POLLOCK’S NEWS UPDATE: Referee Jessika Carr moving to SmackDown

Bobby Fish hurt during Wednesday's NXT match, female referee moving to SmackDown, Tom Phillips calls NXT, MLW & Beyond's cards tonight and commentary on the Mauro Ranallo story.

POST IT NOTES

**Happy Thanksgiving to our readers and listeners in the U.S.

**We are doing a Black Friday sale at Store.POSTwrestling.com with 25% off all items using the code ‘SCOTTPILGRIM’. The sale runs through Monday night at 11:59 pm Eastern.

**We have last night’s edition of Rewind-A-Dynamite posted for everyone as Wai Ting and I go through the news. We discussed Mauro Ranallo missing NXT, the ratings from Raw and WWE Backstage, Mike Bennett’s interview addressing his status, this week’s NWA Power and Impact Wrestling’s Throwback Throwdown concept show. Plus, a complete review of Dynamite from the Sears Centre Arena.

**Braden Herrington and Davie Portman are back with upNXT chatting Wednesday’s episode coming out of TakeOver: War Games and the Survivor Series. The video version is up on their YouTube channel.

**Wai Ting and I will be live today at 3 pm Eastern for the Café Hangout. All Patrons can tune in live and call in to chat any topics. The show will be posted later tonight.

**The British Wrestling Experience returns on Friday with Martin Bushby and Jamesie. The two will chat about last weekend’s British J-Cup, the state of IPW UK, the latest on NXT UK and the TakeOver announcement for January & more.

**On Friday night, Rewind-A-SmackDown will be out for all members of the POST Wrestling Café and then, on Sunday it’s a new edition of Thunderstruck with WH Park and guest Dylan Fox. This week’s match is Jushin Thunder Liger vs. El Samurai from April 1992.

POST WRESTLING VIDEOS

 

WRESTLING NEWS

**Due to the holiday, ratings from Wednesday night will be delayed and won’t be out today. I would expect a similar outcome to last week with NXT winning among overall viewers but AEW having a hold on all the major demos. The question is how much of a bump NXT may receive from Survivor Series as they were the hot brand last weekend.

**During Wednesday’s episode of NXT, Bobby Fish sustained an injury in the opening minutes of the tag title match. Fish, teaming with Kyle O’Reilly against Keith Lee and Dominik Dijakovic, was tossed to the floor by Lee and landed badly. When they returned from commercial, Fish had been replaced by Roderick Strong in street clothes to complete the match. The match was said to have done on the fly and we don’t have an update on the condition of Fish, yet. Mike Johnson at PWinsider.com reported that he was said to have been walking around backstage after the show.

**Tom Phillips called NXT with Nigel McGuinness and Beth Phoenix with Phoenix briefly mentioning Mauro Ranallo at the start of the show. They said they looked forward to seeing Mauro next week, but it is unknown whether Ranallo will be on next week’s show or not.

**NXT referee Jessika Carr received a send-off after NXT went off the air. Carr is being moved up to the SmackDown roster. She was the referee for the main event on Wednesday between Finn Balor and Tommaso Ciampa.

**MLW is airing a special Thanksgiving edition of MLW Fusion tonight at 6 pm Eastern on their YouTube channel with the following matches from the recent tapings in Orlando, Florida:
*Jacob Fatu vs. Ross Von Erich for the MLW title
*Muhammed ‘King Mo’ Lawal vs. Ricky Martinez
*Injustice vs. Gringo Loco & Zenshi in a Survivor Team Elimination match

**Tonight’s episode of Beyond Wrestling’s Unchartered Territory features the following matches that stream at 8 pm Eastern on IndependentWrestling.tv:
*The Independent Wrestling All-Stars vs. Team Beyond in a 5-on-5 match
*Gregory Iron, Atticus Cogar, Eddy Only & JJ Garrett vs. Brandon Thurston, PUF, Kevin Blackwood & Magabyte Ronnie
*Josh Briggs & Anthony Greene vs. Shook Crew
*Jody Threat vs. Solo Darling
*Gary Jay vs. Aaron Rourke

**New Japan’s World Tag League has a show at Korakuen Hall on Friday morning that streams live at 4:30 am Eastern on New Japan World featuring:
*Jeff Cobb & Mikey Nicholls vs. Hirooki Goto & Karl Fredericks
*Yuji Nagata & Manabu Nakanishi vs. Toru Yano & Colt Cabana
*Satoshi Kojima & Hiroyoshi Tenzan vs. Zack Sabre Jr. & Taichi
*Juice Robinson & David Finlay vs. Bad Luck Fale & Chase Owens
*KENTA & Yujiro vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi & Toa Henare
*Kazuchika Okada & Roppongi 3K vs. Kota Ibushi, Yuya Uemura & Yota Tsuji
*Guerrillas of Destiny vs. Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma
*EVIL & Sanada vs. Tomohiro Ishii & Yoshi-Hashi

**There is a tie between Juice Robinson & David Finlay, EVIL & Sanada, and Tomohiro Ishii & Yoshi-Hashi for first place with 14 points each. The Guerrillas of Destiny, Colt Cabana & Toru Yano, and Minoru Suzuki & Lance Archer tied with 12 points below them.

**All Japan’s Real World Tag League resumes Saturday in Osaka with the following tournament matches:
*Kento Miyahara & Yuma Aoyagi vs. Takashi Yoshida & Gianni Valletta
*Daisuke Sekimoto & The Bodyguard vs. Zeus & Ryoji Sai

**Stephen Amell’s Nocking Point Wines is actually putting out ‘A Little Bit of the Bubbly’ with Chris Jericho. They promoted its release very hard on AEW Dynamite and issued a press release with the following description and price points:

A Little Bit of the Bubbly is a sparkling Riesling produced exclusively by Nocking Point Wines in collaboration with Chris Jericho. Pre-sales begin Wednesday, Nov. 27, at 8 pm ET. All pre-orders will ship Dec. 9-10-11 to ensure there is extra ultra-premium bubbly to spray around this holiday season. Fans can order packs of two ($46), three ($69), six ($138) or 12 bottles ($276) at www.LittleBitoftheBubbly.com.

**The following matches were taped at the Sears Centre Arena for next Tuesday’s episode of AEW Dark with Excalibur and Nyla Rose on commentary:
*Santana & Ortiz vs. Marko Stunt & Jungle Boy
*Sonny Kiss vs. Shawn Spears
*Jimmy Havoc vs. Brandon Cutler

**Next week’s episode of AEW Dynamite takes place from Champaign, Illinois and will feature the following matches:
*Rey Fenix vs. Trent
*The Young Bucks & Dustin Rhodes vs. Santana, Ortiz & Sammy Guevara

**NXT has announced a match between Killian Dane and Damian Priest for next week’s episode.

**Kevin Kellam of 101 WKQX spoke with Chris Jericho ahead of Wednesday’s episode of Dynamite at the Sears Centre:

LASTLY

I wanted to speak a bit more about the Mauro Ranallo story but also look at the larger issue of our attitude toward mental health issues. While the overwhelming response to this week’s issue has been a sympathetic one towards Ranallo, who has been open about being bipolar and his struggles, there is still a notable reaction of either indifference or criticizing Ranallo.

For transparency, those that are unaware, I worked with Ranallo from 2006-2009 and have seen him at both his highs and lows, so obviously I am looking at this situation in a different light. But there is also a documentary that Showtime put out that should provide a grasp of his struggles and place into context why this issue was more than just a harmless tweet directed his way.

Had Ranallo missed the Survivor Series because he fell ill or suffered an injury over the weekend, it would be completely accepted as to why he would miss the show. Granted, in pro wrestling, even physical injury and illness are going to be met with the ‘suck it up and work’ mentality but that is lessening. The point is, these are issues we can comprehend – we have all been sick, unable to work and been in situations where our body has shut down and is telling us to slow down and recover so we can return to work in an efficient manner. With mental health, it isn’t detectable on sight, nor have we all shared in the same experiences of what someone suffering has dealt with. This is not a case of someone that needs to ‘get over it’ or is too sensitive or can’t handle the job. We need to get past this concept that ignoring the pain and repressing emotion is somehow ‘soft’. Mauro is hurt, he is damaged, and he is getting himself better and that should not be a debated point. Again, I’m speaking to the minority, but that sentiment is out there, and it’s dated.

It was an unprofessional tweet in a public forum towards someone whose mental state is a daily battle that is full of both good and bad days. He was going to work as he battled these issues, including an increased travel schedule since NXT went to a weekly format and gets criticized daily from fans and showed up to work and did his job.

Not everyone will love Ranallo’s style of commentary, but he was specifically hired by the company because of who he was what his style was.

I am not going to belabor the point on Corey Graves, I am sure he didn’t envision causing this harm to a co-worker. He has been annihilated online, a lot of which was brought on by himself and there is no need to pile on and attack. It negates the larger issue and that is correcting this situation and understanding the effects this has had on someone. It’s the second time this has happened with Ranallo in WWE and it’s in his court to decide if this work environment is conducive for his health. Since returning in 2017, there have not been any known issues while he has been in NXT where it seems he has a lot of support and has been contacted by numerous people there in support of him.

In closing, I would recommend people watch the documentary for better insight:

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REWIND-A-DYNAMITE 11/27/19: A Little Bit of the Foilies

John Pollock and Wai Ting review AEW Dynamite featuring Chris Jericho vs. Scorpio Sky for the AEW title. We also discuss today’s news.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/11/28/rad-11-27-19-a-little-bit-of-the-foilies/
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upNXT 11/27/19: Prince Meet King

Braden Herrington and Davie Portman are back to chat all about the November 27 edition of NXT featuring a huge main event between Tommaso Ciampa vs Finn Balor.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/11/28/upnxt-11-28-19-prince-meet-king/
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ASK-A-WAI – December 2019
John Pollock and Wai Ting answer their patrons’ questions from the POST Wrestling Forum in the December 2019 edition of Ask-A-Wai.
https://www.patreon.com/posts/31885914
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RAR 11/25/19: “Twitter Seth”, Austin-Undertaker Interview
John Pollock and Wai Ting review WWE Raw following the Survivor Series featuring Seth Rollins’ Town Hall. Plus, we discuss Steve Austin’s interview with The Undertaker on the Broken Skull Sessions.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/11/26/rar-11-25-19-twitter-seth-undertaker-austin-interview/
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WWE SURVIVOR SERIES POST SHOW
John Pollock & Wai Ting are joined by upNXT’s Braden Herrington & Davie Portman to review WWE Survivor Series 2019 featuring Raw vs. SmackDown vs. NXT.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/11/24/live-link-for-tonights-wwe-survivor-series-2019-post-show-11pm-et/
*****
NXT TAKEOVER: WAR GAMES POST SHOW

Braden Herrington and Davie Portman are back reviewing NXT TakeOver: War Games III from the Allstate Arena featuring two War Games matches.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/11/23/nxt-takeover-war-games-iii-post-show/
*****
THUNDERSTRUCK: Jushin Thunder Liger vs. The Great Muta (October 20, 1996)
WH Park and Matt McEwen discuss Jushin Liger vs. The Great Muta from October 20, 1996, featuring the first appearance of Kishin Liger.
https://www.postwrestling.com/2019/11/24/thunderstruck-5-jushin-liger-vs-the-great-muta-10-20-96-w-matt-mcewen/
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About John Pollock 5801 Articles
Born on a Friday, John Pollock is a reporter, editor & podcaster at POST Wrestling. He runs and owns POST Wrestling alongside Wai Ting.