POLLOCK’S UPDATE: Asuka’s update, Dynamite attendance, NBA-Peacock

Photo Courtesy: WWE

POST IT NOTES

**Rewind-A-Dynamite is live immediately following AEW tonight at 10 p.m. ET. Right after the review, we jump onto the POST Wrestling Café for a review of Episode 1 of “Who Killed WCW?” Joining us for this first review of the VICE series is former WWE writer and POST Wrestling alum Brian Mann.

**This is the link for all POST Wrestling Café members to access the Double Shot after Rewind-A-Dynamite.

**This Thursday on Rewind-A-Wai, we review the Aug. 4, 2013, G1 Climax card from Osaka featuring Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Kota Ibushi, Kazuchika Okada vs. Togi Makabe, Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Prince Devitt, and Katsuyori Shibata vs. Tomohiro Ishii among the ten matches. Bruce Lord is the Espresso Executive Producer and will join us for a segment. This show will be available for all POST Wrestling Café members.

**Evan Husney stops by to chat about “Who Killed WCW?”, working with Seven Bucks Productions, Dwayne Johnson’s addition to the WWE’s board of directors, the future of Dark Side of the Ring, his thoughts on the Vince McMahon doc series with Netflix & more. We will aim to have Evan back before the end of the series this month.

POST SCHEDULE

Tonight: Rewind-A-Dynamite with John Pollock & Wai Ting
Tonight: Double Shot – Who Killed WCW Ep. 1 w/ Brian Mann (POST Wrestling Café)
Thursday:
Rewind-A-Wai – G1 Climax, 8/4/2013 in Osaka (POST Wrestling Café)
Thursday:
X2 (2003) with Rich Fann & WH Park (POST Wrestling Café)
Friday: POST Puroresu with WH Park & Karen Peterson
Friday: Rewind-A-SmackDown (POST Wrestling Café)
Saturday:
Collision Course (POST Wrestling Café)
Sunday: NJPW Dominion with Bruce Lord & Karen Peterson (POST Wrestling Café)
Sunday:
NXT Battleground with Davie Portman & Braden Herrington

WRESTLING NEWS

**AEW Dynamite airs from the Blue Arena in Loveland, Colorado tonight without any major sports competition. They are advertising the return of MJF for his first television appearance this year after returning at Double or Nothing, plus Swerve Strickland defending the AEW Championship. The following is advertised for the show:
*AEW Championship: Swerve Strickland © vs. Roderick Strong
*Bryan Danielson, Jon Moxley, Claudio Castagnoli & Wheeler Yuta vs. Volador Jr., Esfinge, Rugido & Magnus
*Mariah May vs. Saraya
*The return of MJF

**WrestleTix reports just over 2,500 tickets distributed for AEW Dynamite tonight in Colorado.

**Asuka shared the following update regarding her knee with the impression that the performer has undergone surgery. She has not wrestled since Backlash France on May 4 when the Kabuki Warriors lost the tag titles to Bianca Belair & Jade Cargill.

**Tuesday’s episode of NXT averaged 768,000 viewers and 295,000 (0.22) in the 18-49 demographic for the show’s second strong number in a row. The audience increased by nine percent from last week and was their largest audience since New Year’s Evil on January 2 while the 18-49 audience dropped by eight percent but was still NXT’s third-highest audience of the year in the core demo. You would have to attribute the interest in Ethan Page and Jordynne Grace for the follow-up to last week’s great number. (Wrestlenomics)

**There were no playoff games on Tuesday, therefore, NXT aired on Sportsnet 360 in Canada and averaged 70,500 viewers and 10,600 in the 25-54 demo. The show ranked fourth among sports programs for the day, which was led by the Blue Jays and Orioles.

**Monday’s episode of Raw averaged 1,679,000 viewers and 699,000 (0.53) in the 18-49 demographic. The figures were down one and four percent respectively from last week, which was underwhelming given this week’s show had no competition from the NBA or NHL. The show still ranked first in cable and topped the College Softball World Series. Last week’s episode of Raw did air on Memorial Day but also faced the combination of the NBA playoffs averaging 6.4 million viewers and the NHL playoff game with 1.69 million viewers. Next week’s episode of Raw airs against Game 2 of the Stanley Cup final. (PW Torch, Sports Media Watch)

**In Canada, Raw averaged 219,300 viewers and 58,700 in the 25-54 demographic on Sportsnet 360. The show dropped by 16 percent in viewership and declined by 23 percent in the demo but it ranked second among sports programs that night behind the Toronto Blue Jay vs. Baltimore Orioles. There was also an episode of WWE Rivals (John Cena vs. Edge) airing right after Raw on SN 360, which averaged 60,000 viewers and 19,200 in the demo.

**AEW Collision on Saturday fell to 378,000 viewers and 145,000 (0.11) in the core demo on TNT. The viewership drop was nine percent while the demo declined by 27 percent from the previous week and was their lowest 18-49 audience since March 30. The sports competition included the NHL playoffs and Major League Baseball on Fox, plus the UFC prelims did a big audience on ESPN 2 and aired head-to-head with Collision. (Spoiler TV)

**The Wall Street Journal reports that the yet-to-be-completed NBA deal with NBC could see as many as “half” of its games air exclusively on Peacock. The report states that the pending deal would see Comcast carry approximately 100 games, roughly half earmarked for the streaming network. The WSJ added that NBC would air weekly games on Tuesday and Sunday and it’s unknown how the USA Network would be figured into the programming schedule.

**A&E is set to air its Biography: WWE Legends episode covering ECW on Sunday, June 16. The A&E site lists the documentary for a 60-minute window will limit the depth as it’s impossible to document the entirety of the company’s rise and fall with such a short window. While the WWE’s Rise and Fall of ECW DVD release in 2004 was well received and a huge seller for the company (opening the door for the One Night Stand concept), there were several excellent docs on ECW produced outside of ECW with Jeremy Borash’s Forever Hardcore in 2005, and Barbed Wire City by John Philapavage and Kevin Kiernan. When it comes to books on the history of ECW, the one I always recommend is Turning the Tables by John Lister.

**NXT performer Karmen Petrovic was unable to wrestle on Tuesday’s episode. Petrovic was advertised for a match with Izzi Dame but was replaced by Natalya. Petrovic appeared on the broadcast while on crutches and posted a photo with her right ankle wrapped up. On the show, they stated Petrovic was injured at a live event with Petrovic’s last match occurring last Friday in Tampa against Jakara Jackson.

**TNA is promoting the following matches for Thursday’s episode on AXS TV:
*Knockouts Championship: Jordynne Grace © vs. Allysin Kay
*Digital Media Championship: Laredo Kid © vs. AJ Francis
*Nic Nemeth vs. Frankie Kazarian
*Jake Something vs. Kon
*Mustafa Ali & Campaign Singh vs. Trent Seven & Speedball Mike Bailey

**The former Jinder Mahal is promoting himself as “The Maharaja” Raj Dhesi. The former WWE champion was released in April. Dhesi has been added to the Black Label Pro event on July 26 in Chicago. WrestleCade has added Dhesi for WrestleCade Weekend from November 29 – December 1 in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

**The UFC 302 prelims aired on ESPN 2 this past Saturday and averaged 1,103,000 viewers and 630,000 in the 18-49 demographic. The prelims didn’t air until 8:17 p.m. ET due to the LSU vs. North Carolina college basketball game. The UFC prelims ranked eighth among sports programming for the day and second on cable behind the WNBA game between Indiana and Chicago. In Canada, the prelims averaged 71,000 viewers and 53,000 in the 25-54 demo on Sportsnet 360. (Sports Media Watch)

**Sukeban has released last week’s card in its entirety on YouTube. The show was headlined by Commander Nakajima defending the Sukeban World Championship against Crush Yuu and a Ganfg Warfare match between Atomic Banshee and Lady Antoinette. The commentary featured Kazeem Famuyide, Renee Paquette, and Saya.

**The TKO closed at $107.28 on Tuesday.

**TKO stages back-to-back nights at the KFC Yum! Center in Louisville, Kentucky this weekend. Friday Night SmackDown is live this week followed by the UFC Fight Night event on Saturday with Jared Cannonier (17-6) vs. Nassourdine Imavov (13-4, 1 NC) in the middleweight main event and a light heavyweight between Dominick Reyes (12-4) and Dustin Jacoby (19-8-1). Cannonier has won four of his last five fights with a loss to then-champion Israel Adesanya before responding with wins against Sean Strickland and Marvin Vettori in his last two. The winner of this fight is going to be in the waiting room with Adesanya and Strickland closer to fights with Dricus du Plessis than whoever wins this main event.  

**Canadian-based group Finger Eleven is being inducted into the Jim Beam Indies Hall of Fame during Canadian Music Week on Thursday at the Danforth Music Hall. The group’s music has been utilized by WWE over the past two decades including themes for Chris Benoit and Kane.

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POLLOCK & THURSTON
John Pollock and Brandon Thurston provide the latest details on the Janel Grant lawsuit, which has been put on hold for six months.
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upNXT
Braden Herrington and Davie Portman review WWE NXT from June 4th, 2024 featuring Jordynne Grace vs Stevie Turner on the final stop before NXT Battleground.
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POST INTERVIEW: Evan Husney, “Who Killed WCW?”
John Pollock is joined by Evan Husney, Executive Producer of “Who Killed WCW?” on VICE TV.
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REWIND-A-RAW
John Pollock and Wai Ting review WWE Raw as Liv Morgan discusses her kiss with Dominik Mysterio, and Damian Priest takes on Rey Mysterio.
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UFC 302
John Pollock and Eric Marcotte review UFC 302 with Islam Makhachev defending the lightweight title against Dustin Poirier.
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About John Pollock 5865 Articles
Born on a Friday, John Pollock is a reporter, editor & podcaster at POST Wrestling. He runs and owns POST Wrestling alongside Wai Ting.