POST IT NOTES
**Rewind-A-Raw is live at 11:05 p.m. ET tonight on the POST YouTube channel and you can leave your feedback on the POST Wrestling Forum.
**Rewind-A-Wai #153 is coming out Tuesday this week as Wai Ting & I review SHIMMER Vol. 68 from October 2014 headlined by Cheerleader Melissa vs. Madison Eagles vs. Nicole Matthews vs. Athena for the SHIMMER title. We will chat about the significance of the promotion, and the notable talent on this card, and go through the news headlines from that week in wrestling history. This event was selected by our Espresso Executive Producer Dom Lamartina. The show will be available for POST Wrestling Café members.
**Rewind-A-Dynamite will be live this Thursday at Noon ET as we will be at the show in Toronto and giving our live thoughts the following day.
**For POST Café members, we will have a bonus show this Thursday with Bruce Lord & Karen Peterson reviewing the final night of the New Japan Cup.
POST SCHEDULE
Tonight: Rewind-A-Raw with John Pollock & Wai Ting
Tuesday: Rewind-A-Wai #153 – SHIMMER Vol. 68 (POST Wrestling Café)
Tuesday: upNXT with Braden Herrington & Davie Portman
Wednesday: Pollock & Thurston (3 p.m. ET)
Thursday: New Japan Cup Final with Bruce Lord & Karen Peterson (POST Wrestling Café)
Thursday: Rewind-A-Dynamite (Noon ET)
Friday: Rewind-A-SmackDown (POST Wrestling Café)
Sunday: POSTmarks with guest “Fire Frank”
WRESTLING NEWS
**Mercedes Moné spoke with Marc Raimondi of ESPN on joining AEW and her career-threatening injury last May, which put her on the shelf for the remainder of the year. Moné repeated that she was told it could end her career and has said she hasn’t been able to go watch the match back involving Willow Nightingale. She noted in the interview that she is now “100% healthy” and that the injury was only a setback.
It was the hardest time of my life. When the injury first happened, I was so in shock. I was so confused. I was like, ‘Oh, wait, no,’ because I was on a mission. I had so many goals of going to Mexico, the [United Kingdom], Japan, all over the United States. We were preparing for so much. But I think maybe my body and the universe was just like, ‘Maybe you’re just going a little too fast. Maybe you need to slow down. You’re not done healing inside.’
**Tonight’s edition of WWE Raw will continue the promotion’s sellout streak for its TV tapings. WrestleTix reports over 12,300 tickets are out for the PNC Arena in Raleigh, North Carolina, and will be full by show time with a few hundred tickets remaining for the current setup. They have announced the following:
*Last Woman Standing: Nia Jax vs. Becky Lynch
*WrestleMania Tag Title Qualifying Match: New Day vs. Otis & Akira Tozawa
*WrestleMania Tag Title Qualifying Match: R-Truth & The Miz vs. Indus Sher
*WrestleMania Tag Title Qualifying Match: Johnny Gargano & Tommaso Ciampa vs. The Creeds
*Contract signing between Gunther and Sami Zayn
**Afa Jr. has posted an update that his father, Afa Anoa’i, has broken his back in two places after suffering a fall. Afa is 81 years old and was hospitalized in January due to pneumonia and subsequently, suffered two heart attacks.
My father fell and fractured his back in 2 places. He is currently being transferred into a different hospital. Continued prayers are requested as well as privacy during these stressful times. The family will post updates as they come.
**NJPW drew 793 fans for Monday’s New Japan Cup semi-finals in Fukushima. In the first semi-final, Yota Tsuji beat EVIL after overcoming the House of Torture run-ins and winning with the Gene Blast. In the main event, Hirooki Goto pinned SANADA after the GTR with the story that Goto is dedicating the tournament to his late father, who died last month. This will be Goto’s seventh appearance in the finals and has previously won the New Japan Cup in 2009, 2010, and 2012. The winner of Wednesday’s final will challenge Tetsuya Naito.
**The semi-finals and final of STARDOM’s Cinderella tournament take place on Wednesday morning from Nagoya. Ruaka takes on Hanan and AZM faces Mei Seira with the two winners meeting later in the show. The card will also see Maika defend the World of Stardom title against former champ Utami Hayashishita. The event airs live on pay-per-view and a several-day delay for Stardom World subscribers.
**AEW has seen a decent amount of movement for tickets to this Wednesday’s Dynamite & Rampage card at the Coca-Cola Coliseum in Toronto. WrestleTix reports that they have distributed nearly 5,700 tickets and should clear 6,000 over the next two days. It is their second time in the market with back-to-back nights at the same arena in October 2022 and held Forbidden Door II at the larger Scotiabank Arena last June. The current lineup includes Christian Cage vs. Adam Copeland in an I Quit Match for the TNT title, Eddie Kingston vs. Kazuchika Okada for the Continental title, Hook vs. Chris Jericho in a non-title match, and Toni Storm & Mariah May vs. Deonna Purrazzo & Thunder Rosa and Mercedes Mone will speak. For the live edition of Rampage, they have announced a street fight with Julia Hart & Skye Blue against Willow Nightingale & Kris Statlander, and the second Wild Card match in the tag title tournament as Orange Cassidy & Trent Beretta face Powerhouse Hobbs & Kyle Fletcher.
**WWE has added five dates for its European shows in late August, which culminates with Battle in Berlin on August 31. The company has added live events on August 25 in Rotterdam at the Ahoy Arena, August 26 at Forest National in Brussels, August 27 at Rudolf Weber Arena in Oberhausen, August 28 at t at the Porsche Arena in Stuttgart, and August 29 at Festhalle in Frankfurt. They will be hosting back-to-back nights at Mercedes-Benz Arena for Friday Night SmackDown on August 30 and the premium live event the next day. Tickets for the ‘Road to Bash in Berlin’ tour go on sale this Friday.
**Dark Side of the Ring will focus on the late Terry “Bam Bam” Gordy on Tuesday’s episode at 10 p.m. ET on VICE. Those interviewed for the episode include Jim Cornette, Mick Foley, Kevin Von Erich, and Gordy’s children Ray and Miranda. Gordy was regarded as a prodigy, who was already a star in his teens and becoming a headliner in multiple territories. Gordy was part of the famous Christmas night angle at Reunion Arena in Dallas where he slammed the cage door on Kerry Von Erich’s head and set World Class on fire with the program involving the Von Erichs and Freebirds. Gordy died in July 2001 at the age of 40.
**NXT has announced the following for Tuesday’s episode on the USA Network:
*NXT Heritage Cup: No Quarter Catch Crew © vs. Riley Osborne
*NXT Tag Title Qualifying Match: Axiom & Nathan Frazer vs. No Quarter Catch Crew
*NXT Tag Title Qualifying Match: Karl Anderson & Luke Gallows vs. Hank Walker & Tank Ledger
*Trick Williams vs. Noam Dar
*Roxanne Perez vs. Tatum Paxley
*Brinley Reece vs. Sol Ruca
*Lola Vice vs. Karmen Petrovic
*Oba Femi speaks
**The latest Canada’s Got Talent season premieres on Tuesday at 8 p.m. ET on CityTV. Trish Stratus is one of the judges alongside Howie Mandel, Lilly Singh, and Kardinal Offishall. This season’s winner will be awarded $1 million with a two-hour finale scheduled for May 14.
MMA NEWS
**Mark Coleman provided an update on his health and reiterated how grateful he is to be alive. Coleman was initially discharged from the hospital but had to return over the weekend where the doctors discovered he was battling pneumonia. Coleman’s latest update stated he is now resting at home and a video circulated where he was at the gym on Monday with Matt Brown. Coleman mentioned that it was his childhood home that burned down and that he had never been so scared in his life. He thanked the firefighters, who were the true heroes, and he plans to visit more fire stations after this event.
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**Conor McGregor is promoting the ‘Road House’ release, which comes out this Thursday on Amazon Prime. During a press event, McGregor was interviewed and asked about his UFC status. The former two-division champion said he has two fights left on his contract and will concentrate on getting back to fighting once his promotional duties for the film are over. McGregor has not competed since July 2021 when his leg was shattered when he lost by TKO to Dustin Poirier. Earlier this year, McGregor announced he was fighting Michael Chandler on June 29, which the UFC never confirmed and has not been announced for the International Fight Week card. The two fighters coached The Ultimate Fighter last year on ESPN as Chandler has sat on the sidelines awaiting McGregor’s return. McGregor also spoke with talkSPORT about the film and conveyed his frustration regarding getting back to fighting. McGregor said he didn’t like that a fight between himself and Nate Diaz at the Sphere in September was shot down quickly when Dana White was asked about it. McGregor said he would ideally fight Chandler on June 29 and return to fight Diaz in September at The Sphere. Last week, it was announced that Diaz will be fighting Jorge Masvidal in a ten-round boxing fight on June 1 at the Kia Forum in California.
**Former UFC featherweight champion José Aldo is coming out of retirement to compete at UFC 301. AgFight was the first to report that Aldo will fight Jonathan Martinez on May 4 at the pay-per-view event in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil with both fighters confirming the report. The 37-year-old announced his retirement from MMA in 2022 and focused on boxing where he had three fights, including two pro bouts in 2023. Aldo won the WEC featherweight title in 2008, which was turned into the UFC featherweight title when the UFC absorbed the promotion with Aldo keeping the title until June 2017 when Max Holloway unseated him. Two years later, he cut down to bantamweight and went 3-3 with his final fight occurring in August 2022 with a decision loss to Merab Dvalishvili. Aldo was inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame last year as part of its modern wing.
**The UFC 301 card in Rio de Janeiro will see Alexandre Pantoja (27-5) defend his flyweight title against Steve Erceg (12-1). Erceg is an Australian fighter, who has only had three fights in the UFC with decision wins against David Dvořák and Alessandro Costa and is coming off a knockout win against Matt Schnell earlier this month. Pantoja won the title last July from Brandon Moreno and defended it successfully against Brandon Royval in December at UFC 296.
**Petr Yan has revealed he will be undergoing surgery and disclosing that he has sustained a ruptured ACL, a meniscus tear, and an injury to his groin muscle. Yan competed at UFC 299 last week and defeated Song Yadong by unanimous decision ending Yan’s three-fight losing streak.
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THE N.W.A. PODCAST
The Advocates are back to discuss AEW’s recent signings including Mercedes Moné and Will Ospreay. Plus, preview and predictions for WrestleMania XL.
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COLLISION COURSE
Join John Siino and Kate From MTL for Collision Course featuring the “miracle matchup” of Bryan Danielson vs. Katsuyori Shibata.
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REWIND-A-SMACKDOWN
John Pollock & Wai Ting review WWE SmackDown with another appearance by The Rock, Randy Orton vs. Grayson Waller, and Bayley faces Dakota Kai.
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ASK-A-WAI MAILBAG SHOW
On a special 40th Birthday edition of the show, John Pollock and Wai Ting answer their patrons’ questions about anything and everything in the March 2024 edition of Ask-A-Wai.
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