Originally published at https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/08/06/pollocks-news-update-aew-going-to-boston-and-philadelphia/
POST IT NOTES
**This week’s edition of Rewind-A-Raw is up with Wai Ting & I reviewing the go-home Raw from Pittsburgh heading into SummerSlam. On the show, we discuss the reveal of Bill Goldberg at the end of the show, the hit-and-run attack on Roman Reigns, debating the usage of Trish Stratus on Raw, Brock Lesnar’s second beatdown of Seth Rollins, and more. Plus, we discussed all the news from the day with AEW selling out the Capital One Arena, the date of the next card in Saudi Arabia, TripleMania from Saturday, and more.
**We will be back with Rewind-A-SmackDown tonight discussing the show from Detroit and the latest on the card for SummerSlam this Sunday.
**We want to extend a big ‘thank you’ to everyone that purchased tickets for our LIVE in Toronto show this Sunday at the John Candy Box Theatre. We are officially sold out and appreciate everyone’s support of the show. If you are not going to be in attendance, the live show will be released for members of the POST Wrestling Café next week.
**Those in attendance this Sunday at our live show will have the chance to buy an extremely limited edition POST Wrestling LIVE in Toronto t-shirt, designed by Robert Pearson.
**On Wednesday, Wai Ting and I are back with another G1 Climax review. This show will be a free edition for everyone with a review of the A Block card in Hamamatsu headlined by Kazuchika Okada vs. EVIL.
POST WRESTLING SCHEDULE
*Tonight: Rewind-A-SmackDown with John Pollock & Wai Ting
*Wednesday: G1 Climax – Day 15
*Wednesday: British Wrestling Experience with Martin Bushby, Benno & Jamesie
*Thursday: Cafe Hangout with special guest Marc Raimondi of ESPN (3 pm ET for Double Double+ Patrons)
*Thursday: upNXT with Braden Herrington & Davie Portman
*Thursday: G1 Climax – Day 16
*Saturday: G1 Climax – Day 17 A Block Final w/ WH Park in-studio
*Saturday: Cruel Summer “G1 Climax 2011” w/ WH Park & Davie Portman
*Saturday: NXT TakeOver: Toronto POST Show w/ Braden Herrington & Davie Portman
*Sunday: Cruel Summer “G1 Climax 2012” w/ WH Park & Wai Ting
*Sunday: G1 Climax – Day 18 B Block Final
*Sunday: WWE SummerSlam POST Show w/ John & Wai (Live at 11 pm ET for Double Double+ Patrons)
WRESTLING NEWS
**All Elite Wrestling has announced locations for the second and third episodes on TNT. On Wednesday, October 9th they will be going to the Agganis Arena in Boston, Massachusetts and on October 16th they will be in Philadelphia at the Liacouras Center. The Agganis Arena has a listed capacity of 7,200, which will fluctuate based on the staging. The Liacouras Center is on the grounds of Temple University and is a big building at 10,200, which Impact Wrestling ran for their Lockdown pay-per-view in 2009 and Bound for Glory in 2011. Ticket information is going to be released on Friday. The advertising for both shows features Kenny Omega, Chris Jericho, The Young Bucks, Jon Moxley, and Cody.
**In Boston, the larger TD Garden is already booked on October 9th for a Post Malone concert. In Philadelphia, there is nothing scheduled for the Wells Fargo Center on the 16th, so in theory, they could have the larger building that WWE just ran for Extreme Rules last month.
**Tonight’s SmackDown and 205 Live tapings take place from the Little Caesars Arena in Detroit, Michigan. The full card for SummerSlam should be clear after tonight’s episode with the lingering program involving Roman Reigns and Daniel Bryan. They have also teased matches with Rey Mysterio vs. Andrade, Karl Anderson & Luke Gallows vs. Big E. & Xavier Woods, and Drew McIntyre vs. Cedric Alexander, but none of those matches have been announced for Sunday. Below is what they have announced for tonight:
*Shane McMahon appears on The Kevin Owens Show
*Kofi Kingston responds to Randy Orton
*Oney Lorcan vs. Kalisto vs. Ariya Daivari vs. Jack Gallagher vs. Akira Tozawa vs. Tony Nese in a Six-Pack Challenger and the winner faces Drew Gulak at SummerSlam for the Cruiserweight title
*Lince Dorado vs. Humberto Carrillo
**The G1 Climax picks back up on Wednesday as we go into the final stretch with five cards remaining. Wednesday’s show in Hamamatsu is an A Block show that streams at 5:30 am Eastern on New Japan World. Below is the full card:
*Toru Yano, Yota Tsuji & Yuya Uemura vs. Taichi, Minoru Suzuki & Yoshinobu Kanemaru
*Jon Moxley & Shota Umino vs. Hirooki Goto & Yoshi-Hashi
*Jay White, Yujiro & Chase Owens vs. Juice Robinson, Tomoaki Honma & Toa Henare
*Tetsuya Naito, Shingo Takagi & Bushi vs. Tomohiro Ishii, Jeff Cobb & Ren Narita
*Sanada (3-4) vs. Lance Archer (2-5)
*Hiroshi Tanahashi (4-3) vs. Bad Luck Fale (2-5)
*KENTA (4-3) vs. Will Ospreay (2-5)
*Kota Ibushi (5-2) vs. Zack Sabre Jr. (3-4)
*Kazuchika Okada (6-1) vs. EVIL (4-3)
If Okada defeats or goes to a draw with EVIL then EVIL is eliminated. If Okada wins then Ibushi must win to stay alive. If EVIL wins and Ibushi loses, then EVIL is alive going into the final day and would win the block if he beats Archer and Ibushi beats Okada forcing a three-way tie at 12 points, which EVIL would win based off wins over Ibushi and Okada. I’m expecting Ibushi and Okada to win their matches tomorrow and then EVIL is out, and it comes down to Okada vs. Ibushi on Saturday to determine the block winner.
**Below are the B Block tournament matches scheduled for Thursday’s G1 card in Yokohama:
*Taichi (3-4) vs. Toru Yano (3-4)
*Jeff Cobb (3-4) vs. Tetsuya Naito (4-3)
*Jon Moxley (5-2) vs. Hirooki Goto (4-3)
*Juice Robinson (3-4) vs. Jay White (4-3)
*Tomohiro Ishii (4-3) vs. Shingo Takagi (2-5)
**ESPN’s Marc Raimondi spoke with Roman Reigns to promote the WWE 2K20 video that he will appear on the cover of alongside Becky Lynch. He discussed his schedule since WrestleMania that he hasn’t been on all the live events citing ‘outside projects’ but has been at the television tapings adding that ‘we have to be smart and obviously not burn me out, but I feel good’. When the subject of Jon Moxley was brought up and his comments after leaving the company with his creative frustrations, Reigns said:
I’ll tell you straight-up: I disagree with what Ambrose said about the creative process. I love the guy. I love him to death. He’s my brother. And wrestling ain’t gonna stop that. On a personal level, me and that dude can hang out, have a beer or two and just talk. And even when we don’t talk, that’s just our relationship.
When it comes down to it, creative-wise, that’s on you. Communication is communication. When you go in there and you talk to boss, you gotta let him know. He even made comments about the things I had to say, but that was in a different place. I was brand-new.
We’ve worked our asses off for Vince in this company, and he respects that, and he wants to know our opinions. You have to speak up for yourself. I’m in a position now where he listens to everything I have to say, what I’m feeling.
**Mike Johnson at PWinsider.com reported that the WWE’s return to Saudi Arabia will take place on Thursday, October 31st. The card will be promoted as Crown Jewel and take place from the King Saud University Stadium in Riyadh.
**The Big Lead spoke with Mark Evans, who is the Senior Vice President of Sales at Fox Sports and he commented on SmackDown coming to the network in October. When asked about viewership declines for the property, Evans responded “We feel how we’re going to present and how we’re going to promote the WWE is going to inject it with such a new life. It’s going to be a home run for us”.
**According to our data, SmackDown Live averaged 1,988,000 viewers per episode in July 2019, which is down 11.5% compared to July 2018 when they averaged 2,246,000 per episode.
**After initially promoting a 6 pm Eastern start time, the SummerSlam kickoff show is back to its usual run time of two hours and begins at 5 pm this Sunday.
**Dragon Lee has been added to the Battle of Los Angeles and that leaves two spots open for the field of 24.
**Ring of Honor has added two additional matches to this Friday’s Summer Supercard event in Toronto at the Mattamy Athletic Centre. PCO & Brody King will face TK O’Ryan & Vinny Marseglia of The Kingdom, and Silas Young will take on PJ Black. The only New Japan representation on the show is the Guerrillas of Destiny, who will be challenging The Briscoes for the ROH tag titles in a street fight.
**Rev Pro’s Summer Sizzler card on Friday, August 30th in London will feature Will Ospreay vs. David Starr. The card will be available on-demand two days later.
**The WWE Network will be releasing a new episode of ‘Chronicle’ featuring Seth Rollins this Saturday night following TakeOver: Toronto. They will also have a new edition of ‘24’ on Kofi Kingston premiering after SummerSlam.
**David Starr was a guest on the In Too Deep podcast discussing labor rights for professional wrestlers and unionization.
**DEFY Wrestling has announced a six-man tag match involving Jushin Thunder Liger and Brian Pillman Jr. for August 23rd at the Tacoma Ballroom in Tacoma, Washington. Liger will team with Karl Fredericks and Alex Coughlin against Pillman Jr., Ethan HD & Mike Santiago. They have also added Dragon Lee vs. Douglas James on that night. The card takes place the night after the Super J Cup show in the same building.
**Impact Wrestling will be running streaming shows in Oklahoma in September in conjunction with the World Class Revolution group. There will be an event streaming on Twitch on Friday, September 13th from Lawton at the Comanche County Fairgrounds at 7:30 pm Eastern. On the following night, they will be running in Enid with a card that streams on Impact Plus at 8 pm Eastern.
**Below is the trailer for the upcoming WWE 2K20 game that comes out in October:
**SummerSlam week in Toronto kicks off Wednesday with three shows in the city. OWE is running their first Canadian date at The Met while Puma King`s Lucha Vacation card is at the Opera House and the Smash Wrestling vs. Progress Wrestling show is also taking place Wednesday night. Below are the lineups for the three shows:
3 pm – OWE Toronto
Midtown Event Theatre
*CIMA & Christopher Daniels vs. Private Party
*Dark Order vs. T-Hawk & El Lindaman
*Sunny Zhai vs. Buck Gunderson
*Brandon Cutler vs. Bolo Fung
*Alexander James vs. Sammy Guevara
*Speedball Mike Bailey vs. Gao Jingjia
7 pm – Puma King’s Lucha Vacation
The Opera House (735 Queen Street East)
*Puma King vs. Carter Mason
*Ethan Page vs. Frightmare
*Joey Ryan vs. The World
*The Mane Event vs. Space Pirates
*Jody Threat vs. Rory Gulak
*Freddie Mercurio vs. Casanova Valentine
*Mantequilla vs. Ophidian
8 pm – Smash vs. Progress
Midtown Event Theatre
*WALTER vs. Kevin Bennett
*Toni Storm vs. Jody Threat
*Trent Seven vs. Psycho Mike
*Sebastian Suave, Danny Garcia, Idris Abraham & Joe Coleman vs. David Starr, Chris Brookes, Travis Banks & Paul Robinson
*Jordan Devlin vs. Tarik
*Aussie Open vs. Brent Banks & Tyson Dux
MMA NEWS
**Cris ‘Cyborg’ Justino put out a statement on Instagram regarding her exit from the UFC. She said that Dana White wanted her to sign a six-fight contract but was fearful she would only fight once per year and the featherweight division did not have enough women. It got very nasty over the past week with Cyborg’s team releasing a video of Cyborg speaking to White backstage after the win over Felicia Spencer. Her team subtitled White and completely fabricated what he said, and Cyborg apologized for the actions of her production team. White put out his own video in speaking with Laura Sanko and announcing they were out of the Cyborg business and would withdraw from their exclusive negotiating period, so Cyborg could sign elsewhere without the leverage of the UFC. Outside the UFC, there are potential fights with Bellator featherweight champion Julia Budd and an existing relationship between Cyborg and Scott Coker. In the PFL, a fight between Cyborg and Olympic gold medalist Kayla Harrison would be a big fight for the promotion but is very early in Harrison’s career for a fight of that magnitude.
**Here are the fights on tonight’s episode of Dana White’s Tuesday Night Contender Series at 8 pm Eastern from the UFC Apex:
*Omar Morales (7-0) vs. Harvey Park (12-2) – Lightweight
*Lucrezia Ria (7-2) vs. Marilia Santos (10-2) – Flyweight
*Herbert Burns (8-2) vs. Darrick Minner (22-9) – Featherweight
*Taylor Johnson (5-0) vs. Andre Muniz (17-4) – Middleweight
*Dwight Joseph (9-1) vs. Jay Perrin (8-3) – Bantamweight
**Former UFC welterweight champion Tyron Woodley was a guest on Ariel Helwani’s MMA Show on Monday. Woodley noted that he would spend time training at the Tristar Gym in Montreal in the future with Firas Zahabi and Georges St-Pierre. The 37-year-old lost the championship to Kamaru Usman this past March at UFC 235 and was his first loss since 2014. Woodley said in the interview that he will fight before the end of 2019. He was scheduled to fight Robbie Lawler this past June, but a hand injury prevented Woodley from fighting on that card in Minneapolis.
G1 CLIMAX REVIEWS
Night 1: https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/07/07/g1-climax-29-post-show-opening-night-okada-vs-tanahashi-free-preview/ (Tanahashi vs. Okada) – FREE SHOW
Night 2: https://www.patreon.com/posts/28351982 (White vs. Goto)
Night 3: https://www.patreon.com/posts/28374580 (Tanahashi vs. KENTA)
Night 4: https://www.patreon.com/posts/28403937 (Naito vs. Taichi)
Night 5: https://www.patreon.com/posts/28475091 (Ospreay vs. Ibushi)
Night 6: https://www.patreon.com/posts/28495477 (Moxley vs. Ishii)
Night 7: https://www.patreon.com/posts/28520429 (Okada vs. Ospreay)
Night 8: https://www.patreon.com/posts/free-g1-climax-28631911 (Naito vs. Ishii)
Night 9: https://www.patreon.com/posts/28693414 (Okada vs. KENTA)
Night 10: https://www.patreon.com/posts/28714838 (Moxley vs. Naito)
Night 11: https://www.patreon.com/posts/28781154 (Tanahashi vs. EVIL)
Night 12: https://www.patreon.com/posts/28837190 (Ishii vs. Goto)
Night 13: https://www.patreon.com/posts/28887506 (Okada vs. Sanada)
Night 14: https://www.patreon.com/posts/28909244 (Naito vs. Takagi)
*****
RAR 8/5/19: Bill Goldberg returns at SummerSlam
John Pollock and Wai Ting review WWE Raw featuring the return of Bill Goldberg to set up his SummerSlam match against Dolph Ziggler.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/08/06/rar-8-5-19-bill-goldberg-returns-at-summerslam/
*****
CRUEL SUMMER: Togi Makabe vs. Shinsuke Nakamura w/ Mike Murray
Longtime friends WH Park and Mike Murray (POST Wrestling’s ROH reviewer) get together to discuss the finals of NJPW’s 19th installment of their G1 Climax tournament: Togi Makabe vs. Shinsuke Nakamura from August 16, 2009.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/08/03/cruel-summer-19-togi-makabe-vs-shinsuke-nakamura-2009-w-mike-murray/
*****
CRUEL SUMMER: Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Satoshi Kojima w/ STRIGGA
WH Park and the returning STRIGGA of the Eastern Lariat podcast team up again to discuss the finals of NJPW’s 20th G1 Climax tournament: Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Satoshi Kojima from August 15, 2010.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/08/04/cruel-summer-20-hiroshi-tanahashi-vs-satoshi-kojima-2010-w-strigga/
*****
Cafe Hangout – Aug. 1
On this week’s Café Hangout, John Pollock and Wai Ting are joined by Voices of Wrestling’s Rich Kraetsch to for a catch-up on NJPW’s G1 Climax 29 and a discussion about SummerSlam weekend, AEW on TNT and more.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/08/02/g1-climax-29-catch-up-w-rich-kraetsch-cafe-hangout/
*****
upNXT 8/1/19: Boulevard of Broken Fingers
Braden Herrington and Davie Portman are back with another episode of upNXT! The BDE chat all about the July 31st edition of WWE NXT.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/08/01/upnxt-8-1-19-boulevard-of-broken-fingers/
*****
ASK-A-WAI (August 2019)
John Pollock and Wai Ting answer their patrons’ questions from the POST Wrestling Forum in the August 2019 edition of Ask-A-Wai.
https://www.patreon.com/posts/28787315
*****
Browse the new POST Wrestling Store
https://store.postwrestling.com
Subscribe to POST Wrestling
https://postwrestling.com/subscribe
POST Wrestling Forum
https://forum.postwrestling.com
Support our Patreon – The POST Wrestling Café
http://www.patreon.com/POSTwrestling