Originally published at https://www.postwrestling.com/2018/11/29/pollocks-news-update-wwe-stock-receives-strong-recommendation/
POST IT NOTES
**If you are a Double Double, Iced Capp or Espresso member of the POST Wrestling Café you can access today’s Café Hangout show here. On today’s show, we welcomed Jan Murphy to discuss this Saturday’s Chinlock Wrestling charity show in Kingston, Ontario and his excellent feature on TJ Wilson that came out this week. Plus, we took calls and went through the major news items of the day. This show will be available on our POST Wrestling YouTub channel Friday afternoon.
**On Friday, we will have our monthly ASK-A-WAI show with Wai Ting and I answer all your questions from the POST Wrestling Forum.
**We have a new edition of upNXT posted on the site with Braden Herrington and Davie Portman reviewing Wednesday night’s episode from the taping in San Jose, a review of 205 Live, and discussing the signing of Walter, as well as NXT UK, notes from this week’s shows.
**I’d highly recommend people check out this week’s British Wrestling Experience with Martin Bushby and Benno welcoming Will Cooling from Fighting Spirit Magazine to discuss the changes going on in the UK scene, the new contract for several NXT UK performers, the issue streaming restrictions could have, the long-term for the scene, Walter’s signing, the TakeOver sell out and much more. We have put this show on the main POST Wrestling RSS feed as well as BWE’s own feed.
WRESTLING NEWS
**The WWE’s stock received a positive outlook Wednesday and helped the stock grow. Barron’s posted a piece quoted Curry Baker of Guggenheim, who is very optimistic that the WWE’s television rights renewal with India will see big growth over the last deal. The WWE had previously given a timetable of the end of 2018 to announce their renewal for television rights in the UK and early 2019 for the renewal. Time is ticking down for the UK renewal news as the calendar gets set to expire. Curry believes the stock should be valued between $100 - $105 per share, a big jump from its Thursday close at $72.08.
**The XFL will be announcing their eight franchises on Wednesday, December 8th at a press conference at MetLife Stadium. The cities and venues for each team will be announced with the press conference streaming online through their website and social media channels. It was reported earlier this week by KSDK out of St. Louis that their city would get a team in the 2020 season.
**Here are the matches for Friday’s New Japan World Tag League card at Korakuen Hall, which will be streaming live at 4:30 am Eastern:
*Togi Makabe and Toa Henare vs. Shota Umino and Ayato Yoshida in the tournament
*The Best Friends vs. Yuji Nagata and Manabu Nakanishi in the tournament
*Satoshi Kojima and Hiroyoshi Tenzan vs. Juice Robinson and David Finlay in the tournament
*Minoru Suzuki and Takashi Iizuka vs. Hangman Page and Yujiro in the tournament
*Killer Elite Squad vs. Zack Sabre Jr. and Taichi in the tournament
*Tomohiro Ishii and Toru Yano vs. Michael Elgin and Jeff Cobb in the tournament
*EVIL and Sanada vs. Guerrillas of Destiny in the tournament
*Kazuchika Okada, Hiroshi Tanahashi, KUSHIDA and Rocky Romero vs. Jay White, Bad Luck Fale, Taiji Ishimori and Gedo
**All Japan continues the Real-World Tag League tournament on Friday in Kakogawa with the following tournament matches on the show:
*Naoya Nomura and Yuma Aoyagi vs. Zeus and The Bodyguard
*Jun Akiyama and Daisuke Sekimoto vs. Parrow and Odinson
*Joe Doering and Dylan James vs. Jake Lee and Ryoji Sai
**FITE TV has announced they will be carrying Wrestle Kingdom 13 on their streaming service for $34.95 on January 4th. It’s a departure from New Japan’s prior stance of keeping the show exclusively on New Japan World to subscribe for the show. It would have seemed logical to have the pay-per-view on a traditional provider because there are still people not comfortable or equipped to stream on digital platforms. However, FITE TV being a digital service, it’s hard to imagine many people opting to spend $35 on a show that can be streamed for less than $10 on New Japan World. That said, New Japan is serving many masters and to make the show available on traditional pay-per-view and go head-to-head with the AXS TV broadcast of the show Friday night wouldn’t seem feasible either.
**Tuesday’s episode of SmackDown Live averaged 2,264,000 viewers on the USA Network and was up 5% from last week’s number that was coming off the Survivor Series. The gap between Raw and SmackDown was only 104,000 viewers this week.
**Monday’s episode of Raw averaged 2,368,000 viewers on the USA Network. The show saw 2,612,000 viewers tune in for the first hour and featured a big drop throughout the show. The second hour averaged 2,382,000 viewers and the third-hour drop fell to 2,111,000 viewers. Unlike most weeks, they didn’t face big competition from Monday Night Football as the Houston Texans vs. Tennessee Titans game did the second-lowest number of the season with 9,725,000 viewers, a drop of 41% from last week’s huge game between the Kansas City Chief and L.A. Rams.
**New Japan Pro Wrestling has announced that Excalibur from Pro Wrestling Guerrilla will be calling the final three nights of the World Tag League tournament next month. The promotion has announced that Excalibur will be calling the December 6th and 7th cards along with the finals December 9th. He is a tremendous commentator as the voice of PWG and was also part of the “All In” broadcast back in September.
**Chris Charlton, who does the EGGSHELLS Podcast Companion on this site, has announced he will be part of the broadcast for Wrestle Kingdom 13 on Friday, January 4th at the Tokyo Dome. An interesting story is that is that Chris had bought a ticket for the show in case he wasn’t going to be used and is now going to be part of the team calling the event. He will be joining Kevin Kelly and Don Callis on the English broadcast for New Japan World, which will be turned around for a two-hour edited version that night on AXS TV.
**MLW and beIN Sports will be presenting their first live broadcast of Fusion next Friday, December 14th from 8-9 pm Eastern. Next week’s show will feature one hour of the television taping in Miami airing live on the network with the matches airing on the special still to be determined. MLW is taping television next Thursday and Friday from the Scottish Rite Temple in Miami, Florida. The December 14th tapings will feature Low Ki vs. Konnan in a No DQ match for the MLW title, a five-way ladder match for the middleweight title (although MJF is likely off the show due to injury), Rich Swann vs. Rush, and Tommy Dreamer vs. Brian Pillman Jr. in a Singapore Cane match.
**The WWE’s annual Tribute to the Troops show will take place next Tuesday from Fort Hood, Texas. They have announced when the special will be airing.
**Destiny Wrestling out of Mississauga, Ontario has announced that Pete Dunne and Tyler Bate are coming for their January 20th card at the Don Kolov Arena. Dunne will be defending the Destiny championship against Josh Alexander and Tyler Bate will face Aiden Prince. The show is a live event only and won’t be streaming.
**Puerto Rican wrestler Cuervo has been released from hospital following the vicious attack by wrestler Angel o Demonio on November 19th in Mexico City. Cuervo was hit with a legitimate cinder block that Angel o Demonio threw at Cuervo from the ring and hit him in the back of the head. Cuervo underwent surgery last week to have a blood clot removed and a benefit show was held to assist with his medical bills last week in Naucalpan. The commission in Mexico has suspended Angel o Demonio indefinitely.
**I caught Wednesday’s UK title match between Pete Dunne and Jordan Devlin on the NXT UK program. The match was excellent with Devlin taking Dunne to the limit with a Spanish Fly off the steps to the floor, a Spanish Fly off the top and a great spot removing Dunne’s mouthguard and superkicking him in the mouth. At every turn, Dunne kicked out and the audience fell in love with the match. Dunne’s selling is top level and one of my favorite spots I’ve seen in a while featured Dunne hitting the Bitter End but was so run down, he used his last bit of energy to turn and drape his arm onto Devlin, who got out of the way. It just hit home the exhaustion factor and the conveyed the struggle with such a simple pin attempt. Dunne finally applied a triangle and rolled over on top and snapped the fingers forcing Devlin to submit at 15:10.
**The final of the NXT UK women’s tournament also aired on Wednesday with Rhea Ripley defeating Toni Storm to become the first champion. Ripley got the advantage after a back body drop to Storm onto the edge of the apron, which messed up her back for the rest of the match. The finish played into the match-long injury as Storm went for Storm Zero and her lower back gave out, allowing Ripley to capitalize and hit the Riptide pump handle slam and stack Storm and get the win in 9:26. Paul Levesque and Johnny Saint presented the title to Ripley. The also women on the roster came out on the stage and applauded Ripley. I feel Ripley has been one of the most improved women on the WWE roster this year since the 2017 Mae Young Classic. She’s become very confident and plays the heel role well with the Tegan Nox match being the eyeopener to me. It was awful what happened to Nox, but Ripley never showed hesitation and always seemed in control despite the match falling apart and having to call the audible.
**Sports Illustrated has announced that John Cena will be presented with the Muhammad Ali Legacy Award on December 11th in Los Angeles. The award is being presented to Cena for his work as a philanthropist and joins past winners Magic Johnson, Jim Brown, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Colin Kaepernick.
**Next week’s episode of the Mixed Match Challenge will feature the two quarter-final matches featuring the SmackDown teams. On the one side, it will feature Charlotte Flair and Jeff Hardy against R-Truth and Carmella and the other quarter-final match will feature The Miz and Asuka taking on Jimmy Uso and Naomi. The Raw semi-final match will take place December 11th with Jinder Mahal and Alicia Fox against Bayley and Finn Balor. The finals will take place at the TLC show on December 16th.
**Tommy Dreamer has launched the House of Hardcore podcast. On the first show, Dreamer describes how he met Paul Heyman and how he was put in touch with him.
**The UFC has made the official announcement that Ben Askren will make his promotional debut at UFC 233 on January 26th against Robbie Lawler in Anaheim, California. Askren hasn’t fought since November 2017 for ONE Championship, which is the promotion he fought for since leaving Bellator in 2013. The 36-year old Lawler last fought in December 2017 and dropped a unanimous decision to Rafael dos Anjos. The UFC 233 card will also feature a flyweight title fight between Henry Cejudo and T.J. Dillashaw.
MMA NEWS
**The UFC’s first of two cards this weekend takes place Friday night from the from The Pearl Theatre in Las Vegas with the TUF Finale card. The two TUF final fights are now set and here is the complete card with results from Thursday’s weigh-in:
MAIN CARD (10 pm Eastern on FS 1)
*Rafael dos Anjos (170) vs. Kamaru Usman (170.5)
*Justin Frazier (264) vs. Juan Francisco Dieppa (260) in the heavyweight final
*Macy Chiasson (144.5) vs. Pannie Kianzad (145) in the women’s featherweight final
*Pedro Munhoz (135.5) vs. Bryan Caraway (135.75)
*Darren Stewart (185) vs. Edmen Shahbazyan (185.5)
Ji Yeon Kim (130.5) vs. Antonina Shevchenko (124.5)
PRELIMINARY CARD
Rick Glenn (148.5) vs. Kevin Aguilar (144)
*Alex Perez (126) vs. Joseph Benavidez (125.5)
*Maurice Greene (259) vs. Michel Batista (262.5)
*Leah Letson (146) vs. Julija Stoliarenko (145.5)
FIGHT PASS CARD
*Darrell Horcher (155) vs. Roosevelt Roberts (155.5)
*Tim Means (170.5) vs. Ricky Rainey (170.5)
*Chris Gutierrez (135.5) vs. Raoni Barcelos (135)
Ji Yeon Kim missed weight by 4.5 pounds and Rick Glenn missed the limit by 2.5 pounds. ESPN’s Ariel Helwani reported that Kim will be fined 30% of her purse but the fight with Shevchenko will take place. Glenn will forfeit 20% of his purse for missing weight, but will still fight.
**Following Dana White’s comments regarding Oscar De La Hoya being a “cokehead” and ripping apart the decision to allow Chuck Liddell to fight this past Saturday, De La Hoya issued the following response on Wednesday:
Dana is so small and threatened by our success with DAZN and now in MMA that he is bringing up news from a decade ago to try to stay relevant. Boxing has entirely rejected him. And, MMA fighters are now realizing they don’t have to risk their lives just so he can get rich. Golden Boy and I are moving forward and are bigger than ever. Dana should shut the f*ck up and try to figure out how to save his own company.
**UFC strawweight Cynthia Calvillo is coming off a win over Poliana Botelho earlier this month in Argentina and will turn around to fight at UFC 233 on January 26th. The Orange County Register reported first that Calvillo will fight Cortney Casey at the card in Anaheim, California. Calvillo was suspended for nine months by USADA after failing an in-competition drug test for her fight with Carla Esparza in December 2017 with Calvillo testing positive for marijuana metabolites. Casey snapped a two-fight losing skid in her last outing with a split decision win over Angela Hill in August.
**ONE Championship has announced that they have signed 43-year old Yoshihiro Akiyama, who has not fought in three years. Akiyama became a big star for K-1 on their Hero’s cards but received scrutiny after it was discovered he greased prior to a fight with Kazushi Sakuraba in 2006. Akiyama fought four more times in Japan before signing with the UFC in 2009. Akiyama posted a 2-5 record for the UFC with his last fight taking place in November 2015 where he dropped a split decision to Alberto Mina.
upNXT 11/29/18: Big Lads Wrestling
Braden Herrington & Davie Portman chat this week’s episode of WWE NXT from San Jose featuring Lars Sullivan vs. Keith Lee, Oney Lorcan & Danny Burch vs. The Mighty, a Dijak promo and more!
https://www.postwrestling.com/2018/11/29/upnxt-11-29-18-big-lads-wrestling/
BWE 11/28/18: NXT UK, Walter, OTT Redemption, EVE She-1, ICW Fear & Loathing
Martin & Benno are joined by Will Cooling from Fighting Spirit Magazine to discuss all the major news regarding recent NXT UK contract changes. They look at how this will affect the UK scene from every angle.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2018/11/28/bwe-11-28-18-nxt-uk-walter-ott-redemption-eve-she-1-icw-fear-loathing/
DOUBLE SHOT 11/28: WWE Starrcade, Edge & Christian Show, Being the Elite, Ronda Rousey and Daniel Cormier docs
John Pollock and Wai Ting review the WWE Starrcade test, Edge & Christian’s season-premiere, Being the Elite & a pair of UFC documentaries on Ronda Rousey & Daniel Cormier, plus the New Japan World feature on the LA Dojo.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2018/11/28/double-shot-11-28-wwe-starrcade-edge-christian-show-bte-rousey-and-cormier-doc/
REWIND-A-SMACKDOWN 11/27/18: Women’s TLC announced, Jeff Hardy’s anniversary, CM Punk speaks
The Target Center in Minneapolis was the site of SmackDown Live Tuesday with a Battle Royal to determine the third member of the first women’s TLC match next month involving Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair, Randy Orton and Rey Mysterio continued their feud with another attack, and Jeff Hardy’s 20th anniversary celebration was ruined by Samoa Joe.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2018/11/28/rasd-11-27-18-womens-tlc-announced-jeff-hardys-anniversary-cm-punk-speaks/
RAR 11/26/18: Baron Corbin’s Raw, WWE’s UK moves, Larry Matysik
WWE was in Milwaukee for Raw and featured Baron Corbin’s heel unit destroying babyfaces Finn Balor and Elias, Dean Ambrose gets vaccinated from the audience, Seth Rollins held an Open Challenge for the Intercontinental title. We also discuss WWE making several big moves with the NXT UK brand and the passing of Larry Matysik.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2018/11/27/rar-11-26-18-baron-corbins-raw-wwes-uk-moves-larry-matysik/
GOLDEN BOY MMA: Chuck Liddell vs. Tito Ortiz POST Show
John Pollock & Mike Bohn from USA Today and MMA Junkie chat about Golden Boy MMA’s first card featuring Chuck Liddell fighting Tito Ortiz.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2018/11/25/golden-boy-mma-chuck-liddell-vs-tito-ortiz-post-show/
EGGSHELLS PODCAST COMPANION: 2011 w/ Mike Sempervive
Episode 23 sees Chris Charlton and Mike Sempervive look at 2011. NJPW‘s cross-promotion with TNA and NOAH in the Dome sees some strange results as Toru Yano faces Rob Van Dam, Tetsuya Naito squares off with Jeff Hardy and Kazuchika Okada makes a surprisingly nondescript return.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2018/11/24/eggshells-podcast-companion-2011-w-mike-sempervive/
REWIND-A-WAI #24: AAA & IWC’s WHEN WORLDS COLLIDE 1994
John Pollock & Wai Ting review the highly-acclaimed When Worlds Collide event from November 1994 and welcome Rob Bihari to the show to chat about the card, the legacy of the event, Art Barr, AAA’s expansion attempts and more.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2018/11/23/rewind-a-wai-24-aaa-iwcs-when-worlds-collide-1994/
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