Originally published at POLLOCK'S NEWS UPDATE: Cormier open to MMA fight with Jake Paul
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**Rewind-A-Raw is LIVE tonight at 11:15 pm ET with Wai Ting and I. We will be chatting WWE Raw, the Roddy Piper documentary, IMPACT Rebellion, and taking your feedback. We will be live for Double Double, Iced Capp & Espresso members of the POST Wrestling Café.
**You can still post feedback for our CREED 2 review, which will be released this Friday for members of the POST Wrestling Café.
**Davie Portman and John Siino have a big review of IMPACT Rebellion available on both the POST Wrestling and upNXT feeds going through the whole show, putting all the titles on Kenny Omega, the return of Mauro Ranallo to pro wrestling, and the announcements of its big shows over the next three months.
**MCU L8R covers the finale of The Falcon & The Winter Soldier with Wai Ting, WH Park & Nate Milton sharing their reaction and taking calls.
POST SCHEDULE
Tonight: Rewind-A-Raw with John & Wai (LIVE at 11:15 pm ET for Double Double+ Patrons)
Tuesday: upNXT with Braden Herrington & Davie Portman
Wednesday: Rewind-A-Dynamite with John & Wai (LIVE at 10:15 pm ET for Dbl Dbl+ Patrons)
Wednesday: Shot in the Dark with John Siino (upNXT feed)
Thursday: Bushby & Thompson’s Wrestling Adventure w/ guest John Lister (“The Rise and Fall of ECW” DVD)
Friday: CREED 2 review (Patreon)
Friday: Rewind-A-SmackDown (LIVE at 10:15 pm ET for all Patrons)
Sunday: The Long & Winding Royal Road with WH Park & Rich Fann (Kobashi vs. Hansen, July 1993)
Sunday: POST Interview – Evan Husney & Jason Eisener, Dark Side of the Ring
WRESTLING NEWS
**The projection by Nick Khan on last week’s WWE earnings call regarding the NHL rights on NBC appears to be playing out as stated. On Monday, Sports Business Journal reported that NBC has withdrawn from the talks with the league for the secondary rights package after ESPN inked its seven-year deal with the NHL last month for $400 million per year. Shortly after, Hockey Night in Canada’s Elliotte Freidman reported that Turner will get three Stanley Cup Finals over the next seven years with ESPN taking the other four with John Ourand of SBJ adding that Turner is expected to take the secondary NHL package at $225 million per year with a deal announcement coming as early as Tuesday.
**Here are the matches and segments listed for tonight’s edition of WWE Raw airing at 8 pm ET on the USA Network:
*Drew McIntyre & Braun Strowman vs. T-Bar & Mace
*The Miz, Elias & Jaxson Ryker vs. Damian Priest, Kofi Kingston & Xavier Woods
*Nia Jax, Shayna Baszler & Rhea Ripley vs. Lana, Naomi & Asuka
**Tickets went on sale today for the Blood & Guts edition of AEW Dynamite on Wednesday, May 5th.
**The U.S. Supreme Court will not hear the appeals of ex-wrestlers that had filed suit against WWE over the long-term damage from head injuries. This included plaintiffs Billy Jack Hayes, Russ McCullough, Luther Reigns, Ryan Sakoda, and the family of Nelson Frazier a.k.a. Mabel and Viscera. The group was led by lawyer Konstantine Kyros, who was previously dismissed by the U.S. Court of Appeals after a 2018 ruling by Judge Vanessa Bryant that the claims were frivolous and came after the statute of limitations had passed. The WWE is seeking over $573,000 in legal fees from Kyros after filing in federal court in March.
**WWE announced the hiring of Claudine Lilien as a senior vice president and head of global sales and partnerships. Lilien previously worked at FOX with her most recent role as senior vice president of client management & solution, which included the sale and marketing efforts behind Friday Night SmackDown. In her new role with WWE, Lilien will report to Stephanie McMahon-Levesque. After graduating from Lafayette College, she began her career at FOX as an account executive until leaving in 2001 for a job at the WB Television Network before returning to FOX in 2006.
**Next Sunday’s A&E Biography will cover Randy Savage. Like the Piper documentary, you are dealing with a subject that isn’t alive and while the Piper one could rely on hours of older interviews, the ones with Savage out of character were few and far between. Below is the schedule for the entire run of A&E docs:
*May 2nd – Randy Savage
*May 9th – Booker T.
*May 16th – Shawn Michaels
*May 23rd – Ultimate Warrior
*May 30th – Mick Foley
*June 6th – Bret Hart
**A&E is also posting full-length documentaries on its website without the need to sign in. The Steve Austin and Roddy Piper ones are both posted in their entirety.
**MLW issued a press release on Monday confirming they will debut on Vice TV this Saturday at Noon ET.
**Here are the matches scheduled for tonight’s edition of AEW Dark: Elevation streaming at 7 pm ET:
*Scorpio Sky & Ethan Page vs. Alex Reynolds & Alan “5” Angels
*Rey Fenix vs. Chuck Taylor
*FTR vs. The Hughes Brothers (the sons of D-Von Dudley)
*The Acclaimed vs. Liam Gray & Adrian Alanis
*Orange Cassidy vs. Dean Alexander
*Joey Janela vs. Matt Sydal
*Big Swole & Red Velvet vs. Nyla Rose & Madi Wrenkowski
*Ryan Nemeth vs. Ryzin
*Kris Statlander vs. Tesha Price
*Nick Comoroto vs. VSK
*Leyla Hirsch & Ryo Mizunami vs. Diamante & Amber Nova
*Rising Star Profile: Leyla Hirsch
**MLW has announced Tom Lawlor vs. Marshall Von Erich and Bu Ku Dao vs. Hijo de LA Park for this Wednesday’s episode of Fusion at 7 pm ET on Fubo Sports and YouTube.
**The WWE stock closed at $55.62 on Monday, which was up 2.6 percent.
**Being the Elite Ep. 253 “Hit By A Truck”, which reveals The Elite escaped their trailer before it was hit by Jon Moxley and Eddie Kingston.
**Mick Foley will be interviewing Drew McIntyre about his new book “My Chosen Destiny” on Tuesday, May 4th at 6 pm ET. It will be a virtual in-conversation event where fans can buy the book and have access to the chat for $27 U.S.
**The final edition of Dark Side of the Ring: Confidential airs this Thursday evening on Vice TV looking back at the episode on Herb Abrams. The third season will kick off the following week on Thursday, May 6th.
MMA NEWS
**On the DC & Helwani show, Daniel Cormier addressed the incident from Saturday in Jacksonville where he confronted Jake Paul before the pay-per-view began. Cormier joked that he has “worked himself into a shoot” by taking the bait with Paul but wouldn’t allow Paul to disrespect him and is now proposing they have an MMA fight:
So, I just walk over there and he kind of leans in like we’re going to have a conversation and his hands are in his pocket. I said, “Hey, I’m not going to play your games, so don’t mess with me. I’m not a kid to play with like this. I’m not going to be on the internet messing around and all this other stuff”, I go, “keep my name out of your mouth” and then, his security came and once security came, he started to play big boy a bit, he starts to point and do all that. I said, “I’m not going to play your game, you’re going to get yourself hurt messing around. I’m not going to fight with you and play these public shenanigans.” I go, “keep my name out of your mouth”, and he goes, “well, you said my name first” and I’m like, “don’t play with me, I’m not a kid to be messed with like that.”
I was going to grab him by the face, but I would have gotten in trouble by the UFC. Because listen, a kid like that, you alpha a kid like that. I wanted to grab him by the face and smash him into the ground but I can’t do that at work, I would have gotten into a lot of trouble, so I just went over there and tried to have a conversation and then the security comes and he goes, “well, sign the contract”. I’m like, “Come on, sign the contract? What contract are you referring to?” There is no contract. You can talk and act like that with certain people but not everybody, not everybody is going to do that and you start messing with certain people they’re going to tell you what they’re feeling.
Cormier said he doesn’t need to chase a payday but acknowledged he would be willing to fight Jake Paul in a mixed martial arts fight. He made the comparison to Floyd Mayweather Jr. fighting Conor McGregor but did so under his rules and that would be his parameters for a fight with Paul and would even do it at 205 pounds.
**Chris Weidman issued his first statement since shattering his leg at UFC 261 on Saturday. Weidman said it would be eight weeks before he can walk without crutches. The timetable for him to resume training is between six and twelve months and said he is trying to find the positive silver lining to all this. Weidman had surgery on Sunday where they inserted a titanium rod in the tibia, and broke his fibula, as well. He is planning to document the recovery process and was grateful for all the well wishes since the injury occurred.
**The first PFL event of the season finished with 156,000 viewers and a 0.04 in the 18-49 demo this past Friday. The main card aired on ESPN2 and finished 133rd among cable programs. This week the show shifts to Thursday nights.
**Triller is going after several sites that they allege illegally streamed and sold last weekend’s card involving Jake Paul and Ben Askren. The suit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California and was first reported by Kevin Iole of Yahoo Sports. Triller is suing 11 sites with 100 unnamed individuals that cost Triller $100 million in revenue. A spokesperson for Triller issued a statement to MMA Fighting and said they would fully prosecute. The spokesperson added that the sites are not protected by VPN masking or other firewalls to identify those responsible while working with authorities.
**Former Strawweight Champion Zhang Weili issued a statement on Sunday and is hopeful of a rematch with new champion Rose Namajunas:
I want to congratulate Rose on her victory . She bounced back from her defeat. I believe I will also come back, only beat a great champion, to become a legend, and beat a legend, I will become a new me. Before, my goal was to win the UFC championship, but today, I have a higher goal than that. Thank you! It’s normal to lose and win. That’s the UFC. Andrade, Joanna, Rose have all lost and they all come back and try again. I have deepened my understanding of UFC today. So I believe I can come back. Hopefully the UFC will schedule a rematch soon.
**Jake Paul continues to fan the flames issuing the following message towards UFC president Dana White criticizing the promoter for the amount his fighters make:
Dana you claimed you would be $1M on me losing. Set up Askren to train with Freddie Roach…gave him full access to UFCPI…and he still got his ass handed to him. Seems like you are the real douche…not Ariel. In my 3rd fight I made more more in total pay than any fighter in UFC history. Maybe it’s time to pay your fighters their fair share? No wonder they all want to get into boxing. Dana you say you make the fights fans want to see…so hurry up and make Jones vs. N’gannou. Pay them their fair share….$10M purse for each guy, plus PPV. Why are UFC fighters so underpaid vs. Boxers? Why did I make more in my 3rd fight than all but two (Khabib & Conor) UFC fighters have in history? I know why…
**ONE Championship’s television line-up for this Wednesday on TNT at 10 pm ET will feature:
*Aung La N Sang vs. Reinier De Ridder for the ONE Lightweight Championship
*Eddie Alvarez vs. Ok Rae Yoon
*Oumar Kane vs. Kirill Grishenko
ON THIS DATE
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DEEP IMPACT 4/25/21: IMPACT Rebellion 2021 Review
Davie Portman and John Siino review IMPACT Rebellion 2021 featuring Kenny Omega vs Rich Swann for the AEW and Unified IMPACT World Heavyweight Championships!
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UFC 261 POST SHOW: Usman vs. Masvidal 2
John Pollock and Phil Chertok are back with the UFC 261 POST Show with three championship fights including Rose Namajunas winning the 115-pound title.
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MCU L8R: Falcon & Winter Soldier Ep. 6 Finale
Wai Ting, WH Park & Nate Milton review the series finale of The Falcon & The Winter Soldier as Sam Wilson makes his debut as the new Captain America. Plus, our thoughts on the Shang-Chi trailer and your calls about all things MCU.
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REWIND-A-SMACKDOWN 4/23/21: Reigns vs. Bryan set, WWE “Bag-Gate”
Wai Ting and the returning Kate from Montreal review WWE SmackDown as Daniel Bryan aides Cesaro in his quest for a title match against Roman Reigns. Plus: WWE’s “Bag-Gate”, your calls, and more.
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INTERVIEW: Brandon Thurston of Wrestlenomics
John Pollock speaks with reporter Brandon Thurston of Wrestlenomics on WWE’s first-quarter earnings report and Q&A with analysts.
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DEEP IMPACT: IMPACT Rebellion 2021 Primer
Davie Portman and John Siino host a special primer to catch you up to speed ahead of IMPACT Rebellion 2021, headlined by Rich Swann vs Kenny Omega in a Title for Title match.
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REWIND-A-DYNAMITE 4/21/21: 2 Title Matches, Inner Circle & Pinnacle Speak
John Pollock & Wai Ting review AEW Dynamite featuring two championship matches. Plus, a discussion on all the latest TV viewership figures, WrestleMania attendance and Earth Day
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