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.
** WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns guest appeared on Complex’s ‘Load Management’ podcast. Reigns talked about potentially working with Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson in wrestling and while doing so, he also discussed the idea of working with CM Punk again.
“But all the way from someone as big as The Rock to someone like a CM Punk for instance. Someone who really hits home with our home audience, our hardcore fans. If you watched wrestling for the past ten to 15 years and you love it and it’s within your blood, then you probably have some type of feelings about that guy. I know I do. Just by doing one of these things [a podcast], he made my job a lot harder five, ten years ago. But, if it’s something the fans can get behind that it can really make them sink their teeth into the product and really dive into the creative with us, I’m willing to do it. I don’t like the guy, I don’t know many people that do but I’m willing to put business first and make really good content if that’s the case but, yeah. He’d probably have to be slapped around a few times in order to get his mind right but, if it’s willing, if the fans and the audience are gonna like it and be into it then most likely I’ll be into it.”
Reigns stated that dating back to after his WrestleMania 33 match against The Undertaker, he doesn’t think he’s had a bad match since.
“But yeah, I definitely feel like I got better from that, learning from him [The Undertaker] and learning from that experience. I don’t think… and y’all can call me out if you want but I don’t know if I’ve had a bad one since. As far as wrestling matches are concerned, I’ve been in some bangers ever since and there’s a lot of different details that I learned in order to utilize those skills and put a few more tools in my bag to take to work everyday.”
Roman further spoke about his new-found partnership with Paul Heyman. He talked about how nice it has been to have Paul give him advice and be there for him from a creative aspect. Reigns mentioned that now Heyman isn’t worried about the entire creative for the show and he can solely focus on their presentation.
“But I do know working with Paul, him kind of being a heel manager throughout his run in that role has definitely helped and it’s really nice to be able to work with him on many different regards. Obviously on-screen is really cool and to be able to flesh this relationship out is gonna be nice but, just to be around him backstage, it’s pretty refreshing and especially now, he’s not in that role of having all of creative to be in charge of. He’s just helping me out with my creative and our direction going forward so, I definitely feel like it’s a bit of power pairing for sure that’s just gonna continue to thrive in the weeks to come.”
Going back to the topic of WrestleMania 33, Roman talked about his RAW after WrestleMania promo in 2017 where he was continuously booed by fans for beating The Undertaker. Reigns says he doesn’t think anyone has had that amount of heat since and he could’ve stood out there longer if needed.
“I don’t think anyone ever had more heat than I did after I beat Undertaker on that Monday night. I could’ve sat out there another ten minutes. It would’ve been easy, no problem. I could’ve gone 30 minutes out there and just let the crowd do what they do. But it’s different now because there is no live crowd so, you really just gotta go off of social media which… kinda sucks to be honest because you’re sitting there going through the — Dan from nowhere liked it. Bob from who cares didn’t like it, so it’s one of those deals where it’s sort of the social media algorithms that you have to go off of to know what’s really working because in our business, sports-entertainment, we’re used to hearing it right away, especially very detailed in what we do. It’s not like just generic team chants or sucker songs. It can get very specific with what they’re into or what they’re not.”
** New Jack launched a podcast with Tommy Thomas. During the first episode, New Jack talked about his dark match with WWE in the early 2000s. While backstage, New Jack claims that Dean Malenko told him not to speak to Vince McMahon if he saw him.
“Dean Malenko, he told me, he said, ‘Jack, whatever you do, don’t speak to Vince McMahon.’
He said, ‘Whatever you do, don’t speak to Vince McMahon.’ He said, ‘If you pass him in the hallway, don’t speak to him.’ I’m familiar with him [Dean Malenko] but I wasn’t friends with him. So, what I did when I saw Vince, he walked by, I was like, ‘Hey Vince! How you doing? I’m New Jack, thanks for the opportunity.’ ‘Oh no problem, you’re welcome. Good luck.’ I’m like, ‘Yeah!’ And I kept walking. I’m like now who in the f*ck told me don’t speak to this motherf*cker. F*ck him.”
As far as the dark match goes, Jack had his match planned out and stated that Arn Anderson, who was the agent for the match, went and told Vince McMahon all that he had planned for the match. New Jack then saw his name erased off the board where the matches, times and agents were listed.
“They wanted me to come up and do a dark match. ‘We never seen you before. We want the fans to see who New Jack is.’ I’m like, ‘Yeah… okay.’ So the kid I was working, I told him all this sh*t we was gonna do during the match, and he was like, ‘Jack, I’m with you, whatever you wanna do, whatever.’ The agent at the time, I think it was Arn Anderson. He went back and told Vince [McMahon] all this sh*t I had done that he heard me talk about doing during my match and I walked past the board which had the names of who you’re working and what time, how long you got in the ring, whatever, whatever. I noticed my name was wiped off, and I was like, ‘Okay…’ So I went to him [Arn Anderson] and I said, ‘What’s going on?’ Y’all took my name off the f*cking board.’ He was like, ‘Well we got [something that changed]. Go get your money from Pat Patterson and we’ll be in touch.’ I’m like cool, f*ck it. I went and got my money, I went to a f*cking seafood bar, got me something to eat and said f*ck it. Went to a hotel, got some sleep, woke up the next morning, went and turned the rental car in and flew back to Atlanta.”
New Jack also spoke about his decision to leave ECW. He discussed Paul Heyman and Heyman’s booking decisions along with Heyman “not caring” about the talent.
“Basically, the writing was on the wall. Paul E started booking shows that didn’t make no God damn sense. The angles he was booking, they didn’t make no sense. He was just in a corner with a pad, ‘Him versus him, he wins. Next match,’ and everybody was like, ‘What the f*ck!?’
Paul E came out one night and he said, ‘We got a new TV deal out in LA.’ He said, ‘And I’m going to L.A. and I’m not coming back until I got the deal signed.’ Do you remember that movie they did called Rollerball? That’s what he was going out to L.A. for, to do Rollerball. He wasn’t giving a f*ck about us, and I was the first one to jump ship. I was like I see this sh*t coming. I don’t need this bullsh*t no more, I’m done. So I left and I went to XPW.”
Elsewhere during the podcast, New Jack expressed that he feels Vince McMahon single-handedly destroyed pro wrestling.
“And like I said, today, wrestling is the sh*ts. I mean it’s garbage. Vince McMahon single-handedly destroyed wrestling. It’s f*cking garbage and everybody trying to follow suit and they’re still trying to chase him to see what we can come up with that’s more f*cking r*tarded that what we saw on TV last week.”
** Lisa Marie Varon, formerly known as “Victoria” chatted with Fightful for an exclusive interview. Back in January, an image surfaced on social media of Varon’s titantron up on the screen in the venue that the Royal Rumble took place in. Varon stated that she does not know why WWE had her titatron up there and still hasn’t found out to this day.
“I found out from social media as well. I was like, ‘What?’ I go, ‘Maybe my titantron had a lot of coloring.’ I don’t know, but maybe they did that to throw people off. I don’t know because it’s hard to keep a secret in wrestling. Something always leaks, you know what I mean? Which is a shame.
I was (just getting off) the Jericho Cruise. Yeah, I was in Miami. I was trying to stay off my phone because I wanted [to be] in the moment. I was visiting family, I was like, ‘We’re always glued to our phone,’ and so I went back and I had missed a ton of e-mails, text messages, everything. I was like, ‘They must be testing out the coloring on their titantron because my picture came up there.’ But, I was already in Miami, the following day I was going to go on the Jericho Cruise. So, I couldn’t.”
** The 3Arena in Dublin, Ireland tweeted out that NXT UK TakeOver: Dublin has officially been rescheduled to June 20th of next year. All tickets purchased for the event in anticipation of it happening this year will be eligible for use at the June 2021 show.
** On 9/24, WWE attempted to trademark “Dominik Mysterio” and “Chelsea Green”.
** Jimmy Wang Yang was a guest on Tommy Dreamer’s House of Hardcore podcast. Yang talked about his third return to WWE and being presented with the Cowboy gimmick. He recounted the conversation he had with WWE Chairman Vince McMahon and how McMahon presented the idea to him.
“I got to Columbus [Ohio] and then they was like, ‘Oh, can you do a match?’ And I was like, ‘Yeah sure, whatever’ and they put me on [Sunday Night] Heat with Charlie Haas… and then after that, kinda had a good match with Charlie and then they said, ‘Hey Jimmy, can you come down to Cincinnati? It’s on Tuesday.’ I said, ‘Oh, okay. That’s my backyard so I’ll come down Tuesday’ and by the time I got there and walked in, Johnny [Laurinaitis] said, ‘Hey, come with me. We’re gonna put you under contract again…’ Johnny said, ‘Oh, Vince wants to sign you again.’ I said, ‘Alright, cool,’ because I wasn’t with Ring of Honor at that time. It was no contracts with Ring of Honor. I said, ‘Alright, whatever.’ But, I needed to go thank Vince for this. This is like the third time this dude’s hired me. This is kinda crazy. I wasn’t expecting it, but this is the third time so I kinda like sneak in his office, a lil knock and he opens up, ‘Come in!’ I said, ‘Hey Vince, I wasn’t expecting it but thanks for hiring me again.’ He’s like, ‘Oh Jimmy, I didn’t hear you were fired. Just had so much on my plate. But hey, that’s great you’re back and this time, we’re gonna make a negative out of positive. Like last time [when] you were Akio, I didn’t let you talk because you were this Korean dude that has this Southern accent. I can’t let you talk. But this time, we’re gonna make you the Asian Redneck, Jimmy Wang Yang! That’s funny! Wang Yang, that rhymes!’ I was like, ‘Yeah cool Vince, whatever. As long as that check comes Monday, I’ll do whatever you want.’ He’s like, ‘Okay, get out of my office.’”
** IGN and The Undertaker collaborated to promote WWE Battlegrounds and Undertaker recorded another segment for IGN during-which he read off a few comments. Undertaker was asked about a potential match with Sting and as far as the match happening when Sting came to WWE, Undertaker feels that it looks better on paper.
“You know, I get that a lot. Sting stayed down in WCW for so long and then you know, he went somewhere else and that window kind of closed and I know he kind of showed up at the end. The way people see that, it looks much better on paper than it actually would’ve been. It’s one of those matches that people will talk about forever.”
** Dominic DeAngelo of WrestleZone spoke to former NWA National Heavyweight Champion James Storm. It was first reported by Fightful Select several weeks ago that Storm’s contract with the NWA expired. Storm explained that his contract expired in February of 2020 and there was a rollover option in his contract. Storm is still a co-holder of the NWA Tag Team Titles with Eli Drake. Storm recalled meeting with the then-NWA VP David Lagana about his contract and they came to terms on an agreement that Storm would return if they needed him to drop the tag titles.
“It was one of those things where my contract ended in the beginning of February, and I think I had a month—it was a rollover deal, if they wanted to roll it over. I talked to Dave [Lagana] and Billy and I had some stuff come up, I said ‘Look, I’ll help you out as much as I can but I really can’t be under contract right now.’ It was really cool that Billy understood and I said, ‘Whatever you guys need, you need me to drop the belts, I will.’ It was no hard feelings, I left on good terms and I said any time they need me, give me a call. I’m still one of the ‘Tag Team Champions’ so they’ve got to bring me back sooner or later!” [laughs]
Storm further explained that he did not need to be under contract during the COVID-19 pandemic. He said it did not feel right to him because it’s basically “stealing money” while the NWA is not running.
“As of right now, I’m a free agent. Especially with all of this quarantine stuff, to me, I didn’t really see that there was a need to be under contract. It would have been nice to be under contract but that, to me, is just stealing money because you’re not doing anything and you’re getting paid. Overall, my experience with them has been crazy good because it’s one of those things where I know who the boss is. I have direct contact with the boss and it’s not like a chain of command I have to go through and sh*t gets lost in translation. And that’s really cool, he tells me what he wants and I go out and do it. If something comes up and I think I have a better idea I’ll pitch it to him, we’ll meet in the middle and that’s how it goes.”
** MLW World Tag Team Champions Ross and Marshall Von Erich chatted with Darren Paltrowitz. The Von Erichs opened up about their WWE tryout opportunity and why relocating to Florida to be a part of the company was not for them.
Marshall: We had an opportunity to go to a tryout for WWE and it just wasn’t for us. It was a life-changer. Move to Florida, say goodbye to family…
Ross: We were thinking best case scenario, we make it and have to spend all this time away from our families and stuff and we just weighed our options, it just wasn’t sitting right with us and we were like, ‘Maybe there’s another path, maybe there’s something else.’ We were thinking, ‘Hopefully there is’ and then MLW came along probably a few weeks later and it was just like the stars were aligned, you know? And we just felt like this was our destiny.
Ross and Marshall were also asked why they’ve decided to not chase after more in their respective careers outside of Major League Wrestling. Both men explained that MLW accommodates to their family needs and it has to do with them believing in Court Bauer’s vision.
Ross: They were the first promotion to just believe in us, you know? And kind of put their neck out there so-to-speak to kind of give us that opportunity to live in Hawaii and still pursue our dreams in wrestling and I just like the way the direction the whole promotion’s going. Court Bauer, he’s always making these business deals happen. I just feel like MLW is on the rise. We’re just riding along with them and I just have complete faith where the promotion’s going.
Marshall: And you know, everybody else feels that way too. It’s all of the men in the locker room, it’s a healthy, good locker room. All the men wanna protect the company and they wanna do what’s best for the company and so to have that, it’s really valuable but Court too, Court’s just a game changer. He’s the busiest man I’ve ever met. He’s always trying to make MLW grow, he completely believes in it. If you believe in what he’s doing, it’s even better and you know, Court’s one guy I’m not worried about introducing him to anybody or meeting anybody because you know he’s a businessman, he’s gonna do the right thing, he makes great business decisions and so I’m so happy he’s in control and the speeches he gives us before shows, he pumps us all up. It feels like a football game. It’s that same locker room mentality and he’s a great leader of the ship for sure. A great captain.
** Matt Cardona was the most recent guest for Pro Wrestling Junkies’ virtual meet-and-greet. Cardona spoke about his agreement with All Elite Wrestling and as it stands now, their agreement was only through the All Out pay-per-view.
“Well hopefully I’ll be there more often. As of now, the agreement we had was through the pay-per-view [All Out] so that’s it. But hopefully — I didn’t go there to just get three t-shirts. I went there to win some championships so hopefully you’ll see me there very, very soon.”
** On the 9/30 episode of AEW Dynamite, Eddie Kingston will choose the opponent for AEW World Champion Jon Moxley.
** Pro Wrestling Junkies hosted a virtual meet-and-greet session with D-Von Dudley. D-Von shared that he and Bully Ray now have separate wrestling schools. Bully Ray’s is in Connecticut and D-Von’s is in Florida.
** Jessamyn Duke played The Simpsons video game with Xavier Woods on a new episode of Superstar Savepoint. During their gaming session, Duke discussed the levels of anxiety she had when it came to the beginning of her pro wrestling training. Duke immediately informed those in WWE that she was not good at wrestling but is willing to learn.
“I had massive anxiety about starting training, because I felt like I had a lot to learn. I felt like I was very aware of how out of my element I was. I think I’d been close enough to wrestling to see enough like, ‘Oh…’ I don’t know. I’m smart enough to realize kind of what I was getting into and I spent enough time around it to be like, ‘This is not a thing to take lightly,’ and so, when I agreed to do it, it was like, ‘Ok, this is a big step and a big change’ and I was really committed to like, not unlearning everything I had done but I wanted to — using a Bruce Lee type of metaphor, you empty the cup when you come in so you fill the cup with new information. I wanted to empty the cup and not come in with all this like, ‘I know how to fight’ and, ‘I want to do it this way’ and, ‘I like to do it that way.’ I just wanted to kinda start from the beginning, and then maybe eventually evolve into something more, but the idea of starting at the bottom was very intimidating to me. Of like, okay, I felt like I was starting over my fight career which I had done for almost ten years. It was literally like just starting over and I don’t know… I did not think I was a natural talent at it for sure. In fact I made sure everybody know, ‘You guys know I’m not good at this right. I have no — what you see is what you get. I’m not hiding talent…’ you know what I mean? It’s not — I’m not trying to pull wool over anybody’s eyes. I just want you to know what you’re getting and they’re like, ‘Yeah, yeah.’ But the P.C. was a good environment for me to train in and I like that kind of coaching environment and learning environment. It’s good for me, I learn well as an athlete like that and it has been an interesting journey and path for that stuff but I’m a bit more confident. I’m not intimidated or scared to just go and do training now. Like I would get in the ring with anybody because I feel like I understand enough to at least hang and function. But, at first, because yeah, a brand-new baby.”
** The Miz joined the Challenge Mania podcast to accept his induction into The Challenge Hall Of Fame.
** Jim Ross and Conrad Thompson covered the 2000 WWF Unforgiven pay-per-view for the latest installment of the Grilling JR podcast. Before diving into the show, Ross discussed Gerald Brisco’s release from WWE.
“Like recently, Gerry Brisco got relieved of his post, which was not a surprise, and Gerry [had] been there for over 30 years… all those things are meaningful, but it’s not unexpected. Gerry’s 70, 70-plus years old, he’s had a tremendous run there. How it was handled may not have been exactly the ideal way. I will say that according to what Gerry said, Vince called him personally and gave him the news which I respect for doing that. Didn’t have somebody else do it, so I thought that was a great gesture without question. But even though I love Gerry Brisco, he’s like a brother to me. The inevitability of getting a certain age and the fact that, you know, Gerry was so instrumental there and for me as Head of Talent Relations, we had a lot of real MVPs and he was certainly, if not at the top of the list, he’s with everybody else at the top of the list, whoever else was there, Gerry was there as well. He scouted, he went on the road, he went to all these amateur wrestling tournaments, he mentored guys. He was a great mentor, soft spoken, slow talking, had a great record as a tag team wrestler with his brother Jack. He was a booker, territory owner. If it hadn’t been for Gerry and Jack, Vince would’ve never been able to buy Atlanta. So, Gerry had a very distinguished career and I’m assuming, I mean at least my mind’s eye that he’s not through. He can do more things for other companies if he chose to.”
At the 2000 Unforgiven event, Raven debuted during Jerry Lawler and Taz’s Strap match. Ross feels that more could’ve been done with Raven during his time in the WWF/E.
“I always thought that we could’ve done more with Raven. I always thought we could’ve done more with Scotty, and sometimes it’s a matter that there may have been issues where the office could not get totally comfortable depending on Scotty, and when you get to the point where the office doesn’t want to — feels a little uncomfortable trusting you, or relying on you totally, it really obviously affects where you’re gonna go creatively.”
** Hiram Garcia, who’s a key piece behind Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s new book, ‘THE ROCK: Through The Lens’ is appearing on the 9/30 edition of WWE The Bump.
** Katsuyori Shibata’s Q&A was uploaded to NJPW1972.com. Shibata shared that he did not consider refereeing after his career-ending injury in 2017 when he suffered a subdural hematoma. Shibata said the reason he did not get into refereeing is because of the respect he has for the position and brought up what Sumo wrestling referees would have to do if they missed a call.
“Well, I’ve never thought of refereeing after my injury. It’s tough work in its own right, and I’m not sure I’d be up to that task. You know sumo referees traditionally carry a dagger in a belt around their waist? It’s because if they blow a call they were expected to take that sword and commit sepppuku, disembowel themselves. I’m not sure I could carry that responsibility.
It’s not just a confidence thing, I have too much respect for that position. It’s not something I’m interested in and it isn’t a choice for me. I know my dad (Katsuhisa) made that move from wrestler to referee, but that was his life, not mine. I think we already have tremendous refs doing tremendous work here.”
** Announced for Josh Barnett’s Bloodsport during The Collective weekend is a one night all women’s tournament. Firstly, Lindsay Snow will take on Leyla Hirsch, and Allysin Kay will meet Killer Kelly. The winners of those two matches will face each other in the tournament finals.
** English Football’s Jamie Carragher and Roy Keane referred to Fullum co-owner and AEW President Tony Khan as a “clown” after Khan sent out a tweet about Fullum’s 0-3 loss to Aston Villa.
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VTea1WjJUws[/embedyt]
** Drew McIntyre, Mustafa Ali, Lacey Evans, Zelina Vega and Xavier Woods are all set to appear on the Americares Airlift Benefit Livestream on October 3rd.
** IMPACT Wrestling announced an ‘IMPACT Week’ on AXS TV during the week of Bound For Glory which is on 10/24. Here’s the schedule for IMPACT week:
IMPACT Week on AXS TV Schedule:
* Tuesday, Oct. 20 at 8 pm ET – IMPACT! on AXS TV
* Tuesday, Oct. 20 at 10 pm ET – Talk’n Shop: Full Keg with The Good Brothers
* Thursday, Oct. 22 at 8 pm ET – This Is Bound For Glory
* Saturday, Oct. 24 at 6 pm ET – Encore Presentation of This Is Bound For Glory
* Saturday Oct. 24 at 7 pm ET – Live Countdown To Glory
** NWA World Women’s Champion Thunder Rosa did an interview with Wrestling Inc. Rosa shared her thoughts about the idea of being signed to the NWA and AEW at the same time and stated that she would love for that to be her situation but she’s just living in the moment.
“Who wouldn’t want to do that? It’s like having two girlfriends. It would be perfect, but I am living in the moment. I am, right now, in Jacksonville. I just had a match yesterday, a tag match [that] I enjoyed very much. In the future, I know, like I said, Tony’s been very open. He likes my work, and again, I’m here to work. I’m here to elevate my opponents as much as possible and to make it fun and to make people talk about the women’s division not in a negative connotation [but] in a positive way. At the end of the day, we want to be competition to the big dogs because AEW are in the big dog league. Me being here and them allowing me to work and give my little grain of salt to the women’s division, to elevate it, it’s great. I am blessed. I am humbled, and I’m very thankful for this opportunity.”
** TV Insider chatted with Liv Morgan prior to the Clash of Champions pay-per-view. Liv was asked about the possibility of adding another member to she and Ruby Riott’s team. Liv stated that they are working on a revamped version of The Riott Squad but there is no one that could take Sarah Logan’s place.
“The Riott Squad was the three of us. To not have one of those pieces, it doesn’t feel complete. I talk to Sarah all the time. We’re on a group chat. Ruby and I wear the wolf patch over our ring jackets, that’s for Sarah. The Riott Squad is three women [but] right now it’s two. So Ruby and I have been working on a little revamp. You’ll have to keep watching.”
** SB Nation’s ‘Team Speed Kills’ published an article about Bianca Belair’s track segment on the 9/28 episode of Monday Night RAW.
** WWE artist Rob Schamberger did an interview with Marvel.com.
** Sami Zayn joined Kofi Kingston, Big E and Xavier Woods on the ‘Feel The Power’ podcast. Zayn reflected on dislocating his shoulder in his United States Title match against John Cena in Montreal and what was going through his mind as things unfolded.
“Well, so the thing is, I didn’t really know what happened at the time, because it happened so fast. I think it like popped out, popped in right away. So quick that it was almost some denial that, ‘Did something just happen? Or did it just pop? Or was it a crack, a pop?’ I don’t even know what that was but it scared me a little bit, and so when my arm went down, it was back in. Everything seemed fine and when you watch the footage back, I’m kinda like moving it to see if it was in my head or not and everything seems fine.
So I get in the ring and I’m telling either the ref or Bret Hart who’s not looking at me, ‘I think my shoulder just went out.’ But Bret’s already somewhere else, you know? And I’m trying to tell Cena, ‘I think my shoulder popped [out]’ but he’s from across the ring so, at this point I feel fine but I don’t know what just happened. We wrestle for about a minute or so then he gives me a back suplex and when he gives me the back suplex, that’s when it’s out and it’s not going back in, and so I’m trying to roll to the apron and my arm is just dead so I can’t even roll, and I think when I finally do roll, it goes back in place and so the doctor gets in the ring and he goes, ‘Are you okay?’ I’m like, ‘Can you pop it back in?’ And he goes, ‘Well, is it out or is it in?’ I said, ‘What!? You tell me! I don’t know. You have to tell me. Is it out or is it in? I have no idea.’ But he’s like, ‘Can you move it?’ And I’m moving it and I said, ‘Okay, I’m going to keep going, just stand by’ and then we went on to have, I don’t know, maybe 15 minutes and it was really good and great so, it was just a turbulent night emotionally. Such highs and lows and what a — the journey of [life].”
** Former 3-time WWE Tag Team Champion Paul London is a part of the ‘Top Of The Class’ film. The trailer can be watched via the player below:
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQmvQLRI3sM[/embedyt]
** Times LIVE spoke with AJ Styles about the WWE Battlegrounds game. Styles likes the idea that an additional gap is being put in front of the next WWE 2K release date. Styles feels that after 2K21 comes out, the following year should be for Battlegrounds 2 and so on and so forth.
“I think it’s a great idea. If it were up to me, which it’s not, we would put out 2K21 next year, skip 2022, and have Battlegrounds 2 instead. We are well and ready prepared. We are doing the same thing as Activision with Call of Duty. [They] have two different studios for games. They’re swapping that out every year and it keeps things fresh, keeps things different. For me, this is a great idea and I hope they continue.”
** Ring of Honor posted John Walters’ match with Doug Williams for the ROH Pure Championship.
** Here’s the newest episode of Reality of Wrestling TV:
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGsIuvV-8y4[/embedyt]
** Mike Bennett did an interview with Wrestling Inc. and further opened up about some the frustrations he had in WWE when it came to getting his ideas across to the powers that be. Bennett spoke about trying to compromise but added that at the end of the day, if Vince McMahon wants it, that’s what it’s going to happen.
“And so, there’s so much pride in the talent that I think they try to make the most of it, but there are certain times where I mean, when we were doing that stuff where Ricochet beat me in a matter of seconds. And then Rusev came out, like we knew instantly, I was like, ‘This is terrible,’ and, ‘This is just going to bury me,’ and we basically said in the production meeting, we’re like, ‘I will do this as long as this isn’t the end of it,’ and of course, that was the end of it and that was what eventually led to me being like, ‘Alright, I’m ready to go because there’s no coming back from what you guys just did to me,’ but yet you try to make the most of it.
You try to compromise with them, but at the end of the day, if the boss says that’s it, that’s it, and you just go, ‘Alright, what am I going to do?’ And some guys can just keep riding the train and be like, ‘This is fine’ and other guys, like myself, I had enough, and I was like, ‘This isn’t fun for me anymore. I don’t want to do it.'”
** Part two of NJPW1972.com and Jay White’s breakdown of White’s G1 Climax schedule is up on the official NJPW English website.
** Here’s a new video from the UpUpDownDown YouTube channel:
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lF33CLq2bPs[/embedyt]
** Shaul Guerrero joined the Women’s Wrestling Talk podcast. Shaul talked about the ups and downs that she has been through since the COVID-19 pandemic began. She mentioned having to take on multiple jobs because both she and Matthew Rehwoldt, formerly Aiden English lost their respective jobs.
“In the beginning of quarantine, I think all of the changes were so huge, especially with my husband and I losing our jobs. I went into panic mode and was trying to find work anywhere I could. I signed up for Uber and Lyft and I was trying to find shifts at my bar, delivering food and went into panic mode, kinda shut down for a little bit and really just tried to focus on my mental health and so, with that, it was working out, getting active and my husband and I got active together. I did a lot of reading. I’m a big book worm as well so, I did a lot of reading, lots of Netflix and… lots of Netflix. But, and then other than that, towards the end of quarantine, things started to shift for me when I got a call from AEW asking me to host the women’s tournament, the tag team cup tournament so, that kinda took a turn a little bit but, I feel like I’ve had an awakening in the middle of quarantine. So, I’m actually getting back into wrestling as well. I’m starting to train again. So, lots has happened. A lot of nothing happened, then a lot of a lot happened, if that makes sense.”
** Ring of Honor’s Vincent wrote a feature story for the official ROH website.
** Here’s the updated lineup for the NJPW Strong show on 10/2:
– Lion’s Break Crown Semifinal: Danny Limelight vs. Blake Christian
– Lion’s Break Crown Semifinal: Clark Connors vs. Logan Riegel
– TJP & Karl Fredericks vs. Flip Gordon & Brody King
– David Finlay, Jeff Cobb, Rocky Romero & Misterioso vs. BULLET CLUB (Jay White, KENTA, Chase Owens & Hikuleo)
** Part one of Nick Aldis’ appearance on the Keepin It 100 with Konnan podcast is available to listen to at this link.
** Moose’s new theme song and titantron is up on IMPACT Wrestling’s YouTube channel.
** Doc Gallows and Karl Anderson spoke with Jim Varsallone of the Miami Herald.
** Brian Myers built a toy wrestling ring and the video is up on The Major Wrestling Figure Podcast YouTube channel.
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S47EAczkZb8[/embedyt]
** ‘Metro’ spoke with Alexa Bliss about her new podcast.
** 9/29 is the birthday of ROH World Champion RUSH. NXT’s Candice LeRae has a birthday today as well.
** Hikuleo chatted with Chris Charlton to promote NJPW Strong.
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.
