This week’s POST news updates are women’s wrestling-based only. 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.
** The most recent guest on the ROHStrong podcast was former 6-time OVW Women’s Champion and Performance Center coach, Serena Deeb. There were a plethora of topics covered during the interview but towards the end of the conversation, Serena said that after three years since having her last sanctioned match, there is a very good chance that she will return to the ring.
“Yeah, that’s something I get asked about a lot. I will say there is a very, very good possibility. I don’t wanna give too much away at this point and obviously, I’ve been in the category of being a coach for a few years and I tried to really embrace that, but what I can say is, in the years that I was coaching, there’s a piece of me that always thought, ‘Man, you’re still young, you can still go, you still love this.’ I think coaching really brought out my love for this, like in a different way that performing did, and so those thoughts were circulating for many, many years and so when I lost my job a few months ago, there were portions of losing the job that were stressful and hard but there were a lot of feelings in me that were, ‘Man, this is like a blessing in disguise because…’ you can go through your life just thinking about stuff and dreaming about it and fantasizing and not acting on it and right now I feel like this is a chance for me to actually act on something so yes, I would say there is a very good possibility to your question.”
Along with her in-ring career, Deeb is also remembered for her time as a member of the Straight Edge Society with CM Punk and Luke Gallows. Serena detailed how that opportunity came about and initially questioning if she wanted to go through with cutting her hair, but remembering that being on WWE television was a dream of hers that she wanted for quite some time.
“Yeah, that was a crazy time. I’ll try to tell it quick. The background was I had started at FCW around June of 2009. It was going great, they were starting to let the women kind of go a little bit. Like referencing what we talked about earlier, they were starting to give [women] a chance a little bit, you know? And they were in the process of creating a women’s championship and it was really empowering times and everything was going great and then, in October just several months later, I was having a practice match with a lady whose name I’ll leave out, and I actually had my jaw broken in three places. She slapped me in the face really, really hard. It was a really bad injury. I had to have my jaw wired shut for six weeks and I was very quiet about that injury. I didn’t want it to be really known or anything. I just kinda ducked my head during that time off while I was healing and I couldn’t talk, I couldn’t eat for six weeks. It was really challenging, emotionally and psychologically and everything. It was a tough one, and so I had it wired shut for six weeks then got the wires off and the doctor told me, ‘You need to wait another six weeks before I’m gonna clear you to wrestle and honestly you’re lucky if I even’ — this doctor was like, ‘If you go back to wrestling, you’re crazy.’ I’m sure so many wrestlers have heard that over the years, and I was like, ‘Welp, you know, I’m obviously going back. This is my life and my career so just let me know when you can clear me.’ Well so it was a total of three months before he was willing to clear me. So it was the Friday that I got cleared and I had just gone into the doctor’s office that day to get him to officially clear me, let WWE know she can wrestle and so it was Friday afternoon and I was in the car with some other people driving to an FCW live event somewhere in Florida and I felt that feeling of like, child-like, where I knew I was wrestling that night for the first time in three months. I was so excited, it felt like I was having my first match again. I could hardly wait. I was so excited and we’re in the car driving and I got a phone call from Johnny Ace, John Laurinaitis and, ‘Hey kid! How you doing? How’s the jaw? Just checking in on you.’ ‘It’s good. I’m heading to a show to wrestle right now actually.’
So calls to check in but really is just calling about the second part of the phone call. He’s like, ‘So, I have something I wanna run by you and you don’t have to say yes but here’s the deal: Have you seen what we’re doing with Punk on TV?’ I was like, ‘Yeah, of course.’ He’s like, ‘Well, he’s shaving random people’s heads every week.’ At that point, they were doing random locals and stuff and he’s like, ‘This is an idea and would you be willing to shave your head for this role?’ And I was like completely stunned. That was the last thing I was expecting on that day, and I was very speechless, I didn’t know what to say or how to answer that at that point and he said, ‘Listen, I’m gonna give you some time to think about it. So, think about it the rest of today and I’ll call you tomorrow and let me know what you’re answer is tomorrow’ so, sometime was less than 24 hours, right?
I mean, my dream was obviously to be on WWE TV and then the opportunity finally comes up after all these years of just grinding and then it’s that, so, right. It was really shocking. I was pretty good friends with Punk so I felt like, ‘Oh man, this could actually be pretty cool to work alongside somebody I really respect and it’d be a powerful role’ so, anyways, he was supposed to call me back the following day. So I went to the show, wrestled, had a blast. Like so happy, and I’m in the car on the drive home from that show so, I don’t even know — six hours later or something and I checked my email and I had an email from WWE travel with a plane ticket and hotel for SmackDown in three days, and Saturday, the next day came, never got a phone call from Johnny. Just had my travel, got on a plane to go to SmackDown Monday and I got to TV and they were very much assuring me, ‘If you say no, it’s okay. There’s not gonna be any bad feelings towards you. You can say no to this.’ But, man it was like this is my dream, this is the thing I wanted more than anything in the world and I said yes and… people are still really saying like that was a segment that they always remembered because it was so shocking.”
Serena revealed that prior to going out to the ring and doing the segment with Punk and Gallows, she was told that it was not 100 percent locked in that she was going to be continuing on with the group after the segment. Serena was concerned that she would be having her head shaved for no reason but when she came to the back after the segment was done, she was met with a standing ovation and a hug from WWE Chairman Vince McMahon.
“Another little tidbit to the story that was completely terrifying was before the segment, they had said to me, ‘You know, you’re getting your head shaved tonight, but there’s no guarantee that you’re gonna be in this stable. There’s no guarantee that we’re gonna keep you up here with Punk and Gallows full-time. You might have to just stay at FCW and keep wrestling’ and all of that. So, I’m pretty sure they were playing games with me with all of that. But, I went out to do this segment thinking, ‘Oh my gosh, this might all be for’ — I don’t wanna say for nothing but I might do all of this and then still not get my chance to be on the road here on TV, and then I just remember, after the segment, came to the back, came through Gorilla and Vince McMahon barely stands up. From what I was told at that point, he never gets up from his seat during the show and I came to the back and he had not only stood up but he had walked around from his spot to give me a huge hug and was so blown away and happy with how that segment went, and that was a really cool moment because I remember someone saying to me later, ‘He doesn’t get up for people like that’ so, I felt super proud of that, but it was later that night and Johnny said, ‘We didn’t know if we were gonna keep you in this group but, you did such a good job in that segment that you’re gonna be with these guys like full-time now,’ and that was a cool feeling, you know?”
When she joined WWE, the company was still in the ‘Divas’ era of their women’s division and Serena agrees with the sentiment that she got into wrestling too soon and wishes that she could’ve broken through during the current era of women’s wrestling.
“100 percent. Yeah, that resonates completely with me. To be honest with you, I have that thought very regularly, very frequently. It was always fighting against what they wanted from the time that I was at OVW starting out, to FCW to on [the] main roster. It was just never the time and it’s funny you said that line about women wrestling like the guys because I can not tell you how many times I was directly told over the years, ‘You wrestle like a guy, stop wrestling like a guy. You can’t throw punches. You can’t do this, you can’t do that. We wanna see the girls pulling hair and doing hair biels in wrestling’ and that directive was given to me so many times I can’t even count.”
Sara Amato is currently a trainer/coach at the WWE Performance Center and has won a handful of championships during her time as an in-ring performer. Serena Deeb mentioned multiple times that she believes Sara Amato is the reason she was able to get the gig of coaching at the PC.
“Sure, well especially Ring of Honor fans, Sara Del Rey is not a name that you forget so, yeah. Sara is the director of women’s wrestling at the P.C. and she was — I’m fairly certain like the main reason that I was even considered for the job. Her and I had a great relationship from working indies together and Ring of Honor and SHIMMER and we had a pretty strong connection from that time, and she was the main reason that I think I was brought it.”
** Terri Runnels was a guest on the ‘Kee On Sports’ podcast and Terri recalled being harassed by Brock Lesnar backstage at a WWE event. She said that while she was walking down the hall, Lesnar called her name and opened the towel that was around his waist. At that point in time, Runnels was aware that Lesnar was making his way up in WWE and that the company was going to put the world title on him so he knew that he had pull.
“I don’t have a lot of respect for Brock. I don’t think Brock respects wrestling fans. Brock did something that was, in today’s day in time… I mean he showed his penis to me, and called my name as I was walking past where he was in the dressing room and opened his towel so I could see his manly bits, and I’ve often said when I actually tell that story, I’ve often said — and of course this is me being absolutely [a] smart ass when I say it because I would’ve much rather him not been so disrespectful of a female that’s been in the business as long as I had been and at that point, he was a greenhorn. He knew he was gonna have a lot of power, that they were gonna give him the strap but at that point, I’d been in this business for a long time, I have respect and what he did was very, very wrong from a respect standpoint, from a sexual harassment standpoint. Whatever you wanna look at it [as], it was wrong. But my joke to kind of bring levity to it so I don’t get so darn upset about it is that I’m like, ‘If you’re gonna show me your junk, at least let it be impressive,’ and so like, I don’t know if you know what a pink feeder mouse is that they sell in animal shops to feed snakes. They’re like the mice before they get their little hair on them. Well, that’s basically what that vision was akin to. A pink feeder mouse, and so I’m thinking like, ‘Wow, why did…’ not that it would’ve been any less disrespectful or less sexual harassing had he been hung like a horse, but I mean come on, so, yeah. I mean that’s my only levity as that’s concerned.”
Terri Runnels was a part of a miscarriage storyline on WWE programming with Val Venis. Runnels said that she fought against Vince Russo to put an end to the storyline before it got started. To this day, that storyline still upsets her.
“Oh my God. So that to this day is one of the storylines that I fought and fought Vince Russo over and I lost. Obviously I lost because it happened, right? It was so tone deaf to women and for me personally, even though I told you Dakota [Terri’s daughter] gets the difference between gimmick and real life storylines and stuff like that, I’m like, that’s just one of those things that if her — she’s in school now and if one of her little friends says, ‘Oh my gosh, your mommy’s pregnant. Oh my gosh, your mommy lost her baby’ and like, that’s not a conversation I wanna sit down and try to explain what was even part of what I did with the character. That pissed me off, it upset me and yeah, I fought it and I lost obviously.”
** SunSport pushed out their interview with Sonya Deville. Deville was asked for her Mount Rushmore of women’s wrestling and her list included Asuka, Sasha Banks, Bayley, Charlotte Flair and Deville also mentioned Nikki and Brie Bella.
“Yeah, I think (Charlotte would) be on there for sure. I think she’s incredible. I think Asuka’s incredible. Bayley and Sasha, are incredible. Becky, for sure. There’s a lot of women that have paved the way before me, everyone has added something different to women’s wrestling. The Bellas I think are incredibly smart, business savvy women that knew how to build a brand and are incredible in the ring too. I think we’ve all contributed to the success of women’s wrestling and we’re just going to keep going up from here because the talents [have] never been more competitive.”
Sonya has spoken at length over the years about how a potential LGBTQ storyline might unfold on WWE TV. As far as the detractors that would come with that storyline, Deville says she is prepared to deal with the negativity.
“I mean, there’s gonna be trolls no matter what, there’s going to be good and bad, no matter what we do. That’s just part of being under the microscope and in dealing with scrutiny in general. I would never let that stop us. (Mandy and I) did pitch an LGBTQ storyline, like two-plus years ago now. And I think that it’s important and I think that, you know, it will eventually come full circle, whether it’s us or whether it’s other wrestlers, but I think inclusion is important. We’re in a place right now in the world, in the sports world specifically where, it’s kind of our duty to represent all diversity. So I think it’s important.”
** Twitter user @firecrackerroot wrote an article about the stigma and saying that “boys will be boys” which is used to excuse some of the actions that males make.
** It was first reported by Dave Meltzer on Wrestling Observer Radio that Charlotte Flair is set to undergo surgery and it’s not known if she will be back for SummerSlam or not. Prior to the 6/22 episode of RAW on-which Charlotte Flair was written off TV by way of an attack from Nia Jax, Ric Flair appeared on The Wrestling Inc. Daily podcast and he mentioned that Charlotte would be taking time off and “finishing her commitments up until SummerSlam”.
“I’m hoping that when she finishes her commitments up until SummerSlam or whatever it is — I mean I don’t know. I have no idea. I know she has a TV series looking at her. She’s got fitness people wanting to do work with her. I hope that she takes as long as she wants off so that all these people that can fill her shoes and do that every night have the opportunity. Good luck and God bless that thought.”
** Ayesha Raymond and Tony Shivers are joining the Fierce Females wrestling team to help provide a safer environment for women who work within the organization.
** While a new episode of the ‘This Is The NWA Podcast’ was being recorded, NWA World Women’s Champion Thunder Rosa joined the live stream. Rosa spoke about her Mission Pro Wrestling promotion and explained that only women will be involved in all aspects of the promotion. Rosa added that Mission Pro was created as a safe space for women in wrestling and to push women’s wrestling forward because in most promotions, there are only two women’s matches on a match card.
“We were talking and stuff and with the current situation and everything that has transpired in the last couple days. We had Mission Pro and we only ran one show and then the COVID happened and we weren’t able to do another one. But, before we created Mission Pro, we created Sabotage Wrestling as a space for women on the West coast to have a space to wrestle, because let’s be honest, it’s 2020, and in every single state I would say, there’s only spaces for women in regular shows, one or two matches. If we’re lucky, two matches, and I saw that as a green girl that, a lot of times there was no space for me to wrestle and I wanted to create something for the girls so they can come and wrestle and be something that will highlight women’s wrestling on the West coast so we created Sabotage in that aspect then we moved into intergender wrestling and what’s happening right now, Brian [Cervantes] started thinking, ‘You know what? I think it would be a good idea — instead of running a regular show, we start incorporating nothing but women in the show and you will be the owner.’ So, it’s starting from booker to the merchandise table, camerawomen, audio, commentary. Everybody that works there will have to be a woman. Referee, everybody. I don’t think this has ever been done in the history of wrestling. There’s been women’s shows run by men, booked by men and continued to be booked by men, but never by a woman or by women in general. So I think this is something that’s needed and it’s different and we are nothing but blessed. We have received so many positive messages and a lot of people are willing to help with their time, with their tech savvy, with everything and it’s just overwhelming for me because we’re still figuring it out. When we’re gonna run the show because of the COVID, where are we gonna run the show, how many times are gonna we gonna run the show a year, who’s gonna be the people involved, and we’re still working on our website because we’re working on a website anyways so, we’re trying to make something really, really positive in where we allow women that have zero egos, they are not bullies and are there to support the new generations and teach them the ropes, which is the most important part. That we as the new generation of veterans, teach the girls the way that you can do things without stepping on other people to get where you need to get.”
** Generation Championship Wrestling has appointed Robyn Reid to the front office as Head of Female talent for the promotion. Reid was recently announced as the head of creative and booking for Thunder Rosa’s new ‘Mission Pro Wrestling’ promotion.
** After many women in wrestling shared their stories of harassment and assault by way of Joey Ryan, Ryan’s former tag team partner Candice LeRae took to Twitter to show support for the women that have had these experiences with Ryan over the years.
“I am mortified. I absolutely DO NOT and never have condoned such horrible actions. I have zero tolerance for it. To the women he did this to- my heart breaks for you. I trusted this person. Reading the stories and learning how he acted sickens me. Especially because you all trusted him too. I can’t imagine how YOU felt. For every woman and man who has been brave enough to speak out, I have nothing but love and respect for you.”
** A clip from Ronda Rousey’s ‘GOAT Walks’ with Paige has been uploaded to Rousey’s personal YouTube channel.
** The likes of Dana Brooke, Jeff Hardy, Roman Reigns and several others joined Jeff Jarrett for a remote round-table discussion to raise awareness for The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. The stream can be watched at this link.
** There were a number of allegations made against the Knight family by way of the #SpeakingOut movement. Saraya Knight, mother of WWE’s Paige, took to Facebook and responded to the allegations and refuted any statements that were made against her and her family.
“So for the last 3 days I have sat wondering what exactly is needed to satisfy this bloodthirsty hunt, my life, you want me to die? You think by pushing buttons I am going to lie there and just take it.
Firstly, I refute any statements regarding kissing a minor, thats fucking sick and if norfolk police wants to come and chat to me about it, i fucking welcome it. Where was the parents during this apparent act! 10 years old at a show alone? I dont think so! I hope you have good lawyers. I will welcome ANY police enquiry into this matter. I absolutely deny this!!!!!
Yasmin we were talking up to April this year, why didn’t you say, you came to my gym just before lockdown during training, cuddled me, you and Alice came in, in front of 30 people!! I dont get it!
Ayesha, we didn’t get on, we fought hard, you gave as good as you got, you didn’t back down, we argued like equals. As far as I am concerned, you are entitled to whatever opinion you have of me, you were no shrinking violet.
Alice, I am shocked, I have always loved you. This has hurt bad.
In fact everyone that has written something, no matter whether true or false, right or wrong has had plenty of time to approach me. Why wait all this time?
I will be stepping away with immediate effect, i will be deleting all social media, you can attack me via [email protected], I will be happy to forward everyones point of view to my solicitor, im sure as you can see the business will be in great hands. And for every ying there is a yang, i know that this now is going to crescendo, but its ok, there are 2 sides to every story remember that.
Thankyou for 30 years, i am done, i cannot believe that I am being attacked in this fucking insane way, i am walking away because I am heartbroken not because I’m being forced to. I cannot stomach even being around wrestling. I have got fuck all to hide, i have done fuck all to warrant this, i train hard!! I have trained everywhere, made more of my money in training than wrestling, i am such a bad teacher! You girls can fucking go thats no coincide! I cannot accept this. And I won’t. I am seeking legal advice. Any allegations now please forward to norfolk police!!!!”
** WWE’s Renee Young is going to be hosting the Reality TV awards on June 24th.
** Click here for the link to The STARDOM Cast’s Linktree page.
** The Association of Women’s Wrestling organization’s Twitter, created by Kristen Ashly can be found at this link.
** DDT Divas are releasing a new episode of their podcast on June 24th.
** Zelina Vega chatted with Kofi Kingston, Big E and Xavier Woods on the latest installment of New Day’s Feel The Power podcast. Zelina discussed her feelings of wanting to still be an active in-ring performer on top of her managerial duties. She also wants to establish herself as a manager to the point where fans vocalize how much they want to see her in the ring.
“I do want to have my time as a wrestler. That’s not something I’ve given up on or I’ve abandoned in any way because I do love when I get to go in there, especially when I do the mixed tags, it’s so much fun. I remember just recently, it started out as a tag match between Austin Theory, Angel Garza and The Street Profits, and then I got involved then Bianca [Belair] came out and then it was a singles between her and I and then it changed into a six-man. But it was like, number one we didn’t even know that was gonna be the case. We found out as it was happening. They’re like, ‘Oh, you got gear, right?’ I was like, ‘Oh… ok,’ and luckily I always bring it because this happens to me all the time, but yeah, we knew about it as it was happening and then Bianca and I have never really touched so it was just kind of seeing what happens and it was great. She’s amazing. But it was so much fun and I felt like, ‘Wow, I’m getting the best of both worlds here. I’m getting to be a manager. At the same time, I’m being a wrestler.’ It was the perfect combination but I think my favorite was when I got to work with Johnny Gargano and Candice LeRae at NXT. I felt like Hunter is such a mastermind and he knew — he knew, I wanna say from the beginning of when we got together, all the way to the end. He wrote this perfect story for us and it was like, we got together, we had our matches, whatever and then when we were finally moving up, we had our last match, Candice and I and Johnny and Andrade got involved and it ended with us having the Johnny submission [Gargano Escape] on both of us at the same time. We both tapped out. So, it just felt like the perfect little storybook ending, but building to that was amazing so, I don’t wanna say I’m giving up on wrestling because I feel like I wanna have that time as a wrestler, but I also wanna build myself as a manager enough to get people to care enough to want to see that. Even about Lana, right? She was a manager at first and to the point they were chanting for her, they wanted her so bad, and then she was able to go into wrestling. I wanna get to the point where the fans care enough to wanna see me in that role and then we’ll go full speed with it. Its gotta be the right time.”
Zelina Vega had been doing extra work for WWE at the beginning of her wrestling career. Before she signed with the sports-entertainment company, she traveled the globe and worked in Mexico and Japan. She said that she wouldn’t have been fulfilled career-wise had she not officially made it to WWE and credited Tommy Dreamer for his verbal push to get her into the company.
“Partially and I think because Joey Mercury was always someone that fought for me and it was because I remember, Tommy Dreamer, I always call him my wrestling dad because he’s always looking out for me from day one, and he had messaged — he sent me the screen-cap, he sent Joey Mercury a text saying, ‘So, Thea’s going in there today for a tryout. She’s the next’ — mind you, I don’t feel this way but he was putting me over. He’s like, ‘She’s the next Trish meets Lita. She can do it all, she needs somebody to believe in her like I believed in you’ and he was like, ‘Alright, I got you,’ and then from then on, he was, every time, ‘Hey, we’re gonna be in Virginia. Can you drive there from New York?’ And I was like, ‘Yup!’ And I did it. I drove all the way to Carolina. As long as they have me was as much as I wanted to be there and I made myself available whether it was spending more money than I was making just to be there, I didn’t care at that point. So I felt I needed to be there and I also felt like I wouldn’t have been fulfilled in life if I didn’t make the WWE.”
Vega is currently managing former WWE United States and NXT Champion Andrade. Zelina started managing Andrade in the Summer of 2017 and has been in Andrade’s corner ever since. Vega revealed that the first time she actually met Andrade was in 2011 at a CMLL show in Mexico.
“Well, speaking of history though, I actually really did meet Andrade back in 2011 in Mexico, when I was with TNA so… I wanna say, what was it? CMLL! I was working at CMLL and I met him back then. Never did I think that all these years later, that we would be partners. When I think about it, it blows my mind because I was like, ‘Wow, that was cool.’ ‘Oh, you’re cool.’ ‘Wow, you’re really good.’ ‘Okay, we’re eating, this is great.’ See you however many years later. Wow, okay we’re partners. This is insane, and they were trying to come up with the story of like, ‘Oh, say you’ve known him since’ — I was like, ‘No, I really have. Like it’s legit, I really have.'”
** Stephanie Chase of Digital Spy has interviews on her YouTube channel with Tommaso Ciampa, Chris Jericho, Bayley, Mandy Rose and “Switchblade” Jay White.
** Former wXw Women’s Champion Killer Kelly shared her experience as a trainee of the wXw Academy in Germany. Allegations of abuse have recently came out against several members of the school.
My perspective as a trainee about what’s being said about the @wXwGermany Wrestling Academy.
It’s not perfect, but I will continue to help as much as I can to make it better! pic.twitter.com/sErazYTXKx
— 𝐊𝐈𝐋𝐋𝐄𝐑 𝐊𝐄𝐋𝐋𝐘 (@Kelly_WP) June 22, 2020
** Prime Time Pro Wrestling Tag Team Champion Jordan Blade did an interview with Philip Lindsey of Bell To Belles. Blade opened up about the wrestling industry’s response to the Black Lives Matter movement and how she believes things should unfold in the business going forward.
“As far as the wrestling companies coming out with these statements, I don’t know all these of wrestling companies personally but to me, I can see which ones genuinely mean it, like which ones are like saying something every day about Black lives and even about trans lives and things like that. They’re going all in and I love that. Same thing for wrestlers that are coming out and they’re hammering it home every freaking day. That means a lot to me and so I’m hoping, and I may be overly optimistic, but I’m hoping that through these protests that this going to elicit change within the system and that this is going to elicit change within the wrestling community too and I’m hoping that a lot of overlooked Black talent, and a lot of overlooked queer talent too, get the opportunities that they deserve because I see, and I’m friends with a ton of amazing black talent. I’m tag team partners with one of them. I’m sorry. I just get really emotional. So, I just really hope that this sparks actual long-lasting change within the wrestling community. I think, sure, we will have change, as far as wrestling goes, for the first six months or so but what’s really going to show is how is this changing over time. How is this changing over a year, over two years, five years? Are we regressing back to where we were before these protests or have we evolved.”
Promotions such as Prime Time Pro Wrestling, F1ght Club Pro and Uncanny Attractions are known for their inclusive environments. Jordan Blade spoke about her experiences working with Prime Time Pro Wrestling and F1ght Club and feeling like they’ve hit the nail on the head when it comes to making their locker rooms and environment safe for the LGBTQ community.
“I identify as a queer Black woman. I am bisexual. So, Prime Time, when they came along, especially with Butch vs. Gore this past March, they hit the nail on really representing the LGBTQ community and that was great. They also give a place for, you know, Black wrestlers and Black voices and other people of color to really stand out. But when F1ght Club contacted me, I’ll be honest, I had no idea that they existed and I looked at some of their stuff and I was like yo, this is pretty cool. When I went there to wrestle, which I think was a little bit either before or after Butch vs. Gore. When they started their show with spoken word, I like ok here we go. When they had an intermission and they were playing “Knuck if you Buck,” I was super hype. I was like here is another promotion where I’m represented. Here’s another promotion where I’m around like-minded people and that, especially my first one to two years in the business, was really hard to find because I was wrestling in a lot of places that made me feel uncomfortable; that made me feel unwelcomed. No one that I can remember, like any fan or anyone, ever really said anything to me but I wasn’t comfortable as a Black person. I wasn’t comfortable as a woman and I really wasn’t comfortable as a queer person in those towns wrestling in those shows. To be a part of Prime Time and to be a part F1ght Club, they gave me the opportunity to wrestle, and that’s all I’ve ever wanted to do since I was 12 years old. They gave me that but they also gave me a sense of security. I can breathe. I can let my guard down. I don’t have to be on edge all the time, you know. So, that to me is just as valuable as the opportunity they’ve given me to wrestle in front of the great fans of the DMV area.”
** Below is the latest upload to Asuka’s YouTube channel:
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfoWsIgboFM[/embedyt]
** Bianca Belair along with Montez Ford created The Culture Connection website which includes information about the history of African-Americans, black business to support, stories, articles and much more.
** WWE Hall Of Famer Edge joined Busted Open Radio to chat about his recent injury, his match with Randy Orton at Backlash and several more topics concerning his professional career. Edge also spoke about Beth Phoenix and her commentary gig with NXT. He shared some of the advice that he has given to Beth and reminding her of what she adds to the NXT commentary team that no one else can.
“I think for her its been a huge challenge and now she’s doing it remotely so she’s not even sitting with Mauro [Ranallo] where you can play off of each other. Mauro’s in L.A., she’s here in Asheville, [North Carolina] and they’re piping down into Orlando so there’s the extra challenge of that, and but man, she’s working. She’s really putting the time in and because she wants to be good at it and she’s her own worst critic and she’ll always beat herself up but I said, ‘Listen honey, what you bring to the table is something that currently, no one, even [Corey] Graves can’t bring to the table at this point, because you’ve wrestled at WrestleMania. You’ve been involved in this level of the industry. You gotta bring those strengths because nobody else has them. Also the fact that you’re a woman and you can speak to all of those challenges. My God, you can be a fountain of information that will play completely opposite to what Mauro does,’ which I think is a good thing, and so I think now she’s starting to have fun, and that to me is the key to anything you’re gonna do in wrestling. At the end of the day, you gotta have fun and that translates.”
** I conducted an interview with OTT founder Joe Cabray and he shared his plans for OTT’s women’s division. Joe admitted things were off to a rough start regarding the women’s division but he wants the division to continue to grow and ultimately have a women’s title match headline one of OTT’s major shows.
“Yeah, I think we wanna make all our titles mean something. To be honest with you, I think people would agree, our women’s division was a bit of struggle starting off. I just didn’t want to put on a women’s division that just wasn’t to the standard of what OTT has become. So, I think the last two years, we’ve really worked hard on trying to get the women’s title to the standard of the men’s title. I always say it, every year we run a show called Defiant and it’s my favorite show of the year. It’s our all-women’s event and I just love it. I think it’s just… again, just really good energy. The locker room when Defiant — the fans are rabid for it as well, but it’s still gonna be a key of trying to get our women’s title as strong as possible and one day I hope that our women’s championship will essentially headline a major show for us. That’s kinda like the goal at some point.”
Joe praised OTT’s Amy Allonsy for her character and work ethic. He stated that Allonsy could be Irish wrestling’s next greatest export.
“We still wanna do the Amy Allonsy match. So, hopefully we’ll be able to get it done. Amy Allonsy and Sammii Jayne. That was a match that, speaking of women’s wrestling, and watch out for Amy Allonsy. I think she’s going to be one of the next big things in female wrestling. She just gets it. Things just snap into place for her and she’s just amazing. Again, great person as well to be around but works her ass off as well so, she’s gonna be one of the next, I think, one of the next proud exports of Irish wrestling so watch out for Amy Allonsy as well.”
** A highlight video of the best highlights from the Swerve City Podcast, co-hosted by Big Swole has been uploaded to the podcast’s official YouTube channel.
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6RpOcB9WSec[/embedyt]
** Alexandra Corinth wrote a feature for Fightful about Mike Tyson being spotlighted in All Elite Wrestling.
** The IIconics (Peyton Royce & Billie Kay) were the most recent guests on Superstar Savepoint on the UpUpDownDown YouTube channel. Also, Billie Kay turned 31-years old on June 23rd.
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HnZQF6e8EBk[/embedyt]
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQwJKHvYXFc[/embedyt]
** AEW Chief Brand Officer Brandi Rhodes turned 37-years old on June 23rd.
** Scheduled for the 6/23 episode of IMPACT Wrestling on AXS is Deonna Purrazzo in action as she’ll take on Alisha Edwards. Also, Susie (Su Yung) is taking on Taya Valkyrie, and Tasha Steelz will be in action against Nevaeh.
** IMPACT Wrestling’s Kiera Hogan joined The Wrestling Inc. Daily podcast and during the conversation, she discussed IMPACT being the home of many top female performers in wrestling and why many of those performers want to be a part of IMPACT.
“The secret sauce is we’re hot soup and the Knockouts division has always been hot soup. The Knockouts division has always been the best. I’ve said it — I’ve literally been saying it since I was 17-years old. I know you saw that video pop up on Twitter of me talking about the Knockouts division when I was 17 and how it was the best division, and look at me at 25-years old, I’m working for what I said was the best women’s division and I wholeheartedly believe that. That’s why women keep coming, because they know this is where the competition is, they know this is where the best women are at and that’s why they keep walking through the door.”
** Liz Savage did an interview with Dante Oblivion to discuss the allegations she made against former NWA Vice President David Lagana. Lagana issued a statement to wrestling media outlets denying Savage’s harassment/assault claims.
This week’s POST news updates are women’s wrestling-based only. 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.
