Originally published at POLLOCK'S NEWS UPDATE: Vince McMahon doc, Tales from the Territories on Vice
POST IT NOTES
**Rewind-A-SmackDown streams at 11 p.m. ET tonight for POST Wrestling Café members as Wai & I will have reviews of Friday Night SmackDown and AEW Rampage before we open the phone lines and take your feedback. We will also go over the latest news items and reflect on the past week. The show is live for Café members and available on-demand on the POST Wrestling Café and video.postwrestling.com.
**As mentioned on Rewind-A-Dynamite, for those wanting to join the POST Wrestling Café, you now can sign up at any point during the month and receive a full month of access. In the past, you were automatically billed at the end of each month regardless of when you signed up, now you will have the entire month (ex: you sign up today, you will have access until October 30th and beyond if you wish you continue). For those that join the Café today at the $6 level, it provides access to our multiple bonus shows each week (Ask-A-Wai, MCU L8R, Rewind-A-SmackDown this week alone) and nearly five years of archives including 116 editions of Rewind-A-Wai. Next Tuesday’s show will look back at WCW’s Great American Bash from 1996.
**WH Park will be joined by Gareth Hodgson of GRAPPL on The Long & Winding Royal Road this Saturday looking back at the January 1989 match between The British Bulldogs and Dean & Joe Malenko.
POST SCHEDULE
Tonight: Rewind-A-SmackDown (11 p.m. ET for Café members)
Saturday: The Long & Winding Royal Road (British Bulldogs vs. Joe & Dean Malenko)
Sunday: Wrestlenomics with Brandon Thurston, Chris Gullo & Jesse Collings
WRESTLING NEWS
**Vice TV is working on a Vince McMahon documentary, which PWinsider.com reports will air in October covering McMahon’s removal from the company as chairman and CEO. Vice has been conducting interviews over the past few months with Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Brandon Thurston of Wrestlenomics, and former WWE magazine writer & podcast host Brian Solomon noting they have been interviewed.
**Vice is also launching Tales from the Territories this Tuesday night, which is produced by Dwayne Johnson & Dany Garcia’s Seven Bucks Productions with WWE supplying panel subjects for the various episodes. The first episode covers the CWA/Memphis with a panel of Jeff Jarrett, Dutch Mantel, Jerry Lawler, Jimmy Hart, and Jerry Jarrett with the next episodes covering the Lawler vs. Andy Kaufman feud, and the AWA. Series producers Jason Eisener and Evan Husney are on today’s edition of Talk is Jericho previewing the series and revealing1 the panels for all the episodes:
*Memphis: Jerry Lawler, Jeff & Jerry Jarrett, Dutch Mantel & Jimmy Hart
*AWA: Diamond Dallas Page, Jim Brunzell, Ken Patera, Madusa & Greg Gagne
*Florida: Steve Keirn, Jerry Brisco, Bob Roop, Kevin Sullivan & Brian Blair
*Stampede: Bret Hart, Abdullah the Butcher, Dr. D David Schultz, Bobby Bass
*Portland: Len Denton, Princess Victoria, Bushwhacker Luke & the late Mike Masters
*JCP: Arn Anderson, Baby Doll, Ricky Morton & David Crockett with appearances from Nikita Koloff and Jim Cornette
*Mid-South: Jim Ross, Ted DiBiase, Michael Hayes & Jake Roberts
*World Class: Kevin Von Erich, David Manning, Brian Adias, Jimmy Garvin & Chavo Guerrero Jr.
*Polynesian Pro Wrestling: Lars Anderson, Downtown Bruno, Rocky Iaukea (son of Curtis Iaukea), and Kevin Sullivan
**Friday Night SmackDown airs from the Canada Life Centre in Winnipeg, Manitoba tonight. It is unknown what effect Hurricane Ian may play regarding talent making their way to Canada that are based in Florida. SmackDown is coming off its most-watched show in nearly two years after the success of last week’s viral campaign that led people to believe the “White Rabbit” reveal would occur on the show. Tonight’s show has the following matches listed:
*Sami Zayn & Solo Sikoa vs. Ricochet & Madcap Moss
*Bayley vs. Shotzi
*Hit Row vs. Los Lotharios
**WWE’s weekend tour includes house shows on Saturday in Regina, Saskatchewan, and Bismarck, North Dakota, and Sunday in Saskatoon. Drew McIntyre is advertised for the Canadian shows this weekend after reportedly dealing with a bad case of food poisoning last week but still went through with the angle involving Karrion Kross last Friday. McIntyre was in San Antonio this week for the Royal Rumble promotion and appeared at the Children’s Hospital.
**AEW Rampage airs tonight at 10 p.m. ET on TNT from the tapings in Philadelphia and the following matches and segments are scheduled:
*Rush vs. John Silver
*Lee Moriarty vs. Fuego del Sol
*Jamie Hayter vs. Willow Nightingale
*AEW Tag Team Championships: The Acclaimed (champions) vs. Private Party vs. The Butcher & The Blade
*Hook appears
Despite a title match on the show, it is not a strong lineup but AEW was also affected by certain talents being unavailable this week due to the hurricane in Florida. Shane Strickland, Samoa Joe, and Jake Hager were among those noted to have missed Wednesday’s taping with the three based in Florida.
**Dave Meltzer reports in the Wrestling Observer Newsletter that Bandido has been offered a full-time deal with AEW but it is not confirmed if he has signed it. The 27-year-old had the most important performance of his career this past Wednesday in terms of exposure on U.S. national television with a breathtaking main event with Chris Jericho, who deserves a ton of credit for giving Bandido the perfect showcase of his talents. Bandido headlined the All In event in September 2018 teaming with Rey Fenix & Rey Mysterio against The Young Bucks & Kota Ibushi that was reduced to less than twelve minutes and they tore it up for the time allotted. Bandido joined Ring of Honor and has been a free agent throughout the year and it was surprising he was not scooped up faster given his talent, age, the desire for a Mexican star in the country, and charisma. If Bandido signs and they can get an extended stay out of Konosuke Takeshita, those two could be major focal points for the company in 2023 along with Daniel Garcia among your rising stars.
**AEW Dynamite fell 5% in viewership and 4% in 18-49 for this past Wednesday’s show and fell to ninth among cable originals due to all the coverage of Hurricane Ian on The Weather Channel. Wrestlenomics has the quarter-hour performances that saw a big start to the show with 1,208,000 viewers and 559,000 in 18-49 for the Jericho Appreciation Society celebration. The show largely declined throughout the two hours with a spike for Jon Moxley vs. Juice Robinson but the two lowest quarters were over the final 30 minutes of the show, which included Chris Jericho vs. Bandido.
**Stardom’s 5-Star Grand Prix concludes with a pay-per-view card late tonight at 2 a.m. ET features the final round-robin matches and the finals in the main event. The Red Stars block will see Syuri vs. Risa Sera, Utami Hayashishita vs. Koguma, Maika vs. Himeka, Tam Nakano vs. SAKI, Sayaka Unagi vs. Momo Kohgo, and AZM vs. Saki Kashima. The Blue Stars include Giulia vs. Suzu Suzuki, Mayu Iwatani vs. Starlight Kid, Saya Kamitani vs. Ami Sorhei, Momo Watanabe vs. Hazuki, Natsupoi vs. Mina Shirakawa, and MIRAI vs. Saya Iida.
The Red Stars have a five-way tie between Tam Nakano, AZM, Utami Hayashishita, Syuri, and Himeka at 14 points each, and Risa Sera has 13 and would have to beat Syuri and have the other four lose their matches.
The Blue Stars block is led by Giulia with 15 points with Hazuki, Starlight Kid, and Suzu Suzuki at 14 points. The big match is Giulia and Suzuki with the winner is a strong position to win the block. Hazuki has wins over Giulia and Suzuki if it comes down to a tiebreaker.
**New Japan presents its Royal Quest II events this weekend at The Crystal Palace in London and is scheduled to be added to New Japan World sometime in October (they have not specified the dates). The shows will not be airing live on any platform including FITE TV (the last Royal Quest show in 2019 did stream on FITE but the streaming problems were a nightmare). The major storyline implication from the shows will be the result of Sunday’s main event between Tetsuya Naito and Zack Sabre Jr. to determine Will Ospreay’s next challenger for the IWGP U.S. title, which could happen next week at Declaration of Power on 10/10. The first night in London features FTR defending the IWGP tag titles against Aussie Open, Will Ospreay vs. Shota Umino, Jay White & Karl Anderson & Doc Gallows & Gedo vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi & Tama Tonga & Hikuleo & Jado, Kazuchika Okada & Tomohiro Ishii vs. JONAH & Bad Dude Tito, Zack Sabre Jr. & El Desperado & DOUKI vs. Tetsuya Naito & SANADA & Hiromu Takahashi, Michael Oku & Ricky Knight Jr. vs. Great O-Khan & Gideon Grey, Jazzy Gabert & Kanji vs. Ava White & Alex Windsor, and Gabriel Kidd vs. Dan Moloney (this will be Kidd’s first match with New Japan since January).
The second night has Naito vs. ZSJ in the main event, Jay White & Karl Anderson & Doc Gallows vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi, Tama Tonga & Hikuelo, Kazuchika Okada vs. Bad Dude Tito, Tomohiro Ishii vs. JONAH, FTR & Gabriel Kidd & Ricky Knight Jr. & Shota Umino vs. Will Ospreay & Aussie Open & Great O-Khan & Gideon Grey, Jazzy Gabert vs. Ava White in an IWGP women’s title tournament match, Hiromu Takahashi & SANADA vs. Ethan Allen & Luke Jacobs, and El Desperado & DOUKI vs. Michael Oku & Robbie X.
**Pro Wrestling NOAH will be in Fukuoka on 10/16 with the main event of Masakatsu Funaki & Kenoh vs. Kazushi Sakuraba & Hideki Suzuki and Keiji Muto teaming with Satoshi Kojima & Ninja Mack against Naomichi Marufuji, Jack Morris & HAYATA in the top matches.
**It appears that AEW is starting to downplay the rankings, which have not been updated since August 31st. It was an idea to create a sports-like feel to the matches and add value to wins and consequences for losses but often became more of an obstacle with storytelling than a helpful device. The fact is rankings in UFC and Bellator are often criticized as well, sometimes the top contender receives the next title fight, and sometimes a bigger star jumps the line. In the big picture, I don’t see the usage of rankings helping or hurting the company, but it seems like AEW will make the rankings more of a background issue than something tied to all matchmaking.
**The WWE stock closed at $70.17 on Friday.
MMA NEWS
**Saturday’s UFC Fight Night card is the mysterious event that has been closed to the public and media for the night. Reports have circulated that the closed-off nature of the show is related to Mark Zuckerberg/Meta, although Dana White refuted that being the reason, although Mackenzie Dern stated that was what she was told and reporter Ariel Helwani cited one source as telling him similarly. It’s not as if UFC is forfeiting a major gate by closing the event off from fans at the Apex but the precedent of shutting off the media is hopefully not a sign of future exercise by the promotion. There will be a curiosity regarding the atmosphere of the show and who does appear in the audience for Saturday’s card. Judging by the early pandemic cards, it was far less jarring to watch MMA without fans than professional wrestling, and for the MMA shows, it placed added emphasis on the sound from the corners and actual strikes landing. Running the UFC Apex so frequently is clearly financially motivated by the reduced cost and ability to tailor the fight cards to lesser names and use a strong enough pairing to qualify as the main event.
Below is the card for Saturday night:
MAIN CARD (7 p.m. ET on ESPN+)
*Mackenzie Dern vs. Yan Xiaoan
*Randy Brown vs. Francisco Trinaldo
*Trevin Jones vs. Raoni Barcelos
*Don Shainis vs. Sodiq Yussuf
*John Castaneda vs. Daniel Santos
*Mike Davis vs. Viacheslav Borshchev
PRELIMINARY CARD (4 p.m. ET on ESPN+)
*Ilir Latifi vs. Aleksei Oleinik
*Jesse Ronson vs. Joaquim Silva
*Brendan Allen vs. Krzysztof Jotko
*Philipe Lins vs. Maxim Grishin
*Chelsea Chandler vs. Julija Stoliarenko
*Guido Cannetti vs. Randy Costa
**Due to an illness, Jessica Penna was forced to withdraw from her fight with Tabatha Ricci prior to Friday’s weigh-in in Las Vegas. The fight was scheduled for Saturday’s prelims at the Apex.
**Bellator 286 is on Saturday night from Long Beach, California, and openly invited all members of the MMA media that were planning to cover the UFC event on the same night, which is closed to the media and public. The card is headlined by Patricio “Pitbull” Freire defending the featherweight title against Adam Borics and A.J. McKee fighting at lightweight for the first time in Bellator. Many were hopeful of a third fight between Pitbull and McKee rather than the two competing against different opponents. The main card also sees Aaron Pico attempt to extend his winning streak to seven against Jeremy Kennedy, which is a serious test for Pico, who had to systematically rebuild himself after a series of losses three years ago. The main card airs on Showtime and YouTube in Canada at 10 p.m. ET on Saturday with the following fights:
*Bellator Featherweight Championship: Patricio “Pitbull” Freire vs. Adam Borics
*A.J. McKee vs. Spike Carlyle
*Aaron Pico vs. Jeremy Kennedy
*Enrique Barzola vs. Juan Archuleta
The prelims will stream at 7 p.m. ET on YouTube and Bellator’s Pluto TV channel.
**Bellator president Scott Coker revealed on The MMA Hour this past Wednesday that the promotion is planning a Lightweight Grand Prix to begin around February 2023. The current champion at 155 pounds is Patricky “Pitbull” Freire, who has a big title defense against Usman Nurmagomedov in November.
**Eddie Alvarez was also on The MMA Hour and spoke about his plans after leaving ONE Championship with a desire to fight in the United States. Alvarez is 38 years old, which is on the high end at lightweight that has a premium on speed. He expressed a desire to fight for the UFC noting a third fight with Michael Chandler would be enticing for fans but noted the financial limitations that a UFC offer may come with compared with other organizations. He was open to the notion of a tournament format with PFL and fighting multiple times a year to keep him focused. With Bellator doing a Lightweight Grand Prix, Alvarez returning to the promotion would be a natural fit, although there are some tough fights for Alvarez regardless of the destination he opts for.
REVIEW
Impact Wrestling (Sept. 29)
RESULTS: Ace Austin & Chris Bey over Trey Miguel & Laredo Kid, Brian Myers over Crazzy Steve to retain the Digital Media title, Black Taurus over Delirious, Rich Swann & Heath over PCO & Vincent, Masha Slamovich over Allie Katch in a Monster’s Ball match
-This was the penultimate episode before Bound for Glory next Friday night in Albany, New York
-The main event was a violent match with Masha Slamovich beating Allie Katch in the Monster’s Ball match that climaxed with thumbtacks and soda cans cut in half, which Katch was dropped onto with a Snow Plough. This was Katch’s first time appearing on IMPACT and the two worked very hard, and it was very violent for a television match and would have gotten stronger with a larger audience. They have built Slamovich up exceptionally strong for this title challenge next week against Jordynne Grace and this was the latest test. It worked well.
-There was a lengthy promo segment with Honor No More and Eddie Edwards explaining that he turned on IMPACT and the fans because they turned on him first. Josh Alexander came out and they went back and forth, and you felt the length of this segment. I’m sure the match will be very good at BFG, but it hasn’t clicked as a big main event for me. Edwards as the top heel in the company is a tough fit.
-Mickie James’ next challenge comes from Mia Yim in the “Last Rodeo” at BFG where if James loses, she retires. They aired clips from a 2010 match between the two in Maryland Championship Wrestling explaining that Yim looked up to her but is no longer intimidated by the legend of Mickie James, but both are heading into the pay-per-view as babyfaces.
-Bhupinder Gujjar was all banged up in his face and stated he suffered a broken nose in the ladder match with Brian Myers that aired last week
-The opening tag match was very good with Ace Austin & Chris Bey beating Trey Miguel & Laredo Kid with a lot of acrobatic spots and ending with Bey landing the Art of Finesse followed by The Fold by Austin to pin Miguel. They only had eight minutes, but it was really good.
-Moose, Steve Maclin, Bobby Fish, and Bhupinder Gujjar added themselves to the Call Your Shot Gauntlet at BFG, which Moose won last year and cashed in his title shot at the end of the night and beat Alexander for the title
-There was an angle where a “fan” dressed in an orange hoodie had to be restrained by security when they tried to jump Tom Phillips and Matthew Rehwoldt at ringside.
-Next week’s go-home show on the night before the pay-per-view will include Moose vs. Steve Maclin with Sami Callihan as the special referee, Gisele Shaw vs. Mia Yim, Frankie Kazarian vs. Kenny King, and Matt Taven vs. Alex Shelley from the Nashville tapings. They need a big show next week as I don’t sense a lot of buzz for the promotion’s big show of the year and it’s going to be a struggle airing against two hours of SmackDown and two hours of AEW that night.
*****
MCU L8R: She-Hulk Ep. 7 Review
This week, WH Park & Rich Fann welcome Matt McEwen to talk about She-Hulk Episode 7 and his experiences as a lawyer watching the show.
*****
REWIND-A-DYNAMITE
John Pollock & Wai Ting are back to review AEW Dynamite from Philadelphia with a Title Eliminator between Jon Moxley and Juice Robinson.
*****
SHOT IN THE DARK
John Siino reviews this week’s editions of AEW Dark, AEW Dark: Elevation, IMPACT Wrestling, Women of Wrestling, NXT Level Up, NJPW Strong, NWA USA, NWA Powerrr, and WWE Main Event in under 15 minutes on Shot In The Dark.
*****
ASK-A-WAI: Ask Us Anything!
John Pollock and Wai Ting answer their patrons’ questions about anything and everything in the September 2022 edition of Ask-A-Wai.
*****
upNXT: Tastiest Snacks
Braden Herrington and Davie Portman chat all about WWE NXT from September 27th, 2022 headlined by Gallus vs Briggs & Jensen in a Pub Rules Match!
*****
REWIND-A-RAW
John Pollock and Wai Ting chat WWE Raw from Edmonton featuring Edge returning to issue a challenge, the Raw debut of Candice LeRae, and all the news from the day.
*****
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