Originally published at https://www.postwrestling.com/2018/09/28/pollocks-news-update-ring-of-honor-death-before-dishonor-preview/
POST IT NOTES
**The latest edition of Rewind-A-Wai is available for members of the POST Wrestling Café. On Episode #20, we review the WWF In Your House “International Incident” card from Vancouver in July 1996. This show was headlined by Shawn Michaels, Ahmed Johnson & Sid taking on Vader, Owen Hart & British Bulldog with Sid taking the spot of Ultimate Warrior. We review the entire card, the strong attendance for the show, Jake Roberts missing the show, possible scenarios if Warrior had stuck around, and we take your feedback (which features a tremendous story involving Owen Hart). This was chosen by Espresso Executive Producer Zubin Sundar, who joined us on the show to chat about attending this card and his memories as he re-watched the show. Rewind-A-Wai is out every other Friday and our next show drops Friday, October 12th.
**We also have a new POST Production video posted for Double Double, Iced Capp & Espresso members of the POST Wrestling Café. In this video, we do our own “unboxing” of some sample POST Wrestling merchandise we are working on and you get a chance to see those items for the first time. We also chatted about future plans, a recent article on “friend of the show” Damian Abraham, and more.
**I’d like to wish a Happy Birthday to POST Wrestling’s WH Park.
**On Saturday, Chris Charlton will have a new edition of the EGGSHELLS Podcast Companion out chatting 2003 at the Tokyo Dome with Bleacher Report’s Jonathan Snowden.
**On Sunday, we will have an NJPW Fighting Spirit Unleashed POST Show as I will be joined by Mike Murray, who was on for the last Long Beach card in July. The two of us will run through the full card and discuss the Ring of Honor pay-per-view.
**What Culture Pro Wrestling has turned their written piece on the top wrestling podcasts into a video version and we thank them for the kind words about POST Wrestling:
WRESTLING NEWS
**Ring of Honor is presenting Death Before Dishonor tonight at 9 pm Eastern on pay-per-view from the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas, which is a big step up in venue size from Sam’s Town. It looks like a fine card on paper with the usual good-to-great undercard, but the highlight is the main event between Jay Lethal and Will Ospreay. Ospreay will likely have a hell of a weekend between this match and the one with Marty Scurll on Sunday in Long Beach. We will have coverage of the show on the site tonight with the following matches scheduled: *Jay Lethal vs. Will Ospreay for the ROH title –This is a tremendous match on paper and could be one of the better matches in the U.S. this year. Conventional thinking would be Lethal retains the title, although Ospreay winning would introduce so many possibilities given his ability to come back and take the title to New Japan and add a buzz to the ROH championship. Between tonight’s show and the television tapings on Saturday, we should have an idea of where they are headed for the main event of Final Battle in December. I’m looking forward to this match a lot and is the highlight of the show going in. *Cody, The Young Bucks, Marty Scurll & Hangman Page vs. Kazuchika Okada, Tomohiro Ishii, Chuckie T., Beretta & Rocky Romero –It’s a collection of stars and I expect the audience to treat this as a big deal. It’s an interesting weekend for Cody who is defending the NWA title on Saturday and challenging for the IWGP U.S. title on Sunday. This looks like a solid house show main event match where everyone gets their spotlight and would assume The Bullet Club wins to send everyone home happy with Romero likely taking the fall. *The Briscoe Brothers vs. Christopher Daniels & Frankie Kazarian for the ROH tag titles –The Briscoes have been great this year with their heel run and have been consistently among the best promos in ROH this year. It’s a weird dynamic as Daniels & Kazarian are strong heels but are placed in a babyface light in this match. The year-long story is that Joe Koff has told The Addiction that their contracts won’t be renewed at year’s end and their only way to stay with ROH is to be holding titles so winning this could save their jobs. *Punishment Martinez vs. Chris Sabin for the ROH Television title –Martinez can be hit and miss, he's going to become a bigger star for Ring of Honor and can do some incredible things at his size. This should be a competitive match with Martinez winning. When Alex Shelley announced he was leaving, he had Sabin promise to show the world he was a top singles wrestler and thus Sabin is trying to win this title to validate what Shelley said and do this for his partner. *Sumie Sakai vs. Tenille Dashwood for the Women of Honor championship –I don’t think Sakai has had the run as champion since April that’s put the division on the map. It was a surprise when she won the title and it feels like Kelly Klein is focused upon more than the champion on television. Dashwood hasn’t had a big outing since coming to Ring of Honor and seems to be in the process of finding her identity and a role for herself. This is a big opportunity for both to stand out as there are low expectations for the match and this could surprise everyone. *Kenny King vs. Jushin Thunder Liger –Liger is tremendous on U.S. shows as he’s a legend to the audience and a great opening match performer. Liger just needs a few trademark spots, and everyone will be happy. King is from Las Vegas, but I’d expect the crowd to back Liger even if he’s here to lose. *Bully Ray & Silas Young vs. Flip Gordon & Colt Cabana in a Tables Match –This was set up at “All In” where Cabana and Flip Gordon put Bully Ray through a table. The feud has been going on for a long time as Bully has picked on Gordon, with Cabana standing up for him and Cheeseburger. This match seems designed to lead to a bigger match involving Bully and Gordon, so I can see Bully putting Gordon through a table and then Gordon gets the big win down the road, perhaps at Final Battle.**Here are the matches for tonight’s episode of MLW Fusion at 8 pm Eastern on beIN Sports:
*Low Ki vs. Rey Fenix for the MLW title
*Sami Callihan vs. Jimmy Havoc
*Myron Reed vs. Jason Cade
**Tonight’s episode of New Japan Pro Wrestling on AXS TV will feature the finals of the G1 Climax between Hiroshi Tanahashi and Kota Ibushi at 8 pm.
**The WWE has a quiet weekend with one live event scheduled on Sunday with the Raw crew in Abbotsford, British Columbia. Roman Reigns and Braun Strowman are advertised for the main event along with Dolph Ziggler & Drew McIntyre vs. Seth Rollins & Dean Ambrose. Raw takes place from Seattle on Monday night from the Key Arena and the SmackDown tapings are Tuesday in Portland, Oregon.
**Progress Wrestling runs their big card from Wembley this Sunday titled “Hello Wembley” and will feature Matt Riddle’s final non-WWE appearance. Below is the card, which the British Wrestling Experience crew will be reviewing it on next Wednesday’s show:
*Walter vs. Tyler Bate for the Progress World title
*Jinny vs. Toni Storm vs. Millie McKenzie for the women’s title
*Flamita & Bandido vs. Flash Morgan Webster & Mike Hitchman vs. Zack Gibson & James Drake vs. Mark Davis & Kyle Fletcher vs. Timothy Thatcher & Chris Brookes vs. The Anti Fun Police vs. Maverick Mayhew & Connor Mills vs. David Starr & Jack Sexsmith for the Progress tag titles in a Royal Rumble style match where a new team enters every 2 minutes
*Doug Williams vs. Trent Seven for the Atlas championship, Williams will retire if he loses
*Pete Dunne vs. Ilja Dragunov
*Matt Riddle vs. Mark Haskins
*Mark Andrews vs. Eddie Dennis in a TLC match
*Jimmy Havoc vs. Paul Robinson in a No DQ match
**Ring of Honor has added a match between Nick Aldis and Christopher Daniels to Saturday’s television tapings in Las Vegas at the Orleans Arena.
**After a disappointing number for the season premiere of Total Divas, the show dropped 14% this week to 390,000 viewers on E! The first two episodes of this season are the lowest in the history of the series that dates to 2013.
**Lucha Underground averaged 89,000 viewers this past Wednesday on the El Rey Network, which was down from 97,000 the week prior. Last week’s show featured Marty the Moth Martinez winning the Gift of the Gods championship from El Dragon Azteca Jr. and then cashing in his title shot to win the title from Pentagon Dark but didn’t lead to an uptick in the audience this week.
**MLW has announced a tag match for “Fury Road” next Thursday with Samu and son Lance Anoa’i taking on Barrington Hughes and Kotto Brazil. The show takes place from the Melrose Ballroom in Queens, New York and is headlined by PCO taking on L.A. Park.
**Impact Wrestling will be taping television in Las Vegas from Sam’s Town Casino on November 11th – 13th. This will follow the television tapings in Queens, New York on October 15th and 16th at the Melrose Ballroom following Bound for Glory.
**Revolution Pro has announced they will be running during WrestleMania Week on Friday, April 4th at 4 pm with WrestleCon at the New York City Hilton Midtown Hotel. Tickets for the show go on sale next Tuesday, October 9th.
**WrestleCon has clarified that the “Joey Ryan Penis Party” card over WrestleMania Weekend will be a wrestling show that features ten matches. Nothing has been announced yet beyond Ryan’s involvement with tickets going on sale this past week. The show will be going head-to-head with Joey Janela’s Spring Break on Friday, April 5th at 8 pm.
**Joey Ryan had a cameo on NBC’s “The Good Place” on Thursday night.
**Following the conclusion of the first round matches, below are the second round pairings for the Mae Young Classic, which will air over the next episodes: Meiko Satomura vs. Mercedes Marinez, Lacey Lane vs. Taynara Conti, Toni Storm vs. Hiroyo Matsumoto, Mia Yim vs. Kaitlyn, Tegan Nox vs. Nicole Matthews, Kacy Catanzaro vs. Rhea Ripley, Io Shirai vs. Zeuxis, and Deonna Purrazzo vs. Xia Li.
**Fight Forever Wrestling, which is running four straight nights in the U.K. this December have announced Cody will take on Will Ospreay on the first night. The promotion will be running December 6th in Birmingham, England, December 7th in London, December 8th in Bristol, and December 9th in Liverpool. The tour will also feature Conrad Thompson and Bruce Prichard hosting live editions of “Something to Wrestle”.
**Steve Blackman turns 55 today and Jason Jordan is 30.
MMA NEWS
**The big show of the weekend is Bellator 206 from the SAP Center in San Jose, California, which is one of the biggest cards in the promotion’s history. This is their first event that will be exclusive on DAZN. The streaming service is available for $10 per month in the U.S. and $20 per month in Canada with a free one-month trial available. The DAZN stream will begin on Saturday at 8 pm with undercard fights and the main card will kick off at 10 pm with the following fights and results of today’s weigh-ins: *Gegard Mousasi (184.4) vs. Rory MacDonald (184.9) for the Bellator middleweight title *Quinton Jackson (254.4) vs. Wanderlei Silva (226.9) *Douglas Lima (170) vs. Andrey Koreshkov (169.3) in the Welterweight Grand Prix *Aaron Pico (145.7) vs. Leandro Higo (145.1) *Keri Melendez (116) vs. Dakota Zimmerman (115.6) *Gaston Bolanos (145.2) vs. Ysidro Gutierrez (145.3)**LFA has changed around tonight’s card with Jaimee Nievera forced to withdraw from her main event fight with flyweight champion Sabina Mazo. Because of the late change, the new main event will be a bantamweight fight between Cody Gibson and Gustavo Erak. The main card will air at 10 pm Eastern on AXS TV with the following fights:
*Cody Gibson vs. Gustavo Erak
*Rolando Velasco vs. Nohelin Hernandez
*Andres Alcantar vs. Jordan Powell
*Joaquin Lopez vs. Salaman Ahmadyar
*Adam Fugitt vs. Kailan Hill
**Rizin has a big card early Sunday morning from the Saitama Super Arena that will stream at 2 am Eastern on FITE TV. The card will feature Mirko Cro Cop in action as well as Miyuu Yamamoto, the older sister of the late Kid Yamamoto, who just passed away from cancer. Below is the full card:
*Tenshin Nasukawa vs. Kyoji Horiguchi in a kickboxing fight
*Miyuu Yamamoto vs. Andy Nguyen
*Jiri Prochazka vs. Jake Heun
*Mirko Cro Cop vs. Roque Martinez
*Mikuru Asakura vs. Karshyga Dautbek
*Kai Asakura vs. Topnoi Thanongsaklek (Mikuru and Kai are brothers)
*Daron Cruickshank vs. Diego Brandao
*Bob Sapp vs. Osunaarashi in a special rules fight – Osunaarashi is a retired Sumo wrestler, who has is making his MMA debut in this fight. He’s been trained by Josh Barnett, who will be in his corner and is the reason Barnett isn’t calling the New Japan card in Long Beach this weekend. Sapp is now 45-years old and has made a living over the past decade and traveling around the world, taking fights and getting out as soon as he senses trouble. Since September 2005, Sapp has gone 2-15 in kickboxing fights and is 1-17 in MMA fights since May 2009 with his last MMA win taking place in March 2010.
*Mitsuhisa Sunabe vs. Haruo Ochi
*Ayaka Hamasaki vs. Mina Kurobe
*Taiga Kawabe vs. Kento Haraguchi in a kickboxing fight
*Yusaku Nakamura vs. Manel Kape
**The New York Times reported Thursday that HBO will be getting out of the boxing industry in 2019. The decision to drop boxing, which has been a staple of the subscription cable network since 1973, was made by Peter Nelson of HBO Sports with the belief that boxing is no longer a determining factor for subscribers. This year boxing cards have averaged 820,000 viewers on the network, led by the Gennady Golovkin vs. Vanes Martirosyan from this past May that did 1.3 million viewers. The report also noted that it was much cheaper for the network to commission the Andre the Giant documentary, which did seven million viewers on HBO earlier this year. Nelson has left the door open for a one-off fight if there is a destination fight that HBO would be interested in running.
**Former UFC and Bellator fighter Michael McDonald has announced his retirement from mixed martial arts at age 27. McDonald, who just defeated Eduardo Dantas in 58 seconds in July, told ESPN that he was happy to move on after just having his fifth hand surgery in August. More troubling is that the anesthesiologist made a mistake during the procedure that has immobilized his left bicep, which McDonald stated may never be fully functional again with the arm shrinking. McDonald began fighting pro at the age of 16, winning 15 of his first 16 fights. He had one fight in the WEC in 2010 before entering the UFC in March 2011 where he defeated Edwin Figueroa, Chris Cariaso, Alex Soto, and Miguel Torres. In February 2013, he challenged interim bantamweight champion Renan Barao and was submitted in the fourth round. Following a submission loss to Urijah Faber in December 2013, McDonald didn’t fight for the next two years and returned in 2016. His final fight with the UFC was in July where he was knocked out by John Lineker and fought his final two fights with Bellator. McDonald is at peace with the decision and plans to dedicate his time to woodworking where he has been a cabinet and furniture maker for the past seven years to supplement his income.
**Earlier this week, Bellator announced a working agreement with Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson. The partnership and licensing deal will feature an apparel line based on Jackson’s “Get the Strap” trademark and his champagne, Le Chemin du Roi. Jackson is talking a portion of the money from the deal and will present $1 million to the winner of the Welterweight Grand Prix that Bellator is currently promoting. Jackson also hinted at a future management role for fighters that would see them used in other Viacom projects.
**The UFC has officially added a welterweight fight between Michael Chiesa and Carlos Condit to the UFC 232 card on December 29th in Las Vegas at the T-Mobile Arena. The fight was first reported by ESPN prior to the UFC’s announcement. Condit is winless in his last four fights and last fought in April where he was submitted by Alex Oliveira. Chiesa is coming off losses to Kevin Lee and Anthony Pettis at lightweight and will be making his welterweight debut in this fight. Chiesa stated in his last outing he would be moving up after he missed weight for the fight with Pettis at UFC 226 in July.
**The UFC has announced that TUF Season 27 winner Brad Katona will be fighting Matthew Lopez at UFC 231 on December 8th in Toronto at the Scotiabank Arena.
TELEVISION REVIEW
Impact Wrestling (Sept. 27th)
-RESULTS: Tessa Blanchard over Faby Apache to retain the Knockouts title, Brian Cage over Jake Crist, Santana & Ortiz over Desi Hit Squad, Allie & Kiera Hogan over Su Yung & Udmoh (Undead Maid of Honor), Moose & Killer Kross over Johnny Impact & Eddie Edwards
-The atmosphere on this show wasn’t a positive with the crowd seeming down for most of it. There were occasionally airhorns that are usual and seemed to equate with performers the crowd was familiar with. This show was taped on the first night, next week is the start of the tapings that went head-to-head with the CMLL Anniversary card.
-The best segment on the show was Eddie Kingston’s promo on Konnan. After LAX defeated the Desi Hit Squad, Kingston appeared on the screen with Hernandez & Homicide and held up an old magazine featuring Konnan. Kingston went through his history of being unmasked and claimed that Konnan leeched off talent like Art Barr and Eddie Guerrero and continues to leech off Rey Mysterio (who Konnan helped manage during his time on the independents). It ended with a replica of Konnan’s old mask being burned by the OGz. It was a strong segment with Konnan and Kingston cutting awesome promos routinely to build up the “Concrete Jungle Death Match” at Bound for Glory.
-Tessa Blanchard is using a move called “Magnum” with a codebreaker off the ropes like Bushi’s MX. The match with Apache was short and the audience didn’t seem too engaged with it. Blanchard won with the hammerlock DDT as Apache was spun around and caught with it suddenly. Blanchard cut a promo about running through everyone, has now beaten the best in Mexico and is the best. Taya Valkyrie appeared on the screen and spoke Spanish for the live crowd and then spoke in English while wearing a Los Perros Del Mal shirt. Taya challenged her to a match at Bound for Glory for the title. Taya said that “you are one of the best, but so am I”, which was a bit confusing. Blanchard cut a great promo later in the show stating that if Taya thinks she’s a bitch, she’s going to get one at Bound for Glory. Blanchard has become one of the top personalities on Impact over the past six months.
-With two episodes remaining, I don’t sense anywhere near the buzz that Slammiversary had with so many programs peaking at that event. The Concrete Jungle Match has the deepest personal issue with Konnan and Kingston building that up well. The main event between Austin Aries and Johnny Impact feels like any other Impact title match and hasn’t done anything for me in the lead up so far. The six-man with Sami Callihan & oVe vs. Pentagon, Fenix & Brian Cage should be an outstanding match at the pay-per-view and that’s been a positive as you know what you’ll get with those six.
*****
REWIND-A-WAI – WWF In Your House: International Incident (Patreon)
John Pollock & Wai Ting review the WWF’s IYH event from Vancouver in July 1996 featuring a six-man tag with Shawn Michaels, Ahmed Johnson & Sid vs. Vader, Owen Hart & British Bulldog as chosen by Espresso Executive Producer Zubin Sundar.
https://www.patreon.com/posts/21693210
upNXT & Forever Young 9/27/18: Genius of the Sky
Braden Herrington & Davie Portman review this week’s NXT episode, the Mae Young Classic with Io Shirai vs. Xia Brookside and Davie’s 205 (approximate) second review of 205 Live.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2018/09/27/upnxt-forever-young-9-27-18-genius-of-the-sky/
DOUBLE SHOT 9/26/18: Total Divas, July ’96 Raw, Jeff Hardy & Slammiversary features
John Pollock & Wai Ting provide additional reviews of the season premiere of Total Divas, a review of the July 15th, 1996 episode of Raw leading into “International Incident”, reviews of the Jeff Hardy & Slammiversary features, Ten Pounds of Gold & more
https://www.patreon.com/posts/21648948
REWIND-A-SMACKDOWN 9/25/18: AJ’s Mailbox, That Night in Milwaukee, Liv Morgan update
John Pollock & Wai Ting review SmackDown and chat the angles involving AJ Styles & Samoa Joe, Aiden English with Rusev, the debut of Truth TV, a review of Mixed Match Challenge, the top news stories of the day & more.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2018/09/26/rasd-9-25-18-ajs-mailbox-that-night-in-milwaukee-liv-morgan/
REWIND-A-RAW 9/24/18: Shield dissension, Liv Morgan hurt
John Pollock & Wai Ting review Raw from Denver, discuss the injury to Liv Morgan and provide an update, the show-long story with Dean Ambrose, a great tag titles match, Jim Cornette calling NWA show, UFC 229 press conference reaction, your feedback & more.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2018/09/25/rar-9-24-18-shield-dissension-liv-morgan-hurt/
NJPW DESTRUCTION IN KOBE POST SHOW (Patreon show)
John Pollock & Wai Ting review Sunday’s card from Kobe that was headlined by Hiroshi Tanahashi taking on Kazuchika Okada and concluded with a major angle involving Gedo turning on Okada and aligning with Jay White.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2018/09/23/njpw-destruction-in-kobe-2018-post-show/
EGGSHELLS PODCAST COMPANION: 2002 with Lee Daly
Episode 14 sees Chris Charlton and Lee Daly look at 2002, a year of radical change and dissent within NJPW. As many standbys left the promotion, some new faces appeared, significantly Joanie Laurer and Bob Sapp. Antonio Inoki also sought to bring the MMA flavored UFO to the dome.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2018/09/22/eggshells-podcast-companion-2002-w-lee-daly/
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