If any of the quotes from the following podcasts or video interviews are used, please credit those sources and provide an H/T and link back to POST Wrestling for the transcriptions.
** The Miz joined Barstool Sports’ KFC Radio as a part of his media tour to promote Miz & Mrs. During the conversation, Miz revealed that the reason he and Maryse initially moved from Los Angeles was because there were multiple attempted break-ins at their home. Miz and Maryse moved their family to Texas for a year and they are now back in California. Miz shared this information when he was hypothetically asked what he would do if a zombie apocalypse happened.
“No, I’m ready to fight. Are you kidding me? I’ve got guns. I’ve got a shotgun and I’ve got a 9mm. I never was a gun guy, until I lived in Los Angeles like in Hollywood and I have a family, right? And I would leave and they always tell you, ‘Don’t ever tell anyone where you live,’ or not where you live but that you’re leaving. Don’t put it on Instagram, this is live, but I’m on a live television show. Like what do you want me to do? And I’ll never forget, I put cameras all over my house and my house had an attempted break-in, and it happened on numerous weeks. So, I took my wife [Maryse], I was like, ‘Look, you’re getting a gun. We’re gonna take you, we’re gonna learn how to shoot ‘em and figure out the best possible way to do that so we are protected if we ever need to be protected.’ Who knows what would’ve happened. There was four guys. Four grown men coming into my house. Who knows what could’ve happened, you know?
Yeah [that was the reason Maryse put the house on the market and she and Miz moved to Texas]. We moved out of there and we actually left Los Angeles and we moved to Texas for a year and then now, we’re in a guard-gated community. We have gates, the whole shabang. Really high-alert security.”
Elsewhere during the interview, Miz stated that with all he’s done in WWE, he still feels that he is still not well respected by the fans who watch the product.
“Even in WWE, sometimes I feel I don’t get the respect I feel like I want, maybe that I feel I deserve. I’ve won every title there is to win, but yet sometimes I feel like — you know, you’ll read Twitter here and there and you’ll see all the negative comments. ‘You don’t deserve to be there, we hate you, you’re the worst.’ But honestly, I look at those as compliments because they motivate me, they drive me and it’s some nerd in his basement just typing away. So, I use it as fuel.”
** Tully Blanchard was a guest on Colt Cabana’s ‘Art of Wrestling’ podcast. Tully talked about his journey to All Elite Wrestling and also shared that he works full-time at a Church and is the Director of a Jail and Prison Ministry. Blanchard jokingly added that it’d be nice if AEW offered him a new deal.
“I’m full-time staff in San Antonio at a Church, very large Church. Very well-known Church and I’m the Director of the Jail and Prison Ministry which I’ve been involved with since 1994.
I could get it done in a prison [a wrestling show] but jail, it’s too confined. But they watch on cable. They have TNT on, and the few times that I was on last year, so that’s all good but, when WCW was gonna offer me a contract and we never came together on the figures and that in the early 90s, the door always got slammed shut because I couldn’t have handled it. I couldn’t have walked with God and done that. 30 years into my walk with the Lord, AEW asked me to come on board and be a manager/coach. It is working so I mean, it’s a good thing. It’ll be a real good thing if they offered me another contract,” Tully laughed.
** Tommy Dreamer welcomed Trey Miguel of The Rascalz onto his ‘House of Hardcore’ podcast. The Rascalz (Dezmond Xavier, Zachary Wentz & Trey Miguel) are having their final match in IMPACT on the 11/17 episode of the show on AXS in a tag match with Rich Swann. Trey opened up about his time in IMPACT thus far and doesn’t think it’ll be the last time he, Zach and Dez will be in the company.
“You can never predict the future but I have no doubts in my mind that — I mean, IMPACT has not seen of the last of us. My feet will walk through those doors again. It might not be in a year, two or three but it’s not goodbye by any means. It’s just see you later.”
Tommy Dreamer talked about the decision to have The Rascalz’s final match in IMPACT be with Rich Swann. Dreamer shared that initially, it was pitched for The Rascalz to do something with MLW’s Myron Reed who is a original member of The Rascalz.
“Your last match, I was talking with Zach [Wentz] and I was like, ‘Hey man, what do you guys wanna do for your last match?’ And he was just like, ‘Well we’d love to do something with Myron [Reed] and he was the original’ and I was like, ‘Okay but, this audience doesn’t know who he is, plus he’s working with MLW and I don’t wanna have any conflicts’ and he’s like, ‘I’d love to do something with Rich Swann’ and as soon as I said it, I was like, ‘Great’ and then when I pitched it to creative, it was just like for Jimmy Jacobs, he’s like, ‘Oh great, we can get there’ and Scott’s like, ‘Well how are we gonna get there?’ I was like, ‘Dude, babyface, babyface, they’re gonna go tear it up, they’re gonna have a freaking awesome match.’”
Tommy continued to heap praise onto Wentz, Xavier and Miguel and disclosed to Trey how much Scott D’Amore and the IMPACT creative team wanted to keep them in the company.
“When I heard the news about The Rascalz, their contracts are coming up and IMPACT is super duper cool, we’re allowing people to explore other options and hey, we wanna re-sign you but if something happens where you wanna take more money or you want to take an opportunity or hope to go somewhere else, they’re cool with that and there’s no heat, because of how professional everybody is and I was just like, ‘Hey man, let’s just tell the truth’ and if you only knew and I’ll tell you this just like I’ll tell the other guys, how much the creative staff as well as Scott D’Amore wanted to keep you guys. There was a list of people and they were like, ‘Every time we had a box to check, it’s always keep The Rascalz. Do this with The Rascalz’ because I feel there was a lot more to do with you guys, but listen, I’ve been in this business forever. It’s business. ECW, I used to take it personally when people left but, just so you know personally that how much you were wanted to be in a company which is cool, you never know it’s gonna happen and if asking me my advice, you go wherever you can to grow because you could always come back one day, as long as you stay on those good terms and you guys did everything the right way and like I said, all three of you were a pleasure to work with, you’re gonna be in a different system wherever you go, but I think you all with your attitudes and your work rate [will] succeed, with that and it’s cool because I know IMPACT meant a lot to you.”
Dreamer reflected on the IMPACT World Championship tournament that was held after Tessa Blanchard’s contract with IMPACT was terminated. Trey Miguel was a part of that tournament and he was supposed to go to the finals but he suffered two separate concussions during the taping in the same match.
“It was so close for you to become the champion. We were doing a tournament. This was after Tessa Blanchard and we’re headed to the finals and you get a concussion. You’re out, you’re done. So we basically stopped. It was the last day of the taping. We have to stop it and when we plan our next taping, you have to — first of all, [Zachary] Wentz stepped in and the beauty of that, I said, with his match I go, ‘We have now another singles star and I know we’re pushing Trey, but now we have Wentz and I’ve always –’ I was just like, ‘Dude, man he showed fire, he showed everything you’re supposed to have’ and those [in] creative, we were like, ‘Well okay, we have to get Trey into the finals.’ I was like, ‘Well we could just have Wentz’ but they’re like, ‘Well, he didn’t [compete in] the tournament’ and then we had like eight different scenarios going into creative and we’re like we gotta see how you feel with your concussion of who’s going to advance to literally be the champion. I always say, if they ever show the behind-the-scenes of what’s going on, it would be even better television of how we make these decisions but like, we were like, ‘Well now is Wentz the number one contender for this?’ And they were like, ‘Well he just saw it as revenge’ and we literally, we just waited and we were waiting to see — you had a bad concussion. I remember you came back…”
** Vicente Beltran conducted an interview with The Undertaker and during their conversation, the topic of Roman Reigns and Jey Uso’s storyline came up and Undertaker mentioned talking to Bruce Prichard recently and telling him how much he has enjoyed the storyline.
“I was actually talking with Bruce Prichard on the phone a couple of days ago and I mentioned to him how much I’ve enjoyed the Roman Reigns/Jey Uso program, because that’s kind of an old school program, you know? It was very easy to understand, especially if you’re familiar with the Samoan legacy and heritage and how proud that Samoan bloodline is, especially in the wrestling world. To understand that and to have these cousins that grew up and now they’re fighting, it was so — there was so many layers to it. I thought that was the closest thing to really old school stuff that we’ve done in a while, and obviously they delivered. It was an amazing match too.”
Undertaker was asked how he would like to be remembered as an individual and as a professional and here was his response:
“I’d want to be remembered as someone who loved this business and gave everything that they had, not only to do well while I was there but to move the business forward. I wanna be remembered as somebody that was always willing to help somebody who wanted to get better, and those are the things that are most important to me is being able to go out there and know that my fans were gonna get what they paid to see. I never mailed it in, I always went there no matter how bad that I felt, whatever physical condition I was in, I gave ‘em everything that I had, because I always looked at it as, ‘They’re paying their hard earned money to come and see me. I gotta give them what I have,’ and hopefully they know that and appreciate that and then on the professional side of it, always trying to pay it forward and help the next guy along to kind of miss some of the bumps that I had to take and some of the lumps and the learning process. Those I think are the most important things I want to be remembered for.”
** IMPACT Knockouts Champion Deonna Purrazzo was the focus of a Q&A hosted by Pro Wrestling Junkies. At IMPACT Wrestling’s Bound For Glory event, Deonna was set to defend the Knockouts Title against Kylie Rae but ended up defending it against Su Yung. It was later revealed by Kylie that she is retiring from wrestling and during the Q&A, Deonna sent her well wishes to Kylie and hopes to have her back one day.
“I was very much looking forward to wrestling Kylie [Rae] again and I think the world of Kylie. I think she’s a phenomenal athlete and it’s just a really unfortunate situation but, I just hope she gets whatever help she needs or takes whatever time she needs to heal herself and I hope she knows that the door is always open and I will always welcome her back wherever I am in this world with open arms and I look forward to hopefully wrestling her one day.”
** According to PWInsider, Kurt Angle is scheduled to be at the Survivor Series event this weekend.
** The latest guest on Lilian Garcia’s ‘Chasing Glory’ podcast was Cesaro. While reflecting on his career in wrestling, Cesaro stated that he could retire as of that podcast recording if he wanted to and be satisfied, but he’s competitive and wants to achieve more.
“If I’m honest, if I look back, I had a really cool career. I could probably retire tomorrow, but I’m also very competitive so there’s all this stuff that I still wanna do.”
Cesaro dove into the story of him being let go from Deep South Wrestling in 2006. To this day, he has still not been informed of why he was released.
“So literally I got signed, I finished all my indie bookings. At that point, me and Chris Hero were Kings of Wrestling, which was unheard of at the time but we had three different tag team championships from three different promotions, which again, was unheard of at that point. So we had that, we finished all our business there and when that was done when I was just about done with finishing all my bookings, I got the call that they can’t hire me right now, to which I responded, ‘But I am hired. I’m already getting paid. I was gonna move in two –’ I was actually not gonna go to Deep South [Wrestling]. I was gonna go to OVW and I was told I’m gonna get my release in the papers within the next week. They didn’t say why, I asked why, didn’t get a clear response and then if you don’t work here and try to call, it usually goes to voicemail so then I didn’t really ever know. I saw the person after that hired me and he said that to this day, he still didn’t know and that was at a point when he wasn’t with the company anymore so there was no reason for him to not tell me the truth. He just said he got told to let me go and I got paid by WWE for three months after that, and I started back up on the indies. Yeah, but in the end, it ended up working out because now I’m still here.”
Lilian asked Cesaro what it means to him when he’s referred to as “underrated”. Cesaro takes it as a compliment because his on-screen plans are out of his control and he can only do his very best inside of the ring.
“I mean it makes me feel validated I guess, because, again, it’s only so much I can control and there’s a lot of stuff that’s out of my control and for them to say that, I feel like they’re saying I’m making the absolute best with what I’m given, you know what I mean? And to me, that’s a huge acknowledgement and that’s what I really do. I want them to see me standing for quality, standing for honesty and every time I step in the ring, they know I’m gonna give 100 percent no matter what, and that’s why I keep working so hard because they believe in me and I wouldn’t wanna look back and be like, ‘Oh, what was I thinking then?’ I still do because I’m kind of hard on myself. I just want to do the best every single time I go in the ring. I wanna be like, ‘I wanna do something new, I wanna try something new.’ I’m also very, ‘Okay, this didn’t work. Let me try this…’”
** SmackDown Women’s Champion Sasha Banks chatted with Variety for an exclusive interview. Banks went on to praise the SmackDown women’s division and added that it’s the best ever when it comes to female talent rosters.
“Oh man, there’s so many. I know right now Carmella is coming after me. But there can be the whole lineup. There’s not just one, you know? I have Liv Morgan, Ruby Riott, Bianca, Natalya, these are all girls that I love so much. And I cannot wait to wrestle because they all inspire me. And like I said, this women’s division is the best women’s division ever. Every time I walk in that locker room, I just know that the future is in good hands. I know that there’s going to be so much magic to create with these girls, and I just can’t wait to do it with all of them.”
Banks is taking on RAW Women’s Champion Asuka at Survivor Series and discussed that forthcoming match and how much she’s looking forward to working with Asuka again.
“Asuka is, if not one of the best, the best competitor in our division. And she is a legend in Japan. She is one of the longest-reigning champions in our company. We have thrown it down in the past, but I feel like every single day, we want to get better in every single way. We want to do the best. And now that we represent our own brands, and being the champions, we’re really just going to go there Sunday and prove who is the best of the best. SmackDown is Team Blue. That’s why my hair is blue. That’s why I’m the Blueprint. That’s why I’m really the greatest. I have to show her that I’m the best at everything. She is great. But I’m greater.”
** NXT’s Jake Atlas was a guest on the Swerve City Podcast with Isaiah “Swerve” Scott and Teasy. Jake told the story of his experience working with Stephanie McMahon on ‘Undercover Boss’ and not knowing he was actually speaking to Stephanie until she revealed herself. Jake believes that helped him get into WWE.
“I couldn’t open up. I just couldn’t. I don’t know if it was the cameras, I didn’t know what I wanted to say. Also, I didn’t know that WWE was involved so I had this wrestler superstition that if I would’ve said the words ‘WWE’ on this TV show, I would never get a tryout or I’d hurt my chances with WWE so I didn’t wanna say it and they kept yelling, ‘Cut! You can say it.’ So I think that the ultimate goal was to say that I wanted to be the first openly gay WWE World Champion, and they wanted me to say that. They wanted it on-camera and I just didn’t want to say it. That superstition. I don’t wanna say, because then it doesn’t happen. Then what do you do? Then it’s on record forever and then it never happened and — but obviously they knew it was Stephanie [McMahon] so they got it out of me and it was really cool. When she did her reveal and then we had the one-on-one after when it was actually her, it really came full circle for me [where] I was like, I really just opened up about my life to one of the most important people to the company I wanna work for. Like, it doesn’t get any better than that. I’m almost glad — I’m very thankful for the show because I was able to do that because I thought she was just an average human or regular human being and I was able to have a conversation about my life and open up about me and what I want in life and what I — the struggles that I went through, and what wrestling means to me and the youth and my coaching gymnastics career that she was able to have this mask on, and I was able to open up to her so it ended up being a blessing for me and I’m very thankful for this show and I would even say it kinda helped me get to WWE so, it really opened up that pathway and Stephanie’s been a huge mentor as well. Ever since, we had never stopped communicating so I’m really thankful for that.”
** Laredo Kid called out AAA Mega Champion Kenny Omega. The video was posted to AAA’s official Twitter page.
** Former AJPW Triple Crown Heavyweight Champion Zeus is out of the Real World Tag League Tournament due to COVID-19. Filling in for him will be Izanagi.
** The Hoosier Pro Wrestling promotion based in Columbus, Indiana has closed its doors because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The promotion founder Jerry Wilson was interviewed by ‘The Republic’ about the promotion shutting down.
** Yahoo! Sports Canada caught up with The Undertaker to promote his ‘Final Farewell’ at Survivor Series. With WWE’s Survivor Series show emanating from the Amway Center, Undertaker thinks it’ll help him get through his ceremony because fans are not there live and he thinks it’ll be less emotional in that sense.
“It’s going to help me considerably, getting through Survivor Series emotionally. I’m sure it’s going to be moving and it’s going to have its moments, but it would have been extremely hard for me to come out in front of an arena full of people and address them in any way at this point. I made fun of Flair for boo hooing and crying when he came out and did his speech. I think I have a little more of an appreciation now as it faces me. Hopefully, I’ll be able to keep it together and not kill off the gimmick completely.”
Undertaker admitted that he still has the passion to wrestle and whenever he attends a show, he gets the bug to want to compete again but knows he can’t deliver physically like he used to.
“I still have the passion to do it, I wish I could do it forever. When I watch the shows or I’m there live, the juices start flowing and I feel like I have to get ready to go out and perform. The reality of the situation is that I’m not physically able to perform at the level I want to perform at. I could go out there and cash in on all of the equity I’ve built up over 30 years, but I can’t deliver physically what I think people pay money to see the Undertaker do.”
The multi-time WWE World Champion looked back at the storyline between himself and Glenn “Kane” Jacobs. Undertaker feels that it is the greatest storyline WWE has ever put together.
“Although I had wrestled some giants up until that point and I had these dragons that I had to slay, none of them really matched up like Kane did. You have this over-the-top character in the Undertaker, but now he has a brother? It was over the top, but there was a real kind of connection that people could identify with. If you have a sibling, you understand sibling rivalries, but now it’s on an entirely different scale. You have one who throws lightning and the other creates fire. It was part reality, part supernatural, almost comic book story. I will always say it is the best story that WWE has ever told.”
** According to Showbuzz Daily, the overnight audience for the 11/16 edition of Miz & Mrs. on the USA Network hit 666,000 viewers.
** Outsports chatted with Parrow and Parrow told the story of him making his entrance with the Pride flag draped over his shoulder at the NWA 70th pay-per-view. That was not the plan initially but it was now-WWE producer Shawn Daivari who convinced him to go through with it.
“I wanted to be in the NWA because I wanted to be an openly gay wrestler in a predominantly southern promotion that was known to be against it. That was Shawn Daivari’s idea. He was my agent for that match and he saw the flag sitting in my bag. He said, ‘No. Be you… wear it how you want to wear it, but I want you to be who you are, because that’s why you’re here.’ I give him all the credit in the world because that changed a lot of perceptions. I got so many letters from young people about what that meant… visibility matters because it changes how people view us. We have to make them see us as people rather than a sexual act.”
** The following video is from the new season of Total Bellas on E!:
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cSmC47m-x2Y[/embedyt]
** WWE’s Global Strategy and Innovation SVP Tracey Shaw was named the media technology and content advisor for Black Dragon Capital.
** On a recent episode of the ‘Hall Of Fame’ podcast, Booker T and Brad Gilmore discussed Zelina Vega’s release from WWE.
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAJTrzbVNX8[/embedyt]
** Ax of the 3-time WWF Tag Team Champions Demolition was interviewed by Bill Pritchard of WrestleZone. Ax was asked about FTR (Dax Harwood & Cash Wheeler’s) first names being a tribute to Ax and Smash. He had the following to say about the tribute and Dax also reacted to Ax’s comments via Twitter.
“Well, I’ll tell you what, that’s the first time I heard that and I’m really… normally I have a lot to say but I’m at a search for words. I really appreciate that and if you talk to them — I mean I never get a chance to, either Barry or I, unless it’s some kind of convention, but if you’re talking to them and that’s truly the situation, please tell them thank you very much for us. I really do appreciate that and tell them that we both appreciate that. That’s a fine tribute because they’re one of the teams — The Young Bucks — there’s four or five teams that I know, or have been around together for some time and I honestly think that they are one of the few teams that work as a team. They remind me a lot of The Andersons and Arn and Tully [Blanchard] as well so, they do a good job.”
** Kota Ibushi shared a video of himself eating a sparkler.
知り合いの誕生日はいつも花火でお祝い🎁🎂
だいたい引かれる。でも小さいときからだから関係ない。
自分は自分😃#内山高志 さん 誕生日おめでとうございます！！！また行きます。 pic.twitter.com/rabiG7R24M
— 飯伏 幸太 (@ibushi_kota) November 17, 2020
** Here’s the newest episode of AEW Dark:
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYs9mVcFfqs[/embedyt]
** MLW announced that Jared St. Laurent and Rich Bocchini will be on the call for MLW’s Restart.
** IMPACT Wrestling is taping this week in Nashville.
** Xavier Woods, Cesaro, Adam Cole and Tyler Breeze will be a part of IGN’s ‘Among Us’ stream on November 19th at 6 PM EST.
** New Day (Big E, Kofi Kingston & Xavier Woods) are characters in the Gears 5 game.
** Ronda Rousey visited former WWE talent Sarah Rowe and documented it on her YouTube channel.
** The Undertaker will be on Thursday’s episode of ‘Hot Ones’.
** Per PWInsider, ‘The Buddy Games’ film starring WWE’s Sheamus is releasing on November 24th. The film was supposed to premiere this past March but was held off due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jDW2AUrTq-E[/embedyt]
** King Corbin played ‘Knights of the Round’ with Xavier Woods on the UpUpDownDown YouTube channel.
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OZn3Q6-KrvU[/embedyt]
** Robbie Eagles previewed half of his Best of the Super Juniors schedule with NJPW1972.com. As that conversation continued, Eagles shared that while he regularly worked the six-man tag match on NJPW shows, Tomohiro Ishii would constantly treat him to dinner.
** Sasha Banks and her significant other Sarath Ton are collaborating with PUMA to create a shoe.
** Jim Varsallone of the Miami Herald spoke with Jake Hager about his Bellator 250 win.
** ‘Hometown News’ has a piece up about former pro wrestler Barry Hardy, who teamed with Duane Gill (Gillberg) in the 90s.
** The ‘Orlando Sentinel’ chatted with MLW National Openweight Champion Alexander Hammerstone.
** Katsuyori Shibata turned 41-years old on 11/17.
** Click here to listen to the latest Talk’n Shop podcast with Karl Anderson, Doc Gallows and Rocky Romero.
** Part one and two of Jim Varsallone’s interview with Ring of Honor’s Vincent is up.
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.
