Originally published at POLLOCK'S NEWS UPDATE: Big episode of Raw, Mojo Rawley update
POST IT NOTES
**Rewind-A-Raw is live tonight at 11:15 p.m. ET. Wai Ting and I will have a big review of Raw from Cincinnati with the fallout from the Royal Rumble and we will announce the winners from our Royal Rumble Pool. Double Double, Iced Capp & Espresso members of the POST Wrestling Café will have live access tonight. The show will be posted early Tuesday morning on all our platforms.
POST DAILY NEWS SHOW
– WWE Royal Rumble fallout
– Bobby Lashley defending title at Elimination Chamber
– Star creation in WWE
– PWG’s BOLA
– Highlights from around the world this weekend
– The Briscoes entering ROH Hall of Fame
Audio version for POST Wrestling Café members.
WRESTLING NEWS
**One of the biggest episodes of Raw in 2022 takes place tonight from the Heritage Bank Center in Cincinnati, Ohio coming off Saturday’s Royal Rumble. It will feature Ronda Rousey’s first appearance on WWE television in nearly three years after she won the women’s Royal Rumble in her return this past weekend. The show is also promoting Brock Lesnar, who is set to choose his opponent for WrestleMania after winning the men’s Royal Rumble.
Last year’s show after the Rumble was among the highest of 2021 with 1,892,000 viewers and 0.58 in 18-49, which included Edge’s first match on television since his return as he took on Randy Orton.
Beyond Rousey’s appearance and Lesnar’s announcement, there have not been any other segments or matches advertised yet.
**WWE has stated that Bobby Lashley will defend the WWE championship in the Elimination Chamber on February 19th in Saudi Arabia. The other five participants have not been named yet but with only three weeks until the show, they should be finalized soon. The Wrestling Observer site reported that Shane McMahon is scheduled for both Elimination Chamber and WrestleMania 38. As of last week, there was a plan for McMahon’s match at ‘Mania but we were told the match is not set in stone. Brock Lesnar is also advertised for Elimination Chamber as per usual on the Saudi Arabia events.
**There was a plethora of must-see matches over the weekend. PWG’s Battle of Los Angeles received its usual accolades with people buzzing about the first night’s main event between Speedball Mike Bailey and Bandido and night two saw one of the most incredible spots of the year involving Jack Cartwheel and Blake Christian. The eight-man tag Cartwheel and Christian were a part of sounded excellent. In the U.K. RevPro held a big show with those in attendance heavily recommending the match between Gabriel Kidd and Francesco Akira while the main event between Will Ospreay and Michael Oku is generating a lot of buzz after Ospreay stated it might have been the best match of his career, which is stunning if it’s even close to that level. Finally, Stardom held its event in Nagoya and sounded like a stellar card. The top matches were the highest recommended ones with Syuri defending the World of Stardom title against MIRAI. I did see the 30-minute draw between Giulia and Mayu Iwatani and thought it was a spectacular match. Iwatani would be on the short-list of best babyfaces in the industry and maybe at the top based on this performance alone where Giulia took almost the entire match. It had a scary moment in the end as Iwatani tried to maintain her balance on the top turnbuckle, went through with a moonsault but caught Giulia’s chin and busted her open, which came right near the time limit. The Stardom card was a pay-per-view but should be available on Stardom World later this week.
**Dean Muhtadi provided an update on why he has not been wrestling since his WWE release in 2020. The former Mojo Rawley stated he came down with COVID-19 about nineteen months ago and had a terrible bout with the virus. The former WWE star stated he was hospitalized and nearly died, and his lungs were in poor shape and could not put any pressure onto them. He said he isn’t quite 100 percent yet, but he is close and is returning to wrestling soon.
**Chase Owens stated that today is the final day of his existing contract with New Japan Pro Wrestling. Owens began wrestling for NJPW in 2014 and has been a member of The Bullet Club for most of his time with the promotion. He last wrestled on the second night of Wrestle Kingdom 16 in a four-way match with Minoru Suzuki, Toru Yano, and CIMA for the KOPW 2022 title.
**IMPACT Wrestling had a strong month on AXS TV. Last Thursday’s program averaged 182,000 viewers and 0.05 in the 18-49 demographic, according to Showbuzz Daily. It was IMPACT’s highest viewership since last February. For the month of January, they averaged 131,000 viewers compared to December’s average of 84,000. This week’s number will be intriguing as they are coming off the exposure of having Mickie James not only appear in the Royal Rumble but coming out with her IMPACT championship and theme song.
**Here are the matches listed for AEW Dark: Elevation tonight at 7 p.m. ET and streaming on YouTube:
*Brandi Rhodes vs. KiLynn King
*QT Marshall, Aaron Solo & Nick Comoroto vs. Dante Martin, Lee Moriarty & Matt Sydal
*Penta El Zero Miedo vs. Serpentico
*Anna Jay vs. Nikki Victory
*Lance Archer vs. Chase Oliver
*Jay Lethal vs. Casey Carrington
*Thunder Rosa & Ruby Soho vs. Joseline Navarro & Megan Myers
**Ric Flair has posted a public statement that he and Wendy Barlow have ended their relationship. The couple had been together for several years before being married in September 2018.
**Paul Janeway of St. Paul & the Broken Bones attended The WRLD on GCW last weekend and his experience was profiled by The New Yorker.
**AEW is returning to Boston, Massachusetts for a live Dynamite and Rampage taping on Wednesday, April 6th at the Agganis Arena. Tickets for the event will go on sale on February 11th at 10 a.m. ET. Their last time running the building was on October 27th where they drew 5,750 and 5,500 paid, per The Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
**Ivory (Lisa Moretti) was one of the highlights of the weekend.
**AEW Dark is holding two taping sessions this Saturday at Universal Studios at 2 and 7 p.m. ET. AEW is advertising TBS champion Jade Cargill, Orange Cassidy, Powerhouse Hobbs, Dante Martin, Tay Conti, Anna Jay, John Silver, and The Acclaimed.
**Serena Deeb, Davey Richards, and Tre Lamar are the latest addition to the Terminus event on Thursday, February 24th. The second event from the start-up promotion will feature co-founder Jonathan Gresham defending his version of the ROH championship against Santana. The promotion has also noted that Shane “Swerve” Strickland and Lio Rush will be on the show from Atlanta, Georgia.
**MLW will make its return to Philadelphia for the Kings of Colosseum show on Friday, May 13th at the 2300 Arena. Tickets for the event go on sale this Thursday on the promotion’s site and Eventbrite. This event will be preceded by the Superfight show on February 26th in Charlotte and Intimidation Games in Dallas on March 31st.
**There will be a second Hana Kimura tribute show taking place on May 23rd at Korakuen Hall. It was on that date in 2020 that Kimura died with a tribute event taking place last year to coincide with one year passing since she died.
**Being the Elite Ep. 292: “Cold Day At The Beach’.
ON THIS DATE
Randy Savage and Jake “The Snake” Roberts meet at Madison Square Garden in 1992:
The WWF attempted an experiment with Halftime Heat in 1999 during half-time of the Super Bowl. On the USA Network, they ran a taped match between The Rock and Mankind with Mick Foley regaining the WWF championship one week after losing it at the Royal Rumble. The show drew a 6.6 rating against the Fox halftime show that featured Stevie Wonder, Gloria Estefan, and Big Bad Voodoo Daddy. One year later, they tried the concept again promoted around Steve Austin’s first interview since undergoing neck surgery, and then, they dropped the Halftime Heat idea. It was resurrected in 2019 with NXT streaming a match during halftime that did under 100,000 viewers live but the video sits at 2.1 million views today.
Edge made a surprise return at the Royal Rumble in 2010 in Atlanta. The performer had been out of action since the previous July with a torn Achilles tendon. Edge made his return and eliminated former partner Chris Jericho with John Cena being the last one thrown out.
Eleven years after his previous Royal Rumble victory, Edge won the match again in 2021 after entering the match at #1 and going over 58 minutes:
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