Originally published at https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/06/25/pollocks-news-update-seth-rollins-responds-to-jon-moxleys-comments/
POST IT NOTES
**Our POST Wrestling G1 Climax contest is now open and is free to join. You can submit your picks for every G1 Climax match with a prize going to the winner at the end. The deadline to submit your picks is Thursday, July 4th at Midnight Eastern.
**Tonight’s edition of Rewind-A-SmackDown will feature Wai Ting and I reviewing the show from Portland, Oregon and going through today’s news. Plus, your feedback and questions.
**This week’s edition of Rewind-A-Raw is up on the site with a complete rundown of Monday’s episode from Everett, Washington. Wai Ting and I discuss the challenging new format elimination wrestling during the commercial breaks, how it affected the flow of the show, The Undertaker’s return, and lots more. Plus, we discussed the Seth Rollins-Will Ospreay back-and-forth, the vetting documents for Linda McMahon, the Walter and David Starr spot from WrestleRama on Sunday, and the announcement of our G1 contest.
**On Wednesday, the British Wrestling Experience has a packed show with Martin Bushby, Benno & Jamesie with the following scheduled:
-John Lister will join them to discuss the WWE-BT Sport deal
-A new monthly segment with Andy Ogden from Graps and Claps
-A mid-year report on the best and worst of 2019
-Live report from Jamesie on OTT’s WrestleRama on Sunday
-Discussion on Chris Brookes in DDT
**Wai Ting and I will also have The Double Shot on Wednesday for members of the POST Wrestling Café. Among the shows I’ll be discussing will be the WWE’s 365 special on Alexa Bliss and her issues with several concussions over the past year.
POST WRESTLING SCHEDULE
*Tonight: Rewind-A-SmackDown
*Wednesday: The Double Shot (Patreon)
*Thursday: Café Hangout (3 pm ET for Double Double+ Patrons)
*Thursday: upNXT with Braden Herrington & Davie Portman
*Friday: Rewind-A-Wai #39 – WWF In Your House ‘Canadian Stampede’ (Patreon)
*Saturday: Cruel Summer ‘G1 1999’ with WH Park & Matt McEwen
*Saturday: NJPW Southern Showdown POST Show w/ WH Park & Chris Thunder
*Saturday: AEW Fyter Fest POST Show w/ Wai Ting & Davie Portman (LIVE for Double Double+ Patrons)
*Sunday: Cruel Summer ‘G1 2000’ with WH Park & JP Houlihan
WRESTLING NEWS
**Tonight’s WWE SmackDown & 205 Live tapings will take place from the Moda Center in Portland, Oregon, although no matches have been announced.
**WWE Universal champion Seth Rollins was interviewed by Jimmy Traina on the SI Media Podcast on Monday, prior to Raw. Rollins backed up his statements on Twitter defending the company and believing no other company does what they do with 500 live events per year, the travel, media obligations and looking like athletes ‘not like jabronis in gym shorts that get in a ring and do high spots’. He said his great matches are sometimes taken for granted because people don’t see all the live event matches, specifically noting one in Montana this past Friday night. He is happy with the input he has regarding his character and not everyone in the company deserves that leeway because it must be earned.
Regarding Jon Moxley and his comments since leaving the company, he was obviously unhappy with them. Below are his comments, which were transcribed by Mike Chiari at Bleacher Report:
Ambrose can do what he wants. He’s a big boy, he’s got his big boy pants on. He can go out there and say whatever he wants, but the bottom line is not everybody’s equipped to handle the rigors of WWE and the schedule and how it affects you mentally and emotionally. And Ambrose gave everything he had to the company for the entire time he was here. He put his heart and soul into the travel, into the schedule, into the injuries, into the work in the ring and all that stuff. But at the end of the day, he took his ball and he went home, or he went elsewhere at least. And I think it’s a little presumptuous of him to get on a podcast and talk down about the company that gave him such an opportunity.
And like I said, I love the guy. I love him, I’ll always love him, but at the end of the day, we just share different perspectives about what we want out of life and about where we’re at in our own lives. I hope that he does well. I’ve kept enough tabs on him to know that he’s doing super well for himself right now and I’m happy for that, but I just don’t think there’s any reason to hop on a soapbox and complain after the fact.
He added that he had not spoken with Moxley about the public comments since departing WWE.
Rollins was asked about the storyline integration of his relationship with Becky Lynch. He said the two were hesitant about it at first and would not do anything they are uncomfortable with. The two began dating in February and were not actively trying to hide the fact. He was very happy with the response at Stomping Grounds with the audience chanting for Lynch during the main event and her involvement at the end of the show.
**Will Ospreay spoke to Marc Raimondi of ESPN about the comments made by Seth Rollins and their back-and-forth over the past two days:
I just think it’s a little bit of friendly banter. I love Rollins. Rollins is the absolute don. Hey’s the man, you know what I mean? He’s one of the best wrestlers ever – period. But you asked the question. You asked, find me, someone, alive. As far as I’m concerned, I’m breathing. There’s oxygen in my lungs. I think the last time I heard about an amazing Seth Rollins match was his one against A.J. and if you can’t get a good match out of A.J. Styles, then I think you should leave the planet. I’m still here, I’m still breathing. And I think my run this year – not just in New Japan, in the indies and everywhere I’ve been – is I don’t half-ass anything. I don’t do a terrible TV match. I just go hard every single night. If you give me an opportunity to show what I can do, I do it.
**Zack Sabre Jr. defeated Yoshi-Hashi in the main event of New Japan’s Kizuna Road card in Sendai this morning. Sabre won using a new submission where he trapped the legs and arms, applied a figure-four while Yoshi-Hashi’s shoulders were on the mat and won with it. That means Zack Sabre Jr. retains his spot in the A Block of the G1 Climax, which was on the line along with his British heavyweight title. New Japan heads to Australia this weekend for the Southern Showdown cards in Melbourne and Sydney, which are their final shows before the G1 starts in Dallas on July 6th.
**This Saturday’s AEW Fyter Fest card will be airing live at 8:30 pm Eastern on B/R Live and Fite.tv for those outside the U.S. The Buy-In pre-show will be streaming at 7:30 pm.
**EVOLVE has announced that Tyler Breeze is taking the spot of Kyle O’Reilly at this weekend’s shows in Queens and Brooklyn, New York. On Monday, the promotion announced O’Reilly would be unable to participate in the shows, where he was scheduled to wrestle. Breeze will take on AR Fox on Saturday night’s show from Queens and then face Anthony Greene on Sunday in Brooklyn. Additionally, Breeze, Kyle O’Reilly, Bobby Fish, Roderick Strong, and Tommaso Ciampa will be doing meet-and-greets at both events.
**Colt Cabana won’t be wrestling at this Friday’s Ring of Honor pay-per-view in Baltimore. In a video posted by the NWA, Cabana announced his ongoing leg injury will prevent him from teaming with Nick Aldis against The Briscoes at Best in the World. Cabana executed a splash during a show on June 5th and thought he suffered a charley horse. The pain persisted and he ended up going to the emergency room and was diagnosed with a hematoma on his quadriceps. Cabana has not wrestled since and been forced to cancel several independent bookings. Cabana’s replacement for the tag match on Friday will be revealed during the Best in the World pre-show at 8:30 pm Eastern.
**The ROH Best in the World pre-show will be streaming live at 8:30 pm Eastern on ROH’s Facebook page, Fite.tv, and the cable providers carrying the event. The pre-show will feature a match between Rush and Flip Gordon.
**MLW has announced a ladder match for their Kings of Colosseum card on July 6th at Cicero Stadium. Brian Pillman Jr. & Teddy Hart will defend the tag titles in a ladder match against MJF & Richard Holliday. The television taping is headlined by Tom Lawlor defending the MLW title against Jacob Fatu and will also feature LA Park & El Hijo de LA Park vs. Dr. Wagner Jr. & El Hijo de Dr. Wagner Jr., Alex Hammerstone vs. Davey Boy Smith Jr. for the National title, and Ross & Marshall Von Erich vs. Simon Gotch & Josef Samael.
**A correction from Rewind-A-Raw, the first mixed tag match involving a men’s and women’s title on the line came at SummerSlam 2008. Kofi Kingston was the Intercontinental champion and Mickie James was the women’s champion and they lost their titles to Santino Marella and Beth Phoenix.
**The WWE stock closed at $72.08 on Tuesday.
**Kurt Angle won the 2000 King of the Ring tournament on this date in Boston, Massachusetts. Angle defeated Chris Jericho, Crash Holly, and Rikishi on the pay-per-view to be the King of the Ring and helped propel into the main event picture that summer setting up his WWF title win in October that year. The same card also saw a six-man tag with Triple H’s WWF title on the line, teaming with Vince & Shane McMahon against The Rock, Kane & The Undertaker with Rock scoring the fall on Vince to win the title.
**From listener Ian, who attended Raw on Monday in Everett:
I attended Raw last night. The commercial breaks started taking a toll on the crowd in the third hour. The crowd was dead during the Alexa/Nikki vs Naomi/Natalya match. Commercials were just WWE related clips or appearances on other TV shows. Iconics and Dana Brooke also came out during the break to cut promos. I still had a great time, but the commercial breaks were too much and made the three hours lag a little bit.
MMA NEWS
**UFC president Dana White was interviewed by ESPN’s Brett Okamoto promoting UFC 239 next weekend. White classified light heavyweight champion Jon Jones as ‘the greatest of all-time’ heading into his next title defense against Thiago Santos. He believes UFC heavyweight champion Daniel Cormier has two more fights left if he can beat Stipe Miocic on August 17th and would like to see Cormier and Jones have one more fight but at heavyweight. Jones was interviewed on Ariel Helwani’s MMA Show on Monday and didn’t think the fight would happen while cutting the best heel promo on Cormier, doubting if Cormier has the ‘courage’ of going through another loss.
**White also revealed during the interview with Okamoto that former UFC featherweight champion Jose Aldo has signed a new deal with the company about a month ago. Aldo’s coach Andre Pederneiras confirmed to ESPN that he signed a new eight-fight deal prior to his fight against Alexander Volkanovski in May. This was a shift from Aldo’s statements earlier this year where he indicated he was looking to retire once he fought out his UFC contract. Aldo is 32-years old and has gone 3-3 since losing the title to Conor McGregor at UFC 194 in December 2015. Following wins against Jeremy Stephens and Renato Moicano, Aldo lost by unanimous decision to Volkanovski at UFC 237 last month.
**Here are the fight scheduled for tonight’s edition of Dana White’s Tuesday Night Contender Series at 8 pm Eastern on Fight Pass:
*Light Heavyweight: Alton Cunningham (7-1) vs. Tony Johnson (7-2) – Cunningham is 26-years old and lost to Bevon Lewis on DWTNCS last July. Since then, he has scored two wins with first-round stoppages and last fought for LFA in December. Johnson is 36-years old and has previously fought one-offs in Strikeforce and Bellator. He has taken long sabbaticals including a stretch from 2013-2017 without a fight. He last fought in October 2018 where he earned a majority decision over Jaquis Williams for the MCF promotion.
*Featherweight: Zach Zane (12-7) vs. Justin Gonzalez (9-0) – Zane started his career 4-6 but has since won eight straight fights since June 2017 with an active schedule. This is already his third fight in 2019. Gonzalez was a featherweight champion for Sparta Combat League is undefeated since going pro in 2016 alongside eight amateur wins. This looks very competitive on paper.
*Middleweight: Kyle Daukaus (6-0) vs. Michael Lombardo (8-1) – Daukaus has fought for King of the Cage, Ring of Combat, and CFFC. He submitted former UFC fighter Jonavin Webb this past February. Lombardo fights for American Top Team in Florida and won his last five fights. His pro debut in January 2016 featured a 16-second knockout win over Dominic Stouder.
*Bantamweight: Miles Johns (8-0) vs. Richie Santiago (7-1) – Johns is the current LFA bantamweight champion and was set to fight this past March but was pulled due to injury, so he hasn’t fought since November 2018. Santiago went pro in 2016 and has fought exclusively for CES with his lone blemish to Matt Almy in April 2018 when he was submitted.
*Catchweight: Victor Reyna (10-3) vs. Miguel Baeza (6-0) – Reyna missed weight by seven pounds for this fight and could affect his ability to get chosen, even if he looks good. He’s been fighting pro since 2012 but only has two fights since July 2017 with his last fight ruled a no contest after 21 seconds against Hayward Charles. Baeza is undefeated and only gone the distance once in his career and turned pro in August 2015 after one amateur fight.
**ESPN was the first to report that the main event of the UFC’s card on August 3rd in Newark, New Jersey will be a welterweight fight between Colby Covington and Robbie Lawler. Covington has won his last six fights but has not fought since June 2018 when he beat Rafael dos Anjos to become the interim champion in the division. Lawler has only fought twice in the last 18 months with a decision loss to Rafael dos Anjos in December 2017 and a technical submission loss to Ben Askren earlier this year.
The card in Newark is also scheduled to feature a light heavyweight fight between Volkan Oezdemir and Ilir Latifi, who were scheduled to fight earlier this month in Sweden but was pulled due to Latifi suffering an injury. There is also a lightweight fight set for the card involving veterans Jim Miller and Clay Guida. Miller and Guida have 59 fights combined with the UFC and 97 professional fights between them.
**When Jon Jones spoke to Ariel Helwani on Monday, he said he would like to return and fight in December and then fight three times in 2020. The fight against Thiago Santos next week will be Jones’ third fight since December after beating Alexander Gustafsson and then returning in March to defeat Anthony Smith. The light heavyweight division has received an influx of names coming up from middleweight as Luke Rockhold will be fighting Jan Blachowicz at UFC 239 and Chris Weidman has also announced he will move up to the weight class.
**During a media scrum at the UFC 239 media day on Monday, Diego Sanchez noted that he recently left the Jackson-Winkeljohn camp in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Sanchez made the decision three-weeks out from his fight with Michael Chiesa on July 6th and didn’t believe he was getting the proper attention. He stated that he didn’t feel he was learning and that his trainers were ‘going through the motions’. He did add he was grateful for his time there and says kind words about Greg Jackson and Mike Winkeljohn. He will have one cornerman for his fight against Chiesa and it will be Josh Fabia.
**ONE Championship has announced their card for Friday, August 2nd at the Mall of Asia Arena in Manila in the Philippines. The card will be headlined by Muay Thai flyweight champion Jonathan Haggerty defending his title against Rodtang Jitmuangnon, but the marquee fights involve Demetrious Johnson and Eddie Alvarez. Alvarez looks to bounce back from his debut loss to Timofey Nastyukhin from this past March as Alvarez meets former ONE lightweight champion Edouard Folyang. Demetrious Johnson will take on Tatsumitsu Wada in the semi-finals of the Flyweight Grand Prix with the other semi-final between Danny Kingad and Kairat Akhmetov taking place on this card as well. Plus, Yushin Okami will fight James Nakashima in Okami’s second fight for ONE after being stopped by Kiamrian Abbasov last month in Indonesia.
**New Bellator middleweight champion Rafael Lovato Jr.’s birthday is today and was not this past Saturday. His profile on Wikipedia listed his birthday as June 22nd, which we noted was the same day he won the title this past weekend from Gegard Mousasi. It has since been updated.
*****
RAR 6/24/19: Kicking Ass & Undertaking Names
John Pollock and Wai Ting review WWE Raw following Stomping Grounds featured a surprise appearance from The Undertaker to set up a match at Extreme Rules.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/06/25/rar-6-24-19-kicking-ass-undertaking-names/
*****
WWE STOMPING GROUNDS POST SHOW
John Pollock & Wai Ting review WWE Stomping Grounds from Tacoma, WA headlined by Seth Rollins vs. Baron Corbin for the WWE Universal Championship with a mystery referee.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/06/24/wwe-stomping-grounds-post-show/
*****
CRUEL SUMMER #8: Shinya Hashimoto vs. Kazuo Yamazaki (1998)
WH Park welcomes one of the co-hosts of the Eastern Lariat podcast, Dylan Fox to discuss the finals of NJPW’s 8th G1 Climax tournament: Shinya Hashimoto vs. Kazuo Yamazaki from August 2, 1998.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/06/23/cruel-summer-8-shinya-hashimoto-vs-kazuo-yamazaki-1998-w-dylan-fox/
*****
CRUEL SUMMER #7: Kensuke Sasaki vs. Hiroyoshi Tenzan (1997)
WH Park welcomes the co-host of POST Wrestling’s NXT review show, upNXT – Braden Herrington to discuss the finals of NJPW’s 7th G1 Climax tournament: Kensuke Sasaki vs. Hiroyoshi Tenzan from August 3, 1997.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/06/22/cruel-summer-7-kensuke-sasaki-vs-hiroyoshi-tenzan-1997-w-braden-herrington/
*****
Café Hangout – June 20, 2019
On this week’s Hangout, John Pollock and Wai Ting chat the latest news in pro wrestling and a preview Sunday’s WWE Stomping Grounds. Damian Abraham joins us to discuss a double-header of Viceland’s The Wrestlers.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/06/21/stomping-grounds-preview-mia-yim-rey-fenix-on-the-wrestlers-cafe-hangout/
*****
POST MOVIE REVIEW: Ant-Man (2015)
John Pollock and Wai Ting review the twelfth Marvel Cinematic Universe film, Ant-Man (2015) starring Paul Rudd and Michael Douglas.
https://www.patreon.com/posts/27784817
*****
upNXT 6/20/19: “Fish with One Eye”
Braden Herrington and Davie Portman are back with another episode of upNXT! The BDE chat all about the June 20th Edition of WWE NXT.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/06/20/upnxt-6-20-19-fish-with-one-eye/
*****
DOUBLE SHOT: DDT’s Pool Wrestling, Tony Khan w/ Austin, 205 Live
John Pollock & Wai Ting review Steve Austin’s interview with Tony Khan, DDT’s Pool Wrestling special, 205 Live, BTE & Road to Fyter Ep. 3.
https://www.patreon.com/posts/27764346
*****
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