Originally published at https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/08/04/pollocks-news-update-fallout-from-triplemania-xxvii/
Photo courtesy: Azteca Deportes
POST IT NOTES
**Off the top, I wanted to send my sincere thoughts to all the victims of the senseless gun violence over the past week. For those in Gilroy, California and this weekend in El Paso, Texas, and Dayton, Ohio, it is so horrific. I have a lot of personal feelings about this and this probably isn’t the place for it. This weekend felt like it needs to be a breaking point for even the most jaded of individuals that oppose any kind of reform. The victims involved have consumed my thoughts this weekend and I recognize that this paragraph means nothing, as do the countless well-wishes if they are not backed up by solutions and plans to curb this enormous trend of mass shootings. I understand people don’t come here for social commentary, but this is also an outlet for myself and this is a greater story than anything happening in pro wrestling today.
**Wai Ting and I have two G1 Climax shows out this weekend covering both cards from Osaka. On today’s show for Café members, we reviewed the B Block matches headlined by an excellent match between Tetsuya Naito and Shingo Takagi, as well as a review of the other tournament matches, the undercard tags, updated standings, and potential scenarios for the final stretch of the tournament. Saturday’s show has a complete rundown of the A Block matches from Osaka, with three incredible matches including Sanada’s victory over Kazuchika Okada with seconds remaining in the match.
**There are two new editions of Cruel Summer out this weekend. On today’s show, STRIGGA returns to chat with WH Park about the G-1 Climax final from 2010 between Hiroshi Tanahashi and Satoshi Kojima. On Saturday’s show, WH chats with Mike Murray about the 2009 final between Togi Makabe and Shinsuke Nakamura.
**Wai Ting and I will be back Monday night with Rewind-A-Raw to chat the final Raw before SummerSlam, all the latest news and we will be answering your questions at the end of the show. Our weekly draw for a POST Wrestling prize pack will take place on Rewind-A-SmackDown from now on with members of the POST Wrestling Café eligible to win each week.
WRESTLING NEWS
**AAA presented its major card of the year on Saturday with TripleMania XXVII from Mexico City and I felt it was an entertaining show. It didn’t feature any matches to revisit on your end-of-year lists but for five hours, I thought it was paced well and peaked with the final match between Blue Demon Jr. and Dr. Wagner Jr. The Hair vs. Mask match was a spectacle involving two 53-year old men brawling and relying on blood with the audience captivated and attached to the stipulations. The finish saw Blue Demon Jr. resort to an underhanded tactic breaking a rock over Wagner’s head and winning the match with Wagner’s head shaved bald. It was everything the audience wanted and if expectations were realistic, I can’t see anyone being disappointed with the final product.
**There were several big news stories from the show, including the professional wrestling debut of Cain Velasquez. He received a tremendous amount of publicity, including ESPN, who sent a team to cover the show and shadow Velasquez throughout the week. He performed well in the Trios match with Psycho Clown and Cody against Texano Jr., Black Taurus, and Killer Kross with Velasquez submitting Texano with the kimura. The highlight sequence making the rounds on Sunday saw Velasquez flip over the back of Taurus and deliver a Tijeras. Black Taurus was fantastic in the match and his stock is about to blow up on the U.S. scene with the performer coming off a huge Trios match at PWG last week and received a spot in BOLA next month. Velasquez has indicated he has two more commitments scheduled but hasn’t officially been announced for AAA’s cards in New York City or Los Angeles, which would seem the most logical to add Velasquez to.
**Chik Tormenta had a terrible fall during the TLC match for the Reina de Reinas championship. Near the end of the match, Tormenta was pushed off the turnbuckle and was supposed to land on a horizontal ladder that was set up from the apron to the guardrail. Unfortunately, she missed the ladder and landed hard on the floor and was taken out on a stretcher. On Sunday, she provided an update that she was okay and just sore from the fall. Moments after the fall, Tessa Blanchard knocked Taya Valkyrie down from the ladder to win the vacant title.
**L.A. Park made his latest return alongside El Hijo de L.A. Park and L.A. Park Jr. after the Copa TripleMania match to confront the winner, Pagano. The three attacked Pagano and L.A. Park issued a challenge to a Mask vs. Hair match.
**Kenny Omega challenged Rey Fenix to a future title match for the AAA Mega heavyweight title, which Fenix accepted. Omega added that ‘AEW is better than AAA’ to push the inter-promotional conflict. Fenix has held the title since last year’s TripleMania card.
**The English commentary team consisted of Matt Striker and Joe Dombrowski with Vampiro left off commentary and appeared in the Copa TripleMania match as a surprise where he attacked and eliminated Konnan. For his first time, I thought Dombrowski did a great job as he was well-prepared, up to speed on the characters and stories and slid in seamlessly. Hopefully, Dombrowski is a regular for the English team because it’s an area AAA needs to be serious on if they want to legitimately expand its audience.
**Trevor Murdoch posted the following statement on Facebook regarding the finals days that Harley Race was alive and how the WWE stepped up and covered the costs for Race to be transferred to St. Louis and was a great gesture on behalf of the company:
I just wanted to put this out there. Harley needed to be transferred from Atlanta to St. Louis. He needed to take a Med flight because he was in rough shape. Medicare wouldn’t help him. A call was made to WWE and 10 mins later it was paid in full. Vince McMahon never blinked an eye. He wanted to make sure Harley was taken care of.
Thank you Vince, you gave me 2 more days with Harley.
**The WWE Raw crew has a house show in Erie, Pennsylvania today with Monday’s episode taking place from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. They are promoting Brock Lesnar’s appearance on the go-home show for SummerSlam. The SmackDown and 205 Live tapings are Tuesday night in Detroit and then all the attention shifts to Toronto for SummerSlam week.
**Dwayne Johnson spoke with Ryan Seacrest and Maria Menounos in promoting the new ‘Hobbs and Shaw’ film that is out this weekend. Johnson stated he ‘quietly retired’ from professional wrestling and indicating he isn’t going to do another match, although we know how that goes. Johnson did a quick match at WrestleMania 32 in April 2016 with Erick Rowan that lasted several seconds, and his last real match was in April 2013 in the rematch with John Cena at WrestleMania 29. Given his filming schedule and the high risk with injuries, it doesn’t make a lot of sense for Johnson to be contemplating doing any matches at this stage unless it was a deep desire of his to work with someone.
It was revealed by Paul Levesque that the two were going to have a match at WrestleMania in 2016 but those plans changed with Johnson still making an appearance on the show and Levesque wrestling Roman Reigns that year. They shot a promo segment on an episode of SmackDown teasing a match at a future WrestleMania and then shot a major angle at WrestleMania in 2015 involving Ronda Rousey with the intent of paying it off the following year with Johnson vs. Levesque, which was the impetus to have Levesque defeat Sting that year, which many questioned at the time.
**The G1 Climax will take a break until Wednesday when the A Block tournament matches take place from Shizuoka. The block is essentially down to Kazuchika Okada, Kota Ibushi, and EVIL with the Okada vs. EVIL headlining Thursday’s show. It’s must-win for EVIL while Ibushi will be facing Zack Sabre Jr. on that show. If EVIL beats Okada and Lance Archer in his final two matches and Ibushi loses to Sabre and beats Okada, it would lead to a three-way tie with 12 points, which EVIL would win on a tiebreaker. I’m expecting a less dramatic conclusion with Okada rebounding from the Sanada loss to beat EVIL and it comes down to Okada vs. Ibushi next Saturday at Budokan Hall to win the block. I wouldn’t trivialize Okada’s losses and if he’s losing to Ibushi, I wouldn’t have EVIL beat him, as well.
**Sami Callihan became the #1 contender for the Impact Wrestling title by defeating Tessa Blanchard on Friday night at their Unbreakable special in Santa Ana, California. Callihan won with a piledriver after interference from Jake Crist.
**Impact Wrestling is holding a set of television tapings tonight from Port Hueneme, California at the Oceanview Pavilion.
**PWG has added Laredo Kid and Jeff Cobb to this year’s Battle of Los Angeles tournament. Cobb won last year’s BOLA over Shingo Takagi and Bandido in the final. There are three spots remaining for the September tournament.
**WWE has put together a tribute video for Harley Race, who passed away on Thursday at the age of 76:
MMA NEWS
**The UFC’s Fight Night card on Saturday afternoon drew 10,427 to the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey with a gate of $687,778. The card was highlighted by Colby Covington’s dominant performance against Robbie Lawler with Covington winning by unanimous decision with scores of 50-45, 50-45, and 50-44. There was a big exchange between Covington and UFC welterweight champion Kamaru Usman on the post-game show where Usman was working as an analyst. It’s going to come down to Covington or Jorge Masvidal as the new contender to fight Usman for the title with most assuming it will be Covington after Saturday’s fight.
**After the decision was read and Covington was being interviewed by Jon Anik, he cut a promo saying Lawler should have learned from his friend Matt Hughes and ‘you stay off the tracks when the train is coming through’. The line is among the most tasteless you are going to hear and thought it was such a low level to sink to for a cheap reaction. Matt Hughes responded to the line and took it in stride by stating, “Not sure if @colbycovmma should have use my accident as fuel for his post-fight trash talk, but that was one heck of a fight. Nice win for @americantopteam, and @ruthless_rl always puts on a good fight. Reminder though, this is the fighting world. People trash talk and you gotta have thick skin.”.
**The Fight of the Night bonus from Saturday’s card went to Antonina Shevchenko and Lucie Pudilova from the prelims. The Performance of the Night bonuses went to Nasrat Haqparast for his knockout of Joaquim Silva and to Matt Schnell for his submission of Jordan Espinosa. They each received $50,000.
**ONE Championship held a card from the Philippines on Friday morning featuring Demetrious Johnson and Eddie Alvarez in separate fights. Johnson defeated Tatsumitsu Wada by unanimous decision to advance to the finals of the Flyweight Grand Prix where he will fight Danny Kingad. Alvarez submitted Eduard Folayang in 2:16 in the semi-finals of the Lightweight Grand Prix. The card was headlined by Martin Nguyen defeating Koyomi Matsushima by TKO in the second round to retain the ONE featherweight title.
**Below is Colby Covington’s entrance from Saturday’s card in New Jersey where he came out to Kurt Angle’s theme song:
G1 CLIMAX REVIEWS
Night 1: https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/07/07/g1-climax-29-post-show-opening-night-okada-vs-tanahashi-free-preview/ (Tanahashi vs. Okada) – FREE SHOW
Night 2: https://www.patreon.com/posts/28351982 (White vs. Goto)
Night 3: https://www.patreon.com/posts/28374580 (Tanahashi vs. KENTA)
Night 4: https://www.patreon.com/posts/28403937 (Naito vs. Taichi)
Night 5: https://www.patreon.com/posts/28475091 (Ospreay vs. Ibushi)
Night 6: https://www.patreon.com/posts/28495477 (Moxley vs. Ishii)
Night 7: https://www.patreon.com/posts/28520429 (Okada vs. Ospreay)
Night 8: https://www.patreon.com/posts/free-g1-climax-28631911 (Naito vs. Ishii)
Night 9: https://www.patreon.com/posts/28693414 (Okada vs. KENTA)
Night 10: https://www.patreon.com/posts/28714838 (Moxley vs. Naito)
Night 11: https://www.patreon.com/posts/28781154 (Tanahashi vs. EVIL)
Night 12: https://www.patreon.com/posts/28837190 (Ishii vs. Goto)
Night 13: https://www.patreon.com/posts/28887506 (Okada vs. Sanada)
Night 14: https://www.patreon.com/posts/28909244 (Naito vs. Takagi)
*****
CRUEL SUMMER: Togi Makabe vs. Shinsuke Nakamura w/ Mike Murray
Longtime friends WH Park and Mike Murray (POST Wrestling’s ROH reviewer) get together to discuss the finals of NJPW’s 19th installment of their G1 Climax tournament: Togi Makabe vs. Shinsuke Nakamura from August 16, 2009.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/08/03/cruel-summer-19-togi-makabe-vs-shinsuke-nakamura-2009-w-mike-murray/
*****
CRUEL SUMMER: Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Satoshi Kojima w/ STRIGGA
WH Park and the returning STRIGGA of the Eastern Lariat podcast team up again to discuss the finals of NJPW’s 20th G1 Climax tournament: Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Satoshi Kojima from August 15, 2010.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/08/04/cruel-summer-20-hiroshi-tanahashi-vs-satoshi-kojima-2010-w-strigga/
*****
Cafe Hangout – Aug. 1
On this week’s Café Hangout, John Pollock and Wai Ting are joined by Voices of Wrestling’s Rich Kraetsch to for a catch-up on NJPW’s G1 Climax 29 and a discussion about SummerSlam weekend, AEW on TNT and more.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/08/02/g1-climax-29-catch-up-w-rich-kraetsch-cafe-hangout/
*****
upNXT 8/1/19: Boulevard of Broken Fingers
Braden Herrington and Davie Portman are back with another episode of upNXT! The BDE chat all about the July 31st edition of WWE NXT.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/08/01/upnxt-8-1-19-boulevard-of-broken-fingers/
*****
ASK-A-WAI (August 2019)
John Pollock and Wai Ting answer their patrons’ questions from the POST Wrestling Forum in the August 2019 edition of Ask-A-Wai.
https://www.patreon.com/posts/28787315
*****
RASD 7/30/19: Heavy Reign Fall, Flair vs. Stratus set
John Pollock and Wai Ting review Tuesday’s WWE SmackDown as Charlotte Flair challenges Trish Stratus to a match at SummerSlam, Roman Reigns is attacked by a mystery man.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/07/31/rasd-7-30-19-heavy-reign-fall-flair-vs-stratus-set/
*****
RAR 7/29/19: The Massacre of Seth Rollins, Becky talks TV romance
John Pollock and Wai Ting review WWE Raw featuring The Massacre of Seth Rollins by Brock Lesnar. Wai speaks with Becky Lynch translating her real-life romance to TV.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/07/30/rar-7-29-19-the-massacre-of-seth-rollins-becky-talks-tv-romance/
*****
Becky Lynch SummerSlam Conference Call (Full Audio)
WWE Raw Women’s Champion Becky Lynch speaks to members of the media in this conference call ahead of SummerSlam 2019.
https://www.patreon.com/posts/28745967
*****
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