POST NEWS UPDATE: AEW defeats NXT as Week 2 ratings decline

General
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Originally published at https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/10/10/post-news-update-aew-defeats-nxt-as-week-2-ratings-for-both-shows-decline/

By: Andrew Thompson

POST News Update

AEW

**All Elite Wrestling edged out NXT in the ratings for the second of two weeks that the two shows have been going head-to-head on their respective networks. According to Showbuzz Daily, AEW: Dynamite reeled in 1.140 million viewers and NXT drew 790,000 viewers. The TruTV simulcast of AEW added an additional 122,000 viewers to the TNT number. Both shows are down in ratings from their October 2nd shows. Last week, AEW drew 1.409 million viewers and NXT brought in 891,000 viewers.

**AEW’s Alex Marvez noted on Twitter that Kip Sabian suffered a legit injury to his finger in a dark match prior to AEW: Dynamite going live on TNT from Boston.

**The dark matches that took place prior to and after AEW: Dynamite in Boston was off the air were: Sonny Kiss vs. Peter Avalon vs. Kip Sabian, The Dark Order (Stu Grayson and Evil Uno), Angelico & Jack Evans vs. CIMA & S.C.U. (Frankie Kazarian, Scorpio Sky and Christopher Daniels). The final dark match of the night saw Kenny Omega take on Joey Janela in a unsanctioned match.

**Set for the 10/16/19 edition of All Elite Wrestling: Dynamite from Philadelphia is Chris Jericho defending the AEW World Championship against Darby Allin. Also, The Lucha Bros. are taking on Jungle Boy and Luchasaurus in a first-round match of the AEW World Tag Team Title tournament. S.C.U. (Frankie Kazarian and Christopher Daniels) are having their first-round match next week as well as they’ll take on Chuckie T and Beretta. Riho’s first AEW Women’s World Title defense is set for next week against Britt Baker.

**Owner of the Jacksonville Jaguars and father of AEW President Tony Khan, Shad Khan was interviewed by Yahoo! Finance. Shad said that AEW is not looking to compete with WWE and talked about the type of fan that AEW is looking to engage: “WWE is a great company, but we are not here competing with them. In the golden age of wrestling during the late 90s, there were 10 million fans. Now it’s down to 2 million. So we’re tapping into fans who were not engaged and quite frankly the younger fan who never got quite into it. Competition is good for everybody, but it’s very important for AEW to do our own thing.” He explained.

Shad talked about the launch of All Elite Wrestling and credited Tony for his passion and drive and just being a lifelong wrestling fan which is why he supported Tony financially with this idea that has come to fruition: “It all started with my son Tony. It was his idea, his passion, his drive as a lifelong wrestling fan — so I’ve supported him financially. He kept talking about it, that we ought to do it, and here are the reasons why we should do it. I kept stress testing the idea, and then I struck a check to fund it because if you’re going to do it, it’s gotta be right. That was the most important thing,” He said. “You don’t get a second chance to make a first impression, but his idea, his passion, and his drive, and it’s off to a great start.”

**The Washington Informer has a feature up about All Elite Wrestling’s debut show on TNT from Washington DC.

**FanSided interviewed AEW World Champion Chris Jericho and Jericho talked about the idea behind using “Judas” as his theme song and debuting it at Wrestle Kingdom 12. Jericho also praised longtime WWE composer Jim Johnston and is all for Johnston coming to All Elite Wrestling: “Judas is a song I started using at the Tokyo Dome because we’d been trying to go over to Japan, and for some reason we just couldn’t build a good enough market. I said well f–k it, we got 50,000 people in Tokyo Dome, I’ll play Judas so they’ll have to hear it. I’ll just walk really slow to the ring, at least we get one spin, and you know it has a really great vibe to it, it’s very heavy. It’s very dark and deep. It’s the perfect ring music for me. So, I don’t think there’s any need to switch it up for that.” Jericho continued, “Jim Johnston, I will say though is a genius for really figuring out the vibe and the attitude of the character to give them music that really fit. They don’t have that now. The music now is very generic, just play heavy music here. Here’s a Japanese guy, just play Japanese stringed stuff. Jim would really talk to you and see what kind of person you were. Then would really bring something out in the song that fit perfectly. So, if Jim is out there looking for a job, hopefully he gets hired because dude, he’s one of the best.”

**Joey Janela sat down with Nick and Matt Jackson for a new edition of ‘Wrestlers On The Road Ordering Room Service’ and Janela went into detail about his incident with Big Cass at a WrestlePro show in September. Janela broke everything down from his perspective and added that he felt bad for Cass because he knew Cass was dealing with some issues and reiterated that he was never going to press any charges:

“I don’t know what happened. I went outside for a smoke, and I said hello to the dude earlier and he was, ‘Hey! What’s up?’ I go outside to smoke and then he corners me. Like smacks me in the head. It wasn’t a hard smack. It just caught me off guard. I’m like, ‘What the f*ck is going on here?’ And then he starts chasing me, ‘Joey, I’m coming to kill you’
 Orange Cassidy is there and he’s starts going, ‘What the hell is going on?’ Hands in pockets, gimmick is real,” Janela said about Orange Cassidy staying in character while all this was transpiring. “And then, the dude starts chasing me around the locker room. It’s in the Rahway Rec. Center, so there’s that whole gym half that’s the locker room so, it looks like an episode of Tom and Jerry where Big Cass is chasing me around the locker room going, ‘I’m gonna shoot you. I’m gonna kill you. I got a gun,” Janela said in a cartoonish voice. “Everyone is just like, ‘What the f*ck is going on?’ So they
 I started to realize that it wasn’t a joke at all. Something was up from the night before. So they put me in a separate office and then they’re just like, ‘Stay here. Lock the door.’ This guy is 7 feet tall. I’m legit scared he it on the internet. I’m like, ‘Oh, this is crazy’, and then the next day, I feel like complete sh*t.”

Nick Jackson brought up that Joey Janela could’ve pressed charges: “Well you’re not gonna press charges anyway,” Janela said. “But the guy said he had a gun in his car and he was gonna shoot everyone. He just didn’t know what he was doing and I felt bad. Not press charges, but just tell him what was going on, get him to a hospital. I know he’s dealing with something crazy.”

**Kevin Smith and Chris Jericho appeared on The Rich Eisen Show and Smith revealed that he and Jason Mewes were scheduled to appear on the Friday Night SmackDown premiere on FOX but after the duo appeared on All Elite Wrestling’s debut show on TNT, WWE pulled Jason and Kevin from their show: “You know how big it was? Me and Jay were lucky enough to be involved. Chris There was a lot of coverage and stuff and so the next morning we were told the WWE was like, ‘You can’t come on anymore’ and they cancelled us. They did.” Jericho, Smith and Rich Eisen laughed. “They kicked me and Jay off the show. Not in a crazy, ‘Get out of here’
 felt really weird man. There’s a line drawn in the sand. They pushed us onto one side of it.”

 

Also on the show, Smith said Jericho will be playing the role of a KKK leader in the upcoming Jay and Silent Bob Reboot that releases on October 15th.

**Chris Jericho appeared on KTLA 5 to promote AEW: Dynamite.

**AEW commentator Tony Schiavone and Beau Le Blanc released the latest edition of their monthly ‘Pro Wrestling Wednesdays’ podcast for The Game 92.9. The two hosts recapped some of the latest news surrounding AEW, RAW, NXT and SmackDown. During the conversation, Tony Schiavone talked about the moment he shared with Cody Rhodes after Cody’s match against Sammy Guevara which is the first match to take place during AEW’s run on TNT: “And we were speaking of organic moments
 it’s moment — and I told Cody this: In my mind I have memorable moments in my career, but when I went into the ring and we embraced, that was a real moment. We didn’t talk about embracing, and when we embraced, he was crying. I don’t know if you saw that or not. He was sobbing, and a lot of people picked up on the fact he was crying, but he was sobbing and I held him as tight as I could and I said, ‘You did it buddy’, and I wasn’t talking about the match with Sammy Guevara, I was talking about the effort and the time he had put into the show, and now this was kind of his moment,” Schiavone said. “It was quite a moment I’ll never forget because of how close I’ve been with the family all these years and I was able to share that with him. So, that was cool. That was a great, organic moment and a real one.”

WWE

**WWE Universal Champion Seth Rollins and Roman Reigns are going one-on-one this Friday to open SmackDown and the winner of the match will earn the number one pick for their respective brand in the WWE Draft. Rollins is representing RAW and Reigns is representing SmackDown. Alex Rodriguez, Michael Che, Colin Jost, Christian Slater, Joe Buck, Troy Aikman, Jim Cramer along with a handful of other celebrities and personalities will be appearing on the SmackDown and RAW WWE Draft episodes. WWE has released the rules for the upcoming Draft:

  • Over 70 Superstars, as well as tag teams, are eligible for selection in this year’s WWE Draft
  • SmackDown will draft 30 Superstars, and Raw will select another 41 Superstars
  • Since SmackDown is a two-hour show and Raw is a three-hour show, for every two picks SmackDown makes, Raw will receive three
  • Tag teams will count as one pick unless FOX or USA Network specifically wants to pick only one Superstar from the team
  • Any undrafted Superstars will immediately be declared free agents and able to sign with the brand of their choosing

Along with the rules, here are a list of superstars that provides clarity as to which talents will be available to draft on the respective selection nights:

Friday Night SmackDown – Oct. 11

  • Raw Women’s Champion Becky Lynch
  • Roman Reigns
  • The O.C. (United States Champion AJ Styles, Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson)
  • “The Fiend” Bray Wyatt
  • Drew McIntyre
  • Randy Orton
  • Sasha Banks
  • Ricochet
  • Braun Strowman
  • Bobby Lashley
  • Alexa Bliss & Nikki Cross
  • Lacey Evans
  • The Viking Raiders (Erik & Ivar)
  • SmackDown Tag Team Champions The Revival (Scott Dawson & Dash Wilder)
  • Natalya
  • The Street Profits (Montez Ford & Angelo Dawkins)
  • Lucha House Party (Kalisto, Gran Metalik, Lince Dorado)
  • Cesaro
  • Kevin Owens
  • Humberto Carrillo
  • Akira Tozawa
  • Sin Cara
  • Eric Young
  • EC3
  • Chad Gable
  • Heath Slater
  • Drew Gulak
  • The B-Team (Bo Dallas & Curtis Axel)
  • Tamina

Raw – Oct. 14

  • Universal Champion Seth Rollins
  • WWE Champion Brock Lesnar
  • SmackDown Women’s Champion Charlotte Flair
  • Titus O’Neil
  • Intercontinental Champion Shinsuke Nakamura (with Sami Zayn)
  • Aleister Black
  • The New Day (Kofi Kingston, Big E & Xavier Woods)
  • Daniel Bryan
  • Bayley
  • Luke Harper
  • Erick Rowan
  • The Miz
  • Ali
  • King Corbin
  • Elias
  • Raw Tag Team Champions Dolph Ziggler & Bobby Roode
  • Samoa Joe
  • WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions The Kabuki Warriors (Asuka & Kairi Sane)
  • Rusev
  • Cedric Alexander
  • Rey Mysterio
  • R-Truth
  • Carmella
  • AOP (Akam & Rezar)
  • Heavy Machinery (Tucker & Otis)
  • Apollo Crews
  • Andrade
  • Liv Morgan
  • Jinder Mahal
  • Buddy Murphy
  • Mojo Rawley
  • No Way JosĂ©
  • Dana Brooke
  • Shelton Benjamin
  • Curt Hawkins & Zack Ryder
  • The IIconics (Billie Kay & Peyton Royce)
  • Sarah Logan
  • Fire & Desire (Mandy Rose & Sonya Deville)
  • Drake Maverick

**Zack Ryder posted the following message to his Instagram page regarding the upcoming WWE Draft that kicks off on Friday Night SmackDown: “The #WWEDraft starts this week. Let’s be honest, I won’t be a top draft pick. I’ll probably find out if I’m staying on #Raw or going to #Smackdown by reading @wwe.com. That’s fine. It doesn’t make me angry. It motivates me even more. I’ve made an entire career out of proving people wrong
and I fully intend on continuing that and making the most out of every opportunity. (But I sure wouldn’t mind getting drafted to #Smackdown with @thecurthawkins to add those Blue Tag Team titles to my collection) #StillHere”

**Prior to the 10/9/19 episode of NXT on the USA Network, Riddick Moss defeated Bronson Reed, and Kayden Carter bested Deonna Purrazzo in dark matches. On next week’s NXT, Tegan Nox makes her return to the black and yellow brand, Keith Lee takes on Dominik Dijakovic, Pete Dunne and Damian Priest are going one-on-one and Tommaso Ciampa makes his return to in-ring competition in a match against Angel Garza. Also, in two weeks, Roderick Strong will defend his NXT North American Championship against Velveteen Dream.

**On next week’s edition of NXT U.K. on the WWE Network, Mark Andrews and Flash Morgan Webster are defending their NXT U.K. Tag Team Titles against Wolfgang and Mark Coffey. Also, Ilja Dragunov makes his return to NXT U.K. next week.

**Advertised for the December 13th edition of Friday Night SmackDown in Milwaukee is Roman Reigns, Kofi Kingston and Charlotte Flair.

**English boxing manager and promoter Frank Warren spoke with Metro and expressed that he is weary of Tyson Fury’s activities in the WWE because he doesn’t want Fury to further open any cuts that are healing from Fury’s fight against Otto Wallin in September: “Tyson Fury loves it,” Warren said about the guest appearances on WWE. “That brawl clip doing the rounds on social media has something like 4 million views. Madness. His profile gets bigger every time and he’s doing us promoters a real favor by going on WWE. But truthfully, I don’t like the risk of his cut opening up. Tyson’s a law unto himself. It’s risky though, no doubt about that. In an ideal world I’d prefer he didn’t do it, but it’s all about the bigger picture for him. He’s a natural wrestling star.”

**Boxing promoter Eddie Hearn chatted with AB BOXING News at the Wintrust Arena. Hearn was asked about Tyson Fury’s recent appearance on WWE television and Hearn stated that it is great exposure for Fury. He jokingly added that Fury’s wrestling skills are bad.

 

**Mike Johnson of PWInsider interviewed Pete Dunne ahead of NXT’s two-hour premiere on the USA Network. Dunne talked about being a part of the NXT brand and what that means going forward with his involvement in NXT UK. Dunne expressed that he isn’t sure when he’ll be back at a set of NXT U.K. TV tapings but he would love to be involved as much as possible: “No, I’m not booked for those. I’d love to go back and forth whenever the opportunity presents itself, and I’d even love to be involved in whatever else I can to help it along. You know what I mean? Whether that be going out there and helping people at the Performance Center, whatever it is. I’d definitely want to continue to be back and forth. I can’t give you a definitive answer when I’ll be back, especially back on the network for it. That could be years or whatever,” Dunne said. “But definitely at some point I will be back there and I’m definitely still heavily involved and even if I’m just watching outside of it and then talking to the laser on the shows, trying to help wherever I can — still important to me.”

**Sky Sports also pushed out their interview with former WWE United Kingdom Champion Pete Dunne.

**Gamespot interviewed NXT Champion Adam Cole. Cole said that eventually, Undisputed ERA being on either RAW or SmackDown will open more doors for the group: “We are so focused on making sure that NXT is just the hottest brand in pro wrestling.” Cole continued, “I’m so proud of the group, that we’ve gotten this far and we ended up on the USA Network and I want to stay here, and make sure I’m a part of this wild ride that NXT is on. But you know, of course, eventually someday, the Undisputed ERA on RAW or SmackDown just creates a whole bunch of new situations for us, which would really exciting for us and the fans I think.”

**NXT Champion Adam Cole told Digital Spy that out of all the WWE legends, he would choose Shawn Michaels to join Undisputed ERA.

**WWE Hall Of Famer Mick Foley recently visited 92-year old Wilma Gibson at the Thomson Health nursing home. Gibson was the best friend of Foley’s grandmother. RochesterFirst.com documented Foley and Gibson’s reunion.

**WWE Hall Of Famer Mick Foley told ‘Metro’ that he would love to piece together promos with Bray Wyatt.

**As first reported by WWE Network News, a 1999 WCW pilot for Telemundo that never aired is coming to WWE’s streaming service. Here are the matches that are a part of that pilot:

  • Felino, Super Boy & Villano V vs. Kendo, Silver King & Venum
  • Damien, El Mosco & Halloween vs. La Parka, Salsero & Super Calo
  • Blitzkrieg, Piloto Suicida & Raul vs. El Texano, Rey Misterio Sr. & Villano III
  • Juventud Guerrera, Pirata Morgan & Psicopata vs. Hector Garza, Konnan & Rey Mysterio Jr.
  • El Mosco, Felino & Juventud Guerrera vs. Piloto Suicida, Raul & Salsero
  • Kaz Hayashi, Psychosis & Ron Rivera vs. Blitzkrieg, Kendo & La Parka
  • Fidel Sierra, Pierroth Jr., Psicopata & Ricky Santana vs. El Texano, Rey Misterio Sr., Villano III & Villano V
  • Chris Jericho, Johnny Swinger, Lenny Lane & Norman Smiley vs. Hector Garza, Konnan, Rey Mysterio Jr. & Silver King
  • Disco Inferno vs. Konnan

**ABC Action News documented Titus O’Neil’s visit with inmates at the Hillsborough County jail in Tampa, Florida.

**PaddyPower.news released part three of their chat with Sheamus. “The Celtic Warrior” talked about de

feating Daniel Bryan in a matter of seconds at WrestleMania XXVIII and that leading to the rise of Daniel Bryan in WWE: “Like that was the match that really helped launch Daniel Bryan. It actually started the night after WrestleMania. It was one of the first times we had that post-Mania RAW crowd. I knew what I was getting into before I went out too, because they were already chanting, ‘Daniel Bryan, Daniel Bryan, Daniel Bryan’. They were not happy with me. It was interesting, like a baptism of fire,” Sheamus said.

**Lacey Evans spoke with Digital Spy and talked about having to come out of character to address her planned/recorded run-in with law enforcement in Canada because of the backlash from the video: “You’re going to get judged regardless. At the end of the day I’m an entertainer and that’s what I do. Some people are going to take offense to certain things, some people are going to love things and some people are going to hate,” Lacey explained. “I’m a sports-entertainer and that’s my job,” Evans continued, “So that’s what I do and it comes with pros and cons and there’s nothing that I can’t handle. I just take it one day at a time, one video at a time and one comment at a time, which half the time sweethearts, I don’t even read.”

**Michael Mulvihill, FOX Sports Executive Vice President and Head of Strategy joined Jimmy Traina on the Sports Illustrated Media Podcast. Mulvihill stated that FOX was very pleased with the rating SmackDown did for its debut show on FOX and went into strategy and talked briefly about analytics in regard to SmackDown:

“Yeah I think that’s fair to say,” Mulvihill agreed when asked if the rating exceeded the network’s expectations. “I appreciate those comments about the marketing and promotional effort. It’s as big a push we’ve put behind something in quite a while and I think we were more than happy with the debut numbers. I’m sure you’ve seen them already. We did basically 4 million viewers for the premiere. We’re up 85% over what the show had been doing recently on USA and way up over what our network had been doing on Friday nights so, definitely a really, really positive premiere and it just brings to full fruition, a strategy that we’ve been talking about for over a year which is that we really want to take ownership of this time of year. We really want to dominate fourth quarter. We believe it’s where the most consumer spending is and we want to take some ownership of the four-day weekend,” he explained. “You know last year we launched Thursday Night Football, now we have WWE SmackDown. We’ve had a growing college football presence and of course we’ve had Sunday NFL for over 25 years so now we really feel like we’re finally in a place where we’ve got powerful content four days, every weekend, at the most valuable time on the calendar, and it’s what we’ve been sort of pointing to for a long time. It’s great to finally have it be here.”

Michael explained that FOX does not expect SmackDown to do that 4 million number every week but does expect them to beat out what SmackDown had been averaging on the USA Network: “I’m gonna probably give you a more vague answer than what you want, right?” He laughed. “Because I don’t want to put a specific number to it but I will tell you that
 I don’t think there’s a realistic expectation that we’re going to see the number that we saw last Friday every week. We know that-that was sort of an extraordinary debut and the show will now have to settle at a cruising altitude. So, without putting a precise number to it, I think we have an opportunity to be maybe double what we’d previously been doing on FOX on Friday nights which was probably 1.2 million. I’d like to think that we can be meaningfully bigger than what the show had been averaging on USA which was more like 2.2. million. So, hopefully that kind of gives you a ballpark idea of where I would expect us to be and where I’d like for us to be, without being too precise,” he shared. “If we can feel six months from now, that we have grown the show, versus what it was doing with the previous rights holder and that we have grown our Friday night primetime and provided a better lead-in for our affiliate late local news
 if we can just convert on those points, we’re gonna be happy.”

**The Firefly Fun House was used to reveal more names on the WWE 2K20 roster list. ‘Smosh Games’ has the video of the segment up on their YouTube channel.

**Diamond Resorts is partnering with WWE to offer members a special opportunity to attend Friday Night SmackDown in Las Vegas on October 11th. Here’s the official press release concerning the partnership:

LAS VEGAS, Oct. 10, 2019 /PRNewswire/ —

Diamond Resorts will offer members a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to attend Friday Night SmackDown on October 11, 2019, at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. The opportunity is part of a partnership with WWE and is the latest addition to the resort company’s groundbreaking Events of a Lifetime program. The program offers members hand-picked experiences, such as VIP dinners and exclusive, intimate concerts designed to turn any getaway into an unforgettable escape. Diamond Resorts kicked off the partnership with a sweepstakes for tickets to WWE Live at the Amway Center in Orlando, Fla. Through the company’s partnership with WWE, the winners were also treated to a backstage meet and greet with WWE Superstars Lacey Evans, Ricochet and Cesaro. Members will receive a similar level of VIP treatment this Friday in Las Vegas, including a backstage tour of Friday Night SmackDown, a private photo and autograph session with WWE Superstars, and a “First on the Floor” ringside photo opportunity. “Our guests have distinctive tastes and are looking for vacations that go beyond the typical getaway,” said Mike Flaskey, CEO of Diamond Resorts. “Through our Events of a Lifetime program and this partnership with WWE, we’re offering members exclusive access to their favorite personalities at these events.” To learn more about Diamond Resorts, visit DiamondResorts.com.

**WWE.com and the WWE Network have been recognized by the Academy of Interactive and Visual Arts with 14 total W3 Awards.

**Former WWE talent Steven Chamberland was profiled by ABC Action News Tampa. Chamberland has become a representative of sorts for fellow amputees and he formed a friendship with a young child whose leg had to be amputated.

**WWE’s Mickie James will be co-hosting the North American Music Awards on November 2nd in New York.

 

MISC.

**Edge was the latest guest on Vickie Guerrero’s podcast and the two talked about their on-screen history, the legacy of Eddie Guerrero and more topics were covered throughout the 54-minute episode.

**Rappler interviewed TJP and TJP shared that one guy who he wished he had the opportunity to wrestle that he has not wrestled yet is AJ Styles: “Maybe AJ Styles. There’s not many left that I haven’t faced that I’ve been around a while. AJ is one guy that we have shared a locker room for a long time in different places but never had a match.” He said.

**Dragon Lee is slated to compete at four Ring of Honor events next month: The Experience in Pittsburgh on Nov. 2nd; ROH Unauthorized in Columbus, Ohio on Nov. 3rd; and Survival of the Fittest Night 1 in Dallas on Nov. 9th and Night 2 in San Antonio on Nov. 10th.

**Kelly Klein versus Lana Austin has been added to Ring of Honor’s Honor United show on October 26th in Newport, Wales.

**Austin Aries is challenging Teddy Hart for the World Middleweight Championship at MLW’s Saturday Night SuperFight pay-per-view on November 2nd.

**David Lagana joined Wrestling Observer Live and talked about how important promos are in the National Wrestling Alliance. Lagana explained that if one simply has communication skills and can talk, they can find a spot in the NWA: “You have to look at the market and decide, ‘Okay, if everybody is going left, then where can we succeed?’ And
 I have talents hit me up all the time for work. I say, ‘Great, send me your best promo,’ and they go, ‘What do you mean?’ I go, ‘What do you mean? Show me your best ticket-selling promo and let me know how the show did on that promo’ and I always say if Dusty Rhodes was alive, he’d be cutting video promos on Twitter trying to sell tickets if this was in his day, and I spent a lot of time with Dusty and he used to tell me he would just write down six matches and six promos and give someone an idea and went out and did it, and that was sort of the direction we gave to the guys, and one of the stories I read today was that everybody just came off as cool and I think that’s important and that’s the direction,” Lagana said. “Just be engaging, and that feedback from the live audience when
 the fact that those people are 20 feet from the performers and they’re literally having a conversation. Nick Aldis is facing that audience and the audience is facing him. That doesn’t happen right now on 99% of wrestling television shows. They’re either talking to the hard camera and sometimes there aren’t people on that side so they’re literally talking to five rows of people while 75% of the audience is behind them. Once it happened, you heard the energy — The Dawsons who were complete unknowns connecting with the audience, based upon just simple communication skills and those are the people we want. If you can talk, you can potentially be on this show, and that is now a place where people can come and express themselves. In 60 minutes, that became very valuable.”

**Juice Robinson was interviewed by NJPW1972.com. Juice thinks that New Japan Pro-Wrestling views the IWGP U.S. Heavyweight Title as the third most important title in the company. Juice also threw out an invitation to Mikey Nicholls to team together in this year’s World Tag League tournament.

**All Japan Pro Wrestling ‘Raising An Army’ Memorial Series 2019 Results (10/9) Korakuen Hall

  • Akira Francesco def. Dan Tamura
  • Jun Akiyama, Osamu Nishimura & Ultimo Dragon def. Black Menso-re, Masanobu Fuchi & Takao Omori
  • Dylan James & Joel Redman def. Atsushi Maruyama & Zeus
  • Gaora TV Championship: Yoshitatsu (c) def. UTAMARO
  • Atsuki Aoyagi, Kento Miyahara & Yuma Aoyagi def. Hokuto Omori, Naoya Nomura & Ryouji Sai
  • Shuji Kondo, Suwama & Yusuke Okada def. Akira Raijin, Hikaru Sato & Shuji Ishikawa
  • All Asia Tag Team Championships: Jake Lee & Koji Iwamoto (c) def. KAI & TAJIRI

**Pro Wrestling NOAH ‘NOAH Premium Prelude 2019’ Results (10/9) Oyama, Tochigi, Japan

  • Junta Miyawaki def. Kinya Okada
  • Hitoshi Kumano def. Sonico
  • Atsushi Kotoge, Chris Ridgeway, Kotaro Suzuki & Yoshinari Ogawa def. Daisuke Harada, HAYATA, Tadasuke & YO-HEY
  • Sugiura-gun (Hajime Ohara & Takashi Sugiura) def. Akitoshi Saito & Masao Inoue
  • Go Shiozaki, Katsuhiko Nakajima & Naomichi Marufuji def. 50 Funky Powers (Mohammed Yone and Quiet Storm) & Shuhei Taniguchi
  • Kenou, Masa Kitamiya & Yoshiki Inamura def. Hi69, Kaito Kiyomiya & Minoru Tanaka

**Aja Perera was the most recent guest on the Women’s Wrestling Weekly podcast.

**Black Label Pro Wrestling announced their WrestleMania weekend shows for next April in Tampa, Florida.

**Kassius Ohno, Robbie Brookside and Meiko Satomura have been confirmed for wXw’s 19th Anniversary show on December 14th.

**Former 5-time TNA Women’s Knockout Champion Lisa Marie Varon (Victoria) joined DS Shin of Ring The Belle to go over the top five fan-voted moments of Varon’s career in wrestling. Here are some of the highlights from the interview:

  • Victoria wanting to wrestle Natalya more while they were together in WWE: “You know, Natalya. Nattie, Nattie Neidhart. Her and I only had one singles match and this is when she started, and it wasn’t even televised I don’t believe. I think it was a dark match and then we became a tag team so we really never fought each other. Since we were tag partners, I wanted us to break up and get into it. Do you know what I mean? Because that girl
 there’s a saying in our business: ‘She can wrestle a broomstick and make that broomstick look really good’. She’s an amazing wrestler. It’s in her blood, her family — a beautiful person too. Not just physically, she has a good heart.” Varon expressed.
  • Her 2005 angle with Christy Hemme and how that came about: “I wasn’t being used too often on TV. They wanted to push Christy Hemme and I went to Vince McMahon and I said, ‘Give me Christy. I’ll make her look like a million bucks. She doesn’t know how to wrestle, I’ll get here early and help her out.’ That kind of stuff, and we used to get there early with Ricky Steamboat, Fit Finlay, Arn Anderson to learn the basics, because she got dove into wrestling,” Varon said. “I said, ‘I promise, I’ll make her look good’ and I was actually shocked – ‘You have a match with Christy Hemme’. I was like, ‘Oh my God, I had a say. They listened to me’, and she worked her butt off man. We got there so early, like at house shows, we didn’t have to be there until 4:00 or something like that. We would get there at noon and work in the ring, that kind of stuff.”
  • Victoria’s on-screen pet tarantula in TNA was actually poisonous: “No,” Victoria responded when asked if Poison was her actual pet tarantula. “Gatorland owned it, and for Universal Studios, you had to have an animal caretaker. What is it called? A handler. Why did we need a handler? Do they have poison in it? They were like, ‘Yeah’. ‘Well, what do you do if I get bit?’ They’re like, ‘Are you allergic to bees?’ I go, ‘I don’t know’ and then that handler was getting paid more than the wrestlers. Universal, that’s a part of their policy, and every time I carried that spider I thought I was gonna get bit every single time, because my hands, you’ll see close up
 I’m . I was so like, ‘This is the night I’m gonna get bit.’”
  • Victoria explains why she is retiring from in-ring competition: “I took a big bump. I took a suicide dive which I’ve never taken a suicide dive in my career. I shouldn’t have done it but my ego
 the next day when I landed at home, I looked at my boyfriend — I said, ‘I can’t do this’. This is my last year. I still want to be good out in the ring and people to remember and not feel sorry for me, and I want to be healthy when I get older. I took up golf and I want to stay healthy. 20 years is a long career. My body hurts man,” Varon expressed. “Not to say I won’t be able to wrestle next year, the following year or something like that, but I just want to go out on top.”

**Philippine Wrestling Revolution is hosting their Homecoming show on October 12th and both Jeff Cobb and TJP are slated to be a part of the event. The promotion’s upcoming show was promoted by The Philippine Star.

**Bar Wrestling’s ‘You Got It, Dude’ Results (10/9/19) Los Angeles, California

  • Heather Monroe, Dom Kubrick & Jake Atlas def. Andy Brown, Tyler Bateman & Ray Rosas
  • Eli Everfly def. Watts
  • Los Luchas (Zokre & Phoenix Star) def. Taya Valkyrie & Joey Ryan
  • Daga def. Brian Cage
  • Tessa Blanchard def. Miranda Alize
  • The Rock N’ Roll Express (Ricky Morton & Robert Gibson) def. Yuma & BHK

**Joey Ryan told ‘Eugene Weekly’ that it makes the most sense creatively, financially and geographically for him to remain on the independent wrestling scene.

*****
Café Hangout: AEW vs. NXT Week 2, NWA Powerrr, WWE Draft
John Pollock and Wai Ting take your calls on Week 2 of the AEW vs. NXT “Wednesday Night War” and react to show ratings at the end of the broadcast. Plus, we discuss NWA Powerrr‘s unexpected popularity and discuss announced rules for tomorrow’s WWE Draft.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/10/10/cafe-hangout-aew-vs-nxt-week-2-nwa-powerrr-wwe-draft/
*****
REWIND-A-WAI #46: WWF Royal Rumble 1994 (Patreon)
John Pollock and Wai Ting review WWF Royal Rumble 1994 headlined by a 30-Man Royal Rumble Match resulting in a controversial draw between Bret Hart and Lex Luger.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/10/08/rewind-a-wai-46-wwf-royal-rumble-1994/
*****
RAR 10/7/19: Fast and Fury, Hell in a Cell Fallout
John Pollock and Wai Ting review WWE Raw following Hell in a Cell featuring Tyson Fury demanding an apology from Braun Strowman. Plus, the latest in Rusev and Lana’s ongoing marital issues.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/10/08/rar-10-7-19-fast-and-fury-hell-in-a-cell-fallout/
*****
WWE Hell in a Cell POST Show
John Pollock & Wai Ting review WWE Hell in a Cell headlined by Seth Rollins vs. “The Fiend” Bray Wyatt for the WWE Universal Championship in one of the wackiest finishes in Hell In A Cell history.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/10/07/wwe-hell-in-a-cell-2019-post-show/
*****
UFC 243 POST Show: Robert Whittaker vs. Israel Adesanya
John Pollock is joined by Phil Chertok for the UFC 243 POST Show featuring Robert Whittaker vs. Israel Adesanya from Melbourne, Australia.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/10/06/ufc-243-post-show-robert-whittaker-vs-israel-adesanya/
*****
RASD: “That’s Gotta be Cain”, The Fox Era Begins
John Pollock and Wai Ting review the debut edition of Friday Night SmackDown on Fox featuring the arrival of Cain Velasquez and Brock Lesnar’s defeat of Kofi Kingston for the WWE Championship.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/10/05/rasd-10-4-19-thats-gotta-be-cain-the-fox-era-begins-patreon/
*****

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1 Like
2

So Reigns VS Rollins is going to end in a draw then. I can hear Cole screaming “Who’s going to have the 1st pick?”

With Tag Teams potential being split up can we assume that AOP will be broken up

3

Rollins vs Reigns having a non-ending is probably a very good call. Just like Rollins vs Kofi after Wrestlemania. WWE just don’t have the guts or smarts to actually have a winner.

I don’t see AoP being split up. They wouldn’t work as singles wrestlers.

1 Like
4

If they do another non finish (which I suspect you are correct) at what point is enough enough with that philosophy.

Also whoever did this massive write up of all these interviews is amazing, thank you POST! And Andrew Thompson
@johnpollock

1 Like
5

I would think that we will see interference possibly by fiend or Brock. But non finish is only thing that makes sense

6

As long as there is a winner, I don’t care about how much interference there is but I think there will be some confusion going into the break regarding the outcome.

Regarding the AOP being split up, I was just pointing out it would be a WWE thing for them to split up a legit tag team (especially 1 they are building) instead of a mash up (B-Team)

7

Once again, why even do the match? Enticing people into watching but ultimately planning to leave them disappointed
? Great plan


8

I don’t know where to post this but big timer @johnpollock getting quoted in the USA Today:

3 Likes
9

Interesting breakup of stars setting it up for Becky #1 overall pick (only Roman and Fiend seem like competition for this slot) as Seth and Brock are not available night 1

10

I’m sure Becky and Seth end up together. Relationship is too public I think for them to split them up but who knows

11

Does anyone think they actually come out and annouce that Dana Brooke was drafted?

12

I’m assuming we will only get announcements for the top stars. I don’t think we will get “with the 41st pick of the 2019 WWE draft Raw selects No Way Jose!”

1 Like
13

I really would love to see that and the guy come out dancing and celebrating being the last pick. That would pop Vince for sure

1 Like
14

Maybe I’m stupid for still having even a little bit of faith, but I cant believe some of you actually think there will be a non-finish in the Seth/Roman match. If it wasnt for the first pick, then I could see the non-finish. Since a draft pick is on the line, I just dont see it. How the fuck are they going to determine the first pick after that? They’ll look even dumber.

15

It might have a finish but it may be a DQ from Lesnar or fiend

1 Like
16

I’m certainly jaded from the Hell In A Cell finish as I wouldn’t put it past them to at least a tease of a non-finish

2 Likes
17

Fiend interference is a great call whoever made that prediction.

1 Like
18

Its sad that it has come to that. I can see it too, but I’m giving them the benefit of the doubt, that their draft is already so fucked up, they wont possibly fuck it up even more.

19

I was wrong. I’m stupid for having faith in these idiots.

2 Likes
20

Okay what the actual fck. AEW has an Instagram post claiming 14 million viewers.