Originally published at https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/08/13/pollocks-news-update-raw-up-10-with-second-highest-number-since-april/
Photo courtesy: WWE
POST IT NOTES
**Wai Ting and I will be back with Rewind-A-SmackDown tonight following the show in Toronto. Wai will be attending the show live and I’ll be watching the version on television for our review. We’ll probably have a quick review of 205 Live tonight on the show along with a lot of news from the day and your feedback. Plus, it’s our weekly POST Wrestling Prize Pack Giveaway where we will draw a name at random from the members of the POST Wrestling Café.
**Monday’s edition of Rewind-A-Raw is up on the site with Wai Ting and I doing a condensed review of Raw from Toronto. We did not have an ideal setup on Monday to watch the show at the bar we were hosting the screening for, so I appreciate those that understood our situation and our brief review of the show. Everything is back to normal with tonight’s show.
**On Wednesday, we will be releasing the POST Wrestling LIVE in Toronto Q&A show from the John Candy Box Theatre this past weekend. This will be available to all members of the Café in both audio and video formats.
**Wednesday on the site, we will have a Q&A with C*4 Wrestling’s Mark Pollesel about their annual Fighting Back card that takes place this Thursday in Ottawa, Ontario.
WRESTLING NEWS
**Monday’s episode of Raw coming out of SummerSlam was a big hit and led to one of their highest numbers since WrestleMania. The show averaged 2,729,000 viewers on the USA Network, up more than 10% from last week. If you exclude the Raw Reunion, it was their highest number since the night after WrestleMania in April. The show started strong with 2,772,000 viewers in the first hour and increased to 2,820,000 in the second hour, which was their most-watched hour of Raw since the night after ‘Mania (excluding the Raw Reunion). The show fell 8% in the last hour but from start-to-finish was only a 6.5% drop.
**Raw served as a lead-in to the debut of ‘Straight Up Steve Austin’ on the USA Network. The premiere averaged 1,221,000 viewers, which I felt was a good number. To compare to Miz & Mrs that directly follows SmackDown, only four episodes in the history of that series have topped Austin’s debut number and they were among the first set of episodes from last summer.
**The WWE finishes up in Toronto tonight with the SmackDown and 205 Live tapings at the Scotiabank Arena. They have announced Roman Reigns vs. Buddy Murphy, and Charlotte Flair vs. Ember Moon for SmackDown as well as a rematch between Drew Gulak and Oney Lorcan on 205 Live.
**New Japan Pro Wrestling released the full card for Royal Quest on August 31st at the Copper Box Arena in London, England. The show is not airing live on New Japan World but is going to be broadcast live on Fite TV that day. POST Wrestling has learned that the English commentary will feature Kevin Kelly and Gino Gambino calling the event. It is a loaded show with four title matches as Kazuchika Okada defends the IWGP title against Minoru Suzuki, Zack Sabre Jr. defends the British heavyweight title against Hiroshi Tanahashi, Tomohiro Ishii defends the NEVER Openweight title against KENTA, and the Guerrillas of Destiny will defend the IWGP tag titles against the winners of the ongoing ‘Road to Royal Quest’ tournament that Rev Pro is holding.
**All Elite Wrestling has announced that Jon Moxley will face Shawn Spears on Wednesday, October 9th on the second week on TNT. The same show will include The Young Bucks vs. Private Party, which was set up over the weekend after their match for House of Glory. The October 9th show will take place from the Agganis Arena in Boston, Massachusetts.
**The King of the Ring tournament returns next Monday and will be a 16-man tournament beginning on Raw from St. Paul, Minnesota. The Wrestling Observer site is reporting that the finals will take place at Clash of Champions on September 15th in Charlotte, North Carolina. They are listing the following for the tournament: The Miz, Ricochet, Cedric Alexander, Samoa Joe, Drew McIntyre, Baron Corbin, Sami Zayn, Cesaro, Kevin Owens, Ali, Apollo Crews, Chad Gable, Elias, Andrade, Buddy Murphy, and Shelton Benjamin.
On paper, the tournament could produce a lot of great matches, if given time, over the next few weeks. My hope is that it’s designed to legitimately elevate the winner rather than put the ‘King’ gimmick on someone for laughs like Sheamus in 2010.
**A match between AJ Styles and Braun Strowman for the United States title has been announced for next Monday’s Raw in St. Paul, Minnesota.
**Impact Wrestling will be going to Mexico City this week for television tapings at Fronton Mexico on Thursday and Friday. For the first night, they have announced that Rob Van Dam will face Madman Fulton and Tenille Dashwood will make her promotional debut against Kiera Hogan. They have also announced that Dr. Wagner Jr. will be appearing at Friday’s taping.
**After falling to the $63 range, the WWE stock was up 5% Tuesday and closed at $66.70.
*****
RAR 8/12/19: The Sasha Banks Arena
John Pollock & Wai Ting provide a condensed review of Raw from Toronto featuring the return of Sasha Banks, a new 24/7 champion, Steve Austin on Skype & more.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/08/13/rar-8-12-19-the-sasha-banks-arena/
*****
G1 CLIMAX 29 FINAL POST SHOW
After 19 shows, John Pollock & Wai Ting review NJPW’s G1 Climax 29 Final featuring Kota Ibushi vs. Jay White. Plus, a new Bullet Club member is revealed and a wrestler makes a shocking return.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/08/12/g1-climax-29-final-post-show/
*****
WWE SUMMERSLAM 2019 POST SHOW
John Pollock & Wai Ting review WWE SummerSlam headlined by Brock Lesnar vs. Seth Rollins, the debut of The Fiend and the singles match return of Trish Stratus.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/08/12/wwe-summerslam-2019-post-show/
*****
CRUEL SUMMER #22: Kazuchika Okada vs. Karl Anderson (2012)
WH Park once again welcomes Wai Ting to Cruel Summer to discuss the finals of NJPW’s 22nd annual G1 Climax tournament: Kazuchika Okada vs. Karl Anderson from August 12, 2012.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/08/11/cruel-summer-22-kazuchika-okada-vs-karl-anderson-2012-w-wai-ting/
*****
NXT TAKEOVER: TORONTO II POST SHOW
Braden Herrington and Davie Portman are LIVE in Toronto to review NXT TakeOver: Toronto II featuring Johnny Gargano vs. Adam Cole for the NXT title in a 2 Out of 3 Falls Match, Io Shirai vs Candice LeRae, Undisputed Era vs Street Profits, and more!
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/08/11/nxt_takeover_toronto_ii_post_show/
*****
CRUEL SUMMER #21: Tetsuya Naito vs. Shinsuke Nakamura (2011)
WH Park welcomes Davie Portman (co-host of POST Wrestling’s NXT review show, upNXT) to discuss the finals of NJPW’s 21st G1 Climax tournament: Tetsuya Naito vs. Shinsuke Nakamura from August 14, 2011.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/08/10/cruel-summer-21-tetsuya-naito-vs-shinsuke-nakamura-2011-w-davie-portman/
*****
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