POST IT NOTES
**We have a new edition of Rewind-A-SmackDown posted with Wai Ting and I reviewing Tuesday’s show from Orlando with the New Day vs. The Bar going 25 minutes to close the show, more matches official for SummerSlam, the angle involving The Miz attacking Daniel Bryan, plus we discuss the “News of the Day” with Total Bellas being renewed, a look at the viewership for Raw, New Japan issues a statement on Tama Tonga, and more. You can download the show or subscribe to our RSS feed and listen on any podcast app.
**We also have the “Double Shot”, which will now be released along with Rewind-A-SmackDown. On this week’s show for Café members, I take look at last week’s episode of Lucha Underground, which featured no less than two murders. Plus, Wai reviews “Being the Elite”, we go over the broadcast information for the event and new matches added. If you sign up for the Café, you receive instant access to this show, every G1 review (including this weekend’s shows), and access to the entire library of Café shows.
**Martin Bushby, Oli Court & Benno are back with a new edition of the British Wrestling Experience to discuss Progress Wrestling’s Chapter 74 card from last month with Travis Banks vs. Walter, the US tour that Progress is on, a look at the viewership figures for World of Sport on ITV after two episodes, the WWE’s NXT UK project and recent tapings, and news from across the British wrestling scene. The BWE has their own iTunes and RSS feeds so you will never miss a show, which comes out every other Wednesday on POST Wrestling.
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**Wai Ting and I are back Wednesday evening for another G1 podcast for Café members as we review today’s card from Yokohama and look towards the final weekend of the tournament as they head to Budokan Hall.
**Braden Herrington & Davie Portman will have a new edition of upNXT coming out Thursday.
WRESTLING NEWS
**Jerry Lawler spoke at length for the first time regarding Brian Christopher’s passing on his “Dinner with the King” podcast. It was a very difficult show to listen to for the obvious reason and Lawler sounded devastated as he described the circumstances. The news from the show was the ongoing investigation into Brian’s death with Lawler questioning if his son committed suicide. Lawler’s attorney told him that, “it doesn’t pass the smell test”, and they have been contacted by inmates with information. Lawler received a phone call on Saturday night, July 28th with the Hardeman County Sheriff informing Lawler of what had happened with Brian hanging himself and had been transported to a hospital. Lawler was told on the phone that Brian’s pulse had stopped but he regained his pulse. Because it was so late, Lawler couldn’t fly out of North Carolina until the morning, which had to have been the most agonizing waiting period to go through. Lawler arrived at the hospital around 11 am on Sunday, July 29th and was told that the brain stem was intact, but the rest of the brain had been deprived of oxygen for too long. At approximately 2 pm, they met with several units within the hospital to outline the options and it appeared dire for Brian, but Lawler couldn’t bring himself to stop the machine that was keeping his son alive. They waited longer with Brian’s blood pressure going down and one of the doctors told Lawler that there wasn’t hope for a recovery.
Lawler noted that Brian’s arrest earlier in the month was his third DUI offense and in Tennessee that results in a 90-day mandatory jail sentence. One of the most troubling parts for Lawler is that the people at the jail told him that Brian would be safe there and it would be the best place for him to be and would be set up to enter rehab. Lawler also questioned how Brian could have an object with him that he could hang himself with and that’s one of many questions that Lawler will battle with for the rest of his life after losing his son. At the end of the show, Lawler said he is going to stay closer with his other son, Kevin, and didn’t tell Brian he loved him enough.
**The Honor Club pre-sale began on Wednesday for the Ring of Honor / New Japan Pro Wrestling G1 Supershow at Madison Square Garden. In a statement provided to POST Wrestling by Ring of Honor’s COO Joe Koff, he told us that, “We are currently 60% sold with general public for sale on Friday!” That is a very strong pre-sale figure and it is possible they could sell ou the venue by the end of Friday.
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**The G1 Climax continued Wednesday in Yokohama with a B Block show with each participant having one more tournament match left. Kenny Omega and Kota Ibushi lost on today’s show while Tetsuya Naito won. So, that means Omega and Naito are tied with 12 points and Ibushi has 10 as the three participants alive in the B Block. In the A Block, Hiroshi Tanahashi is on top with 14 points with Kazuchika Okada and Jay White tied with 12 points. Below are the ways each of the six can win their block this weekend:
A BLOCK
-Tanahashi wins: If he beats Okada
-Okada wins: If he beats Tanahashi and White draws or loses
-White wins: If he beats EVIL and Okada beats Tanahashi
B BLOCK:
-Omega wins: If he beats Ibushi or has a draw, along with Naito losing to Zack Sabre Jr.
-Ibushi wins: If Naito loses to ZSJ and Ibushi beats Omega
-Naito wins: If he draws ZSJ and Ibushi beats Omega, or If he beats ZSJ and Omega loses to Ibushi
The G1 now moves to Budokan Hall for three straight nights beginning Friday with the final A Block show. That card airs Friday at 5:30 am Eastern on New Japan World and will feature the following lineup:
*Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Kazuchika Okada
*Jay White vs. EVIL
*Minoru Suzuki vs. Bad Luck Fale
*Hangman Page vs. Yoshi-Hashi
*Michael Elgin vs. Togi Makabe
*Tetsuya Naito & Sanada vs. Zack Sabre Jr. & Taka Michinoku
*Kenny Omega & The Young Bucks vs. Kota Ibushi, Marty Scurll & Chase Owens
*Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa vs. Toru Yano & Gedo
*Tomohiro Ishii & SHO vs. Toa Henare & Shota Umino
*Hirooki Goto & YOH vs. Juice Robinson & David Finlay
**We were able to get some quarter-hour breakdowns from Monday’s Raw and this is from an internal WWE report. We were told that the lowest quarter of the show came from 10:30 pm – 10:45 pm, which featured the women’s tag match with Sasha Banks & Bayley vs. The Riott Squad and was listed as doing a 2.0 quarter. That number rose to a 2.2 for 10:45 pm – 11 pm and then up to a 2.5 for the overrun segment, which featured Ronda Rousey’s match with Alicia Fox. The report we were informed about listed the entire show as doing a 2.2 and I’m aware other places reported the show doing a 1.96. Both are basing the number off an average viewership of 2.8 million viewers for the entire episode. My assumption is that the rating is being calculated with a different total number of homes that the USA Network is in to explain the difference, although the rating is being calculated off the same number of viewers. We were not able to get a viewership figure for the Rousey vs. Fox match, only the rating for the overrun.
**Here are the matches for tonight’s episode of NXT at 8 pm Eastern on the WWE Network:
*Keith Lee vs. Marcel Barthel
*Taynara Conti vs. Vanessa Borne in a Mae Young Classic Qualifying Match
*Aleister Black vs. Johnny Gargano
The end of the show is supposed to set up the main event for TakeOver, but there appears to be a major issue to overcome. Aleister Black was injured recently and had to undergo surgery on his groin. Today, Mike Johnson reported at PWinsider.com that Black is not expected to be cleared in time for TakeOver and may force them to alter tonight’s announcement or address it late.
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**The Mae Young Classic is being taped tonight and tomorrow at Full Sail University with the 32-woman tournament set to premiere next month on the WWE Network. The company announced Wednesday that the series will be airing weekly on Wednesday, beginning September 5th at 9 pm Eastern following NXT. The commentary team will feature Michael Cole, Beth Phoenix & Renee Young with Cathy Kelley and Shadia Bseiso handling the backstage interviews. They also shot a Bracketology special on Tuesday with Mauro Ranallo and Beth Phoenix hosting the special, which will air on Wednesday, August 29th on the WWE Network.
**The WWE has posted an “unaired” portion of the interview from Raw with Paul Heyman. The added clip follows Heyman’s response to who is going to win at SummerSlam. Heyman stated that Roman Reigns cannot beat this version of Brock Lesnar, he then sits back and goes to say, “unless”, but catches himself and removes his microphone and walks off the set.
**There are two more matches that are now official for SummerSlam with The Bludgeon Brothers defending the SmackDown tag titles against the New Day and Daniel Bryan taking on The Miz.
**The latest match announcement for “All In” is that Jay Lethal will defend the ROH title against the winner of the “Over Budget Battle Royal” on the same card. The battle royal will air on the “Zero Hour” portion of the card at 6 pm on WGN America and the title match with Lethal will take place on the pay-per-view portion.
**Impact Wrestling is back in Toronto this Sunday and Monday night for television tapings at the Rebel Complex. The promotion has announced that Pentagon Jr. will take on Sami Callihan at Sunday’s tapings.
**Tickets to “Bound for Glory” go on sale Saturday, August 25th at Noon Eastern. The pay-per-view will take place from the Melrose Ballroom in Queens, New York on Sunday, October 14th.
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TELEVISION REVIEW
Ring of Honor (Aug. 5th)
-This was an easy-to-watch show with three different matches that worked in their respective ways.
-In the main event, the LIJ tandem of EVIL & Sanada & Bushi won a three-way match over SCU, and The Young Bucks & Hangman Page. It was a fun match with lots of chaos because of the nine bodies with several big saves towards the end of the match, culminating with Bushi landing the MX and pinning Christopher Daniels. It wasn’t a long main event but very fast-paced and a bit of a surprise finish with Bushi being the one to score the fall.
-Marty Scurll defeated Shane “Hurricane” Helms, who received the response you would expect because of his history and working as The Hurricane. Helms came into the match with two fingers taped and it led to a spot later where Scurll snapped the fingers on the other hand.
-Chris Sabin defeated Silas Young to earn a future shot at the ROH Television title. This was a good match and featured Alex Shelley on commentary putting over Sabin’s singles capabilities beyond being a tag wrestler. Shelley went over Sabin and Young’s history, Sabin’s participation in this year’s Best of the Super Juniors tournament and did a good job of making Sabin’s win at the end feel important. Punishment Martinez came out after the match and stood at the entrance as he stared down Sabin.
-It wasn’t an outstanding show by any means, I enjoyed the three matches for different reasons and it was a very digestible episode of Ring of Honor.
*****
BWE 8/18/18: Progress Chapter 74, World of Sport, WXW Update, NXT UK, Rev Pro
Martin Bushby, Oli Court & Benno are back to chat the recent Progress Chapter 74 card feat. Travis Banks vs. Walter, the US tour Progress is on, WOS on ITV’s viewership, NXT UK news, and lots more
https://britishwrestlingexperience.podbean.com/mf/download/64tpv7/BRITISH-WRESTLING-EXPERIENCE-Aug-8-2018.mp3
*****
DOUBLE SHOT: 8/8/18: Lucha Underground, Being the Elite 114
John Pollock & Wai Ting present a show for Café members with reviews of last week’s murder-filled episode of Lucha Underground and a recap of “Being the Elite”
https://www.patreon.com/posts/20626015
*****
REWIND-A-SMACKDOWN 8/7/18: New Day vs. The Bar, Becky & Charlotte team up, News of the Day
John Pollock & Wai Ting review SmackDown from Orlando, a 25-minute main event, more matches for SummerSlam, News of the Day covers Raw’s viewership, Total Bellas renewed, Mae Young Classic & more
https://postwrestling.podbean.com/mf/download/826vn6/180807_RASD.mp3
*****
REWIND-A-RAW 8/6/18: Ronda Rousey’s first TV match, Paul Heyman cries
John Pollock & Wai Ting review Raw from Jacksonville with Ronda Rousey vs Alicia Fox, a tremendous performance from Paul Heyman, “All In” scheduled for PPV & WGN America, news from the day, feedback & more
https://postwrestling.podbean.com/mf/download/kiaev8/180806_RAR.mp3
*****
UFC 227 REVIEW
John Pollock is joined by Phil Chertok & Ziggy Cao to review the UFC 227 card from Saturday with T.J. Dillashaw defending the bantamweight title, Henry Cejudo unseats Demetrious Johnson, full rundown of the card, and we chat Nurmagomedov vs. McGregor.
https://postwrestling.podbean.com/mf/download/ymdsii/UFC-227-POST-SHOW.mp3
*****
EGGSHELLS Podcast Companion: 1995 with Wai Ting
Chris Charlton is joined by Wai Ting to chat the Tokyo Dome events from 1995 with the New Japan vs. UWFi feud, the Bridges of Dreams events, and lots more covered.
https://postwrestling.podbean.com/mf/download/rw7t5f/EGGSHELLS_Podcast_Companion__1995_w__Wai_Ting.mp3
*****
upNXT 8/2/18: The One with The BDE
Braden Herrington & Davie Portman are officially roommates and they document their move in addition to their review of this week’s episode of NXT.
https://upnxt.podbean.com/mf/download/2jbm5i/upNXT-Aug2.mp3
*****
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