POST IT NOTES
**Rewind-A-Raw is live tonight at 11 p.m. ET with Wai Ting and I making a special announcement on the show for POST listeners. We will also go over the major news from the weekend and tonight’s show from Brooklyn.
**I did a bonus show covering NJPW Declaration of Power from Sumo Hall today. The show is posted for POST Wrestling Café members and the video version is up for YouTube members.
**Karen Peterson has a great review of Declaration of Power with a breakdown of all the matches and directions coming out of the event. You can also read Karen’s review of TJPW’s Wrestle Princess III event from Sunday.
**Wai Ting and I will be doing a meet-up with listeners this Wednesday prior to Dynamite at the Coca-Cola Coliseum. We will be at the Tim Hortons inside Liberty Village at 171 East Liberty Street at 5 p.m. ET (a five-minute walk from the arena). Braden Herrington & Davie Portman will be hosting an afterparty at Sneaky Dee’s and College & Bathurst after Dynamite this Wednesday.
**Our Extreme Rules POST Show is available free on the site and on the POST YouTube channel:
POST SCHEDULE
Tonight: Rewind-A-Raw with John Pollock & Wai Ting
Tuesday: Small Talk w/ John & Wai (Double Double, Iced Capp & Espresso)
Tuesday: upNXT
Wednesday: Shot in the Dark with John Siino
Wednesday: Rewind-A-Dynamite (later start time than usual)
Thursday: MCU L8R – She-Hulk Ep. 9 w/ Rich Fann & WH Park (Patreon)
Friday: Rewind-A-SmackDown w/ John & Wai
Sunday: Wrestlenomics Radio w/ Brandon Thurston, Jesse Collings & Chris Gullo
WRESTLING NEWS
**MJF was interviewed by Sam Roberts and discussed Double or Nothing weekend in Las Vegas. For the first time, MJF spoke in-depth about what happened noting that AEW lost $10,000 that day when he skipped a scheduled meet-and-greet appearance. He stated that he skipped the event because his boss “was being a f—king mark” and if he wasn’t going to be paid what he is worth, then he wasn’t showing up. He also stated that AEW made a wellness check at the hotel room he was staying at and that AEW security tried to break his door down, but he had already left. He believes it was everyone’s fear that it was MJF’s “Brian Pillman moment” but said it was about him getting paid what he is worth. He said he is happy now and got paid.
**Friday Night SmackDown averaged 2,243,000 viewers and 0.54 in 18-49 for the season premiere this past Friday. The numbers were essentially flat from the prior week (2,207,000 and 0.54), so the season premiere and Logan Paul’s involvement didn’t lead to a spike, but they also had to contend with the MLB playoffs this week unlike the previous one. Adults 18-34 grew from 0.30 to 0.34, which you could attribute to the Paul effect. SmackDown was first among network programs beating Shark Tank (0.47) and programming on Univision for the top spots. They were second among adults 18-34. ESPN’s coverage of the New York Mets vs. San Diego Padres was #1 on all of television Friday with the game airing against both WWE and AEW on Friday night. (Showbuzz Daily)
**AEW’s two-hour block on TNT combined for an average of 361,000 viewers and 0.12 in 18-49. It was hurt by the 11 p.m. hour, which was expected going in. The second hour featuring Battle of the Belts IV avoided the MLB game, which ended at 11. The breakdown saw Rampage from 10-11 p.m. ET average 404,000 and 0.13 in 18-49, which is still a bad number by Rampage standards and has not performed that badly since July 29th. The Battle of the Belts IV special dropped to 317,000 viewers and 0.10 in 18-49.
Compared to Grand Slam two weeks ago, those hours did 558,000 and 0.17 and 486,000 and 0.16 respectively.
The first hour ranked #20 among cable originals and Battle of the Belts ranked #37.
The ESPN game averaged 3,609,000 and 0.99 in 18-49 but only aired against the hour of Rampage. Battle of the Belts did air against SportsCenter at 11 p.m., which was #2 on cable following the playoff game.
**Canadian ratings are delayed due to Thanksgiving and we should have figures this week. TSN 2 did air Battle of the Belts IV on Friday night at 11 p.m. ET and is scheduled to air Rampage this Friday night as a one-off.
**The season premiere of WWE Raw is tonight at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn, New York. They have moved a large number of tickets since Thursday. WrestleTix reported on 9/30 that the show had approximately 6,700 tickets out and today that number stands at over 10,100. It’s probably a combination of factors but the return of Bray Wyatt was the hottest subject over those days with his return on Saturday at Extreme Rules, although WWE has yet to advertise him for tonight’s show.
The show will feature the following matches and segments:
*The 25th anniversary of DX – they are advertising Triple H, Shawn Michaels, Road Dogg & Sean Waltman
*United States Championship: Bobby Lashley (champion) vs. Seth Rollins
*Austin Theory vs. Johnny Gargano
*Roman Reigns and The Bloodline to appear
**Dave Meltzer reported on Sunday that the original airdate for the “Nine Lives of Vince McMahon” documentary on Vice TV was going to be 10/18. Meltzer states that other programming is now listed in the original slot and therefore, the premiere may have been moved to another night. Both AEW Dynamite and NXT will be airing that night head-to-head at the same time the Vice documentary was scheduled to run.
**Vice TV will air its second episode of “Tales from the Territories” on Tuesday featuring the same Memphis panel from last week discussing the feud between Jerry Lawler and Andy Kaufman.
**The major news from Declaration of Power was the confirmation that Jay White will defend the IWGP world heavyweight championship against Kazuchika Okada at Wrestle Kingdom 17 on January 4th. White defeated Tama Tonga in a very good main event including the audience biting on one near-fall when Tonga hit the Gun Stun. After a Gun Stun attempt off the second turnbuckle, Tonga was caught by the Blade Runner and pinned after 31 minutes. Okada avenged his blemish in the G1 Climax, handing JONAH his first pinfall loss in New Japan after hitting the Landslide and Rainmaker in the strongest match on the show. Okada said an era has ended with the passing of Antonio Inoki and he and White will determine who leads New Japan into the next one.
**The ceremony for Antonio Inoki was very well done at the beginning of the show with the roster surrounding the ring and the airing of a video package that featured so many of Inoki’s iconic moments and rivalries. They held a ten-bell salute with Seiji Sakaguchi holding a photo of Inoki inside the ring. There were tributes throughout the show including Okada doing Inoki’s pose after beating JONAH and Shingo Takagi wearing the patented red scarf associated with Inoki.
**Declaration of Power drew 4,059 to Ryogoku Sumo Hall on Monday.
**Chris Jericho stated that as “Lionheart” he will be coming out to White Zombie’s Electric Head Part 2 on Wednesday’s Dynamite for his match against Bryan Danielson. If you want to hear “Judas”, you have to go to Thursday’s Rampage taping, which is the show that has tickets remaining while Dynamite has been the hotter ticket of the two.
**WWE reveals the logo for WrestleMania 40 for the events in April 2024 in Philadephia.
**WrestleTix reports that AEW’s Full Gear event on 11/19 has over 10,000 tickets distributed for the pay-per-view at the Prudential Center. The site lists the capacity set-up at just under 12,000 presently. This event could lead to AEW achieving its fifth $1 million gate of 2022 following Double or Nothing, Forbidden Door, All Out, and Grand Slam. AEW is also running the building the night before for a live edition of Rampage.
**Prior to Declaration of Power, Yuji Nagata introduced heavyweight amateur wrestler Oleg Boltin to the New Japan roster. The native of Kazakhstan joined Bushiroad’s amateur team five years ago and now making the transition to pro wrestling. Boltin, 29, wrestled at 125 kilograms in freestyle wrestling and won the Asian Championship last year beating Aiaal Lazarev and finishing fifth at this year’s world championships. It has not been announced when Boltin will make his pro debut for the company.
**Kevin Kelly noted that he and Chris Charlton will be in attendance at the Ariake Arena on 11/20 to call the X-Over event with NJPW & Stardom.
**While it isn’t the signature event of years past, Bound for Glory was a very good show on Friday night. There were three great matches on the show with the main event between Josh Alexander and Eddie Edwards having an outstanding match and following a terrific Knockouts Championship match between Jordynne Grace and Masha Slamovich, so the final hour of the show was excellent. The show was also assisted by a terrific opening match between Speedball Mike Bailey and Frankie Kazarian for the X Division Championship. Given those three matches, I thought the match quality was superior to that of Extreme Rules, but a negative is the atmosphere of the IMPACT shows with a small audience that cannot compare to their competitors such as WWE or today’s New Japan. That said, I really enjoyed Bound for Glory and those three matches are easily worth the price of the show.
**AEW has announced a return to Cedar Park, Texas at the HEB Center on 12/7 for a Dynamite & Rampage taping. Tickets go on sale this Friday at 11 a.m. ET.
**NXT has announced Bron Breakker vs. Javier Bernal, Jacy Jayne vs. Alba Fyre, and the third match in the series between Axiom and Nathan Frazer for Tuesday’s episode at 8 p.m. ET. Plus, the new commentary team of Vic Joseph and Booker T.
**NJPW kicks off its Battle Autumn tour this Friday with back-to-back nights at Korakuen Hall.
**The WWE Network will be releasing a new Table for 3 episode this Friday featuring Bret Hart, Jerry Lawler, and Glenn Jacobs a.k.a. Kane. The three were involved in a 1995 program on the heels of Hart and Lawler’s feud that led to Lawler introducing Jacobs as his evil dentist Dr. Isaac Yankem D.D.S. This led to Hart and Yankem wrestling at that year’s SummerSlam event in Pittsburgh in one of Hart’s more forgettable SummerSlam programs.
**The WWE stock closed at $73.95 on Monday.
ON THIS DATE
Randy Savage takes on Allen Coage a.k.a. Bad News Brown at the Boston Garden in 1988:
TNA presents Bound for Glory on 10/10/10:
*****
NJPW Declaration of Power POST Show
John Pollock is solo for a review of NJPW’s Declaration of Power from Sumo Hall where the main event is set for Wrestle Kingdom 17, and the company honors the late Antonio Inoki.
*****
WRESTLENOMICS: Jon Moxley re-signs with AEW, Extreme Rules, WOW TV ratings
Brandon Thurston, Jesse Collings talk about the latest wrestling business news, including Jon Moxley re-signing with AEW, Extreme Rules business and more.
*****
WWE Extreme Rules POST Show
John Pollock and Wai Ting review WWE Extreme Rules 2022 featuring the return of “The White Rabbit” Bray Wyatt, Fight Pit feat. Daniel Cormier, Liv Morgan vs. Ronda Rousey, an I Quit Match, and more!
*****
IMPACT Bound for Glory POST Show
John Pollock & John Siino review IMPACT’s Bound for Glory pay-per-view featuring Josh Alexander vs. Eddie Edwards for the IMPACT Championship.
*****
REWIND-A-SMACKDOWN [Free]
Wai Ting & Kate from MTL review the Season Premiere of WWE SmackDown featuring Sheamus vs. Gunther 2 and AEW Rampage & Battle of the Belts IV.
*****
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