** New York Post conducted an interview with Cody Rhodes. Cody talked about booking the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey for an episode of Dynamite and upon the announcement, Cody tweeted out that the Prudential Center bypassed politics and allowed AEW to run in their building and he elaborated on that tweet:
“We have to earn (an arena’s) trust, so we get solicited by a lot of buildings now that we have a good track record, and we just sold our 100,000th ticket and we hope to continue that. But I think in the New York area, there is a lot more of the courtesy calling going on. They don’t want to have multiple wrestling companies or feel a sense of loyalty. That’s something I totally understand, but if you come to us then I don’t understand it. So it was more of me just [being] personally glad we got through all the weeds on the potential buildings. There’s a ton of buildings in the area that I performed in, whether it be Barclays, Nassau or the mecca MSG, and I really do hope you see AEW in all those buildings at some point.”
When asked about the rumored partnership between New Japan Pro-Wrestling and AEW, Cody thinks it’s strange that people were asking for it. He said there is a sense of partnership or collaboration because of Jon Moxley and Chris Jericho being in marquee matches at Wrestle Kingdom 14. As far as the ‘forbidden door’, Cody thinks it’s continuously opening and closing.
“I think the thing that was strange to me was people were asking for this partnership. I don’t know what a partnership would look like other than what you saw. Chris Jericho was part of one of the main events of Wrestle Kingdom, Jon Moxley as well. They both were successful. What did he call it? The forbidden door? The forbidden door. It may be forbidden, but clearly the door is opening and closing and opening and closing. It’s public knowledge that some guys here, myself included, have exemptions to work New Japan Pro-Wrestling. But I know that New Japan Pro-Wrestling’s focus is New Japan, and AEW’s focus is AEW. So more likely what a partnership would look like is perhaps some sharing of talent, some shared creative, but we’re not going to do a Super Clash III where (Kerry) Von Erich and (Jerry) Lawler are fighting over the title. Sorry, that’s a real specific angle I brought up. I’m always hesitant to combine banners versus just respecting each other’s banners. But I like how it’s referred to as the forbidden door. I don’t really think it’s forbidden at all. Like I said, many people have the exemption to work there. They put on a great Wrestle Kingdom. They have some amazing talent, particularly Will Ospreay. He’s a top-five wrestler in the world right now. So, we’ll see where that goes. I know everyone pretty much feels the same about it.”
** Here are a few highlights from Paul “Triple H” Levesque’s media call with members of the U.K. wrestling media:
– Triple H is for the idea of NXT U.K. possibly going live on BT Sport. He said that over time, if there can be an NXT U.K. roster assembled that can stand on its own then it could certainty be an option.
– Triple H welcomes both CM Punk and AJ Lee back to WWE as wrestlers.
– Thinks the sky is the limit for Drew McIntyre in 2020. Adds that Drew wants to be the best in the world.
– When asked about the possibility of NXT talents showing up TakeOver: Blackpool II, Triple H said that anything is possible.
** Damian Priest chatted with Justin Barrasso of Sports Illustrated and Damian revealed that in the past five years, WWE turned him down twice before he was finally signed to the company in October of 2018.
“The times when I was overlooked, I’ve used that to fuel me. WWE turned me down twice in the last five years. I thought I’d never have the chance to work here. Then, a year later, my contract was up with Ring of Honor, and I got a phone call from WWE. Since starting in late 2018, the Performance Center has me in the best shape of my life, I feel like a rookie all over again, and I’m excited for everything to come.”
** Following WWE Backstage going off the air on FS1, The Miz recorded a video for the WWE on FOX Twitter page and jokingly stated that his episode was the best episode of Backstage yet. Christian, Paige and Renee Young disagreed and Miz used the line, “Sorry I didn’t change the culture” which is what CM Punk said when he returned to WWE on Backstage. Punk caught wind of the tweet and replied with the following:
“Go suck a blood money covered d*ck in Saudi Arabia you f*cking dork”. Punk has since deleted the tweet.
** Here’s episode 14 of AEW Dark which was taped at Daily’s Place in Jacksonville, Florida. Chuck Taylor joined Excalibur on commentary. Kip Sabian teamed with Jack Evans and Angelico to take on S.C.U. (Scorpio Sky, Frankie Kazarian & Christopher Daniels). Awesome Kong met Skyler Moore, and Shawn Spears teamed with Preston Vance and they took on the father and son duo of Austin and Billy Gunn.
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2UnRM4-4IGY[/embedyt]
** Socialite Life wrote a story about designer Katya Roulette whose clothes have been worn by the likes of Sasha Banks and Zelina Vega.
** Chris Bey has been booked for GCW ‘For The Culture’ during WrestleMania 36 weekend in Tampa, Florida.
** Street Profits member Angelo Dawkins and his wife are expecting a child. POST Wrestling would like to send our congratulations to the couple.
** The Young Bucks were present at Tuesday’s Memphis Grizzlies game.
** Michael Elgin versus Eddie Edwards was already official for IMPACT Wrestling’s ‘Hard To Kill’ pay-per-view but coming off the helms of the 1/7/20 episode of IMPACT, Eddie Edwards is putting his ‘Call Your Shot’ trophy on the line in his match against Elgin. The trophy allows for the current holder to challenge for any title of his or her choosing.
** WWE referee John Cone said during a recent edition of ‘Superstar Savepoint’ that no one could find pictures of him from his days as a wrestler and less than 24 hours later, the pictures were found and John Cone showed the photos to members of the UpUpDownDown roster.
** On next week’s edition of WWE Backstage on FS1, Ember Moon and Xavier Woods are joining the show. Both stars are currently out of action recovering from their respective Achilles injuries.
** All Elite Wrestling’s Jim Ross joined the ‘Brandon Baxter In The Morning’ show to promote AEW Dynamite in Southaven, Mississippi.
** Marko Stunt did promotional work for AEW as well and appeared on 107.9 KFIN. When asked about his goals in AEW, here’s what Marko had to say:
“I would like to pin Jericho for the championship,” Marko laughed. “I love where I’m at right now. Obviously, I wanna grow. This year is gonna be a great year of growth and almost like a new breaking out for not only myself but for Jurassic Express as a team. You’re gonna see me in heights, and show everybody what we’re made of.”
** Former 6-time WWE Tag Team Champions The Usos made their returns to WWE television this past Friday night on SmackDown. WWE uploaded a video to their YouTube channel of The Usos’ top ten moments in the company:
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cf_jVXW_Lmg[/embedyt]
** Mike Johnson of PWInsider conducted an interview with Damian Priest. Priest will be in action on the 1/8 episode of NXT in a Fatal 4-Way match to determine the #1 contender to Roderick Strong’s NXT North American Championship. Priest expressed his desire to wrestle Roddy and feels that the two could have a match of the year candidate if they get to share the ring.
“So Roderick and I, we’ve known each other for a very long time and actually have barely ever touched inside of a ring, which is crazy being that we were around each other for so many years but, yeah, that’s magic. I look forward to — I know how good he is. I watch the product so-to-speak. I watch everything so I know how good everybody is. Roddy specifically, he’s a machine. That’s the worker’s worker. The machine that just goes, goes, goes and I would love, love to get in the ring with him and see how his work ethic and his intensity, and how that measures up with mine, and how I go and the way I dictate a pace in the ring. I’d love to see that challenge basically because that guy, it doesn’t matter who he is in the ring with, he’ll try to outwork everybody and obviously his stamina is through the roof so I know he’s a go, go, go type of guy. So I would love to just feel that and again, feel the physicality because I know he’s a hard hitter, and then I’d love for him to feel mine, so, yeah. That’s definitely something I’m looking forward to and I definitely think we would have one of those match of the year-type candidates because of the dynamic of our two sets.”
** Eddie Kingston has been confirmed for wXw’s 16 Carat Gold tournament in March.
** NXT U.K. Tag Team Champion Wolfgang was announced for Insane Championship Wrestling’s ‘Square Go’ match on February 2nd.
** The video below features Nikki Bella talking about her engagement to Artem Chigvintsev.
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1IHOf8AnCQ[/embedyt]
** Here’s the latest episode of WWE’s ‘The Bump’. This show featured Kevin Owens, who stated during the show that he believes the NXT Championship is more important than the U.S. and Intercontinental Titles. Toni Storm and Liv Morgan appeared on The Bump and joining next week’s show is Lacey Evans.
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0NUbtXQ9XDU[/embedyt]
** Inside The Ropes released their interview with WWE Hall Of Famer Mick Foley. During their conversation, Foley talked about some of his criticisms of All Elite Wrestling and narrowed his points down to some of the talents not being trained to wrestle on television and thinks that’s where NXT has the advantage over AEW.
“Yeah, I mean they’ve got an amazing talent roster but I think with the exception of eight-to-ten guys, you have a lot of guys who haven’t worked full-time for a promotion and they haven’t had the chance to make mistakes in a smaller venue. One of the things I liked about the ‘For All Mankind’ DVD was that you literally got to see me grow and they’d show a promo from 1989 and it clearly wasn’t quite there. You could see the growth, and I’m sure you will see the growth of the AEW characters as they go but in the meantime, you get to see some mistakes being made on live television so, some of the guys have grown up yearning after the, ‘This is awesome’ chant, but haven’t had the experience of being in angles that need to draw money. I think for guys of my era, there was definitely a very real sense of if the angle wasn’t successful, you didn’t draw at the houses and there was no other ancillary means of income, and I’m not down on the guys but I think you’re seeing some inexperience when it comes to shooting angles and performing for the camera and so guys are out there and it’s an admirable trait that they wanna have they best match they possibly can but every guy wanting to have the best match at every venue doesn’t necessarily lead to [the] best promotion. That’s just my opinion. So I think someone needs to rein some of these guys in. Like Gerald Brisco told me when I got to WWE, he says, ‘We know you like to do a lot of these things. There may come a time when we ask you to do that but until then, we’re gonna ask you not to,’ and that really improved my longevity so I think NXT’s advantage is that their guys have been trained to work for the camera, and I think they have an advantage of having more seasoned stars, and now a dedicated team writing for them, but in the end, it comes down to who has the ability to tell better long-term stories and get the audience engaged.”
** Championship Wrestling presented by West Coast Pro Wrestling is premiering on ABC7/KGO-TV in San Francisco on February 8th at 1:30 AM. Here’s the official press release concerning the announcement:
“HOLLYWOOD WRESTLING RETURNS TO ABC7/KGO-TV FOR THE FIRST TIME IN 65 YEARS”
Hollywood/San Francisco, CA (January 8, 2020) – In one month on Saturday February 8th at 1:30A “Championship Wrestling presented by West Coast Pro Wrestling” (CW) premieres on ABC7/KGO-TV in San Francisco. This new show follows the “Championship Wrestling” (CWFH) format established last year by the United Wrestling Network on CW30 in Memphis, TN and ABC13 in Houston, TX. The Bay Area version of “Championship Wrestling from Hollywood” will be hosted by Golden State Warriors Broadcaster James Kincaid and United Wrestling Network in ring Competitor Levi Shapiro.
“Our newest CW market specific broadcast on KGO-TV is very unique. It’s the first time a local pro wrestling promotion is the title sponsor. I feel Scott Bregante the Owner of West Coast Pro Wrestling is very enterprising and this kind of out of the box thinking will propel his brand of area wrestling to the top of his region. CWFH is celebrating it’s first decade in syndication and has featured the very best pro wrestling talent around. Many of them appear on network television today and I hope we continue this trend for many years to come. San Francisco is an amazing market with loyal pro wrestling fans. We hope they enjoy our programming on ABC7.” said CWFH Executive Producer David Marquez.
“There is tremendous talent associated with CWFH, and at West Coast Pro Wrestling, we are no stranger to that. David Marquez has the right vision, and we are happy to see that vision make it’s way to Bay Area television. We look forward to sponsoring “Championship Wrestling” on ABC7 , and continuing a fruitful relationship with the United Wrestling Network, now, and into the future.” stated West Coast Pro Wrestling Owner Scott Bregante.
Watch “Championship Wrestling presented by West Coast Pro Wrestling” every Saturday night at 1:30A on ABC7/KGO-TV and follow us on Social Media @CWFHollywood and HollywoodWrestling.com. For more information on West Coast Pro Wrestling please visit @wcprowrestling on Twitter and fb.me/westcoastprowrestling.
** Ring of Honor has a story up on their website about Jushin Thunder Liger’s top five matches in ROH.
** The Bullet Club is hosting a beach party during WrestleMania 36 weekend. To promote the forthcoming event, Sports Illustrated interviewed former 5-time IWGP Tag Team Champion Tama Tonga.
** Paul “Triple H” Levesque received Loudwire’s ‘Metal Ambassador of the Decade’ award. Levesque also did an interview with Loudwire at the Performance Center in Orlando and talked about how music gets selected for NXT TakeOver events and specifically talked about WWE’s working relationship with Code Orange who created Aleister Black and Bray Wyatt’s themes.
“So, Neil [Lawi] has a really great team. Obviously, I listen to a lot of stuff as well but he has this great team and they’re always just on the cutting edge of what’s coming out, who’s got something coming out short-term. Sometimes we know about… they have an album coming out six months from now. Here’s a sample of what it’s gonna be. You mentioned Code Orange. For us to work with Code Orange and see sort of the success they were already having, but to see that get amplified through us using their music but them also playing for us and coming to TakeOver and playing Aleister [Black] to the ring and just having this incredible moment that then took them, I feel like, to another level especially from a performance standpoint. Once you see that, you wanna go see them and you wanna listen to their music and you know, knowing where they went from there and how it expanded for them and them becoming sort of intertwined in what we do — becoming friends with Bray Wyatt, then recreating his music and The Fiend’s theme. That kind of collaboration for me is awesome, I love it and some of my favorite moments in the last few years as we’ve done TakeOvers is just getting done rehearsals the night before the show and then going over to this little pole-in-the-wall studio, and watching those guys and girls… while watching Code Orange rehearse for that show the next day and just rocking out with them and getting this little private showing right there, it was awesome.”
** Samoa Joe and The Usos are joining Corey Graves on WWE’s After The Bell podcast this week.
** Twice.com has a story up about Stephanie McMahon, who was a part of a panel titled, “The Hidden Diversity Dividend” at CES 2020.
** OTT World Champion David Starr appeared in a video to promote Bernie Sanders and explained how Sanders being in a high-ranking position can be beneficial to wrestling.
** IMPACT World Champion Sami Callihan joined WrestlingINC’s WINCLY podcast to chat about IMPACT’s Hard To Kill pay-per-view.
** Kid Lykos sat down with NXT U.K.’s Mark Andrews for a new edition of ‘My First Match With Mandrews’:
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PhIUxxLTik[/embedyt]
** ‘The Star’ has information posted on their website about how to win tickets to a WWE live event in Sheffield, England in May as a part of the company’s post-WrestleMania European tour.
** Sporting News released their interview with Damian Priest ahead of NXT. Damian opened up about how his current entrance came about and how throughout his career, he has always wanted to be presented differently because there are a handful of talented wrestlers and entertainers and that’s why he needed something to separate himself from the pack.
“When I was kid and fell in love with this business, it had nothing to do with the coolest move in the world or anything. For me, it was the spectacle, the idea of we can be perceived as something bigger than just your neighbor. I’ve always kept that, even when I worked in other companies, I always made sure that my presence was felt a little differently than everybody else. There’s no shortage of good pro wrestlers and good entertainers. There’s so many of them nowadays. But I’ve always been adamant about the way I was presented. I wanted to make sure it was special every time. I didn’t want somebody to turn on the TV midway through an entrance and change the channel. I wanted them to be intrigued without me even performing yet in the ring. That’s how I fell in love with the business. Back in the day, I watched The Undertaker’s entrance, I watched The Ultimate Warrior’s entrance and I was intrigued without even knowing what they were going to do in the ring. It was mesmerizing and I wanted to make sure that was a part of what my presentation was. I had a write-up of ideas that I brought to Triple H. He was super cool, didn’t turn down any ideas, he just morphed them to make them better and was very adamant about — in agreement with me about — that my presentation had to be unique and special because there’s no shortage of guys that can go in the ring. This company, especially our brand, it’s known for our go, go, go, in-ring style so that’s not an issue. The issue was creating something that stood out a little bit differently and creat[ing] something a little more special which I’ve tried to do my entire career no matter where I worked. Here, with the production team we have, we’re able to do it in a way cooler way and I was excited. That was one of the things I was most excited about when I signed on to come to work here was the idea, the possibilities of presentation and how I could really get people’s attention without even having to throw a punch. It was exciting and then, when we actually did it, it’s my favorite thing. All the time when we go over things and ideas and I’m like, ‘As long as I have a full entrance, whatever you guys need me to do’ and everybody starts laughing because that, to me, is so important, the presentation aspect. I’m proud of what we’ve been able to do and the way it’s perceived. People dig it and I’m glad because we worked hard at it.”
