If any of the quotes from the following podcasts or video interviews are used, please credit those sources and provide an H/T and link back to POST Wrestling for the transcription.
** On the ‘No Way Out 2000’ episode of the Grilling JR podcast, he and Conrad Thompson discussed the current version of the XFL. During their conversation, Jim Ross revealed that a few years ago, Kevin Dunn asked him to put him in contact with FOX which Jim Ross did. This would ultimately lead to Friday Night SmackDown being on FOX with the addition of WWE Backstage on FS1.
“Kevin Dunn called me one time and [it] was in the last couple of years and said, ‘You know these guys at FOX, right?’ And I said, ‘Yeah’, and then my buddy at FOX, Jacob Ullman who’s one of my dear friends, still is, senior producer there. He said, ‘Can you introduce me to someone who can get the ball rolling or discussions rolling with WWE?’ And I said, ‘Of course I can.’ He said, ‘Keep it under wraps but I’d like to have a talk but I just don’t know the right people to talk to.’ So I said, ‘I can handle that’ so, I hooked up Jacob Ullman and Kevin Dunn to talk at the JW Marriott in Los Angeles, and I wasn’t in the meeting, I arranged the meeting, got ‘em together, set their own time and place and then the rest is history. Jacob was a big fan, and a great guy, a great friend of Jan and mine. He hurt about as bad as I did when Jan got killed. So we’re that close. So they met and then the layers were added and more people were added and all of sudden, now you got what you got.”
** The Young Bucks chatted with Ringside Collectibles at the Toy Fair in New York and while speaking about their forthcoming tag team title match against Hangman Page and Kenny Omega at Revolution, Matt Jackson spoke about meeting Adam Page for the first time and stated that Page will be the face of AEW in a few years.
“But I remember seeing this kid, this kid wearing a baseball cap, back in Ring of Honor. Real handsome, young guy and I said, ‘That guy’s got something’ and we were very instrumental in getting him into Bullet Club. Like they asked us, ‘Who do you want next?’ And we said, ‘That guy.’ I didn’t even really know him in real life. I probably had three conversations with him, and we got him into Bullet Club and Nick and I looked at each other one day and said, ‘Our goal is to get this kid over’, and we put him on our Being The Elite show and I saw how multi-talented he is. He’s amazing. I always said, ‘He’s our guy’ and when I say that, I mean he’s gonna be the face of the company years from now. He’s gonna be the guy leading us and I’m so proud of where he’s come from. Humble beginnings — just this kid from North Carolina who nobody really knew about and now, he’s a star. So, am I looking forward to wrestling him? Of course.”
Ringside Collectibles also spoke with Dustin Rhodes. Rhodes was asked about the young roster that AEW has and he pointed out that he has his eye on MJF who he thinks is going to be a major player in the company:
“You know who is really, really good that I’ve been watching? MJF, and I know he’s doing some stuff with my brother right now but, MJF is a well-rounded heel who I think has a bright future. He needs to be structured from time to time and that’s what we’re here for, and we’re gonna lead him down the right path because he has many years — he’s gonna be a huge, huge success. He already is and I’m really looking forward to seeing what he can do in the upcoming years.”
** With New Japan Pro-Wrestling cancelling their shows for the first 15 days of the month of March due to the Coronavirus, they will be uploading a plethora of content to NJPW World. Interviews, talk panels and never before seen matches will be added to the service. This project is called the ‘NJPW Together Project’. On March 3rd, Tetsuya Naito and Hiromu Takahashi will do a sit-down interview together and on the 4th, they’ll host a talk show together. Naito and Takahashi were scheduled to clash at NJPW’s Anniversary show in March.
** Variety is reporting that WWE’s Sonya Deville, real name Daria Berenato has signed with Imagine Artist Management for representation. Her signing could open the door for potential television and film roles.
** Below are a few notes from the latest edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter:
– At AEW’s Revolution pay-per-view on February 29th, there will be a one-hour pre-show starting at 7 PM EST and on that pre-show, the plan is for Chuck Taylor and Trent to take on Frankie Kazarian and Scorpio Sky. On this past Wednesday’s episode of Dynamite, Evil Uno of The Dark Order stated that S.C.U. will feel their presence at Revolution and Christopher Daniels will be “obsolete”.
– Lars Sullivan, Nia Jax and Jeff Hardy should be ready to return to the ring soon.
** Coming off the helms of the announcement about their induction into the 2020 WWE Hall Of Fame, Nikki and Brie Bella shared their thoughts about their eventful week on the newest edition of The Bellas Podcast. Nikki stated that she and Brie pitched the idea to WWE to have some of their fans induct them into the Hall Of Fame and WWE did not reject the idea but were hesitant.
“Even when Brie and I were talking about inducting — who’s gonna induct us. Our first thought when they asked us, we thought, ‘Oh! Can we do Bella Army members? We’d really just like to make it very heavy about the Bella Army’ and they were like, ‘I don’t know. We’ve never had that before. We’re gonna have to talk.’ But Brie and I, that’s who we immediately thought of and when they play the amazing packages, they interview a lot of WWE superstars. Brie and I were like, ‘Oh! Can you interview Bella Army members? Is it possible to fly them out to the corporate office?’ And they were like, ‘Uh, Bellas, we’re gonna have to get back to you on that’, but our Bella Army is everything to us so, please send ideas.”
Nikki also shared that when WWE’s Head of Talent Relations, Mark Carrano called her and Brie, he mentioned that all 2020 WWE Hall Of Fame inductees will be appearing on WWE programming in some capacity whether it’d be on RAW, SmackDown or WWE Backstage.
“So we got a call from Mark [Carrano] and it was real exciting because he’s like, ‘Hey, this year we’re doing something different for the Hall Of Fame. Anyone who’s getting inducted, we want them to have some presence on any of our shows whether it’s RAW, SmackDown and then on WWE Backstage on FS1.’”
** WWE Universal Champion Goldberg referred to Macaulay Culkin as a “dork” on Twitter after Culkin tweeted that he’s cancelling his travel to WrestleMania 36 after Goldberg became Universal Champion.
** Per PWInsider, WWE’s charter flight from Saudi Arabia has landed in Boston for tonight’s Friday Night SmackDown.
** GameSpot released their interview with Roman Reigns and Reigns had the following words of advice for Simone Johnson as she embarks on her journey in WWE:
“I would say try to develop your own personality and develop your own shtick, your own character. I mean, we can do anything we want. I could have been the savage from the island of Samoa if I wanted to, but I developed a different character and I went a different route and I’m still able to pay that homage to my heritage and our lineage and represent our family the same. I think just for her own experience, it’s better to create your stuff, and she’ll have such a stronger tie to it, it’ll mean so much more to her and she’ll feel so much more accomplished if she develops that on her own.”
** While speaking with Comicbook.com, Austin Theory stated that he wants to have a match with John Cena.
** Bray Wyatt tweeted the following coming off of losing the Universal Championship to Goldberg:
“Life is a circle. No matter what beast you make of yourself or how bright one side is, inevitably the dark side comes again. But the beauty of the circle is, round we go.”
** Mirror Sport released their interview with NXT Women’s Champion Rhea Ripley.
** Josh Barnett told Tokyo Sports that he’s interested in wrestling in Japan again.
** Justin Barrasso of Sports Illustrated chatted with AEW World Champion Chris Jericho ahead of the Revolution pay-per-view. There were a handful of topics covered during this interview including Jericho stating that WWE had the mindset of wanting to crush AEW every week via NXT and Jericho added that the tables have turned.
“We’re not the alternative, we’re an option. If you don’t like what you’re seeing on one side of the street, now, for the first time in 20 years, there is something happening on the other side of the street. You can make a choice. We didn’t come into this with the mentality of, ‘We’re gonna crush ‘em!’ They did, and they’re getting their asses kicked every week. It’s probably embarrassing for them. Vince, Hunter. That’s why they specifically put their show up against ours. That’s fine, and I’ve heard they watch our show in tandem while they’re doing their thing. We don’t care. We focus on our show, our product, and making sure our fans are happy and growing our fan base. Whatever anybody else is doing is really none of our business.”
Jericho talked about some of the younger talents in AEW that he’s had the chance to work with such as Jungle Boy, MJF and Darby Allin. Jericho specifically mentioned that he gave Darby Allin the idea to ride his skateboard down the ramp when Darby initially had doubts about it.
“Jungle Boy, Scorpio Sky, MJF’s promo against Jericho. I heard, ‘MJF held his own! He might have even been better than Jericho!’ Gee, you think so? Who wanted it that way? Cody is another guy who’s been a completely different performer. I had nothing to do with this one, but look at Hangman from when we worked in August until now. He’s a totally different guy. That, to me, is why this is working so well. Everybody is starting to grow. It’s the first time this has ever been my position, and I’m enjoying it. If you ask Darby who is behind the scenes orchestrating his rise, it’s me. The lights out, the lights on. He didn’t want to skateboard, and I said, ‘You’re riding the f—ing skateboard down every night.’ ‘Well, the skateboard people…’ Listen, I don’t give a f— about the skateboard people. The wrestling people are going to love it, and they do. Everything we do is designed to build stars. Look at The Inner Circle. They’re way more popular than they ever were before.”
While Jericho and his fellow Inner Circle member Jake Hager were both in WWE, Jericho wanted to work with Hager and he explained why they were never put together in the sports-entertainment company.
“Jake is a star and I always knew he was a star. I wanted him to be my guy like this 10 years ago. They didn’t. ‘Oh, he’s got a lisp?’ Who gives a f—? He’s a legitimate bad ass. When we were putting together The Inner Circle, we needed a big guy and I said we have to get Hager. He’s a great wrestler, and I expect him to have a great match with Dustin. But to rebuild him, I didn’t want him to talk or wrestle. I just wanted him to beat people up, and that’s what he’s been doing for six months, and look at the position he’s in.”
Also, the AEW World Champion took a mental trip back to WrestleMania XIX where he took on Shawn Michaels. Jericho said that Pat Patterson wanted him to win that match but Vince McMahon wanted Shawn to win. Jericho added that the idea of him low blowing Michaels after the match was to have something more than Shawn just beating him.
“It was discussed [the low blow]. I wanted something more than just Shawn to beat me. I wanted to know, where are we going from this? And it was either Vince or Pat Patterson had that idea and Shawn was all for it. I think Pat suggested I win that match but Vince wanted Shawn to, but he wanted something extra at the end. In a match like that, both guys are winners. There is especially nothing wrong with being a heel and losing.”
** Columbia Daily Tribune posted their interview with Jim Ross. During the interview, J.R. opened up about his most valuable lesion courtesy of the late Harley Race:
“Well, I didn’t travel a lot with Harley. Harley liked to always drive and he drove too fast. No one that I have known in wrestling have I respected more than Harley. He was one of the legitimate old-tough guys. I remember refereeing a match one time in Tulsa, Oklahoma in the early 1970s, Harley versus Dory Funk Jr., and they had a 60-minute draw and I had been refereeing about six months, and Harley said, ‘Get on the floor and show me how you count’ as he’s dragging a Marlboro as his pregame warm-up, and so, I showed him, and he said, ‘Count that way every time?’ And I said ‘Yes sir.’ Then he said, ‘Remember this, if you see me cheat, you make me break. You don’t see me cheat, you can’t call it. Call what you see and see what you call’, and I learned that lesson early on from Harley, as far as a referee is concerned. But working matches for him in that era really helped me become more experienced in the art of telling a story inside the ring. Harley’s one of the legit toughest guys I ever met, and I love the guy. You know, he is one of those old war dogs. He always represented the business in a big way, and for a guy that didn’t even have a high school degree, to end up being a world champion, traveling the world and wrestling in front of some of the most immense crowds in history? I thought Harley for a good old Missouri boy did pretty damn good.”
** Jessie Ventura is signing autographs at the Niagra Falls Comic Con on June 7th.
** There will be a wrestling event in Barbados on March 7th featuring the likes of Melina, Brodus Clay, PJ Black, Carlito and Chris Masters.
** The Undertaker sent a “warning” to Twitch steamer and YouTuber Dr. Disrespect.
** The Bella Twins participated in the pre-WWE Backstage Q&A session.
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=45cBq30u_xs[/embedyt]
** Fred Yehi is challenging Mance Warner for the AAW Heavyweight Championship at AAW’s ‘EPIC’ show on March 20th.
** Sam Adonis, who is a wrestler and the brother of Friday Night SmackDown announcer Corey Graves, did an interview with Post-Gazette and Adonis spoke about the friendship he’s been able to develop with Ultimo Dragon.
“Getting to work with Ultimo Dragon blows my mind. In 1996 or ‘97 this guy comes on my TV for Monday Nitro. I’m saying, ‘Oh my God, this is the best wrestler that has been in a ring.’ I wrestled him and we built a connection. He was the one that got me into Japan, and to know that I have ripped his mask off in Mexico and Japan, I have been to his house for multiple barbecues, it’s surreal. He is a classy gentleman.”
** Jim Varsallone of the Miami Herald has a two-part interview on his YouTube channel with Ring of Honor lead announcer Ian Riccaboni.
** Johnny Gargano appeared on the most recent edition of WWE After The Bell with Corey Graves. Gargano shared that he has become the go-to guy at the WWE Performance Center in Orlando to chat with the new independent wrestler that has signed on with the company.
“The advice I give to everyone when they start here in NXT — there’s a lot of guys, obviously we talked about who come from the indies, and they get signed and they come here and they do these sessions with coaches and a lot of people have different opinions and they don’t know ‘em that well and they kind of get lost where they’re like, ‘I don’t know. One person is telling me to do this, one person is telling me to do that. One person’s saying this. I don’t know what to do. I don’t know who I am anymore,’ and I always have to stop them. I consider myself the indie wrestling whisperer. Whenever there’s a new indie wrestler that starts at the PC, I’m always trying to give them the conversation like, ‘Look man, you know what got you signed, you know what got you over, you know what got you noticed. So, just do that and be you and you can make little tweaks here and there along the way and you can take their advice and filter it.’ It’s almost like you need to have a basket and you need to take all the advice and throw it in the basket and you need to pick out what you need at certain times, but at the end of the day, you need to be happy with yourself and you need to be yourself. That’s when you’re gonna be organic.”
** WFLA has a story up about a Stephanie McMahon giving a young lady tickets to WrestleMania 36.
** As first reported by ‘PEOPLE’, Nikki and Brie Bella will be releasing their own book titled ‘Incomparable’ and it’ll be published on May 5th.
** Monday Night RAW emanated from Winnipeg this week for RAW and Natalya wrote about that trip in her latest article for the Calgary Sun.
** The Young Bucks did an interview with Steven Muehlhausen of Sporting News and while talking about their forthcoming AEW World Tag Title match at Revolution, Matt Jackson reflected on a match that he feels is one of the best tag matches of all-time which is The Young Bucks vs. The Golden Lovers (Kenny Omega & Kota Ibushi) from Strong Style Evolved in 2018.
“We had one of the greatest tag matches in wrestling history when we faced Kenny and Kota Ibushi,” Matt Jackson said. “A lot of people are already saying, ‘Hey, is it going to be as good as last time?’ Maybe it’s not fair to even compare the two because that was a whole different story, and you had six months to build, and it was very emotional. Not to say that this one isn’t because it’s going to be just as good. The action is going to be maybe even better, and we have this new dynamic called Hangman Adam Page, who has this chip on his shoulder. This is a new character layout that he has going on, and he’s the wild-card factor in this whole story. I can’t wait to go out there. My expectations are high. Everybody else’s are too. We want to have a great match and have the best tag match in the short history of AEW.”
** Kevin Owens is donating all the money he makes from his ‘Just Keep Fighting’ shirt to a mental health organization in Canada and another organization in the U.S.
** Per Showbuzz Daily, the 2/26 edition of Miz & Mrs. on the USA Network drew 394,000 viewers which was down from last week’s season high of 500,000 viewers. AEW’s ‘Countdown To Revolution’ special that aired on TNT following Dynamite averaged 383,000 viewers.
** The second full-length episode of the AEW Unrestricted podcast premiered featuring Cody Rhodes. As Cody, Aubrey Edwards and Tony Schiavone were conversing, Cody mentioned that he is not a fan of people bringing his father’s name up in promos and joked about Chris Jericho not catching that hint on the buildup to Full Gear.
“Many years ago, he saw this terrible wrestling angle that — I don’t know how to pronounce it… posthumous? Is that when someone’s passed on? Well anyways, it was an angle where someone who had passed away, they were trying to use him as part of the angle, and I remember my dad telling me — I was only like 12 years old. He was telling me, ‘Please don’t let anyone ever say I would’ve liked this or I would’ve loved…’ — they don’t know, and that’s why my big rule is and it’s kinda common knowledge but you can’t talk about my dad. If you talk about my dad in a promo, angle’s over brother. He ain’t coming back. Gotta talk about me, which Jericho didn’t totally get the hint.”
** Penelope Ford joined TK Trinidad and Emily Mae on the Women’s Wrestling Weekly podcast.
** While speaking with TSN, Cody said that the Steel Cage that he faced Wardlow inside of on Dynamite was way too tall and he’s glad he doesn’t know the individual who designed the structure.
“The cage was too tall. I don’t even like watching it back. Just flat out, the cage was too tall. The production guys at AEW are second to none. Each individual on this team is amazing, but the guy who designed that cage, I don’t like him and I’m glad I don’t know his name. That thing was just too damn tall. It was like three feet taller than a standard WWE cage, plus the truss. The truss is that prop that hooks to the rigging.”
Cody shared that there was one occasion when he and QT Marshall had a serious conversation with MJF and told him that he needs to grow up. Cody mentioned to MJF that the internet attention is fine but they need locker room leaders to step up and he thinks MJF took it to heart.
“A very long time ago, I sat in my office with Max and QT Marshall, who’s been an associate producer for me and really been a driving force behind AEW that people don’t realize. We both told Max the same thing: ‘You need to grow the eff up.’ The internet fame is great, but a real connection and a real leader is what we needed Max to become and I don’t know, but I do think he took that to heart. We need locker room leaders and when I say that I don’t mean people who say they’re locker room leaders. We need people who go out there and lead by example meaning that under the big lights, the most important thing you can do is deliver.”
** Tampa Bay Times published an article featuring quotes from Stephanie McMahon and John Saboor, WWE’s executive vice president of special events. With the Coronavirus outbreak, WWE wants to make sure everything is green-lit and safe for WrestleMania 36 week in Tampa, Florida.
** Former 6-time WWE Women’s Champion Mickie James did an interview with Darren Paltrowitz of Paltrocast:
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=au5Z2DUHkN4[/embedyt]
** NWA Worlds Heavyweight Champion Nick Aldis appeared on the ‘Behind The Gorilla’ podcast and at the Crockett Cup presser in Atlanta. Aldis spoke about NWA not being backed by a major corporation and being self-funded and went into detail about the rise of the organization over the past several years. Aldis specifically mentioned ALL IN where he and Cody Rhodes clashed for the NWA Worlds Title and Aldis feels that-that match was the true main event of the night.
“Look, we are not backed by a millionaire. We don’t have infinite resources. We don’t have a seven-figure budget from some giant corporation. We’re taking the risk, and I’m taking the risk, Billy [Corgan’s] taking the risk, Dave [Lagana’s] taking the risk. We’re putting our eggs in that one basket, and that’s why I referenced all those things we’ve done because we started with the Ten Pounds of Gold so we said, ‘Hey, check this out.’ Ten minutes, do our own show. We’re gonna do this, we’re gonna do that. ALL IN, we stole that show. My match at ALL IN was the true main event of that show, because of the work we did to make it happen. NWA 70th set box office records for the [Nashville] Fairgrounds so, the proof is there. It’s just, we’re just trying to grow in a sustainable fashion so we don’t reach critical mass, and that’s why we’re here now.”
** NJPW1972.com posted information about how ticket buyers can get their money back for the March 1-15th New Japan events that were cancelled due to the Coronavirus outbreak.
** Mr. Fresh 2 Death and Tre’ Lamar are taking on Cryme Tyme at GCW ‘For The Culture’.
** During Brody King’s appearance on ‘The Hard Times’ podcast, he spoke about his decision to sign with Ring of Honor. Brody recalled speaking with William Regal about possibly joining WWE and here’s what Regal told Brody King before he made his final decision:
“I talked to Regal a few times and it was kind of like… his advice was always really awesome. It was like, ‘Go do everything you want to do in wrestling because when you come to the WWE, it all stops.’”
** While on Wrestling Observer Live, Flip Gordon talked about Marty Scurll’s new position in Ring of Honor and Flip spoke about the direction that ROH is heading in with Marty at the helm.
“I’m very excited about the current direction because it’s a very positive direction that we’re heading in. Lots of big things are gonna be happening. Obviously, with Marty’s new job, you have somebody that’s very creative, very passionate about this business and I think we’re in great, great hands.”
** Part 3 of Manabu Nakanishi’s interview on NJPW1972.com is up.
** FOX 13 has a video up to promote WrestleMania 36 featuring interviews with Mojo Rawley, Jinder Mahal and highlights from the Road to WrestleMania 36 luncheon hosted by Stephanie McMahon.
** New Japan Pro-Wrestling has formed a partnership with Under Armour.
** Bar Wrestling: ‘Mach 1’ Results (2/27/20) Pomona, California
– The Rascalz (Dezmond Xavier & Zachary Wentz) & Chris Bey def. Daga, Tessa Blanchard & Willie Mack
– Taya Valkyrie def. Kimber Lee
– Chris Masters def. Orange Cassidy
– Diamante & Kiera Hogan def. Joey Ryan & Miranda Alize
– Four Way Match: Watts def. Adrian Quest, Matt Cross and Trey Miguel
– Jon Ian Tag Team Invitational: Doomfly (Delilah Doom & Eli Everfly) def. Andy Brown & Ray Rosas, The RockNES Monsters (BHK & Yuma), Che Cabrera & Tito Escondido, Los Luchas (Phoenix Star & Zokre) and Dom Kubrick & Heather Monroe
** NWA World Television Champion Ricky Starks is scheduled for EFFY’s Big Gay Brunch show.
** Here’s a video from the Magic City Live crew (Braun Strowman, EC3 & Drake Maverick):
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=POmUURK-1fc[/embedyt]
** Bleacher Report has an in-depth interview up with Kenny Omega. The interview features quotes from Kenny himself of course, The Young Bucks and Cody Rhodes. Kenny detailed his approach to professional wrestling and elaborated on his thought that he’s not a fan of wrestling but more-so a fan of TV dramas.
“A lot of wrestlers are wrestling fans at heart. I’m not necessarily a fan [of wrestling] anymore. I’m a fan of TV dramas. I’m a fan of video games, and I’m a fan of movies. I like the way that those forms of media are laid out to attract the fan. That’s my study material for how I put together a storyline or a match. Yes, I’m athletic and I can do cool moves and I try to be original with the way I perform them, but I feel the way that I put things together is different from the average wrestler because the average wrestler is just that: He’s just a wrestler. He’s a wrestler who wants to be a wrestler. I am wrestling as a job but trying to tell human stories to pull at your heartstrings.”
Omega talked about the ‘greatest of all-time’ conversation and how most consider Ric Flair the greatest. Omega stated that Kazuchika Okada can be considered the modern-day Ric Flair in terms of that aforementioned classification in the ranks of the sport.
“A lot of wrestling historians and purists will go to bat and say that [Ric] Flair was the greatest of all time because he was so successful for a period of years. The same goes for Okada, who’s almost the modern-day Ric Flair. They have a very patterned main event style, but it’s very successful. They bring out the best in almost every opponent. I would watch some of the main event performances, and I would say, ‘Well, this is a great match. Wow.’ You don’t realize until after you’ve seen it 10 times or 12 times, this is actually just a formula they’ve kind of copy-and-pasted. They see that the reaction is the same every time, so the wrestler says, ‘Oh, OK, this is a formula that works,’ and regardless of how many times they’ve seen it, it still works. I think that’s why the Kenny Omega boom started. There’s no Kenny Omega copy-and-paste formula. It’s all different. It’s difficult and very mentally draining, and because I do that, maybe it makes me not a true wrestler’s wrestler. What I am trying to do is not attract the wrestler’s wrestling fan; I’m trying to open up the world to what wrestling can be and show there is no limitation to what wrestling can be. I went way outside that box. I wasn’t using the age-old wrestler formula where if you do this, it’s gonna get a reaction, so you do this set list of things at this timing and know it’s definitely gonna work. I try to make everything unique, almost anti-wrestling in a way but still existing within the four sides of a wrestling ring.”
** Aja Smith, Bianca Belair, Briana Brandy, Kayden Carter, Mia Yim, MJ Jenkins and Simone Johnson did a photoshoot and that shoot was recapped via the WWEPC YouTube channel.
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUICqqO45uw[/embedyt]
** Ronda Rousey did a live stream on her personal Facebook page.
** Comicbook.com conducted an interview with Kenny Omega. While speaking about the G1 Climax tournament, Omega shared that there have been internal discussions within AEW about a tournament taking place although the idea has not been finalized.
“Every one of those tournaments, they’re rough on the body and it’s tough to figure out a schedule to do so. Whether it be a round robin tournament, a league style or one night, we are definitely looking into a tournament format because people, as a fan [myself] even, I love tournaments. As a performer they’re tough to do, but I think it really tests the athletes’ mettle and it really separates the men from the boys. Yeah, I would love to do a tournament. I don’t know what we’d call it. Don’t have any ideas for a name, but all of us have been brought on board with [a] tournament. It’s just a matter of figuring out how.”
** The WWEPR Twitter page posted photos of Lacey Evans on the court with Boston Celtics Center Enes Kanter ahead of Friday Night SmackDown in Boston.
** According to a report from the Texas Dept. of Licensing and Regulation, Tito Ortiz’s submission victory over Alberto El Patron at this past December’s Combate Americas show was changed to a “no decision”. TDLR public information officer Tela Mange told MMA Junkie that the result of the fight was changed pending further investigation. ESPN’s Marc Raimondi followed up on the story and noted in his report that Tito Ortiz is fighting the decision. Ortiz took to his Instagram and noted that the decision will be overturned. Sources told ESPN that Ortiz tested positive for a substance banned in Texas. Prior to the fight, Ortiz did tell the TDLR that he was taking a substance but it was not a performance enhancing drug. In an update on the situation, the victory has been restored.
** Here’s the latest upload to the UpUpDownDown YouTube gaming channel:
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CywhhqoJTIc[/embedyt]
** Kris Wolf was the most recent guest on The Joshi Pod.
** There is a write-up on ‘Coral Springs Talk’ about Coastal Championship Wrestling’s show on March 7th.
** Norman Smiley turned 55 years old on February 28th.
** Lio Rush is taking on Alexander James in the first-round of the wXw 16 Carat Gold tournament. Rush also released his ‘Craved For Blood’ music video:
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qqw5fCXxGZk[/embedyt]
** Katarina Waters is set for the ROH Women’s World Championship tournament. Mark Haskins is slated for the ROH Pure Title tourney.
** Lacey Evans joined Toucher and Rich on 98.5 The Sports Hub.
** Darren Paltrowitz welcomed former MLW World Tag Team Champion Brian Pillman Jr. onto his podcast. Pillman Jr. opened up about Teddy Hart’s departure from MLW and stated that he and Davey Boy Smith Jr. will always view Hart as a member of The Hart Foundation and understand the trying times that Teddy is going through and has been through.
“The Hart Foundation is still strong and going and that bond between me and Davey Boy Smith Jr. has never been stronger. Teddy’s departure from the company was definitely unforeseen and out of the blue but, me and Davey Boy, we both know that the trails and the things that Teddy Hart has had to go through and the expectations that he’s had to deal with, and a lot of things going on in his life right now that are out of our control but we wish him the best and he’ll always be a part of The Hart Foundation, my heart.”
** Booker T and his co-host Brad Gilmore voiced their thoughts about Goldberg defeating “The Fiend” Bray Wyatt for the Universal Championship at WWE Super ShowDown:
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pSTZLhZ1Eg[/embedyt]
** Ringside Collectibles posted their interview with AEW Co-Executive Vice President Cody Rhodes.
** WrestlingINC’s Andy Malnoske chatted with SmackDown ring announcer Greg Hamilton. Hamilton talked about the birth of the ‘Best In The World’ nickname for Shane McMahon and how that came to be during a WrestleMania rehearsal session.
“Well, I’ve never talked about this in an interview before but I’m gonna go ahead and give it to you. That all took place at WrestleMania rehearsal. So, they wanted the Best In The World intro and I’m standing there with Road Dogg and Jeff Jarrett and Shane’s in the ring, and Road Dogg and Jeff Jarrett said to me, they said, ‘Hey man, give us just the biggest ‘Best In The World’ you got. Let’s see what you can do with it.’ I said, ‘Are you sure?’ They said, ‘Yeah, yeah, yeah!’ And I don’t think they thought what I was gonna do was that. So I belt it out in the middle of an empty MetLife Stadium — the Best In The World for what felt like 20 seconds, and then I stopped and then I’m like, ‘Am I gonna get in trouble for that?’ I turn around and Road Dogg goes, ‘Man! You think you can do that tonight!?’ And Best In The World was born. Now, of course I said, ‘Yeah!’ Well, we’re talking WrestleMania so the first time I ever did it was live, millions around the world, 70,000 in the stadium at MetLife Stadium but, so I was nervous but it came from WrestleMania rehearsal with Jeff Jarrett and Road Dogg.”
** New York Post published their interview with Dustin Rhodes and Rhodes further spoke about the hate messages that Nyla Rose received upon winning the AEW Women’s World Championship. Dustin says he views Nyla as family and those who criticize her because she’s a transgender woman need to let people live their lives.
“It’s there. It’s not going away and I didn’t understand that for the longest time. Then I got married to my wonderful third wife and my son is trans. So I started to learn a little bit about it and I [started seeing] all the stuff these men and women go through and it’s so ridiculous and stupid. This is 2020, man. Let somebody live their life like they want to. I don’t care what the Bible says. I don’t care what anybody else says. Live your life and be happy. That’s all I care about for my son is to be happy and nobody picks on him because if they do, they got to deal with me, and I see that in Nyla. I treat her like she’s my child. I love Nyla to death and I don’t think of any of that when I’m at work with her and I watch her perform and she’s a great performer. This is not the Olympics, OK. This is pro wrestling, this is entertainment. This is scripted stuff that we do and you’re gonna have Nyla Rose wrestle Riho and everybody get all bent out of shape about it and just really give her hell, I don’t like that at all. I take offense to that and I let them know it because it’s wrong.”
Dustin was asked about the possibility of Matt Hardy and/or Luke Harper joining AEW. Dustin is game for both of those names to make their way into the company.
“I think they’d bring creativity. Harper, man, is incredible. I’ve worked with him many times with the Wyatt Family. Me and Cody did and he knows his stuff and he’s not a greenhorn in the business. He can help people. He can take them to new highs and he can get them there and at the same time get himself over in a company that will allow him to do so. Matt Hardy, if he comes in here, my God he’s been through so many different variations on YouTube and things like that with WWE. He’s so creative in all the things that he does that when we do it with him, it’s gonna touch gold.”
** NXT’s ticket website is advertising a Tuesday TV taping on April 7th after WrestleMania.
** Ahead of his AEW World Championship match against Chris Jericho at Revolution, Jon Moxley spoke with Sporting News. Moxley was asked about his IWGP U.S. Heavyweight Title bout against Minoru Suzuki and Mox said he was over the moon about it. He wanted it to happen for a while and spoke about how he used to study Minoru Suzuki’s work while he [Moxley] was in CZW.
“I was over the moon excited for it. It all just kind of worked out perfectly. A storyline got screwed up a little bit because of weather problems. I think it all worked out good at that moment at the Tokyo Dome, where he came out, and the crowd [were] all singing his songs. 50,000 people or however many were at the Tokyo Dome. You talk WrestleMania moments, that was a Wrestle Kingdom moment. To be a part of that was so cool, and I’ve watched him for so many years. I’ve been such a fan of his. I used to study some of these matches when I was in CZW. We’re different but so similar. I never thought I’d get a chance to wrestle him. If I could pick one dream opponent that could be possible, it was him.
I think everybody wanted to see the match. It’s one of those match-ups, and we got to put that together and see what happens. So I helped facilitate it. Rather than I put somebody’s name on my mouth and start calling him out, I was like on-board for that. So I willed it into existence. I think it was supposed to happen on that night in Osaka, Japan. It was just wild man. I felt like we were fist fighting for a week where we had two tag team matches, where we took over the match. Then a week later, we just picked it up again. It’s like surfing in a lightning storm in shark-infested waters is what wrestling Minoru Suzuki for 15-20 minutes is like.”
** Kurt Angle hosted a Q&A session on his Facebook page.
** WHDH Boston has a story up about WWE talents visiting Boston Children’s hospital.
If any of the quotes from the following podcasts or video interviews are used, please credit those sources and provide an H/T and link back to POST Wrestling for the transcription.
