POLLOCK’S NEWS UPDATE: SmackDown ratings, “Our Heroes Rock” & more

NXT going live in Canada, Hiromu out for six months, "Our Heroes Rock", Miz & Mrs. returns in April, another update on Konnan & more.

Photo Courtesy: WWE

POST IT NOTES

**Our Elimination Chamber POST Show is available free to download with Wai Ting and I reviewing Sunday’s show, going through the key moments on the show, The Miz winning the WWE title, potential directions for WrestleMania, and what stood out on the card. Plus, your phone calls with reaction to the event. We are live after all WWE pay-per-views for Double Double, Iced Capp & Espresso members of the POST Wrestling Café.

**Wai and I are LIVE tonight at 11:15 pm ET with Rewind-A-Raw for Double Double, Iced Capp & Espresso members of the Café.

**On Tuesday, our movie reviews resume with a review of “Rocky Balboa”, the resurrection of the Rocky franchise in 2006 as Rocky squares off with Mason “The Line” Dixon a.k.a. Antonio Tarver. This show will be available for all members of the POST Wrestling Café.

**Andrew Thompson will be releasing an interview on Tuesday with Ring of Honor’s Amy Rose.

POST SCHEDULE

Tonight: Rewind-A-Raw with John Pollock & Wai Ting (LIVE at 11:15 pm ET for Double Double+ Patrons)
Tuesday: POST Movie Review – Rocky Balboa (Patreon)
Tuesday: Andrew Thompson interviews ROH’s Amy Rose
Tuesday: DEEP IMPACT with Davie Portman
Wednesday: Rewind-A-Dynamite with John & Wai (LIVE at 10:15 pm ET for Dbl Dbl+ Patrons)
Wednesday: upNXT with Braden Herrington & Davie Portman (upNXT feed)
Wednesday: Shot in the Dark with John Siino (upNXT feed)
Thursday: Bushby & Thompson’s Wrestling Adventure (Eddie Guerrero “Cheating Death, Stealing Life” doc)
Friday: Rewind-A-SmackDown with John & Wai (LIVE at 10:15 pm for all Patrons)

WRESTLING NEWS

**Friday Night SmackDown finished with 2,217,000 viewers and a 0.59 in the 18-49 demographic. The go-home episode for Elimination Chamber was #2 among network programs in adults 18-49 and 18-34 behind “Shark Tank” on ABC. After going against a heavy night of news coverage last week due to the impeachment hearing, SmackDown was up this week 11.4 percent in viewers and increased 3.5 percent in the 18-49 demo.

**NXT will begin airing live in Canada beginning this Wednesday on Sportsnet 360 at 8 pm ET. The expanded agreement between WWE and Rogers Sportsnet is a significant shift for Canadians, who had to follow NXT by either waiting for the WWE Network upload, watching a one-hour version on Friday nights, or finding an online stream of the show. This also sets up AEW and NXT running head-to-head in the country, which never happened during the Monday Night War because Monday Nitro never aired live in Canada.

In terms of visibility, Sportsnet 360 and TSN 2 are comparable as both require a higher cable package to get the networks. A basic cable package gets you TSN 1/3/4/5 along with Sportsnet East/Ontario/West/Pacific while the higher tier provides TSN 2 and SN 360. In terms of ratings between the two networks, I have seen a breakdown and both are close in the demos monitored of 2+, 18-34, and 25-54 for 2021.

The ten-year agreement between Rogers Sportsnet and WWE runs until 2024.

**Due to the torn pec injury to Hiromu Takahashi, a new match will headline Thursday’s Road to Castle Attack event at Korakuen Hall. Originally, Takahashi & BUSHI were set to challenge IWGP junior heavyweight tag champions El Phantasmo & Taiji Ishimori but with Takahashi out for an estimated six months, El Desperado & Yoshinobu Kanemaru will challenge the champions on Thursday. NJPW has not yet announced what will happen with the IWGP junior heavyweight title that Takahashi holds.

**Tonight’s episode of Raw will feature the fallout from Elimination Chamber with The Miz coming out of the show as the new WWE champion. All signs point to Miz as a transition leading to either scenario of Bobby Lashley receiving a title match for his assistance on Sunday, or a rematch with Drew McIntyre. Either way, there is a clear direction of McIntyre with Lashley while Sheamus is in the background. For a guy that gave up his 20-year friendship “because of the title”, that transaction has not worked out too well.

**Immediately following Raw, the USA Network will be airing last week’s premiere of “Young Rock” at 11 pm ET followed by a new episode of “Straight Up Steve Austin” with guest Bert Kreischer at 11:30 pm.

**Below are the matches airing on AEW’s YouTube channel at 7 pm ET tonight as the Women’s Title Eliminator Tournament continues:
*Emi Sakura vs. Yuka Sakazaki in the semi-finals
*Aja Kong vs. Ryu Mizunami in the semi-finals
*Tay Conti vs. Nyla Rose in the quarter-finals
*Dr. Britt Baker vs. Madi Wrenkowski in the quarter-finals

**Fast Lane is the next event on 3/21 and based on WWE’s advertising on Sunday, U.S. viewers will be able to watch the show on either Peacock or the WWE Network. The launch of the network on Peacock is scheduled for 3/18 with the intention of migrating the U.S. subscribers over to Peacock, although the details of how that will be done have yet to be shared. Outside of the U.S, nothing changes regarding access to the WWE Network.

**Once again, I want to send out our best wishes to Konnan (Charles Ashenoff) for a full recovery. Ashenoff had been hospitalized for several days last week and contracted COVID-19, which is extremely dangerous given his kidney replacement operation in 2007 affecting his immune system. Dave Melter reported on Wrestling Observer Radio that it was bad enough that when Ashenoff was in the hospital they had discussions about what decisions would need to be made if his kidneys or heart shut down. Meltzer reported he is doing better now that he is home but is still receiving around-the-clock care and has a nurse.

**Big E. (Ettore Ewen) is teaming up with journalist Andreas Hale and graphic designer Jonathan Davenport to launch “Our Heroes Rock”. The three have launched a Kickstarter campaign to fund an animated series that would celebrate black heroes with lesser-known stories at large. The idea is to fuse the animated series with elements of storytelling, hip hop, and science fiction. The first episode would focus on Ruby Bridges, who was the first African American child to be integrated into an elementary school in the South in 1960. The group is attempting to raise $75,000 (U.S.) and has already has topped $10,000 after several hours with the deadline of Monday, April 12th. Below is a trailer for the project:

**The second half of the current season of Miz & Mrs. will resume on Monday, April 12th on the USA Network at 11 pm ET following WWE Raw. They have released a trailer for the rest of the season, which includes The Miz hosting a “vasectomy reveal party”.

**John Arezzi welcomed Lee Cole and reporter Jamie Hemmings to his Pro Wrestling Spotlight show to discuss the recent death of Tom Cole, who was the younger brother of Lee. Hemmings has written some outstanding pieces over the past week regarding Tom Cole, who she had been in contact with over the past year. Cole was 50 years old and took his own life on Friday, February 12th.

**The results of a Twitter poll have set up this Saturday’s KOPW match between Toru Yano and Chase Owens. Fans voted for the match to be a “YTR Texas Strap Match”, meaning the two will be strapped together and the first to remove all four corner pads will be the winner.

**The WWE Network will be releasing a new edition of WWE 24 on Big E. this Sunday.

**On this past weekend’s ROH episode, the six-man tag titles switched hands. Shane Taylor & The Soldiers of Savagery defeated Rey Horus, Bandido & Flamita to win the ROH six-man tag titles. The match was originally scheduled for Final Battle but was pulled after Bandido & Flamita were pulled from the show as a precaution.

**MLW will hold its annual “Never Say Never” card on Wednesday, March 31st airing on Fubo Sports and its YouTube channel. It will air on beIN Sports on Saturday, April 3rd.

**Game Changer Wrestling has announced that Rich Swann will face 2 Cold Scorpio at “For the Culture” at The Collective: Remix series of shows during WrestleMania Week. For the Culture takes place on 4/8 at The Cuban Club in Ybor City, Florida, and will stream on FITE TV.

**The WWE stock closed at $47.73 on Monday and was up almost 2 percent.

**Mustafa Ali is this week’s guest on Chasing the Glory with Lilian Garcia.

**Being the Elite Ep. 244 “Nepotism”.

**Lance Storm is a guest on The Blocked Party podcast.

ON THIS DATE

 

 

*****
WWE ELIMINATION CHAMBER 2021 POST SHOW
John Pollock & Wai Ting review WWE Elimination Chamber 2021 featuring Raw and SmackDown Elimination Chamber matches, a MITB cash-in, several title changes, and Edge revealing his choice of WrestleMania opponent.
*****
REWAND-A-VISION: Episode 7 “Breaking the Fourth Wall”
Wai Ting & WH Park are joined by Scrump to review WandaVision Episode 7 as the cast deals with the effects of Wanda’s “Hexpansion”. A major villain reveals their role behind-the-scenes all along.
*****
TRMPS: Central Intelligence (2016) w/ Andrew Thompson
This month, Nate Milton is joined by his podcast-nephew, Andrew Thompson (POST Wrestling, Andrew Thompson Interviews) to review 2016’s hit action-comedy, “Central Intelligence”!
*****
REWIND-A-SMACKDOWN 2/19/21: Elimination Chamber Go-Home
John Pollock and Wai Ting are back to review Friday Night SmackDown featuring Edge all over the show, a preview of Elimination Chamber, and your open calls.
*****
THE WELLNESS POLICY #2: Atomic Habits
The Wellness Policy returns! Join Wai Ting, Jordan Goodman, and the POST Wrestling community for Episode 2 as we discuss the strategy and practice of habit formation.
*****
REWIND-A-DYNAMITE 2/17/21: Exploding Barbed Wire Gender Reveal
John Pollock & Wai Ting review AEW Dynamite as the build to Revolution heightens with the announcement of the main event, a gender reveal, and all the latest news.
*****

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About John Pollock 5484 Articles
Born on a Friday, John Pollock is a reporter, editor & podcaster at POST Wrestling. He runs and owns POST Wrestling alongside Wai Ting.