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.
** Former TNA World Tag Team Champion Crazzy Steve was a guest on Tommy Dreamer’s ‘House of Hardcore’ podcast. Steve has “joked” on IMPACT Wrestling TV about him being blind but he revealed during Dreamer’s podcast that he actually is legally blind. Steve was born blind and mentioned that he did not want to bring attention to it because of the negative and/or positive effect it could have on his wrestling career.
“It’s true, yeah. I’m legally blind. That’s news to some people. As of recently, I just came out with advertising it and as of recently I mean like a few years ago. [I] was kind of making that part of the advertisement to Crazzy Steve. He is the real-life version of Daredevil and that I can not see, and I’m still able to do what I do. But before that, I had never told anybody that I was blind, because I didn’t want that to be part of the thing. I wanted to be known as a good wrestler. I wanted to be known as somebody you could work with that had a cool character, who knows his character, who can meet all the criteria of a wrestler from like, ‘He’s in shape, he can cut a promo, he’s got a cool look.’ I wanted to have all that first and I didn’t want the tagline of, ‘Oh, he’s blind too’ to be a part of that and I guess that comes from a pride standpoint. But yeah, I’m blind. I was born like totally blind, 100 percent and then at a young age I found out that I had Cataracts which is due to being — I’m a small person in general and when I was born, I was born two pounds so I had to be put in an incubator and at certain times in certain kids, because of being inside that incubator, it can cause [something to go wrong]. When I got out of that incubator, doctors had found out I had Cataracts. They removed the Cataract at a young age so I was able to somewhat see. I always had giant glasses and such and so forth, can’t drive, small print, that sort of thing. But I also have Glaucoma so as I get older, my eyes continue to get worse. I’m like the Michael Jordan of not seeing. I’m really, really good at it.”
Steve was trained by Eric Young in Canada at the WrestlePlex school. Initially, Young was hesitant to train Steve because he didn’t want to be the one to tell him he couldn’t wrestle because of him being blind. After seeing Steve move around the ring, Young agreed to train him.
“Fast forward to meeting Eric Young and going to the WrestlePlex in Cambridge, Ontario, I almost didn’t get trained by him. He almost wouldn’t train me based off of my eyesight. At the time, his school was pretty new and he was looking for students and he had a guy named Jake O’Reilly, fellow wrestler, Ontario, independent wrestling fame. He was the one who pitched for me to come to the school. He said, ‘Well I got a friend, I did backyard wrestling with him. I think he’d be pretty good.’ E.Y. says, ‘Yeah, bring him along.’ ‘Well there’s a catch,’ ‘What’s that?’ ‘He’s kinda blind’ and right away, E.Y., bless his heart, was like ‘No, no, no. Don’t bring him, don’t bring him. You can’t do that.’ ‘Well no, he can kind of see’ and E.Y. was like, ‘Look, here’s the thing: I don’t wanna be the guy who crushes this kid’s dreams and I don’t wanna be the one to tell him he can’t wrestle based off of his eyesight and I’m not going to take his money. So please don’t. You can’t bring him,’ and it took some convincing. He said, ‘Look, he can come to one practice and he can watch’ and I was the only student that ever came to that practice and did not pay him a dime and he let me step into the ring. It was basically an eyesight test. We took off my glasses and he said, ‘Can you see the ropes?’ I said no.
And so he kind of, in the most basic of fashion, had an eyesight test with me just kind of hitting the ropes back and forth and just judging off of that, he felt as though, ‘I can train you. I think this will work’ and to his credit, he trained me and fast forward and here we are.”
Crazzy Steve did partake in a WWE tryout in 2017. He believes that based off of his performance, he could’ve done well with the company but no one from that tryout was brought into the company full-time.
“And they don’t give you any feedback during these tryouts either. There’s no advice in any way, shape or form and I can understand why, there’s 50 people. You don’t have time for that. It’s, ‘Come in, here’s your drill, do the drill and do them to the best of your ability.’ There’s no, ‘Hey, you’re doing this really good or anything like that.’ There’s no time for that. So you kinda have to go off of the little tiny bits of conversations that you have with those who are judging you, who are leading the drills so-to-speak. So based off of that, based off of my promo and the match, I had good feelings coming out of it. At the end of the day, as you’ve said before, it doesn’t matter. It comes down to one person and you have no control how that person looks at you. You can do your best and I came out of that knowing that I could work for that company. If they hire me, I know I could do a good job there. I’m not saying that out of cockiness but out of confidence. From participating and going through that, I know I could be successful there. But again, it’s not up to me. It comes down to somebody else and nobody got signed out of that tryout. So now I found myself like, ‘Oh sh*t, what do I do?’”
** AJ Styles started up another Twitch stream on 9/9. Styles answered the question of if WWE owns the “AJ Styles” name and he said he ultimately owns the name but while under contract with WWE, it’s theirs.
“I do, I do. That’s how I was able to carry AJ Styles from TNA to New Japan to Ring of Honor then to WWE. Now the question is does WWE own my name as long as I work for them? As long as I’ve signed a contract? Yes. That’s how it works. But when it’s over, when this contract is over, it goes back to me. It’s my name.”
While appearing on the Talk’n Shop podcast, The Young Bucks stated that there were plans in place for AJ Styles to appear on AEW Dynamite alongside Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson on the company’s premiere show in October of 2019. AJ said there was a possibility that-that could’ve happened.
“I mean listen, my contract was coming up with WWE. This is a business. There was a possibility something like that could happen. So, I mean anything’s possible, but I’m glad and I’m happy where I’m at. Do I love those guys? 100 percent.”
Styles touched on the notion that Daniel Bryan is working on the WWE creative team. Styles feels that it can be a clash of sorts with an active talent being on the writing team.
“I think as long as he’s not coming up with his own storyline, because you tend to put yourself, obviously in the better storyline because it’s your idea. You have this idea and when you pitch something like a storyline to one of the writers or even Vince or whoever, you have to convince them it’s the right one. It could be funny or entertaining or whatever it might be. So I think that’s more difficult, to make people see through your eyes and if you’re able to come up with your own storyline then you know what it’s going to look like, which will always be better. I really believe that. So, I think it’d be hard to be in creative and also be a talent. I think that’d be difficult.”
** Gail Kim joined Lisa Marie Varon, Mickie James and SoCal Val on GAW TV. Gail revealed that both she and Robert Irvine tested positive for COVID-19 but they are both feeling better now.
“A lot of people don’t know this but I’m gonna say it out loud. We got COVID, so we did get COVID. Yeah, actually I’m glad we got through it quickly. Two weeks for both [of] us and [we] feel like we have antibodies which is great but of course still being careful. But it was more annoying than anything so, I’m just thankful we didn’t go through — I hear horror stories of people [and] what they’ve experienced.
So yeah, I feel like he [Robert Irvine] got it and then I caught it from him.”
On the topic of IMPACT Wrestling, while Gail is still agenting matches, she has been promoted to a member of the Talent Relations team with D’Lo Brown. Gail praised D’Lo for helping her adjust to the position.
“So now, it’s kind of changed a little bit. I still agent some of the girls’ matches but now Madison [Rayne] has started agenting a little bit. They’re trying to get her in there doing a little bit more and they bumped me up. I’m now co-Talent Relations with D’Lo [Brown]. I love D’Lo.
When I got promoted last month, I got a couple people just joking around saying, ‘Congratulations… I think’ because Talent Relations was always seen as that asshole position I guess. But you gotta remember, there’s never been a woman in that position and I think women handle things a little bit differently. Like we can be a little bit more empathetic at times I think and so far I’ve had such great feedback and I think as a woman, being in this position, I think it’s a positive that people feel… they feel like I’m more approachable to talk to maybe. I’m not sure. I’m only a month in but everything’s been going really great and D’Lo, I couldn’t have asked for anyone better. From day one, he’s like, ‘I want everyone to see you as my equal’ because he’s the Head of Talent Relations and we just take turns with everything, everything’s very 50/50. He’s just an amazing guy.”
** Jimmy Jacobs joined the Two Man Power Trip of Wrestling podcast. Jacobs further spoke about his time in WWE and working with Vince McMahon. Jacobs agreed with the sentiment that Vince can tend to rule with fear when it comes to his writing staff.
“From my perception and maybe this is just my personal experience, but I would say Vince rules with fear. I would say that’s a mostly fair assessment. When I first came into the company, I wasn’t scared of Vince. I saw people scared of Vince. I was like, ‘Why!? Why’s everybody scared of Vince?’ And after being there two months or something, I was like, ‘Oh, I get it. I get it.’ I learned quickly you are always one weird interaction with Vince away from getting fired or being in the dog house and if you care about your job, you start to toe the line. I don’t know if you remember Titus O’Neil, do you remember this? They did something where everybody was out on the stage for — I forget what it was for and… and Titus like grabbed Vince’s arm or something, and Titus got like suspended off a WrestleMania for that and it’s instances like that. He likes Titus, he loves Titus but it’s instances like that you go, you’re always one weird interaction with Vince away from him going, ‘Oh God, this guy doesn’t know anything’ or, ‘Oh, can you believe he wore a pink tie today?’ Whatever and that’s how it is. He’s a fickle, odd, eccentric billionaire and that’s his sandbox and he’s letting you play in it and you learn that and I think… I liked working for WWE. I didn’t like working for Vince and I think there’s probably — I don’t wanna speak for other people. I think there’s other people that would echo that sentiment.”
Jacobs discussed Chris Jericho and Kevin Owens’ feud that initially involved the Universal Title and then was converted into a U.S. Title feud. Jimmy Jacobs says Jericho and Kevin Owens closing out WrestleMania 33 was an option but it may not have been Vince’s ideal choice. All in all, the decision was made to run with Goldberg and Brock Lesnar as the Universal Title program.
“I mean, look, they were… it was certainly an option. I’m not saying it would’ve been Vince’s option exactly. But certainly at the time, there was a point where Chris and the list, I mean it got the most reactions in the arena, that’s for sure and you were sort of on this path with Kevin and Chris. It’s like man, you definitely could’ve gone there. With Kevin being the Universal Champion and turning on Chris whenever that was, February? You’re right in that WrestleMania ballpark and it’s one of the most over things on the show and all that sort of stuff. But, as it tends to, they wanted to give the world title, that story, that prop to Goldberg to do the stuff with Brock Lesnar. So it’s like yeah, but whatever Brock wants he gets so that would be that.”
** IMPACT Wrestling announced that Barry Scott, voice behind some of IMPACT Wrestling’s intro and video packages passed away.
** Jonathan Gresham was interviewed by WrestleTalk and discussed the lack of Black main-event players in pro wrestling throughout the years. Specifically speaking about Ring of Honor, he said that he looks at Caprice Coleman, Moose and several others and wondered how they were not elevated to that next level.
“I looked at Ring of Honor, I looked at WWE, I looked at TNA. I asked myself, ‘How many main characters are Black guys?’ I look at all the Black guys that have been really good over the years. I’m gonna speak to more about Ring of Honor because that’s where I came up and that’s what I pay attention to, but I looked at all the Black guys that came through that company and then I look at how they were used. I look at Moose, I look at ACH, I look at, man, Caprice Coleman and it bothers me that these awesome athletes, to me were never given the opportunity to be the big player and I always wonder why. They have what it takes. They have the mic skills, they have the in-ring ability, why? I think the reason for it is because nobody has really done it. So we have to change the narrative now where it’s normal to see people of color in those main spots, and another way to probably help that is having people of color in booking roles. If I look at companies all around the world, the main companies, how many people of color and women even, are in these booking committees? They don’t have any real representation. So, for things to change, those things are gonna have to be implemented.”
** AEW’s Jack Evans noted on Twitter that he’s currently out of action with a hairline fracture in his cheekbone. Jack appeared on the 9/9 Dynamite to back Angelico in his match against Orange Cassidy.
** Katsuyori Shibata spoke with NJPW1972.com. Shibata also took in questions from fans and it was mentioned that if 100 percent meant a return to the ring, where does Shibata place himself on that scale and here’s how he responded:
“Hmm, it’s a difficult thing to assign a percentage to, but training with the young guys, I’d say I’m in pretty good shape. I’m able to do a few things that I couldn’t do before my injury, for instance.”
Shibata spoke about his relationship with Hiroshi Tanahashi and how the two were once not too fond of each other and have since gone on to grow mutual respect. Shibata added that even now, their wrestling conversations can become heated.
“Absolutely! You know, but for both of us, the wrestling world has changed a lot since we were coming up, and I have my own filter when it comes to watching from an LA Dojo perspective. We both have different ideas and viewpoints, but we both really love this business and that comes through when we talk. You know, it reminds me when I did my tryout, and it was me, (Wataru) Inoue, Tanahashi and some other kids there, Riki Choshu asked us one by one, ‘Why do you want to be a pro-wrestler?’”
** Major League Wrestling announced that they are moving to Wednesday nights at 7 PM EST on the fubu Sports Network.
** Jonathan Gresham vs. Lee Moriarty was added to Joey Janela’s Spring Break on October 10.
** Chris Featherstone of Sportskeeda hosted a Q&A session via Facebook with Ken Anderson. One of the questions asked of Anderson was if he and Randy Orton still have issues with one another which stems back to their time together in WWE. Anderson stated that him and Orton talked things out when he went to a RAW in Minnesota.
“Nope, not at all. Nothing. Not at all. In fact, we, in that backstage, when I went backstage at RAW, I probably sat and talked to Randy for 30 minutes in the hallway.”
One user asked Anderson for the best advice that Vince McMahon has given him. Anderson shared that McMahon told him that being funny does not draw money and talked about how he grew to find McMahon’s advice interesting.
“I think one of the things that stands out to me is early on when I first debuted, I was really over the top, and sort of comedic in my delivery of everything and I remember him [Vince McMahon] trying to tell me, ‘You gotta stop trying to be funny and entertaining,’ and I remember thinking, ‘Isn’t that the point of what we’re trying to do here? Is be entertaining?’ And he’s like, ‘You just…’ And I said, ‘Well, with all due respect’ — he goes, ‘Funny doesn’t draw money’ and he goes, ‘Nobody ever drew big bucks being funny and goofy and doing comedy stuff’ and I was like, ‘With all due respect but, I’m a huge fan of The Rock and it feels to me like almost every one of The Rock’s promos was funny’ and he said, ‘Yeah, but the thing about The Rock was he sort of hamstrung himself when he started cutting those funny promos.’ One of my favorite promos ever was The Rock talking to Billy Gunn about the King of the Ring. I knew it verbatim so I could do it. I’ve seen it so many times but it was really, really funny, and he said that after he did that, the fans always expect you to do that and now you have to deliver that type of — you have to have that delivery every single night. It’s really hard to do when you’re running 52 weeks a year. So, I think that was an interesting piece.”
Anderson reflected on the chair shot that was given to him by The Undertaker at the 2006 Survivor Series. Anderson said that it did not feel as bad as it looks and he actually did not like when people held back on anything in the ring.
“He hit me with the chair. That was just… when I first got in the business, I was always told, ‘If you’re gonna swing a chair at somebody, do it.’ There’s nothing worse than seeing somebody pull a chair shot. I mean there’s nothing worse in my opinion than seeing somebody pull anything, right? The idea is we wanna make it look like we’re killing each other without actually killing each other out there, and some things just suck. Chair shots was one of the things you just gotta grit your teeth and it actually, it wasn’t that bad. I’ve taken worse bumps than that in my life and it just happened to look good and I think also the thing that made it stand out was the way Taker held the chair. He held by only two of the legs I think and so when he hit it over my head, it actually opened up and then it looked fantastic.”
Ken Anderson also shared his thoughts on WWE’s RETRIBUTION group. He learned that the group has been a part of WWE programming for several months without a pay-off having yet to happen. He feels that-that spells out that the powers that be aren’t too sure what to do with the group yet.
“And how long has that been going on for? That leads one to believe they’re just kinda… they’re not quite sure what they’re gonna do with it. They’re just sorta floating it along. When something takes that long, you know…”
** NXT announcer Vic Joseph was the latest guest on WWE’s After The Bell podcast. Joseph told the story of a car accident he was involved in where the result of it was the first responders putting a white sheet over him because they did not think he was alive.
“I got into a car accident, which I never talked about this publicly either, and I went from the backseat through the front seat and had to go to speech therapy, relearn how to talk. There’s a scar on my face that no one ever sees. I don’t know if they can zoom in right now, if you [Corey Graves] ever noticed it. My knee from top to bottom, my knee was completely out. I was on the side of the road, white sheet over me. That’s how bad it was. I’m not joking either, I’m being dead serious and I moved and I remember them screaming, ‘Oh, he’s alive’ and they ran and got me, put me on the gurney, cut my shirt off and I made a joke. Like an off-handed Ohio State/Michigan joke because they were wearing a Michigan shirt… I woke up, neck brace on, they’re pulling glass. There’s a scar on my face. There’s still a piece of glass in there. So anyways, I had to go to speech therapy to relearn how to talk.”
** Ring of Honor C.O.O. Joe Koff joined the Outside Interference podcast with Kenny Herzog that’s on the MLW Radio Network. Koff shared his thoughts about Ring of Honor’s resumption of television tapings and how they could’ve ran in the state of Florida but mentioned that there appears to be “no rules” when it comes to wrestling during the pandemic in that state.
“I think this whole COVID pandemic is really about controlling what you can control. And there were so many different ways we could have wrestled. We could have wrestled in Florida where the other two major promotions wrestle, where there seems to be no real rules. The governor says, you know, just be careful.”
Ring of Honor’s Flip Gordon has voiced his opinion about the Coronavirus pandemic and how he’s skeptical about it. Koff said that regardless of what Flip says on Twitter, Flip knows what he had to do to be able to wrestle at the ROH tapings.
“That’s one person tweeting whatever he’s tweeting. Flip understood what he needed to do to be part of the taping or not to be part of the taping, and that will continue. I’m not going to be influenced by the Twitter world or what people say or don’t say. We’ll do the right thing based on [proper protocols and governance and common sense.]”
** Following his All Elite Wrestling debut, Miro uploaded a video to his YouTube channel and shared his immediate reaction to his debut:
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4dPJZWyyCq4[/embedyt]
** ‘The Abbotsford News’ published a story about former RAW Tag Team Champion Akam who hails from Abbotsford, Canada. Akam and his partner Rezar were recently released from WWE.
** Anthony Carelli (Santino Marella) guest appeared on Back Sports Page’s Off-Topic podcast. Carelli talked about his return to WWE this past January as a part of the Women’s Royal Rumble match.
“Talent relations called me and asked if I was available. I said sure because of my past significant Royal Rumble moments. In the beginning, I wasn’t too sure about coming back as Santina, but it was whatever they wanted, so I was going to do it to the best of my ability. Two days before I actually got sick and I decided to tough it out, just to get through the day. But it was a good moment overall.”
Carelli does want to get back involved in the wrestling business and specifically wants to do commentary. He mentioned that he wants to do commentary under his real name and not “Santino Marella”.
“When I turned heel, after I separated my shoulder, Vince thought it was hilarious, and I took hold of my spot. I was getting the mic every week with things like the funny game show with Ron Simmons and guest commentary. That’s when I told myself that I was going to be here for a while. I did a segment once with Roddy Piper, and I was like a kid in the candy store. This was who I watched. And then I was in the ring with Stone Cold and I felt like I held my own in that segment. I knew I was in good hands anyway with Stone Cold because he’s not going to let it fall apart and he always has the reigns. He was brilliant to work with, a super cool guy.”
** DAZN spoke with MLW founder Court Bauer.
** Adam Cole, Tyler Breeze, Xavier Woods and Cesaro played WWE Battleground:
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jr83Hue0dpw[/embedyt]
** Mark Andrews and Flash Morgan Webster joined the Gorilla Position podcast. One of the topics that came up during the conversation was the Speaking Out movement. Andrews spoke in-depth this Summer about the effect that Speaking Out had on the European wrestling scene and how it was ultimately a positive thing for the scene. He opened up about it again and further shared his thoughts on the topic.
“Yeah I mean, Speaking Out was obviously — well it was a hard time for everybody in the wrestling industry. However, I say it’s a hard time, it was a very, very important thing to happen. I think that it [was] incredibly important. Speaking Out will mean the professional wrestling industry will become a much better place and I’m very grateful for the fact that we’re a part of NXT U.K. which in my head, has come to the U.K. and really upped the professionalism in terms of the industry over here in the U.K. which is obviously well needed. But like I said, as hard as it was at that time, not only was it incredibly hard in general but it was the middle of lock down so lots of people were already struggling. It’s definitely something which will make the scene ultimately better and more professional and keep talent safe because at the end of the day, all talent in wrestling, anyone involved in professional wrestling in the U.K. or worldwide, they deserve to be in a safe environment and that’s what this industry needs. It needs to be a safe environment moving forward and Speaking Out is what will make that happen.”
** John Cena is co-hosting the TBS revival of ‘Wipeout’ along with Nicole Byer. Cena is also going to be an executive producer for the show.
** Wrestling Inc. conducted an interview with Matt Sydal and former NXT North American Champion Ricochet was discussed at length during the interview. Sydal feels that while Ricochet is a top-tier talent, there should be no rush to push him directly to the top. Sydal said that Ricochet can take being fed to other talents and then eventually, he’ll rise to the top and become world champion.
“I just think there’s really no rush with these guys as long as you’re working and you’re performing in front of the crowd, there’s no difference to me between if you’re the first match or the last match. It’s more important that you’re in front of the audience. It’s not necessarily as important that you’re the top actor. You’re booked in some crazy way where you never take a loss.
But in WWE, Ricochet, he’s gonna get fed and fed and fed, but then eventually, it’ll be his time to eat. And he’s the kind of guy who can fight through these times like really get a really strong grassroots following that will support him. When that time comes when they’re like, ‘Oh, we could put the title on him,’ and then his fandom will essentially assault the office. And then, they’ll have no choice, as they did with Daniel Bryan, but to just give him the ball and let them run with it.”
** Joey G. of Wrestling Headlines did an interview with Tasha Steelz. Tasha was asked about the praise that IMPACT Wrestling which is that they have one of the best women’s divisions in wrestling. Here’s Steelz’s response to that praise:
“It’s been done before I got there, before Kylie’s gotten there, before Deonna’s gotten there, before Kiera, Taya, before all of us had gotten there the IMPACT Knockout’s Division has been showing off and showing out. You had people like Gail Kim, you had people like Madison Rayne, you had Awesome Kong, you had the likes of these women setting the bar for women’s wrestling and being one of the best divisions. With all of us coming with our diversities and our different flavors and our different styles…I feel like we’re just setting extra bars every single time, every single week. It’s no pressure for us because we’re professionals like that. We could handle that. If we couldn’t handle that we wouldn’t be here. I feel like it’s something that everyone else should be following suit and trying to get over that bar with us. I feel like with us setting that bar each week…people have to follow up.”
** During Aleister Black and Zelina Vega’s live stream on Twitch, Black shared that when he did Lilian Garcia’s ‘Chasing Glory’ podcast in 2018, he was in a bad spot mentally.
“So, the Lilian Garcia podcast, yeah, f*ck. I was bad. I was not feeling good at all. I was having a rough f*cking day. That’s the day I won the title. Mentally, I was probably at one of my worst days.”
** U.K. outlet ‘Metro’ chatted with Finn Balor following his NXT Title win this past Wednesday. The ‘Demon King’ character was brought up and Balor mentioned to the site that viewers have not seen the last of the character. He feels that NXT gave him the opportunity to protect it and further elaborated on how that was not the case on RAW and SmackDown.
“I think the return to NXT has helped me protect not only Finn and the prince, but my own integrity and also the Demon. I feel like the way we used it, we kinda used it as a bit of a crutch. As cool as the demon was, it was making Finn less cool in the sense that Finn would get his ass kicked and then the Demon would come and save the day.
He [Timothy Thatcher] pushed me to the limits at TakeOver a couple of weeks ago. Just getting to learn different things about myself when I’m in there with these guys, I think I’ve developed so much more in the last 11 months in NXT than I have in maybe the previous four or five years. I’m sure we’ll get back to the Demon versus Braun Strowman, the Demon versus Bray Wyatt, the Demon versus Brock Lesnar. But you know, there’s a time and place for that and right now, I’m very much focused on NXT, I’m very much focused on being true to myself and what I believe I should be doing.”
** Booker T shared his thoughts about Matt Hardy’s fall at AEW All Out.
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YPnziirbyDw[/embedyt]
** Here’s the full card for New Japan Pro-Wrestling’s show at Korakuen Hall on 9/11:
– Tomoaki Honma, Yuji Nagata & Satoshi Kojima vs. Gabriel Kidd, Yota Tsuji & Yuya Uemura
– Kota Ibushi, Hiroshi Tanahashi, Ryusuke Taguchi & Master Wato vs. Suzuki-Gun (Minoru Suzuki, Zack Sabre Jr., Taichi & DOUKI)
– Tetsuya Naito, Shingo Takagi & SANADA vs. EVIL, Yujiro Takahashi & Dick Togo
– NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Championships: YOSHI-HASHI, Hirooki Goto & Tomohiro Ishii (c) vs. Kazuchika Okada, SHO & Toru Yano
– Vacant IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championships: Hiromu Takahashi & BUSHI vs. El Desperado & Yoshinobu Kanemaru
** The ‘We Luv Wrestling’ podcast welcomed Faye Jackson onto the show. Over the Summer, Faye made several appearances on AEW Dynamite as a member of the crowd but she cleared up that she was never there to perform. She stated that she was on vacation in Florida and went to the AEW shows to connect with friends.
“Everybody was just assuming and what people forget is I do have a lot of close friends and people that I’ve known because of the indie business that are with AEW. So, it ain’t nothing for me to just go down there and hang out. Don’t mean nothing, I ain’t ask for nothing. I literally just went down there to hang out, see what’s up. That was it. I ain’t want people assuming nothing. Like, ‘Oh, she’s gonna be on [AEW] Dark.’ No! Not if you ain’t bring your gear. I just went down there — I was tired, I’ve been working. I’ve been working my shoot job since ‘Rona started and working extra hours. I’m tired, I need a vacation. Let me go.”
Faye also shared that she did extra work for WWE during WrestleMania 35 weekend. One of the standout moments for her that weekend was getting to see Kofi Kingston win the WWE Championship from the backstage area.
“And last year, a lot of people don’t know this but last year, I was only able to take two bookings for WrestleMania weekend because I was an extra for WrestleMania that whole week.
The thing is, I couldn’t [say anything]. So we were there, sitting backstage, getting to be a part of NXT and being able to see KofiMania live. That will forever be in my memory. Just to say, hopefully if I do have little bay bay kids in the future and they watch wrestling, I can tell them, ‘Your mom was at KofiMania when Kofi Kingston won the belt…’ That was [an] amazing, amazing experience and I was just honored they asked me to sit backstage, eat their WrestleMania catering and all that.”
** Alexa Bliss’ ‘Uncool with Alexa Bliss’ podcast is set to premiere this month. She spoke with Comicbook.com about the podcast’s debut and said that originally, it was either going to be a game show or a coffee podcast.
“So, it was a long process. I was approached by Brian, who worked for WWE at the time, and he was like, ‘Hey, what do you think of doing a podcast?’ I was like, ‘A podcast?’ Because I’ve never even really thought to do a podcast, but my exact answer was, ‘Look, I mean, I like to talk, and I talk a lot, so I guess it could be fun.’ I didn’t really know what I was in for, and the whole process when we were brainstorming, it became a lot of different things.
At first, it was going to be a coffee podcast, because everyone knows how much I love coffee, and then it was going to be just a game podcast where we pick one and just play fun games. And then it was going to be something where it was like Between Two Ferns-ish. And then it turned into, we did a couple test episodes with a couple of WWE superstars and we just kind of tried a bunch of things and saw what worked, what didn’t work. And the one thing we loved hearing was everyone’s embarrassing stories. So we were just like, ‘Maybe that’s what it is.’ Maybe the podcast theme, maybe it’s just reliving embarrassing stories from middle school and high school. And it just clicked and it was a lot of fun and we tried the new format and we got some amazing stories from people. And that’s when we were like, ‘All right, this is what we’re going with.’ And for me, I was in middle school and high school in the 2000s. So I was like, ‘What if I interview some people I looked up to in the ’90s and 2000s?’ And it came out great. It’s a lot of fun and I can’t wait for everyone to hear it.”
** Natalya wrote about Pediatric Cancer Awareness Month and WWE’s connection to it for the Calgary Sun.
** ‘Carver Wicked Local’ did an interview with Mike Bennett ahead of his NWA Worlds Heavyweight Title match on 9/15. Bennett explained how his run at WWE was the best thing for his wrestling career and also the worst few years of his career at the same time.
“It was like a double-edged sword. My three years at WWE, personally, was the best thing to ever happen to me. I got clean and sober, I bought a house, I had two children, everything was good personally. From a professional standpoint, it was the worst three years in my 20-year wrestling career. It was really difficult because for me, it was always WWE or bust. That’s where I wanted to get to, and so finally achieving your dream and getting there – realizing it wasn’t anything like you expected it to be, it’s kind of (difficult). I spent 17 years of my life trying to achieve this dream. I achieved it, and it’s almost like the dream wasn’t real – I made it up in my head because this wasn’t what I thought it was going to be.”
** RAW Tag Team Champions The Street Profits (Montez Ford & Angelo Dawkins) were guests on D-Von Dudley’s Table Talk podcast.
** TV Insider caught up with Finn Balor following his NXT Title win. Balor reiterated that two weeks ago before Karrion Kross relinquished the NXT Title, becoming champion wasn’t something that was necessarily in his sights in regard to his return to NXT.
“The objective coming back to NXT was not necessarily the title. I wanted to push myself to the limit every single night. I feel like the only place I could do it right now was being in NXT. Being in the ring with who I consider the greatest talent in the world. Whether it’s [Johnny] Gargano or [Tommaso] Ciampa, Damian Priest, and of course, Adam Cole last night. When you’re performing on that level night in and night out, opportunities arise.
The opportunity arose for the iron man match last week in an unexpected circumstance after Karrion Kross getting injured. [The title] wasn’t necessarily something on my radar two weeks ago. Karrion’s injury was something I had a lot of sympathy for, having gone through something similar. It was four NXT champions working to pick up the pieces. We went at it for an hour. It was hell. Without a decided winner, a week later, me and Adam went at it last night. It was fun. I came out as champ.”
** Forbes chatted with Heath Slater. When asked would he have considered running for President of the United States with his current campaign gimmick that he’s been doing on IMPACT, Heath said that he’d 100 percent attempt to run for office.
** According to MENAFN, someone hacked into a Pakistani college server and enrolled The Undertaker and John Cena into the school using their birth names.
** My San Antonio has a story up about the Military Makeover series starring Lacey Evans.
** NJPW1972.com posted the next portion of Hiroshi Tanahashi’s interview series.
** WWE is presenting a series of specials on Sony Pictures Sports Network showing the likes of Chris Jericho, Brock Lesnar, John Cena, Rey Mysterio, Daniel Bryan, AJ Styles and Jeff Hardy winning their first world championships in the company.
** Here’s a video from Rusev’s Twitch stream during-which he talks about being a heel in pro wrestling, some of his favorite heels and how challenging it can be at times to be one.
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76gcsA104Ps[/embedyt]
** Drew McIntyre and Charlotte Flair did virtual meet-and-greets with patients at Levine Children’s hospital in North Carolina.
** Finn Balor chatted with Stephanie Chase.
** Justin Barrasso of Sports Illustrated chatted with Big E and E stated that Xavier Woods is the “lifeblood” of New Day.
** Nick Aldis and Eric Young were guests on Busted Open Radio.
** Fred Rosser joined Wrestling Observer Live.
** ‘The Telegraph’ interviewed David Arquette.
** Eddie Kingston joined Tony Schiavone and Aubrey Edwards on the AEW Unrestricted podcast.
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.
