Originally published at https://www.postwrestling.com/2018/10/08/pollocks-news-update-several-big-names-announced-for-raw-more-expected/
POST IT NOTES
**Wai Ting and I have a King of Pro Wrestling POST Show up on the POST Wrestling Café. We review today’s entire card from Sumo Hall that was headlined by a tremendous three-way main event and featured a lot of news coming out of the card. You can subscribe to the POST Wrestling Café and have instant access to this show as well as recent shows with Ask-A-Wai, a Super Show-Down POST Show and we will have a new Rewind-A-Wai out this Friday.
**Davie Portman from upNXT has a great interview up with wrestler and former Tough Enough cast member A.J. Kirsch. Kirsch provided voice-over and motion capture work on the new WWE 2K19 game and outlined the process of that gig, how it came about, details on the game and also covered other wrestling stories as well.
**This past weekend, Wai Ting and I did a WWE Super Show-Down POST show for members of the POST Wrestling Café. I also did a free show reviewing UFC 229 with Phil Chertok & Ziggy Cao and discussing the brawl at the end of the card.
POST WRESTLING SCHEDULE THIS WEEK: *Tonight: Rewind-A-Raw with John Pollock & Wai Ting *Tuesday: Rewind-A-SmackDown *Tuesday: Double Shot, including Impact review & Bound for Glory preview (Patreon) *Thursday: upNXT & Forever Young with Braden Herrington & Davie Portman *Friday: Rewind-A-Wai covering NXT Arrival from Feb. 2014, as chosen by Espresso Executive Producer *Saturday: EGGSHELLS Podcast Companion: 2005 with guest Matt Charlton *Sunday: Impact Wrestling Bound for Glory POST Show with John Pollock & Nate Milton
WRESTLING NEWS
**Tonight’s episode of Raw takes place from the Allstate Arena in Chicago, Illinois with the crew returning from Australia. They have announced that Triple H, Shawn Michaels, and Trish Stratus will be on the show tonight. The next month will be a juggling act as they promote two shows concurrently with the Evolution card on October 28th and Crown Jewel on November 2nd.
I was told that there should be at least two other Hall of Famers making surprise appearances on Raw tonight and it’s said to be a big show they have planned.
**The WWE has announced a pair of World Cup Qualifying matches for Tuesday’s episode of SmackDown in Indianapolis. Randy Orton is set to take on Big Show and Jeff Hardy returns on this week’s show to face Samoa Joe. They have also announced a rematch between Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair.
**The WWE has confirmed PWinsider’s initial report that Rey Mysterio will be appearing on the 1000th episode of SmackDown next week in Washington, D.C. Mysterio recently signed with the WWE after months of talks that go back to the Royal Rumble when Mysterio was a surprise entrant in the battle royal. Mysterio joins Evolution, who have also been announced for the special edition of SmackDown next week with Dave Bautista’s first appearance on WWE programming since 2014.
**Chris Jericho showed up on today’s King of Pro Wrestling card to attack EVIL. The attack occurred before EVIL’s match with Zack Sabre Jr. and led to the match being called off and ruled a no contest. It would see a lock that Jericho and EVIL will take place next month at Power Struggle on November 3rd in Osaka. If Jericho is wrestling on that day in Osaka, I would imagine that logistically makes it impossible for Jericho to appear at Crown Jewel, which is the day prior and it’s approximately 15 hours by plane from Riyadh to Osaka.
**The big angle on Monday’s King of Pro Wrestling card was Jay White and Gedo joining forces with The BC OGs during a beatdown of Kazuchika Okada following White’s loss to Hiroshi Tanahashi. Jado came out to try and stop Okada from attacking Gedo before aligning with the group as well. Initially, Tanahashi was being attacked after the match with Okada running down. After Okada’s attack, it was Tanahashi checking on his long-time rival. While there was a tease that Tanahashi and Okada could form a dream team for the Tag League, they both have their matches set for Wrestle Kingdom and would also require beating the top stars several times. I think the better idea is a one-night special attraction with Okada and Tanahashi teaming up at Power Struggle against Jay White and another member of the group, perhaps Gedo.
**Shingo Takagi was revealed as “X” and is the newest member of LIJ. Takagi got a big response when he unmasked prior to the eight-man tag. Takagi was the star of the match and pinned SHO with the Last Falconry. It appears that Takagi will be wrestling in the junior heavyweight division. Takagi had wrestled for Dragon Gate since 2004 and his background was acknowledged on the English broadcast today. Takagi recently decided to leave Dragon Gate and work as a freelancer with his final match with the promotion taking place last weekend.
**Robbie Eagles will be teaming with Bad Luck Fale in the World Tag League next month.
**NXT has announced their final tour of 2018 will include shows on December 6th in Milwaukee, December 7th in Green Bay, December 8th in Minneapolis, and December 9th in Des Moines.
MMA NEWS
**With several days removed from UFC 229 and show-ending brawl at the T-Mobile Arena, the fallout and handling of the situation will be closely monitored. Saturday’s incident involving teammates of Khabib Nurmagomedov and Conor McGregor cannot be concealed into a one-night incident where tempers were flared. This was the culmination of months of issues between the two sides with guilt distributed on both sides. It also puts the UFC in a position where their involvement or lack thereof needs to be addressed as well. Within the company and industry, Conor McGregor is presented and perceived as untouchable. When the bus incident occurred in April, I thought it was the point of no return for him and would force the UFC to finally take major action. When Dana White changed his tune on the incident two nights later, it may have been the point of no return for the company as a policing entity that would be respected by other fighters.
The UFC divorced themselves from the disciplinary process of Conor McGregor after the bus incident and that appears to be the same tact in this case with the Nevada commission handling Saturday’s incident.
The double standard is what is going to leave a bad taste in everyone’s mouth. Should Khabib Nurmagomedov and members of his team face a severe punishment? Yes. But, how can you throw the book at them when the Nevada commission had zero issue with McGregor fighting within their state after his actions in April? Worse was their tacit endorsement by allowing promos to run in the lead up to the fight and in the arena glorifying the bus incident. Just about any other fighter on the UFC roster would have been fired for those actions in April and many would have a difficult time obtaining a license to fight in another state for a lengthy period. McGregor faced none of those obstacles and Nevada oversaw an enormous fight that did over $17 million at the gate.
McGregor’s antics throughout this fight promotion and the insults hurled at Nurmagomedov, his family, religion and other out of bounds categories are being analyzed as well. When it comes to drawing the line for what is fair in the game of fight promotion, the UFC, the fighters, and even the commission do not dictate where the line is. The audience dictates that line any time they choose to spend money on a fight or opt to skip a fight. In this case, the public spoke, and they endorsed this fight. Does McGregor have a right to say what he did? Yes, he has the right to freedom of speech but also leaves himself open to very real repercussions as were displayed on Saturday. McGregor danced on a dangerous line and Saturday was the response from a group that doesn’t believe all is fair in the name of selling fights and felt McGregor landed on the third rail of subjects you don’t broach.
**Abdulmanap Nurmagomedov, Khabib’s father, spoke to Ren TV and was very unhappy about Saturday’s incident and plans to discipline his son over his actions, stating:
I think that for Khabib, the most severe sanctions would be my regard. I am going to regard this severely. I warned him. For me, the most important thing is discipline. You can do whatever you want in the octagon, but beyond its barrier—this is the border separating civilians, there are children, women, bystanders. This fight took place within the octagon. That’s the spectacle. But I am categorically against fighting outside the octagon. Outside of the octagon, you need to exist peacefully. Fight in the octagon.
**This weekend Bellator will run cards Friday and Saturday with the semi-finals of the Heavyweight Grand Prix taking place. This Friday, they are in Uncasville for Bellator 207 and will feature Matt Mitrione taking on light heavyweight champion Ryan Bader in the first Grand Prix semi-final. The card also features Roy Nelson taking on Sergei Kharitonov. Saturday’s show is on Long Island, New York and will feature the other semi-final as Chael Sonnen takes on Fedor Emelianenko, plus Benson Henderson against Saad Awad.
*****
NJPW KING OF PRO WRESTLING POST SHOW (Patreon)
John Pollock & Wai Ting are back for a big review of NJPW King of Pro Wrestling 2018 featuring an incredible main event between Kenny Omega, Cody & Kota Ibushi for the IWGP heavyweight title, a big angle involving Jay White & Gedo forming a new alliance with the BC OGs, an appearance by Chris Jericho, and the debut of Shingo Takagi.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2018/10/08/njpw-king-of-pro-wrestling-2018-post-show-w-john-pollock-wai-ting/
INTERVIEW: A.J. KIRSCH ON WWE 2K19
Davie Portman chats with the voice of WWE 2K19 My Career Mode, A.J. Kirsch. A.J. talks about how he got the gig, what to expect from the new game, his love for The Legend of Zelda series and shares his thoughts on Shawn Michaels stepping back into the ring. All this, plus more!
https://www.postwrestling.com/2018/10/07/interview-a-j-kirsch-on-wwe-2k19/
UFC 229 POST SHOW
John Pollock is joined by Phil Chertok & Ziggy Cao with the UFC 229 POST Show as they react to the show-closing brawl following Khabib Nurmagomedov’s win over Conor McGregor and a review of the entire show.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2018/10/07/ufc-229-post-show-with-john-pollock-phil-chertok-ziggy-cao/
WWE SUPER SHOW-DOWN POST SHOW (Patreon)
John Pollock & Wai Ting review WWE Super Show-Down and discuss the main event featuring The Undertaker vs. Triple H, the post-match angle with Shawn Michaels and Kane, AJ Styles defending the WWE title against Samoa Joe and more.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2018/10/06/wwe-super-show-down-post-show-w-john-pollock-wai-ting-patreon/
EGGSHELLS PODCAST COMPANION: 2004
Episode 16 sees Chris Charlton and John Carroll look at 2004. Despite a strong start to the year, NJPW would struggle, especially through a difficult IWGP title reign for Bob Sapp. Meanwhile, NOAH makes their Tokyo Dome debut with a fantastic Departure card.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2018/10/06/eggshells-podcast-companion-2004-w-john-carroll/
ASK-A-WAI: Ask Us Anything (October 2018)
John Pollock & Wai Ting present the biggest Ask-A-Wai ever with 2.5 hours of mailbag questions being answered.
https://www.patreon.com/posts/21863739/
upNXT & Forever Young 10/4/18: Smokey Rooms & Scorpion Kicks
Braden Herrington & Davie Portman are joined once again by Dahlia Black to review this week’s Mae Young Classic episode, and they have reviews of NXT and 205 Live from the past week.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2018/10/04/upnxt-forever-young-10-4-18-smokey-rooms-scorpion-kicks/
BWE 10/3/18: Progress at Wembley, wXw Tag League, Carlos Romo, WOS Finale
Martin Bushby, Oli Court & Benno are back to talk Progress Chapter 76: Hello Wembley (Eddie Dennis vs. Mark Andrews) with Benno giving his live report from the show. Carlos Romo (FKA Adam Chase) drops in to chat his career so far, Whitewolf Wrestling, the Spanish wrestling scene and more
https://www.postwrestling.com/2018/10/03/bwe-10-3-18-progress-at-wembley-wxw-tag-league-carlos-romo-wos-finale/
POST Puroresu: Neville to DG, NJPW in Long Beach, Five Star GP, Observer HOF candidates
John Pollock & WH Park chat about Neville’s sudden return to Dragon Gate and his future, a look at the Destruction tour highlights, WH’s thoughts on Fighting Spirit Unleashed, a review of the Mayu Iwatani vs. Utami Hayashishita 5 Star GP final, and a look at the Japanese candidates for the Observer Hall of Fame.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2018/10/03/post-puroresu-neville-to-dg-njpw-in-long-beach-5-gp-observer-hof-candidates/
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