POST IT NOTES
**Rewind-A-Dynamite is live at 10 p.m. ET tonight. We will have a review of AEW Dynamite from Columbus and a discussion of several major news items. For those that download the show tonight, we will have an interview with Chris Hero attached to the show as he promotes West Coast Pro’s shows this week and his new permanent role with AEW.
**Immediately after Rewind-A-Dynamite, it’s our final Dark Side of the Ring review as Wai & I chat “The World According to Marty Jannetty” on the POST Wrestling Café.
**The next G1 Climax podcast will be released on Thursday with Wai & I reviewing the quarter-finals on the POST Wrestling Café. Our coverage will end with shows on Saturday & Sunday.
**We have a great edition of Pollock & Thurston from earlier today with guest David Bixenspan.
POST SCHEDULE
Tonight: Rewind-A-Dynamite with John Pollock & Wai Ting
Tonight: Double Shot – The World According to Marty Jannetty (Patreon)
Thursday: G1 Climax 33 Night 17 with John & Wai (Patreon)
Friday: Rewind-A-SmackDown with John & Wai (Patreon)
Saturday: G1 Climax with John & Wai (Patreon)
Saturday: Collision Course with Kate from Montreal & John Siino (Patreon)
Sunday: G1 Climax Final with John Pollock, Karen Peterson & WH Park (Patreon)
WRESTLING NEWS
**The nearly nine-year antitrust case against the UFC took a big step this week with Judge Boulware certifying the suit as a class action lawsuit. This will allow the suit to cover any fighters that who fought for the UFC between December 16, 2010, and June 30, 2017 (a separate antitrust suit has been filed for fighters competing after that date) and covers roughly 1,200 fighters. The suit is citing damages between $800 million and $1.6 billion, which if successful, would be treble damages (three times the amount). For more on the case, Erik Magraken at Combat Sports Law and John Nash at Bloody Elbow have been covering the suit throughout its existence.
**Brandon Ross of LightShed Partners discussed WWE’s ongoing U.S. media rights negotiations. Ross states the analyst firm is skeptical of Fox retaining Friday Night SmackDown with the broadcaster’s increased commitments with NFL & college football and is unsure where SmackDown would land if it leaves Fox. On the other end, Ross believes NBC Universal is close to finalizing an extension for WWE Raw due to how vital the program is for the USA Network.
**TSN in Canada is ending its free trial for TSN+ beginning Wednesday. The streaming service is the only way to watch AEW Collision and Rampage each week with TSN+ costing $8 per month or $80 for the year. Even if you subscribe to TSN on your cable package, it’s a standalone service that will cost an additional amount as confirmed to us by a representative at the network:
TSN+ is a stand-alone digital streaming service that is available for purchase, with a choice of two subscription plans of $8 per month or $80 annually. Access to TSN+ is included for those who subscribe directly to TSN through TSN.ca or the TSN app.
**The G1 Climax has wrapped up the round-robin portion of the tournament. The playoffs begin on Thursday in Chiba with the round of eight. Tetsuya Naito and Zack Sabre Jr. qualified on the final day of the D Block matches with Naito beating Hiroshi Tanahashi and ZSJ submitting Shane Haste. They each finished with ten points with Naito winning on the tiebreaker. Jeff Cobb finished with nine points after a double count-out with Shane Haste. The top two matches were excellent with Tanahashi easily having his best match of the tournament against Naito while ZSJ had an excellent tournament. For Thursday’s playoffs, the following matches will take place and the card begins at 5:30 a.m. ET:
*SANADA vs. EVIL
*Kazuchika Okada vs. Zack Sabre Jr.
*David Finlay vs. Will Ospreay
*Hikuleo vs. Tetsuya Naito
**The G1 card in Hamamatsu on Wednesday drew 2,001 fans. After Thursday’s show in Funabashi, the tournament wraps up with back-to-back nights at Ryogoku Kokugikan (Sumo Hall). The G1 had transitioned to running Budokan Hall including three straight nights last year but popularity is down, and this was the proper move.
**AEW Dynamite is at the Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio with three weeks until All In. WrestleTix is reporting that 3,600 tickets have been distributed for the show. Here is the advertised lineup:
*FTW Championship: Jack Perry © vs. Rob Van Dam
*AEW Women’s Championship: Hikaru Shida © vs. Anna Jay
*The Young Bucks vs. The Hardys
*Jon Moxley & Claudio Castagnoli vs. The Lucha Bros.
*MJF & Adam Cole to appear
*JAS Mandatory Meeting
**After posting a really low number last week in Canada, WWE Raw averaged 299,000 viewers and 110,000 in the 25-54 demographic this past Monday on Sportsnet 360. It was Raw’s largest audience in Canada since the night after WrestleMania 39 and does make sense following SummerSlam, but I don’t know why last week’s number fell. Last week’s figure of 155,500 viewers was Raw’s lowest in Canada on Sportsnet 360 since November (excluding a ‘Best of’ episode in January).
**Mick Foley wrote about Ronda Rousey’s contributions to WWE and how he observed this latest run:
I haven’t always been watching the product as intently these past few years as I had for the previous 40, but from what I did see – coupled with a pretty good gut feeling – is that Ronda wasn’t quite as invested emotionally for her second WWE run, as she was for her first. Motherhood has a way of redefining priorities, and rightfully so. But I firmly believe that her first run was not only incredibly impressive in the ring, but even more consequential in introducing new eyeballs to the product, and injecting a major dose of credibility into the general public’s perspective of professional wrestling.
It’s interesting to see how Rousey is viewed over time in both MMA and professional wrestling. On the UFC side, she left with a lot of animosity toward the fanbase and her historical importance has been reduced over the years. She was hostile toward the media and famously refused to speak in public during the lead-up to her final fight against Amanda Nunes in December 2016. Regardless, she is the most important female figure in MMA history as she was the one to open the doors for women in the UFC and take what Gina Carano did in Elite XC and Strikeforce and go from promotions booking a star in Carano to creating whole divisions in the largest promotion. Without Rousey, it’s likely WWE would have evolved and already had in NXT (no doubt influenced by the impact Rousey was having in MMA during the rise of the women’s division) but it would not have been as quickly. No question, her aura was greatly diminished over this last run and lacked the star power she had in her first run. This year, she was plagued by an arm injury that caused the program with Shayna Baszler to be delayed, and only have four weeks to build up the match. Time will tell if Baszler truly benefits from the win or falls back into a background role.
**Chris Hero is hosting an online seminar for anyone in the industry regardless of experience levels. The seminar will be over Zoom and takes place next Tuesday at 3 p.m. ET and you can sign up for a spot on Skiddle.
**The N-1 Victory Tournament continued on Wednesday in front of 622 at Korakuen Hall with the following results and updated points in brackets: (Courtesy: Purolove.com)
*BLOCK B: Daiki Inaba (2) over Manabu Soya (2)
*BLOCK A: Masa Kitamiya (2) over Adam Brooks (2)
*BLOCK B: Go Shiozaki (4) over Yuma Anzai (0)
*BLOCK A: Timothy Thatcher (2) over Yoshiki Inamura (0)
*BLOCK B: Lance Anoa’i (4) over Hijo de Dr. Wagner Jr. (2)
*Non-Tournament: YO-HEY & Tadasuke over Seiki Yoshioka & Hajime Ohara
*BLOCK A: Jake Lee (4) over Yuki Yoshioka (2)
*BLOCK B: Saxon Huxley (2) over Katsuhiko Nakajima (0)
NOAH continues with two more N-1 shows at Korakuen Hall this week. On Thursday, the card is headlined by Timothy Thatcher vs. Yuki Yoshioka, and Friday features Jack Morris vs. Thatcher.
**Stardom’s 5 Star Grand Prix is six shows deep with their latest card in Kyoto on Tuesday in front of 403. The Red Stars Block is led by Natsuko Tora with six points and followed by Natsupoi with five, and Tam Nakano & Mayu Iwatani at four points each. The Blue Stars has Giulia in the lead with five points, and a tie involving MIRAI, Saori Anou, Mina Shirakawa, and Momo Watanabe with four each. The Grand Prix continues Thursday in Okayama.
**West Coast Pro presents The West Coast Cup Tournament on Thursday & Friday from The State Room in San Francisco. The shows will stream live & free on YouTube with replays on IWTV. The first night’s tournament matches include Speedball Mike Bailey vs. Serza, Derek Dillinger vs. Starboy Charlie, Sean Legacy vs. Bryan Keith, Jay Malachi vs. Viento, Alan Angels vs. Kevin Blackwood, Alpha Zo vs. 1 Called Manders, Shigehiro Irie vs. Max the Impaler, and a non-tournament match with Masha Slamovich vs. Takumi Iroha for the women’s championship. Friday’s show has the remainder of the tournament along with Titus Alexander defending the West Coast Pro title against Kevin Knight.
**Israel Adesanya is set to defend the UFC Middleweight Championship against Sean Strickland at UFC 293 next month in Sydney, Australia. The fight was first reported by the Spinning Backfist outlet and formally announced by the UFC on Tuesday. Dricus du Plessis appeared to be the next championship fight but du Plessis was unable to return so quickly after his fight with Robert Whittaker last month at UFC 290. UFC 293 takes place on September 10 at the Qudos Bank Arena, which has a listed capacity of 21,000.
**The WWE stock closed at $109.30 on Wednesday.
