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.
** Isaiah “Swerve” Scott and Teasy welcomed MVP and Ruby Riott onto the Swerve City Podcast. Ruby spoke about the double shoulder surgery that she returned to the ring from this year and how trying of a time period that was for her professionally and personally. Ruby said that according to her surgeon, she suffered those tears in her shoulders ten years ago and the tears progressively got worse. She said during the time she was out, she struggled with her mental health and shared that she suffers from adult ADHD, anxiety and depression. She went and got professional help while she was out which helped her in all corners of her life and now is feeling better than she ever has.
“So, for everybody who doesn’t know, I had two torn labrums in both of my shoulders. I had to have seven anchors put into this one [right shoulder] and eight in this one [left shoulder] and I had a bone chip removed from underneath.
Apparently, according to my surgeon, I had both injuries for ten years. They were from when I started. I had originated the tear when I started and then the ten years of wrestling happened and they just progressively got worse and worse and worse and worse and, I had the first surgery and then six months later I had the second surgery and then I was out for a total of ten months total.”
But that was the hard thing about the mental part of all of it. Like shoulders were definitely a tough rehab. I guess you could say it was my first real injury and it was something because I had dealt with it for so long, I kinda had a choice as to when I went and got it taken care of it. It’s something you can progress. It’s not like an immediate like if you tear your ACL or whatever. Like an immediate thing that you have to have fixed right away and something that you could know about. You just kind of have to pick the time which, because the time wasn’t chosen for me, the time was never right. I was like, ‘Oh I got this to do. Oh I got this to do. This can wait.’ Like, ‘My shoulders can wait. My shoulders can wait’ and I put it off and I put it off and I put it off to a point to where I could barely work out. I noticed it the most in the gym when I tried to do any wide grip bench press. Like my shoulders would pop out, and a lot of stuff in the ring, I worked around it for a number of years and it was a tough ten months. I was home alone a lot and mentally I think, I had to go down to like the deepest parts of me and here [mentally] and I actually had to seek out and get some help, and I’ve just recently become more open about this because I think this is something — mental health is definitely something I feel like because we don’t talk about it a lot, people think any kind of mental illness or disorder is wrong or it’s bad. So I like to be open with it. I have adult ADHD, I have anxiety and I sometimes suffer from depression and kind of recognizing that and being like, ‘Okay, now this what I have. What am I gonna do?’ Got to see a therapist and so I was doing my rehab for my physical therapy but I was doing my mental therapy as well. I came back and I felt better. I felt good about where I was and how I felt physically, mentally, emotionally, however you wanna say it but it was definitely something I felt needed to happen in my career for me to get better in all aspects of my career.”
** John Brody, WWE’s Executive Vice President, global head of sales and partnerships was the most recent guest on the SportsPro podcast. Brody discussed some of WWE’s plans to further expand their brand into Latin America and said there are some exciting things in the works that had to be delayed because of the COVID-19 outbreak.
“So, I’ve spent a lot of time in Mexico over the last few years. Also, throughout Latin, been to South America and spent a good deal of time in Brazil. There’s a tremendous culture of fandom for wrestling, for WWE throughout Latin America. Its been an area where we see opportunity and growth. It’s an area where we’d love to be able to create a televised live event. Some sort of special live event in the short-to-medium term. Our fans have passion there. We deliver tons of content through YouTube and all of our other channels and we just watch the numbers continue to go up so, anywhere we have a particular fan-base that needs to be served, we want to try to super serve them and I think there are a lot of exciting plans that we’ll be unveiling for Latin America in the months ahead. Obviously, COVID makes you have to rejigger some calendars and we’re truly a global property so when you’re a global property, you actually have to be a global property. You need to have events all around the world. You need to create compelling storylines. You need to also make sure that when you’re doing something in Latin America that you do it in language. So we’re continuing to find ways to do that whether it’s through our network, through our live events, through our digital and social to make sure we feed this insatiable thirst for WWE.”
As far as sponsors go and how they’ve been meshed in with WWE’s adjustment to COVID, Brody says it all comes down to communication. He says there was supposed to be a big event that Snickers was going to host that WWE was going to be a part of that had to be called off. He feels that WWE has just brought sponsors closer to the action as of late.
“For our partners, first thing and I learned this a long time ago; the most important thing is to communicate. We communicated with them at the beginning in March about what our plans were for WrestleMania. We talked to partners like Snickers who’s been the presenting sponsor for WrestleMania for five consecutive years. We talked to them about ways we’re gonna have to change our approach a little bit. We were planning a large event prior to WrestleMania at Raymond James Stadium that Snickers was gonna present live music and all those things. You can’t do that, so do you evolve what we’ve worked on with Mars and Cricket and all of our major partners was to give them more opportunity inside the pay-per-view to touch the content and to be closer to the action.”
WWE has been producing content out of the Performance Center for four months now. While on the topic of possibly running arenas again, Brody expressed that if arenas can open up safely, WWE Chairman Vince McMahon is ready to run those buildings.
“Yeah look, first of all, if people will open arenas safely, we’re in it. Our Chairman and CEO Vince McMahon has said we’re ready to go and entertain and put smiles on people’s faces so we look forward to the next step in the transition.”
** Edge joined Booker T and Brad Gilmore for a 30-minute chat on the ‘Hall Of Fame’ podcast. Edge is currently recovering from tearing his tricep during his match against Randy Orton at Backlash. Edge detailed when he knew he was injured and talked about some of the conversations he had with doctors in the P.C. after the match and his surgeon.
“So we’re going through the match and contrary to reports, we did it once, straight through. Like 48 minutes or whatever it was, and in coming back, I kinda wanted to re-calibrate my style a little bit and really make it a Bret Hart-kind of feel to my matches. Lot less high spots, more grappling, more wrestling, more fighting for things, selling. The little things like we talked about, right? So, we were doing this match and we’re having a blast and we got a queue at one point. I think it was like 35 minutes and I was like, ‘Woah! Alright. Man, I’m feeling great. This is awesome.’ I did a springboard into the second RKO and I went, ‘Ohh… okay, I got the cold sweats and I feel like I’m gonna throw up.’ That’s usually a sign. Now, and that’s where it popped and I thought, ‘Okay well, you know, I think I got a little bit more in the tank to finish this out’ and then we got it finished. We tried to do a couple pickup shots to see how those would feel. Maybe try and [add] a different element to the match and I didn’t like them, but we were just trying something different. Got to the back, I was like, ‘I think something happened to my tricep. I don’t think it’s complete, but it feels like something,’ and they felt around, they said, ‘We think it might be a complete [tear].’ Now, by the time I got the surgery, surgeon said, ‘You know, you probably went in with it partially torn, because the tissue was already very diseased, and my elbow had been bugging me for probably about a month but it had only bugged me when I did chest or triceps so I just thought…”
** Sheamus appeared on the newest episode of WWE After The Bell with Corey Graves. Sheamus touched on the long-standing rumor about his “fight” with Yoshitatsu nearly a decade ago while they both were in FCW. This incident occurred while Sheamus, Yoshi and Ted DiBiase Jr. were living together and it wasn’t until Sheamus won the WWE Championship for the first time that the rumor surfaced. Here’s Sheamus’ recollection of what went down between him and Yoshitatsu:
“So there’s a story going around, right? This legendary story about me and Yoshitatsu, right? So this is the first thing that was kind of like — and this didn’t come up until I won the title. This is how I knew people were really trying to stick daggers in me. So, me and Ted DiBiase Jr. were sharing an apartment and Yoshi had just come over from New Japan and he was — basically the guy [he] was supposed to stay with, left him high and dry. So we took Yoshi into our apartment, so we actually took him in. Ted slept on the couch and he took Ted’s room and we didn’t really know this fella, but everyone seemed to like him. You know what I mean? So he’s good but then I was like — but then the situation, we were on 500 bucks a week and he was getting allowance, whatever. But he wasn’t paying for any bills, he wasn’t paying for any bills, any water, any cable, any gas, any of that stuff so not only were we kind of [on] 500 bucks a week, we’re taking care of ourselves but we’re also taking care of him. So, we had a couple of little conflicts or whatever and then it kinda boiled over one time and there was a bit of a shoving thing and he threw a slap at me and I threw a slap at him and that was it. That was it basically. It was like two handbags flying at each other. It lasted about maybe 60 seconds. It was a couple of shoves and stuff and slaps and that was it so we’re like… we got over it, we worked it out. Now all of a sudden then, after the TLC match when I became WWE Champion, all these stories are going around that Yoshitatsu knocked me out. I was just like, ‘What!?’ I was like, ‘Where did this come from!?’
It was like this thing that never happened and then it was just blown out of proportion, and I talked to him about it. Now in fairness, when I wasn’t there, Drew [McIntyre] caught him once or twice just going along with the story because he thought it was gonna make him a big man or whatever. But I talked to him about it, confronted him about it. He was like, ‘No, no. I never said that,’ whatever. But it was just this thing that got blown out.”
** Michael Elgin posted a video on his personal YouTube channel to respond to the allegations against him that surfaced during the #SpeakingOut movement.
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uz37qRsH6KQ[/embedyt]
** Bianca Belair chatted with Charlotte Wilder of FOX Sports. While speaking about her goals in WWE, Bianca became emotional talking about how badly she wants to be NXT Women’s Champion because that’s something she feels she worked hard towards.
“Of course I want to be champion across RAW, SmackDown. I want to — before the end of my career, I know I’m on RAW right now. Before the end of my career, I will say this: I want to be NXT Women’s Champion, because I worked so hard in NXT. That was my home, that’s where I started. Like I’m getting emotional talking about it. You can’t say you work hard because you’re supposed to work hard but I sacrifice more than people even know and it’s just that was what I was going for and that’s what I want so before whatever the end of my career, ten years from now. I want to be NXT Women’s Champion one day. That’s what’s here [in my heart].”
Bianca opened up about some of the friends she made during her time in NXT such as coach Sara Amato, Ember Moon, Peyton Royce, Billie Kay and Nia Jax.
“Well first, my coach at the Performance Center, Sara Amato, she taught me everything. But as far as the superstars, I will say when I first got to the Performance Center, Nia Jax, she was someone who actually took me under her wing. She didn’t hold my hand through the process but she really just made sure that — and she let me know, ‘I say see something in you. I see that you have it. Just make sure that you do this, this, this.’ Kind of just guided me along the way. Ember Moon, when she was in NXT, every time we got in the ring together, we did a lot of live events together. I learned so much from being in the ring with Ember. She’s so talented, she’s a veteran, she has so much experience. I learned a lot of psychology from her. I learned how to listen to the crowd from her. Who else… Billie [Kay] and Peyton [Royce] were at the Performance Center when I was there for a while. I learned a whole lot from them. NXT, those were the main girls that I really just learned so much from-from their experience, and Alexa Bliss, at the Royal Rumble, being in the ring with her, I learned a lot from her and it’s just — I mean being on RAW now and being able to have the opportunity to now, and sometime in the future be able to get in the ring with them, I’m just excited for it because I just wanna get better and be the best and you can’t do that without competing with the best so, being in NXT, we had so many amazing women. Even the women that weren’t veterans that we came in together, we really grew together in NXT with that group of girls and they’re just still down there, but they’re still in NXT just killing it. Everybody’s just killing it across all three brands.”
** ICW New York announced that their scheduled show on July 4th is being relocated. A peaceful protest is planned for July 4th in Atlantic City, New Jersey and they are in support of the protest. The issue derives from the Pagan Motorcycle club that are coming to disrupt the protest.
** All Elite Wrestling announced that they’ll be returning to Philadelphia for Dynamite on April 7th, 2021 and they’ll be back in Boston on April 21st, 2021. Those shows were originally set to take place in April of 2020 before the COVID-19 pandemic began in the US.
** Royal Albert Hall is going to go broke by March of 2021 if it doesn’t receive financial support according to the building’s Chief Executive Officer. Per News UK, the building has lost £12m ($14 million USD) due to being closed because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Chief Executive Craig Hassall said that hundreds of staff members may have to be laid off.
“The Government support has been very oblique and vague. We have lobbied hard and consistently across the sector. But [Culture Secretary] Oliver Dowden’s roadmap for recovery has no dates and nothing firm.
There is no guidance from Government on when we can open or how we can open. Without that it’s impossible for us to trade – and that means the whole sector.”
Royal Albert Hall has played host to many pro wrestling events over the years. Most recently, WWE held the 2018 United Kingdom Championship tournament in that building and that tournament was won by NXT U.K.’s Zack Gibson.
** To celebrate the birthday of Bret Hart, Natalya gathered interviews with Bayley, Edge, Drew McIntyre, TJ Wilson and Beth Phoenix to share their fondest memories with and/or of Bret Hart. The piece can be read on the Calgary Sun’s official website.
** Bleacher Report Live posted their interview with AEW’s Wardlow. Wardlow revealed how his AEW signing came about and he credited Britt Baker for playing a role in him joining AEW. He also talked about working a quick match with Q.T. Marshall in front of Cody for only a few minutes before Cody decided to sign him.
“I was in between training sessions and I had a voicemail and I checked it and it was really just everything coming together. Cody had heard my name from a couple different people all in the same week. One of those people being Britt Baker who came up together with myself in IWC in Pittsburgh. We kind of started at the same time and grew up together in the company. So she had mentioned my name, a couple of other people. So Q.T. Marshall gave me a phone call and told me they were gonna fly me down to Atlanta to take a look at me. I go to Atlanta, work with Q.T. for maybe five minutes in front of Cody before he offered me contract.”
** Per Pro Wrestling Sheet, the people invited to Fyter Fest that were seated in the hard cam’s direction were Daily’s Place or Jaguars sponsors. Those individuals also brought family and friends. The people seated in the upper bowl of the building were likely not tested for COVID-19 because they could not possibly come into contact with anyone in the backstage or ringside areas. Anyone who was in those respective areas were tested for COVID.
** Zumba teacher Beth Donahue, who has made fitness videos with WWE talents in the past had a feature written about her by ‘Community Advocate’.
** As a part of the Gorilla Position’s newest episode of their podcast, they included a throwback interview with Bray Wyatt that was conducted inside of Madison Square Garden.
** TV Insider spoke with Santana and Ortiz of AEW and during their chat, both members of The Inner Circle spoke highly of how AEW has maneuvered through the COVID-19 pandemic and they also praised AEW’s head of medical, Doc Sampson.
Santana: “Honestly, when everything first happened we were sitting at home for two months wondering what was next. Doc Sampson [AEW head physician Dr. Michael Sampson] and the entire company as a whole have done an amazing job of making sure we all have a safe working environment and everyone is being taken care of. The company has taken so many extra precautions to make sure we are all safe. A lot of the higher-ups and Doc, they know a lot of us have families at home. They don’t want us risking coming to work and then taking something home. Everyone has done an amazing job. I feel comfortable coming to work every single week. I know I’m going to be taken care of and don’t have to worry when I come home. I’m truly grateful that everyone has taken necessary precautions. Even when we are at TV, we’re all being safe wearing a mask and keeping our distance. I feel like I haven’t seen anyone uncomfortable. Everyone has been positive coming to work to continue the task at hand. When AEW first blew up on the scene, we said we were going to give you an alternative and great action and pro wrestling. Despite everything going on, we’ve continued to maintain that. I look forward to our future. “
Ortiz: “You feel super safe. Honestly, I feel more safe because we get tested on a weekly basis. There is definitely a peace of mind in that. I feel safer because I know the steps they take and precautions they are taking are top notch. Shout out to Doc Sampson for creating a great working environment. We just want to continue presenting good wrestling, and they are continuing to allow us to do that.”
** Mickie James and SoCal Val did a remote interview with Chris Van Vliet to promote GAW TV. During their one-hour chat, Mickie James revealed that she is cleared to return to in-ring competition and she was cleared right as the COVID-19 pandemic started in the U.S. in March. She said she is ready to go but just hasn’t been called upon yet.
“And unfortunately, my clearance time came right in the midst of this whole outbreak and I was actually in Florida. I was at the Performance Center training, working with Tara [Halaby, WWE’s physical therapist], with everybody down there. Just kind of seeing where I was at. I’d already done all my therapy leading up. I’d seen the doc. The doc had already cleared me so it was literally just getting that last two weeks to get cleared to come back to in-ring action and all this stuff and everything got shut down and so I went home and then, I just haven’t been back since so which is fine because like I said, it looks like everybody’s got different levels of what’s ‘handling it’ and I’m like, there’s no need to take that risk of going there if I’m not doing anything, right? So, I would rather bide my time and wait for the perfect opportunity.”
** WWE announced that on the 7/3 episode of SmackDown, Matt Riddle will have a sit-down interview with Michael Cole. Drew Gulak will also be taking on AJ Styles for the Intercontinental Title on the show.
** Rocky Romero was the most recent guest on the NJPW Official English podcast to discuss the Lion’s Break Collision shows.
** According to Knoxville sports reporter Zack Rickens, the Knox County Board of Health voted 7-1 to mandate the wearing of a mask for anyone in certain buildings. Mayor Glenn “Kane” Jacobs was the one vote against the mask mandate.
** Former WWE United Kingdom Champion Pete Dunne spoke with Alicia Atout of ‘A Music Blog, Yea?’ Pete spoke about Matt Riddle getting the call-up to SmackDown and being happy for Riddle. Pete said he hopes he’ll get the opportunity to work with Riddle again and also wants to do the Fight Pit match with either Riddle or Timothy Thatcher.
“Yeah, I’ve been keeping a keen eye on it all. Especially with what Matt’s doing. I’m glad that now he’s got the call-up to, not the main roster. I don’t know what the correct wording is these days but he’s got the call-up to SmackDown. I know that’s something that he’s really wanted so I’m really happy for him and it was great to see the Fight Pit match and all that kind of stuff, that interesting concept. I would’ve loved to been a part of it and hopefully one day, maybe me and [Timothy] Thatcher can get in there together or if I ever go up to SmackDown or Matt comes back to NXT, maybe me and him could go at it in the Fight Pit too but, yeah it was an exciting time being a part of that tag team and it was something completely different, completely fresh and I’m glad I got to be a part of it but, it’s a shame we never got to really finish it off and defend the titles a few more times or maybe even go up against each other at some point.”
** WWE Hall Of Famer Edge appeared on ESPN’s ‘Cheap Heat’ podcast and revealed that originally at WrestleMania 36, he and Randy Orton wanted to have some of their match on the roof of the Performance Center.
** WrestleZone’s Bill Pritchard spoke with former TNA Knockouts Champion Taylor Wilde for an exclusive interview. Wilde revealed that she was scheduled for IMPACT Wrestling’s television tapings in Windsor, Ontario, Canada on March 28th but due to the COVID-19 outbreak, those plans did not come to fruition.
“Truth be told, because I have quite a history with the people who work at IMPACT, formerly TNA, it was like a tryout situation for the both of us. I know I love wrestling and I’m excited to get back in the ring but its been a long time. So, to make sure it’s something I really wanted, and if I was really into it, it would have gone from there. Then there’s the simple fact that I’m Canadian and these are American dates, so there’s a lot of paperwork that goes into that. So Windsor, it all seemed like a good fit.”
** Session Moth Martina spoke with Mirror Sport about her decision to sign with Ring of Honor over NXT UK, being herself in the ring and another topic that was touched on was the use of social media in relation to the passing of Hana Kimura. Martina does feel that social media has major positives and negatives and shared how she tries to navigate the app.
“It has major positives and clearly major negatives. I think it’s a great tool and a lot of my success comes down to Twitter to be honest. I feel like that’s where I have been recognized the most and where most people know me. I’m quite fun on Twitter and try and have a laugh and stuff. It’s great to keep in people’s minds during the lockdown, but it’s essential now, it’s part of the package. I do respect people like Juice Robinson who has no social media and he is still one of the best in New Japan. I respect the fact that he doesn’t feel the need for it, some people do and I feel like I would be one of the people who do need it, because I like to portray my personality and comedy that way.
But putting yourself out there, some people like to tear you down and it can clearly affect people. It’s a sad day that it can be taken so personally and used as a tool to hurt people. It’s devastating. I try to look at the positives of Twitter, I never get into debates on there or look at that stuff. I do try and filter out negativity and I think a break from it is essential. My advice would be try not to value yourself on your Twitter.”
** The next write-up of Hiroshi Tanahashi’s interview series with NJPW1972.com is up on their site.
** CBS Sports pushed out their interview with Sasha Banks before the July 1st episode of NXT. Banks shared high praise for NXT Women’s Champion Io Shirai who she wrestled on the show.
“She brings such a unique style. She has a lot of lucha libre and the joshi pro wrestling style. She’s known as one of the greatest in Japan, but she’s not better than Sasha Banks. I’m telling you, I’m the best in the world. She may be great in Japan and she may be OK and starting to get a little notice in NXT. Tonight, I will make her into the star she is supposed to be because that’s what a leader is supposed to do. So make sure you watch tonight on the USA channel at 8:00 p.m. ET and watch me destroy Io and show her why this has always been my NXT.”
** SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California which will play host to WrestleMania 37 next year hung up their scoreboard which weighs 2 million pounds.
** Bret Hart turned 63-years old on July 2nd.
** Aubrey Edwards and Tony Schiavone welcomed Brian Cage onto the AEW Unrestricted podcast. The story is well known that Cage was scheduled to compete in the Casino Battle Royale at the first Double Or Nothing pay-per-view but Cage explained why IMPACT specifically did not want him to compete in the match.
“They [IMPACT Wrestling] were more mad because I was their world champion at the time, that I wasn’t winning. So they’re mad because I was gonna be in the pre-show battle royal and wasn’t winning as their world champion and I get where they’re coming from with that but…
But okay, so even then when Cody was talking to me about it like, ‘Hey, could you do it?’ I’m like, ‘Yeah, I should. I feel like the verbiage in my contract, I should absolutely be able to do it.’ This was in November, prior to the first Double Or Nothing and he’s like, ‘One, I could put you in the battle royal again because we don’t feel like you should be losing, but we can’t put you over any of our contracted guys,’ and then so kind of the meet in the middle was like, ‘We’ll put you in the battle royal, we can have you eliminate everyone’ which I mean, I was definitely shining huge in the battle royal throughout the whole thing and then he goes, ‘That way when you lose, you’re not winning’ but I’m not getting beat. You know what I mean? And I saw that. I’m like, ‘Oh, cool.’”
Diving into his days with IMPACT Wrestling, Cage shared that when Melissa Santos first started working with the company, the plan was to have them do a mixed tag team match but Melissa ended up tearing her ACL while training for the match so she ended up being just an outside factor in Brian Cage’s storyline with John Morrison.
“And originally, when they brought Melissa in, it was to have a tag match with us. I don’t know who we’re gonna face, but she actually — we had a match at Bar Wrestling on New Year’s Eve, so like 2018, 2019 New Year’s Eve and she actually tore her ACL when we went to try a couple of moves and we were at the zoo for Christmas and she was doing this cool dance move. She’s a big dancer and it was like a cool-looking 540 kick or whatever. I’m like, ‘Woah, do that again!’ Like she’s sitting there messing around. I’m like, ‘Dude, you can totally make this like a sweet kick,’ and we went to go try it as we were going over some stuff and just training for the match and it was like two days before. She was like really scared to throw the kick. I’m like, ‘He’ll put his hands up, it’s fine. It’s cool,’ and she goes, ‘I don’t know. I don’t know.’ I’m like, ‘Just do it.’ She goes, ‘I’m gonna go slow through it,’ so instead of, which is like a very momentum-filled move, so she goes kind of slow, kind of half-assed it just to get the timing down and the canvas was loose so her foot got stuck in the canvas so when she spun, she [her upper body] spun, her foot stayed planted and she tore her ACL.”
** NJPW’s BUSHI has an interview with NJPW1972.com and part one of that interview is up on their site. In this extensive discussion, BUSHI talked about his epidural hematoma, cervical cord neurapraxia and neck fracture that he suffered towards the end of 2014 that kept him out of action for nearly a full year. BUSHI did return as a member of Los Ingobernables de Japon to be the corner man for Tetsuya Naito and EVIL but he told the powers that be in New Japan to delay his return because he did not think he was physically ready to get back in the ring.
“Well, unannounced… I was actually supposed to have my comeback match that night with Mascara Dorada against Yohei Komatsu & Sho Tanaka, but I got in touch with the office right before and said I wouldn’t be wrestling.”
BUSHI also commented on the personality of SANADA in the early stages of LIJ. BUSHI says there were several times when he and SANADA almost came to blows because he felt the former two-time IWGP Tag Team Champion slacked on some of his responsibilities.
“You know, all the young guys in the Dojo have to take responsibility for stuff and I thought he was slacking. He wouldn’t listen so I got mad and went to hit him, but all of a sudden he took my back, and I was like ,‘What the hell?’ (laughs)
And now he has this fashionable image to him, but I remember back then he went out and bought pretty much the exact same clothes I was buying.”
Back in September of 2016, BUSHI defeated KUSHIDA to win the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship on the Destruction tour. BUSHI and KUSHIDA main-evented that particular show and he shared that during that time, Tetsuya Naito continuously joked with him that if the arena didn’t sell well, it was BUSHI’s fault.
“There hadn’t been a junior title match in the main event of a big card in years. It just didn’t happen. So Naito was very eager to troll me. ‘If the house sucks, it’s because the main didn’t draw’ kinda thing (laughs).”
** Coming out of day four of the trail between Anthem Sports & Entertainment and Jeff Jarrett/Global Force Entertainment, GFW has dropped their claims of Federal Trademark Infringement and Counterfeiting of the GFW brand and that Anthem created Unfair Competition under Tennessee common law by using the GFW brand, per PWInsider.
** Cody’s application to trademark the “Cody Rhodes” name has been refused because of WWE’s registration of the same trademark. WWE’s trademark registration was supposed to expire on April 13th, which was the same day Cody applied but WWE renewed it on May 15th and explained that COVID-19 was the reason for the delay.
** Former NXT North American Champion Roderick Strong did an interview with Graham Matthews of Daily DDT and Roddy further spoke about how crucial joining Undisputed ERA was for him and recalled becoming emotional after scoring a victory at the 2019 Survivor Series pay-per-view.
“Joining Undisputed Era has been my top moment because it was such a momentum swing for me career-wise. It filled me with emotion. I rolled to the floor after I won at Survivor Series and there’s this moment where I get overwhelmed and I start crying. I try not to weep, obviously, just because it is such a big stage. Everybody talks about how hard they work, but I worked hard to be in a position where not a lot of people thought I would be in. It was overwhelming. It’s my number two. Joining Undisputed Era and then that. It’s big. It’s something I’ll never forget and I’m thankful for the opportunity to create a memory like that.”
Prior to Adam Cole winning the NXT Championship at TakeOver: XXV, there was some tension between him and Roddy Strong on-screen. Strong thinks if the group would’ve split up at that point, it would’ve been way too soon.
“If it were to have ended at that point, we definitely would have that, ‘It had been too soon’ and I think they understand that. There’s so much entertaining stuff we still have left to do, there’s so much leg left on this. We always joke that anything short of forever would be too soon. You always really wonder because a lot of that isn’t in your control and you have to just trust the process and your bosses which we do fully, so we just go with it.”
Kyle O’Reilly has not competed with Undisputed ERA in the ring since the March 11th episode of NXT on the USA Network. Kyle is a resident of Canada and is a diabetic so WWE is picking their spots of when to bring Kyle in. He recently filmed several segments with Undisputed ERA to help Roddy “overcome his fear” of Dexter Lumis. In regard to Kyle being with the group full-time, Strong says they all miss him.
“We all miss Kyle. When we teamed for that period of time that Bobby [Fish] was out, Kyle and I got extremely close. He’s an integral part of us, the fearsome foursome. We’re all good individually and any combination of three is good, but it’s never better than when the four of us are together. It’s funny because when it comes to the therapy thing, I said, ‘Kyle has got to be the therapist.’ The way it all worked out with me not knowing it was him was fantastic. He’s just so good at all that stuff. He’s amazing. Any way we can find to get him on screen, we have.
Hopefully soon [that he’ll be back]. WWE has been extremely cautious with making sure everyone is as safe as they possibly can be and looking out for someone like Kyle because he’s diabetic and being extra, extra, extra safe with him and we appreciate that as his friends and I know he really appreciates it. I think we’ll be seeing him sooner than later.”
** Former two-time SmackDown Women’s Champion Naomi was the most recent guest on the Rock, Paper, Scissors battle with WWE host Nathalie Mamo.
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzsmqvKby44[/embedyt]
** NXT U.K.’s Piper Niven chatted with Alicia Atout of ‘A Music Blog, Yea?’
** Next week’s edition of IMPACT Wrestling on AXS TV will start at 9 PM EST.
** Justin Barrasso of Sports Illustrated spoke with Jim Ross. Ross expressed that he feels the trio of himself, Excalibur and Tony Schiavone are the best broadcast team in pro wrestling.
“As for our team in AEW, I think we’re the best broadcast team in pro wrestling. I truly believe that. Even though I’m not a three-man booth guy, as a rule, we’re making it work. And it’s fun.”
** Comicbook.com ran their interview with Dakota Kai ahead of the 7/1/20 edition of NXT on the USA Network. Kai spoke highly of her on-screen partner Raquel Gonzalez and what Raquel has added to her [Dakota Kai]’s character.
“Before I had her, I was kind of just rolling with it. I wasn’t too creative. And I’m like, ‘Well, I can’t just be angry all the time? What’s my point?’ Then with the addition of her, it took everything to a whole new level, and a lot of people have really grown to come around to the idea of us being a team, and not just her being a manager. She can freaking go in the ring too. She’s such a beast, so I think that has been the coolest thing, and going forward, it offers a lot more creative outlets for us too.”
** Jake Roberts chatted with Wrestling Inc. and spoke about the surgical operation he recently underwent and how he’s recovering from that operation.
“I feel pretty good just getting over a surgery… on my hand and wrist. I had to have a couple of ligaments cut and my little finger remodeled. Then it was carpal tunnel and they snipped the ligament in my elbow also. Fun and games – wear and tear.”
** Sheamus joined Rusev on Rusev’s Twitch channel. The two spoke about their run together as a part of the League of Nations along with Stu Bennett and Alberto El Patron. Sheamus kicked off the conversation and shared that the idea of the League of Nations came from Jamie Noble and also shared that the night he won the WWE World Heavyweight Title from Roman Reigns in 2015 at Survivor Series, Sheamus did not know he was cashing in his Money In The Bank contract until the day of.
“So, what happened was, I just beat Roman [Reigns] for the world title. I cashed in Money In The Bank and we knew — this was on a Sunday at Survivor Series. I didn’t even know I was gonna cash in until that night and then, the next night at RAW or day at RAW, they told us, ‘We’re putting this group together — League of Nations.’ By the way, this whole idea came from Jamie Noble. [I] remember Jamie Noble telling me, ‘I got this idea! Hey, it’s League of –’ I was thinking, ‘Okay…’ I was like, ‘How’s this gonna work and what’s the idea?’ There was no idea behind it, there’s no plan behind it and then they just — on RAW, they put four of us together.”
Sheamus feels that the League of Nations could’ve been on the same level as The Wyatt Family and The Shield. He argued that people constantly refer to those aforementioned trios as the most dominant but it just came down to how they were booked.
“It’s like, you look at The Wyatts. You have The Wyatt Family and you had The Shield and everything. There’s no reason why we couldn’t have been just as dominant as those groups. People go, ‘Oh! They’re the most dominant.’ Yeah, of course they’re the most dominant. That’s because that’s the way they’re booked, but we weren’t booked that way. We were literally booked to build Roman.”
Rusev chimed in and reiterated that the group was designed for Roman Reigns to break down on his road to winning the world title again. Rusev was sure to mention that he has nothing but respect for Reigns and Sheamus backed that thought as well.
“So when it all comes down to it, we were created for one purpose and that’s to build Roman, which he really needed, and again, that’s nothing — whatever we’re saying, it’s nothing to do against Roman because we both love Roman, we both loved working with Roman. He’s so talented. He deserves everything, right?” Rusev said.
** Former wXw Women’s Champion Killer Kelly is now responsible for co-coaching the weekly women’s training class at the wXw Academy.
** Live Action News has a story up about Titus O’Neil’s mother, Daria Bullard.
** Ohio Valley Wrestling talent ‘Dimes’ chatted with 411 Mania for an exclusive interview. He was asked if there’s a projected date that OVW may be able to run live shows again in front of some fans. Dimes shared that OVW owner Al Snow had a meeting with the state of Kentucky recently to gauge when he’d be able to present a show again and he relayed some of that information back to talent.
“No, not right now. Our owner, Al Snow, just had a meeting with the state the other day and kind of laid out, ‘Hey, this is everything that we’ve had in place. All of the talent and all of the workers that we have at OVW have filled out a document saying all of the different precautions we have in place and that we have read it, that we know there is a plan to keep everybody safe.’ So, it’s really up to the state right now, but hopefully, within a month — because I know that shows are running in other states. Like in Indiana, there’s shows running today, tomorrow, so you know, hopefully the state of Kentucky can see that we are truly a professional company and that we’ve put all these precautions to keep not only the wrestlers safe, but the fans safe as well.”
** Here’s the newest video from Peyton Royce’s YouTube channel:
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVRCVA_c-A8[/embedyt]
** Titus O’Neil was a guest on Tampa’s News Channel 8.
** CBS’ ‘Game On’ episode featuring Becky Lynch and Rob Gronkowski drew in 3,269,000 overnight viewers according to Showbuzz Daily.
** Rusev told the story of how he and Lana started dating.
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIS08zjPo_E[/embedyt]
** A new video is up on Ring of Honor’s YouTube channel of Jenny Rose re-watching her first match in ROH.
** Shane “Hurricane” Helms joined MMA Fighting’s A-Side Live Chat and during the interview, Helms talked about the relationship between Vince McMahon and Dana White. Helms shared that when The Ultimate Fighter first premiered on Spike TV and followed Monday Night RAW, Vince McMahon approved the show to follow RAW which led to him and Dana White establishing a friendship.
“It’s funny because when The Ultimate Fighter season one happened, it followed Monday Night RAW. Vince [McMahon] had to ‘okay’ that. If Vince doesn’t ‘okay’ that, it doesn’t happen. That’s why Vince and Dana [White] have a pretty close relationship.”
Shane Helms spoke about his interactions with Brock Lesnar and recalled when he challenged Lesnar to a quick amateur wrestling match before the show and Helms was confident he could get away from Lesnar. It was not long before Helms found out how quick Brock was.
“I’ll tell you a Brock story real quick. I had an amateur background. I was an amateur for about seven years so I had a little bit of a background. So I was in the ring playing with Brock one day and I was like, ‘I can get away from him. I can get away from him for a little bit’ and I had no illusions about what was gonna happen once he grabbed me. None whatsoever. But I was like, ‘I can get away from him.’ His big ass shot in on me as fast as anybody ever had. He shot in on me, scooped me up, I was on his shoulder and I was just kind of patting him on the back, ‘Okay, we’re good.’ The sh*t don’t need to go no further.”
** Sonya Deville was a guest on Maria Menounos’ ‘Better Together’ podcast.
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nq5zQoWGnhI[/embedyt]
** IMPACT Wrestling’s Zachary Wentz launched his ‘Believe Wrestling Academy’ training school. Orientation begins on July 7th and the classes start on July 9th.
** Candice LeRae and Bayley’s respective new theme songs have been posted to WWE’s official music YouTube channel.
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZmHgO-8JoE[/embedyt]
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0qWCtlLFB8[/embedyt]
** Former NXT U.K. Tag Team Champion Mark Andrews went live on Instagram with Andy Shepard.
** Tony Schiavone reviewed night one of Fyter Fest on the All Elite Wrestling YouTube channel.
** Below is the newest episode of Xavier Woods and Tyler Breeze’s Battle Of The Brands series:
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JvCy6543J2E[/embedyt]
** Ronda Rousey finished the Mortal Kombat 11 video game.
** Darren Paltrowitz of Sportskeeda/The Paltrocast spoke with Deonna Purrazzo for an exclusive interview.
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.
