Originally published at https://www.postwrestling.com/2018/01/14/pollocks-news-update-1-14-zsj-vs-walter-tonight-at-evolve-99-roh-tv-review-preview-of-ufc-card-in-st-louis/
POST IT NOTES
**The 2018 MMA Prediction Show is up on the site as I welcome MMA Fighting’s Ariel Helwani for our annual show. On the show, we look back at the predictions that were made for 2017, which came true and then we play “Likely / Unlikely” for 2018 and discuss all of the major news items from the past year and stories to look out for in 2018. The show can be downloaded at https://www.postwrestling.com/2018/01/13/the-2018-mma-prediction-show-feat-ariel-helwani/ and you can listen on iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, the TuneIn Radio app and any device.
SHOWS THIS WEEK:
*Monday – Rewind-A-Raw
*Tuesday– Rewind-A-SmackDown
*Thursday – British Wrestling Experience with Martin Bushby, Oli Court, and Benno
*Friday – The Roundtable Show with John Pollock, Wai Ting, Brian Mann and Martin Bushby (Patreon show for members of the POST Wrestling Café)
WRESTLING NEWS
**A memorial service was held on Saturday for the late Tom Zenk, who died last month at the age of 59. In the notice that was printed by The Star Tribune, it noted that Zenk was survived by both his parents as well as three siblings and eight nieces and nephews. Zenk was to be buried in Minnesota following the service on Saturday. No cause of death has been confirmed as of yet.
**The WWE and Paige (Saraya-Jade Bevis) have yet to comment on the story that was first reported by Mike Johnson of PWinsider.com that the WWE will not be clearing Paige for an in-ring return. I would imagine it will either be addressed on Monday or at the very least to expect some explanation for Paige’s removal from the Royal Rumble. For background on Paige’s health issues, she did speak about the status of her neck when she was on Lilian Garcia’s podcast last month (and I did a review of this interview on a podcast right after it aired). When Paige had surgery in 2016, she had three screws inserted and was told by her doctor at the time that he didn’t want her returning to the ring, but she was cleared to return and did wrestle a lengthy match with Sasha Banks on television in December. Paige also noted on Garcia’s podcast that she has scoliosis, which is a curving of the spine, which she attributes to all the bumps she has taken throughout her career. Although she is only 25 years old, she began her career at the age of 13.
**EVOLVE will be holding another show tonight at 7 pm Eastern from Saint Finbar Catholic Church Gym in Brooklyn, New York. The show is available for $9.99 at WWNLive.com if you watch it live and $14.99 for on-demand viewing. Below is the lineup for the card:
*Keith Lee vs. Chris Dickinson for the WWN championship
*Zack Sabre, Jr. vs. WALTER in a non-title match
*Jaka vs. Matt Riddle
*Fred Yehi vs. Timothy Thatcher
*Austin Theory vs. Jason Kincaid
*Tracy Williams and Dominic Garrini vs. Parrow & Odinson
**Earlier in the day, WWN is running a Style Battle event at 3 pm from the same venue with a one-day tournament and the following opening round matches: WALTER vs. Nick Gage, Joey Janela vs. Brandon Watts, Brody King vs. KTB and Matt Riddle vs. Rayo.
**The Raw crew has a live event in Waco, Texas today and then the television tapings are Monday in San Antonio, Texas. Monday’s episode will feature a singles match between Nia Jax and Asuka.
**The SmackDown Live crew has their second consecutive show in Hidalgo, Texas tonight. On Monday night, they have a house show in Corpus Christi and the television tapings are Tuesday night in Laredo with the following matches announced for the show:
*Jinder Mahal vs. Xavier Woods in the United States title tournament
*Mojo Rawley vs. Bobby Roode in the United States title tournament
*Charlotte, Becky Lynch and Naomi vs. The Riott Squad
**Impact Wrestling is at Universal Studios tonight for their fifth of six consecutive nights of television tapings. This week’s taping schedule will be covering all the episodes through the April 22nd pay-per-view that will be called “Redemption”.
**The NWA is filming an “Empty Arena Match” today at the Impact Zone in Orlando (prior to tonight’s tapings) between Tim Storm and Jocephus. The NWA will be uploading the match later today on their YouTube channel. David Lagana is part of the crew filming the match and it is the first time he has been to the Impact Zone since leaving TNA in October 2016.
**New Japan and CMLL continue the Fantastica Mania tour on Monday with a card in Kagawa. The show is headlined by Kazuchika Okada, Gran Guerrero and Gedo vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi, Atlantis and Niebla Roja. The tour continues with shows on Tuesday and Wednesday and the big shows of the tour are the final three at Korakuen Hall on January 19th, 21st, and 22nd.
**MLW has added this past Thursday’s “Zero Hour” event to their streaming service at MLW.tv with the show available for $4.99. The card consists of: Jimmy Havoc vs. Shane Strickland in a “Death Match”, MVP vs. Low Ki in a “Super Fight”, Matt Riddle and Jeff Cobb vs. Tom Lawlor and Seth Petruzelli, Penta el Zero M vs. Rey Fenix, Sammy Guevara vs. Darby Allin, MJF vs. Brody King, MJ Jenkins vs. Santana Garrett, Jason Cade and Jimmy Yuta vs. The Dirty Blondes, Mike Parrow vs. Vandal Ortagun and Barrington Hughes vs. Chico Adams. The show also features Tony Schiavone and Rich Bocchini calling the show.
**Io Shirai retained the Wonder of Stardom championship against Rachael Ellering at Saturday’s New Year Stars event in Yokohama. Following the match, a challenge was issued by Nicole Savoy for Shirai’s next title match.
TELEVISION REVIEW
Ring of Honor (Jan. 13th)
-This was a really good episode of the show featuring a solid match between Jay Lethal against Will Ospreay and an interesting angle involving the SoCal Uncensored group with ROH management.
-The Lethal vs. Ospreay match featured a tremendous closing sequence with Lethal catching Ospreay in mid-air with a cutter and then hitting the Lethal Injection for the win. Lethal and Ospreay shook hands after the match. This was one of the best-televised matches from ROH in some time and this match was taped over Final Battle weekend, so it meant Lethal having two great matches in Philadelphia with the pay-per-view match with Marty Scurll and the Ospreay match for television.
-Ospreay’s contract with ROH has expired and this was his final appearance for the promotion.
-The big angle on the show featured ROH C.O.O. Joe Koff continuing to have a presence on television and this time involving SoCal Uncensored of Christopher Daniels, Frankie Kazarian, and Scorpio Sky. Koff said no one wants to see him on television each week just as no wants to see the most disruptive group in ROH waste everyone’s time. Daniels shot back that when he was ROH world champion and would come by the office, Koff shared his plans for international expansion and Daniels has threatened to share that classified information with Don Callis or his friend “A.J.”, who can relay it to the people in the office where he works. Koff ended the segment by stating that the group is under contract for one more year and after Final Battle 2018 they will be fired. It’s an interesting storyline and suggests that SoCal Uncensored being at odds with Koff and management all year and they have set up a year-long story for the group with the countdown until they are fired.
-The main event featured Dalton Castle and The Boys defeating The Kingdom of Matt Taven, Vinny Marseglia, and TK O’Ryan. Castle submitted Marseglia with the “Julie Newmar” submission hold, which they are getting over as an alternative to the Bang-a-rang. Castle doesn’t feel out of place as the champion, the audience was behind him in the segments he was involved in and given all the matches Cody has lined up with New Japan (and ROH) it is easier for someone else to be champion for the time being.
-Next week’s main event features The Young Bucks vs. The Best Friends vs. Titan and Dragon Lee
MMA NEWS
**The UFC be holding their first card of 2018 with a Fight Night card from the Scottrade Center in St. Louis, Missouri tonight. It is the first that the UFC has run the city, which Strikeforce ran and Bellator has also made a regular stop for big shows. The card has been hurt over the past few days with the loss of a middleweight fight between Vitor Belfort and Uriah Hall after Hall had a major scare on Saturday morning and was unable to weigh-in. The card also lost a fight between Thiago Alves and Zak Cummings after Cummings injured himself two-days before the card. Below is the card for tonight’s show:
MAIN CARD (10 pm Eastern)
*Jeremy Stephens vs. Dooho Choi – These are two high-action fighters and given that this is scheduled for five rounds could be an incredible fight. Choi hasn’t fought since UFC 206 where he had one of the greatest fights in UFC history with Cub Swanson. Stephens is coming off a decision victory over Gilbert Melendez.
*Paige VanZant vs. Jessica Rose-Clark
*Kamaru Usman vs. Emil Meek – Usman is 6-0 within the UFC’s welterweight division and a win in this fight could catapult him to a big fight within the division.
*Michael Johnson vs. Darren Elkins – This fight was moved up from the prelims after the loss of Belfort vs. Hall. Johnson has lost four of his last five but has faced some of the best lightweights in the world in those fights. He is coming off losses to Khabib Nurmagomedov and Justin Gaethje (which was my fight-of-the-year) in his last two.
PRELIMINARY CARD (8 pm Eastern on FS1, TSN 5 in Canada)
*James Krause vs. Alex White
*Marco Polo Reyes vs. Matt Frevola
*Talita Bernardo vs. Irene Aldana
*Guido Cannetti vs. Kyung Ho Kang
FIGHT PASS CARD (6:30 pm)
*Kalindra Faria vs. Jessica Eye
*Danielle Taylor vs. JJ Aldrich
*Mike Santiago vs. Mads Burnell – Burnell missed weight by four pounds and this will take place at a catchweight of 150 pounds.
**MMA Fighting’s Ariel Helwani reported that Uriah Hall was hospitalized as a result of his weight cut with doctors believing Hall suffered a seizure. Helwani added that Hall was awake and communicating by Saturday evening. Earlier in the day, Paige VanZant had encouraged people to send their prayers to Hall and called it the “scariest thing I have ever seen”.
**Here are the results from the Invicta FC 27 card from Saturday night in Kansas City, Missouri at the Scottish Rite Temple and airing on UFC Fight Pass:
*Helen Peralta def. Jade Ripley by TKO at 2:21 of Round 1
*Loma Lookboonmee def. Mellissa Wang by unanimous decision (29-27, 29-27, 29-26)
*Mallory Martin def. Tiffany Masters by TKO at 3:36 of Round 2
*Felicia Spencer def. Akeela Al-Hameed by unanimous decision (30-27 all)
*Brogan Walker-Sanchez def. Cheri Muraski by split decision (29-28, 28-29, 29-28)
*Ashley Cummins def. Stephanie Alba by unanimous decision (30-27 all)
*Sharon Jacobson def. Ashley Nichols by unanimous decision (30-27, 30-27, 29-28)
*Vanessa Porto def. Mariana Morais by rear-naked choke at 4:19 of Round 1
*Sarah Kaufman def. Pannie Kianzad by unanimous decision (30-27 all)
THE 2018 MMA PREDICTION SHOW feat. Ariel Helwani
https://postwrestling.podbean.com/mf/download/3rk3me/THE-2018-MMA-PREDICTION-SHOW.mp3
REWIND-A-WAI – Night After ‘Mania Raw 2013
(John Pollock and Wai Ting review Raw from the night after WrestleMania 29 featuring Dolph Ziggler’s cash in, birth of “Fandango-ing”, revolt during Orton vs. Sheamus and we welcome Espresso Executive Producer John Taylor at the end of the show)
https://www.patreon.com/posts/rewind-wai-2-raw-16353951
REWIND-A-SMACKDOWN 1/9/18 – John Pollock & Wai Ting review SmackDown Live, Wai catches us up on this season of Total Divas, Pollock chats Brian Pillman book and we take your feedback
https://postwrestling.podbean.com/mf/web/u3tyfs/180109_RASD.mp3
REWIND-A-RAW 1/8/18 – Balor Club vs The Shield, Strowman Attempts Murder, Woken Mat In-Ring Debut
https://postwrestling.podbean.com/mf/download/ma33g4/180108_RAR.mp3
POST WRESTLING’S “WORST OF 2017 SHOW” with John Pollock, Wai Ting, Jason Agnew and Dan “The Mouth” Lovranski
https://postwrestling.podbean.com/mf/download/t9yvzr/POST-WRESTLING-The-Worst-of-2017.mp3
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