POLLOCK'S NEWS UPDATE: AEW signs Kingston, WWE Payback set

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Originally published at POLLOCK'S NEWS UPDATE: AEW signs Kingston, WWE Payback set

POST IT NOTES

**Wai Ting and I will be LIVE tonight at 10:15 pm Eastern for Rewind-A-SmackDown to cover SmackDown, discuss a lot of news including WWE’s Q2 report, and we will open the phone lines for Café members to call into the show. This show is LIVE for all members of the POST Wrestling Café and we will also go over some of the highlights coming to the Café in August.

**We have a special show posted with Brandon Thurston of Wrestlenomics joining me to discuss WWE’s second-quarter earnings report, the huge profits they made, lots of savings during the pandemic, as well as a big discussion on their television ratings and changes in philosophy towards the WWE Network. We covered a lot of ground in this show with a thorough look at WWE’s business.

**Next Tuesday, our next show to cover on Rewind-A-Wai is WWF’s Capital Carnage event from December 1998 in London, England. It features a Fatal Four-Way main event with Steve Austin vs. Mankind vs. The Undertaker vs. Kane along with The Rock vs. X-Pac for the WWF title. Feedback can be posted on the POST Wrestling Forum.

**upNXT has released its Patreon schedule for the month of August, which includes a review of WCW Hog Wild 1996, SummerSlam 2005, live coverage of NXT TakeOver & SummerSlam, a tailgate show on Zoom on August 23rd, and Best Match Ever shows covering the best SummerSlam matches and best TNA X Division matches. You can subscribe at Patreon.com/upNXT.

WRESTLING NEWS

**Tonight’s episode of Friday Night SmackDown was taped last week at the WWE Performance Center and will feature the following at 8 pm Eastern on Fox:
*AJ Styles vs. Gran Metalik for the Intercontinental title
*Bayley vs. Nikki Cross for the SmackDown women’s title
*Naomi vs. Lacey Evans
*The return of Otis and Mandy Rose
*Isaiah “Swerve” Scott & Tony Nese vs. Joaquin Wilde & Raul Mendoza on 205 Live

**We have a story on the site looking at the career of the late Mark “Rollerball” Rocco, who has died at the age of 69.

**It was first reported by Sean Ross Sapp at Fightful that WWE was planning a WWE Network special on August 30th with the WrestleVotes account noting on Thursday the event would be titled WWE Payback. POST Wrestling can confirm this is the plan with the company coming back seven days after SummerSlam with a WWE Network special. There are several ways they could choose to promote this event either building up two cards at once similar to WrestleMania but spread out over seven days instead of two or shoot a major angle coming out of SummerSlam to drive people to a rematch the following week similar to Survivor Series to Tuesday in Texas in 1991. Regardless, it’s a different strategy than running two pay-per-views on back-to-back weekends as you’re pushing the audience to sign up once for the network rather than buy two separate shows.

**AEW announced the signing of Eddie Kingston on Friday afternoon following his standout performance on last week’s episode of Dynamite against Cody. Kingston is an 18-year veteran beginning his career in 2002 and wrestling all over the United States including stays with CHIKARA, Impact Wrestling, Ring of Honor, and CZW. Prior to the shutdown, he had been working for the NWA alongside Homicide and was able to showcase his strong verbal skills in that format on NWA Power. He was the surprise opponent for Cody on the July 22nd episode of Dynamite cutting a tremendous promo and having a terrific match with Cody that amplified the public’s demand to see Kingston signed. In January 2019, he had stated that “unless something crazy happens”, he would be leaving the industry after the end of the year:

Well folks never wanted to say this but if it looks like this is my last year. Unless something crazy happens it is time for me to move on. Next January time to go out on my sheild. #MadKing #StrayDog #OUTLAWINC #OGZ730 #KingsRoadStyle #DHS

— Eddie Kingston #BlackLivesMatter (@MadKing1981) January 27, 2019

**Big E. spoke with Yahoo Sports about New Day’s decision to make a symbolic gesture on television after George Floyd’s death. On the June 12th edition of Friday Night SmackDown, Big E. and Kofi Kingston took a knee in the center of the ring with Big E. explaining why it was so important:

We went and had a conversation with our boss, Vince McMahon, and he was completely on board. We felt like that even if it was just a five-second gesture, it was important to let people know that the things that affected them, we were feeling too. We’re not above this because we’re on TV or because we make money, we’re still people. I was born Black, I will die Black, I have lived my life as Black American much longer than I will ever be a WWE wrestler.

He also added the necessity for representation and not being presented with any stereotypes or placing black performers in a box regarding how they are portrayed on screen:

It matters to see people like you, who look like you, doing well. I never wanted to be put in the box where they say ‘this is how a muscular Black wrestler should perform.’ As much as I love Ron Simmons, I never wanted to be a copy of Ron Simmons or of so many of the Black wrestlers I watched as a kid. I wanted to be a one of one. I wanted to be someone who cannot be easily replaced because what I do is different than what anyone else does.

**This Saturday night, Karl Anderson & Doc Gallows are promoting Talk’N Shop-A-Mania at 9 pm Eastern on Fite TV. They are promoting the show as TV-MA and essentially that it will be “so bad, it’s good” with a $14.99 U.S. price tag for the pay-per-view. The two have done a lot of media this week promoting the event and it’s also been plugged on Impact Wrestling’s program. Our own Davie Portman will be watching the show and filing a report on Sunday with his coverage.

**Following WWE’s second-quarter earnings report, the stock was up 2.6% on Friday and closed at $46.61.

**One of the more interesting names that have announced a book deal is Canadian wrestler LuFisto (Genevieve Goulet), whose career began in 1997. Greg Oliver at Slam Wrestling announced he would be writing the book with her and will be released in the spring of 2022 by ECW Press. The idea came out of a live COVID-Con online broadcast where ECW Press’ Michael Holmes was asked who he would like to see put out a book and he immediately said LuFisto. This led to Oliver inquiring with the wrestler and put the two sides together and worked out a deal with the publisher. LuFisto was very instrumental in the deregulation of independent wrestling in the province of Ontario fourteen years ago and it’s a subject matter Oliver knows deeply.

**New Japan is holding a press conference tonight at 10 pm Eastern to add further details on NJPW Strong, which will be their new Friday night series beginning next week.

**Showtime Sports has released a special video message voiced by Mauro Ranallo ahead of the return of Showtime Championship Boxing on Saturday night.

**Greg Oliver at Slam Wrestling has a big story on the passing of Mark “Rollerball” Rocco.

**Here are the matches airing on this weekend’s episode of MLW Underground on Saturday on beIN Sports and their YouTube channel. The following matches initially aired in April 2003 from the group:
*Sabu vs. Taiyo Kea
*La Parka vs. Shocker
*Super Crazy vs. Fuego Guerrero

**AEW has announced the following matches for next Tuesday’s episode of AEW Dark at 7 pm Eastern:
*Billy & Austin Gunn vs. Aaron Solow & Serpentico *Jack Evans vs. QT Marshall – Angelico will be in Evans’ corner and it’s their first appearance since the shutdown in March while Marshall returns after his COVID-19 diagnosis
*Private Party vs. The Butcher & The Blade
*Abadon vs. KiLynn King
*Scorpio Sky vs. Will Hobbs
*Sonny Kiss & Joey Janela vs. Brandon Cutler & Peter Avalon
*FTR vs. Brian Pillman Jr. & Griff Garrison

**Game Changer Wrestling has added a Scramble Match involving Shane Mercer, Ace Austin, Jimmy Lloyd, Alex Zayne, Isaias Velasquez, and Jordan Oliver to Sunday’s “Keep in Touch” event at 5 pm Eastern on Fite TV from the Celebration Plaza Amphitheatre in Indianapolis, Indiana. The card includes Joey Janela vs. ACH, Chris Dickinson vs. AJ Gray, Mance Warner vs. Nate Webb & more.

**Roddy Piper (Roderick Toombs) died on this fate in 2015 at the age of 61. That weekend, UFC 190 took place from Brazil and was headlined by Ronda Rousey defeating Bethe Correia (which ended up being Rousey’s last MMA win) and she dedicated the fight to Piper in her post-fight speech with Joe Rogan. Following his death, his children Colt and Ariel finished the work on his pending book and did a great job with the finished product diving into their father’s life and attempting to separate the fact from fiction as there was plenty of the latter that Piper attached himself to.

**Here are the results from Friday’s NJPW Summer Struggle event at Korakuen Hall in front of 482 fans:
*Tomohiro Ishii, Hirooki Goto, Toru Yano & Yoshi-Hashi over Satoshi Kojima, Ryusuke Taguchi, Yota Tsuji & Gabriel Kidd
*Sanada & Shingo Takagi over Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma
*Zack Sabre Jr., Taichi, El Desperado, Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Douki over Hiroshi Tanahashi, Kota Ibushi, Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Master Wato & Yuya Uemura
*Kazuchika Okada & SHO over Yujiro & Gedo
*EVIL & Taiji Ishimori over Tetsuya Naito & Bushi
*Minoru Suzuki over Yuji Nagata

**New Japan a six-day break and then jump into a busy month of August. They return next Thursday for the first of four consecutive nights at Korakuen Hall with eleven shows on the calendar for the month.

**Pro Wrestling NOAH has announced that their annual N-1 Victory tournament begins September 18th in Nagoya and runs until October 11th with the final night of the tournament in Osaka. Last year, they re-branded the Global League into the N-1 Victory tournament with last year’s won by Kenoh defeating Takashi Sugiura in the finals.

ON THIS DATE

 

*****
WWE Q2 2020 Earnings Report & Analysis w/ Brandon Thurston
Brandon Thurston of Wrestlenomics joins John Pollock to discuss and analyze WWE’s second-quarter earnings report and subsequent call with media analysts on its performance this quarter.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2020/07/31/wwe-q2-2020-earnings-report-analysis-w-brandon-thurston/
*****
REWIND-A-DYNAMITE 7/29/20: MJF’s Address, Matt Cardona & Ariane Appear
John Pollock and Wai Ting discuss AEW Dynamite with the arrival of several new faces to the company, Excalibur misses the show, Raw ratings, an interview with Cody & more.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2020/07/30/rewind-a-dynamite-7-29-20-mjfs-address-matt-cardona-ariane-appear/
*****
upNXT 7/29/20: The Thicc Boi Dream Has Come True
Braden Herrington welcomes John Siino to chat all about this week’s WWE NXT featuring the main event of Finn Balor vs Dexter Lumis vs Timothy Thatcher. Plus, Johnny Gargano vs Roderick Strong in a show-stealing match.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2020/07/30/upnxt-7-29-20-the-thicc-boi-dream-has-come-true/
*****
ASK-A-WAI: Ask Us Anything! (August 2020)
John Pollock and Wai Ting answer their patrons’ questions from the POST Wrestling Forum in the August 2020 edition of Ask-A-Wai.
https://www.patreon.com/posts/39815725/
*****
REWIND-A-RAW 7/27/20: Kairi Sane’s Farewell, McIntyre vs. Orton, DDT/NOAH
John Pollock and Wai Ting discuss WWE Raw including Asuka vs. Sasha Banks and a farewell to Kairi Sane, lots of WWE business notes, and the announcement of DDT and NOAH’s merger.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2020/07/28/rewind-a-raw-7-27-20-kairi-sanes-farewell-mcintyre-vs-orton-ddt-noah/
*****
NJPW Sengoku Lord POST Show with Wai Ting & Mike Murray
Wai Ting and Mike Murray review NJPW Sengoku Lord 2020 as Bullet Club’s EVIL makes his first IWGP Heavyweight & Intercontinental Title defense against former LIJ stablemate, Hiromu Takahashi.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2020/07/26/njpw-sengoku-lord-2020-post-show-evil-vs-hiromu-takahashi/
*****
TRMPS #19: Fast & Furious 6 (2013) w/ Joey Lewandowski & Joe Two
Nate Milton takes another trip to the “Fastiverse” with Joey Lewandowski & Joe Two (2 Fast 2 Forever). The guys sit down in the theater (six feet apart, of course) to review the 2013 box-office blockbuster, “Fast & Furious 6”!
https://www.postwrestling.com/2020/07/25/trmps-19-fast-furious-6-2013-w-joey-lewandowski-joe-two/
*****

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I’m happy for Eddie Kingston. He seemed to knock it out of the park in his appearance. But man, that roster is bloated. And just adding tons of Dark matches doesn’t fix the problem to me.

At a point, they’ve got to add a second show or something. But, I’m not sure they’re ready that, only being in the first year of Dynamite. There’s a lot of talent there and 2 hours of TNT TV time.

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I am also happy for Eddie Kingston. He might have been the best promo guy in the indies. I once almost cried one time when he cut a promo about Larry Sweeney after he died.

He brings something different to the roster that no one else brings. I enjoyed watching him in UWA hardcore here in Ontario years ago.

It is also nice to see that Lufisto is writing a book. She was always great when I watched her live. She worked hard everytime.

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One edition of RAW and SD to build an ENTIRE PPV for the week after another PPV? To quote Jason Agnew, “More is More.”

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There is a simple solution. Get rid of the dross:

Luther
The Dark Order
Michael whatever the f&&k his name is
Sonny Kiss
The neon green tag team
About 75% of the women’s roster
Etc.
Etc.

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Wait a minute…where’s Joey Janela & Orange Cassidy on your list?

Maybe you secretly like them afterall.

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I love big rosters. It creates fresh matches. Plus you never know who to expect on tv. Wrestling needs to bring back the element of surprise.

Why does a big roster size bother some people? You are not the ones paying the wrestlers their salary.

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Firing a boat load of people (especially in such a misogynistic manner) isn’t usually my go-to answer. Especially in a pandemic.

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The issue is that a natural bi-product of having a huge roster is that certain performers end up being lost in the shuffle. WWE is a perfect example of that.

My other concern is that AEW Is going to keep adding, and then they are going to either add a third hour or second show just like WWE and have the same overexposure issues WWE has. There is a reason why AEW is working so well right now, don’t mess with a good thing.

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They were included in the etc, etc. I took it as accepted they would be top of the list given I have made no secret of my disdain for them hence didn’t feel the need to specifically name them.

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I made no such suggestion that they fire anyone just now. I was merely suggesting how to deal with a bloated roster. And firing 75% of the women’s roster has nothing to do with misogyny and everything to do with the fact that:

  1. Most of their female roster are god awful at professional wrestling and certainly have no business being exposed as such on AEW’s flagship programme.
  2. They are not a draw in any way shape or form.
  3. I was being somewhat flippant in saying 75% as I can’t remember any of their names illustrating how irrelevant they are.

Don’t blame me for AEW’s poor decision making. If they hadn’t hired them in the first place I wouldn’t be suggesting getting shot of them.

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Although I don’t have any information on these things, but you’d think that since it has been about a year since AEW started; a few contracts might be ending

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From knowing Tony Khan’s approach to business I think he knows everything about his wrestlers and their appeal to different target groups. Orange Cassidy makes tons of money in merch. Sonny Kiss is a key to reach the lgbtq community. Joey Janela represents a whole generation of young people. Khan is an analytical freak and the success of aew proves him right at the moment. But I am sure Bdubz your subjective view tops it all. Not

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That massive potential audience that are looking for wrestling that caters to their community. :roll_eyes:

What a sad (although perhaps somewhat accurate) indictment of the generation you are referring to. It certainly would explain how easily entertained that generation are.

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You’ve seemed pretty argumentative of Sonny Kiss and LGBTQIA+ representation in pro wrestling over multiple posts. I’m not exactly why representation threatens or bothers you so much. Frankly, if even one person was struggling with their identity can see Sonny Kiss, a talented professional wrestler, be their authentic self on a national platform, I’d say it’s more than worth it. In an industry that has mocked, stereotyped and oppressed that community for decades, I think Sonny is more than a welcome and refreshing addition to the roster. And again, it goes without mentioning he’s really good at his job.

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No I haven’t. I have said Sonny Kiss is a poor pro-wrestler (I appreciate that means very little particularly to those who watch AEW) who has no business being on a promotion’s flagship programme if they have any desire to present a professional product.

I have never stated any opposition to LGBT representation in pro-wrestling. Show me where I have stated that position? What I have done is blow out the water your argument for him being employed when their roster is already bloated i.e. he will not increase their audience in any appreciable way. Or in pro-wrestling parlance; he’ll never draw a dime.

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That seems pretty indicative of your thoughts on attracting a diverse audience in professional wrestling. Just my opinion based off how you sound. I’d consider it appreciable if AEW contributed to the diversification of the pro wrestling audience as a whole. Sonny is good at his job and helps continue to normalize diversity that has sorely lacked for decades in pro wrestling. And again, he’s good. He wasn’t handed a job because of his orientation.

And yeah, the roster is bloated. I stated that. But, I find it in poor taste for people to post lists of who should and should not be fired. If AEW is going to approach this problem by just laying tons of people off, I’ll condemn them for it. However, a guessing game of who should go seems distasteful.

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