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 transcriptions.
** WrestleTalk did an interview with Sugar Dunkerton recently. Dunkerton is also known as “Pineapple Pete” as described by Chris Jericho on AEW Dynamite. Dunkerton shared during the interview that back in December, he almost completely stepped away from pro wrestling and it was a match he had with Alex Shelley for the ‘Atlanta Wrestling Entertainment’ promotion that stopped him from leaving the sport.
“I think the thing that kind of stands out the most when it’s all said and done is no, I probably wouldn’t have did it because I probably wouldn’t even have thought that was even possible because when I got back home in December, I was ready to quit. I don’t play when I tell people that. I was very ready to quit. There was a lot of opportunities that I had been working towards over on your side of the country [United Kingdom]. There were opportunities I was working towards before that. There was opportunities that I was hoping that if they didn’t come together on your side, maybe they’d pay attention to how much work I was doing on that side and they’d open up on this side, and I got very close, very close to something and that completely fell apart at the last minute, and I wasn’t in a good place. I was like lights out, still awake, curtains drawn, not sleeping in a bad place and if it wasn’t for the match I had with Alex Shelley that was still on the books — I literally didn’t take another booking until after the Alex Shelley match because I wasn’t sure if I wanted to keep going. So, the Dynamite thing definitely — even [AEW] Dark, surprised [me] because I just didn’t know if I wanted to keep going man, and if Alex Shelley ever sees this, I appreciate you. You saved me that night, so thanks man.”
Dunkerton also spoke about his interactions with Chris Jericho. Dunkerton was surprised at how laid back and down to earth Jericho is for someone that has seemingly done it all in wrestling.
“Dude he spoke to me when he saw me which tripped me out because I was like, ‘What is happening right now?’ Like he rolls up and it’s hilarious because Jericho to me is kind of a hilarious kind of guy because this is a guy it’s like — I’ve learned a lot from those two tapings because you got guys on the indies who are barely at that point where they’re really doing anything with their career yet. They’ve done some stuff but they’re not there yet, and they act like, ‘Yo, bow down. Kiss my boots.’ This and that and everything. ‘I’m not doing that,’ this and that, but then you’ve got a guy who’s literally done everything, literally been to every big show that you could do, main-evented and all of that and he’s super down to earth, he’s super funny. It’s no weird stuff when you talk to him so…”
** Former NXT UK talent Jazzy Gabert was a guest on a recent edition of Cultaholic’s ‘Desert Island Graps’ podcast. Jazzy previously told this story during Edge & Christian’s podcast in 2018, but she reflected it on once again. While she had the opportunity to work for TNA, Bully Ray questioned Jazzy’s appearance and asked her if she was equal to some of the female wrestlers on the TNA roster at the time when it comes to looks.
“And then I remember, one time a wrestler said to me, ‘You know, you’re pretty good in the ring and everything but if you don’t change your look, you won’t get nowhere.’ Like basically telling me I’m too ugly, and I had the same with TNA but the story, a lot of people already know, when Bully Ray said to me that I’m too ugly to work for TNA back in the day. He said to me, ‘Are you as pretty as our girls?’ And remember back in the day, there were girls like Velvet Sky and what’s the other girl’s name? Angelina Love, and they’re like ‘oh my God’ pretty, and well I was not and I will never be like that but these days, everybody has a chance. The big girls, the skinny girls, the tall girls. The pretty girls, the not-so pretty girls. Everyone has a chance but back in the day, it wasn’t like this, and me and the other girls who were back there in the game, we had to stick through it and we did and we fought for every little bit we have right now.”
Jazzy Gabert was candid about her negative experiences in pro wrestling. She recalled a time when she was on a tour and the fans at the wrestling show were not too fond of women’s wrestling at the time and she spoke about how she and her opponent approached that match.
“On the tour, there was RVD, Bret Hart, Sabu, Sandman, like really amazing and great names, and I was fortunate enough to be on that tour and then the announcer, he went out there and said, ‘Okay! Ladies and gentlemen, are you ready for female action!?’ And then the people start screaming, ‘We want boobies! We want boobies!’ And me and my opponent, we look at each other and we’re like, ‘What the hell?’ And then we went out there. We didn’t even look up, and they started chanting, ‘You can’t wrestle, you can’t wrestle.’ We [hadn’t] even started. Come on, give us a chance, and these days, it’s not happening anymore. Everyone loves female wrestling, right? But the girls these days, they take it so much for granted. I hear about people who are not showing up on shows or they’re sitting back saying, ‘I don’t really wanna wrestle today.’ I’m like, ‘Oh my God, quit wrestling if you don’t feel the passion anymore.’ You know what I mean?”
** Yahoo! Japan has a feature story up about Tomoaki Honma. Honma is working for New Japan Pro-Wrestling as a freelancer and currently does not have any income coming in because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Honma said that other than his freelance work, his other streams of income come from t-shirts sales but those mainly happen at the live shows. In April, NJPW, NOAH, STARDOM, AJPW and several more companies/promotions met with the Japanese government to discuss the next steps for the wrestling business in Japan in the midst of the pandemic. One of their proposals was to make sure that non-contracted wrestlers are compensated as well.
** Brodie Lee is challenging Jon Moxley for the AEW World Championship at Double Or Nothing on May 23rd. To promote the bout, Lee appeared on Busted Open Radio with Mark Henry and David LaGreca. Lee talked about the comparisons between his on-screen character and Vince McMahon and explained that he’s just a fan of mafia movies. Brodie said he has no reason to hate the WWE or Vince McMahon.
“I mean you take it however you want. I happen to be a fan of Mafia movies, so that’s the way the character is portrayed for me. Like I said, I believe that the leadership style, the results speak for themselves. So, you people can take it any way you want, and trust me, I hear ya. I hear everybody, so… but, nothing was intentional. I have no reason to hate WWE, no reason to hate Vince McMahon, nothing like that. You take it how you want.”
** Michael Elgin appeared on the Wrestling with Sports podcast. Elgin was asked would he ever consider joining the WWE and he didn’t say he would but also didn’t rule it out. Elgin said that over the years, he has seen WWE allow talents from the independent scene to come in, be themselves and keep their names but he’s just enjoying the freedom he has right now under the IMPACT Wrestling umbrella.
“I really don’t know. There’s a certainty about the freedom and who you are, and as time goes on WWE has let people be themselves. The first wave of my friends that kinda got signed, they all had to change their names and change something about them but now recently, Johnny Gargano, Tommaso Ciampa, Adam Cole, Matt Riddle, all these guys are going there and being who they were prior to being there and keeping their name so it’s definitely a different culture so I really don’t know where my career is gonna take me. Obviously, being in Canada and growing up as a wrestling fan, WWF was always the pentacle, but even when I started my career, I always looked up to guys like the Eddie Guerreros and Chris Jerichos and Dean Malenkos and the fact of their career trajectory. So I knew that if I was ever going to maybe have a career in somewhere like WWE, that I was gonna have to travel the world and have a rapport as a great wrestler rather than anything else because I might be able to get big but height was definitely not something I was blessed with, so, I just knew that what would get me noticed and what would put me on anybody’s radar was how I wrestle and it’s done it so far.”
** Former IMPACT X Division Champion Ace Austin joined the Ringsiders Wrestling podcast and he stated that if the opportunity presents itself, he’d like to work in Major League Wrestling again and spoke about the good time he had with the organization.
“They made me an offer at first, but they were fine with it when I eventually accepted the IMPACT offer. They were fine with continuing to work together and it wasn’t until I got to the X Division Championship that I couldn’t do both anymore, after I won the X Division Title. But that’s definitely not out of the question. If and when the time comes, I will absolutely go back and do some MLW stuff for sure. Those guys were a lot of fun and it was very easy to work with them and there wasn’t really anybody that was too big for their britches there.”
** Alicia Atout of ‘A Music Blog, Yea?’ interviewed Melina.
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9VTHqoYiCtk[/embedyt]
** Scorpio Sky is joining Rey Fenix, Orange Cassidy, Colt Cabana and Darby Allin in the Casino Ladder match at Double Or Nothing.
** Back in May of 2019, Mark Henry took to Busted Open Radio and commented on the news of Lio Rush having issues within WWE. Henry talked about how Lio lied to his face and made mention of Lio needing to be an assistance of sorts to the veterans in the locker room since Lio was the newest addition to the RAW roster. Rush took to Twitter today and reflected on those comments:
“Woke up remembering the time Mark Henry said I lied to him to his face & then continued to bury me on his podcast while telling me i need to learn how to spend my money better. Shit was crazy. Sorry man, i didn’t mean to have a wife and two kids on top of other responsibilities.”
Rush proceeded to add that he can hop onto Mark Henry’s podcast [Busted Open Radio which Henry co-hosts] and they can have a conversation for the world to hear.
** OTT promoter Joe Cabray joined Flash Morgan Webster’s ‘Wrestling Friends’ podcast. Joe spoke about Scrappermania 6 which was cancelled in March. He stated that he was disappointed that the Jon Moxley vs. David Starr match wasn’t able to happen because of the history that could’ve been established between those two at that show.
“The biggest thing for me for Scrappermania, losing Scrappermania was kind of the history we would’ve created. I think the David Starr/Moxley match would’ve just been something that people would’ve looked back on for years, so losing that kind of history was a bit of a downer for me personally.”
Joe also dove into his time with WWE under the name “Luther Ward”. He said that being a part of the company killed some of his passion for wrestling. It wasn’t until Joe departed from WWE developmental, started working on the independents again and started training that he found his love for the sport again.
“Pretty much [it killed my passion], I’ve said it as well. I mean, WWE obviously has their own style and their own way of wrestling and they want to have you wrestle in that style. Towards the end as well and I think this was a big part of me, they had me so confused that sometimes I’d even question if I was tying my boots properly. Everything that you did was wrong or whatnot so, when I came back, you have a little bit of buzz and you’re able to pick up some bookings and stuff so I’d pretty much filled up my calendar when I came back for the next two months and was kind of like, ‘I’ll do these two months of wrestling and then after that, I’ll decide what I’m going to do.’ But once I started back wrestling on the independent scene, I started to get a second round of passion for it and kind of, I enjoyed more about kind of giving back. So I always said as well, I’ve kind of experienced some amazing things in my life being able to wrestle and do something that you have a passion for and travel the world and make some money as well, but that wouldn’t have been possible if people didn’t help me out and just even give me some knowledge, in terms of training seminars so yeah, I found it pretty important to try and give back so I went back and kind of started training young guys and girls and then kind of just got so much energy from that. Such a good vibe from people who had a passion for wrestling and helping them. So that kind of reignited my passion for wrestling as well I suppose.”
** Chris Van Vliet spoke with Shane “Hurricane” Helms for a one-hour chat. Helms shared that throughout his career as The Hurricane, he always had a difficult time seeing out of his signature mask.
“I couldn’t see for sh*t out of that mask. If you were this close to me trying to shake my hand, I wouldn’t be able to see now. It blocks so much of my downward vision and that’s part of the reason I kind of developed that bent over Hurricane walk, because I couldn’t see for sh*t in that mask. It’s one of the reasons I took out springboards. Like I would do them sometimes on the live events but I was like, ‘I can’t see that rope.’ I can feel it and I hope it’s there but when you do a springboard, you’re not necessarily looking at the rope but through your peripherals, you can kinda see the pads and you know where it’s at. My vision was so obscured, I had to kind of tone down a lot of my stuff.”
** Pro-Wrestling: EVE streamed their women’s WarGames match on their YouTube channel:
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H-_nTrzIXJY[/embedyt]
** Jimmy Hart did an interview with Jim Varsallone of the Miami Herald.
** Xavier Woods appeared on the latest episode of the Gorilla Position podcast. Woods went in-depth about Kofi Kingston winning the WWE Championship at WrestleMania 35 and explained why he feels that moment is the greatest wrestling moment of all-time.
“It’s a lot of moments and you can tell from that — it always comes up when we’re talking about this, is that picture of me and [Big] E holding Kofi and I’m like balling uncontrollably, because it’s super meaningful for a lot of reasons just because as a kid growing up… there wasn’t always someone in the limelight that represented me, the way that I look, and so to be able to be a part of an angle, of a story where I am able to help prop up the person who’s able to be that for this next generation of kids — I have not done anything in my career that has meant more than that, and I will most likely not do anything in my career that’s meant more than that moment because there are not many moments in wrestling I would say are perfect. That? That was perfect. When I always tell people wrestling is incredible, that’s what I’m trying to say. No, you’re not always gonna land on 21, you’re playing Blackjack, but as long as you can stay around 17, 19, you’re okay, but that was 21. That was the best it could’ve possibly been done and so, that’s the greatest moment in wrestling to me, just for the personal reasons and then also being able to be in wrestling at that time where so many things had to come together for that perfect moment to happen.
If I would’ve not been upset at whatever pay-per-view it was — it was me and R-Truth in a match against Rusev where I got knocked out before the match by Rusev and he just wrestled R-Truth and I was so mad, so upset. ‘I’ve worked so hard to get here, I’ve done everything. I’m not 6’5, I’m not 300 pounds, but I work my tail off. I can talk on a microphone with the best of them, and I’m not getting what I feel I should get’ and I was so mad and frustrated at myself to the point where I snapped and said, ‘No, I can’t think like that. I have to just continue working because clearly, I didn’t do something right. I didn’t present what I needed to present. I hadn’t worked hard enough yet,’ and so if I didn’t have that realization, I would’ve never talked to E, E wouldn’t have agreed then we would’ve never talked to Kofi and if Kofi would’ve never agreed, we wouldn’t have put promos together, we wouldn’t have ever talked to Vince [McMahon] about it, we would’ve never gotten a writer who was incredible, Michael Notarile. All of this had to work together perfectly to get to this moment when all of a sudden, a man who’s one of my dearest friends, Mustafa Ali, he gets the concussion and then Kofi gets put in this match. So like, all of sudden, all of this shine is put on Kofi in this Elimination Chamber after this gauntlet match. It all worked out perfectly and then E and I having the gauntlet match to get Kofi another shot, it doesn’t always happen like this and so that two, three months, whatever it was-was like, there were too many coincidences happening and it just played out into this perfect scene and sorry, I feel like I’m rambling about it but it’s just, I don’t know. It was a very emotional thing for me then and it still really is now.”
** Big Show chatted with PEOPLE.com to promote ‘The Big Show Show’ on Netflix.
** Part three of Hiroshi Tanahashi’s interview series on NJPW1972.com is up and in this write-up, Tanahashi recalled some of his earliest memories of wrestling and those date back to wrestling while in school.
“Yeah. I remember trying to snapmare this guy as soon as the bell rang. But I caught my foot in a desk or something and couldn’t get free. I got pushed down and pinned. First job of my life.”
** ‘Cowboys & Indians’ spoke with Mickie James recently. Mickie shared with the site that at the time of the interview, she was in Orlando at the WWE Performance Center training and preparing to come back from her torn ACL that she suffered last Summer.
“I’m actually in Orlando today at a Performance Center for rehab. NXT has a cool setup, like an Olympic training facility but for wrestling. I tore my ACL last June and have been out since July. Even though I’m not in the ring, I’m still on the road doing commentary like a sports analyst. I provide legitimacy because I’m a six-time WWE Women’s Champion. I’ve been wrestling for just over 20 years. For women, the career is always much shorter. Men can wrestle till their 60s. Women can too, but it’s rare. I’ve done so much. I don’t have a ton more to prove.”
** The WWEPC YouTube channel recapped Rhea Ripley’s rise to becoming NXT Women’s Champion and the video ends at where she is currently storyline-wise.
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gNen0WKzRUs[/embedyt]
** Austin Theory was the most recent guest on Dan Matha’s ‘The Drop’ podcast. Theory detailed a bit of his upbringing and spoke about his relationship with his father. Theory shared how pro wrestling was able to take his mind off of what was going on in his personal life and John Cena specifically being one of those outlets within pro wrestling that helped him push forward.
“But being bullied, and that being a huge affect on me, and also my father wasn’t in my life a lot. It was kind of one of those things when he did decide to show up on the weekends, I fought so hard to not have to go with him. I just didn’t enjoy it and I don’t need to talk about the things that happened when I was with him because I don’t wanna even give him that time. But for me, bullying, my father wasn’t in my life and when I looked at John Cena, it was somebody that was so motivating to me, and as cheesy as it is to a lot of people, this ‘Never Give Up’ thing meant so much to me, and I knew that if I just take this, these words and I just run with them, I feel like it could do something for me and I loved it because he was in situations where you know, I remember specifically when he was in an angle with The Nexus and these guys were jumping him and he made sure he would be able to get every single one of them, he would overcome every single one of them and it was just that ‘never give up’ attitude and I just used it in life and through my goals and everything.”
** talkSPORT published their interview with Christian. The topic of Randy Orton and Edge’s current feud came up and specifically, when Randy Orton RKO’d Beth Phoenix. Christian was asked was he ever considered to pop up on WWE TV to interject in the feud and here’s how he responded:
“No, I just think that with the way it played out and with me being on a non-contact list it kind of makes that… you know, you can’t really do that. It would have [been great], but I don’t think because of the current situation [it would have worked]. It’s hard to go out there and not be able to do anything, and I think that was kind of the mindset of it.”
** The former Erick Rowan of WWE has opened a Pro Wrestling Tees store under the name “Erick Redbeard”.
** Xavier Woods, Adam Cole, Tyler Breeze and Cesaro’s latest UNO session is up on the UpUpDownDown YouTube channel.
** Voters selected Sara Del Rey (Sara Amoto) as the winner of the Women Of Honor Championship bracket on ROHWrestling.com.
** Ahead of his AEW World Title defense against Brodie Lee at Double Or Nothing, Jon Moxley spoke with Paste Magazine and recalled when he and Lee competed in the Intercontinental Title ladder match at WrestleMania 31. During the match, Lee powerbombed Moxley through a ladder which led to Moxley having a gash in his head. Moxley said that he would’ve never let anyone else to do that to him besides Brodie Lee.
“Another piece of history we’ve got, probably one of my memorable WrestleMania moments, quote unquote, was when he powerbombed me through a ladder. Incredibly dangerous. Probably one of the most dangerous bumps I’ve ever taken, and that’s saying something. There’s nobody on the planet I would’ve let powerbomb me through a ladder like that except him. Probably the only guy on the planet I trust to have done that as safely as possible, and it still wasn’t safe—I got knocked f*cking loopy, I got a giant gash in the f*cking back of my head. The f*cking doctor runs over—he didn’t know if I was going back in the match—he runs over and he’s like, ‘You have a giant gash in the back of your head. I can see your skull. We’ve got to close it up now.’ So I got eight staples, no anesthesia, right on the spot—KA-CHSK KA-CHSK KA-CHSK—and I’m like, ‘AAAAAAAAAAAAAAWWHWWH!’ And then I had to get ‘em taken out and reset—it was a mess, and that’s another piece of history between me and him. I put my life in his hands and he’s the only guy I would’ve trusted.”
** Below is a preview of next week’s Dark Side of the Ring episode on VICE which is focused around the passing of Owen Hart.
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ITFhMga6_Cc[/embedyt]
** Nikki Bella announced via Instagram that she and Brie Bella’s book, ‘Incomparable’ has made the New York Times Best Sellers list.
** Below is a video of Seth Rollins playing WWE host Nathalie Mamo in Rock, Paper, Scissors.
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8bRcTcyNuVo[/embedyt]
** Lewis Nicholls has an interview up on his YouTube channel with Heath Slater. During their conversation, Slater reflected on some of the moments from his time in WWE and specifically recalled a time when he was set to defeat Chris Jericho in a singles match and Jericho was not too happy about it.
“I do know that Chris didn’t like it that I was beating him and he had to go to Pat Patterson and he was complaining to Pat being like, ‘Why in the world is this rookie gonna beat me? I can’t believe this.’ Blah, blah, blah, blah, and then Pat Patterson looks at him, he’s like, ‘Ah, he’s a rookie. No one will remember it next week.’ To which that very well might be true but then again, I look at it ten years later, people still talk about that match too so, it was one of those things, yes it was awesome for me. I know Chris probably didn’t like it but I’m still 2-1 on him. I still got one up on him.”
** The newest episode of Battle Of The Brands with Xavier Woods and Tyler Breeze is up on the UpUpDownDown YouTube channel.
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1BrWQlDAz2U[/embedyt]
** Jim Ross, Taz and Excalibur recapped the 5/13/20 episode of AEW Dynamite:
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5OeUq2VZBc[/embedyt]
** The FCW documentary is going to air on FS1 on May 26th at 10 PM EST, per PWInsider.
** Newsweek has a feature story up about how Major League Wrestling is moving forward throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and the article features quotes from Court Bauer.
** As a part of NJPW’s ‘Together Project’, Yoshinobu Kanemaru shared the best match finish of his career in New Japan:
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCxoqYvso3A[/embedyt]
** Below is the latest episode of Ohio Valley Wrestling TV:
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-vsYy0Dt9A[/embedyt]
** Former 5-time NEVER Openweight Champion Hirooki Goto’s interview with NJPW1972.com is up.
** Channel 24 has an interview with The Undertaker to promote ‘The Last Ride’ docu-series on the WWE Network. Undertaker told the publication that since the filming of the documentary ended, he has become more comfortable with allowing access to himself, doing media and things of the sort.
“I’ve been very protective of The Undertaker character and what is seen and not seen. So it was very strange and initially uncomfortable for me having camera crews follow me around. But as we went through this, I became more comfortable with it and allowed more access to everything, which I’m so glad that we were able to because I think this docu-series is going to blow people away.”
** Dwayne “The Rock Johnson will be on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon on May 15th.
** On the latest installment of WWE’s After The Bell podcast with Corey Graves, former World Heavyweight Champion Christian joined the show. The two spoke about Edge’s return to in-ring competition and Graves reflected on the night that Edge returned which was the 2020 men’s Royal Rumble match that he was on the call for.
“I was calling the match when it happened and it was a surprise to me. I didn’t know. I had an inkling but I didn’t know when in the match or even if it was gonna be that night and man, when the drums hit at the beginning…
*Christian joked about texting Corey Graves right before Edge’s return*
Yeah, you don’t want the movie spoiled for you. You spoiled the return for me, but no, it was. It was one of those organic, just everyone in that stadium felt awesome and I’ll never forget the feeling. You could feel the noise and it’s very rare. You and I both have been in front of thousands and thousands of people and stadiums, but to actually be sitting there at ringside and feel the energy of the stadium like that, I can only imagine what was going through Adam’s mind and body. It’s for him, but what a moment.”
** GiveMeSport released a clip from their interview with Titus O’Neil and they asked Titus for his pro wrestling Mount Rushmore. Titus put The Undertaker, Stone Cold Steve Austin, The Rock and Ric Flair on his list.
** WWE held an employee Zoom call which featured celebrities and guests from other forms of entertainment other than pro wrestling.
** Two-time NBA Champion and former Boston Celtic Cedric Maxwell took to his podcast to discuss Enes Kanter’s recent comments about having an offer on the table from WWE.
** Former NXT talent Cezar Bononi will be on Instagram Live on May 15th with ‘Wrestlemaniacos’ to discuss his release from WWE in late April.
** Jim Cornette and Joey Janela got into another Twitter back and forth after Cornette was informed that Janela said he and Cornette sat down in Chilli’s, had a good time and hashed out their issues. Cornette denied that-that happened but the official Chilli’s Twitter account chimed in and added that it did happen.
** Sycho Sid was a guest on The Wrestling Inc. Daily Podcast and Sid talked about his match with Heath Slater on RAW in June of 2012. Sid said that he did a backstage interview for WWE after the match and said a few words that may have angered Vince McMahon who was watching him do the interview. Sid also shared that WWE contacted him for RAW Reunion last Summer and they also wanted to come to his home to shoot some material for WrestleMania prior to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Well, they asked me that in the interview in the back and to me, it wasn’t much but after I broke my leg, I think I really — it was my moment of victory. They called me to come in and do that. I didn’t call them, and I actually said that right in front of — I did that interview right in front of Vince [McMahon] and I think that made him a little angry at me but, still that’s the way I feel about it. Now I mean, they’ve called me to come in and do other things, but they call me like the day before when they did that last thing, last year in Tampa I think it was [RAW Reunion]. I was in Florida actually. My aunt who started one of the first AIDS clinics in the United States, the first one in Florida. She passed away and they opened a new wing to her clinic, so I was down there during that ceremony and the opening of her new wing named after her [called] Comprehensive Health Care/Unconditional Love. But I was there in the middle of that and I wasn’t gonna leave to go do this taping in Tampa. I told them, ‘Now I’d love to do it some other time.’ Then they wanted to come here to my house right before this virus thing hit and do something about WrestleMania. They were trying to promote WrestleMania or something they got on the Network and everything sort of [was] put on hold because of that virus thing.”
** Inside The Ropes pushed out their interview with Lio Rush. Lio spoke about the “backstage heat” that he was said to have in WWE. Lio said that there was a rift financially between himself and WWE because while he was on RAW, he was still making the same money that he was making in NXT.
“It was super exaggerated. I don’t understand where or how the whole backstage heat thing started. It might have happened because I was pretty vocal about a situation that happened overseas with carrying the waters and stuff like that. There were some other stories out there that were completely untrue and didn’t happen. But that’s the one story that I’ve been pretty open about. So yeah I don’t really know where the backstage heat thing ever came from. People were always cordial to me and would come up to me. Nobody ever came and said anything bad or disrespectful and vice versa. As far as the split with me and Bobby, there was some miscommunication and frustration with me and the powers that be financially. That was my biggest thing at the time. I was still making the money I’d been making in NXT at the time and merchandise was getting put out and I felt I’d contributed so much to that as far as the sayings, the mottos, the catchphrases and I just wasn’t getting compensated for that. I wasn’t on the meet and greets with Bobby, which didn’t make sense to me. But everywhere Bobby would go, I had to go because I was his manager. But Bobby was so busy, he was the Intercontinental Champion, he was on every show, every live event, traveling, had to get hotels. Yeah, all of that is great to be used but I’m not making enough money to cover these expenses. I have to do everything that Bobby’s doing but the difference is Bobby’s making this much (points high up) and I’m making this much (points down low). If I’m gonna do this, I basically need more money to survive. You know its not just me out here, I’ve got a wife, I’ve got two kids, so I have other responsibilities I have to take care of. I guess they didn’t like that a 25 year old or whatever age I was at the time, they didn’t like me being so outspoken so they just cut it.”
** There’s an unboxing video with Aleister Black on he and Zelina Vega’s YouTube channel.
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 transcriptions.
