasion Ep. 2 (Patreon)
Saturday: WWE Money in the Bank Review
Sunday: Collision Course with John Siino & Kate from Montreal (Patreon)
WRESTLING NEWS
**Will Ospreay is capitalizing on the major spot of the match with Kenny Omega by releasing a t-shirt of the newly named Storm Driver ‘93 a.k.a. Tiger Driver ’91. The scary part is that with the move becoming so synonymous with the match it almost guarantees repeating if/when the two are to have the third match of this year’s series. While All Japan of the ‘90s is a legendary era of professional wrestling history, it is also a cautionary period for performers to learn from the long-term toll it took on those performers in their quest to redefine the state of the art. I can appreciate the enormous pressure Ospreay and Omega had to follow one of the greatest matches of this generation and forcing them to push the envelope that much further. However, it’s a dangerous dance when that type of move represents the ante being raised and dancing so dangerously close to the sun regarding dropping one another on their head and skirting long-term injury by a fraction of an inch. In many cases, it is the performers that need to be protected from themselves, and for every Bryan Danielson that will seek out medical opinions from the staff beforehand, there are dozens of others that live with an air of invincibility that unfortunately, comes with a price in the end.
The reality is that both men have contracts coming due soon and stand to sign the most lucrative of their lifetimes. Omega’s next contract will be for millions and Ospreay is of similar value if he places himself on the open market. Neither man needs to be at a stage of getting noticed but underscores a desire to separate themselves from the crowded pack of phenomenal matches we see routinely. The reality is that Sunday’s match is only threatened by their Tokyo Dome version as the best of the year with or without the Tiger Driver ’91 spot and was an all-time classic before the move was executed.
**On a side note, a fantastic shot of the Tiger Driver ’91 spot is circulating and the photographer of said shot is Steve Argintaru. Steve has been covering professional wrestling for decades and has been present for some of the biggest cards and events, especially in Canada. He is among the very best pro wrestling photographers I have ever seen and while I cringed at the spot, one can also appreciate the work of capturing such a moment.
A lot of talk about the Tiger Driver 91 delivered by Will Ospreay on Kenny Omega at #ForbiddenDoor
Bryan Danielson had some interesting comments when asked by @iamjohnpollock at the media conference. https://t.co/6PfF6dddBp pic.twitter.com/rOIRongXzP
— Steve Argintaru (@SteveTSN) June 27, 2023
**Former Connecticut Governor Lowell Weicker has died at the age of 92. His political career included positions as Connecticut’s 85th Governor from 1991-95, serving as a three-term Senator, and a U.S. Representative. Weicker was deeply tied to the Watergate case that led to Richard Nixon’s removal from office. Weicker served as a junior member of the committee and was part of the public hearings. His connection to professional wrestling was serving as a board member for the WWF in 1999 (the year the company first went public on the NASDAQ exchange) until 2011. Despite having a long relationship with the WWE and representing the Republican party, Weicker did not support Linda McMahon in either of her Senate bids in 2010 or 2012. Weicker denied that there was any connection between his leaving the WWE board and failure to endorse McMahon the previous year and opting to lend his support to Democrat Chris Dodd in the 2010 race. At the time of his exit from WWE, Weicker called it a “mutual decision”.
**AEW resumes its Canadian tour with the first of two nights in Hamilton at the First Ontario Centre tonight. WrestleTix latest report has Dynamite at approximately 4,000 tickets distributed while Collision on Thursday is at about 2,000. These are soft numbers for the market and a venue of that size and it’s a combination of factors, but it would suggest that it was too many shows for a relatively similar market with Toronto so close. On StubHub, you can find tickets as low as $29 CDN for tonight’s show. Below are the announced segments and matches:
*Tornado Tag Match: “The Painmaker” Chris Jericho & Sammy Guevara vs. Sting & Darby Allin
*Jon Moxley vs. Tomohiro Ishii
*Owen Hart Cup: Dr. Britt Baker vs. Ruby Soho
*The Young Bucks & Hangman Page in action
*MJF and Adam Cole to appear
*Jack Perry speaks
*More pairings for the Blind Draw Eliminator Tournament
**It is unknown how severe the arm injury is that Bryan Danielson sustained at Forbidden Door. Danielson appeared at the post-show press conference in a brace and thought he had broken his right forearm with ten minutes to go in the match with Kazuchika Okada. On Sunday night, Danielson was hopeful he’d only be out for 6-8 weeks, which would line up for a return at All In. On Tuesday, his wife Brie posted an x-ray of the arm stating, “Not sure to be proud or chastise him for wrestling 10 more minutes with this break!! Definitely worse than we thought!!”. Danielson said the injury occurred when Okada came off the top turnbuckle with an elbow drop and Danielson’s arm was not in a safe position. He opted to gut his way through the remainder of the match but acknowledged he did have to change some things. Obviously, losing Danielson for its biggest week of the year would be a major blow between All In and All Out the next weekend.
**Wrestlenomics reported the quarter hours for AEW Collision this past Saturday. The peak of the show was the final segment involving the conclusion of the eight-man tag involving CM Punk with 634,000 viewers and 289,000 in the 18-49 demographic. The low point of the show occurred between 9:15 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. for the ending of Willow Nightingale vs. Nyla Rose, the Scorpio Sky interview, and Powerhouse Hobbs vs. Jeremy Prophet match that averaged 554,000 and 248,000 in the demo.
**NXT held a double taping on Tuesday night and taped next week’s episode that will air on July 4, which is notoriously one of the worst nights of the year for audiences. Next week’s show will include Eddy Thorpe vs. Damon Kemp in an NXT Underground Match, The Creeds vs. The Dyad in a Loser Leaves NXT Match, Lyra Valkyria vs. Jacy Jayne, Tatum Paxley vs. Kelani Jordan, Mustafa Ali vs. Tyler Bate, and Roxanne Perez vs. Blair Davenport. They return with a live show on July 11.
**WWE’s European tour begins today with a card in Liverpool, England. Thursday sees split crews in Sheffield and Dublin, Ireland. Friday has a live event in Newcastle along with SmackDown from the O2 Arena. After Money in the Bank, they will hold one more show on Sunday in Cardiff, Wales. The Undertaker is also hosting four shows during the tour beginning on Friday in London.
**The WWE stock has seen a sizable jump this week and closed at $108.03 on Wednesday. It has increased by 7% over the past several days.
**IMPACT has their two shows in Wagga Wagga, Australia on Friday & Saturday with both cards streaming on FITE TV. The first show airs live at 5 a.m. ET on Friday with Alex Shelley vs. Steve Maclin in a rematch for the IMPACT title, Chris Sabin vs. Frankie Kazarian vs. Robbie Eagles for the X Division Championship, Joe Hendry vs. Eddie Edwards for the Digital Media title, ABC vs. Moose & Brian Myers in a non-title match, Deonna Purrazzo vs. Steph De Lander in a non-title match, Gisele Shaw vs. Erika Reid, Killer Kelly vs. Aysha, and Slex vs. Adam Brooks. The shows are $9.99 or $14.99 for both.
**MLW has added a Scramble Match for its Fusion tapings at the 2300 Arena on July 8 with Love, Doug vs. Ken Broadway vs. Willie Mack vs. O’Shay Edwards vs. Nolo Kitano.
**BetOnline has released updated odds for WWE Money in the Bank:
*Seth Rollins (-2000) vs. Finn Balor (+700)
*Roman Reigns & Solo Sikoa (-140) vs. The Usos (+110)
*LA Knight (-300) vs. Logan Paul (+120) vs. Damian Priest (+200) vs. Santos Escobar (+2000) vs. Shinsuke Nakamura (+2000) vs. Butch (+2500) vs. Ricochet (+3300)
*IYO SKY (-600) vs. Becky Lynch (+400) vs. Bayley (+800) vs. Zoey Stark (+800) vs. Trish Stratus (+1200) vs. Zelina Vega (+2000)
*Gunther (-2000) vs. Matt Riddle (+700)
*Cody Rhodes (-700) vs. Dominik Mysterio (+400)
*Ronda Rousey & Shayna Baszler (-10000) vs. Raquel Rodriguez & Liv Morgan (+1100)
MMA NEWS
**Team McGregor fell to 0-5 on the latest edition of Ultimate Fighter. Former TUF winner and member of Team Chandler, Brad Katona, defeated Carlos Vera by unanimous decision on Tuesday’s episode. Katona advances to the semi-finals of the bantamweight tournament. There was the unique story that Katona is on Michael Chandler’s team but trains at SBG Ireland. Next week’s fight features Kurt Holobaugh (19-7) of Team Chandler taking on Lee Hammond (5-0) of Team McGregor.
**The UFC Fight Night card on Saturday is at the Apex with a middleweight main event between Sean Strickland (26-5) and Abus Magomedov (25-4-1). The prelims air at 4 p.m. ET on ESPN & ESPN+ with the main card airing at 7 on both linear and streaming, so the main card will air head-to-head with AEW Collision.
**Nolan King at MMA Junkie noted that the Alabama Athletic Commission voted to keep slap fighting illegal within the state. The commission noted the vote took place the same week as the Nevada Athletic Commission voted to regulate the events ahead of the launch of Dana White’s Power Slap. The Alabama Commission states that slap fighting is illegal within the state to promote, participate, or attend.
**A flyweight fight between Talia Santos and Erin Blanchfield is scheduled for the UFC Fight Night event on August 26 in Kallang, Singapore. Santos (19-2) has not fought since last July when she was beaten by former champion Valentina Shevchenko by unanimous decision after winning four in a row. Blanchfield (11-1) is on an eight-fight winning streak and coming off submission wins against JJ Aldrich, Molly McCann, and Jessica Andrade. New flyweight champion Alexa Grasso is set for a rematch with Shevchenko this September.
*****
upNXT
Davie Portman and B Detroit review WWE NXT: Gold Rush from June 27th, 2023 headlined by Carmelo Hayes vs Baron Corbin for the NXT Championship.
*****
ASK-A-WAI LIVE: Forbidden Pour (June 25, 2023)
John Pollock and Wai Ting present a very special, VERY LIVE recording of ASK-A-WAI from POST x Poisonrana’s FORBIDDEN POUR, held right before Forbidden Door in Toronto.
*****
REWIND-A-RAW
John Pollock and Wai Ting review the go-home WWE Raw before Money in the Bank with Cody Rhodes taking on Damian Priest, the NXT Champion in action, and the Women’s MITB Summit.
*****
AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door Review
John Pollock and Wai Ting review AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door 2023 in Toronto featuring Bryan Danielson vs. Kazuchika Okada and Kenny Omega vs. Will Ospreay.
****
WRESTLENOMICS RADIO
AEW Collision’s first TV rating, implications for AEW’s next TV deal, WWE ratings/quarter-hour trends deliver big and more in this week’s Wrestlenomics Radio.
*****
COLLISION COURSE
Kate From MTL & Wai Ting review the second episode of AEW Collision featuring CM Punk, FTR & Ricky Starks vs. Jay White, Juice Robinson & The Gunns. Also: Swerve vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi, Brody King vs. Andrade El Idolo, and more.
*****
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