Originally published at POLLOCK'S NEWS UPDATE: Double or Nothing, Foley previews A&E bio
POST IT NOTES
**Wai Ting and I will be live with the AEW Double or Nothing POST Show immediately after tonight’s card. Double Double, Iced Capp & Espresso members of the POST Wrestling Café will have live access to the POST Show, and everyone can download it Monday morning. We will also be taking calls after the review.
**This week’s edition of Rewind-A-Wai is covering the 2011 movie “Warrior” starring Tom Hardy and Nick Nolte along with Kurt Angle as Russian fighter ‘Koba’. You can leave feedback for the podcast on the POST Wrestling Forum.
**Our first combo review of Friday Night SmackDown and AEW Dynamite is available for POST Wrestling Café members. It’s a two-hour show discussing both episodes, the latest news from New Japan, and nearly an hour of calls covering many topics. We will be doing the same format next Friday as Dynamite is airing in the same slot as this past week.
**The review of Friday Night Dynamite is free for everyone.
**Wai and I preview tonight’s AEW Double or Nothing card, review the latest Dark Side of the Ring on Ultimate Warrior, and discuss the rest of the news:
WRESTLING NEWS
**AEW returns to pay-per-view tonight with the 3rd annual Double or Nothing from Daily’s Place in Jacksonville, Florida. The show will be highlighted by its largest attendance since the pandemic began with over 4,000 expected. We had a glimpse on Friday from the structural set-up of the venue with fans added on the floor and it was day-and-night with the first ‘back to normal’ type of event.
The company set its all-time pay-per-view record at ‘Revolution’ in March, which was built on the Explosive Barbed-Wire Deathmatch between Kenny Omega and Jon Moxley and the hint of a major signing that was revealed to be Christian Cage. There was lots of dissatisfaction to the end of the pay-per-view and lack of explosion, but I don’t see that impacting people’s purchasing habits of AEW events.
This show features the sequel to Stadium Stampede, which was one of the best presentations the company had in 2020 during the early portion of the pandemic. The second version will likely be different in tone given the blood feud between The Pinnacle and Inner Circle and once again is relying on fans having a vested interest in a stipulation regarding a break-up. The closing segment on Friday Night Dynamite was strong and hit the point that The Inner Circle could disband tonight.
There are plenty of reasons to keep The Inner Circle together where they get their revenge after Blood & Guts, they are a merchandising machine, and the group has shown zero signs of staleness. However, AEW does do a lot of bold booking moves and fresh off a mini babyface run, the idea of ‘get off the stage while they’re still clapping’ would surprise many but also set up performers like Santana and Sammy Guevara for the next big step in their careers. It would also establish The Pinnacle as the dominant group of the promotion and avoids watering down their Blood & Guts win by losing 3 ½ weeks later. Regardless of the outcome, it would seem probably that MJF and Chris Jericho continue their feud.
On paper, it’s a show full of many interesting matches and should be greatly enhanced by the crowd’s reactions to the big stars and entrances. I expect a very strong show.
The Buy-In begins at 7:30 p.m. ET and the pay-per-views airs at 8 with the following card:
*Stadium Stampede: The Inner Circle (Chris Jericho, Santana, Ortiz, Jake Hager & Sammy Guevara) vs. The Pinnacle (MJF, FTR, Shawn Spears & Wardlow)
*AEW Championship: Kenny Omega (champion) vs. Orange Cassidy vs. PAC
*AEW Tag Team Championship: The Young Bucks (champions) vs. Jon Moxley & Eddie Kingston
*AEW Women’s Championship: Hikaru Shida (champion) vs. Dr. Britt Baker
*TNT Championship: Miro (champion) vs. Lance Archer
*Cody Rhodes vs. Anthony Ogogo
*Sting & Darby Allin vs. Ethan Page & Scorpio Sky
*Hangman Page vs. Brian Cage
*Casino Battle Royale feat. Christian Cage, Matt Sydal, Powerhouse Hobbs, Penta El Zero Miedo, Brian Pillman Jr., Griff Garrison, Colt Cabana, Evil Uno, Dustin Rhodes, Preston Vance, Lee Johnson, Jungle Boy, Matt Hardy, Marq Quen, Isiah Kassidy, The Blade, Max Caster, Anthony Bowens, Nick Comoroto, QT Marshall, and TBA
*NWA Women’s Championship: Serena Deeb (champion) vs. Riho (Buy-In at 7:30 p.m. ET)
**Below is the AEW countdown special for tonight’s Double or Nothing card:
**A&E Biography continues with a documentary on Mick Foley tonight at 8 p.m. ET. Foley has been raving about the feature even though he noted he was hesitant to commit to one after being very satisfied with the WWE’s in-house DVD they produced on Foley several years ago. Foley is both a compelling interview subject that is very thought-provoking and he’s also incredibly honest on a level that few are. Those attributes are a great combination for a documentary subject. The Foley story has been told in great detail but I’m sure with the passage of time there will be some new elements presented including the added toll the years have taken on Foley where the physical price becomes steeper with each year removed from his in-ring days.
With my @biography airing tomorrow at 9pm EST, I hope you will take a couple minutes to watch this video to learn how special we think this documentary is.
RT’s are appreciated.#WWEonAE pic.twitter.com/gzGAh4sXlV
— Mick Foley (@RealMickFoley) May 29, 2021
**Greg Oliver at SLAM Wrestling has an obit on Bob Biladeau, who was a native of North Bay, Ontario, and died on Friday after battling COVID-19 at the age of 64. Biladeau trained under Phil Watson, who was the son of ‘Whipper’ Billy Watson and graduated from his class in 1982. Throughout his career, Biladeau has several personas including King Kong Brule and The Mighty Tank primarily in Ontario but also ventured into the United States. After wrestling, he owned Big Boy restaurants and was an avid bingo player. When his health was getting worse, he requested that his niece reach out to Oliver to alert him of his health status.
**Mike Mooneyham wrote a story on the life and career of the late Don Kernodle.
**WWE has announced the following matches and segment for Raw on Monday night:
*Drew McIntyre vs. Kofi Kingston – Bobby Lashley and MVP are banned from ringside
*Shayna Baszler vs. Reginald
*Miz TV with Rhea Ripley and Charlotte Flair
**Giancarlo Dittamo was among the cuts at WWE over the past week. Dittamo had tweeted a message earlier this week, ‘Onward and Upward’ that hinted at the news and was confirmed by PWinsider.com. Dittamo is a very talented producer that worked for Game Changer Wrestling and was instrumental in their level of video production prior to joining WWE.
**New Japan Pro Wrestling is moving forward with its schedule despite an extension of Japan’s state of emergency. They will have three shows in Tokyo this week beginning on Tuesday at Korakuen Hall with the following line-up:
*IWGP Tag Team Championship: Guerrillas of Destiny (champions) vs. Zack Sabre Jr. & Taichi
*Kazuchika Okada, Hirooki Goto, Tomohiro Ishii & YOSHI-HASHI vs. Shingo Takagi, Tetsuya Naito, SANADA & BUSHI
*Kota Ibushi & Yota Tsuji vs. Jeff Cobb & The Great O-Khan
*Hiroshi Tanahashi, Tomoaki Honma, Tiger Mask & Ryusuke Taguchi vs. EVIL, Chase Owens, El Phantasmo & Taiji Ishimori
*El Desperado, Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Minoru Suzuki vs. Roppongi 3K & Yuya Uemura
The shows on Tuesday, Wednesday (Korakuen Hall) & Friday (Ota Ward Gymnasium) will serve as ‘Road to Dominion’ events with the Dominion card moved to Monday, June 7th. We should get a full card for Dominion in the coming days with three matches listed and is headlined by Kazuchika Okada and Shingo Takagi for the vacant IWGP World Heavyweight Championship.
**After shattering his leg in the opening seconds of his April 24th fight against Uriah Hall, Chris Weidman has posted a video of him walking. This is nothing short of incredible for such a brutal injury that left many questioning if he would be able to come back from it. Weidman has stated he’s determined to fight again.
**Showtime has released a preview show for next weekend’s fight between Floyd Mayweather Jr. and Logan Paul, which will be one of the biggest pay-per-views of 2021.
**Jake “The Snake” Roberts (Aurelian Smith Jr.) turns 66 years old today. His family will be profiled this Thursday on Dark Side of the Ring on VICE TV.
PAY-PER-VIEW REWIND
AEW Double or Nothing
Saturday, May 23, 2020
Jacksonville, Florida – Daily’s Place/TIAA Bank Field
*Stadium Stampede: The Elite (Kenny Omega, The Young Bucks, Hangman Page & Matt Hardy) over The Inner Circle (Chris Jericho, Santana, Ortiz, Sammy Guevara & Jake Hager)
*AEW Championship: Jon Moxley (champion) over Brodie Lee
*AEW Women’s Championship, No DQ/No Countout: Hikaru Shida over Nyla Rose (champion)
*Dustin Rhodes over Shawn Spears
*Kris Statlander over Penelope Ford
*TNT Championship Tournament Final: Cody Rhodes over Lance Archer
*MJF over Jungle Boy
*Casino Ladder Match: Brian Cage over Darby Allin, Joey Janela, Scorpio Sky, Orange Cassidy, Jimmy Havoc, Kip Sabian, Darby Allin, Colt Cabana, Luchsaurus, and Frankie Kazarian
*Best Friends over Private Party
ON THIS DATE
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