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.
** Damian Priest did an interview with Sporting News Australia. During their conversation, Priest was candid about the confidence that was put into him upon his arrival to Raw alongside Bad Bunny. Priest said there were a number of people who told him that he could not mess the opportunity up or he’d be done.
Yes (it does give me confidence). It goes both ways. I can put in all the work I want, but obviously I also need the company to believe in me and have my back. A lot of people were honest with me and they told me, ‘Listen, you can’t blow this because if you do, you’re done.’ All I said was you’re giving me the opportunity, I’m going to do everything to my abilities to knock this out of the park. I knew I had put in the work, so give me the opportunity and I will do my end. It goes both ways, and I think we both delivered so we brought our audience a product worthy of them being entertained and being happy to watch.
Priest recalled when he was told about his 2021 Royal Rumble appearance. Paul “Triple H” Levesque relayed that information to him but Priest thought the conversation was only going to be about the Rumble.
We’re in the WWE, so we know switching brands is a given and that’s gonna happen to just about everyone at some point. When it happens, this is Raw or this is SmackDown, these are the programs since I was a kid that I’ve been watching. The Royal Rumble is my favorite pay-per-view of the year – it’s most people’s just because the thrill of who’s next, and the buzzer and the music. It’s so exciting and then it’s the road to WrestleMania. It was really cool when he told me that, and then to actually be in the Royal Rumble and the countdown and my music hitting – it was what I wanted. The feeling I had was exactly what it should have been, and I was extremely happy to have had that moment.
** Ahead of his IWGP U.S. Heavyweight Title match on AEW Dynamite, Yuji Nagata was the focus of a virtual meet-and-greet that was hosted by New Japan Pro-Wrestling. Here are some highlights from that meet-and-greet session:
– Nagata wants to face Great-O-Khan for his 30th Anniversary in 2022.
– If he wins the IWGP U.S. Heavyweight Title, he wants to bring it to the same level of the IWGP World Heavyweight Title.
– Nagata plans to look for wrestlers he can face when he goes to Jacksonville, Florida for AEW Dynamite.
– His favorite opponent to face was Kurt Angle.
– Nagata’s biggest goal is to win the IWGP World Heavyweight Title before he retires.
** Bruce Prichard and Conrad Thompson covered WWE’s 2006 Backlash pay-per-view for the latest Something to Wrestle with podcast. On that show was the match with Vince and Shane McMahon taking on Shawn Michaels and God. Here is Prichard’s rebuttal to those that do not look back fondly on the match and the lead-up to it with Vince comparing himself to God:
It’s entertainment! It’s parody! Again, this is entertainment, this is parody and it’s okay for movies and all that to do it but not do it here?
Religious people that have lived their entire life under that and that have grown up that way [I understand them being offended] but I do think based in entertainment and parody that this was entertainment. For those that took it seriously, well then, sorry.
Prichard reflected on the storyline involving Glenn “Kane” Jacobs and the May 19th date. At Backlash ’06, Kane went one-on-one with his former partner Paul Wight (The Big Show) to further build the May 19th story. Prichard says there is no way to defend how bad the match was.
It was a collision of the giants. This [Kane vs. Big Show at Backlash ‘06] was a f*cking pig f*ck. Yeah, this was not good. That’s what this was. This just wasn’t good, and again, the whole story. I will say this though man, with the May 19th stuff and the way that we got it, we had people buzzing about May 19th and the — at one point I think we had the wrong date and if you go back and I could be wrong here but I know internally we had the wrong date of the actual premiere [See No Evil] versus when it was gonna be in movie theaters and all this other stuff. So but, I think that this promotion was one of those just kind of crazy promotions that continually reminded people of the date of May 19th and had people going, ‘What the hell is May 19th? What is May 19th? What is the significance?’ And then when you got to the significance, there was a enough interest there [to] say, ‘You know what? I might just go check this out.’ So to that, it was a success. But this match? Stunk. Not good. Not even, yeah. There’s nothing to defend there.
Former ECW commentator Joey Styles was the focus of the conversation at one point. Prichard feels that had Joey solely been focused on his duties with WWE, he would still be with the company today.
I think it did work for a little while [Joey Styles as a commentator in WWE]. It was just, again, it was different and I don’t think it was a sustainable difference that — for whatever reason and really and truly I think that had Joey not had other opportunities and different things that had come up that require his time that Joey would probably still be there today.
** Kelly Kelly partook in a virtual signing hosted by The Asylum Wrestling Store. She gave her take on the idea of working outside of WWE and said her loyalty lies with the sports-entertainment company.
It’s hard because WWE has been so good to me and I feel like my loyalty lies with them. So I don’t know. I don’t know what I would do honestly. I feel like I would be loyal to WWE.
Getting into Kelly’s career, she shared that nerves and other things on her mind would drive her to throwing up before every match.
That’s like the one thing that I miss is just walking through the curtain and hearing people and hearing the ‘holla holla’ and people chanting ‘Kelly Kelly’. Every day and I’ll tell you a funny little thing, right before every match, I would get sick. Like I would throw up in a trash can right before because I was so nervous. All your nerves are — you’re just like, ‘Oh my, I want the crowd to like me tonight, I hope my match — I don’t wanna mess up.’ So many emotions are running through your mind and then the second you run through the curtain, it’s just like relief and excitement and just amazing. There’s nothing else like it.
She looked back at the time she approached Vince McMahon about being a heel. McMahon asked her to put on her ‘bad guy face’. After several seconds, Kelly started smiling and Vince told her to have a good day.
I did [want to be a heel]. I really did and I remember I went to Vince McMahon’s office one day because I was like, ‘Let me ask him what he thinks about me being a bad guy’ and he was like, ‘First off, let me see your bad guy face,’ and I tried to have this mean look and after like two seconds, I started laughing. He’s like, ‘That’s exactly why you could never be a bad guy. Have a good day Kelly, you’re good.’ That was the one and only time I ever tried and then I just left it alone so…
Continuing on the topic of Vince McMahon, he came up with Kelly Kelly’s in-ring name because he was a fan of the TV sitcom ‘Cheers’.
You know, Vince [McMahon] had come up with ‘Kelly’ and then he was a huge Cheers fan, of the show Cheers back in I guess the 80s, and her name was Kelly and there was a song that was playing, that somebody was playing for her and it was like, ‘Kelly, Kelly, Kelly, Kelly’ and Vince remembered that somehow and was like, ‘Let’s call her Kelly Kelly.’
During her time on WWE’s version of ECW, Kelly was paired with Mike Knox. In one match, Kelly was hit over the head with a kendo stick by The Sandman. During rehearsal, Sandman told her that the kendo stick felt like a little tap.
When I got singapore caned by Sandman, nothing like that. That was — it was so painful but, you know, it was so cool because how many people can say they got hit in the head by Sandman? And it being like my third week in WWE. I remember when they told me that was happening and it was funny, short story, we rehearsed backstage and he was like, ‘Oh Kelly, it’s just like a little [tap]. You’ll feel nothing.’ When I got hit with it, no, no, I felt it. He put his full arm into it. He let it rip so, did not feel good.
Kelly Kelly is a former WWE Divas Champion. She won the title from Brie Bella on an episode of Raw. That opportunity came about via a voting segment. Kelly said the fans were legit in control of that and all she knew was that whoever won the vote was winning the title.
No, it was all voting. Everything up until the second that I got voted into going in, we had no idea who [it] was going to be. We just knew whoever it was going to be was gonna get the championship.
** Helen Maroulis, Olympic gold medalist in Freestyle Wrestling told Wrestling Inc. that WWE approached her with an opportunity to be a part of their company in 2016. She explained that she did not take it because of the risk of getting hurt among other reasons.
Yeah, I actually was approached in 2016. I had some really good conversations, and so they kind of explained to me what it was going to be like and talked about going out to the Performance Center. I know I have a couple teammates, quite a few teammates that have gone out there. It just didn’t feel like the right timing. I knew I wanted to come back and do another Olympic cycle, and I didn’t know if I would fit into that world to be quite honest. It’s a cool world. I have a lot of friends into it, but I was like, I don’t know if I can do this.
I definitely don’t want to get hurt, that’s for sure. The acting, I mean, it’s one of those things, right? The same thing with MMA, just because you’re a good wrestler, doesn’t mean you’ll be good at these other things so until you go and see it for yourself, you just don’t know.
** The latest A&E/WWE documentary to air was about Booker T. Coming out of the documentary, conversations arose about Booker T’s feud with Triple H that culminated at WrestleMania 19. On the build-up to that match, there was a segment on Raw during which Triple H made comments such as Booker only being in WWE to entertain, calling his hair texture “nappy” and saying people like Booker don’t deserve to be world champion. That was not included in the documentary and Booker took to his ‘Hall Of Fame’ podcast and responded to the claim that an in-depth look into he and Triple H’s feud was pulled from the documentary.
How could it be pulled from the bio when — okay, you talked about it but nobody, you know, it wasn’t in there and it got pulled out. It never actually got in. But to write it like that, it makes it seem like there was a whole lot of meat and potatoes on the bone of the story of Booker T, Triple H, WrestleMania 19 and me personally, I’ve never given that story a whole lot of credence. I haven’t put a whole lot of talk into that night as far as me losing a match. It just happened to be at WrestleMania, it happened to be for a championship against Triple H. They talk about the story that went into it and I understand that. Being a young, Black kid looking up to my heroes. Trust me, I understand that as well but, I’ve never looked at my career and framed my career around any one match, let alone WrestleMania 19. The match with Triple H where I got paid more money for one match than I got paid for any other match in my life. So I’m like, me personally, I’m not finna complain about that, you know what I mean? Because at the end of the day, it’s about taking care of my family, walking away from it and being able to do it again to keep this thing rolling and when I see stuff like that, when people try to make something out of something that, I don’t know, which is more so a racial issue. Let’s just put it out there. It’s nothing more than a racial issue between Triple H, Booker T, WWE, whatnot. It’s just a story, somebody’s trying to get some clicks but for me, I just want everybody to know that-that was not what my story was about at the end of the day.
** Last November, PJ Black had to step away from the ring after suffering a compound fracture in his left ankle. While speaking with Lucha Libre Online, Black shared that he was cleared last month and was a part of the recent NJPW Strong tapings.
It’s been very tough but luckily the pandemic happened, right? So a lot of people were locked down. I had to stay at home either way so, usually for an athlete if you get injured, it’s very frustrating because you just wanna get out there and do your job, do your thing, do what you’re passionate about. But you know, sitting at home, nobody was doing that so it was kind of a little bit easier for me, but it was still very hard because going to a hospital, going to a doctor, getting around was really hard. Wearing a mask and everyone’s scared and it was really a tough time. I’m actually way ahead of schedule. I actually wrestled last weekend. I’ve been cleared for like a month. I wrestled at the New Japan Strong tapings last week so watch out for those. They should be really fun. But it feels good. The first couple of weeks when I got back into the ring, it really hurt. My body really hurt. It felt like the first time when I started training, but it feels good now. After a couple of weeks, I gotta get my wind back. I’m in good shape, I just need to work on my lungs a little bit but I’ll get there, I’ll get there.
** Nick Gage was a part of Highspots Wrestling Network’s Virtual Gimmick Table show. Gage was asked if fans will ever see him in WWE or AEW. He feels those companies are scared of him but did throw the idea out there of having a deathmatch with Kenny Omega.
No, I’ve never been contacted by any of them places. I think they’re a little scared of me. Listen man, there’s so much talent in them places that I would love to wrestle anybody. Let’s see, who would I love to go [with]. Who wouldn’t you want to go with in AEW, you know what I mean? There’s just so many good talent there. But, let’s put Kenny Omega in there. He wants to do deathmatches now. Let’s throw him in the mix and then we put real deathmatch sh*t man.
The current GCW World Champion is grateful for what he has been able to do in the promotion. Gage stated that he doesn’t know what he would be doing if it wasn’t for GCW.
Well let’s just keep it real man, if GCW wasn’t around, I don’t know what I’d be doing right now because I would’ve probably had to go over to that sh*tty CZW company and wrestle there and I would’ve hated it, after like three shows and then I would have been like, ‘What am I gonna do now?’ But thank God for GCW and we started this sh*t man. We had my first Nick Gage Invitational. It went well and then we started doing shows and shoutout to [Brett] Lauderdale for being a real one and [it] just took off man and it’s so much fun and it all comes down to the crowd. They’re so energetic, if I said that right. Their energy is awesome in there man so, thank God for GCW. It gives me a place to do what I want, when I want and how I want to do my sh*t so…
He gave his thoughts on Kenny Omega and Jon Moxley’s Exploding Barbed Wire Deathmatch at Revolution. Gage says everyone knows the barbed wire and glass in that match were tampered with to make it easier on the competitors. He added that if anyone wants to do a real deathmatch, get in the ring with him.
I saw clips of it. I thought it was cool. I thought the explosions were cool and everybody knows that barbed wire is clipped and snipped, you know what I mean? We use real barbed wire. That’s fake glass, we use real glass and everything like that so, if you wanna get in a real deathmatch, come fight me.
Gage began his career in wrestling in the late 90s. He discussed his tenure doing deathmatches and how he’s still keeping up with the younger hardcore-style wrestlers of today.
I’ve been doing deathmatch wrestling since I’ve been in this business man. I’m the only one still going. All the guys I came in with are gone or have families or anything like that. I’m still running hard. I’m on like a third generation of wrestlers, so what that does is they all wanna f*cking f*ck with me and wrestle me so that keeps me on top of my game. I’m like 40-years old now and I’m wrestling guys that are 21 and I’m keeping up with ‘em and I’m going hard, you know? If you wanna speak the talk, you gotta back that sh*t up, you know?
** Dave LaGreca and Bully Ray welcomed Santos Escobar onto Busted Open Radio. Santos talked about the leeway he has with his promos in NXT because of his experience in the business.
Most definitely and I think — I don’t think this applies to everybody because I’ll say it, I have 20-plus years in the business and they do take that into consideration when they’re asking you, ‘Who are you? What do you want people to know about you?’ And first and foremost, I’m Mexican. I’m just a little ole’ Mexican trying to make it in America, American dream, that’s different. That’s just different from anyone that you’ve mentioned. Another thing is I speak English. You don’t see much people like this here — and of course they ask me, ‘What do you want? What do you wanna do?’ They ask me this before every week and I think that’s very important because that gives me a certain uniqueness and it gives my character, my group, my faction certainly different from anybody else.
As the conversation continued, he opened up about how difficult it can be for Mexican wrestlers to don the name of their fathers and garner their own respect in wrestling. Escobar added that he feels for Dominik Mysterio because he knows the challenges that could await him.
It’s hard. It’s very difficult because you have to take into consideration that this is not an easy business. This is not an easy atmosphere and at least when I first got into the business, it wasn’t easy to just go up on the card and some people might think that because you’re the son of a legend, everything is easy for you and the reality is everything is harder because everyone’s trying to try you out and just see if you have what it takes to make it, and I feel for Dominik [Mysterio] right now because that’s exactly how I was feeling 15, 20 years ago. Everyone was trying me and everyone was like questioning my position on the card or even my presence. So I have to make my way and of course, to someone, somethings will come easy, other things will come really hard so just to all the people out there listening that are sons of someone, just work harder and when you think you’re not working harder, work even harder because people are gonna come at you hard and you just gotta prove [to] ‘em that you belong.
In his promos on NXT, Escobar dips in and out between English and Spanish. He thinks his ability to cater to WWE’s target and his personal target has helped improve his spot in NXT.
Definitely, definitely. There’s two ways to convey a message to your audience. To the company’s target and to your personal target. With your actions in the ring, which is a performing art in and of itself, but also with the mic, communicating, just good ole’ words and me being different, I do have to explain [to] people what lucha libre is all about, what the true roots of lucha libre are. Blood, tradition, legacy, heritage, sacrifice, all that. I do need to include words and I feel like I’m a natural born, raised Mexican. You know, there’s not really athletes like me because everyone thinks, ‘Okay, him or him or so or so are American with Mexican roots.’ I’m a very different person. I’m Mexican, born and raised in Mexico City and so I have a different message and the way I give it to the audience is with my lucha libre in the ring and with the mic.
** The Miz guest appeared on RNC Radio’s ‘The A Show’ and he expressed that for the first time in his career in WWE, he has the respect of his peers in the locker room.
It’s kinda crazy actually. For the first time, I truly feel that I’m getting respect and it’s not just from the crew or executives or even the WWE Universe, it’s from our locker room, and when people come up to me and ask me advice, I was never that guy, ever in my entire career. No one came up to me and asked advice, and now people are coming to me and going, ‘Hey, how could I do this? What can I do better? How can I get to this next level? You went through this, that and the other thing. How do I get through this, that and the other thing to get to where I can be at that level?’ And sometimes in WWE, things go in waves and you gotta ride the wave as long as you can. Not everybody is gonna be a John Cena where you can ride the wave on top for the rest of your career. Sometimes you gotta go down a little bit to literally showcase what you can do to bring it back up. I’ve been on this wave for a long time and now I feel like I’m at the level that I can finally ride a wave and I can keep riding it.
His on-screen partnership with John Morrison came up. The Miz recalled pitching ‘The Dirt Sheet’ to Stephanie McMahon and how he and Morrison were eager to get their faces out there to the masses.
John [Morrison] and I were like, ‘They’re seeing great matches, but they don’t know who we are,’ like outside the ring so we created a show called The Dirt Sheet and I had to go up to Stephanie McMahon who was the Head of Creative at the time and John and I cut a promo on her [about] exactly what we wanted to do and she said, ‘Be jealous? That’s catchy, I like that.’ The next thing, we got a call saying, ‘What is this? What is this thing?’ And we literally said, ‘We’ll write it, we’ll produce it, we will edit it. We will do everything we possibly can to get this and we’ll put it on YouTube.’ By the way, back then, YouTube wasn’t a thing. It wasn’t this big, huge — MySpace was cool. There was no Instagram, there was no Twitter.
Before his main event feud with John Cena, Miz had the opportunity to work with Cena early in his career. Miz recalled being told by Arn Anderson that he was not ready for that spot, but later understood that he needed to grow in various departments.
So my first week out [on Raw], I called out John Cena knowing he’s not going to be at TV and say, ‘I call you out right now. I want a match, I’m taking on John Cena. I’m making a name for myself.’ John Cena doesn’t show up, that’s 1-0. The next week, I call him out, I know he’s not going to be there, 2-0, then 3-0. I think I got up to 8-0 and then finally, I got to a pay-per-view with John Cena and he mopped the floor with me. I don’t think I got any offense. He just beat me, cleaned me up, wiped me away and I remember going backstage going, ‘Oh my God, eight weeks down the drain. I can’t believe –’ and then Arn Anderson came up to me and goes, ‘You’re looking at this all wrong’ and I go, ‘What do you mean?’ He goes, ‘You just had eight weeks to talk about — you’re not ready’ and by the way, when you’re in WWE, you always think you’re ready. ‘I’m ready, are you kidding me?’ But now knowing what I know, I wasn’t ready at the time. I needed to grow as a performer, I needed to grow for the audience to see me. I needed wars. He was like, ‘You need the wars, the trials, the tribulations, the stories to get you to a John Cena level,’ and he was right.
** Drew McIntyre told DAZN that he’s up for another singles match with Roman Reigns, seeing as how the two only had several shows to build to their champion versus champion match at Survivor Series.
I hope so because that’s the big match I’d like to see down the line. We only had a few weeks or f-that, I think we had like three shows. Yeah, it wasn’t included. We didn’t have much time to build it. But I know the chemistry has always been there with Roman and I, especially where I’m at as a character now, and he’s doing the most unbelievable work right now. It clicked right away. We have such interesting stories, and we’re feeling as good as I’ve ever felt as characters right now. That was cool to give everyone a taste of it. I know it’d be awesome to come back around to it. I just love watching what Roman’s up to right now.
I’m such a fan of his in general, and especially the work he’s doing right now is believable. He’s feeling it. He knows where he’s at as a character, and it’s pretty much the opposite of what he used to be. Where he used to be is where I’m at right now in being the fighting champion, putting the work, and being the workhorse. It’s interesting how those roles are flipped. I’m excited about the possibility of what we can do down the line because he’s absolutely killing it right now. I’m just going to keep doing it. If people want to see it, [put] us back together, give us time and watch us go.
** ‘Austin Monthly’ got comments from Thunder Rosa for an article about her Mission Pro Wrestling promotion. She expressed that when she first got into wrestling, she didn’t want to be thought of as a luchadora or a Mexican wrestler. She just wanted to be known for being a good wrestler.
When I first came into the business, I didn’t want to be thought of as a luchadora or a Mexican wrestler. I f***ing hate that s***. Yes, I’m a woman of color, but I’m here because I can work.
** JBL hosted another Q&A on his YouTube channel. He detailed how a wrestler is supposed to take the Clothesline From Hell and used a recent segment involving Cedric Alexander and Shelton Benjamin as a reference.
If you saw Raw this past week [May 3rd], you see Shelton Benjamin almost decapitate Cedric [Alexander]. Here’s what you do wrong with clotheslines: You take ‘em too far away from the body. I took Stan Hansen’s clothesline and that was as brutal as anything there was. I took it several times. You go toward the body and not away from it and people that get scared and not that Cedric got scared, he just didn’t take it — he wasn’t in close. But people that flinch, they’ll flinch outside, thinking they’re getting away from it. That’s when you get clocked. You wanna step into the body to take it and then you can end up taking it more like a tackle. The Clothesline From Hell was more like a tackle than it was anything else if the guy would step in and bump as soon as you got hit. It wasn’t a potato like a lot of people thought. It was if you flinched or if you went the wrong way which was toward the arm, instead of towards the body.
** Kenny Johnson is producing a docu-series about Matt Tremont.
** Prior to AEW Blood & Guts, Denise Salcedo did an interview with Santana and Ortiz. Santana shared that the first time he and Ortiz met AEW President Tony Khan was at the Dynamite debut show in Washington DC. The duo debuted for AEW at All Out in August of 2019.
But honestly, the first time we met him [Tony Khan] I believe was at the Capital One Arena in D.C. for the first Dynamite. We got to shoot the sh*t with him a little bit backstage and we both expressed how excited we were to be a part of this and how excited he was to have us a part of the brand and stuff like that so, it was definitely all a plus when that first interaction, you know…
Santana added that there is not a tag team out right now that has the will to be the best like he and Ortiz do.
That’s the confidence I feel in ourselves and our work. I’ve said this in other interviews and I’ll say it again. I honestly feel like there’s not another tag team out there that has the heart that we have right now and that drive to be the absolute best and there’s a lot of people that get comfortable, a lot of people that are just — like my partner said, some people are around just to collect a paycheck or whatever the case is. Nah, [get] that sh*t out of here. Let’s get to work.
** Shawn Michaels told Brandon Walker on his ‘Rasslin’ podcast that there are NXT UK TV tapings this weekend.
** Mike Johnson of PWInsider conducted an interview with Santos Escobar. He told the site about his growing relationship with Joaquin Wilde and Raul Mendoza of Legado Del Fantasma. He said they’ve gone from co-workers to brothers.
It’s phenomenal. I think, and this is important, that we started as co-workers, then we became a faction and we became friends. I can tell you right now that we became brothers and that is something you can tell by the way we carry ourselves while cutting a promo, while going through a six-man tag. We are connected and I love that because that’s when all the victories and all those satisfactions come, when you have great chemistry with the people you’re in the ring with.
** Times Of India caught up with NXT UK talent Rohan Raja. He talked to the site about some of the names that inspired him to become a wrestler like Shawn Michaels. Raja added that Michaels is basically running the NXT UK brand.
I started watching WWE as a four-year-old with my dad, my brother, my mum, and my sister. And it’s something that just hooked me and I just kept watching it as the years went by. I watched WWE superstars like Shawn Michaels, Kurt Angle, The Rock, and Randy Orton. Those four played a big role in me pursuing wrestling because I fell in love with those guys. Watching their styles and their matches was fun. So that was a big reason why I got into it. I’m a big Shawn Michaels fan. Shawn Michaels is my biggest inspiration. And it’s very surreal because I’m working with Shawn Michaels. He pretty much runs NXT in the UK and he’s my biggest inspiration.
** Gail Kim, Angelina Love, Allysin Kay and El Phantasmo are a part of a pro wrestling NFT trading card set.
** Ring of Honor is kicking off a new set of TV tapings today, per PWInsider.
** Here’s the video package for Matt Cardona and EC3’s forthcoming match that is going to take place over Memorial Day weekend:
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emvXym_L_Uk[/embedyt]
** Jordan Mendoza of USA Today spoke with Jason Eisener, Evan Husney, Chris Jericho, Jim Ross, Mick Foley, Diamond Dallas Page and Jon Moxley about Dark Side of the Ring.
** Justin Barrasso of Sports Illustrated caught up with Santos Escobar. He shared some of his goals with the publication that go past the Cruiserweight Title picture. He does see a future for himself on either Raw or SmackDown.
This business is about confidence. Of course, you need the ability and the skill and the moves, but you need to have confidence. That translates into success. For me, I could be cruiserweight champion forever. I also want to be the next great Mexican wrestler. I want to be the main event of WrestleMania. To achieve that, I’m going to have to work extra hard to get there, and go through different moments, like the cruiserweight division. Maybe next is the North American division. After that, maybe the NXT title division. Then Raw, then SmackDown. I’m never content with my position. I’m always trying to evolve and offer something different. The company sees something in me, and I just need to bring it.
** Geek Culture ran their interview with Dave Bautista.
** Mansoor spoke to Arab News.
** NXT Tag Team Champions MSK (Nash Carter & Wes Lee) chatted with Stephanie Chase. GIVEMESPORT has an interview with the team as well.
** ET Canada has an interview with Drew McIntyre.
** The newest upload to the UpUpDownDown YouTube channel:
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHCM9_zqicY[/embedyt]
** NWA Worlds Heavyweight Champion Nick Aldis appeared on the NWA Powerrr post-show on 4/27.
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=syC2qiIcUuI[/embedyt]
** The latest episode of Tama’s Island.
** SmackDown Tag Team Champion Robert Roode turned 44-years old on 5/11.
** New Day (Kofi Kingston, Big E & Xavier Woods) pushed out a new episode of their Feel The Power podcast.
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.
