Originally published at POLLOCK'S NEWS UPDATE: Tony Khan chats ROH running WrestleMania Weekend
POST IT NOTES
**Due to the “Best of” Raw airing tonight, there will be no Rewind-A-Raw tonight and in its place is a new edition of POST Puroresu. WH Park & Karen Peterson will go over the highlights of 2022 and then preview STARDOM’s Dream Queendom II, NOAH’s card on 1/1, and Wrestle Kingdom 17.
**For those not in attendance at our 5-Year Anniversary Show in Newark, the 90-minute Q&A with be posted for all POST Wrestling Café members with video & audio on Tuesday night. Upcoming Café-only shows include Rewind-A-SmackDown this Friday and a Wrestle Kingdom 17 POST Show next week.
**Our Best/Worst of 2022 Show will be released next week and if you would like to submit a scenario for the “Likely or Unlikely” game for 2023, you can send in your audio submissions to memo.fm/postwrestling.
**Brandon Thurston did a tremendous show on his audio documentary covering The Fall of Vince McMahon in 2022.
**Thanks to everyone that checked out the annual POST Wrestling Christmas Show, the many guests that joined us, and our Jingle Contest competitors.
POST SCHEDULE
Tonight: POST Puroresu with WH Park & Karen Peterson
Tuesday: upNXT with Braden Herrington & Davie Portman
Tuesday: POST Wrestling’s 5-Year Anniversary Q&A (Patreon)
Wednesday: Rewind-A-Dynamite
Friday: Rewind-A-SmackDown (Patreon)
Sunday: Wrestlenomics Radio
WRESTLING NEWS
**Today marks two years since the passing of Jon Huber a.k.a. Brodie Lee/Luke Harper and a death that devastated the pro wrestling world with the shocking news of his passing after keeping his illness under wraps for several months. The passing of Huber led to one of the most emotional episodes of pro wrestling ever produced with AEW putting together a two-hour tribute for Huber that included some heart-wrenching moments including appearances by his widow Amanda and children, Brodie and Nolan. Huber was 41 years old when he died with the cause of death revealed as Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis.
Our story from 2020 on the passing of Brodie Lee.
**It is a rare Monday night with a new edition of WWE Raw with USA Network airing “The Absolute Best of 2022” featuring highlights from the past year for three hours. All promotion is geared towards Friday Night SmackDown this week with a live show from Tampa, Florida, and John Cena’s first (and last) match of 2022 teaming with Kevin Owens against Roman Reigns & Sami Zayn. Tickets have moved at a tremendous pace since the announcement of Cena’s appearance and amplified with the news he is wrestling on the broadcast. The hope would be to have among the largest audiences for a WWE match this year and potentially shoot a big angle involving some of your main players heading into the Royal Rumble and WrestleMania season.
**AEW president Tony Khan joined the Grapsody podcast for a 90-minute chat to cover the past year for AEW. Among the notes from the interview is that Khan appears to be more open to the idea of Ring of Honor running a card over WrestleMania weekend, although not an AEW card. Co-host Righteous Reg noted how he learned about ROH in 2010 in Phoenix over WM weekend and the idea of new fans discovering the smaller brand through that weekend. Khan added that since the news of ROH’s weekly show arriving on Honor Club, the streaming service has reached its highest number of subscribers ever where the only content available is the ROH archive. He also said he has not shopped his programming outside of Warner Bros. Discovery. He was very positive about Chris Jericho’s reign as ROH champion and added a trivia note that Jericho had eight matches as ROH champion and lost it to Claudio Castagnoli in the eighth one. Khan didn’t have anything new regarding their debut in the U.K. or when they will be able to announce it.
**Peacock will premiere its Ric Flair documentary tonight, which was produced by WWE and directed by Tom Rinaldi. Flair has hyped up the documentary and stated it’s the best one as he has frequently taken jabs at ESPN’s 30 for 30 documentary on his life from several years ago and was upset with some of the comments made by colleagues on that doc. Flair is typically an open book with his opinions in these settings but the doc will receive major grief from critics if certain aspects are not addressed or glossed over, the main one being his side of the Plane Ride from Hell story that Flair came off very badly when Dark Side of the Ring produced its episode on the subject and interviewed flight attendant Heidi Doyle. Doyle and another attendant filed a suit with Doyle alleging that Flair forced her to touch his penis and retold the story on the Dark Side episode. The sides eventually reached a settlement and Doyle remained quiet on the issue until the Dark Side piece. Flair had denied ever forcing himself on a woman but was immediately removed from the opening signature of WWE programming, which Flair blamed Nick Khan for, but Flair’s “Wooo” was quietly added back to the opening signature once the controversy dissipated. Flair’s son-in-law Conrad Thompson spoke on one of his shows and said he was interviewed for the doc but that his comments wouldn’t be part of the final edit. Unlike the Teddy Hart series (which WWE was involved with too), they have actively promoted the Flair doc on its television for weeks while they treated the Hart series like it didn’t exist even on the night when one of the episodes aired immediately after Raw on the USA Network.
**WWE kicks off one of its biggest weeks of the year for live events as they run nine events including Friday Night SmackDown in Tampa. The crews are split tonight with one show at Madison Square Garden (9,836 tickets out, per WrestleTix) and the other at the Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio (6,196 tickets out). The MSG card includes Kevin Owens appearing from Raw, plus they are advertising it as Bray Wyatt’s first appearance at The Garden in over three years.
Tuesday’s Supershow is in Atlanta (7,235) with Bray Wyatt, The Usos, Bianca Belair, and Seth Rollins advertised.
On Wednesday, they have shows in Greensboro (6,112) and Cleveland (4,534), Thursday cards are in Miami and Hershey (5,820), and Friday has a live event in Toronto (6,945) with SmackDown in Tampa (12,223). With the weekend off, the Raw crew resumes with a live episode next Monday in Nashville with Austin Theory vs. Seth Rollins for the U.S. title and Bianca Belair vs. Alexa Bliss for the Raw Women’s title. (All ticket figures courtesy: WrestleTix)
**Television numbers will be delayed this week due to the holiday. The numbers from this past Friday’s edition of SmackDown and AEW Rampage will be out Tuesday evening, the Raw number will be released on Wednesday evening, NXT on Thursday morning and Dynamite will be at the normal time of Thursday evening.
**Dragon Gate drew nearly 2,600 fans for The Final Gate 2022 card at the Fukuoka International Center on Sunday. The card was highlighted by Shingo Takagi returning to the promotion for one night and teaming with BxB Hulk to defeat YAMATO & Madoka Kikuta when Takagi pinned Kikuta after hitting Last of the Dragon. In the main event, Yuki Yoshioka retained the Open the Dream Gate title against Ben-K. The other titles matches saw KAI, Shun Skywalker & ISHIN retain the Open the Triangle Gate titles against Naruki Doi, Shuji Kondo & Toru Owashi, and Minorita won the Open the Brave Gate title by defeating H.Y.O. (Courtesy: Purolove.com)
**Kenny Omega has an in-character interview on the New Japan website promoting his match with Will Ospreay at Wrestle Kingdom 17 and returning to save the company.
**Bill Morrissey and Lexy Nair announced that they are engaged.
**WWE has put out a piece on Shelton Benjamin to mark twenty years since his call-up to SmackDown from OVW alongside Charlie Haas to form Team Angle with Kurt Angle. Benjamin had been in their system for 2 ½ years and had a very good run alongside Haas prior to their break-up in 2004 with an attempt to skyrocket Benjamin to become a main player but never took hold to the degree hoped for but has proven to have incredible longevity, leaving the company in 2010, performing for ROH and New Japan as part of Suzuki-run and returning to the company in 2016.
**A tremendous angle from Christmas Eve where Dominik Mysterio is arrested when trying to enter his family’s home with Rhea Ripley:
**Being the Elite Ep. 328 “A Crimson Christmas”.
**NXT on Tuesday night is another taped show before they return live on 1/3. The following matches are scheduled to air on Tuesday at 8 p.m. ET on the USA Network:
*Wes Lee vs. Channing Lorenzo
*Fallon Henley vs. Kiana James
*The Schism vs. Edris Enofe, Malik Blade & Odyssey Jones
*Lyra Valkyria vs. Lash Legend
*SCRYPTS vs. Ikemen Jiro
*Cora Jade vs. Wendy Choo
*Julius Creed vs. JD McDonagh
**AAA’s Noche De Campeones event is Wednesday night at 8 p.m. ET and streaming on FITE TV from Acapulco and includes FTR defending the AAA tag titles on the card. Below is the lineup:
*AAA Mega Championship: Hijo del Vikingo (champion) vs. Bandido
*AAA World Tag Team Championships: FTR (champions) vs. Dragon Lee & Dralistico
*AAA Demon Championship (Vacant): Taurus vs. Arez vs. Villano III Jr.
*Copa Mundial Imperial Match: Announced – Aero Star, Murder Clown, Vampiro, Blue Demon Jr., La Diva Salvaje, Mr. Iguana, Nino Hamburguesa, Dave the Clown, La Parka Negra, Jessy Ventura, Panic Clown & Pagano
*AAA World Trios Championship: El Cuatrero, Forastero & Sanson (champions) vs. Myzteziz Jr., Willie Mack & Aramis
*AAA Mixed Tag Team Championship: Sammy Guevara & Tay Melo (champions) vs. Octagon Jr. & Lady Shani vs. Komander & Sexy Star
*Arcano vs. Picadura Letal vs. Leyenda America vs. Gran Mazo vs. El Enganosa
**The INOKI BOM-BA-YE event takes place late Tuesday/early Wednesday at 1 a.m. ET with the following card:
*UWF Rules: Katsuyori Shibata vs. Tom Lawlor
*Josh Barnett vs. Shouma Sivixay
*Melvin Manhoef vs. Igor Tanabe
*Minoru Kimura vs. Yusuke Yachi
*Rafael Lovato Jr. vs. Taiga Iwasaki
*Albert Kraus vs. Usami Hide Meison
*Jan Soukup vs. Hideki Sekine
*Ryusei vs. Dawasakhon Bang Bang Gym
*Marcus Aurelio vs. Galore Bofando
ON THIS DATE
The legendary WWWF title run of Bob Backlund comes to an end at Madison Square Garden in 1983. The Iron Sheik defeated Backlund after Arnold Skaaland threw in the towel to save Backlund from the Camel Clutch as Iron Sheik served as the transition from Backlund to Hulk Hogan. Hogan returned to the WWF the day after this match with the famous show at the Chase Hotel in St. Louis and it was announced that Hogan would challenge for the championship three weeks later on 1/23 and kicked off his four-year run as champion.
WCW presents Starrcade in 1988 right after the sale to Turner Broadcasting and was headlined by Ric Flair vs. Lex Luger for the title that drew approximately 10,000 and $150,000 to the Norfolk Scope. It would also be Dusty Rhodes’ final Starrcade before leaving the company and returning to Florida before joining the WWF the next year.
Hulk Hogan defeated Kamala by DQ in 1986 at Madison Square Garden in a short match with the card also featuring a Tuxedo Match between Hillbilly Jim and Mr. Fuji and Fabulous Moolah against Leilani Kai among the matches on the card.
Los Guerreros take on Edge & Billy Kidman on the final episode of SmackDown in 2002:
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WRESTLENOMICS: The Fall of Vince McMahon
Vince McMahon was the most powerful man in the wrestling business. In 2022, he resigned in disgrace as WWE’s chief executive in light of multiple sexual misconduct allegations. These are the events that led up to and followed one of the biggest news stories in wrestling history.
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THE POST WRESTLING CHRISTMAS SHOW 2022
Many surprise guests stop by the POST Office to chat with John Pollock and Wai Ting for the annual POST Wrestling Christmas Show! Plus, the POST Christmas Jingle Contest!
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THE WELLNESS POLICY: 2022 (Open Calls)
Wai Ting, Jordan Goodman, and Neal Flanagan are back with The Wellness Policy to reflect on the year that was and hang out with our tremendous listeners.
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REWIND-A-DYNAMITE
John Pollock & Wai Ting review AEW Dynamite: Holiday Bash with a No DQ match between Death Triangle and The Elite in Match #5 of the series.
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