POST SCHEDULE
Tonight: Rewind-A-Dynamite with John Pollock & Wai Ting
Thursday: Rewind-A-Wai #140 – Predator starring Arnold Schwarzenegger (POST Wrestling Café)
Friday: POST Puroresu with WH Park & Karen Peterson
Friday: Rewind-A-SmackDown (POST Wrestling Café)
Saturday: WWE Fastlane review with Wai Ting & John Siino
Saturday: Collision Course with Kate from Montreal & Bruce Lord (POST Wrestling Café)
Monday: Loki Season 2 premiere with Rich Fann & WH Park
AEW vs. NXT – Super Tuesday
The stage is set for one of the biggest head-to-head nights in recent memory when AEW Dynamite airs Title Tuesday against NXT next week.
There was no way either side would be holding back, the only surprise was how seriously WWE would treat the night. That answer came late in the program on Tuesday with the announcements of John Cena, Cody Rhodes, and Paul Heyman appearing on the program next week. WWE will also send Asuka for a match against Roxanne Perez.
They have yet to announce if NXT will incorporate less commercial time to boost the audience for the night, which has been a frequent tactic for their big programs.
To counter on an unfamiliar night, Dynamite will present Adam Copeland’s first match in the promotion with Luchasaurus along with Saraya defending the women’s title against Hikaru Shida. This lineup will be updated after tonight’s show and has the possibility of adding FTR vs. The Young Bucks and an MJF title defense.
The prize is bragging rights for the week and it’s not a trap you want to get caught into frequently where you are sacrificing money matches and programs for a one-week victory. For AEW, they have had a roller coaster of momentum from All In, the CM Punk fallout, firing its top star, three pay-per-views that were among the highest quality of the year, a major injury to Adam Cole, losing Jade Cargill, signing Adam Copeland, and the albatross of ticket sales lagging in the U.S. throughout this period.
The competitive brand is at its hottest when enough of the fanbase feels like it’s the hotter option and for its first three years, they had that momentum and advantage over WWE. But WWE got hot over the last fourteen months and it’s hard to be the cool alternative when the fanbase sees the incumbent as the cool one. Talent moving back and forth typically adds immediate interest, a freshness for the character, and gaining the attention of the fanbase. Copeland should provide that immediately and with the right creative direction, could maintain it. The perfect example was Cody Rhodes, who had the buzz upon his return, but it was sustained and a catalyst to WWE regaining some of that cool factor.
While Tuesday isn’t going to be the deciding factor for any of these network suitors, the reality is Raw & NXT are on the market and AEW will be shortly after. An AEW win on their non-traditional night against a show with marquee WWE talent would be a nice notch on their belt and if there is a sliver of hope that the right television executives take notice and open their eyes to a wrestling competitor that comes with a more affordable price tag in a shrinking cable industry, it’s a major win for the company’s perception. For AEW to be competitive on a different night against a major show also has its advantages, which is to say, there are times you sacrifice matches and ideas for a short-term gain, and this might be that time to go all out.
It will also be a story depending on what the combined audience for pro wrestling on a Tuesday night can attract while airing against the MLB playoffs. For many reasons, it would serve to enhance SmackDown by moving to Tuesday nights when USA Network assumes the rights next year and this night will be an indication of how many wrestling fans are willing to tune in for two significantly promoted shows.
WRESTLING & MMA NEWS
**NXT averaged 857,000 viewers and 0.22 in the 18-49 demographic on Tuesday night. It was NXT’s largest audience since October 2020 for the Halloween Havoc special with this week’s episode airing against the MLB playoffs. NXT ranked #7 among sports programs on Tuesday. The show did not air live on Sportsnet 360 and streamed on SN Now. A replay aired on 360 at Midnight ET with approximately 5,000 viewers and 1,000 in the 25-54 demographic. (Sports TV Ratings)
**AEW Dynamite presents its four-year anniversary edition tonight from the Stockton Arena in California. WrestleTix reported on Wednesday that just over 3,500 tickets are out for the show with the company moving nearly 750 since the addition of Adam Copeland. The show fell to 0.28 in the demo last week, which was its lowest figure since June and should be inflated this week due to Copeland, coming off WrestleDream, and whatever the anniversary means as a hook. The highlight should be the rematch between Rey Fenix and Nick Jackson, who had one of the best matches of Dynamite’s early era in November 2019. The two have had endless classics in tag scenarios but only the one singles match. The following announcements have been made:
*Adam Copeland addresses the audience
*AEW International Championship: Rey Fenix © vs. Nick Jackson
*Chris Jericho & Kenny Omega vs. Konosuke Takeshita & Sammy Guevara
**Walker Stewart has confirmed that he will be succeeding Kevin Kelly as the lead voice on New Japan’s English broadcasts. His first show will be the Fighting Spirit Unleashed card on October 28 in Las Vegas. He will also be calling the Road to Power Struggle event on November 2 alongside Chris Charlton and the Power Struggle event in Osaka on November 4. Kelly will be calling this Monday’s Destruction in Ryogoku event and had previously stated he will call Wrestle Kingdom 18 and New Year Dash in January. Stewart is only 21 years old but has experience calling Future Stars of Wrestling, Reality of Wrestling, CZW, and various independents throughout Texas.
**Stewart will be calling Fighting Spirit Unleashed on October 28 with Veda Scott.
**Monday’s episode of Raw averaged 245,300 viewers and 106,900 in the 25-54 demographic on Sportsnet 360 in Canada. It ranked behind the Monday Night Football game an NHL pre-season game between the Toronto Maple Leafs and Montreal Canadiens among the sports programming that night. NXT and Dynamite most got a break in Canada this week due to the Toronto Blue Jays’ Wild Card series being played in the afternoon and not going head-to-head as the Jays are going to post massive audience figures throughout the series.
**Fuse Media is releasing a documentary called Out in the Ring focusing on the history of LGBTQIA+ representation within professional wrestling. The doc was produced by Ry Levey and Brad Webb and will include Sonny Kiss, Dani Jordyn, Effy, Pollo Del Mar, and Susan Tex Green in the doc, which premieres on November 15 on Fuse and Fuse+.
**The debut of Adam Copeland is approaching four million views on AEW’s YouTube channel and is already among its thirty most-watched videos ever.
**MLW has added a match between Love, Doug and Ichiban on the Fusion TV taping portion of its Slaughterhouse show on October 14 at the 2300 Arena in Philadelphia.
**The finals of the Stardom 5 Star Grand Prix have been added to Stardom World following the pay-per-view airing this past weekend. For a full review, check out Karen Peterson’s report with her match recommendations and rundown of the card.
**On a trivia note, the very first Royal Rumble match was staged on this date in 1987 in St. Louis. It was not a pay-per-view or a television special, but an idea that was hatched on a house show with a 12-man version of the match that would become a staple in the company. The concept didn’t draw with only 2,000 fans attending the match at the Kiel Auditorium and seeing One Man Gang win the match. Months later, when finding a hook for the USA Network special, Pat Patterson’s idea was revisited and it was Dick Ebersol that loved the idea and they aired it head-to-head with Jim Crockett Promotions’ Bunkhouse Stampede pay-per-view with the Rumble drawing an 8.2 cable rating and JCP doing approximately 200,000 buys. It was moved to pay-per-view in January 1989 and became a tradition on the calendar with the stipulation of the winner challenging for the title at WrestleMania being introduced in 1993. The company added a women’s version beginning in 2018. Denny Burkholder wrote a feature on The Lost Royal Rumble for CBS Sports several years ago.
**The UFC handed out five contracts on Tuesday’s episode of Dana White’s Contender Series. All four winners received contracts with an additional one handed out to Jose Medina, who lost by unanimous decision but were impressed by. The season wraps up next Tuesday night. Below are the results from this week’s show:
*Rodolfo Bellato def. Murtaza Talha by TKO at 4:46 of Round 2
*Victor Hugo Silva def. Eduardo Torres Caut by kneebar at 2:16 of Round 2
*Magomed Gadzhiyasulov def. Jose Daniel Medina by unanimous decision (30-27 all)
*Mauricio Ruffy def. Raimond Magomedaliev by TKO at 4:45 of Round 3
**Dana White spoke to the media after Tuesday’s card and his desire to run The Sphere in Las Vegas. The venue just opened this past weekend and cost $2.3 billion to construct. The Sphere is a state-of-the-art facility that includes a 16k resolution wraparound interior screen to project images with 4D effects. White said he would like to run a card from the facility over Mexican Independent Day next September after their very successful show last month in conjunction with the holiday.
**UFC flyweight champion Alexa Grasso underwent surgery for an injured left hand following her fight with Valentina Shevchenko last month in Las Vegas. Grasso posted a photo noting she underwent surgery. In the same fight, Shevchenko broke her thumb. Grasso’s post included her desire for a third fight with the former champion after they fought to a split draw in September. Grasso won the flyweight title earlier this year by submitting Shevchenko and is unbeaten in her last six fights going back to August 2020 when she moved up to the flyweight division.
**The TKO stock fell to $83.43 on Wednesday.
*****
upNXT
Braden Herrington and Davie Portman review WWE NXT from October 3rd, 2023 featuring Trick Williams vs. Dominik Mysterio for the NXT North American Championship.
*****
REWIND-A-RAW
John Pollock and Wai Ting review WWE Raw with Gunther vs. Tommaso Ciampa for the Intercontinental Championship and the return of Johnny Gargano.
*****
AEW WrestleDream Review
John Pollock and John Siino review AEW WrestleDream 2023 from Seattle, WA featuring Christian Cage vs. Darby Allin in the main event for the TNT title.
*****
NXT No Mercy Review
Braden Herrington is joined by John Siino to review WWE NXT No Mercy 2023 headlined by Becky Lynch vs Tiffany Stratton in an Extreme Rules match for the NXT Women’s Championship.
*****
ASK-A-WAI: Ask Us Anything! (September 2023)
John Pollock and Wai Ting answer their patrons’ questions about anything and everything in the September 2023 edition of Ask-A-Wai.
*****
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