Originally published at https://www.postwrestling.com/2023/04/24/pollocks-update-aew-tnt-report-stardom-ppv-delivers/
POST IT NOTES
**Rewind-A-Raw is live at 11 p.m. ET as we go through the top news stories and discuss tonight’s episode of WWE Raw from Chicago. We will also speak about Stardom’s All-Star Grand Queendom, TripleMania XXXI, the latest on the WWE-WBD story, Jeff Shell out at NBC Universal, SmackDown ratings & more. You can stream Rewind-A-Raw live on the POST YouTube channel.
**For POST Café members, we have an excellent review of the Stardom pay-per-view from Bruce Lord and Karen Peterson. It features a complete review of Sunday’s card from the Yokohama Arena with multiple title changes and several incredible matches on Stardom’s biggest event in the promotion’s history. The show is available for all members of the POST Café.
**Wrestlenomics Radio covers the pending craziness of the AEW & WWE media rights negotiations and relying on Bing Chat for additional guidance. Brandon Thurston, Chris Gullo & Jesse Collings also discuss the business Stardom generated at the Yokohama Arena, a comparison to past all-female shows, and James Andrew Miller’s comment regarding possible interest by WBD in WWE programming.
**The N.W.A. Podcast featured former WWE writer and POST alumni Brian Mann chatting with Nate Milton, Andrew Thompson & Kris Ealy on the booking at WrestleMania 39, Roman Reigns vs. Cody Rhodes, notes from L.A. that week, WaleMania, and the post-Mania period for the company. The guys also discuss CM Punk’s expected return, the Mississippi welfare scandal involving the DiBiases, and whether Kris ran into Omos during ‘Mania Week.
POST SCHEDULE
Tonight: Rewind-A-Raw with John Pollock & Wai Ting (11 p.m. ET)
Tuesday: upNXT – Spring Breakin’ Review (10:15 p.m.)
Wednesday: Rewind-A-Dynamite
Thursday: Pollock & Ting – TALK (Patreon)
WRESTLING NEWS
**Andrew Zarian of the Mat Men Podcast reports that TNT is the frontrunner to land the yet-to-be-announced Saturday night show from AEW. The series, expected to be named ‘Collision’, would be airing on the same network that houses Rampage and was the home of Dynamite from October 2019 until moving to TBS in January 2022. Last week, the Wrestling Observer reported that the United Center in Chicago has been booked for 6/17, which would coincide with a tentative return of CM Punk and likely be the launch of the new series. The tentative start date would coincide with the end of the NBA playoffs with the finals only lasting until 6/18 at the latest with no game being played that Saturday.
**AEW Rampage ratings are delayed until Tuesday due to its Saturday night airing.
**STARDOM presented the biggest card of the promotion’s thirteen-year history on Sunday at Yokohama Arena. All-Star Grand Queendom drew an announced crowd of 5,539 and included five title changes and was one of the best cards of the year. The key stories included Tam Nakano winning the World of Stardom Championship, which was my pick for the match of the show and was an extremely hard-hitting match and included a vicious headbutt by Giulia to the back of Nakano that generated a ‘Jesus Christ’ out of Chris Charlton. From an emotional standpoint, Maika’s win over Himeka was very strong in Himeka’s final match with Stardom as she will officially retire after a match later this week on a co-promoted event with WAVE. The last five matches of the show were exceptional, and I’d place Giulia vs. Nakano, Saki Kashima vs. Mina Shirakawa, and Syuri vs. Chihiro Hashimoto as the top three, in my opinion. This card was loaded and you could not ask for a better event as a showcase for new viewers of the promotion. Another strength was having English commentary as Charlton adjusted very well to the role of play-by-play with Sonny Gutierrez and Mariah May on the broadcast. I was very impressed with May’s work on commentary and should be a regular feature from Stardom for its major shows.
**AAA held a press conference for TripleMania XXXI on 7/15 in Tijuana. The big news is that the promotion has finally secured Kenny Omega for a rematch with El Hijo del Vikingo for the Mega Championship on that card. The two had a spectacular match on the 3/22 edition of AEW Dynamite, which Omega won and was not contested for the Mega Championship. The match will be taking place on a Saturday night, so in theory, it could be airing head-to-head with the yet-to-be-announced AEW television show that night. AAA has announced three matches for the 7/15 card at Estadio de Los Toros de Tijuana with four more to be announced:
*AAA Mega Championship: El Hijo del Vikingo © vs. Kenny Omega
*Guerra de Rivalidades: Psycho Clown & Sam Adonis vs. Rush & L.A. Park (the losers will meet in a Hair vs. Mask match on 8/12 at the third TripleMania XXXI card)
*Copa TripleMania: Team Tijuana (Nicho & TBA) vs. Team Mexico City (Negro Casas & TBA)
**The Allstate Arena in Chicago is sold out for WWE Raw and will be one of the largest crowds for the program this year. Bad Bunny returns to the show after the injury angle on 4/3 after WrestleMania and should set up Bunny’s role for the Backlash card in Puerto Rico. Below is what they have advertised for tonight:
*Rey Mysterio vs. Damian Priest
*Bad Bunny returns
*Triple H to make an announcement
**In Canada, WWE Raw is going to be adversely affected by airing at the same time as Game 4 of the Toronto Maple Leafs vs. Tampa Bay Lightning, which commands a massive audience in the country. Game 1 of the series did just over 2.2 million viewers, which is a giant audience for Canada. Raw will also be affected by being moved from Sportsnet 360 to the smaller OLN for the second week in a row.
**Jeff Shell, who was the CEO of NBC Universal, is out of the company after the discovery of an ‘inappropriate relationship’ with a female in the company. An investigation was completed with Shell acknowledging the inappropriate relationship and stating he deeply regretted it. Shell rose the ranks and was named CEO of NBC Universal in 2020. A complaint was launched over the past month with an investigation launched. There is no replacement named but those previously working under Shell will report to Comcast president Mike Cavanagh.
**Mercedes Moné is confirmed for the NJPW Resurgence event on 5/21 in Long Beach, California, but no opponent or match has been revealed. Moné lost the IWGP Women’s Championship to Mayu Iwatani on Sunday’s All-Star Grand Queendom event but it was reported hours before the match that she had signed an extension beyond the 4/23 match. The card in Long Beach will include a match between Hiroshi Tanahashi and Will Ospreay with the winner advancing to face Lance Archer at Dominion in June.
**A reader of ours pointed out that at the beginning of the year, TSN stopped offering Dynamite and Rampage replays on demand with a short window for the most recent episodes. On the TSN site, they offer the previous episodes of Dynamite and Rampage over the past week, but it seems they are deleted shortly after, whereas all the episodes prior to the start of the year are available.
**Last Thursday’s episode of IMPACT Wrestling averaged 133,000 viewers and approximately 39,000 (0.03) in the 18-49 demographic, which ranked #125 among cable originals. This was the show following Rebellion and included a ‘Changing of the Guard’ ceremony with Steve Maclin in the main event segment and the announcement that he will defend the IMPACT Championship against PCO at Under Siege next month. (Showbuzz Daily and Wrestlenomics)
**NJPW’s Road to Wrestling Dontaku tour is in Kochi on Tuesday with SANADA, Taichi, Yoshinobu Kanemaru & DOUKI against Tetsuya Naito, Shingo Takagi, Hiromu Takahashi & BUSHI in the main event. The tour continues Wednesday in Ehime, Thursday in Hiroshima, and Wrestling Satsuma no Kuni this Saturday in Kagoshima with Shingo Takagi vs. Taichi in a ‘Takagi Triad’ match for the KOPW Championship.
**Being the Elite Ep. 344: ‘Takeshita’.
**The WWE stock closed at $109.17 on Monday. Their market cap sits at $8.13 billion.
*****
WRESTLENOMICS: WWE and AEW media rights renewal mania
AEW partner WBD is supposedly interested in WWE rights, key questions for media rights outlook, Stardom at Yokohama Arena, and AEW has reportedly booked United Center for a CM Punk return in June.
*****
STARDOM All Star Grand Queendom Review
Karen Peterson and Bruce Lord review STARDOM’s All-Star Grand Queendom from Yokohama Arena, the biggest event in the promotion’s history. Featuring Giulia vs. Tam Nakano for the World of STARDOM Championship.
*****
THE N.W.A. PODCAST: Hard Times
Brian Mann joins The Advocates to discuss the fallout from WrestleMania 39, thoughts on the WWE-UFC merger, CM Punk’s potential return to AEW and more.
*****
REWIND-A-SMACKDOWN
John Pollock and Wai Ting review WWE SmackDown with Solo Sikoa vs. Matt Riddle in a No DQ match. Plus, more on CM Punk’s potential return.
*****
REWIND-A-WAI #129: All Wheels Wrestling “Pilot”
John Pollock & Wai Ting review All Wheels Wrestling, a motorsports-themed pro wrestling pilot produced by TNA Wrestling and pitched to Speed Channel in 2011.
*****
THE WELLNESS POLICY: Mental Health in Pro Wrestling
Wai Ting, Jordan Goodman and Neal Flanagan are joined by Carl Martin, licensed therapist and active professional wrestling manager, to talk about mental health care and culture in wrestling.
*****
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