Originally published at https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/03/01/pollocks-news-update-dana-warriors-role-with-the-wwe/
POST IT NOTES
**A new edition of Rewind-A-Wai is out for members of the POST Wrestling Café. This week’s review was chosen by Espresso Executive Producer Daniel Holmes with Wai Ting and I chatting July 13, 1998, episodes of WCW Monday Nitro and WWF Raw is War. Wai and I broke up the shows and below are some of the topics covered on our show:
-Hulk Hogan’s response to losing the WCW title to Bill Goldberg and his 1998 trash talk game hits new lows
-How popular was Konnan in the summer of 1998?
-Bret Hart has a match with Fit Finlay
-Chavo Guerrero introduces Pepe
-Chris Jericho outsmarts authority figure J.J. Dillon and Rey Mysterio
-The rise of Bill Goldberg and his positioning after winning the WCW title
-WCW has its most financially successful week ever
-Are Steve Austin and The Undertaker in cahoots?
-The return of Jason Sensation after the prior week’s DX parody of The Nation
-The Brawl for All splits up The NEW Midnight Express
-Shawn Michaels becomes a commentator on Raw, rants about WCW’s Bash at the Beach pay-per-view and swears on live television
-News headlines from this week in wrestling history
-Daniel Holmes goes through the Rewind-A-Wai Trivia Gauntlet
-And lots more news and notes from this era where both companies were on fire
**The free edition of the Café Hangout is available with Wai Ting and I took lots of calls on this week’s show. There was lots of news to get through as we discussed the latest involving Kofi Kingston, The Shield’s reunion, Batista’s return on Raw, a preview of UFC 235, Impact’s next television taping in Toronto, and lots more. The show can be downloaded, or you watch the video version on YouTube. Remember to subscribe to POST Wrestling’s YouTube channel and you will never miss a show.
**Vote for which WrestleMania event Wai and I should review on the next Rewind-A-Wai. The options are WrestleMania 2, 6, 11, and 26.
**We have a pair of tickets to give away to the ROH and New Japan G1 Supershow at Madison Square Garden, courtesy of listener Joe Lebeau. All you must do is cut a 30-second promo telling us why you want to win the IWGP title at Madison Square and the best promo will win the tickets. Send your submissions to [email protected] by Wednesday, March 6th.
**WH Park and I will have a new edition of POST Puroresu on Saturday with a review of the Giant Baba Memorial show, a preview of the New Japan Cup with predictions, the latest on All Japan, Dragon Gate, and lots more. Plus, there will be a UFC 235 POST Show late Saturday night with Phil Chertok joining me to review the card from Las Vegas.
**Our New Japan Cup contest is open where you can fill out your brackets for the entire tournament. The deadline to submit your picks is next Thursday and the winner will be announced after the finals on March 24th.
**Friend of the show Damian Abraham has released the 200th episode of his “Turned Out a Punk” podcast. Wai Ting and I are guests on the 200th show along with several other guests.
WRESTLING NEWS
**Dana Warrior was at Raw and SmackDown this past week to serve in a consultant capacity with the writing staff, which could eventually lead to her being added to the team. It was first reported by Ryan Satin at Pro Wrestling Sheet regarding her involvement within the creative process. We have been told that Dana will be at television moving forward. Dana would be one of several female voices in the room as there are other women on the writing team. PWinsider.com is stating that Dana Warrior has not been hired yet for a full-time role and has been serving as a brand ambassador for the company.
**The angle to put The Shield back together for Fastlane is expected for Monday’s episode of Raw from Philadelphia. The local advertising in Cleveland is listing Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins teaming against Drew McIntyre, Bobby Lashley, and Baron Corbin, but we have been told Dean Ambrose will be part of the match.
**On Friday’s “Something to Wrestle” podcast, Bruce Prichard discussed his recent re-hiring by the WWE. This past week was Prichard’s first week back at television and stated his role was still being defined. Prichard and Conrad Thompson are not canceling the podcast and are planning to continue a weekly show, but will likely be doing far fewer live shows, if any, because of Prichard’s new schedule. He is also still scheduled for Starrcast. We have been told that Prichard is a full-time employee with a corporate title, although he is not overseeing creative with several outlets stating the initial reports were overblown regarding his position. The writing team is still overseen by Dave Kapoor with Ed Koskey on Raw and Road Dogg on SmackDown.
**WWE co-president George Barrios recently spoke at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media & Telecom Conference regarding the WWE’s business outlook. Barrios said that the priorities in 2019 would include locking down several international rights deals within the U.K., India, China, Latin America, and the Middle East. One of the major initiatives this year includes the WWE Network moving to Endeavor Streaming and Massive Interactive as the home of their VOD service, which they target the movie for the second half of 2019. Once the network moves to its new home, they will be looking to improve the core product, have better integration of its free content and introducing the premium tier that has been discussed heavily.
Barrios was asked about live attendance being down and repeated Vince McMahon’s reasoning on the last conference call that injuries have played a factor and cited past examples of live attendance dipping and rising back up when they have new stars.
When it comes to total monetization, the U.S. remains on top of the list for the company, but the Middle East has surpassed the U.K. and India for second place. He didn’t state the reason behind the jump, but that would have to be a result of the deal with the General Sports Authority in Saudi Arabia. When it comes to global localization, Barrios was very high on the formula they are running in India with a localized magazine-style show, hosted by local celebrities in India.
Regarding international versions of the Performance Center, he estimated the cost of running one would be $4-8 million per year depending on the region. This would account for the talent working out of the PC, ten staff members, and other administrative costs.
**The Raw crew is in Salisbury, Maryland tonight with Braun Strowman, Bobby Lashley, Finn Balor, and Dean Ambrose advertised. The same crew is in Atlantic City, New Jersey on Saturday. The SmackDown crew begins Saturday night at the Target Center in Minneapolis with Daniel Bryan, AJ Styles, Charlotte Flair, and Randy Orton advertised.
**WrestleCon has announced a huge match for WrestleMania week with Bandido taking on Will Ospreay at the Mark Hitchcock Memorial WrestleCon Supershow. The card will be taking place Friday, April 5th at 8 pm at the Hilton Midtown Hotel.
**Fightful’s Sean Ross Sapp reported Thursday that Madison Rayne was returning to Impact Wrestling, which the promotion confirmed on Friday. Earlier this week, Rayne was granted her release by Ring of Honor.
**Pro Wrestling Guerrilla is holding their “200” event tonight from the Globe Theatre in Los Angeles with the following card:
*Jeff Cobb vs. Bandido for the PWG title
* Dezmond Xavier & Zachary Wentz vs. LAX vs. Pentagon Jr. & Fenix for the PWG tag titles
*Jonathan Gresham vs. David Starr
*Brody King vs. Darby Allin
*Chuckie T. and Beretta vs. Aussie Open
*Puma King vs. Laredo Kid
*Jake Atlas vs. Jungle Boy vs. Trey Miguel
**Tonight’s episode of New Japan Pro Wrestling on AXS TV at 8 pm Eastern will feature the Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Jay White match the IWGP heavyweight title from last month’s New Beginning in Osaka card.
**Here are the matches for tonight’s episode of WOW: Women of Wrestling at 9 pm Eastern on AXS:
*Havok vs. Eye Candy
*Jessie Jones vs. Chantilly Chella
*The Temptress vs. Fire
*Azteca vs. Kobra Moon
*Beverly Hills Babe vs. Jungle Grrrl
**Below are the matches for tonight’s episode of Impact Wrestling at 10 pm Eastern on the Pursuit Channel, Twitch and Fight Network in Canada:
*Johnny Impact and Brian Cage vs. Moose and Killer Kross
*Tessa Blanchard vs. Delilah Doom
*Willie Mack vs. Jake Crist
*Ethan Page vs. Zachary Wentz
**AXS TV has announced that they will be carrying the first night of the G1 Climax live from Dallas, Texas on Saturday, July 6th.
**Impact Wrestling has added an X division title match for the United We Stand card on Thursday, April 4th with Rich Swann defending the title against Yamato from Dragon Gate. The card will be airing live that night at 11 pm Eastern on Fite TV.
**Tye Dillinger (Ronnie Arneill) has announced that he is accepting bookings for shows after May 31st.
**MLW has announced that the two-hour live special on Friday, April 5th will be airing from 8-10 pm Eastern on beIN Sports. The live special will feature the 40-man Battle Riot battle royal with the winner receiving a title match anytime they choose. This card will go head-to-head with the NXT TakeOver card over WrestleMania weekend with MLW running their card from the Melrose Ballroom in Queens. The battle royal will consist of entrants entering every 60 seconds and they are promising legends and surprises entering the match.
**MLW is holding their Intimidation Games special from Cicero Stadium in Chicago on Saturday at 7 pm Eastern. Below is the full list of matches for the television taping on Saturday, including matches that will air on tomorrow night’s special:
*Tom Lawlor vs. Low Ki in a steel cage match for the MLW title
*The Hart Foundation vs. MJF and Richard Holliday for the MLW tag titles
*Pentagon Jr. and Fenix vs. Taurus and Laredo Kid
*LA Park vs. Mance Warner
*Hijo de LA Park vs. Puma King
*DJZ vs. Ace Austin
*Brian Pillman Jr. vs. Alex Hammerstone
*Ace Romero vs. Simon Gotch
*Ricky Martinez vs. Air Wolf
**All Japan Pro Wrestling is holding their next major card on March 19th at Korakuen Hall with three title matches. In the main event, Kento Miyahara will defend the Triple Crown against Naoya Nomura. Plus, Daisuke Sekimoto and Yuji Okabayashi will defend the tag titles against Shuji Ishikawa and Suwama and Koji Iwamoto defends the junior heavyweight title against Kotaro Suzuki.
**Revolution Pro has announced that Minoru Suzuki and Zack Sabre Jr. will take on Aussie Open at Epic Encounter at York Hall on Friday, May 10th.
**Pastor Ed Young has conducted another sit-down interview with The Undertaker:
MMA NEWS
**The weigh-ins took place Friday morning for UFC 235 in Las Vegas. Below is the entire card for Saturday’s show with the results of the weigh-ins:
MAIN CARD (10 pm Eastern on pay-per-view)
*Jon Jones (205) vs. Anthony Smith (204.5) for the UFC light heavyweight title
*Tyron Woodley (170) vs. Kamaru Usman (169) for the UFC welterweight title
*Ben Askren (170.5) vs. Robbie Lawler (170)
*Tecia Torres (115) vs. Weili Zhang (116)
*Cody Garbrandt (136) vs. Pedro Munhoz (136)
PRELIMINARY CARD (8 pm on ESPN, TSN 5 in Canada
*Zabit Magomedsharipov (146) vs. Jeremy Stephens (146)
*Misha Cirkunov (206) vs. Johnny Walker (205.5)
*Cody Stamann (135.5) vs. Alejandro Perez (136)
*Mickey Gall (170.5) vs. Diego Sanchez (170)
FIGHT PASS CARD (6:30 pm)
*Edmen Shahbazyan (184.5) vs. Charles Byrd (185)
*Macy Chiasson (136) vs. Gina Mazany (135.5)
*Polyana Viana (115.5) vs. Hannah Cifers (114)
**ONE Championship announced the signing of former UFC light heavyweight champion Vitor Belfort on Thursday and held a press conference in Las Vegas. The 41-year old, who will be 42 in April, is will resume his career with the Asian-based organization and was throwing out Roy Jones Jr. as a name he would like to compete against. Belfort began fighting in 1996 and competed at UFC 12 in February 1997 winning that night’s heavyweight tournament. Belfort became UFC light heavyweight champion in unlikely fashion at UFC 46 in January 2004 when his glove cut the eyelid of Randy Couture, causing the fight to be stopped and the title was awarded to Belfort. A rematch was made for August that year and Couture regained the title.
The tale of Belfort cannot be told without focusing on 2013 where one could easily argue he was the fighter of the year while also becoming the face of Testosterone Replacement Therapy (TRT). Belfort was provided therapeutic use exemptions for testosterone, a decision heavily criticized given that Belfort did have a drug test failure in his past from 2006. Belfort’s physique was impossible to ignore during this period where he rattled off wins over Michael Bisping, Luke Rockhold and Dan Henderson that year.
In February 2014, the Nevada Athletic Commission announced they were banning the use of TRT and Belfort did not fight again until May 2015 when he challenged Chris Weidman for the middleweight title and was stopped in the first round. Since the loss to Weidman, Belfort went 2-3 with 1 no contest in the UFC and last fought in May 2018 where he was knocked out from a front kick from Lyoto Machida in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil at UFC 224.
**Paige VanZant wrote that she broke her right arm and posted an image of the arm on Instagram. VanZant is coming off a submission victory over Rachael Ostovich in January and there is no word on how long VanZant will be sidelined following this injury.
**The UFC has announced a partnership with BBC that will feature live commentary of at least four UFC cards in 2019 on BBC Sport Online and BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra. The deal will kick off with the broadcast of Saturday’s UFC 235 card.
**Michael Bisping is appearing in Toronto on Sunday, March 10th at The Great Hall. Bisping will be interviewed on stage by Luis Gomez, who is Bisping’s co-host on the Believe You Me podcast.
**Below is Episode 5 of this week’s UFC Embedded series:
*****
REWIND-A-WAI: WWF Raw / WCW Nitro (July 13, 1998)
John Pollock and Wai Ting look back at WWF Raw Is War and WCW Monday Nitro from July 13, 1998 in this special double review. Raw continued the mystery of whether The Undertaker was in CAHOOTS with his brother Kane ahead of a scheduled tag team match with Steve Austin, while Nitro brought us the fallout from Goldberg’s first WCW title win the week prior.
https://www.patreon.com/posts/25036850
*****
upNXT 2/28/19: The Bray D & JoPo
Braden Herrington is joined by POST Wrestling’s John Pollock to review this week’s edition of WWE NXT including a huge match from Keith Lee vs. Dominik Dijakovic, Shayna Baszler vs. Mia Yim, and DIY are “officially” back together.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/02/28/upnxt-2-28-19-the-bray-d-jopo/
*****
DOUBLE SHOT 2/27/19: “Fighting with My Family”, Being the Elite, Total Bellas
John Pollock and Wai Ting review the Paige-inspired film “Fighting with My Family” starring Florence Pugh and Vince Vaughn, The Young Bucks return to Chicago on Being The Elite, and after injuring Liv Morgan, Brie Bella struggles with self and public criticism on this week’s Total Bellas.
https://www.patreon.com/posts/24989211
*****
RASD 2/26/19: KO-Fi’d, New Fastlane Main Event, Hardys reunite
Tuesday’s episode of SmackDown featured the announcement by Vince McMahon that Kofi Kingston would not be challenging Daniel Bryan for the WWE title at Fastlane, Kevin Owens is back, Matt Hardy reunited with his brother as The Hardys took on The Bar, Charlotte Flair is coming to Raw, R-Truth resurrects the U.S. title Open Challenge and lots more on a busy episode.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/02/27/rasd-2-26-19-ko-fid-new-fastlane-main-event-hardys-reunite/
*****
REWIND-A-RAW 2/25/19: Roman Reigns is back, Batista attacks Ric Flair
On a huge episode of Raw, Roman Reigns made his first appearance since October to announce his cancer is in remission. The show built to Ric Flair’s birthday celebration and a huge angle to end the show involving the return of Dave Batista.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/02/26/rar-2-25-19-roman-reigns-is-back-batista-attacks-ric-flair/
*****
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So when Rhonda starts cutting incomprehensible promos and starts shaking the ring ropes, we’ll all know. Btw, TIL, Dana Warrior also has a podcast.