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.
** Chris Van Vliet chatted with Jonathan Coachman and as their discussion rolled on, Coachman talked about his return to the commentary desk for WWE in 2018. He joined Michael Cole and Corey Graves and hindsight being 20/20, he views the decision as a mistake and explained why. Coachman admitted that while he is very fond of Corey Graves as an individual, he felt that Graves did not want a third person on commentary.
“The mistake that I made to be brutally honest with you, I never wanted to do commentary. I had already signed my deal with Golf to be the voice of the World Long Drive tour, to do PGA TOUR events. I knew I was gonna have to miss five RAWs that first year. Do you know in my ten years when I was there full-time, I missed one, and so then in eight months I was gonna miss five. That felt like 50, and I knew Vince [McMahon] wasn’t gonna be happy with it and to be honest, I like Corey Graves as a person but I just don’t think he wanted a partner. I think now he’s better than he’s ever been because he doesn’t have to do a three-man booth. Nobody likes doing a three-man booth. It’s too many people, it’s too many guys trying to talk. I just don’t think he wanted me there and that’s okay, that’s okay because now I think he’s able to shine with just him and Michael Cole so that was the mistake I made was accepting the role they wanted me to play because Vince [McMahon], because of my days at ESPN, he didn’t want me to go back to heel Coach. That’s the Coach that I love. I love heel Coach. Heel Coach is fun. But, he didn’t want me to lose the credibility that I had gained in ten years as a SportsCenter anchor which at the time I agreed with. If I ever went back again now which highly — I would give it a two percent chance of me ever doing wrestling again, but if I did, it would have to be on my terms and doing it my way because when I was most popular there was when I was a heel and I was a character and now I feel so good about the other things that I’m doing and they know who I am, that I could do heel Coach and it would be okay.”
Coachman was present at the 1999 Over The Edge pay-per-view where Owen Hart tragically died. At the time, Coach was a news anchor for a station in Kansas City, Missouri. Coach sat in the seventh row and believes that the only light of that situation was that the arena was blacked out when Owen Hart fell because The Godfather was cutting a promo backstage before their match.
“I was in the seventh row. I was behind a doctor and his family and when the tragedy happened and they were doing CPR and J.R. and The King [Lawler] get up from their spots and they run around, it felt like something was wrong but you gotta remember in wrestling, you always feel like it’s a part of the show, and so as they pushed Owen Hart out of the building, I’m talking to the doctor, I’m saying, ‘Do you think that is real?’ And he said — I’ll never forget his quote. He said, ‘If that’s real, that’s the worst CPR I’ve ever seen.’ They were literally straddling him and giving him CPR as they were pushing him back down the aisle, back through the curtain to the back, and so the show ended about 20 minutes early because that match never happened and the saving grace to this day I believe is the fact that The Godfather was doing an interview up on the screen, so everything was black. It was dark and then you just heard this, ‘Boom!’ And everything was shaking, and then the lights came up and unfortunately Owen was laying there and I believe if the lights would’ve been up and we all would’ve saw it, how much PT[SD] — whatever you wanna call it. I would still be dealing with today, other people would still be dealing with today. It was — tragic doesn’t even begin to describe it.”
Coach mentioned how not too long after the tragedy, he was hired by WWE. There was an episode of SmackDown already scheduled for August of 1999 in the same arena in Missouri and WWE struggled to sell tickets for the event. WWE brought Shawn Michaels in to do an interview with Coach to promote the show because he had treated the company fairly in the past.
“After I was only there a month [news station in Missouri], in 1999, that’s when Owen Hart fell from the rafters and I was in the building and the next 24 hours really shaped what my future was going to be. After being on Good Morning America, Larry King Live, all these national shows, then fast forward three months and the first SmackDown was already booked in Kansas City. They couldn’t sell any tickets, so they called me, they said, ‘Coach, you were very kind to us, you’re very fair to us. We’d like to bring Shawn Michaels in for you to interview to promote the first SmackDown’ and that’s how I met the Senior VP, that turned into an audition and then three months later I was hired in 1999 by the WWE. It happened that fast.”
** Jon Moxley was the focus of an ‘Ask Me Anything’ that was hosted by Bleacher Report. One of the questions asked of Moxley is would he ever return to WWE and here’s how he responded:
“You gotta say never say never, because you don’t want to run back what you said years later because you don’t know what’ll happen. Just the creation of AEW was so vital to the wrestling industry, and that’s part of the reason why I’m so proud to be a part of it. I wouldn’t rule out ever doing business with them again, we had a mutually beneficial relationship for a long time. If they called I would listen, but I highly doubt we would ever be on the same page. I’d be open to an idea. I don’t not like money. I got a kid on the way and gotta put it through college so ya know. I would take a phone call, but I highly doubt anything would materialize.”
** Lio Rush was the inaugural guest on the MCW CAST. Rush is making his NJPW Strong debut on the 1/29 episode of the Friday night series and he spoke about his working relationship with New Japan Pro-Wrestling. He is hoping to become a mainstay in the company.
“So I’ve been having a pretty good working relationship with New Japan. I am debuting on the New Japan Strong tapings next week which I’m pretty excited about. I guess the people out there in Japan were pretty impressed with my performance in the Super J-Cup and they wanted to bring me back to the promotion to start up doing the New Japan Strong taping so hopefully that’ll be a weekly thing and that’ll lead to me going to Japan and hopefully one day being a mainstay in New Japan. So yeah, it’s pretty cool.”
Rush gave his thoughts on All Elite Wrestling using wrestlers at ringside as fans. He stated that he isn’t keen on it and had that been him, he possibly would’ve gotten in trouble for denying that spot.
“It’s a little weird. It depends on the company, obviously it depends on the budget. AEW’s running out of a freaking football stadium or whatever it is so they can afford to have people sit back hundreds and hundreds of feet away. But then they have — I don’t really understand putting the wrestlers in t-shirts and making them act like fans. I don’t really understand that. That is very silly to me. See, that is where I would’ve got in trouble. I probably would’ve got in trouble again. I would have said no. I’m a superstar according to you guys so I’m not about to be dressed up like a fan and banging on the gates and pretending like I’m a fan of another wrestler when I got a storyline with them in two weeks.”
With his venture into New Japan, MTV’s The Challenge and Major League Wrestling, Rush along with his wife Sarah are going to be launching their own podcast.
“I’m about to start a podcast pretty soon with Sarah. So I got that set up in here too, which is gonna focus more so on me and Sarah’s relationship, because I always wanted to do a podcast and it was in my head but I didn’t wanna be like a wrestler doing a wrestling podcast and I wanted to kinda get away from that so, we did like a little talk show, like a video webisode thing called Orange You Glad You Asked A Question but now we’re gonna do the Orange You Glad You Asked A Question, the podcast and it’s just gonna be answering questions from fans and maybe we’ll have a guest or two on there that we both have mutual connections with and stuff like that but, it’ll be pretty cool so…”
Early in the interview, Rush reflected on his memories with Maryland Championship Wrestling. He is the promotion’s current Rage Television Champion. Prior to signing to WWE, his last match for MCW was against the late RJ Meyer who passed away in November of 2020. Rush returned to MCW for Meyer’s tribute show and won the title that Meyer was synonymous with in the promotion. Rush spoke about what RJ means to his career:
“I will take my hat off and say he is a major reason why I got signed to WWE. He’s a major reason why I chose the path that I chose, you know, with independent wrestling and picking every single last show and having every single last detail make sense and like you said, having that show be my last, my last show on the independents, my last match, I just wanted to say thank you. I wanted that to be my last match, my last farewell before I went to the WWE just to say thank you for getting me to this point and I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for you, so yeah, it was pretty cool. It was a very special moment for me and even I made the decision a little bit before coming back to MCW and I told myself, ‘I’m not gonna be on the indies anymore. I don’t see my time in wrestling going any further.’ Really, I don’t know. I just felt like my time was kind of like dwindling down on the independent circuit and you know, finding out that show was happening, it just kind of reignited the flame a little bit. How appropriate, there’s flames on the side of this title [MCW Rage Television Championship], title that RJ [Meyer] made famous in Maryland and like you said, it’s just a picture-perfect story. Although RJ isn’t here with us anymore, in a sense he still is. He’s still running through all of our veins and our bodies and our spirits and our minds and stuff like that so, it’s picture-perfect even though the circumstances might not be what everybody wants them to be but everything happens for a reason and obviously I’m not saying that his passing is what — he’s the reason why I’m continuing to go on the independent circuit. But in a sense, it really is. I needed that push, I needed that drive, I needed to know exactly how much RJ meant to me and how much he influenced my career and like I said, this is why I’m here today.”
** Heath, the former Heath Slater joined D-Von Dudley’s Table Talk podcast. Heath was last in action at IMPACT Wrestling’s Bound For Glory pay-per-view as a part of the Call Your Shot gauntlet match. He suffered a partially torn abductor muscle and a slight tear in his groin. He provided an update on how he’s doing and he’s meeting with a doctor on the 28th of this month but he stills feels that something is not right in the area that he is feeling pain in.
“So I had to find a doctor that can do a sports hernia plus, [reattach my] abductor muscle back to my bone, and I have a meeting with him on the 28th. I’m going stir crazy. I’m ready to get out there and just hang and bang and swing with it with like IMPACT working with AEW, AEW working with IMPACT, New Japan is like getting in the picture of it. I feel like I am missing the hell out. I’m frustrated, I’m mad. I’m getting real with everyone right now because I’m spitting right off the tongue, but it’s just one of those things to where like, I got so much aggression and fuel in the tank that I just wanna let out but I try to run and it feels like — you know when you’re on a rollercoaster and you hit that little drop and your stomach drops? I twist the wrong way, I feel that in my left side. I try to run, I even try to walk fast, my stomach feels like it’s dropping. You know your body and [if] something doesn’t feel right, you know that. So, something ain’t right in here man so thank God, I got a consultation on the 28th. It’s in Durham, North Carolina, three hours from my house so it’s like I wanna just be like, ‘Doc, if you can do it an hour, great. If you wanna do it tomorrow, I’m here. Let me know when you wanna do it. I’m ready.’ That’s where I am, at my life right now.”
On the topic of the IMPACT Wrestling/AEW crossover, Heath said he’s had conversations with AEW in the past and all of those discussions have been positive.
“It’s one of those things, you know, I got friends there that are working there, owning the company… behind like producing the company so I’ve literally had talks with them and it’s been good talks.”
Heath recalled his segment with Brock Lesnar on RAW when Lesnar said that he didn’t care about Heath’s kids. Heath said that originally, Brock was supposed to say, “I don’t give a damn” opposed to, “I don’t give a sh*t”.
“That segment put me on the map but slapped me in my face too, like literally. So yeah, the whole, ‘I don’t give a sh*t about your kids’ was supposed to be, ‘I don’t give a damn about your kids’ and I guess the crowd was into it and the people were — hey, I got a shirt out of that segment because this is a fact: Everyone knows that if you give me bullet points and tell me this is the ending place, I can come up with the right words to where my fans can translate and be with me but when you hand me a damn four page script and I have to go out there and then you’re changing it every hour, and then 20 minutes before I go out there, I got everything that I think that I have to say in my mind and then you give me a new script, and then I’m like what the hell is going on?”
** Inside The Ropes released a clip from their stage show with Dustin Rhodes. Rhodes looked back on the period of his career as Goldust and the character developing Tourette’s. He explained how that layer of the character came to be.
“So I guess out of the genius’ head, Vince McMahon, he said, ‘Hey, let’s throw you into a panel and give you this’ because somebody told him that I was doing this on the road and he thought that would be funny and he just evolved the character again, you know? And it was, ‘Let’s have Batista and Randy Orton throw you into an electrical panel and we’ll give you Tourette’s.’ Okay, like that’s really gonna happen. Okay, that’s cool so we did it and the rest was history. But it was actually a lot harder to do once I had to do it on command. Like if I’m in the ring, the famous one that I always see on YouTube is the WrestleMa-aaaa-ania with Hunter and Ric Flair, and you just start thinking of words just to spit out and it’s so much harder when you do it front of thousands of people while you’re wrestling, because Vince wanted me to do — like I’ll be wrestling, do some moves and just do something weird and I tried that a couple times and it just, it didn’t resonate good on TV I guess because it’s like, ‘Goldust just looks goofy. What is he doing?’”
** WWE artist Rob Schamberger guest appeared on the Talkin’ Sass podcast. Rob explained how his agreement with WWE works in terms of him being compensated for his art. He’s not under contract to the company and makes his living through what he sells and gets a cut of it.
“It’s a matter of who I haven’t painted in a while or it’s someone that I’ve never painted that’s getting attention. It’s difficult because this is the sole way that I can make my money, and I’m not on WWE’s salary. I don’t have a guarantee. It’s by what sells and I get a percentage and that’s it, and so sometimes I do have to make the decision of like, ‘Okay there’s someone new but they haven’t really connected with the audience in a big way yet.’ So I could do one of them or I could do one of Asuka and make sure I’m paying my rent that week, you know? So those kind of factors go into it of course but also, sometimes I’ll put people in that fitted in because I’m passionate as well about what they’re doing and I wanna help them, give them another tool that they can use.”
Rob recalled his only interaction with Vince McMahon. It came about when Schamberger presented a piece to the family of the late Connor Michalek. Stephanie McMahon, Paul “Triple H” Levesque and Vince were there to see it but Rob was not aware that they were watching.
“So I come out, give the painting to him and Jackson, Connor [Michalek’s] little brother and we just talk and have this very real moment and the lights were on, the cameras were there. I didn’t care. I was there for the family. So, they turn off the lights and standing there are Vince, Steph and Triple H, and Steph of course being who she is gives me a big hug, Triple H shakes my hand and Vince gave me a nod and that’s the only in-person interaction I’ve had with Vince and that’s enough. I’ve been told he likes the stuff, that’s good enough and otherwise, when I’m at shows, I don’t wanna interrupt him or anything. He’s making his art, so I stay out of the way. But, in that moment, I’m glad I didn’t know they were there, because I would’ve been in my head. Instead, I got to just focus on the family and do the special thing with them that I know Steve [Connor’s father] still has that painting in his bedroom, and I don’t think I’ll ever do anything that will mean more to me on a personal level than that one.”
Elsewhere during the interview, Rob shared that CM Punk was one of the inspirations behind him creating portraits of WWE talents.
“Yeah, around then, the vibe around him [CM Punk] and he was very artist-friendly. One of his shirts was designed by Jill Thompson, really famous comic book artist, who’s become a friend of mine since. But seeing that he was so receptive to that and also the fans that were into him were into the kind of stuff I was making as well so it really felt like a natural fit. Like when I started the project that I’m still working on, the champion’s collection where I’m painting every world champion going back to George Hackenschmidt. The first one I did was Harley Race because I’m a Kansas City guy, Harley is Kansas City, and then Punk was the second one.”
** WWE Backstage is returning to FS1 the night before the 2021 Royal Rumble. Renee Paquette, Booker T and Paige are going to be on the show.
** In the main event of the 1/20 episode of NXT, Timothy Thatcher tapped out Tommaso Ciampa in the Fight Pit. On that same show, Karrion Kross “injured” Ashante “Thee” Adonis which took him and Desmond Troy out of the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic. Filling that spot will be Ciampa and Thatcher, as confirmed by NXT on-screen General Manager William Regal.
** Giant Bomb got Kenny Omega and Xavier Woods together and they chatted about their favorite video games, threw friendly jabs at one another and talked about the past year of their respective careers.
** Aubrey Edwards and Tony Schiavone welcomed Powerhouse Hobbs onto the AEW Unrestricted podcast. Hobbs reflected on his WWE tryout and being told that they had nothing for him. He added that once he appeared on AEW programming, WWE reached out about an opportunity.
“The tryout was good. That’s a long story but I’ll give you the short story. They said we didn’t have anything for you right now. Just years later, getting the carrot dangling in front of me then pretty much told them F you so… right when I appeared on AEW, you wanna, ‘Hey, remember me?’ Nah. The way I was raised, I don’t got time for that sh*t. So, I’m not Boo Boo the Fool as my grandma used to say so…”
Diving into his signing to AEW, Hobbs said he started off on a tier zero deal with the company. It was after he assisted Jon Moxley on an episode of Dynamite that he was presented with a full-time offer.
“So I started off as a tier zero and then, I believe I got that offer, I wanna say after my Darby [Allin] match for the Saturday Night Dynamite, and so I was like, ‘Okay, I’m on my way. I’m [gonna] make some noise’ and then I believe the pay-per-view [All Out] was like, I wanna say maybe three weeks after that? And then right after I did my whole little thing with Mox, saving him, I got to the back and had another contract waiting for me. I got on the phone, I called a few people back at home and when I got back to the hotel, I’m not a real, whole emotional person but I had to shed a few tears and I got a congratulations from a lot of people there at AEW so, it was cool.”
** The newest ACE’s HIGH is up on NJPW1972.com and in this portion of the interview series, Hiroshi Tanahashi opened up about how he was influenced by Shawn Michaels early in his career.
“I spent a lot of time back then watching my matches back and thinking about how I could have done things better. It was around this time I started watching Shawn Michaels, and that really changed the way I look at wrestling.
I think it was the TV (WWE) were putting out here at the time. You know, as a fan I never watched American wrestling, but watching him from a pro’s perspective, I really appreciated just how good he was. He wasn’t a big hulking guy, wasn’t as athletic as Kota Ibushi is, say. So I really wanted to watch him to see just why he was at the top of the heap.”
After Tanahashi wrestled Kurt Angle, Angle later went on to call Tanahashi the Japanese version of Shawn Michaels. Tanahashi was happy to receive the compliment but also thought that it may have been signaled that he had been watching Shawn Michaels’ matches.
“That was something to hear. On one hand I was happy for the compliment, but on the other I thought, ‘Ah damn, I’ve been found out!’ (laughs) There was a lot of subconscious influence going on, just in the progression of my matches toward the finish. I think, though, it speaks to something I always feel wrestling someone new. I always know whether someone really watches a lot of wrestling.”
** Game Changer Wrestling announced Joey Janela versus Elayna Black for the 24-hour Fight Forever show. Black’s signing to WWE was announced on 1/20.
** WWE Universal Champion Roman Reigns spoke to Bleacher Report for an interview. Reigns shared that WWE is in the process of putting together a new theme song for him but they are waiting for the perfect sound.
“We’re working on it. It’s not easy because I’m not going to… With this character, it has to be the right vibe. We can’t just hire a rapper and check out this guitar riff. It can’t be some rock music. The Shield music, I wasn’t even really into it back in the day; but over the years, it just started working. You get so used to it that I just time my pace to it. But yeah, it takes some time and it has to be right.
In order to move away from something you’ve had for so long and is so recognizable like the music that I have now, it’s got to be perfect. It’s taking some time, but we’re definitely working on it, so please be patient.”
** According to PWInsider, Chris Kanyon will be spotlighted in the upcoming season of Dark Side of the Ring.
** Taylor Wilde joined the Women’s Wrestling Talk podcast and during their conversation, Wilde talked about NXT talent Aliyah who she once coached and established a relationship with. Aliyah will be a future guest on Wilde’s podcast. Taylor feels that WWE could be doing more with Aliyah on TV.
“So here’s the thing with WWE: At least in my experience when you’re a developmental talent, if you kind of reach the year, year-and-a-half mark and they haven’t found anything for you, you’re pretty much an expiring date. Here she is on five years and she’s still plugging away, they’re using her. Like you said, I don’t think they’re utilizing her to her full potential. She’s an amazing wrestler and she doesn’t get to wrestle that much so, like I said, the biggest thing is knowing who you are and with WWE, you don’t always get to do who you are. They tell you who you are and then you gotta do right with that sort of thing and I think because of that, talent hasn’t always [gotten] to shine. I want her to succeed. I think WWE has always been her goal, so I support her in that. She also has an education, she also has this background in equestrian. I don’t know what the full name is but she’s an equestrian. So she has all of the other things going on. I would love to see her in another company where she would have more creative control, because she actually has a huge laugh. Like you can see it in her character. There’s a lot of personality there but she’s being told to play a role and she’s doing her best but I would like to see the more athletic side of Aliyah because she’s got great character and that can lead you to a long career. Character is everything. But, there’s so much more to her.”
Wilde heaped praise onto several current talents. One of those talents was Killer Kelly who Wilde sees a female Chris Benoit.
“And Killer Kelly, so we’re not talking about big promotions here. She was formerly NXT UK, now she’s a free agent. We did see her in IMPACT not that long ago in the tag team tournament. So, her thing with me is I’ve never seen a female wrestler do what she does. She’s like a little female Chris Benoit. She brings the energy and I love her wrestling style. It makes me really excited so I would love to wrestle with her [in] whatever company she ends up in.”
** 95.3 WDAE welcomed Drew McIntyre onto the show to chat about his WWE Title run[s] and WrestleMania 37. McIntyre recounted his Hell In A Cell match against Randy Orton and stated that the table bump he took off the cell caused him to bit through his tongue and split it in two.
“But that particular fall, I was so, so lucky to not get a serious injury. I went through the table, I had severe whiplash, I thought I heard some cracks in my neck, I was worried about my neck. I bit through my tongue. My tongue was in two separate pieces. It was such a violent fall and I will never, ever do it again. I have done it once, so [it won’t] be another the rest of the time. A crazy, crazy looking video clip of a 6’5, 270 pound man falling from very high, hard through a table.”
When asked about the upcoming Royal Rumble pay-per-view, McIntyre says he can see the current Intercontinental Champion Big E winning the match.
“Oh my goodness, Royal Rumble for me and Goldberg is easy. Three, two, one, Claymore. Goldberg’s going night night. When it comes to the Royal Rumble itself, I think it’s gonna be somebody [that’s] gonna surprise the world. Like Drew McIntyre winning last year, nobody saw that coming. Changed the course of my career, changed the course of WWE. I can see somebody like Big E surprising everybody and winning the Royal Rumble this year. He’s on such a roll.”
** Former WWE Presidents George Barrios and Michelle Wilson filed for a special purpose acquisition company and are seeking $200 million to acquire a digital and media entertainment company.
** Rob Higgins, Executive Director of the Tampa Sports Commission talked to News Channel 8 about WWE hosting WrestleMania 37 from Raymond James Stadium in Tampa.
“WrestleMania has been an event from our perspective that’s literally been at the top of the list of events that we’ve always coveted but have never had the opportunity to host and we had been on for more than ten years and we got so close to it, actually hosting WrestleMania 36 last year but naturally, the right decision was made in terms of modifying and relocating it to the training center in Orlando so, we never let John [Saboor, WWE EVP of Events] — we never let the communication with John slow down one bit with our friends at WWE. We’re fortunate to have WWE ThunderDome taking place at Tropicana Field with our good friends at the [Tampa Bay] Rays who continue to have us in constant communication as well and so, to have this announcement coming with the historic nature of it, being a two-night event at the stadium. The very first time that’s been done, April 10th and 11th. The timing couldn’t be any better.”
** The latest guest on The Turnbuckle Tavern podcast was Thunder Rosa. Early in her career, Rosa worked for STARDOM in Japan and during her time with the promotion, she once suffered a concussion in a match with Kyoko Kimura. Rosa detailed how the concussion was handled by management and coming to the realization that she didn’t have a work visa to wrestle in Japan.
“It was with [Kyoko] Kimura-san because I was super young in the business, I wasn’t selling for her, so she straight up gave me a head bump. It wasn’t like a work head bump. She gave me a head bump bruh. So she gave me a head bump and I wasn’t feeling sick or anything so I was good for like I said, three days and then — so, I was fine and all of a sudden on the third day, I started feeling something weird in my head. I started feeling like something [was] coming in the back of my head and then the next day, I couldn’t walk. You know when you get on a ship and it’s rocking? I felt like that so I couldn’t walk and I was nauseous and I was really, really sick and really, really tired. I remember I just wanted to go to sleep, and they were like, ‘We gotta go to training.’ I was like, ‘I can’t go to training like this. I’m sick’ and they’re like, ‘No, you have to go to training,’ because they were about to leave for a tour for five days and I was like alright. So I went and I literally was green. Like I was so sick, I was falling asleep everywhere, everywhere and I remember they’re like, ‘Oh, we gotta practice our match’ and I’m just looking at them like, ‘Are you f*cking kidding me? I am f*cking sick. I’m about to throw up, I don’t know what’s wrong with me,’ and I’m practicing things and they want me to bump and I’m like literally, ‘I can’t! I can’t move, I can’t stand up, I can’t do nothing’ and then the general manager back then, she saw how sick I was because I was sleeping. There was a little sofa there. I was sleeping there and she’s asking, ‘What’s wrong with her?’ They’re like, ‘I don’t know. She said she can’t move, she can’t walk.’ She looked at me, she said, ‘We’re gonna go to [Rossy] Ogawa-san’s house,’ which is the promoter because they didn’t wanna take me to the hospital either. She got a taxi, we went to the promoter’s house and I’m still really sick and I was like, ‘I don’t know what’s wrong with me man, I’m sick.’ He’s like, ‘Nah man, you’re not sick, you’re not sick.’ I’m just like, ‘F*ck, I’m not gonna get paid.’ I don’t work, I don’t get paid. So I’m sick or whatever they call it and she forced him to call an ambulance and [she] was like, ‘I don’t care. How much do I have to pay? She needs to go to a hospital,’ and they’re going back and forth, back and forth and I’m like, ‘Say yes or no. I wanna go to sleep. I feel like sh*t. I don’t care.’ They finally call an ambulance, I get on the ambulance. As soon as I get on the ambulance, I start throwing up. The most scary part — this is not even the most scary part. I didn’t have a visa to be working in Japan. You know I could’ve gotten totally arrested or deported so I was like, ‘Oh, I was playing and I hit my head.’ Yeah, so I went and they did the MRI and it was obvious. It was a light concussion which didn’t feel like a f*cking light concussion. It felt like I was gonna die.”
Hana Kimura took care of Thunder Rosa while she recovered. Rosa shared that she was paid $80 for the month of action that she missed.
“The whole month, I didn’t get paid. I’m gonna tell you how much I got paid because the General Manager again, advocated for me and said, ‘Hey, she needs money for food.’ I had no money, at that point. No money. I had $500 but I couldn’t f*cking change them anywhere because I didn’t know where the bank was, nothing. I didn’t know nothing, it was my first tour. They gave me $80. $80 and I was like, ‘Alright.’”
** Eddie Edwards was the most recent guest on Tommy Dreamer’s House Of Hardcore podcast. While speaking about the bat incident between himself and Sami Callihan, Edwards said he’s been on the other side of a similar situation when Bobby Fish broke his leg in a match with him. In the end, Edwards feels that he, Sami and IMPACT Wrestling made the best out of the situation.
“I’ve been on the other end of that where I wrestled Bobby Fish and I broke his leg, his leg broke in the match and it’s the worst feeling in the world. So I’ve been on the other side. But we were all — I think between creative, myself and Sami [Callihan], it was like, ‘Well, let’s just run with this. We have something.’ It’s not like you can ignore what happened. It was pretty big news at the time, you know, what was going on so, I remember when it aired because we did the pre-tapes in Orlando and that’s when it happened, and then when it aired it just blew up and social media and Twitter and all this so, but it was — I feel like we did the best we could do and it was the right decision because it helped turn me into where I am now because who knows where I would be or how my character would have evolved without that leading to this.”
** Rick Bassman shared footage from an Ultimate Pro Wrestling training session that included John Cena from the beginning of his pro wrestling career.
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFeIX7naunM[/embedyt]
** MVP hopped on the remix of ‘The Hurt Business’ song that Wale, Westside Gunn and Smoke DZA created.
NEW MUSIC!!!!!! The HURT BUSINESS REMIX WSG x @smokedza x @Wale and WWE SUPERSTAR @The305MVP 🔥🔥🔥 #CULTURE #4thROPE #CONFLICTED #theHURTBUSINESS @GriseldaRecords https://t.co/KBbvlslCoO pic.twitter.com/nwQ9lEk6AK
— WESTSIDEGUNN (@WESTSIDEGUNN) January 21, 2021
** Scheduled for the 1/28 episode of NXT UK on the WWE Network is a four way elimination tag match to determine the #1 contenders to the NXT UK Tag Team Championships. Competing in the match are: Flash Morgan Webster & Mark Andrews, Wildboar & Primate, Ashton Smith & Oliver Carter along with Pretty Deadly (Lewis Howley & Sam Stoker). Kay Lee Ray successfully defended the NXT UK Women’s Title on 1/21 against Jinny. Also scheduled for next week is the return of Ben Carter who lost to Jordan Devlin in a Cruiserweight Title match in his NXT UK debut.
** Matt Cardona and Brian Myers uploaded a VLOG from the recent IMPACT Wrestling tapings in Nashville.
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3df7lWoPHA[/embedyt]
** Jim Varsallone of the Miami Herald conducted an interview with Drew McIntyre. WWE is going to be doing a two-night WrestleMania for the second consecutive year and McIntyre said he prefers that over the original format.
“Yeah I like it a lot. Last year, I think it was created just because of the nature of the times we’re in right now and rather than just one night of WrestleMania, it gave the fans a whole weekend to look forward to. Like, ‘Oh, my Saturday’s covered, my Sunday’s covered. I got WrestleMania weekend’ and it’s the same this year. We’re taking it over two days because of the times we live in and maybe we’ll go back to the original format of one night but honestly I love the idea of WrestleMania weekend. I think sometimes seven hours is a bit much for the performers. If you’re on match number 23 or something like Roman Reigns and I were a couple years ago, crowd [will] get tired after about the fourth or fifth or sixth hour and like, they’re gonna stay there, they’re gonna love every second of it but if you could break that up over two days, they’ve got an entire weekend to look forward to. Going to the two shows back-to-back, maybe just one night, they pick their night and the fans at home have got a whole weekend to look forward to and I love the idea of two nights.”
** Trish Stratus joined Taylor Wilde’s ‘Wilde On’ podcast.
** IWGP Heavyweight and Intercontinental Champion Kota Ibushi did an interview with NJPW1972.com and talked about Jay White’s in-ring ability:
“You can’t argue that he’s a phenomenal wrestler. To be able to wrestle like he does at his age is incredible. Granted, he didn’t go through what I went through those two nights, but you have to give credit where it’s due.”
** Major League Wrestling announced the following for their next several weeks of programming:
– IWA Caribbean Heavyweight Championship – Strap Match: Richard Holliday (c) vs. Savio Vega (1/27)
– MLW National Openweight Championship – Bakeli Brawl: Hammerstone (c) vs. Mads Krügger (2/3)
– Filthy Island episode of FUSION (2/17)
** Here’s a clip from Booker T’s animated series:
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHY2EVb5Hf8[/embedyt]
** Natalya wrote about WrestleMania 37 for the Calgary Sun.
** Hiroshi Tanahashi spoke with Sports Illustrated and told the publication that he thinks Yuya Uemura is New Japan’s next breakout star.
** Prior to the 1/20 episode of NXT, Mercedes Martinez chatted with Comicbook.com and gave her thoughts on her stint with The Robert Stone Brand that included herself, Aliyah and Robert Stone.
“Yeah, I think it was an awkward pairing, but I think we fed off of each other, and I think the way I looked at it was I had to focus on my in-ring stuff. Anything outside of the ring, that was the whole point of the Robert Stone Brand and his job, was to make sure he made a match for me, focus on the business side of it while I focus on my training, the working out, and focus on what I need to do in the ring. And somehow, someway, it just didn’t work out. His dynamic was different. The dynamic was pairing me up with Aliyah. And it was like a little sister, big sister type of thing, but sometimes, egos clash. I’m a no-nonsense type of a wrestler and a person, and Aliyah’s like this little, annoying, little person and Robert Stone just wasn’t the right fit for me at that time. It worked for what it had to work for, and it got me to where I had to get to, but it wasn’t the right fit for that time.”
** Titus O’Neil appeared on 95.3 WDAE.
** Jay Lethal & Jonathan Gresham vs. The Young Bucks vs. Chris Sabin & KUSHIDA vs. The Kingdom:
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRMmn0UgZIQ[/embedyt]
** Charlotte Flair and Stephanie McMahon did promotional work for WWE to amplify the announcement of WrestleMania returning to Texas in 2022.
** Scorpio Guy was a guest on the Wrestle Buddies podcast.
** NJPW Road to New Beginning Results (1/21/21) Saitama, Japan
– Tiger Mask & Yuji Nagata def. Togi Makabe & Yota Tsuji
– Great-O-Khan & Will Ospreay def. Satoshi Kojima & Yuya Uemura
– DOUKI, El Desperado, Minoru Suzuki & Yoshinobu Kanemaru def. BULLET CLUB (El Phantasmo, Gedo, Jado & Taiji Ishimori)
– Hirooki Goto, Kazuchika Okada & Tomohiro Ishii def. Dick Togo, EVIL & Yujiro Takahashi
– Los Ingobernables de Japon (BUSHI, Hiromu Takahashi, SANADA, Shingo Takagi & Tetsuya Naito) def. Hiroshi Tanahashi, Kota Ibushi, Master Wato, SHO & Tomoaki Honma
** WWE uploaded a clip to their YouTube channel from Bianca Belair’s ‘Chronicle’ episode that premieres this weekend.
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iru_LRI2FlY[/embedyt]
** Firstpost chatted with Sunil and Samir Singh.
** Brian Johnson was the latest guest on the ROHStrong podcast.
** The Bollywood Boys (Sunil & Samir Singh) spoke to Sportskeeda to promote WWE Superstar Spectacle.
** Xavier Woods and Tyler Breeze recorded a new episode of Battle of the Brands.
** Maryse Ouellet-Mizanin turned 38-years old on 1/21.
** Drew McIntyre joined The Arash Markazi Show.
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.
