POLLOCK’S UPDATE: WWE TV sellout streak continues in Memphis

March 15, 2024 John Pollock NEWS
Photo Courtesy: WWE

POST IT NOTES

**Rewind-A-SmackDown is live at 10:05 p.m. ET tonight for all POST Wrestling Café members and we will take calls.

**We have an audio news update posted for Double Double & Espresso members of the Café.  

**The March edition of the ASK-A-WAI Mailbag Show is available for all POST Café members with nearly two hours of questions being answered

  • Who faces Cody after Mania?
  • WWE TV production post-Kevin Dunn
  • Owen Hart in WWE HOF?
  • Using “lol” in texts
  • Ketchup on Kraft Dinner
  • John’s challenging commentary experience in Russia
  • Will we ever see a WWE-AEW crossover event?
  • Pollock vs. Ting 3 Video
  • Our high school prom experiences

**John Siino and Kate from Montreal are live on Saturday night with Collision Course on the POST Wrestling Café.

**The N.W.A. Podcast is live this Sunday night with Nate Milton, Andrew Thompson, Kris Ealy, and Two-Way Ray on the POST YouTube channel.

POST SCHEDULE

Friday: Rewind-A-SmackDown with John Pollock & Wai Ting (POST Wrestling Café)
Saturday: Collision Course with John Siino & Kate from Montreal (POST Wrestling Café)
Sunday: The N.W.A Podcast
Monday: Rewind-A-Raw
Tuesday: Rewind-A-Wai #152 – SHIMMER Vol. 68 (POST Wrestling Café)

WRESTLING NEWS

**We have a correction regarding a discussion we had on Rewind-A-Dynamite. Earlier in the week, it was stated that Brock Lesnar had been placed back on the roster page of the WWE website, however, it has since been corrected that he was never removed in the first place. Lesnar was removed from the promotional material for WWE 2K24 after his name was linked to the Janel Grant lawsuit filed in January and Lesnar’s plans for the Royal Rumble, Elimination Chamber, and WrestleMania were iced. There is no indication that WWE is setting the table for a Lesnar return anytime soon. WWE has yet to comment publicly on Lesnar’s status or the process of their decision-making.

**WWE will stage its eighth consecutive TV sell-out with Friday Night SmackDown at the FedEx Forum tonight. WrestleTix reports 12,122 tickets distributed for the show featuring Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson advertised to appear and follows sell-outs in Charlotte, Salt Lake City, San Jose, Glendale, San Antonio, Dallas, and Houston. The following has been announced:
*The Rock appears
*Randy Orton vs. Grayson Waller
*Bayley vs. Dakota Kai  
*Joaquin Wilde & Crus del Toro vs. Angel & Humberto
*Pretty Deadly vs. Pete Dunne & Tyler Bate
*Santos Escobar vs. Dragon  Lee
*Rey Mysterio appears

**The sell-out streak is expected to continue with Monday’s episode of Raw in Raleigh and next week’s SmackDown in Milwaukee close to achieving that status.

**WWE has a live event on Saturday in Augusta, Georgia with 5,325 tickets distributed, and North Charleston on Sunday with 3,997 tickets distributed, per WrestleTix.

**AEW’s Big Business averaged 801,000 viewers and 355,000 (0.27) in the 18-49 demographic this past Wednesday, per Wrestlenomics. There was an issue at Nielsen where the six-minute overrun was not included in the final tally, however, it’s unlikely to have made any notable impact on the average as the final quarter was the low point of the show. It peaked with one million viewers and 423,000 viewers in the demo for the opening quarter featuring the debut of Mercedes Moné. The overall audience was up by three percent while the 18-49 number was identical to the prior week. In the 18-49 demo, males increased by eight percent, but women dropped by sixteen percent. Adults 18-34 were down nineteen percent from the March 6 edition while adults 35-49 grew by fifteen percent. The quarter-hour breakdown by Wrestlenomics made it clear that Willow Nightingale vs. Riho was not enough of a hook to maintain the audience and was the lowest quarter of the night. It would suggest that the audience wasn’t convinced Moné was returning and that her opening address was the extent of her appearance. The fact is, no one saw Willow and Riho as a possibility of headlining the show before Moné’s announcement there is a big difference between that match headlining a show compared to Toni Storm and Deonna Purrazzo having a rematch for the women’s title, which is more viable. The booking of the women’s matches on AEW programming has been a source of frustration for years by segments of the audience and it’s going to take more than one week to reverse that trend. It would have gone a long way to have Moné end her promo in the opening segment by stating she would have her eyes on the main event and make it clear she was not done that evening. Dynamite still managed to rank third on cable, so this wasn’t a disaster, but I felt this show should have been able to achieve a 0.30 or higher given the weeks of promotion for the themed event and it’s fair to state this was disappointing given the expectation.

**In Canada, Dynamite averaged 133,200 viewers and 53,000 in the 25-54 demographic on TSN 2. The audience increased by five percent while the demo dropped by fourteen percent from last week.

**Front Office Sports has a story on WWE’s business performing strongly despite the lawsuit filed by Janel Grant.

**Mercedes Moné was shown courtside on TNT during Thursday’s Boston Celtics vs. Phoenix Suns game with a plug on the broadcast for AEW Dynamite.

**Variety spoke with Mercedes Mone about her debut on Wednesday in Boston:

I still haven’t gotten to take everything in yet, but my heart was just pounding out of my chest. Once I heard the beat drop in the music and the ‘CEO’ chants were on the screens, and then they revealed the ‘Mercedes Moné’ name, that eruption was so electric. I felt so cool. I felt like Stone Cold Steve Austin, when fans just lift up all their signs and stand up with their arms raised. I felt so cool. It was the best feeling in the world.

**Emmy Award winner Paul Walter Hauser will wrestle Matt Cardona on Saturday’s Pro Wrestling Revolver card in Clive, Iowa. Hauser promoted the match during his award speech at the Emmy’s in January with several pro wrestling mentions including Cardona. Hauser won the Emmy for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Limited or Anthology Series for his role as Larry Hall in Black Bird on Apple TV+. Hauser has appeared on WWE and AEW programming in the past and took a guitar shot from Jeff Jarrett in an angle last year. The Pro Wrestling Revolver card will stream live on TrillerTV+ on Saturday and includes Alex Shelley vs. JT Dunn, Grizzled Young Vets vs. Samuray del Sol & Lince Dorado, Speedball Mike Bailey vs. Marina Shafir, and an Elimination Games match between Second Gear Crew and RED.  

**AEW has released a video with Kyle O’Reilly speaking about his injury and requiring neck fusion surgery. He expanded on the injury that he experienced a rare complication and didn’t have usage of his right arm for nearly ten months. He was only concerned with regaining the use of his arm and had accepted that his match with Jon Moxley in June 2022 might have been his final one. O’Reilly returns to the ring on Saturday’s live edition of Collision against Bryan Keith in Ottawa, Ontario.

**Here are the matches scheduled to air on AEW Rampage tonight at 10 p.m. ET on TNT:
*Roderick Strong, Mike Bennett & Matt Taven vs. Top Flight & Action Andretti
*Orange Cassidy & Trent Beretta vs. John Silver & Evil Uno
*Konosuke Takeshita vs. Komander
*Toni Storm & Mariah May in action

**The next edition of Dark Side of the Ring is “The Final Flight of The Freebird” on the late Terry Gordy, who was a prodigy and died far too young at the age of forty in July 2001. Gordy began wrestling in his early teens and was a full-time performer by the age of sixteen and became one of the best performers in the industry, ascending to the top of All Japan Pro Wrestling and having major runs in Georgia Championship Wrestling and World Class. In June 1990, Gordy became the first foreigner to hold the Triple Crown when he beat Jumbo Tsuruta and quickly dropped the belt to Stan Hansen before winning it a second time in July. Gordy had an overdose on the tour and was stripped of the title and would never win it again but remained with AJPW through 1994. He was part of the influential team with Dr. Death Steve Williams as the Miracle Violence Connection in All Japan with the two going to WCW to work there when Bill Watts was in charge. Gordy had another overdose in 1993 and he was never the same after that one from a performance standpoint. During the remainder of the ‘90s, he had a stint with Smokey Mountain Wrestling, ECW, and a forgettable role as ‘The Executioner’ in the WWF beginning in late 1996. Gordy died of a heart attack and blood clot in July 2001 and left behind two children, Ray and Miranda, who both got involved in the industry with Ray working for WWE from 2005-10. The trailer for the episode includes interview clips from Mick Foley, Kevin Von Erich, Jim Cornette, and Gordy’s children.

**Next Wednesday, TBS will air a three-hour block of AEW programming with Dynamite and a live edition of Rampage from 8-11 p.m. ET. The news was first reported in February by Andrew Zarian of the Mat Men podcast. The show will take place from the Coca-Cola Coliseum in Toronto and Rampage is being moved due to the NCAA men’s basketball coverage on TNT next Friday.

**NJPW drew 1,077 fans for Friday’s New Japan Cup show in Osaka at Kanaoka Park Gymnasium featuring the final matches of the second round. Ren Narita pinned Zack Sabre Jr. after tons of interference by House of Torture with Narita attacking with the weightlifting bar and hitting the Double Cross. Yota Tsuji pinned El Phantasmo after a curb stomp off the top turnbuckle in a very good match and the stronger of the two matches. The quarterfinals begin Saturday with Jack Perry vs. SANADA and Hirooki Goto vs. David Finlay and continue Sunday with Shingo Takagi vs. EVIL and Narita vs. Tsuji.

**Jack Morris & Anthony Greene defend the GHC tag titles against Kaito Kiyomiya & Ryohei Oiwa this Sunday at Yokohama Budokhan and will stream on Wrestle Universe.

**STARDOM’s Cinderella tournament continues Saturday with the second-round matches and the third round taking place on Sunday. The final night of the tournament is March 20 with the semi-finals and final. Saturday’s tournament matches include Xena vs. Waka Tsukiyama, Ruaka vs. Hazuki, AZM vs. Kurara Sayaka, and Miyu Amasaki vs. Mai Sakurai. The quarterfinals on Sunday include Hanan vs. Starlight Kid and Mei Seira vs. Ami Sourei.

**Alan 4L remembers Yutaka Yoshie and has several match recommendations over his thirty-year career.

**TNA has added Josh Alexander vs. Tracy Williams for its television taping in Philadelphia on March 22.

**Renee Paquette’s sit-down chat with Mercedes Mone:

**John Siino has an interview with House of Glory co-owner Brian XL on the Poisonrana network.

MMA NEWS

**The story involving Mark Coleman has had a positive turn as Coleman is awake and responsive following Tuesday’s fire rescue. Coleman, 59, had been airlifted to a hospital in Toledo after saving his parents from a house fire earlier this week, he re-entered the home and could not save his dog with Coleman collapsing due to the smoke inhalation. Coleman was sedated as doctors attempted to remove the smoke from his lungs. On Thursday, a video was posted of Coleman embracing his daughters, Morgan and Kenzie, and stating, “I’m the happiest man in the world.” His daughters launched a GoFundMe campaign to aid with his medical bills and assist the family, which has raised over $100,000.

**The UFC is back at the Apex on Saturday with a card airing exclusively on ESPN+ in the U.S. beginning at 4 p.m. ET. It is a very thin card, headlined by a heavyweight contest between Tai Tuivasa and Marcin Tybura. Tuivasa has lost three in a row with knockouts by Ciryl Gane and Sergei Pavlovich and a submission loss to Alexander Volkov last September. Tybura has won seven of his previous nine fights but is coming off a short TKO loss to Tom Aspinall last July before Aspinall won the interim title. Both are attempting to keep their names in semi-contention at the division, which has a complicated picture due to Jon Jones and Stipe Miocic being held off and Aspinall as its interim champion. There is not a lot of depth to the heavyweight mix and Tuivasa is a very entertaining figure, who isn’t in danger of being cut but a fourth loss in a row will make it hard for him to be a serious force in the division.

MAIN CARD (7 p.m. ET on ESPN+)
*Tai Tuivasa (15-6) vs. Marcin Tybura (24-8)
*Bryan Battle (10-2) vs. Ange Loosa (10-3)
*Kennedy Nzechukwu (12-4) vs. Ovince Saint Preux (26-17)
*Isaac Dulgarian (6-0) vs. Christian Rodriguez (13-2)
*Pannie Kianzad (16-7) vs. Macy Chiasson (8-3)
*Bryan Barberena (18-11) vs. Gerald Meerschaert (35-17)

PRELIMINARY CARD (4 p.m. on ESPN+)
*Natan Levy (7-1) vs. Mike Davis (10-2) – Levy missed the lightweight limit by ½ a pound
*Chelsea Chandler (5-2) vs. Josiane Nunes (8-2) – Chandler missed the bantamweight limit by one pound
*Jafel Filho (14-3) vs. Ode Osbourne (11-6)
*Danny Silva (8-1) vs. Josh Culibao (11-2-1) – Silva missed the featherweight limit by 2.5 pounds
*Jaqueline Amorim (7-1) vs. Cory McKenna (8-2)
*Chad Anheliger (12-7) vs. Charalampos Grigoriou (8-3)
*Thiago Moises (17-7) vs. Mitch Ramirez (7-1)

**The UFC has lost one-half of its main event for the April 6 Fight Night card from Las Vegas. Marvin Vettori has withdrawn from his fight against Brendan Allen due to undisclosed reasons. MMA Fighting reports that the UFC is seeking a replacement for Vettori. Allen has won his last six fights in the UFC’s middleweight division.

**Scott Coker is returning to promoting with the launch of Fight Night at the Tech. His first show will be staged on May 18 at the Tech CU Arena in San Jose, California, which has been Coker’s home base. The former head of Strikeforce and Bellator will serve as executive producer and work with Gilbert Melendez on the project. Coker promoted the first sanctioned MMA event in California in March 2006 and was part of its ownership group, which sold to Zuffa in 2011. Coker joined Bellator in 2014 as its president until the recent acquisition by PFL. (MMA Junkie)

**Jack Della Maddalena revealed that he broke his forearm during his fight against Gilbert Burns this past weekend at UFC 299. Della Maddalena rose from a takedown by Burns in the third round and stopped Burns in the final round. His manager Tim Simpson posted the x-ray on Instagram revealing the break.

**The TKO stock closed at $79.79 on Friday.

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ASK-A-WAI: Ask Us Anything! (March 2024)
On a special 40th Birthday edition of the show, John Pollock and Wai Ting answer their patrons’ questions about anything and everything in the March 2024 edition of Ask-A-Wai.
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REWIND-A-DYNAMITE
John Pollock and Wai Ting review AEW Big Business from Boston featuring the debut of Mercedes Moné.
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POLLOCK & THURSTON
John Pollock and Brandon Thurston are joined by Tim Marchman to discuss their report for Front Office Sports on the identities of the WWE corporate officers in the Janel Grant lawsuit.
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upNXT
Braden Herrington and Davie Portman review WWE NXT from March 12th, 2024 featuring Shawn Spears vs Ridge Holland.
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REWIND-A-RAW
Brandon Thurston joins to discuss the report that Pollock & Thurston worked on with Tim Marchman regarding the identities of the four corporate officers in the Janel Grant suit.
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About John Pollock 5545 Articles
Born on a Friday, John Pollock is a reporter, editor & podcaster at POST Wrestling. He runs and owns POST Wrestling alongside Wai Ting.
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