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.
** Stephanie McMahon was a part of the sports panel at CES 2021. She discussed WWE’s transition from their Performance Center to the ThunderDome and said that initially, the company did not want to add piped-in crowd noise for their shows.
“There were no fans and there was no audible audience. We didn’t think that we should pipe in audio because that didn’t feel authentic, and it was an experience that was ‘less than’ to say the least, and then we really did start to experiment. We started adding different technology, we started piping in audio, we had some of our developmental talents in attendance who were tested of course because health and safety comes first, giving live reaction but it still wasn’t enough.”
Stephanie went on to speak about the digital viewership numbers that WWE experienced over the past year, specifically on the YouTube and WWE Network fronts.
“In terms of AVOD, we were experimenting of course with different platforms and different types of platforms but what we also changed was our posting strategy. We started posting longer-form clips and we also started posting more historical content and we actually saw our YouTube viewership numbers increase 70 percent. On WWE Network, we invested more heavily in documentary-type content that really explored the real person behind the characters. For example, The Undertaker’s Last Ride was a huge success for WWE. It was a four-part documentary and we saw viewership increase on WWE Network 55 percent.”
** Sasha Banks guest appeared on the Normal Not Normal podcast and during the discussion, she spoke about working for Vince McMahon and scripts for WWE’s weekly shows possibly being changed on a whim. The conversation came about while Banks was discussing her nerves going into the filming of The Mandalorian.
“Because what I do is acting as well. I get a script every single week and I gotta remember, like bam, because in WWE, again, that’s how exciting it is. Our boss is so, so legendary and crazy and iconic but again, crazy. But he will change things in an instant, and maybe he won’t even give you a script and just push you out there. But he will change a script on you in 30 seconds or in a heartbeat, lesser than that and you just have to pull it together so I have to be like, ‘You know what? You are absolutely right. I forget sometimes who I am. I can hold it together, I can do this. Oh okay, I’ll try it!’”
WWE has been stationed in Florida since March of 2020. Banks feels that since the pandemic started, it has lessened the damage being done to her body and she also feels that her match quality has improved.
“You have no idea how much I think that has changed my career, for real. It has changed my career so much because I used to be on the road five-to-six days out of the week and I’m not just talking about like in one state. I’m driving five-to-six hours to different states every single day. But we’re not just talking about driving, I’m talking about flying as well, early in the morning and I’m not just talking about flying and I’m talking about wrestling too my brother. I am beating my body. Now I am jumping into a car and I’m driving five hours, getting to the hotel at maybe four in the morning. They’re like, ‘Uh, we gave up your room. It’s four in the morning.’ I’m like, ‘Uh!?’ They’re like, ‘Checkout is at ten.’ I’m like, ‘Ahh, let me sleep just a little bit please. I need to sleep just a little bit.’ They’re like, ‘Alright, sleep in until 12,’ working out, getting your food and doing the exact same thing. Now that will beat up your body and now you get to TV and it is crazy and again, you don’t know what’s gonna happen. Vince [McMahon] is gonna push you out there. You have no idea. You could have a ten-minute match, five minute match, nothing, 20 minute segment, you have no idea. Then you go home, do your laundry and get on the road again. Now, thankfully that I live in Florida I’m so thankful. It is once a week. I feel like the part-time, my body, it is in the best shape it’s ever been in, I am sleeping so good. My match quality has just raised the roof up. My body just feels awesome.”
** WWE hired attorney Darren Traub to be their new Senior Vice President of business, legal affairs, entertainment and talent management. Darren will start with WWE on January 25th. He’ll be overseeing and managing legal-related issues that concern WWE’s gaming/streaming activities, television, film production and several more departments.
He wrote the following on his LinkedIn:
Growing up, two sports moments impacted my life. The first was UGA winning the 1980 college football national championship (and 40 years later I’m still waiting for them to reclaim the title). The other was when Hulk Hogan body slammed Andre the Giant. The epic “body slam heard round the world” not only showed you can get up off the mat, no matter how much abuse you have taken, but with a healthy dose of bravado you can then overcome even the biggest of obstacles that had knocked you down. From that moment, I was forever hooked on WWE.
So I am thrilled to announce that starting January 25, I am putting on my tights, lacing up my boots, and stepping into the ring as SVP, Business and Legal Affairs, Entertainment & Talent Management at WWE, where I will manage legal for the production of WWE’s Television, Film Studios, Live Events, and Music divisions, as well as Talent management, relations and development, including in gaming, streaming and metaverse initiatives.
I am excited to contribute to the continued growth and expansion of this iconic sports entertainment brand! #entertainment #newjobalert
** Doc Gallows and Karl Anderson appeared on Busted Open Radio prior to IMPACT Wrestling’s Hard To Kill pay-per-view. The two had a discussion about their use of the Bullet Club name and New Japan Pro-Wrestling owning the trademark.
Anderson: I’ll tell you something, they didn’t [own the trademark] at first. Me and [Doc] Gallows almost bought that thing.
Gallows: It was almost The Big LG baby.
Anderson: We almost got a hold of that. We almost got a hold of that trademark. We might not have ever been booked again but we almost got a hold of that.
Gallows: I’m still the current owner of the Biz Cliz trademark I believe with all of our other trademark bills that we have.
Anderson: But New Japan did get a hold of it. I don’t know if they realized how big it was gonna be.
The Good Brothers competed on AEW Dynamite alongside Kenny Omega in a six-man tag team match. Gallows spoke about the moment he and Anderson were introduced and competing in front of a live crowd.
“It was exhilarating. I think I can speak for both of us and I’ll let him speak on it but it really was exhilarating to know that you’re making a moment and to have a crowd react live. I felt so bad for the Motor City Machine Guns for example when they made their return at Slammiversary, and I think we’ve had some great moments too that would’ve been [a] great crowd reaction. All of us on the IMPACT roster have felt that so to be able to have that moment and I don’t know how many it was. 750, 1,000 people because they’re socially distanced but to hear the buzz and see their reactions and feel the energy again, you know as well as I do, that’s higher than any high you can get when you do this for a living so it was definitely awesome.”
** Major League Wrestling released a shirt for Septimo Dragon that’s available to purchase on Pro Wrestling Tees. All proceeds are going to his recovery after he was involved in a hit-and-run motorcycle accident.
** On 1/14, All Elite Wrestling applied to trademark “Too Sweet”.
** Renee Paquette welcomed AEW President Tony Khan onto her Oral Sessions podcast. Khan opened up about the Jon Huber (Brodie Lee) tribute show that AEW held to celebrate the life of their former TNT Champion.
“I thought it was the best effort the crew has ever put together. I’m so proud of everyone who worked on the show and everyone in the company and how they handled the situation because people knew for a long time Jon [Huber] was sick. We told every wrestler. Amanda [Huber] went out and told people that Jon’s not doing well and he needs your prayers and your thoughts but also he needs you not to tell anybody this and a lot of us were worried when she told the entire crew at once but everybody kept the secret and supported them and we did everything we could and then when it came time, all the wrestlers wanted to do something really nice for him and I knew the tributes were gonna be genuine and from the heart. Like one of the greatest things you can say about Brodie [Lee] is that everybody, immediately when the news came out that Brodie had passed away, the first thing everybody said about him are, ‘This is a great person who loved his family so much and he loved wrestling.’ Those things just came out and it wasn’t an orchestrated, choreographed thing at all. That’s just the Jon everyone knew.”
Tony Khan secured the rights to the “Ol’ 55” song by singer Tom Waits prior to Jon Huber’s passing. He acquired the rights hoping that Huber would come out of it but his doctor shared that there wasn’t a high percentage chance of that happening.
“We knew that the tributes would be from the heart and I knew that there would be great videos and I had gotten the rights to the song in advance, hoping that Brodie [Lee] was gonna kick out but knowing that the doctor said it was not a high percentage chance and I wanted to make sure that we weren’t behind the 8-ball as far as getting him the greatest tribute video possible so I got the music rights in advance.”
Erick Redbeard (Rowan) appeared on the Brodie Lee tribute show and helped Alex Reynolds, John Silver and Hangman Page win their match. Khan said the idea for Redbeard to be on the show came from Shawn Spears.
“That was [Shawn] Spears’ idea. That was Spears’ idea. The day before, he asked if I wanted to use Erick Redbeard and I said, ‘I would like to use Erick Redbeard. That’s a great idea. I would probably have him come out in the middle of the show and do this thing with The Dark Order and Hangman there in that spot in the middle of the show and have Amanda and Brodie [Huber] at the end’ so that’s why we did it that way.”
Elsewhere during the conversation, Khan and Renee discussed Jon Moxley’s impact on All Elite Wrestling. Khan brought up that Moxley is in the process of writing a book and Renee further elaborated on it as well.
Tony: You can edit this out if you don’t want to use it, but I’ve read some of the book he’s writing. Awesome, it’s awesome. I love it.
Renee: Really cool, right? So it’s funny because he’s working off of my laptop so my email’s set up on there so anytime he sends it off to himself, it’s sent through my sent email so he’s like, ‘Check it and read it’ and reading all this stuff that he’s been writing, I had no doubt. I’ve been up his ass forever. I’ve been like, ‘Dude, you need to write a book’ because he can be a very eloquent speaker and his memory, as I’m thinking of the word, what’s the word? His memory is so amazing. The stuff that he’s able to draw from but the fact that he’s actually doing that now and writing it himself, I think it’s gonna be such a badass product. I can’t wait.
Tony: I’m so excited about it. It’s so cool and the best part of reading it has been that you can so tell he’s writing it himself because it’s literally like reading him talking which is the best. It’s like a transcript of him talking. But, it’s really interesting and I’m very excited about it so yeah, if he doesn’t want us to use it, we’ll just cut it.
Khan also spoke about the on-going partnership between AEW and IMPACT Wrestling. He said the idea 100 percent came from Kenny Omega and Khan believes that Don Callis may have had some influence on that decision but Kenny put a great deal of time and thought into it.
“It was Kenny [Omega’s] idea. He asked me about it and I love good ideas and I don’t do every idea. I try not to do the bad ones and like I said, that’s been something I try to do a better job of and also, I don’t do every good one. Sometimes because I don’t realize they’re good. I’m not perfect, I make a lot of mistakes too and I think that sometimes there are also good ones that just don’t fit. Like that’s a great idea, you can’t do it because that person’s already doing this. Like, you can’t do it because we have another plan that we’re locked into. This was something Kenny brought up that I thought was a great idea and he put a lot of time and thought into it and I give 100 percent of the credit to Kenny, and Don Callis and Kenny have a really close relationship and I think that-that was what was behind it but I also think Kenny believed Don would be a very powerful advocate for him and to fill the role of a really, really strong heel manager for Kenny as a top heel in the territory and really I think the top heel in wrestling right now and I think that’s something people wanted to see.”
Tony continued to heap praise onto Jon Moxley and said he’s one of the best people to collaborate with. He recalled having three-way phone calls with Moxley and Brodie Lee.
“I love collaborating with people but there’s nobody I love collaborating with more than him [Jon Moxley]. He’s my favorite person to work with. He has the best ideas and you know about our three-way calls and I love doing our three-way calls with — and I was telling Amanda [Huber] this story because we did it with Brodie, because the pandemic, you can’t do all the face-to-face meetings you’ve done in the past so we planned so much stuff with Brodie on a three-way call. Like Jon and I talked for probably 45 minutes and then we patched Brodie in and we talked for another 45 minutes. It’s a great process and I love talking wrestling with Jon, I love talking ideas with Jon but I learn so much every time I talk to him. Not always just about wrestling either. So much about so many different things.”
** Drew McIntyre appeared on FOX 13 to promote WrestleMania 37 at Raymond James Stadium. There will be a limited number of fans allowed to attend the event and McIntyre commented on his excitement about having fans back live.
“But I was so excited to find out we’re gonna ‘take two’ this year at the Raymond James Stadium. From what I hear, we are going to have a limited capacity. Keep your eyes and ears to the ground because we are going to be releasing information in the forthcoming weeks about those limited tickets. They are going to be the hottest tickets in town and I can’t wait to step out in Raymond James Stadium as WWE Champion. I’ve got my title always by my side and to actually have fans in attendance is gonna be unbelievable.”
** Grizzled Young Veterans (Zack Gibson & James Drake) were interviewed by The Independent. Gibson and Drake moved their belongings to the U.S. several days before the COVID-19 pandemic began. They flew back to the U.K. to get the rest of their belongings but ended up getting stuck because of travel restrictions.
“It was a tough pill to swallow,” Gibson said. “We had a lot of momentum at the start of 2020. We were ready to really put our foot down full steam ahead and really go for it. We flew back to the UK just to collect the last of our belongings, and the next time we flew to the States, that was supposed to be our move – we were supposed to be there for good. Two days before that, we got locked down with all of our belongings back in our apartment in the States. We were just stuck in the UK with nowhere to go and were in limbo for like eight months. I don’t want to try and liken that to the worst situations that’s happened [during lockdown], but we had to sit back for eight months and watch the industry move forward and watch while other talents took those spots and made the most of the opportunities that they were granted that slipped us by through no fault or action of our own.”
** PWInsider has an interview with Mercedes Martinez and during their chat, she discussed her brief stint in the RETRIBUTION group and why she decided to head back to NXT.
“I was given an opportunity, and I took the opportunity not knowing what the outcome would be, you got to make the best with anything you can, but I think when that opportunity came, it just wasn’t for me. When you hit the pinnacle of your career, as I did, hitting 20 years, you want to make the most of your career, and make it part of a legacy…I just think being part of that group, it’s not hidden fact that it was me, I don’t hide the fact, I don’t mention it, only because it was just a small part of what the bigger picture is. It’s kind of one of those things where it’s, ‘This is where Mercedes is, but maybe it doesn’t fit the mold, doesn’t fit her career.’ It was no hard feelings, I just think we both had two different plans, I wanted one thing to go one way, and they had a different outlook. I wish them success, to all those part of the group, and I wish them the best.”
** TV Insider ran their interview with AEW World Champion Kenny Omega. While speaking about his role as Co-Executive Vice President, Omega said he’s also one of the talents that is new to television and he is learning as he goes along with some of the roster.
“People forget I don’t have this plethora of television experience. [But] a lot of the challenges talent faces are ones I [now] face as well. I’ve had a lot of high-pressure situations where it was go big or go home: Sometimes a match will get cut two or three minutes in—problems you wouldn’t have to face in the indies or Japan or Mexico. It’s a group learning process. I do take responsibility in trying to learn quicker than everyone because I want to be there for others.”
Omega talked about AEW’s women’s division and said they are chomping at the bit for more TV spots. He feels that improvements are being made and the goal of getting more TV time is coming.
“I think we are taking baby steps. We have hungry performers who are passionate about getting a chance to do their best. Passion speaks to me more than the performance of a maneuver, and right now, our women are really chomping at the bit to get these TV spots.
They’re all training hard. Our roster keeps getting better. [No one has] lost their passion. They are still striving for that big goal, which is for the women’s division to get more time. I’ll have the biggest smile on my face the day we get it. I know we will.”
The news recently came out that back in September, both Nick Jackson and Chris Jericho contracted Coronavirus. Within wrestling as a whole, there have been speedbumps along the way as far as navigating the pandemic and Omega shared his thoughts about how AEW has navigated that road:
“That safety is paramount. COVID is a terrible situation for everyone across the board. The best thing we can do is be prepared to take care of one another right when something bad happens. There is no reason to do what we were taught to do at the entry level of wrestling, which is to tough [injuries] out. It doesn’t help anybody. We’ve had very serious situations and maybe didn’t do the right thing [in the past]. Luckily we didn’t pay the price for it.”
** The Wrestling’s Cool podcast welcomed Nick Gage onto the show. Nick reflected on his near-death experience when he competed in CZW’s Tournament of Death and a light tube punctured his armpit. Nick was airlifted to a hospital but returned to action just one week later.
“So, that was me and Thumbtack Jack. So, it was the finals and he went to throw me through the tubes, you know? And I just kinda landed through ‘em and the one just stood up and jagged into my armpit. If you don’t know this, that’s where you got major arteries in your armpit man. It’s dangerous there. That’s why guys in prison, they like to shank and they like to shank in the armpit and around that area. So, I sliced two of them arteries in there, so that’s why I was bleeding buckets and bleeding to death. But thank God I didn’t puncture the main artery, or we wouldn’t be doing this sh*t right now. So, it’s part of the gig though man, you know? It’s part of deathmatch wrestling. That’s why it’s deathmatch wrestling. Anything could happen at any time. You can get a big ass cut out of nowhere and you don’t even know it. That’s why I love that sh*t man.
I told her [the ringside nurse] to tape it up. Actually I knew that nurse very well. She’s been doing CZW from day one and I called her a b*tch and I feel bad but, at the time I was fired up man and she wasn’t listening to me and I just wanted to tape it up. But [I’m glad] she didn’t listen to me man because I would’ve been dead.”
** NXT’s Ridge Holland underwent surgery in October of 2020 after breaking and dislocating his left ankle, dislocating his kneecap and rupturing a patellar tendon. Telegraph & Argus has a feature up about Holland and he spoke about the injury that put him on the shelf.
“My injury happened when an opponent dived out of the ring onto me, as I tried to catch him I broke and dislocated my left ankle and dislocated my knee cap and ruptured the patellar tendon on the right leg. It was a freak injury. The recovery is going well, the medical staff are top notch and have got me well on the road to coming back.”
** JD Supra ran an article about Cody and Dustin Rhodes trademarking their in-ring names. Here’s an excerpt from the piece:
Thinking that the DUSTY RHODES name has never been federally registered and legally and publicly claimed, the more successful younger half-brother decided that someone should claim ownership of this common law mark. He filed a trademark application for this service mark on March 11, 2019, under his real name, Cody Runnells. The USPTO issued a denial of registration due to alleged market confusion with the registered marks, “THE NATURAL” DUSTIN RHODES and DUSTIN RHODES, two federal registrations applied for by none other than Cody’s half-brother, Dustin Runnells, a year earlier and issued a month before Cody filed his application.
Cody worked with AEW’s IP attorneys and responded to the refusal on the day of the 180 deadlines, somehow trying to argue that the marks are sufficiently different that consumers will not be confused as to the source of each mark. The USPTO was not convinced, and a second and final denial was issued. This time, Cody responded with a trademark consent agreement in which Dustin consented to Cody’s ownership and use of this stage name of their father’s.
** Former ROH World Champion Dalton Castle applied to trademark his in-ring name. Earlier this month, Wrestling Inc. reported that Castle officially became a free agent.
** ODB spoke to Chris Van Vliet for an interview and revealed that she was going to be present at the recent IMPACT tapings in Nashville, Tennessee.
“And actually, so I am actually getting back in the ring. So yes, IMPACT obviously called me and that’s the cool thing about stuff. I’ve never burned a bridge in wrestling. Like yeah, we all have our bad moments and stuff, whatever. You wanna go tell everyone to go f themselves, but IMPACT was awesome. Like TNA was always my home and then they buzzed me and every time I said, ‘Oh gosh, oh boy, here we go’ but, they’re like, ‘Hey, would you wanna come back and see what happens and possibly bring the food truck?’ So that’s my ultimate goal is to actually drive my ODBs Meat and Greet into a stadium and kick some ass.
I’ll be flying [to Nashville], and then coming back [to Florida] and then [possibly] in the future, hopefully next month bring the food truck to Nashville.”
** Matthew Rehwoldt, the former Aiden English was a guest on The VP Show’s ‘Wrestling With Awareness’ podcast. He shared that he and the late Jon Huber were trying to get a feud started in 2017 while they were in WWE. It was mostly promoted through social media as the two wrestled on house shows.
“So, we were trying to get a on-TV rivalry going actually, for a while in the summer of 2017. To the point, where we kind of like, just made the social media team post stuff about us, even though no creative had given us, like the go ahead that anything was happening. Like at house shows, because we were wrestling at house shows, and having a lot of fun. And so like, we did this thing where I was kind of like stalking him, and like, I thought we’d get pictures of me like, following him on his ring entrance with him not noticing, or anything, and like, we did TV in Rochester, which is his hometown, and like, they filmed us backstage, and like, I took a picture of me burning like, the Rochester Times with his picture on it, like ‘Homecoming’ it was, all this goofy stuff, and like, we even filmed a [WWE] dot.com segment, where like, I kind of confronted him very briefly, and a — but they just, they never went with it, but I don’t know why because silly things like that happen all the time.”
Rehwoldt was asked if he’d be interested in reuniting with Miro in AEW or reuniting with Simon Gotch in MLW. He expressed that he isn’t interested in rehashing what has already been done in another company.
“People always ask about reunions, and to be fair, I don’t know if I would want a reunion with Miro, per se. And the same thing, I think he would say the same thing, and I tell everybody this, because everyone’s like, ‘Oh, go here, and reunite with this. Go here, and reunite with this.’ You don’t want that, trust me, because no matter what you do, it will feel — unless you have the greatest idea in the world, you risk really trying to rehash something that was successful before. And you, you’re kind of, you’re using another company’s idea, in an essence. So, if the opportunity is right, and to maybe in a different capacity, I don’t want to try to make, ‘Miro Day,’ I don’t want to do the Vaudevillians 2.0. you know what I mean? If we were to get together, and create something new, and you know, hey, we can play off the story of our previous relationships, in either of those cases, great. But it has to be, it has to be done right, that’s the one thing I always want to emphasize to people, build new, don’t live in the past, always be pushing yourself forward, and create something new, and better.”
** Badshah Khan who was trained by The Great Khali, talked to ‘Kashmir Reader’ about his hopefulness that he’ll be picked for WWE’s forthcoming tryout in the spring.
** Ahead of his match against Tommaso Ciampa in the Fight Pit on NXT, Timothy Thatcher spoke to Sports Illustrated. He told the publication about his start in wrestling as a referee.
“I became a referee. It was a new adventure. Since I wanted to be properly trained for the job, I took all the wrestling classes. I was picking it up too quickly. So I was asked to wrestle, and that’s how I got my start.”
** Below is a preview of the WWE Network documentary about Pat Patterson:
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yktHh16LqFg[/embedyt]
** SunSport conducted an interview with The Miz and asked for his Mount Rushmore of wrestling. Miz selected himself, Ultimate Warrior, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and John Cena.
“He was my favorite as a child. Growing up there was no one bigger than the Ultimate Warrior. I was walking by and saw his dressing room. The door was open. From a distance, I could see he was in there. I was like, ‘Man, I should go and introduce myself and tell him how much of a fan I was.’ But I thought, ‘Nah, it’s the Hall of Fame, he probably has a long speech – I’ll wait until I see him again.’ I never did get to see him again.
The Rock made me love WWE again. Every time he talked, I wanted to hear what he was going to say next. Every time he was in the ring, I wanted to see what was going to happen. It’s kind of crazy, I did get in the ring with Rock and feel the energy and the electricity. The Rock says he’s ‘the most electrifying man in sports-entertainment’ – that’s true.
The reason that Cena’s on there is that he led WWE for longer than any superstar. He’s sold more shirts and captivated more audiences than anybody. Out of anybody, he taught me the most in the ring. Just being in the ring with a person like John Cena, you find out, ‘This is what I have to do to become the top guy – to become the face of WWE.’ When you get in the ring with him and you hear the audience, there’s an electricity that literally gives you goosebumps. There’s nothing quite like it.”
Miz discussed being the current Mr. Money In The Bank and stated that just because he is consistently picking up wins doesn’t mean that if he becomes WWE Champion, the title won’t be prestigious.
“I’ve been champion before. I know what it takes to be at the top. I know what it takes to be a main event caliber superstar. Just because you lose a couple of five-minute matches on a random Monday Night Raw… that doesn’t mean that when I win the WWE Championship that I won’t be prestigious, that I won’t make it the most relevant title, that I won’t make it the most important title in all of WWE. Because when I carry something I make it mean something. I’m making the Money in the Bank contract right now mean something – whether you like what I’m doing or not.”
** WWE backstage interviewer Charly Caruso is co-hosting the new ‘First Take, Her Take’ podcast along with Chiney Ogwumike and Kimberley Martin.
** The 2001 Royal Rumble pay-per-view was the focus of the latest Grilling JR podcast. While speaking about the Rumble being the precursor to WrestleMania, Jim Ross stated that while he worked with Vince McMahon, McMahon would consider what his WrestleMania main event would be by thinking about what it would look like on a poster.
“Oh yeah, absolutely. Well he’s a supreme marketer. He understands that image, a image of this event is going to influence a lot of interest. Does it influence them enough to go make them buy? I don’t know that. But it doesn’t hurt anything when you have an attention-grabbing, common sense-oriented poster, and as like I said, Rock and [Steve] Austin was the dream match. It was the match that we built for directly or indirectly for quite some time, which inconsequentially they had three main events at WrestleMania. 15, 17 and 19, and I was lucky enough to be around to call all of ‘em, so that’s always gonna be a great memory for me in my career is calling those three main events that those cats had at WrestleMania.”
On that Royal Rumble 2001 show, Ivory defeated Chyna to retain the WWF Women’s Championship. Ross has spoken at length in the past about how Chyna felt that competing against women was something that would not benefit her and Ross further elaborated on that:
“She went into the match with a negative feeling that it was beneath her. She beat Jeff Jarrett and other guys, the Intercontinental Champion to which I say, everybody beat Jeff Jarrett at one point in time, and I thought it sh*t all over the Intercontinental Title, because again, I’m not a fan of intergender wrestling which people can take any way they want. That doesn’t mean you don’t have to like it. You can like anything you want to. You can watch every intergender match known to God, have at it. It’s just not my cup of tea. I don’t like Anchovies either by the way so you can buy me a pizza, don’t put any Anchovies on it. That’s just a bullsh*t deal but anyway, I think that her attitude going into the match was negative, the creative didn’t help anything. It was all done to protect Joanie. We all gotta protect Joanie, and Joanie should’ve been a good enough worker to know how to lose, slipping on the proverbial banana peel or whatever it may have been to get out of there with something more tasteful as the finish was concerned. So, her motivation to not wanting to wrestle women was a negative, her demands on finishes and what she wanted or she would or wouldn’t do and we had to protect Joanie. [It] was dawning to come up with the right creative and whosever idea this was, it sucked pond water, honestly.”
** Allison Danger caught up with Renee Paquette and as their conversation rolled on, Renee recounted Vickie Guerrero, Tamina and several others being welcoming of her when she first started in WWE.
“I will always remember — I just kinda started. I’d been on the road for like a second and it was WrestleMania… God, 29? 29 I think was in New York, New Jersey and I had just started and I wouldn’t even bring my stuff in the locker room because I was like, ‘Well I’m a broadcaster. I don’t know if I should even bring my stuff in there. I don’t know where to go’ and Vickie Guerrero was like, ‘Girl, what are you doing? Bring your stuff in. You are one of us. You get to come be a part of this locker room.’ So I will always remember Vickie being somebody — and Vickie Guerrero, she’s a sweetheart, so lovely. But when you just watch her on TV, you’re like, ‘Oh my God, is she gonna be mean to me? Like what’s she gonna be like?’ So, and you know she’s like a veteran. She’s Vickie Guerrero, so I wasn’t sure if we could be friends or what she thought of me so for her to be so disarming and welcome me in — it was like her and Tamina because those two are thick as thieves too — to have those two women who are very much like the locker room leaders at the time, for them to welcome me in and tell me to bring my bags in there and just sort of made me feel comfortable, they were amazing.”
** Episode 71 of AEW Dark:
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12ZH3W5gLgI[/embedyt]
** Bill Pritchard of WrestleZone spoke to Madison Rayne about her retirement from wrestling.
** Announced for the 1/20 episode of AEW Dynamite is AEW World Champion Kenny Omega “reflecting on his dominance”. Sting and TNT Champion Darby Allin are appearing as well.
** Danny Limelight chatted with Wrestling Inc. for an interview. He talked about his AEW appearances and what it has been like to collaborate with AEW President Tony Khan. Limelight stated that he has not signed an exclusive contract anywhere but when he does, it’ll be in the best interest of his family and career.
“I think there is a good relationship there. Tony Khan is an amazing human being. In the Marine Corps, he would be what we considered a good leader, someone who leads with firmness, fairness and dignity, and I think that’s hard to find in any job. Someone who’s the head of the table of a company and cares about their people, cares about the people that are working for them day and night, day in and day out, week in and week out, whatever you want to say. I think that the matches that I’m having with AEW, the opponents that they’re putting me in the ring with shows that the company believes in me.
I don’t think I would be put in the situations that I’ve been put in if there wasn’t faith in me being able to deliver. That to me speaks volumes. I’m not signed anywhere. I haven’t signed any contracts. When an opportunity presents itself, I’m gonna make sure it’s a company that I can add value to, that I feel like I would be an asset to, a company I feel that’s gonna care about me and care about how my career is gonna go. It needs to be what I feel is best for the company and what’s best for me and my daughter.”
** Angelina Love and Laynie Luck were the most recent guests on ‘Rewind Recap Relive’. Angelina discussed Ring of Honor’s women’s division and the tournament to crown a new champion that was put on hold because of the COVID-19 pandemic. She said she thinks the company is sorting out how to still make it happen.
“I don’t know [about another IMPACT Wrestling run]. Never say never. But I don’t know. I was there off and on for ten years, so I’m happy in Ring of Honor. They treat us very well. It’s an awesome group of people who give 110 percent every show which keeps me being a fan. Like when I watch the show, I’m a fan which I love because after 20 years it could just be like, ‘Oh whatever.’ The Women Of Honor Title has been gone so they’re bringing in a new Ring of Honor Women’s Championship so it’s the Ring of Honor women’s division that the Women of Honor division is no more so of course I wanna be the inaugural Ring of Honor Women’s Champion and just have an eighth title. I’m always going after the titles and I always wanna go — anywhere I go I wanna be the best and I want to prove why I am the best so, The Allure will be rocking and rolling. We’re filming this month. So, and I know at some point — I don’t know how they’re going to do it because a lot of the girls that were gonna be coming in were from other countries, so I don’t know how that’s gonna happen but I do think they’re gonna try and get that women’s tournament figured out to crown the first champion so…”
** Jordan Oliver vs. Simon Gotch is scheduled to take place on the 1/20 episode of FUSION. This match was originally slated for MLW Kings of Colosseum in early January.
** Gran Metalik and Lince Dorado are taking on Fabian Aichner and Marcel Barthel in the first-round of the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic on the 1/20 episode of NXT.
** Kofi Kingston responded to Mustafa Ali’s promo about Kofi ‘taking’ his a potential WWE Championship winning moment in 2019 after Ali was injured and removed from the Elimination Chamber that year.
(Gimme a) break pic.twitter.com/BUBH5SX84n
— ⚔️ KOFNAN the Barbarian ⚔️ (@TrueKofi) January 19, 2021
** January 19th is the birthday of the late Pat Patterson who passed away in December.
** Calvin Tankman spoke to Joey G of Wrestling Headlines and told the site about why he decided to sign with Major League Wrestling.
“Basically they were the people that said, ‘We are behind you 100%. We believe in you. We see you and we have this vision in our head of what you’re capable of. We’ll give you the opportunity if you can seize it and show us that you’re worth that.’ Getting that vote of confidence in someone saying, ‘Hey I believe in you’ really made me want to go out there and prove that I can do it on the next level. There’s a lot more guys from the indies going to bigger places now, but at times it’s not always as easy as that. There’s only so many spots that can be filled in so many places, so when you get an opportunity you got to seize that opportunity and kill it. So when Court came to me and said, ‘Listen…I have this spot…I want you to have it, I want you to prove to me what you can do on this level,’ that’s all I needed.”
** Referee Kris Levin noted that he has a strained rotator cuff.
** IMPACT Knockouts Champion Deonna Purrazzo appeared on the ‘Not About Wrestling’ podcast.
** NJPW Road to New Beginning Results (1/19/21) Korakuen Hall
– Will Ospreay & Great-O-Khan def. Satoshi Kojima & Yota Tsuji
– El Phantasmo, Gedo, Jado & Taiji Ishimori def. DOUKI, Yoshinobu Kanemaru, El Desperado & Minoru Suzuki
– Dick Togo, Yujiro Takahashi & EVIL def. YOSHI-HASHI, Kazuchika Okada & Hirooki Goto
– Tetsuya Naito & SANADA def. Kota Ibushi & Tomoaki Honma
– Shingo Takagi, Hiromu Takahashi & BUSHI def. Sho, Master Wato & Hiroshi Tanahashi
** The match card for Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling’s 2/11 show has been announced. All championships will be on the line.
** Ringsiders Wrestling posted their interview with Danny Limelight.
** The Major Wrestling Figure Podcast YouTube channel has a video up of a full tour of Matt Cardona’s action figure room.
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rO3BNRU96do[/embedyt]
** Grizzled Young Veterans (James Drake & Zack Gibson) did an interview with ‘Metro’.
** The following video is from Ronda Rousey’s YouTube channel:
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKSdua8INIo[/embedyt]
** Here are the results from the 1/18 episode of ROH TV:
– Pure Rules Match: Flip Gordon def. Rhett Titus
– ROH World Television Championship: Dragon Lee (c) def. Rey Horus
** Myron Reed was a guest on Straight Talk Wrestling.
** U.K. outlet ‘Metro’ spoke with Eric Bischoff.
** AEW’s Wardlow turned 33-years old on 1/19.
** The Scottish Sun has a recap on their site of a Q&A that Grado did.
** Independent wrestler Gotham was interviewed by The Sun Daily.
** Rob Schamberger’s latest Canvas 2 Canvas episode is about Shinsuke Nakamura.
** Isaiah “Swerve” Scott and Teasy welcomed Angelo Dawkins and Rich Latta onto the Swerve City Podcast for the ‘Chit Trap’ portion of their show.
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKNprQpt3Pc[/embedyt]
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.
