Originally published at https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/09/09/pollocks-news-update-raw-at-msg-aew-to-nashville-rev-pro-story/
POST IT NOTES
**Wai Ting and I are back tonight chatting Raw from Madison Square Garden and tons of news from over the weekend. We will also take your questions and feedback at the end of the show.
**WH Park returned on Sunday night for the September edition of POST Puroresu to share his top matches and performers from the G1 Climax, we also discussed Royal Quest and the streaming issues, Super J-Cup, the cards for the Destruction & King of Pro Wrestling cards, Stardom’s 5 Star Grand Prix, NOAH’s N-1 Victory tournament, All Japan’s Royal Road lineup and lots more.
**Phil Chertok and I have our UFC 242 POST Show up from Saturday night running through the pay-per-view from Abu Dhabi where Khabib Nurmagomedov submitted Dustin Poirier to retain the UFC lightweight title.
POST WRESTLING SCHEDULE
*Tonight: Rewind-A-Raw with John Pollock & Wai Ting
*Tuesday: Rewind-A-SmackDown
*Wednesday: The Double Shot – Episodes 7 & 8 of GLOW Season 3 (Patreon)
*Thursday: Café Hangout with guest Jimmy Korderas (3 pm Eastern for Double Double+ Café members)
*Thursday: upNXT with Braden Herrington & Davie Portman
*Friday: Rewind-A-Wai #44 – WWE Royal Rumble 2017 (Patreon)
*Sunday: WWE Clash of Champions POST Show (LIVE for Double Double+ Café members)
WRESTLING NEWS
**WWE has a big week with back-to-back nights at Madison Square Garden with Raw and SmackDown taking place from the venue. Tonight’s show goes up against the return of Monday Night Football, which has a doubleheader with Houston vs. New Orleans and Denver vs. Oakland going against Raw. WWE had advertised a lot in advance with numerous matches promoted along with the return of Steve Austin to moderate the contract signing. Below are the advertised matches and segments for tonight:
*Becky Lynch & Charlotte Flair vs. Sasha Banks & Bayley
*Rey Mysterio vs. Gran Metalik
*Samoa Joe vs. Baron Corbin vs. Ricochet in the King of the Ring semi-finals
*AJ Styles vs. Cedric Alexander in a non-title match
**Regarding the ads that have been running on Fox promoting SmackDown’s arrival, I was told by someone within the company that the talent featured in those ads doesn’t guarantee they will be on SmackDown after next month’s draft.
**All Elite Wrestling has revealed that the November 13th episode will take place from the Nashville Municipal Auditorium in Tennessee with tickets going on sale this Friday. The ad features Chris Jericho, Jon Moxley, Cody, and Nyla Rose.
**The big story from this past weekend focused on Revolution Pro and the post-match incident involving Sha Samuels and Josh Bodom with referee Aaren Wilde.
Wilde was the referee for the tag match where Aussie Open defeated Samuels & Bodom at Summer Sizzler at York Hall on August 30th. The finish was apparently messed up by Wilde, who was then attacked by Samuels and Bodom after the match with most assuming it was just a part of the match. Wilde went online this past weekend stating it was an unplanned attack and he has suffered significant injuries that will prevent him from officiating football matches, which is his regular job citing a shoulder and neck issue from the attack.
Samuels took Wilde and scoop slammed him, which Wilde said was not part of the show and said the rest was a “blur”, footage has emerged from a fan in the crowd of Josh Bodom attacking Wilde repeatedly on the floor ringside.
Samuels addressed the situation on Sunday stating a mistake occurred in the match and he was thinking on his feet and protected Wilde when executing the scoop slam. He acknowledged that you should never assume it’s okay to get physical with a non-wrestling member of the roster and apologized for his actions. He added that he has reached out to Wilde and wished he had been contacted privately about the matter.
Revolution Pro issued their own statement adding that they were not contacted by Wilde throughout the week. They believe Samuels made a “horrible error of judgment” but believe he tried to protect Wilde with the slam. Samuels will be subject to internal discipline and there will be a zero-tolerance policy if it occurs again.
Rev Pro said that Bodom’s recollection of what happened didn’t match with what they saw on video and have cut ties with the wrestler. Therefore, Bodom and Samuels have been stripped of the British tag titles.
The promotion is also instituting an internal incident report policy for any future infractions to be reported.
**WWE has released travel information for the Royal Rumble weekend next January that takes place from Houston, Texas. The most interesting note is that they are not advertising a TakeOver event for the weekend with a Worlds Collide event scheduled for the Toyota Center on Saturday, January 25th on the eve of the Royal Rumble at Minute Maid Park. There are other events listed including a VIP tour of the Space Center, a Superstar Experience at the Toyota Center, Breakfast with WWE talent, a Royal Rumble meet-and-greet, and reception with WWE talent. We did contact WWE for clarification and to ask if this is a permanent change for the “Big Four” weekends in 2020.
**NXT has added a Street Fight between Matt Riddle and Killian Dane to the September 18th live episode from Full Sail University when they premiere on the USA Network. For the first two weeks on the USA Network, the 8-9 pm hour airs on USA and the second hour will run on the WWE Network. The full two-hour version on USA begins on October 2nd following the completion of the current season of “Suits”.
**Mike Johnson at PWinsider reported on Monday that Drew McIntyre recently underwent minor surgery to address a lingering issue the performer had been dealing with. The report states that McIntyre is awaiting clearance and should be back quickly but is not backstage at Raw in New York.
**The WWE stock dropped over 4% on Monday and closed at $70.39.
**New Japan’s “Road to Destruction” show on Tuesday takes place from Shizuoka at 5:30 am Eastern headlined by Kazuchika Okada, Hirooki Goto & Rocky Romero vs. Shingo Takagi, Sanada & EVIL. The Young Lion Cup continues with Karl Fredericks vs. Yuya Uemura and Shota Umino vs. Michael Richards. The tour continues Wednesday in Nagoya, Thursday in Osaka, Saturday in Yamaguchi before the Destruction shows in Beppu and Kagoshima.
**A women’s tag title match with Alexa Bliss & Nikki Cross vs. Mandy Rose & Sonya Deville has been added to Clash of Champions this Sunday following the non-title match last week on SmackDown.
**Coming off this weekend’s shows, it’s now official that Matt Taven will defend the ROH title against Rush at the Death Before Dishonor pay-per-view on Friday, September 27th in Las Vegas, Nevada. They have also announced The Briscoes will defend the tag titles against Bandido and Mark Haskins on that show.
**New Japan World is in the process of adding subtitles for several documentaries, including one on this past summer’s G1 Climax.
**This weekend is a packed one with major shows from WWE, AAA & Impact Wrestling in New York, UFC in Vancouver with Donald Cerrone vs. Justin Gaethje, Josh Barnett’s Bloodsport II, and New Japan is running Destruction cards on Sunday in Beppu and next Monday in Kagoshima. It will be interesting to see the level of attention the AAA and Impact card receives this week as it’s been a poorly handled promotion, so far. This show was announced back in April and the full card has yet to be released with the top matches just released over the past week. Cain Velasquez is wrestling on the show and he should attract a lot of attention in the lead up this week. It’s in a tough spot on Sunday night running against a WWE pay-per-view and it the live attendance will show how much Lucha Libre and Cain Velasquez mean to the New York market.
**Marc Raimondi of ESPN spoke to Becky Lynch, Charlotte Flair, Sasha Banks, and Bayley about their rise as the “Four Horsewomen” from NXT into the positions they occupy on the main roster ahead of tonight’s tag match on Raw.
**The NWA’s television tapings at GPB Studios in Atlanta will be configured to hold 150 people per taping.
**A lot of people are raving about the Kento Miyahara vs. Naoya Nomura Triple Crown match from All Japan’s show last Tuesday at Korakuen Hall. Miyahara has had an incredible year of matches and it comes down to the stage he’s performing on that doesn’t receive as much attention. While he wouldn’t be my choice for Wrestler of the Year, he’s easily in my top two or three. To me, these two are the future of All Japan with Miyahara already a superstar at 30 while Nomura is only 25 and seems poised to be a breakout main event level star in the company.
**Progress Wrestling has posted their Chapter 76 “Hello Wembley” card from September 2018. The 4+ hour show is headlined by WALTER vs. Tyler Bate for the Progress title, as well as Eddie Dennis vs. Mark Andrews, Ilja Dragunov vs. Pete Dunne, Jimmy Havoc vs. Paul Robinson in a No DQ match, Mark Haskins vs. Matt Riddle, and more.
**A new “Table for 3” featuring Torrie Wilson, Mandy Rose, and Carmella will air after Raw tonight on the WWE Network.
**A new episode of WWE “Chronicle” featuring Sasha Banks will premiere this Saturday at 8 pm Eastern on the WWE Network.
MMA NEWS
**Cain Velasquez was on Ariel Helwani’s MMA Show on ESPN Monday to promote this Sunday’s card The Hulu Theatre that AAA and Impact Wrestling is holding. He said he has three fights left on his current UFC deal and said his latest contract allowed him to work for AAA. Velasquez confirmed he tried a huracanrana the day before TripleMania and showed it off for Konnan, who told him to do it in the Trios match the following day at Arena Ciudad.
Velasquez said he is not retiring from MMA but also wants to continue with pro wrestling. The only matches he has scheduled are for this Sunday and the October 13th card at The Forum in Inglewood, California.
**The UFC has announced that former heavyweight champion Junior dos Santos will fight Alexander Volkov when the promotion returns to Moscow, Russia on Saturday, November 9th. Dos Santos has won three of his last four, although is coming off a loss to Francis Ngannou this past June. The fight with Volkov will be Dos Santos’ third of 2019. Volkov, a former Bellator, and M-1 Global champion saw a six-fight win streak come to an end in his last fight when he was knocked out by Derrick Lewis at UFC 229 in October 2018. Volkov was winning the fight when he was caught and stopped with 11 seconds remaining in their three-round fight and propelled Lewis to earn a heavyweight title fight the following month with then-champion Daniel Cormier.
**The UFC’s heavyweight division is in limbo as a lot depends on the plans of former champion Daniel Cormier. If the former champion opts to fight again, he would appear to be the frontrunner for the third fight with champion Stipe Miocic. Behind Cormier is Francis Ngannou, who was defeated by Miocic in January 2018 but has rattled off wins over Curtis Blaydes, Cain Velasquez, and Junior dos Santos since that loss.
After this past weekend, Curtis Blaydes is also in that top mix having gone unbeaten in eight of his last nine fights but does have a loss to Ngannou. I felt Blaydes and dos Santos would be a great fight to make but with Dos Santos paired with Volkov, I don’t see an easy choice for his next opponent. There is no way Cormier is coming back to fight Blaydes and Ngannou beat Blaydes in 45 seconds and has no incentive to run that back. If Derrick Lewis defeated Blagoy Ivanov on November 2nd, that could be a potential fight for Blaydes, who could be one fight away from earning a title fight.
*****
POST Puroresu: September 2019 Edition
John Pollock & WH Park chat their final thoughts on the G1, the Royal Quest streaming issues, Destruction & KOPW cards, Stardom 5 Star Grand Prix, N-1 Victory & lots more.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/09/09/post-puroresu-final-g1-notes-royal-quest-destruction-kopw-cards/
*****
UFC 242 POST SHOW: Khabib Nurmagomedov vs. Dustin Poirier
John Pollock & Phil Chertok review the UFC 242 pay-per-view featuring Khabib Nurmagomedov vs. Dustin Poirier for the UFC lightweight title & lots more.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/09/07/ufc-242-post-show-khabib-nurmagomedov-vs-dustin-poirier/
*****
ASK-A-WAI: Ask Us Anything! (September 2019)
John Pollock and Wai Ting answer their patrons’ questions from the POST Wrestling Forum in the September 2019 edition of Ask-A-Wai.
https://www.patreon.com/posts/29744380
*****
Café Hangout: Ric Flair vs. WWE, Pat McAfee talks to John Pollock
John Pollock and Wai Ting discuss Ric Flair threatening legal action with WWE over “The Man”, Raw and SmackDown receive new lead writers. Pat McAfee speaks to John Pollock about working with WWE and the launch of The Pat McAfee Show.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/09/05/ric-flair-vs-wwe-pat-mcafee-talks-to-john-pollock-cafe-hangout/
*****
upNXT 9/5/19: Big Comfy Couch
Braden Herrington & Davie Portman review WWE NXT featuring Adam Cole defending the NXT championship against Jordan Myles, Velveteen Dream vs. Kona Reeves, and Roderick Strong committing arson.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/09/05/upnxt-9-5-19-big-comfy-couch/
*****
DOUBLE SHOT: GLOW S3 Ep. 5 & 6, CM Punk int, Starrcast III, Adrian Street doc
On this week’s DOUBLE SHOT reviews: Episodes 5 & 6 of GLOW Season 3, Starrcast III panels including CM Punk’s interview with Mike Johnson, Wrestling with Stereotypes 2, and WWE Network’s Adrian Street documentary.
https://www.patreon.com/posts/29723499
*****
RASD 9/3/19: The Ramdeen Laugh, Jericho loses AEW belt, KENTA
John Pollock and Wai Ting review Tuesday’s WWE SmackDown as Daniel Bryan demands an apology from Roman Reigns (again). Chris Jericho’s AEW title is either lost or stolen. We discuss NJPW’s handling of concussions with regards to KENTA vs. Tomohiro Ishii.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/09/04/rasd-9-3-19-the-ramdeen-laugh-jericho-loses-aew-belt-kenta/
*****
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