Originally published at https://www.postwrestling.com/2020/03/23/pollocks-news-update-edge-defends-decision-to-run-wrestlemania/
POST IT NOTES
**Wai Ting and I will have a new edition of Rewind-A-Raw posted late tonight.
**The Double Shot returned today as Wai Ting and I spoke about the recent FCW documentary and the Broken Skull Sessions with Steve Austin speaking with Bret Hart on the WWE Network. We also watched the ‘Social Distance’ match between Joey Janela and Jimmy Lloyd from the GCW’s Acid Cup Night Two event from last Friday, which is available at IndependentWrestling.tv. This edition of The Double Shot is available at the POST Wrestling Café.
**The latest edition of POST Puroresu features an update from WH Park on how Japan is dealing with the pandemic, the mood of those around him, how people are adjusting and then focusing on the impact on the pro wrestling industry. We discussed all the cancellations, New Japan’s schedule, Stardom opening its doors on Tuesday, other promotions that have continued to run, and also looking at the Champion Carnival.
**WH Park has an extensive preview of Tuesday’s Stardom Cinderella tournament with a preview of the opening round matches for predictions on all the matches.
**Davie Portman has a review of this past Saturday’s episode of MLW Fusion featuring Team Filthy vs. The Von Erichs, Killer Kross & Davey Boy Smith Jr.
**Our latest Q&A is with DEFY promoter Matt Farmer discussing the early effects the COVID-19 pandemic has had on his business, the attitude of the talent, and potential long-term issues.
POST SCHEDULE
*Monday: Rewind-A-Raw with John Pollock & Wai Ting
*Tuesday: ASK-A-WAI mailbag show (Patreon)
*Wednesday: Jeff Marek & John Pollock discuss the Chris Benoit ‘Dark Side of the Ring’ episode
*Wednesday: Rewind-A-Dynamite
*Wednesday: upNXT with Braden Herrington & Davie Portman
*Thursday: Café Hangout (LIVE at 3 pm Eastern for Patrons)
*Friday: Rewind-A-SmackDown (Patreon)
*Sunday: Thunderstruck with WH Park & guest Alan4L (Jushin Thunder Liger & Minoru Tanaka vs. Tsuyoshi Kikuchi & Yoshihiro Takayama from 4/7/2002)
*Sunday: The Double Shot (Patreon)
WRESTLING NEWS
**WWE is in the process of taping weeks of television along with its showcase event of the year in WrestleMania. This past weekend, the company taped several episodes Friday Night SmackDown to cover them leading into ‘Mania along with content for NXT. Dave Meltzer reported that the NXT filming took place at Full Sail University as opposed to the Performance Center. Raw will take place tonight followed by another Raw taping on Tuesday for next week’s go-home show and will also be taping the April 6th edition of Raw this week.
**Edge (Adam Copeland) spoke with Digital Spy about his return at the Royal Rumble and defended the company’s decision to go ahead with WrestleMania despite the ongoing global pandemic:
This year more than any year we are all in the midst of something we have never experienced before, the world really needs outlets. Whether that is books, whether that is movies, whatever it is, just to be able to try and forget and laugh and have fun and remember what it is to be human. That’s why we’re doing this. There’s one reason. That’s the reason.
As long we can try and be as responsible and as safe as we can, why wouldn’t we try and do this for everyone? As a performer, that’s what we want to do. If we can do that and if people watch and can have fun for a few hours then our mission is accomplished. It’s a privilege, it’s an honour, it’s also a responsibility – and it’s one that I know all of us don’t take lightly. There’s a reason the show is going on. Those are the reasons why.
**WWE announced Monday they are unlocking lots of content on the WWE Network for everyone to watch, this includes:
*Every WrestleMania, Royal Rumble, Survivor Series, SummerSlam, NXT TakeOver & NXT UK: TakeOver
*The Broken Skull Sessions
*The Ruthless Aggression series (avoid episode one)
*The Monday Night War series
*Recent episodes of WWE Raw and Friday Night SmackDown
*Every edition of WWE Untold
*The FCW documentary
*Each edition of WWE 24
**AEW announced Monday that until further notice, all live episodes of Dynamite will be produced at a closed set. They have moved the following dates:
*April 22nd at the Liacouras Center in Philadelphia has been moved to July 29th
*April 29th in Houston, Texas at the Fertitta Center has moved to November 4th
*May 6th at the Lakefront Arena in New Orleans has been moved to December 2nd
*May 13th at the Santa Ana Star Center in Albuquerque, New Mexico has changed to December 30th
**Those with tickets in Philadelphia, Houston, New Orleans, and Albuquerque can receive refunds or have their tickets honored on the new date.
**AEW has announced the following matches for Tuesday’s edition of AEW Dark:
*Christopher Daniels & Frankie Kazarian vs. Shawn Spears & Robert Anthony
*Joey Janela & Sonny Kiss vs. Mike Reed & Corey Hollis
*Dustin Rhodes & QT Marshall vs. Matt Sells & Jon Cruz
*Colt Cabana vs. Brandon Cutler
*Kip Sabian vs. Suge D
*Jake Hager vs. Joe Alonzo
**Friday Night SmackDown finished with 2,569,000 viewers this past week on Fox. The show did a 0.8 in the 18-49 demo that was behind Shark Tank on ABC and tied for second on the night with 20/20 and NBC’s Blacklist. It was SmackDown’s best number since February 28th, which was the day after Super ShowDown when Bill Goldberg won the Universal title. It was also the fifth-highest viewership for SmackDown since debuting on Fox last October. The number was also up 4% from last week.
News coverage of COVID-19 dominated cable news on Friday.
**Ring of Honor has updated their cancellations and announced that shows through May 31st are off. Below is the message released on Monday by the company:
Pursuant to the latest updates regarding Covid-19, known as the Coronavirus, and in strong consideration of the government’s mandate limiting large gatherings for the next 8 weeks, we are CANCELLING all ROH LIVE events through May 31st, 2020. We appreciate your understanding through these difficult times as we come together as a planet to do our part in slowing and helping stop the spread of this virus. We encourage all fans to avoid large crowds, practice social distancing, and adhere to the continuously updated guidelines of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the World Health Organization (WHO). Tickets purchased for all events will be refunded at the earliest possibility. In most cases, refunds should appear within 3-7 business days, but please allow for potential delays due to volume at our ticketing partners and possible delays in processing at various banks. As the pandemic progresses, ROH will continue to provide timely updates related to live touring plans.
**The major news from All Japan’s show at Korakuen Hall today was the end of Kento Miyahara’s Triple Crown reign. Miyahara had held the title since October 2018 when he lost to Suwama today and failed to tie Mitsuharu Misawa for the most title defenses of all-time with Misawa at 21. The show was open to fans and was their first show since February 26th.
**Black Label Pro has postponed it’s ‘Empty House’ event that was set for this Saturday in Crown Point, Indiana. The promotion issued the following:
Unfortunately, we are going to have to postpone our ‘Empty House’ event for this Saturday.
This event will happen when there is a safe environment for it to occur.
The safety for everyone involved is the primary reasoning. There’s just simply no reason to risk it. As I was writing this, we got word the governor of Indiana has issued a ‘Stay at home’ order as well.
In regards to the donations, EVERY CENT of those donations are still going out to the wrestlers in need. They need us more than ever, and I hope you all continue to contribute to the Indie Go Go Campaign.
If you would like your money back from that, email us at [email protected] and we’ll figure that out.
Thank you for your tremendous support.
Mikey, Jessica, and the entire BLP staff.
**I haven’t seen this past weekend’s episode of Ring of Honor but was told that it was still acting as though the Las Vegas pay-per-view had occurred while Supercard of Honor was being promoted. To me, there should be an understanding given the situations they are in. ROH isn’t alone with NXT still promoting one night of WrestleMania the day the news came out regarding it being spread over two.
For Impact Wrestling, all their television over the next month is leading to the Rebellion pay-per-view, which Terminal 5 and the ticketing site has stated is canceled.
The NWA was scheduled to air a big special last Tuesday but pulled the show because so much of it was building up the Crockett Cup event. Of course, it is the difference between delivering a show for a network or in syndication as opposed to YouTube, however, those are sunk costs for the NWA in producing content that they cannot use.
For MLW, they have a lot in the can because they did go ahead with their show in Mexico on March 13th and are still running episodes from Philadelphia in February. MLW has suspended its operations through June including ‘Intimidation Games’ for April 18th being off and moved to a new date.
**Immediately following the season two premiere of ‘Dark Side of the Ring’ on Tuesday night, VICE TV will debut ‘After Dark’ with host Chris Gethard. There will be special guests on the after-show discussing the documentary airing at 11 pm Eastern.
**The AAA Mega Championship will be defended on AEW Dynamite this week when Kenny Omega defends against Sammy Guevara. Omega was set to work AAA’s Rey de Reyes show this month and defend the title against Laredo Kid before the show was canceled. AEW has also added a match between Cody and Jimmy Havoc for this Wednesday’s show in Jacksonville, Florida.
**While the Dow Jones took a hit on Monday, the WWE stock didn’t reflect it and had a small increase closing at $37.72.
**Scott Fishman spoke with producer Evan Husney ahead of the Chris Benoit episode of ‘Dark Side of the Ring’ and noted the enormous role Chavo Guerrero Jr. played in assembling the subjects:
It was a little easier in terms of getting people on board because we had something we could point to. We had work people could go out and watch. The first time we didn’t have that. It was more of a struggle. For the Benoit episode specifically, none of it would have been possible, in terms of access and building trust, without the participation of Chavo Guerrero Jr. Chavo was somebody I met almost two years ago now, and we started talking about this project. Chavo was instrumental into introducing us to a lot of people in the episode — Vickie Guerrero, Sandra, David, Chris Jericho. He came on board the project as a producer, but he was instrumental in terms of giving us access to the inner circle of the story. That was the way we wanted to tell that story, and without him, I don’t know we could have done that.
**Mike Johnson at PWinsider.com noted that Mojo Rawley quietly been moved from Raw to SmackDown due to the involvement of Rob Gronkowski.
**ESPN is airing a replay of the first fight between Deontay Wilder and Tyson Fury tonight at 7 pm Eastern. They will air the rematch immediately after 8 pm.
**TSN in Canada noted that this Wednesday’s episode of AEW Dynamite will air on TSN3 and TSN4 as opposed to its usual airing on TSN2.
**The hosts of WWE’s The Bump will be doing daily programming on Instagram Live. They will be going on right after Raw, NXT, and SmackDown this week. On Tuesday at Noon Eastern, Kayla Braxton will interview Elias and will do another interview at the same time on Thursday.
**Ontario-based wrestler Tyson Dux (Tyson Moody) noted that he played Chris Benoit in the scenes shot for the ‘Dark Side of the Ring’. Dux added that ‘It was an honour to play Benoit. I idolized him growing up. He is the reason I wanted to be a pro wrestler. To be apart of this was surreal. If you haven’t yet check this out’. The documentary premieres Tuesday night at 9 pm Eastern on VICE TV and Crave in Canada.
**Fite TV is offering a one-week trial for new subscribers to AEW Plus.
**The Blue Meanie (Brian Heffron) is launching a podcast with co-host Josh Shernoff. The first show drops on Monday, March 30th at 6 am Eastern on all major podcast outlets and www.mindofmeanie.com.
**WWE Network is releasing a new episode of ‘Day Of’ this Thursday focusing on the Elimination Chamber event from last month.
**OTT has released an inspirational video vowing to return after the COVID-19 pandemic. The video was put together by editor Jeff Doyle:
**This week’s episode of ‘Being the Elite’ started off with Matt Jackson discussing how they are adjusting with the precautions necessary during this time while Kenny Omega hoards toilet paper. It continues with footage from the closed-off Daily’s Place for last week’s Dynamite.
**Dragon Gate releases its entire show from Sunday featuring English commentary from Larry Dallas:
*****
DOUBLE SHOT: FCW documentary, Austin-Bret, GCW “Social Distance” Match
John Pollock and Wai Ting present a special return of the DOUBLE SHOT featuring reviews of “A Future WWE: The FCW Story”, “Steve Austin’s Broken Skull Sessions: Bret Hart”, and GCW’s “Social Distance Rules” match between Joey Janela and Jimmy Lloyd.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2020/03/23/double-shot-fcw-documentary-austin-bret-interview-gcw-social-distance-match/
*****
POST PURORESU: The Latest from Japan
WH Park joins John Pollock with an update from Japan with how the country is handling the pandemic, the impact on the industry, Stardom news, Champion Carnival & more.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2020/03/22/post-puroresu-the-latest-from-japan/
*****
THUNDERSTRUCK: Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Eita (7/20/16) w/ Case Lowe
WH Park and Case Lowe from Voices of Wrestling’s Open the Voice Gate podcast talk for the first time to review Jushin Liger vs. Dragon Gate’s Eita in the Super J-Cup 2016.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2020/03/22/thunderstruck-22-jushin-liger-vs-eita-7-20-16-w-case-lowe/
*****
TRMPS: “The Other Guys” (2010) / “Pain & Gain” (2013) with Brian Mann
Nate Milton and Brian Mann (Complex, Keep It 2000) reunite to tackle two of Dwayne Johnson’s most important film roles with The Other Guys and Pain & Gain!
https://www.postwrestling.com/2020/03/21/trmps-15-the-other-guys-2010-pain-gain-2013-with-brian-mann/
*****
REWIND-A-SMACKDOWN: “Roman, I Want to Take You Back to a Tweet”
John Pollock and Wai Ting review Friday Night SmackDown once again from the WWE Performance Center featuring a contract signing between Universal champion Bill Goldberg and Roman Reigns.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2020/03/21/rewind-a-smackdown-3-20-20-roman-i-want-to-take-your-back-to-a-tweet/
*****
BRITISH WRESTLING EXPERIENCE
Martin, Benno & Jamesie talk about the implications of the COVID-19 crisis on Euro Wrestling. Plus reviews of WrestleTalk Showcase and wXw 16 Carat.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2020/03/20/british-wrestling-experience-covid-19-crisis-in-euro-wrestling-wxw-16-carat-gold-wrestletalk-showcase/
*****
Café Hangout: Your Calls, Matt Knicks, Ahmad Butt
Join Wai Ting for a special, self-isolated Café Hangout as he takes your calls right from his home. Matt Knicks talks Freelance’s Warehouse Wars fundraiser event, professional counselor Ahmad Butt discusses COVID-19’s mental health implications.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2020/03/19/cafe-hangout-your-calls-warehouse-wars-mental-health-covid-19/
*****
REWIND-A-DYNAMITE
John Pollock and Wai Ting review AEW Dynamite from an empty Daily’s Place in Jacksonville, Florida highlighted by the debut of Matt Hardy.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2020/03/19/rewind-a-dynamite-3-18-20-social-enclosure/
*****
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