POLLOCK'S NEWS UPDATE: News and notes from WrestleMania Week

Originally published at https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/04/06/pollocks-news-update-news-and-notes-from-wrestlemania-week/

POST IT NOTES

**First off, I hope everyone is enjoying the WrestleMania Road Diaries that Wai Ting and I have been doing. I apologize for the lack of news updates as I knew it would be difficult with so much going on and running around the city. One thing that has been an eyeopener for me this weekend is how this site has grown and that it goes well beyond what it did one year ago. It’s given Wai and I a lot to think about in terms of adding resources.

**If you are a member of the POST Wrestling Café, we have the WrestleMania Road Diary Day 1 and Day 2 podcasts up. In addition to our road stories and news updates, we have reviews of Bloodsport, MLW’s television taping on Thursday, Wrestlecon’s U.S. vs. The World, Rev Pro, and NXT TakeOver. We will have another show up late tonight with a full review of the ROH and NJPW G1 Supercard. Wai Ting is also doing lens updates for Patrons involving something that makes me looks like a dog.

**Braden Herrington and Davie Portman attended NXT TakeOver: New York and have a POST Show with a big breakdown of the event. They were also joined by Scrump and Jesse from the 6 for their live thoughts on one of the major cards of the weekend.

**A reminder that our POST Wrestling LIVE in New York show is Sunday at Noon at the Broadway Comedy Club at 318 W. 53rd Street, which is a five-minute walk from the Hilton Midtown where Wrestlecon is. Your ticket includes a meet-and-greet at 11 am or 1:30 pm with the Q&A going from Noon-1:30. I’ve run into so many listeners this week and cannot thank you enough for the support and listening to us. Please don’t hesitate to pop by and say hello, even if I have my headphones on.

WRESTLEMANIA WEEK SCHEDULE TODAY

4 pm – International Wrestling Syndicate “Unstoppable”
Jersey City at White Eagle Hall
Streaming: FITE.tv
*Matt Tremont vs. Nick Gage vs. Green Phantom
*Rory Gulak vs. Benjamin Tull
*Kevin Blanchard vs. Ophidian
*Sexxxy Eddy vs. Arik Cannon
*Addy Starr vs. Solo Darling vs. Veda Scott for the IWS Women’s Hardcore title
*Alexander Dean vs J-Money
*Mercedes Brothers vs. Jordano & Fernando vs. Jepson & Runyan vs. Maredes & Mainz
*Maxim Lemire vs. Sheldon Jean vs. Sanchez vs. Black Dynamite

6–10 pm – WWE Axxess
Brooklyn, New York at Brooklyn Pier 12
*Asuka – 6 pm (VIP)
*Tommaso Ciampa and Shayna Baszler – 8 pm (VIP)
*Announced: Sami Zayn, Finn Balor, Adam Cole, Sheamus, Cesaro, Toni Storm, Lio Rush, Velveteen Dream, Bianca Belair, Nikki Cross, Luke Harper
*NXT UK tapings

6:30 pm – Uncanny Attractions “Drags & Dropkicks”
Brooklyn, New York at the House of Yes (2 Wyckoff Avenue)
Streaming: FITE.tv
*Casanova vs. MV Young

7:30 pm – ROH/NJPW G1 Supershow
Madison Square Garden
Streaming: Honor Club, New Japan World, FITE.tv
*Jay White vs. Kazuchika Okada for the IWGP heavyweight title
*Jay Lethal vs. Marty Scurll vs. Matt Taven in a Ladder match for the ROH title
*Tetsuya Naito vs. Kota Ibushi for the Intercontinental title
*Will Ospreay vs. Jeff Cobb for the NEVER Openweight and ROH Television titles
*Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi for the British heavyweight title
*Brody King and PCO vs. The Guerrillas of Destiny vs. The Briscoes vs. EVIL & Sanada for the ROH and IWGP tag titles
*Taiji Ishimori vs. Dragon Lee vs. Bandido for the IWGP junior heavyweight title
*Mayu Iwatani vs. Kelly Klein for the Women of Honor title
*Dalton Castle vs. Rush
*Bully Ray vs. Juice Robinson New York City Street Fight
*Honor Rumble feat. Jushin Thunder Liger, Kenny King, PJ Black, Beer City Bruiser, Brian Milonas, Cheeseburger, Rhett Titus, Coast 2 Coast, Tracy Williams

8 pm – WWE Hall of Fame
Brooklyn, New York at Barclays Center
Streaming: WWE Network
*Announced: DX (Shawn Michaels, Triple H, Billy Gunn, Road Dogg, X-Pac, Chyna), Honky Tonk Man, Torrie Wilson, Harlem Heat, Warrior Award presented to Sue Aitchison, The Hart Foundation

8 pm – WrestlePro vs. CZW
Rahway, New Jersey at Rahway Recreation Center
Streaming: FITE.tv
*Dan Maff vs. Mance Warner
*Craig Steele vs. Matt Tremont
*Team Espana vs. The Rep
*Fallah Bahh vs. Anthony Greene
*Anthony Bowens vs. DJ Hyde
*Matt Macintosh vs. Johnny Silver
*Kris Stratlander vs. Leyla Hirsch

11:59 pm – Joey Janela’s Spring Break III Part 2
Jersey City and White Eagle Hall
Streaming: FITE.tv
*Clusterfuck Battle Royal: Essa Rios, Mantaur, Parrow, Nate Webb, Brendan from Wheatus
*The Rock ‘N’ Roll Express vs. LAX
*L.A. Park vs. Masato Tanaka
*Slim J vs. Australian Suicide vs. Shane Mercer vs. Jake Atlas vs. A-Kid in a Scramble match

Midnight – DZ & Friends with Dolph Ziggler
Caroline’s on Broadway

WRESTLING NEWS

**The big show tonight is the Ring of Honor and New Japan Pro Wrestling G1 Supercard from Madison Square Garden. The show has gone through a roller coaster with the immediate sellout, the realization that the Elite members would not be involved, and then full card announcement. By the end, it stands to be among the best shows of the weekend and has the most depth of any lineup. This will be the first non-McMahon family card at the arena since 1960 with AAA adding their name to that list with a tentative show scheduled for September. For New Japan, this is the arena of mythical proportions going so far to name tournaments in honor of the famous arena. For many on the show, they have never worked the arena, and this is bigger for them than the fans watching. I know when the UFC ran MSG for the first time in 2016 that it was an enormous deal for fighters that grew up as fans of boxing and pro wrestling to be competing in the venue. Here is the full card:
*Jay White vs. Kazuchika Okada for the IWGP heavyweight title
*Jay Lethal vs. Marty Scurll vs. Matt Taven in a Ladder match for the ROH title
*Tetsuya Naito vs. Kota Ibushi for the Intercontinental title
*Will Ospreay vs. Jeff Cobb for the NEVER Openweight and ROH Television titles
*Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi for the British heavyweight title
*Brody King and PCO vs. The Guerrillas of Destiny vs. The Briscoes vs. EVIL & Sanada for the ROH and IWGP tag titles
*Taiji Ishimori vs. Dragon Lee vs. Bandido for the IWGP junior heavyweight title
*Mayu Iwatani vs. Kelly Klein for the Women of Honor title
*Dalton Castle vs. Rush
*Bully Ray vs. Juice Robinson New York City Street Fight
*Honor Rumble feat. Jushin Thunder Liger, Kenny King, PJ Black, Beer City Bruiser, Brian Milonas, Cheeseburger, Rhett Titus, Coast 2 Coast, Tracy Williams

**The WWE’s Hall of Fame ceremony takes place at 7 pm Eastern tonight on the WWE Network hosted by Renee Young and Corey Graves. There will also be a red-carpet ceremony at 6 pm hosted by Maria Menounos. The inductees will feature DX (Triple H, Shawn Michaels, Billy Gunn, X-Pac, and Chyna), Bret Hart and Jim Neidhart, Torrie Wilson, Harlem Heat, Honky Tonk Man (to be inducted by Jimmy Hart), Brutus Beefcake (to be inducted by Hulk Hogan), and Sue Aitchison will receive the Warrior Award.

**Dave Meltzer reported on the Wrestling Observer website that Rey Mysterio will compete at WrestleMania against Samoa Joe. Mysterio suffered an ankle injury during his match with Baron Corbin this past Monday and was pulled from his match with Andrade on SmackDown.

**Despite a bad landing near the end of the NXT tag title match at TakeOver, Ricochet was said to be fine afterward.

**Mike Johnson at PWinsider.com was the first to report the list of this year’s Legacy Wing inductees into the WWE Hall of Fame with the following names: Bruiser Brody, Wahoo McDaniel, Jim Barnett, Hisashi Shinma, Luna Vachon, Special Delivery Jones, Buddy Rose, Professor Toru Tanaka, and Joseph Cohen who launched the MSG Network.

**Paul Levesque stated during the post-show media press conference that Friday’s TakeOver card was the most-attended and highest-grossing event in the brand’s history.

**The WWE is scheduled to start running vignettes for Bray Wyatt imminently. I was told there are big changes to the character that have been in the works for a while.

**Sami Zayn is also scheduled to return imminently. I wasn’t told specifically or if it’s even been decided on, but I’d be shocked if he wasn’t back on television by the end of the Montreal tapings next week.

**The WWE has timed out WrestleMania and they do have a target time for the show to end, however, it was conveyed to me that there is no way that all the times will be followed and suffice to say, it’s going to be a really late night on Sunday.

**I got to walk around the Wrestlecon convention on Saturday and there are countless names in attendance. Throughout the day, the most consistently long lines on the 2nd floor were those for Rob Van Dam and Enzo.

**New Japan Pro Wrestling was very happy with Colt Cabana’s performance on the recent tour and he appears to have an open invite to do commentary on the English broadcast side. Cabana got over as the sentimental underdog in the New Japan Cup and became one of the stories of the tournament.

**KUSHIDA made his first on-screen appearance for the WWE at Friday’s TakeOver event at the Barclays Center. Earlier in the day, a video was put up of KUSHIDA signing. NXT is a much better starting point for him than 205 Live or one of the main roster brands.

**There was a funny story on Saturday with Kevin Owens getting from the wrestler’s hotel in Brooklyn to his signing at Axxess. The driver that was assigned to Owens accidentally took him to MetLife Stadium causing Owens to be late.

**The WWE has hired Josiah Williams, who has created numerous remixes of themes under the Wrestle & Flow banner. He will be based out of the Performance Centre and working with the WWEPC’s Instagram content this weekend. WWE’s announcement stated he would be an on-air digital talent for the company.

**ESPN’s Ariel Helwani did a sit-down interview with Becky Lynch:

**Photographer Ed Battes from SettaBphoto.com sent us some great shots from Josh Barnett’s Bloodsport exclusively for POST readers:






*****
NXT TakeOver: New York POST Show

Braden Herrington and Davie Portman are LIVE in Brooklyn to review NXT TakeOver: New York. They are joined by friends of the show Scrump & Jesse from The 6 to give their live perspectives.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/04/06/nxt-takeover-new-york-post-show/
*****
WrestleMania Road Diary Day 2

John Pollock and Wai Ting check in from New York with Day 2 of their WrestleMania Road Diaries. We review our trips to NXT TakeOver: New York (Johnny Gargano vs. Adam Cole), RevPro: Live In NY (Hiroshi Tanahashi & Will Ospreay vs. Suzuki-Gun), and Wrestlecon: US vs The World (Brian Cage vs. Masato Tanaka)
https://www.patreon.com/posts/25912530
*****
WrestleMania Road Diary Day 1

John Pollock and Wai Ting check in from New York with Day 1 of their WrestleMania Road Diary. The two document their trip from Toronto and a brush with their mortality. Plus, reviews of Josh Barnett’s Bloodsport and MLW’s Rise of the Renegades.
https://www.patreon.com/posts/25889122
*****
WrestleMania Week Guide & Preview

John Pollock and Wai Ting deliver a special edition of the Hangout discussing all the highlights of WrestleMania Week 2019. We preview WrestleMania, NXT TakeOver, ROH/NJPW G1 Supercard, and every other show you might want to check out during the busiest weekend of the wrestling calendar.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/04/04/wrestlemania-week-guide-preview-cafe-hangout-4-4-19/
*****
THE DOUBLE SHOT: HBO’s Last Week Tonight, BTE, Allie killed on Impact

John Pollock and Wai Ting have a big conversation on HBO’s Last Week Tonight segment on the WWE, plus Being the Elite and Allie’s character being killed off on Impact.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/04/03/double-shot-hbos-last-week-tonight-bte-allie-killed-on-impact/
*****
RASD 4/2/19: Bryan-Kofi signing, Orton’s failed tests, WM grows
On the final episode before WrestleMania, Daniel Bryan and Kofi Kingston engaged in the annual WrestleMania contract signing, Becky Lynch left jail under her own recognizance and was driven to Baltimore & more.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/04/03/rasd-4-2-19-bryan-kofi-signing-ortons-failed-tests-wm-grows/
*****
RAR 4/1/19: Arrested-Mania Development, Go-Home Raw, Last Week Tonight

On the final Raw before WrestleMania, Ronda Rousey teamed with Charlotte Flair and Becky Lynch against The Riott Squad before the main event participants were arrested.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/04/02/rar-4-1-19-arrested-mania-development-go-home-raw-last-week-tonight/
*****

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Not sure if it’s confirmed or not, but I just read that Torrie Wilson’s father, Al Wilson has passed away this week. Seems like she’s still doing the HOF ceremony tonight.