POST IT NOTES
**Rewind-A-Raw is live at 11:05 p.m. ET tonight with former WWE writer Brian Mann joining me as the guest co-host. Brian is going to share his thoughts on the major changes at WWE on the creative end and what he has observed from the on-screen product over the past week. Brian worked on the WWE creative staff in 2011 and has produced several video series chronicling AEW feuds and personalities including one on the Kenny Omega vs. Hangman Page program that drew a lot of attention last year. We will also chat about the latest news and take your feedback.
**The latest G1 Climax podcast is available for POST Wrestling Café members with WH Park reviewing both Osaka cards from this past weekend. We covered our thoughts on the tournament so far, two tremendous main events, the updated standings, who is eliminated, and predictions for the rest of the G1. This is a 90-minute show and we covered a lot of G1 news and discussed the Stardom 5 Star Grand Prix, Dragon Gate’s recent shows in Kobe, and NOAH’s N-1 Victory tournament that begins on Thursday.
**The next G1 Climax podcast will be out on Tuesday afternoon with Bruce Lord joining me.
**WH Park and Karen Peterson have a great edition of The Long & Winding Royal Road discussing the February 2005 Triple Crown match between Toshiaki Kawada and Satoshi Kojima.
**Historian and author Pat Laprade will be chatting with me on Thursday about a lot of the current news happening in the industry, his projects he’s working on, and lots more. Pat is always a great guest as his knowledge base covers such a wide variety from multiple generations and up to the present.
**Curious if anyone watched the Lex Luger episode on A&E last night and what their thoughts were on the special. Feel free to post comments below or email me.
POST SCHEDULE
Tonight: Rewind-A-Raw with John Pollock & Brian Mann
Tuesday: G1 Climax – Day 14 with Pollock & Bruce Lord (Patreon)
Tuesday: upNXT with Braden Herrington & Davie Portman
Wednesday: G1 Climax – Day 15 with Pollock & Mike Murray (Patreon)
Wednesday: Rewind-A-Dynamite
Thursday: Shot in the Dark with John Siino
Thursday: MCU L8R with WH Park, Rich Fann & John Siino (Patreon)
Thursday: Interview with Pat Laprade
Friday: Rewind-A-SmackDown (Patreon)
Saturday: POSTmarks with guest Magan Yusuf
Sunday: Wrestlenomics Radio
Sunday: G1 Climax – Day 16 & 17 with Pollock & Karen Peterson (Patreon)
G1 CLIMAX 2022
New Japan completed two events in Osaka over the weekend, which featured two of the top matches of the tournament with the respective main events. Will Ospreay against Shingo Takagi was the best match of the tournament in my opinion and was a breath-taking, twenty-two-minute encounter where the two were on a different level athletically and timing than anything I’ve seen in the tournament prior. The most impactful match may turn out to be the Sunday result with JONAH pinning Kazuchika Okada and establishing himself as a new top-tier player. The audience was incredible during the finishing sequence where Okada attempted a missile dropkick and fell into a powerbomb followed by a Black Forest Bomb and Torpedo. It was Okada’s first loss of the tournament and the biggest victory of JONAH’s career.
Chris Charlton compared the reaction to Vader’s win against Antonio Inoki in late 1987. That card was held at Sumo Hall and was the introduction of Leon White’s new character (originally designed for Jim Hellwig) and they went all the way, having him beat Inoki in three minutes and led to a riot at Sumo Hall. The actions by the audience led to New Japan being temporarily banned from the building, which was far from the case on Sunday, but the analogy was a stunning loss by the top star and a new monster has arrived in JONAH.
Saturday’s card in Osaka was the best of the tournament, so far. It was also the most attended with 3,370 at Edion Arena while Sunday’s show drew 2,609. Besides the main event between Takagi and Ospreay, Jay White and Great O-Khan had a fantastic match and it was O-Khan’s best in the G1. White has been at an exceptionally high level and his finishing sequences leading to the Blade Runner have been excellent. This one saw O-Khan apply the claw hold as the setup for the Eliminator, White managed to hit the Blade Runner while the claw was still applied despite O-Khan being out from the Blade Runner. He released his grip to pin O-Khan and came off great. Saturday also had a great match between Zack Sabre Jr. and Hirooki Goto (the latter has performed really well and is having a great run). Bad Luck Fale has been nearly impossible to get a good match out of but Tom Lawlor worked very effectively as the undersized babyface overcoming the giant. It was hardly the match of the show but was the best Fale match of the tournament. Lawlor has a major match with Okada this Wednesday.
JONAH and Okada are tied with six points on top of the A Block, White is 4-0 with eight points in the B Block and has matches remaining with Taichi and Tama Tonga, Tanahashi and ZSJ are tied with six points in the C Block with Naito at four points, and David Finlay leads the D Block with six points followed by a logjam of participants with four points including Ospreay, Takagi, and Juice Robinson.
Toru Yano has been eliminated in the A Block while Chase Owens, Great O-Khan, and Tomohiro Ishii are gone from the B Block. The eliminations are going to ramp up over the next few days.
Tuesday’s card in Hiroshima will feature the following matches and streams at 5:30 a.m. ET on New Japan World:
*C BLOCK: Tetsuya Naito (4) vs. KENTA (2)
*A BLOCK: JONAH (6) vs. Lance Archer (4)
*B BLOCK: Tama Tonga (4) vs. Taichi (4)
*B BLOCK: SANADA (4) vs. Chase Owens (4)
*D BLOCK: YOSHI-HASHI (4) vs. Yujiro (4)
*Jay White, Juice Robinson, Bad Luck Fale & Gedo vs. Kazuchika Okada, Hiroshi Tanahashi, Hirooki Goto & Toru Yano
*Will Ospreay, Jeff Cobb, Great O-Khan & Aaron Henare vs. EVIL, El Phantasmo, SHO & Dick Togo
*Zack Sabre Jr. & Taka Michinoku vs. Tom Lawlor & Royce Isaacs
*Shingo Takagi & BUSHI vs. Tomohiro Ishii & Kosei Fujita
WRESTLING NEWS
**CM Punk was at the C2E2 convention in Chicago with photos circulating of Punk seated at his table signing autographs without a walking boot on. Scrump from the PWT Cast was working with Punk throughout the weekend and said on his show on Monday that Punk was icing his foot throughout the weekend and that he has a doctor’s appointment noting he’s hopeful he can be at All Out.
**C2E2 featured several major wrestling personalities in attendance. It was the first public appearance by Sasha Banks (Mercedes Varnado) and Naomi (Trinity Fatu) since the walkout in May. It comes amid much speculation that the two are expected back in WWE and the news of the Women’s Tag Team Championships being resurrected, will only fuel it further. The Undertaker, Mick Foley, Trish Stratus, Lita, and Danhausen were among the wrestling personalities at the convention over the weekend.
**WWE Raw is at the Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse in Cleveland, Ohio with several matches announced in advance. The last update from WrestleTix has 5,670 tickets distributed with the arena set up for just over 6,200. Below is the lineup:
*United States Championship: Bobby Lashley (champion) vs. Ciampa
*Finn Balor vs. Rey Mysterio
*Seth Rollins vs. Angelo Dawkins
*The start of the WWE Women’s Tag Team Championship tournament
**Ciampa is dedicating his match to the late Harley Race, who was a mentor of his. Ciampa traveled to Eldon, Missouri in 2008 when he was 22 and learned under Race throughout that year and he shared several memories. Race passed away three years ago this month at the age of 76.
**Cleveland is another market where WWE and AEW are running in proximity. Dynamite and Rampage will be taking place at the Wolstein Center on August 24th.
**Damian Priest was interviewed by Stephanie Chase of Digital Spy and addressed the story of Judgment Day going in a supernatural direction. Priest said that some of the things they did such as playing with the lighting came off that way, but the group was never going in a supernatural direction. Priest said they even spoke with Vince McMahon about avoiding that and McMahon never wanted to take it that route.
.@WWE’s Damian Priest (@ArcherOfInfamy) says The Judgement Day was never going to be supernatural.
“We had conversations of how we didn't want that and that included Vince [McMahon] himself, who did not want the group to be supernatural-based”@btsportwwe https://t.co/YFVgRCEMiX pic.twitter.com/5zLIBBHkL6— Stephanie Chase (@stephaniemchase) August 8, 2022
**Here are the matches set for AEW Dark Elevation tonight at 7 p.m. ET on the AEW YouTube channel:
*Ruby Soho & Skye Blue vs. Megan Myers & Nikki Victory
*Parker Boudreaux vs. Casey Carrington
*The Lucha Brothers vs. Peter Avalon & Ryan Nemeth
*Athena vs. Queen Aminata
*John Silver & Alex Reynolds vs. T.U.G. Cooper & Lord Crewe
*Kiera Hogan & Leila Grey vs. Freya States & Alice Crowley
**The Town with Matthew Belloni discusses the surge in ticket prices for concert-goers through dynamic pricing. While the episode pertains to musical acts, there is plenty to apply to professional sports such as wrestling and the battle that promoters are having with the secondary-ticket market and maximizing profits. It’s an interesting discussion about the enormous power Live Nation wields by owning Ticketmaster as the largest worldwide promoter. Of late, there has been a heavy backlash over Bruce Springsteen’s latest tour where some tickets have eclipsed the $5,000 mark. The argument is if the promoters don’t price their tickets high enough, the middleman is going to recoup the true market value of the ticket on the secondary market and if fans are willing to pay that amount, is that justified? It does price a significant percentage of one’s fan base out of the market and prime tickets are gone in an instant, which they attribute to the rise of bots. The major difference they noted with live sports is that major concert acts only tour every couple of years and there is a limited supply and overwhelming demand when an artist comes to your city and may not return for years. At least for a WWE or AEW card, it’s a good chance they will come to your market at least once per year if you’re in the U.S. or a neighboring market that is within traveling distance. However, with WWE scaling back its live events pre-pandemic, over time, the smaller markets are going to see fewer events than years past where WWE was running so often but some of the “C town” would drag down the average and those are the most likely to be scrapped with fewer house shows on the schedule. If this subject intrigues you, there is a book that recently came out called Ticket Masters: The Rise of the Concert Industry and How the Public Got Scalped.
**TMZ covered Sammy Guevara and Tay Conti’s wedding over the weekend. The story noted that Nikki A.S.H. was one of Conti’s bridesmaids.
**Stardom’s 5 Star Grand Prix continued with two shows this past weekend. After one week, the Red Stars block is led by Risa Sera, Koguma, Utami Hayashishita & Himeka with four points each. The Blue Stars features a tie between MIRAI, Hazuki, Mina Shirakawa, Saya Kamitani, and Natsupoi with four points each. Sunday’s show in Nagano drew 275 with the tournament matches featuring Mina Shirakawa over Saya Iida, Saya Kamitani over Hanan, AZM over Mai Sakurai, Utami Hayashishita over Unagi Sayaka, Himeka over Koguma, and Natsupoi over Ami Sorei. (Courtesy: Purolove.com)
**The 5 Star Grand Prix resumes on Thursday with a big show from Korakuen Hall. The card features Syuri vs. Unagi Sayaka, Utami Hayashishita vs. Risa Sera, Tam Nakano vs. AZM, Mai Sakurai vs. Saki Kashima, SAKI vs. Koguma, and Himeka vs. Momo Kohgo in the Red Stars block. The Blue Stars block matches feature Starlight Kid vs. Momo Watanabe, Hazuki vs. Natsupoi, MIRAI vs. Suzu Suzuki, Mayu Iwatani vs. Saya Iida, and Hanan vs. Ami Sorei.
**Izanagi of All Japan Pro Wrestling has tested positive for COVID-19 and is off this Thursday’s card in Nagoya.
**Thursday’s show in Nagoya features the continuation of the Oudou tournament with Shuji Ishikawa vs. Cyrus, Shotaro Ashino vs. Dan Tamura, Takao Omori vs. Ryuki Honda, and Yuji Nagata vs. Yoshitatsu in first-round matches. Jake Lee, Takuya Nomura, Naoya Nomura, and Kento Miyahara have advanced to the second round. The tournament ends on August 20th with the semi-finals and finals at Korakuen Hall.
**Christopher Daniels has been announced for All Japan’s cards on September 18 & 19 and will the first time Daniels has wrestled for the promotion. All Japan has also announced Minoru Suzuki, Joe Doering, Yuji Nagata, and Tiger Mask for those cards.
**Game Changer Wrestling is bringing in Dragon Gate’s YAMATO for their cards on October 8 & 9 in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Shun Skywalker will also be working the cards in Atlantic City.
**West Coast Pro in San Francisco has added Jungle Kyona and Ben-K for its card on October 8th at the United Irish Cultural Center. They will host their King of Indies event in the same arena on November 19th with Naomichi Marufuji and SB Kento announced for that card.
**This Sunday’s WWE on A&E block will feature a Biography episode covering DX followed by WWE Rivals focusing on Triple H vs. Mick Foley. On August 21st, Biography covers Edge, and WWE Rivals will cover Edge vs. John Cena.
**IMPACT Wrestling executive Scott D’Amore turns 48 today.
**Being the Elite Ep. 318 “A Dark Order Musical”.
*****
WRESTLENOMICS: What will AEW’s next TV deal be worth?
Brandon Thurston and Jesse Collings (in for Chris Gullo) talk about Warner Bros. Discovery’s earnings call and what it suggests about AEW’s media rights outlook & more.
*****
AEW Battle of the Belts III POST Show
John Pollock reviews the AEW Battle of the Belts III card featuring Claudio Castagnoli vs. Konosuke Takeshita for the ROH World Championship.
*****
LONG & WINDING ROYAL ROAD
Karen Peterson & WH Park discuss a pivotal match in the post-Exodus era of AJPW: Satoshi Kojima vs. Toshiaki Kawada for the Triple Crown from February 16, 2005.
*****
REWIND-A-SMACKDOWN
John Pollock & Kate from Montreal review the Friday Night SmackDown coming out of SummerSlam, and a live edition of AEW Rampage.
*****
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