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.
** Bayley appeared on D-Von Dudley’s Table Talk podcast. D-Von has been off the show for several weeks and he popped in during the interview with Bayley and shared that he has been dealing with health issues. He hopes to be back at work as a WWE producer and back on the podcast soon.
“Hanging in there. I’ve had some health issues but I’m hanging in there.
I miss you guys. Hopefully I’ll be back soon. I gotta see what the doctors say but, it’s been a little rough, but I’ve been hanging in there, doing what I can.”
Elsewhere during the interview, Bayley said that prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, she was having discussions with WWE’s music producer about Hayley Williams from Paramore playing her to the ring at WrestleMania.
“To be honest, I have mentioned it to the WWE music producer and we talked about it for last year but this was like in the beginning — or no, I guess it would’ve been this year. The beginning of this year,” Bayley said. “So before the pandemic, before we knew that WrestleMania was gonna be in front of nobody and we were actually trying to figure out how to get that going and how to make it work. Like we were having phone calls about it, and then all this happened and we couldn’t do it. So, we’ll see. I’m never gonna stop trying because that’s a dream moment for me and a dream WrestleMania moment for me so Hayley Williams, let’s do it, come on.”
** Screen Rant ran their interview with Sasha Banks (Mercedes Varnado). Sasha recalled receiving the Instagram DM about the opportunity to appear in The Mandalorian. She stated that she inquired about asking WWE first but her manager insisted that they begin the conversations with Jon Favreau.
“I feel like I should keep that a secret, don’t you think? No, it’s because my memory is so shot. I’m a professional wrestler; I work for the WWE. But I remember getting an Instagram DM from a [casting] director, maybe around the end of the summer – or it could have been in September, I honestly cannot remember. Instantly, I said, ‘Okay, let me ask WWE,’ but my manager said, ‘No, don’t even ask them. Let’s just talk to them.’ Jon Favreau called me; he Facetimed me and told me that he wanted me to be part of the show. And I was just like, ‘Oh my God, yes.’ And then everything just happened. It was so fast, and it was so crazy.”
** Wrestling Inc. has an interview up with Anthony Anzaldo, who was a friend and the former manager of Joan Laurer, also known as “Chyna”. Anzaldo claimed that he was approached by VICE about participating in a Dark Side of the Ring episode on Chyna.
“They are putting it on VICE,” Anzaldo claims. “It’s a Dark Side of The Ring two hour version. They want me so bad because they know the story isn’t told without me. I am not giving them the rights while they claim they still have the rights because I signed a release when I did my sit down.”
Wrestling Inc. reached out to Dark Side of the Ring producer Evan Husney and he issued the following statement in response to Anzaldo’s claim:
There are no plans for an episode about Chyna for the upcoming season of Dark Side of the Ring. At the start of pre-production earlier this year, we became aware of multiple projects that were currently in production about Chyna, and thus, we ultimately decided against pursuing this as a future subject.
** Per the latest edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, there was a positive COVID test coming out of the latest IMPACT Wrestling tapings. A few wrestlers were told that there was a positive test but not who it was. Other people in the company were not told about the test result.
** Major League Wrestling announced that their National Champion Hammerstone has suffered several injuries after being attacked by CONTRA Unit on last week’s episode of FUSION. Hammerstone is “dealing” with a rib contusion, hyperflexion of the neck and transverse Myelitis. Earlier this week, Hammerstone took to Twitter and provided an update on his significant other’s cancer diagnosis and how help to cover the medical costs would be appreciated. He shared a video of her thanking those who donated to help the cause.
** While speaking to Sports Illustrated, Kenny Omega stated that he did not want to create a situation where he’d be in competition with the New Japan Pro-Wrestling version of his on-screen persona. That note came about as Omega was talking about his matches with Kazuchika Okada versus his match and forthcoming match[es] with AEW World Champion Jon Moxley.
“I’m never in competition with myself, and I’m never trying to compare someone who is very unique like Moxley to another competitor that is also very unique. I’m not going to compare building to building, I’m not going to compare fan base to fan base. I don’t think that’s fair. For me, the reason I’m in AEW right now is because I wanted a new challenge. What I wasn’t trying to do was create an environment or a situation where I was competing with the New Japan Kenny Omega. I’m not trying to structure things the way I would structure with Okada. I’m not trying to find a new Okada, Moxley has his own qualities that make him special. Stylistically, they are so different. When I went to the Okada match at the Tokyo Dome, for me, it was all or nothing. I didn’t think there would be an Okada-Omega II or III or IV. I thought that was my only chance on a stage like that. In AEW, I knew there, even during my ‘Lights Out’ match against Moxley last year [at Full Gear], that there would be another match down the road. I would love for this story to lend itself to the other chapters in the series. Regardless of how this match goes, we’re committed to this project. There probably is going to be an Omega-Moxley III somewhere down the road.”
** Ring of Honor’s Shane Taylor appeared on the Two Man Power Trip of Wrestling podcast. While reflecting on his future and what could be ahead for him, Taylor stated that he hopes to finish out his career in Ring of Honor but isn’t ruling out the idea of heading to WWE or AEW.
“There’s something so cool about what The Briscoes have been able to do and that’s put a company on their back for the span of two decades, and if things work out that way, then great. If not, then, there’s a lot of places that I could see myself going and I would be a good fit for. Obviously, we were talking about the style of New Japan and I think I’d be, no point intended but tailor-made for that, for that environment and that style. It would be really great to be able to share a locker room with Ray Rowe [Erik] and Keith [Lee] again. Two of my best friends in the world so that would be a great thing and be able to travel the roads with them again, and to experience something new at AEW would be great as well, and sort of test my metal against the competition that they have there so, I’m happy where I am. I wanna continue to do the work that I’m doing, and do this and be here for the rest of my career but if that’s just not in the plans, that’s not on the cards, any place really, you know, will present a new challenge and… and a new set of challenges for me.”
Taylor recalled a period during his career when he was told by several people within ROH that if he wanted to be a champion or hold a top spot, it’d have to be elsewhere and not in ROH.
“It was, at that time, a culmination of a decade-plus. It really felt good [to become Television Champion] especially after so many people that were here before me told me that if I wanted to be successful, if I wanted to be a champion and if I wanted to be one of the top guys, that it wasn’t gonna be at Ring of Honor. I would have to go elsewhere but, I am of the mindset that nothing changes if you don’t attack it, right? Nothing changes if you’re not working at the problem.”
** Lilian Garcia told ‘Metro’ that she believes she had COVID-19 in February.
** Chris Jericho welcomed The Young Bucks onto his ‘Talk Is Jericho’ podcast. Matt and Nick Jackson told the story of their match against Daniel Bryan and Roderick Strong in the PWG DDT4 tournament. The crowd was hot for Bryan and Strong but Matt and Nick were supposed to be the babyfaces. It was suggested that roles be switched for this specific match but Bryan and Roddy insisted that to get sympathy for The Young Bucks, they’d have to take a beating which The Bucks later described as a bit too much.
Matt: And [Daniel] Bryan and Roderick [Strong] were in the finals with us and it was a problem because they saw us as the babies still and they were like, ‘Listen, we gotta get the crowd to sympathize with you guys again’ and Bryan suggested, ‘We’re just gonna have to beat the hell out of you,’ and we’re like, we agreed because we’re like, ‘Yeah, you’re probably right, that’s cool. Let’s do that’ but we had no idea what we just agreed to. So we go out there and I don’t think they knew either how bad it was gonna get. They go out there and they’re just the ultimate babyfaces and we’re getting booed out of the building. No matter what and we don’t know what we’re doing —
Nick: And they were hitting us harder and it would get a bigger reaction each time.
Matt: The more they hit us, the more they slammed us, the more they kicked us, the crowd got louder and louder and louder and if we fought back, they booed. So they’re thinking like, ‘We just got to hit ‘em harder, hit ‘em more’ and they cheered, more, more and more and the idea just backfired. It wouldn’t work, and instead of just trying something new or just going with the flow, they just continued beating us and it got to a point where it felt like we were in a real fight, where I remember even Roderick would run down the apron when I wasn’t even the legal guy and he’d pull me down and throw me into the chairs, and we’re fighting out in the seats and at one point, The Cutlers [Brandon & Dustin] were there and they thought they were gonna have to — they told me this later. They thought they were gonna have to come down and help us because they thought we were getting —
Nick: Our poor wives were in the crowd and they were crying their eyes out because they’ve seen enough wrestling to know, ‘Man, these guys are literally getting beat up.’
Matt: It was rough. I remember at one point, Nick was getting the elbows from Bryan and Nick was just like, after the 20th one or whatever, ‘Enough!’
Nick: I said, ‘Stop, stop! And he just kept going.
** Taylor Wilde welcomed Allysin Kay onto her ‘Wilde On’ podcast and during their conversation, Kay reflected on almost having to step away from wrestling because of the blood clots she developed in her lungs in early 2018.
“The one time I thought I’d have to prematurely [retire] is early 2018 when I was diagnosed with blood clots in my lungs, and that was actually right at the end of an IMPACT taping, and I ended up in the hospital for three days and I had to be on blood thinners for six months. My contract with IMPACT expired during that time so I didn’t know if I was ever gonna be able to wrestle again. It was like I had to go to a hematologist and a bunch of — get a bunch of different testing to determine whether or not they felt this was caused genetically or if it was caused by like outside medication, things like that. I think it’s pretty obvious since I’m still wrestling that it wasn’t genetic, thank God. But that was up in the air for those six months is, ‘Am I ever gonna be able to wrestle again?’ Because if I had to stay on blood thinners for the rest of my life, it would’ve been very, very stupid of me to continue to wrestle, because any type of hemorrhaging could be the end if you’re on major blood thinners like that so, I’ve been cut, I’ve been busted open in wrestling so many times. Even something internal that I didn’t know, if I get hit in the head, then I could have a brain bleed so it was something that could’ve ended my entire career.”
** G4’s Head of Content Kevin Sabbe spoke to Variety about the relaunch of the G4 gaming network and Xavier Woods’ recruitment to the team. Sabbe stated that Woods didn’t give his team much of a choice when it came to recruitment because of how multi-talented Woods is.
“When we talk about personalities and talent in the digital-first universe, you look for content creators, and he can do it all. He’s not just a wrestler or a performer. He’s so multi-faceted.
He didn’t really give us much of a choice when he started the campaign, and we were grateful to not have a choice, and it really made it easy for us.”
** Forbes chatted with Kenny Omega and when asked what talents outside of AEW he’d like to work with, Omega listed off AJ Styles, Seth Rollins and New Day (Big E, Kofi Kingston & Xavier Woods).
“AJ [Styles] and I worked together in New Japan. He saved me in a lot of ways when I was thinking about possibly getting out of wrestling.
He was there for me to help point me in the right direction and I think he would be a great opponent. The New Day, those guys would be a lot of fun to work with. I get compared a lot to Seth Rollins. Seth is a great wrestler and I think we could have some really great matches together.
I just want to work with good people—not good people in the sense that they’re only talented in the ring, but people who are genuinely good dudes who the fans would want to see me wrestle. At the end of the day, I’d just want to wrestle the opponents who would make fans the most excited because that’s really what it’s all about.”
** Kenny Omega was interviewed by Fightful’s Sean Ross Sapp. Omega told the site that prior to Bullet Club removing AJ Styles from the group, he was dealing with a severe hernia in his neck and he thought he’d have to wrap up his in-ring career.
“I remember right before we did the AJ Styles turn. But earlier on in the year before, I had a very terrible herniation in my neck. It was the first time I ever had asked for time off in professional wrestling. I lost all power on the right side of my body and I thought that-that was it. I thought that I was going to have to wrap it up and maybe I was already sort of winding down. I was [luckily able] enough to turn it around. I think one of the greatest things I can ever ask for is being able to decide what time that is. It’d be great if I could, but unfortunately, as wrestlers, and doing what we do, we sometimes don’t have the ability to choose. In a heartbeat, these things can just fade or they can be taken away from you. So all I’m trying to do is just kind of dip my fingers and toes [in] as much as long as I can. I’m making sure that all these things that I do take on as responsibilities are things that I enjoy outside of wrestling so that, you know, there’s never a dull moment.”
** The UK-based ‘Wrestle Carnival’ promotion received the green light to run their first show in January of 2021. The promotion announced that they are not going to be running that show on 1/31 because it’s not safe as we’re still in the mist of the COVID-19 pandemic. They’re hoping to still present their debut show in the first quarter of 2021.
** Georgia Smith, daughter of “The British Bulldog” Davey Boy Smith did an interview with Heavy.com. She was asked what does she remember from the day that Owen Hart passed away and here’s what she shared:
“It was in ’99 and it was actually a warm day in Calgary I remember and my grandfather had the wrestling ring outside and my cousins and I were going to do a like, a water fight in the ring because the ring is vinyl, we could put water in there and we could slide around. I think it was my cousin Brooke and I and we were changing in the bathroom at my grandpa’s house and I walk out of the bathroom and the phone is ringing off the hook and my Aunt Allison is on her knees screaming and crying and I’m like, ‘What’s going on…’ and my Uncle Smith was in the library and he said that Owen fell and he must’ve fell into the audience or something and I really didn’t know anything more and I was like, ‘Is he okay?…’ and they were like, ‘I don’t know…’ and then you know, it came to be and then my grandfather got the news that he died and I remember walking up to my parents where they were watching the pay-per-view at; it was right up the hill, I walked there and my dad came in the house and he saw me at the table and he said, ‘What’s going on?’ because he just came into this somber atmosphere and I’m like, ‘Owen’s dead.’ And he’s saying, ‘No he’s not! Shut up.’ … I was like, ‘Yeah. He fell.’ And my dad was like, ‘What?!?’ And then he went upstairs to console my mom but, I remember when I told him what happened and yeah. It was a really, really dark day. Our family has never been the same since that happened and when I was watching the ‘Dark Side of the Ring’ episode there was a lot of things that I didn’t know about it and after the fact of watching that, it was just such a tragedy.”
** Booker T took to his Hall Of Fame podcast to praise both Sasha Banks and Asuka for their match at Survivor Series. Booker clarified his past comments about Sasha and stated that those comments have been about her TV character and not the person playing the character.
“I get a lot of heat when I say I don’t like Sasha Banks, when I say that kind of stuff but I say that kind of stuff for a reason man, because I’m talking about Sasha Banks the character. I’m not talking about the person. I’m talking about the character, and sometimes, certain characters, they kind of rub you the wrong way, you know when you’re a fan and I’m looking at it from a fan’s perspective when I talk like that. But when you watch Sasha go out and perform, she is extraordinary as far as knowing how to make you feel a certain way when you watch the match. She knows how to draw you in at the right times. She knows how to get that one thing to make you jump into the edge of your seat, and go, ‘Oh man!’ One of those type of deals. She’s ranked very, very high in my book as far as women wrestlers of all-time that has ever stepped inside the squared circle.”
** Liv Morgan chatted with ‘Asbury Park Press’ to promote the ‘Liv Forever’ documentary on the WWE Network. She expressed that it felt like therapy at times during filming.
“As it went on, it almost felt like therapy. Every week I would go meet with the awesome crew I was working with and they’re going to talk to me about my life. It ended up being way more real and raw than I thought.”
** IMPACT Wrestling announced their ‘Final Resolution’ show for December 12th and it’ll air on the IMPACT Plus app.
** Premiering on the All Elite Wrestling YouTube channel on 12/30 will be the ‘Road to Winter Is Coming’ special.
** DDT D-Ou Grand Prix Results (11/27/20) Tokyo, Japan
– D-Ou Grand Prix 2021 Block A: MAO [2] def. Daisuke Sasaki [2]
– Hideki Okatani, MAO & Yukio Naya def. Keigo Nakamura, Tomomitsu Matsunaga & Toru Owashi
– D-Ou Grand Prix 2021 Block B: Kazusada Higuchi [2] def. Makoto Oishi [2]
– D-Ou Grand Prix 2021 Block B: Soma Takao [2] def. Yuki Ueno [2]
– D-Ou Grand Prix 2021 Block B: Tetsuya Endo [4] def. Shunma Katsumata [0]
– D-Ou Grand Prix 2021 Block A: Yukio Sakaguchi [4] def. Chris Brookes [2]
– D-Ou Grand Prix 2021 Block A: Konosuke Takeshita [2] def. Akito [4]
** NXT UK Heritage Cup Champion A-Kid spoke with ‘Metro’. He told the outlet that he’s hoping to defend the championship in America and also wants a match with Kyle O’Reilly.
** Bill Apter interviewed The Young Bucks.
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uv2Q4uc0Mf8[/embedyt]
** NXT North American Champion Leon Ruff spoke with talkSPORT for an exclusive interview. Ruff recalled the kind words and props that were given to him by the likes of Jeff Hardy and Sheamus after doing extra work for WWE earlier this year.
“I don’t like to get in trouble, so I come to work, keep my head down and do my job. I have been a fan of a lot of these guys for a very long time and I do want to introduce myself, but I don’t want to stutter or make awkward eye-contact and come off as weird [laughs]. So I just did the match and stayed to myself, but it was nothing but kind words when I came to the back. Jeff Hardy was walking up the stairs in front of me and I wasn’t going to say anything, I was going to let him do his thing. But he stopped, turned around, fist bumped me and told me how much of a great job I did against Sheamus. Sheamus himself told me how great I did and how he enjoyed the match. And he introduced me to Cesaro which was really cool. A lot of guys, even if I just say hey or what’s up, they always give me a fist bump and tell me good job. And that’s really cool because they don’t have to. But, the fact that they not only acknowledge me but the hard work that I’m doing is what’s really cool.”
** Anna Jay joined Tony Schiavone and Aubrey Edwards on the AEW Unrestricted podcast. During the podcast, Anna discussed how the opportunity to become a member of Dark Order came about.
“So, I remember the night that I was offered a contract actually, I heard — I don’t exactly remember who it was but they said, ‘Oh, you know, there’s an idea for you to be in the Dark Order but we’re not gonna do that’ and so I was kinda like, ‘Oh ok. I’ll literally do whatever you guys want me to.’ Exactly, I’m literally just happy to be here, and so then it was brought to my attention again and I think it was a couple months after I was signed, and they actually filmed a whole vignette of me joining the Dark Order and then they ended up doing away with it and so I just actually came out with Brodie [Lee] and Colt [Cabana] on Dynamite if you guys remember. So, it kinda happened pretty quick, but then I was gone for a couple of weeks and came back and people I think were a little confused because I just walked out with him, that was it. But yeah, it just kinda fell into my lap, it was pretty quick like I said. I was just like, ‘Okay, I’ll do whatever.’”
** The Hindustan Times has a feature up about The Undertaker.
** Keith Lee has a ‘WWE 24’ documentary coming to the WWE Network on December 6th.
** John Bradshaw Layfield joined Sam Roberts on the notsam Wrestling show on the WWE Network.
** Natalya joined Mickie James, Lisa Marie Varon and SoCal Val on GAW TV.
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jog7QrSU_m8[/embedyt]
** Undisputed ERA (Kyle O’Reilly, Roderick Strong & Bobby Fish) were guests on the Swerve City Podcast.
** The following video is from the Ring of Honor YouTube channel:
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvLQsbptOj4[/embedyt]
** Vicente Beltran spoke to A-Kid.
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2vJzXsQtow[/embedyt]
** Alicia Atout spoke with Austin Gunn for an exclusive interview.
** A feature about retired pro wrestler T-Ronn Hicks. He is currently the head of the ‘Stop Bullying Our Purpose’ mentor program.
** Gabriel Kidd’s latest blog post is up on NJPW1972.com.
** Digital Spy ran their interview with Trent Seven.
** Great-O-Khan did an in-character interview with NJPW1972.com.
** Trent Seven chatted with James Delow and Kevin Clifton on the Gorilla Position podcast.
** Natalya wrote about The Undertaker for her latest article on the Calgary Sun website.
** NJPW1972.com’s interview with Robbie Eagles is live on the site.
** Alex Gracia spoke with Inside The Ropes.
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.
