Originally published at POLLOCK'S NEWS UPDATE: Yang's plan for WWE talent re-classification
POST IT NOTES
**Wai Ting and I will be back with Rewind-A-Dynamite tonight free on the site with a review of AEW, a breakdown of the latest news, and your feedback. For all POST Wrestling Café members, you are entered in our weekly draw to win an item from the POST Wrestling Store with the winner announced on tonight’s show.
**Braden Herrington & Davie Portman will have a new edition of upNXT posted on the site. You can also watch their live stream of upNXT at YouTube.com/upNXT. They will also be doing live Watch Alongs on their channel this weekend for Impact’s Bound for Glory and WWE Hell in a Cell.
**On Thursday, we will have a UFC 254 Preview Show with Cody Saftic joining me to preview the card and discuss all the latest MMA news from the week.
**This month’s edition of the ASK-A-WAI Mailbag Show is posted for all members of the POST Wrestling Café. Wai Ting and I spent over 100 minutes answering the mailbag questions that covered topics including World Class Championship Wrestling, WrestleMania finishes you could change, the scouting process for WWE & AEW, the Young Lions in NJPW, the Kota Ibushi vs. SANADA match from Sunday, concert preferences, and lots of other topics.
POST SCHEDULE
*Tonight: Rewind-A-Dynamite with John & Wai
*Tonight: upNXT with Braden Herrington & Davie Portman
*Thursday: Bushby & Thompson’s Wrestling Adventure (Slammiversary 2018)
*Friday: UFC 254 Preview Show with John Pollock & Cody Saftic
*Friday: Rewind-A-SmackDown (LIVE at 10:15 pm ET for Café members)
*Saturday: UFC 254 POST Show with Pollock & Phil Chertok (LIVE at YouTube.com/POSTwrestling)
*Saturday: Bound for Glory POST Show with Davie Portman & Nate Milton
*Sunday: WWE Hell in a Cell POST Show w/ John & Wai (LIVE for Double Double, Iced Capp & Espresso Café members)
WRESTLING NEWS
**Here are the line-ups for both AEW Dynamite and NXT, which will be going against Game 2 of the World Series tonight between the L.A. Dodgers and Tampa Bay Rays. If the series goes to a seventh game, that game would be played next Wednesday night.
AEW Dynamite at 8 pm Eastern on TNT:
*The Young Bucks vs. Private Party vs. The Butcher & The Blade vs. John Silver & Alex Reynolds in a #1 Contender’s Match
*Rey Fenix vs. Penta El Zero M in the opening round of the Title Eliminator tournament
*Kenny Omega vs. Joey Janela in the opening round
*Colt Cabana vs. Hangman Page in the opening round
*Jungle Boy vs. Wardlow in the opening round
*Britt Baker in action
*Le Dinner Debonair with Chris Jericho and MJF
NXT at 8 pm Eastern on the USA Network:
*Tyler Breeze & Fandango vs. Roderick Strong & Bobby Fish for the NXT tag titles
*Tommaso Ciampa vs. KUSHIDA vs. Velveteen Dream
*Santos Escobar, Joaquin Wilde & Raul Mendoza vs. Isaiah “Swerve” Scott, Jake Atlas, Ashante “Thee” Adonis
**The Baltimore Sun has a story on Ring of Honor’s most recent set of television tapings with a look at how extensive their protocols are. ROH has been at the forefront of promotions that have gone to great lengths during the pandemic regarding talent safety while also paying their performers during this entire year. In the article it noted:
*One performer was sent home after testing positive for COVID-19, three others were sent home after working on events where someone tested positive (Danhausen revealed he was one of them last week after being on The Collective the previous weekend where several wrestlers announced positive tests after being part of the weekend’s events)
*Joe Koff said that “it took months” to set up protocols with the Maryland State Athletic Commission
*Those participating at the television tapings needed to take a COVID-19 test 14 days before they went to Baltimore, took another test after they checked into the hotel and were isolated in their rooms until the results came in and could still only leave their rooms for a jog or short workout in a social-distanced gym
*At the tapings, the ring mats were cleaned after each match and masks would only be removed for their matches
*A final COVID-19 test was taken after the tapings for contact tracing purposes
*There are tentative plans for another taping in December with Koff noting they are considering going to other states
**Former U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang was on Talk is Jericho to Wednesday to share his thoughts on the process of running a campaign, the issues of automation jobs that are replacing ones, and his specific interest in professional wrestling and some of the changes he wants to see for the talent.
If we win, I’m going to be in a position where I can call up the Secretary of Labor or in this case, it’s the National Labor Relations Board and then, bring suit against WWE and say, “Hey, I think you’re misclassifying your employees here” (laughs) and the damages would be really significant. So, that is more or less the plan. We may need to have some brave performer or ex-performer come forward and say “Look, here are the practices”, and I have been contacted by folks who are like “Look, I believe in this and I’m at a point in my career where they can’t really do anything to me anyway, so let’s have at this” because customarily for a National Labor Relations Board action it typically has to be an employee that initiates, so that is one of the trickier elements of this, Chris. But I’m very confident we can get there because there are a lot of people that recognize this is wrong and it’s been going on for far too long.
Chris Jericho brought up one major difference in AEW is that the talent doesn’t have to pay for their expenses on the road such as rental cars and hotels, which is not the case in WWE.
**The BBC has a story on wrestler Nadia Sapphire describing her harrowing experiences getting into the industry as a teenager where she alleges that she was harassed and groomed at a young age. Sapphire started wrestling at the age of 14 and began receiving messages from fellow wrestlers, some of which were 10-15 years older. She said her reputation was tarnished after getting involved in a relationship with a wrestler who was in their twenties and eventually found a new school to train at when she was 16. In the BBC piece, it noted the work of MP Alex Davies-Jones, who has begun a parliamentary inquiry to investigate the industry over its lack of regulation and governance.
**The Los Angeles Times covered the GLOW story from this past week involving several cast members posting letters regarding the show’s representation of people of color both on and off-screen. In addition to the co-signed letter posted by Kia Stevens on Monday, there were additional notes posted by Shakira Barrera, Britney Young, Ellen Wong Sydelle Noel, and Sunita Mani. Reporter Laura Zornosa of the Times reports that GLOW’s co-creators Liz Flahive and Carly Mensch as well as executives from Netflix met with the cast to address their concerns and adds that there were plans in place to address the issues in the forthcoming season, which has since been canceled by Netflix. The L.A. Times wrote that the proposed changes did not affect the decision to cancel the series and cited safety and financial concerns coming from the ongoing pandemic.
**Greg Oliver at SLAM Wrestling has a story on the passing of singer-songwriter John Condrone, who spent 18-years as a pro wrestler including enhancement work for WCW. In SLAM’s story, it noted he trained in Memphis under Rick Conners and began wrestling for Southeastern Championship Wrestling in 1978. He teamed with Joey Cazana as The Paradise City Rockers, with Don Lucas as The Dream Team, and with Terry Bronson as The Cruisers among others. He wrestled until 1996 and found fame as a musician. Condrone revealed in September he was admitted to hospital due to COVID-19 and died on Tuesday.
**Scott Fishman at TV Insider wrote a piece on his experience attending last week’s AEW Dynamite taping at Daily’s Place in Jacksonville, Florida. Fishman arrived at the arena minutes before the show went on the air and went through two temperature checks and answered a digital questionnaire before going to his pod where he sat with his group. Fishman noted that the exit process could be handled better with a staggered exit rather than everyone leaving the arena at once. He also added the mask enforcement was very strong.
**On Tuesday night, AXS TV aired the “Talk ‘N Shop: Full Keg” special hosted by Karl Anderson & Doc Gallows set in a bar in Georgia. Rocky Romero served as a co-host throughout the show and able to promote NJPW Strong on New Japan World with a graphic during the episode. If you’re a fan of the podcast and the personalities, you would enjoy the show but it’s not going to be everyone’s cup of tea especially in video form compared to a podcast setting. Scott D’Amore was all over the episode including for the reveal that they have developed a cartoon for the group, which they played a sample of. There was also a cameo by Scott Steiner for their clip to circulate where he turned down a “too sweet” from Gallows and accused them of stealing that.
**A Go Fund Me campaign has been launched for Tracy Smothers, who was diagnosed with Stage III Lymphoma last year and was recently hospitalized due to the growth of a tumor on the left side of his stomach that has spread into his lungs. They are seeking $5,000 for medical assistance and will also be running two benefit shows for Smothers on Sunday, November 15th in Jeffersonville, Tennessee with all proceeds going to Smothers.
**Nick Hausman at Wrestling INC reported on Tuesday night that Impact Wrestling has granted Daga his release. POST Wrestling has not received a response yet from the promotion. The 32-year old began with Impact in February 2019 and last wrestled for the company this past March.
**Impact Wrestling has announced that Ken Shamrock’s Hall of Fame induction ceremony will take place on the “Countdown to Bound for Glory” special at 7 pm Eastern this Saturday on AXS TV and its social media platforms.
**Allie was back as “The Bunny” with The Butcher and The Blade on AEW Dark Tuesday night.
**Nick Hausman interviewed Kris Statlander about her knee injury that she sustained earlier this year executing a suicide dive. In the interview she provided a timetable of when she hopes to return:
I’m doing pretty good. I think from what I’ve heard overall is that I might be a little bit ahead of others where I’m at right now, but I still have a real long way to go before I can re-debut basically and get back in the ring before I’m debuting again obviously, and I’m going to want to be training a little bit before. So, I’ll be able to get in the ring before you’ll see me back on TV. It could be another eight months or so.
**Matt Striker interviewed Eric Young for FITE TV ahead of Bound for Glory this Saturday.
**The WWE stock closed at $38.99 on Wednesday.
**Today marks the 48th anniversary of All Japan Pro Wrestling’s debut show on October 21, 1972, after Giant Baba left the JWA and launched the company months after Antonio Inoki started New Japan Pro Wrestling and would become the dominant two promotions in the country. The two sides worked together for one show in 1979 where the two leaders teamed together for a show that was hosted by Tokyo Sports. Aside from that show, they didn’t work together again until 1990 when New Japan was in a bind booking the Tokyo Dome and relations with WCW broke down and led to several inter-promotional matches between the two. Baba ran All Japan until his death in January 1999 at the age of 61.
TELEVISION REVIEW
Impact Wrestling (Oct. 20th)
-The show was a by-the-numbers but effective go-home show for Bound for Glory
-I thought several of the promos from the key participants at the pay-per-view were done well. EC3 has been very strong in this new character that’s completely different from his former EC3 character in TNA and WWE. The segment he had with Jimmy Jacobs showed the difference in his ability to cut a promo and act compared to others on the show. The same goes for Deonna Purrazzo and Kylie Rae, who each did sit-down promos building their Knockout’s title match that enhanced it and felt like a significant world title match coming up.
-Eric Young continues to do great work as the lead heel of the promotion and it’s been a well-promoted storyline with Rich Swann for Saturday’s main event. I think it’s early to take the title off Young, who only returned to the company in July and while Swann is the top babyface on the show, I think there is a lot of juice left in Young being the heel that the promotion is centered around.
-The worst stuff on the show continues to be the wedding angle segments with John E. Bravo. The backstage scene with Bravo and the other talent with Taya Valkyrie interrupting was very bad. The wedding between Bravo and Rosemary takes place next week, which to be fair, Impact has done some great wedding segments in the past.
-I don’t sense a huge buzz for Bound for Glory, although AXS TV is doing a lot of promotion this week with its shoulder programming.
MMA NEWS
**Danielle Nickerson, the ex-wife of UFC welterweight Mike Perry, has spoken out about past instances of abuse she sustained at the hands of the fighter. Simon Samano of MMA Junkie has a detailed story and interview with Nickerson detailing when things hit rock bottom on February 10th this past year. Nickerson outlined being physically assaulted describing it as being “ground-and-pounded” in the couple’s home in Florida after Perry had been drinking earlier. Later that night, Nickerson was picked up by Perry’s mother, who called 911 and said she feared for her life and calling her son “violent”.
MMA Junkie also saw photos of the abuse, which Nickerson did not permit the outlet to publish. Friends of Nickerson were also told the details and spoke with the outlet.
Nickerson was denied a protective order filed in March against Perry, which she added she withheld certain details so as not to ruin Perry’s life.
Nickerson stated that alcohol always made things very bad with Perry and cited it as a contributing factor to the February 10th events. Nickerson said she had been physically assaulted “a handful of times” by Perry but nothing was ever remotely close to the severity of the injuries on February 10th where she alleges Perry hit her in the forehead with his wedding ring and also received a bruised eye and swollen lip.
She said after Perry’s loss to Geoff Neal at UFC 245 last December it was a downward spiral for the fighter and shared details about Perry’s inability to remember aspects of the fight and it took several days for Perry to remember details.
Perry, who is set to fight at UFC 255 next month, has denied ever putting his hands on his ex-wife and issued the following response to the allegations:
It’s come to my attention that a media organization will be running a story in reference to a past issue with my ex wife. I would like to address this here and now. First and foremost I did not put my hands on my ex at any point in our short term marriage. Secondly, I have already admitted to having an issue with alcohol and I have been a part of an intensive rehab program that was able to help address not only that but also helped me with anger management. After the completion of the course I have realized that I have said some things in the past that do not put me and what I stand for in the best of light and for that I apologize. I am now in a loving relationship where I am looking forward and excited to welcoming my first born. I’m hopeful my ex can move on and find peace as I have.
**The PFL is planning for a return in 2021 with shows earmarked for April 23rd, April 29th, May 6th, June 10th, June 17th, and June 25th. ESPN’s Brett Okamoto noted that the shows will take place from a “bubble” in Las Vegas, although no specific location has been announced. In the press release, the PFL noted that Kayla Harrison and Ray Cooper III would return along with new signings Rory MacDonald, Johnny Case, Olivier Aubin-Mercier, and Bubba Jenkins. The shows will be airing on ESPN2 and ESPN+ in the U.S.
**Jake Hager is returning to fight next Thursday at Bellator 250 on October 29th. Hager, who is 2-0 with 1 no contest, will be fighting 40-year old Brandon Calton, who made his pro debut this past June. Hager made his MMA debut in January 2019 submitting J.W. Kiser in 2:09 and did the same against T.J. Jones in May 2019. In Hager’s last fight, he hit Anthony Garrett with a knee strike to the groin and led to a no-contest. The knee to the groin was incorporated by Hager as part of his arsenal for AEW. Hager and Calton are scheduled to compete on the Bellator 250 prelims with the main card headlined by Gegard Mousasi vs. Douglas Lima for the Bellator middleweight championship.
**UFC lightweight champion Khabib Nurmagomedov spoke on ESPN’s First Take and shut down the idea of fighting Conor McGregor again. Nurmagomedov questioned what beating McGregor or Dustin Poirier for a second time would do for him. He said that the fight that gets him excited is the potential one with Georges St-Pierre.
**Marc Raimondi at ESPN has a great piece looking at the long-debated weight placed on takedowns in a fight. The impetus for the piece surrounds this Saturday’s lightweight title fight between Khabib Nurmagomedov and Justin Gaethje with the potential of grading Nurmagomedov’s takedown abilities versus Gaethje’s striking. Raimondi spoke with several officials and judges including John McCarthy, Sal D’Amato, Sean Wheelock, Jon Anik, and Gaethje.
If there is a major take, it’s the continual misinterpretation of the rules that are often repeated where the belief that “octagon control” is weighted the same as other criteria when it’s the third when the other two (effective striking/grappling and effective aggression) are equal. Wheelock estimates that 90 percent of rounds are judged based on effective striking/grappling, 9 percent comes down to effective aggression, and 1 percent on fight-area control. McCarthy outlined that a takedown must lead to something in terms of strikes and damage rather than rewarded for the accomplishment of the takedown itself.
However, that isn’t how it’s necessarily interpreted with the notion that a takedown near the end of the round seals a close one for the person landing it, which is a theory you hear countless times on broadcasts. It should be exceedingly rare that a fight is so close that a takedown makes a difference in the final seconds.
**Former UFC middleweight champion Anderson Silva spoke to Mike Bohn at MMA Junkie on his upcoming fight with Uriah Hall on October 31st. Silva, 45, stated at one point this would “probably” be his last fight before saying it would his last in the UFC. Later in the interview, he was throwing out the idea of fighting Israel Adesanya again, so it’s hard to come away with any idea if Silva will continue fighting after the Hall fight. Silva also said the UFC changed a lot when Lorenzo Fertitta left the company in 2016 and represented a closer relationship with the fighters. Silva has one win since July 2013 and is coming off losses to Adesanya and Jared Cannonier. This will be Silva’s first fight since May 2019.
**UFC strawweight Michelle Waterson is the latest to sign with VaynerSports. Earlier this week, the sports agency announced their first professional wrestler to sign in Charlotte Flair (Ashley Fliehr).
**Episode 3 of UFC Embedded for UFC 254 this Saturday:
ON THIS DATE
*****
ASK-A-WAI: Ask Us Anything! (October 2020)
John Pollock and Wai Ting answer their patrons’ questions from the POST Wrestling Forum in the October 2020 edition of Ask-A-Wai.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2020/10/20/ask-a-wai-ask-us-anything-october-2020/
******
upNXT – Best Match Ever: Hell in a Cell
The BDE looks at the greatest WWE Hell in a Cell matches of all time as they review, rate, and pick which one they think is the best! Enjoy this free show from the upNXT Patreon archives.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2020/10/20/upnxt-best-match-ever-hell-in-a-cell/
*****
REWIND-A-RAW 10/19/20: The Episode from Hell
John Pollock and Wai Ting discuss a… memorable Season Premiere of WWE Raw. Plus, the latest on the death of Principe Aereo, New Japan’s Power Struggle card, Dark Side of the Ring returning and more.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2020/10/20/rewind-a-raw-10-19-20-the-episode-from-hell/
*****
G1 CLIMAX FINAL POST SHOW: Day 19 – Finals
John Pollock and Wai Ting are joined by WH Park to review the NJPW G1 Climax 30 Finals (October 18) headlined by Kota Ibushi vs. SANADA.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2020/10/18/g1-climax-30-final-post-show-w-wh-park/
*****
G1 CLIMAX POST SHOW: Day 18 – B Block Final
John Pollock and Wai Ting review NJPW G1 Climax 30 Day 18 (October 17) as the B Block winner is crowned.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2020/10/17/g1-climax-30-post-show-day-18-b-block-final/
*****
REWIND-A-SMACKDOWN 10/16/20: Season Premiere, AEW/NXT Ratings, The Collective
John Pollock and Wai Ting chat about the season premiere of Friday Night SmackDown featuring Roman Reigns vs. Braun Strowman, AEW & NXT ratings, COVID-19 cases coming out of The Collective, today’s G1 results, and more.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2020/10/17/rewind-a-smackdown-10-16-20-season-premiere-aew-nxt-ratings-the-collective/
*****
G1 CLIMAX POST SHOW: Day 17 – A Block Final
John Pollock and Wai Ting review NJPW G1 Climax 30 Day 17 (October 16) as an A Block winner is crowned. They also reveal their picks for the Top 10 Matches of the G1 thus far.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2020/10/16/g1-climax-30-post-show-day-17-a-block-final/
*****
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