Originally published at https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/09/19/post-news-update-nxt-draws-1-179-million-viewers-on-the-usa-network/
POST Wrestling News Update
By: Andrew Thompson
**NXT’s debut episode on the USA Network reeled in 1.179 million viewers according to Showbuzz Daily. The number represents hour one of the program and hour two occurred on the WWE Network. NXT will fully move over to the USA Network beginning on October 2nd.
**All Elite Wrestling confirmed that the name of their weekly television series on TNT will be entitled ‘All Elite Wrestling: Dynamite’. The first episode of AEW Dynamite will feature the crowning of the first-ever AEW Women’s World Champion, The Elite (Kenny Omega and The Young Bucks) versus Chris Jericho and two mystery partners, MJF versus Brandon Cutler, Sammy Guevara versus Cody and an appearance from Jon Moxley.
**Paul “Triple H” Levesque spoke with the media following the 9/18/19 edition of NXT on the USA and WWE Networks. Here are a few notes from the media call:
* Triple H expressed to the NXT roster that it would be difficult to top what they did on the debut show.
* One major concern was the pacing of the show due to commercials. Triple H feels that things were handled well.
* He stated that last night’s episode was about character building being presented in a different manner than usual but a matches-only format won’t always be on the schedule.
* In regards to Lio Rush’s return, that has been in the works for quite some time and he praised Rush and Oney Lorcan for their performance.
* Vince McMahon kept in contact with Triple H throughout the day and was seemingly excited. Triple H received a congratulatory text from Vince after the show and added that Vince embraces the uniqueness of NXT.
* Triple H stated that Tommaso Ciampa is close to being cleared to return.
* Triple H expressed that there is no wiggle room on the USA Network as they have hard outs that NXT would not have on the WWE Network.
* Audio from the media call can be heard on Wrestlezone Radio.
**FOX Sports announced a special ‘Blue Carpet’ pre-show to celebrate SmackDown’s arrival on FOX on October 4th. ‘SmackDown’s Greatest Hits’ will air on September 27th which will be hosted by Charlotte Flair and The Miz. On September 29th, John Cena narrates ‘WrestleMania’s Legendary Moments’.
**An All Elite Wrestling commercial aired for some viewers during NXT’s debut on the USA Network.
**Ariel Helwani of ESPN is reporting that former WWE star Jake Hager will have his third MMA bout on October 25th at Bellator 231 at the Mohegan Sun Casino & Resort in Connecticut. The 2-0 Hager is set to take on the 4-2 Anthony Garrett and the fight will be a part of the show’s main card.
**Sonya Deville talked to Sports Illustrated about coming out about her sexuality on the 2015 season of Tough Enough and how that allowed her to live her truth:
“I remember my life four years ago before I came out on Tough Enough, and that was before I was even really openly gay with anyone other than my mom, my dad, and my closest friends,” said Berenato. “I remember being asked by Triple H on the season premiere of Tough Enough, ‘Are you in a relationship?’ I froze, not expecting that question. My thought bubble was, ‘I can’t lie, and my girlfriend will kill me if I say that I’m single on a reality TV show.’ But I wasn’t ready to say out loud, ‘Yes, I have a girlfriend.’ I hadn’t said it out loud by that point, but looking back at that moment, it was the best thing that ever happened to me. It forced me to tell the truth, which made me live my truth. Now, it’s a complete 360 from where I was four years ago. Not only am I comfortable with my sexual orientation and talking about it, but I also take pride in spreading the message that it’s OK to be whoever you want to be.”
**A number of Twitter users spoke out about the issues they were having with trying to log on to the WWE Network for the second hour of NXT on 9/18/19. Once the issue was resolved, WWE sent out the following email to those who were not able to catch the last hour of the show:
“You may have experienced a technical issue with WWE Network earlier this evening. The matter has been resolved, and you can now access the Network and watch tonight’s episode of NXT on demand. We apologize for any inconvenience.”
**Former WWE star Marc Copani, better known by most as Muhammad Hassan was profiled by Syracuse.com. Copani is currently the principal at Fulton Junior High School in New York. Copani shared that he was heartbroken by how quickly his WWE career came to an end because he gave his all to the company:
“I was heartbroken,” he said. “I put everything I had into the WWE and had it all taken away from me. I just withdrew from wrestling altogether.”
Marc returned to in-ring competition in 2018 for ‘The Dynasty’ promotion. He wrestled on three separate occasions for said promotion but told Syracuse.com that he is never wrestling again because he does not enjoy it the way that he used to.
**Wrestlezone conducted an interview with Thunder Rosa.
**Lio Rush earned a shot at the WWE Cruiserweight Championship on the 9/18/19 edition of NXT by defeating Oney Lorcan. Rush last wrestled in March of 2019 and he was last featured on WWE programming in April after WrestleMania 35. Also, on next week’s edition of NXT TV, Dakota Kai will make her return after suffering a torn ACL in December of 2018. After NXT went off the air on the WWE Network, NXT GM William Regal appeared and alerted Killian Dain and Matt Riddle that their Street Fight will resume on next week’s episode of NXT on the USA Network. The winner of the match will challenge Adam Cole for his NXT Championship.
**Sportskeeda interviewed AEW co-Executive Vice President Kenny Omega and Omega shared his thoughts about AEW and NXT beginning their head-to-head series on October 2nd:
“You can call it a war if you want. It’s like, to me, we’re in a completely different kind of business. I mean what they’re doing is different from what we’re doing. It’s weird, because it’s hard to say you’re going to war with people that I call my friends, and yet, we are going to war, and yet, when I sit back and look at the grand picture, I’m going to war with these dudes that, if we were on the same show together, the same promotion… let’s pretend there were no borders. Let’s pretend there were no promotions. Let’s just pretend there’s just one big promotion. If these guys were in the same show as me, they’d be in the dark match.” Omega said. “They’d be in the opening match of my main event match. You wanna call that a war? You wanna call that competition? Go ahead. Maybe it’s fun for you to do. That’s cool. But we’re different planets, and you’re going to see that right away, when you see 10,000+ arenas sold out. You’re going to see smiles on fans’ faces. You’re going to see real stars. Not developmental talent but real stars appearing on your television sets, every week.” Omega said.
**Vickie Guerrero launched her ‘Excuse Me: The Vickie Guerrero Show’ podcast.
**Joey Janela’s vehicle was broken into while in Philadelphia and his wrestling gear was stolen.
**UFC Hall Of Famer Ken Shamrock joined Busted Open Radio with Dave LaGreca and Tommy Dreamer and discussed the differences between MMA and professional wrestling. Shamrock said that he has had far more injuries in wrestling than he has in MMA:
“Well, I think that there’s a competition . People always wanna say, ‘Well, MMA, those guys are blockheads. They don’t have any ability to entertain. They’re just focused. They go in there and they do this’ but, these wrestlers — you hear it all the time. ‘That guy could really do well. He could kick his ass if he wanted to’ and just disrespect without even having to do it, and then on the flip side of that, then you’ve got actual pro wrestlers who kind of do the same thing — even the fans and even on the MMA side do the same kind of thing when they say wrestling is fake, and I’m just like, ‘Dude, you need to back up on that’ because I’ve done both and I’ve been injured more in pro wrestling than I was in MMA and No Holds Barred.” Shamrock said. “‘Well how is that possible?’ I say, ‘Well, one is because I was damn good at No Holds Barred and MMA and I’d go in for one minute and I’d win. But when I went into pro wrestling, we had to go in there and we had to put on a show and we had to get thrown and slammed through tables and chairs to the face and sticks and you name it. Whatever they could bring up – trash cans. I mean that’s a lot of abuse on your body and it’s not just one night a week. Sometimes it’s four times in one week, 360 days if you’re on the road working hard like that and I got beat up a whole lot more doing pro wrestling than I ever did in MMA.”
**The ‘Kings of Insanity’ Deathmatch is returning for ICW’s ‘Fear & Loathing XII’ event as the ICW Tag Team Champions Aspen Faith and Lewis Garvin defend their titles against Krobar and Stevie James.
**Oliver Carter is appearing on the 9/25/19 episode of NXT UK. Also scheduled for next week’s episode is Noam Dar versus Trent Seven. On the October 2nd episode of NXT U.K., Tegan Nox will take on the current NXT U.K. Women’s Champion Kay Lee Ray in a non-title match.
**Night one of Ring Of Honor’s Survival Of The Fittest tournament takes place on November 8th in San Antonio, Texas and night two of the tournament on November 9th will emanate from Dallas, Texas.
**Sami Callihan spoke about the comradery within the IMPACT Wrestling roster during his appearance on Busted Open Radio:
“I think right now, IMPACT has one of the best locker rooms its ever had because, for the most part, everybody is on the same page and everybody is friends.” Sami shared. “That’s one of the biggest things. There’s not a lot of people trying to stab each other in their backs. There’s not a lot of people trying to b*tch and complain. Everyone in that company right now, for the most part, is friends and they’re all working together to get to that next level together because we all put this company on our back and wanted to give it a chance to become what it used to be and maybe, possibly better.”
**A man was arrested this past Monday inside the Thompson-Boling Arena in Knoxville, Tennessee where WWE RAW took place. Tyler Bolinger reportedly recorded an officer and other individuals while using a restroom. WVLT 8 notes that Bolinger has been charged with “disseminating unlawful photographs and public intoxication”. The officer stated that he was working the WWE event and as he made his way out of the restroom, he received word from a father and his son that they saw a man recording others in the restroom. The father and son then pointed out Bolinger and Bolinger denied the accusations and showed the officers his photos. The report notes that the officer found an image with his uniform in it that was taken via Snapchat. Bolinger later admitted that he recorded the officer and another man urinating. Bolinger told officials he had five-to-six alcoholic beverages. He was expected to appear in court on September 17th.
**During an interview with SPORTbible, Matt Riddle responded to Goldberg’s comments over the weekend in-which Goldberg questioned who Matt Riddle is and stated that he doesn’t answer questions about those who have not made it yet. Riddle had the following to say to Goldberg:
“Well I mean he’s full of it because he knows who I am. I mean I saw him at SummerSlam, we talked multiple times, almost got into an altercation.” Riddle said. “That’s his way of deflecting. I don’t think he wants to deal with me. That’s his way of dealing with it. I think he knows he’s in over his head. Like I said, it’s his way of defending himself. When we talked, I basically said he couldn’t wrestle, he said I was being disrespectful, and I told him I wasn’t because I was telling the truth. The way I look at it, if you tell the truth then it’s not being disrespectful. I look at it like that. We agreed to disagree and that’s where we ended.” Riddle continued, “I think him responding the way he is, he knows I have hype and he doesn’t want to feed into it.”
**‘East Anglian Daily Times’ ran a story about professional Soccer player James Norwood’s first pro wrestling match.
**Brody King and PCO versus RUSH and Dragon Lee is set for Ring Of Honor’s post-Death Before Dishonor TV taping.
**Ricky Starks will be present at the NWA TV tapings on September 30th and October 1st in Atlanta, Georgia.
**Eli Drake joined Jason Powell on the Pro Wrestling Boom podcast and dove into his interactions with former NXT head trainer Bill DeMott. Drake stated that he could’ve approached some of the misunderstandings between himself and DeMott differently but brought up several occasions where situations escalated when they shouldn’t have:
“Look, it wasn’t what a lot of guys said they dealt with in FCW and some of it… some of it I’m sure I could’ve reacted differently to it but I mean, you’re looking at a guy who’s the head coach, who’s essentially supposed to be the picture of leadership in a certain way, right? Since he’s the head coach and when you go in the morning and shake a guy’s hand and he just looks at your hand and walks away, it’s a little off-putting because I can deal with disrespect.” Drake said. “I can deal with all that stuff. We don’t have to be friends or anything, but when you’re the guy who writes the notes on everybody that’s going to the office and basically, you’re essentially deciding who moves forward and who doesn’t… if it looks like I’m not gonna be moving forward, what am I doing here? And that was kind of the attitude I started to take on whether right or wrong, and I just didn’t want to feel like I was spinning wheels and so I’d go in and talk to him and be like, ‘Hey, what’s going on here? What’s the deal?’ And even that meeting got blown out of proportion. There were two of us in the room and somehow, the rumor got around that I tried to fight him in the office, which is ridiculous. He knows and I know that-that was not the case at all. I’m not sure he ever said that to anybody but somehow, he said something that eventually telephone-gamed into that.” Drake explained.
Eli continued by saying that DeMott has come out and said he did not want to play by the rulebook and to a certain extent, Eli agrees with those sentiments. He began to joke about his tardiness and how he became the basis of a running joke in the Performance Center:
“So I don’t know. A bunch of ridiculous stuff. Since then, he’s spoke well of my talent and all this and said that I just didn’t want to play by the rulebook or the playbook that was put in front of me and you know what? He might be right. I was perpetually late but that’s the story of my life. I’m late to everything.” Eli chuckled. “The only time I ever got in trouble in school was never for doing anything bad. It was for being late to class and they’d punish you for that. It was kind of the same thing at NXT where… man I paid so many fines just for being late that the running joke there was that I paid for a couple of the rings that were in the building.”
**Kiera Hogan versus Diamante has been added to Ladies Night Out 8 on November 16th in Texas City, Texas. Hogan and Diamante went public with their relationship over the summer.
**The West Virginia station TV10 will air a live taping of a ‘Primal Conflict Wrestling’ show on October 1st at 9 PM EST. TV10 is available to more than 50,000 Comcast subscribers in Berkeley and Jefferson counties in West Virginia. The likes of Lio Rush and Velveteen Dream competed for PCW early in their careers.
**Nikki Cross noted on Twitter that she has begun taking classes for her master’s degree in History.
**WKRG 5 has a story up about the ‘Micro Wrestling Federation’ which is a promotion for wrestlers with dwarfism.
**New Japan Pro-Wrestling has a new series up on NJPW1972.com which is about Jushin Thunder Liger on the road to his final match at the Tokyo Dome in 2020. The first edition of ‘The Liger Sessions’ is published featuring Togi Makabe as Liger and Makabe discussed a variety of topics ranging from the L.A. Dojo to the next crop of junior heavyweights that will arise once Liger steps away from the fold.
**It is noted in the latest edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter that via the Bushiroad annual financial report, New Japan Pro-Wrestling grossed $50 million from August of 2018 to July of 2019.
**Darby Allin shared on Instagram that he pulled a prank on Ethan Page as payback for Page accidentally breaking Darby’s elbow two years ago. Darby picked up a “hitchhiker” who was actually Darby’s close friend and the friend pulled out a knife on Ethan Page.
**IMPACT Wrestling’s Fallah Bahh spoke with My San Antonio to promote his appearance for River City Wrestling. Fallah shared that his ‘Bahh’ chant was his answer to Daniel Bryan’s ‘Yes’ chant.
**Matt Hardy made the media rounds in Houston to promote the Royal Rumble pay-per-view at Minute Maid Park in 2020.
**Natalya wrote about some of her favorite wrestlers from Calgary, Alberta, Canada in her latest blog post for the Calgary Sun.
**Bleacher Report interviewed Dustin Rhodes. Rhodes talked about being a promo coach for All Elite Wrestling and wanting to help the younger talent on the roster come into their own and enhance their promo skills:
“I’ve been hired as a promo coach, and I want to help teach them how to talk,” Rhodes says. “You don’t have to take this gigantic paragraph of text and memorize that sh*t word for word, because it’s going to come off bland and not true to your character. We’ll work out who the character is and figure out which way they think they should go, which way the company wants them to go, and find a happy medium. I can teach them to cut promos where they don’t need to be on a script constantly. We can hit some bullet points and make it their own. The key is stepping out of your comfort zone and taking a chance. Take a chance on making something cool. Some of these wrestlers have never really done promos, and a lot of them have never done TV. They are nervous about it, and those are the ones I’m going to push the most. Let’s see it. Let’s hear it, with some oomph and conviction. Give me what my dad used to give us: charisma. I want to see your character. That’s what I’ll do my best to teach.”
**According to The Hollywood Reporter, WWE Studios and Paramount Animation are co-producing a new film entitled ‘Rumble’. The likes of Terry Crews, Michael Buffer, Becky Lynch, Stephen A. Smith, and Roman Reigns will be doing voicework work for the animated film. A planned release date for ‘Rumble’ is set for the Summer of 2020. Reel FX and Walden Media are also a part of the production team and here’s the synopsis for the film: “Rumble is set in a world where monster wrestling is a global sport and monsters are superstar athletes. Winnie seeks to follow in her father’s footsteps by coaching a loveable underdog monster into a wrestling champion.”
**Timothy Thatcher is slated to appear at MLW’s ‘Blood & Thunder’ show on November 9th.
RESULTS
Bar Wrestling: ‘I Was In The Pool’ Results (9/18/19)
* Chris Bey def. Jungle Boy
* BHK & Yuma def. Los Luchas (Phoenix Star & Zokre)
* Gentleman Jervis def. Jake Manning
* Four-Way Match: Heather Monroe def. Arik Cannon, Darin Corbin, and Joey Ryan
* Jake Atlas def. Dom Kubrick
* PPRay (Peter Avalon & Ray Rosas), Andy Brown & Tyler Bateman def. Brandon Cutler, Ryan Taylor, Scorpio Sky & Watts
NJPW Road To Destruction Results (9/19/19)
* Young Lion Cup League Match: Shota Umino (5-1) def. Yota Tsuji (1-5)
* Young Lion Cup League Match: Karl Fredericks (5-1) def. Michael Richards (1-5)
* Yuji Nagata, Ren Narita & Yuya Uemura def. Clark Connors, Alex Coughlin & Manabu Nakanishi
* Chase Owens, Bad Luck Fale, Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa def. YOSHI-HASHI, Toa Henare, Tomohiro Ishii & Tiger Mask
* KENTA, El Phantasmo, Taiji Ishimori & Yujiro Takahashi def. Tomoaki Honma, Kota Ibushi, Will Ospreay & Robbie Eagles
* SHO, YOH, Togi Makabe & Hiroshi Tanahashi def. DOUKI, Minoru Suzuki, Zack Sabre Jr. & Yoshinobu Kanemaru
* Hirooki Goto, Kazuchika Okada & Rocky Romero def. BUSHI, Shingo Takagi & SANADA
* EVIL & Tetsuya Naito def. Gedo & Jay White
VIDEO
**Jorge Masvidal joined Booker T’s Hall Of Fame podcast and promised Booker that if he wins his fight against Nate Diaz at UFC 244 in November, he’s coming after the “baddest motherf*cker” in WWE whomever that may be.
**PlayStation Japan uploaded a video to their YouTube channel of NJPW’s Hiroyoshi Tenzan and Satoshi Kojima playing Koei Tecmo’s Atelier Ryza.
*****
THE DOUBLE SHOT: GLOW Season Finale, Bloodsport 2, WWE Chronicle
On this week’s Double Shot, John Pollock & Wai Ting review Josh Barnett’s Bloodsport 2, WWE Chronicle: Sasha Banks, and Episodes 9 & 10 (Finale) of GLOW Season 3.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/09/19/double-shot-glow-s3-finale-bloodsport-2-sasha-banks/
*****
upNXT 9/18/19: The Prohecy Fulfilled on USA
Braden Herrington & Davie Portman are back to chat about the very first Live episode of WWE NXT on the USA Network with Velveteen Dream vs. Roderick Strong.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/09/19/upnxt-9-18-19-the-prophecy-fulfilled-on-usa/
*****
BWE 9/18/19: Daniel Makabe interview
Martin, Benno & Jamesie are back to review OTT Road To 5th Anniversary (David Starr vs. Scotty Davis), NJPW Super J Cup (Will Ospreay vs. Amazing Red) & Breed Pro Wrestling. Daniel Makabe joins them to discuss his career, influences and his debut in the UK.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/09/18/bwe-9-18-19-ott-road-to-5th-anniversary-daniel-makabe-interview/
*****
RASD 9/17/19: Brock Lesnar challenges Kofi Kingston on Fox
John Pollock and Wai Ting review Tuesday’s WWE SmackDown as Brock Lesnar appeared to challenge Kofi Kingston, Baron Corbin is coronated as King of the Ring, and Kevin Owens files a wrongful termination lawsuit against Shane McMahon.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/09/18/rasd-9-17-19-brock-lesnar-challenges-kofi-kingston-on-fox/
*****
RAR 9/16/19: Rusev Bae, KOTR Final, Paul Levesque’s Media Call
John Pollock and Wai Ting review WWE Raw featuring a Maria and Mike Kanellis’ Gender Reveal Party and Kane’s return. We also discuss Big Cass, NJPW Destruction in Kagoshima, and Paul Levesque’s media call about NXT and 205 Live.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/09/17/rar-9-16-19-rusev-bae-kotr-final-paul-levesques-media-call/
*****
WWE CLASH OF CHAMPIONS 2019 POST SHOW
John Pollock & Wai Ting review WWE Clash of Champions 2019 headlined by Seth Rollins vs. Braun Strowman for the WWE Universal Championship and Becky Lynch vs. Sasha Banks for the Raw Women’s Championship.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/09/16/wwe-clash-of-champions-2019-post-show/
*****
REWIND-A-WAI #44: WWE Royal Rumble 2017
John Pollock and Wai Ting review WWE Royal Rumble 2017 headlined by John Cena vs. AJ Styles for the WWE Championship and the annual 30-man Royal Rumble match. To celebrate 10 years of reviews, The Archivist counts down his Top 10 Review-A-Wai episodes.
https://www.patreon.com/posts/29930429
*****
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