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.
** Yuji Nagata appeared on AEW Dynamite last week and challenged Jon Moxley for the IWGP U.S. Heavyweight Title. Upon returning to Japan, Nagata did an interview with Tokyo Sports and spoke about the match. He said AEW President Tony Khan told him to come back anytime.
Everyone was pleased that I came, and it’s a strange feeling. I don’t think it’s evaluated in Japan, but I feel that it’s being evaluated very much worldwide. I’m surprised too. [Tony Khan said], ‘Please come back anytime.’
Nagata hopes to return to the United States. He says he is going to get vaccinated and described the atmosphere of being in Florida and particularly at an AEW event.
One thing I found out when I went to the United States is that I can see the future of the Coronavirus. I’m going to get vaccinated and I can [get] it at the supermarket in that area. The city is also bright. I have a feeling of ‘let’s do it’ in response to such a big cheer. Now, the number of [shows] is limited, and not everyone can [compete]. Use [it] while there are no [shows] in Japan, (NJPW) STRONG or go abroad.
** Gerald Brisco and JBL welcomed Fit Finlay onto their ‘Stories with Brisco and Bradshaw’ show. The topic of conversation transitioned over to Fit’s children, specifically David Finlay. With the recent COVID outbreak in Japan, Fit shared that when talents arrived at the airport to leave the country, most of them tested positive for the virus. At the time of the recording, Fit said David and Jay White were quarantining in Japan. Fit added that David is confused about what his next move will be career-wise.
He’s [David Finlay] in Japan right now. So I guess Japan have had an outbreak of COVID and so they started cancelling shows. He [works] for New Japan Pro-Wrestling. They started having an outbreak. A lot of the talent got COVID so they were sending them home. They went to the airport yesterday and almost all of them were tested positive for COVID so they were sent back. They were gonna go to [a] government hotel but then they made a deal and they put them in the dojo so, my son David and Jay White are in the dojo, quarantined there for another ten days or so which is ridiculous so, the COVID has just — the whole world had just put everything on standstill for a little bit and we’ll get over it but, he’s doing well there. I don’t know how New Japan are going to handle this new outbreak or — I don’t know, no one does. But, he’s a little bit confused at the minute as what to do next, you know? Is he going to stay in Japan, does he want to try here, like WWE or whatever. But him and I are gonna sit down when he does eventually come home and try and figure it out but he just needs a little bit of wisdom put in his head. Not that I have any.
** Jerome “New Jack” Young passed away on 5/14 after suffering a heart attack. His longtime friend and former on-screen partner D’Lo Brown joined Busted Open Radio to talk about New Jack’s life and career. Brown recalled receiving the news about Jack’s passing:
I was hurt, and I’ll tell everybody, full disclosure, let’s break down the fourth wall. Yesterday I was standing in the locker room and I was talking to some talent and as I turned around, I see Tommy [Dreamer] walking across the locker room and Tommy was walking with this look on his face and I was like, ‘Woah’ and he’s walking right to me, and he walks up and he says, ‘Hey, you know, we lost Jack’ and I go, ‘What?’ Yeah, and you could see the look on Tommy’s face, he was hurt and I was like, ‘Oh’ and my heart sunk, and immediately I thought to myself you know, I know [New] Jack lived like he was gonna die tomorrow. I just didn’t think today would be the day he would go, and it hurt me. I had to walk away, I had to go sit down for a minute and Jack was my friend. Jack was someone I talked to regularly and Jack was someone — if he was your friend, he was your friend for life. If he was your enemy, he was your enemy for life. I’m still right now hurting because of it.
D’Lo is a commentator for IMPACT Wrestling and he heaped praise onto X Division Champion Josh Alexander. D’Lo called him this generation’s Kurt Angle.
Josh Alexander, which I am — I can’t wait to see this [El Phantasmo vs. Josh Alexander] play out because I just think those are two great and talented wrestlers and Josh Alexander is probably one of my personal favorites just because he’s like — he’s this generation’s Kurt Angle in my opinion. Just putting it out there.
** Sonny Kiss was a part of a signing with K & S WrestleFest. Sonny claims that Anthony Ogogo was supposed to debut at AEW’s 2020 Fyter Fest show that was going to emanate from the United Kingdom pre-pandemic.
So we actually were supposed to be in the U.K. as of last year. So what was it? Was it Revolution [Fyter Fest]? So Anthony Ogogo’s debut was supposed to be in London. That was the original plan. We were supposed to have plans for London and also had plans for Canada, a couple Canada dates.
** Lanny Poffo shared his thoughts about the A&E/WWE documentary about his brother, ‘Macho Man’ Randy Savage.
** The Hindustan Times chatted with Charlotte Flair for an exclusive interview. She followed up on recent comments made by Ric Flair as he said he was not comfortable with the storyline involving Lacey Evans. Charlotte was not pleased with it either but for another reason and it led to some frustration on her part.
It wasn’t so much about Lacey. It is very difficult with my dad. I had an extensive amount of time off for the first time ever in my career, I was eager and excited to come back and start fresh. I wanted to add layers to my character as I felt stale. I wanted these changes. When my dad got brought into the picture, I was like, ‘Man [it’s] 2021 and I don’t want to share the screen with my dad. I am Charlotte Flair now, I am [no] longer Ric Flair’s daughter, that’s Charlotte’s dad.’ I was like why [do] I have to be on TV with my dad? I don’t want anyone to think that is selfish, anyone would love to share screen with their dad. But if anyone’s followed my career, all I have done since day one is pave my own legacy. Yes, I do a lot of his personal trademarks but it is also to acknowledge me as a separate performer. So that’s why I was frustrated at home because selfishly I wanted the screen for myself and not with my dad.
CM Punk commented under a post of Charlotte Flair’s on 5/12. It was an image of Flair at the commentary desk on Raw. Punk joked that Vince McMahon was in Flair’s ear and telling her to watch the monitor and stop saying the word “wrestling”.
No one is buzzing me in my ear. I have known Byron Saxton and Corey Graves for a very long time. It was just great to be out there with them, feeling as confident as ever. No, Vince doesn’t buzz me in my ear about anything.
** Jason Powell of ProWrestling.net welcomed Tom Lawlor onto his Pro Wrestling Boom Podcast. While Lawlor did not get into the specifics of his contract details with Major League Wrestling, he discussed how he is able to do MMA and compete on NJPW Strong while under contract to MLW.
I can’t really speak to the specifics of my own deal or other people’s deals. You know, I’m sure my contract is different than Hammerstone’s contract, it’s different than [Jacob] Fatu’s contract, it’s different than, you know, anybody’s contract I’m sure. There’s certain stuff in my contract such as provisions for me to compete in MMA, commentary, things like that-that I don’t think other people have in theirs so there’s certain agreements that were made beforehand and during the time I’ve been with MLW, they’ve allowed me to do these things so, the deal with appearing on New Japan Strong, it was presented to me through MLW so, without that relationship, I don’t know what the status would be.
** Part two of Kota Ibushi’s interview with NJPW1972.com is live. Ibushi shared that on night one of Wrestle Kingdom 15, he either sprained or tore a ligament in his foot. He went on to wrestle Jay White on night two. Ibushi added that he’s had to train around the injury.
It was that first match with Naito, January 4. I think it was when I took a Frankensteiner off the top, and just landed right on my instep. So I think it either sprained or tore a ligament. It’s an injury soccer players get from time to time; I was told it’s best not to move it for three months, but then I had Jay White the very next night. I got to the building early the next day and got it patched up and treated well enough to just about wrestle.
I was able to jump, and put some power into it. Then it was really a matter of getting what treatment I could and working around it. It wasn’t so much about healing as it was to stop it getting worse.
It’s about the same as it was around when I wrestled SANADA. I’m having to train around it, since I can’t really run like I would normally.
** Comicbook.com published their interview with Cesaro prior to his Universal Title match at WrestleMania Backlash. That match was Cesaro first opportunity at a world title in WWE and he recalled being told early in his WWE run that it would take a while for him to get a world title shot.
And if you would’ve told me that, and certain people did tell me that, when I just started in WWE, it was a year into it, and they were like, ‘Oh for you, it will take a while, but you’ll get there but it just… It takes a while.’ You don’t want to hear that. Whatever, you’re like, ‘Oh, what about this guy who just walks in and gets a title shot?’ But now I feel people can relate to that and that makes it so much more special. So I’m very nervous and I’m super excited for Sunday.
There have been comparisons made between Cesaro and actor Jason Statham. Cesaro said he has pushed for there to be some interaction or crossover with he and Statham.
I’ve been pushing for that for so long. I’m always like, ‘Okay, so when are we going to make this happen? Does he need like a big brother or a younger brother or a taller brother or something? His evil nemesis gets cloned and here I come?’ That will be awesome.
** Riddle was the latest guest to appear on El Brunch de WWE with host Quetzalli Bulnes. Riddle dove into his partnership with Randy Orton and how it came to be. He mentioned that he caught Orton’s comments about not originally liking him and Riddle said that adds up because Orton did not talk to him during the initial stages of them being around one another.
In my head, I had this vision board and Randy [Orton] was a — he might not know this, he was a part of it and I was like, ‘I don’t know how, I wanna work with this guy. I need to make it happen one way or another’ and I’ll be honest, I heard this interview, he said the other day that he didn’t really like me when he first met me. I was like, ‘Oh, that makes sense. He really didn’t talk to me.’ But, I felt like I put it out there and I was always positive and I always was just thinking to myself like, ‘You don’t wanna force anything in wrestling.’ So I was like how do I slither my way next to The Viper? And I got hit up after WrestleMania, they had some ideas for me and one of ‘em was maybe me and Randy go at it but it was never — WWE, I don’t ever [think they] thought we were gonna tag. I think they were just like, ‘You guys are gonna fight, have a feud, Randy versus Riddle,’ you know? But then, we started talking. Some people think I’m really annoying and I get it. I can be really annoying at times but I’ll tell you this: My whole life, people have either loved me or hated me and I got a feeling Randy, he kinda — I think he loves me more than he hates me, at least at this moment and I’m going to take full advantage of that. Yes I’m excited, I saw this happening. RK-Bro, Riddle and Randy, Orton and bro and together. You can call us Bro-ton, whatever. We are the future of the tag team division.
When asked if he would like to team with Rob Van Dam, Riddle stated that he and RVD have wanted to work together before WWE. The money just had to be right for RVD to do the appearance and/or match.
Well, if The Viper turns his back on me and leaves me high and dry, I think I can always call my bro, RVD and yeah, I mean that team, you don’t even need a storyline, it writes itself, you know? The bro and RVD, it’s something we wanted to do for a while. We wanted to work more even before WWE but, you know, the money’s gotta be right to get RVD out of bed. But, yeah, I would love it.
** Arab News chatted with several WWE talents to reflect on the 2018 Greatest Royal Rumble event in Saudi Arabia. One of the talents the outlet spoke to was Sheamus. The current WWE U.S. Champion said he cannot wait to return to Saudi and said it will not be too long before he does.
Let me tell everybody in Saudi Arabia, I’m looking forward to the day when I can come back and hold the championship up above my head in front of all the great Celtic Warrior fans, and it won’t be too long.
** Dolph Ziggler was the most recent guest on Ryan Satin’s Out of Character podcast. Ziggler was candid about his relationship with Vince McMahon and how throughout the years, there were stretches when Ziggler felt McMahon loved his work and there where stretches when he felt McMahon hated his work.
There is a trust that so few of your favorites have that I have and it’s wild because without complaining, I’m not the main event guy at the moment and a lot of times when it comes down to something special, I’m the guy just a match away or so but I know from that relationship [with Vince McMahon], and you have to earn it and it’s not just, ‘Oh, I earned this a few years ago and now I’m fine.’ You gotta re-earn it every day, and I do and if I mess up which I do all the time, I say, ‘I screwed this up. It’s on me. I will fix this for next time’ but, even all those years of the 15, eight or nine of them felt like, ‘Man, Vince hates my f’ing guts. What the hell is happening here?’ And then there’s those five or six where you go, ‘I get it now. This is — he’s pushing me, he’s challenging me because only I can do these things’ and I’m very blessed to be doing them and still kicking ass doing it which has been great.
Upon Drew McIntyre’s return to WWE Raw, he was paired with Ziggler. The two went on to capture tag team gold but Dolph was aware that Drew was going be ‘the guy’ coming out of the team.
Yes, of course I did [enjoy my time with Drew McIntyre]. That was fun. That was another one where I was walking backstage and they go, ‘Oh by the way, you and Drew, you guys are a team’ and you go, ‘Okay, okay’ so I go, ‘Where’s Drew?’ But that was another one where we both wanted to accomplish the same goals, we had a plan. I know no matter how good I am in this team, no matter what happens in this team, they’re gonna go with Drew here in six months or a year, so let me help him as much as I can and let the two of us separate ourselves from the rest of the tag division and make something special so he has another launching pad to the next thing and I feel like we crushed that. That was so — it was fun and [when] I say ‘fun’, it wasn’t laughing, joking around. It was so good when he got to talk, I got to talk and we got to add layers to what we’re doing and we got to fight with The Shield, two out of the three here and there and then we just got to make moments where we talk trash, kick some people’s heads off so we can build up a team instead of just being jerks that stroll out there and lose most of the time.
Ziggler has been a part of WWE since 2004. He said there’s not a doubt in his mind that he can still be a top player for the company.
Oh, I mean absolutely [I would still like to be a top guy], yeah and there’s no doubt in the back of my mind like, ‘Man, can I go?’ It’s like, ‘Get the hell out of here. I go whenever,’ and this last year, I might be in the best shape of my life also so, not only do I not get tired, I don’t know how some people in the business can go, ‘I don’t wanna be in the best shape ever so I can go an hour if they need me to.’ I don’t know why that doesn’t cross some people’s mind, but not only do I look the part, I back up the part with the collegiate [background], I back up the part with the titles, I back up the part with the talking and then I get in the ring and can do what I want. I’m always ready for that, and it used to be, ‘Oh, somebody got sick, somebody got hurt. Who’s fighting for the world title? Put it on Dolph. It’s gonna steal the show’ and you go, ‘At what point can I be in there — I earned it, you just said I did’ so I’m ready whenever the time is right. I make pitches, I do things. You constantly [have to be] proactive and help things out, but sometimes, right now, for the first time in years was a break from singles action and focusing on tagging, just to, I think, when the time is right, make it extra fresh to have me at some point by myself.
** AEW referee Bryce Remsburg joined F4WOnline’s ‘Left My Wallet’ show. He was asked if he watches other referees from other sports/genres and within his response, he talked about being on the more “animated” side in the ring.
I don’t always [watch referees from other sports] but I guess it depends. I’m a more animated referee so I guess I get noticed more often. Like you’d notice the more animated umpires and some people love ‘em and some people hate ‘em and some people angrily tweet at them every Wednesday night but that’s okay, it’s whatever. It rolls off my back.
** K & S WrestleFest hosted a virtual signing and ‘Cowboy’ Bob Orton was the guest. Orton stated that he would likely only return to wrestling if it was to work with his son Randy on-screen.
Oh, if I was doing something with Randy [Orton] I probably would [return] but that would be it. I wouldn’t wanna risk getting hurt at this stage of my life. I know Randy could protect me.
He does not watch much of the current product outside of Randy’s matches. Bob said he gets “home sick” if he watches too much wrestling.
Actually I just watch Randy [Orton’s] matches and every once and while I’ll watch for a few minutes but, not much. I get home sick. I get home sick when I watch the wrestling too much. But I like to watch Randy’s matches.
** Eric Bischoff and Conrad Thompson covered TNA’s 2011 Sacrifice event for an episode of 83 Weeks. Karen Jarrett was in action on that show and Bischoff heaped praise onto Karen’s on-screen performances. He feels she’s the most underrated performer of the past 20 years.
Karen [Jarrett] is the most underrated performer of the last 20 years. Not the most important, didn’t draw the most money. But I’m talking about raw, pure, unadulterated talent. She’s phenomenal. She’s got a way of becoming that character. You would think she’s trained in the Stanislavski school of acting. I mean, she’s amazing. She really is and it’s unfortunate that we didn’t see more of her, but yes, she did a phenomenal job. I love Karen Angle’s work, Karen Jarrett’s work, Karen Angle’s work, whoever’s work.
Bischoff was a part of Brian Pillman Sr.’s Dark Side of the Ring episode. While conversing about Pillman Jr., Bischoff admitted that he was initially worried about Pillman Jr. when he first started wrestling and explained why:
I met Brian Pillman Jr. about — gosh, I’ve kind of lost track of time over the last four or five years but, I would say four years ago is when I first met Brian Pillman Jr. and he came up and he introduced himself to me. He was just as polite and nice as he could be, and I remember thinking to myself, I hate to say this but, I was afraid for Brian Pillman Jr. I thought, ‘Man, I know what he’s trying to do, I know why he’s trying to do it, I admire him for trying to do it but unless you’ve got a really solid foundation underneath you’ and I’m talking about everybody who gets into any form of the entertainment business. This is not exclusive to professional wrestling. The entertainment business, once you commit to it and commit to doing it for a career and not just a hobby is a horrible — not a horrible, it can be wonderful but it is an amazingly challenging journey and you have to be mentally and emotionally prepared and have a good foundation and what little I knew, I knew a little about Brian Pillman Jr.’s life growing up and it was dysfunctional and to come out of a dysfunctional family, having lost your father at such a young age under those circumstances in particular and then trying to follow in his footsteps which is hard for anybody. Under the best of circumstances, it’s incredibly hard in the professional wrestling industry to follow in your father’s footsteps, particularly when your father casts such a large shadow as Brian Pillman Sr. did.
** While speaking to Chris Van Vliet, Stevie Richards shared that throughout his pro wrestling career, he has undergone 19 operations on his throat. Back in 2007 during WWE’s revival of ECW, Richards did a sit-down interview segment with Joey Styles and was told to say a lesser number for TV when questioned about his operations.
That’s when I had the second implant put in from there and that was the ECW [2007] return thing where they showed the neck. You know, it’s funny, just a side note, the way WWE had worked at the time, they cut down the number of surgeries I had and they cut down the things in my life that I had talked about to Joey [Styles] in the interview because the number of surgeries were too much for somebody at my level. I had 19 throat and vocal cord surgeries. I was going up to Mass. General [Hospital] up in Massachusetts every single week because they had to open the airway with many surgeries up until the bigger one where they put the implant in so it was almost every week, multiple surgeries on my throat and vocal cord so I named off the 19 and I remember Dusty [Rhodes] says to me — and it’s not on Dusty. He goes, ‘Listen, they’re not gonna go for that.’ There was another thing about my brother dying of cancer and stuff because Joey’s talking to me and asking me where I’ve been and what’s been going on and he [Dusty Rhodes] goes, ‘You gotta knock that number down.’ So that number you see in the ECW promo is different, is much lower. They gave me the number. They told me how many surgeries I had which I had to laugh about, it’s so funny.
** Steel Chair Magazine pushed out their chat with former IMPACT Knockouts Tag Team Champion Rachael Ellering. She was released from WWE in April of 2020 and she detailed how much that impacted her. Rachael feels she needed to get through that hardship in her life to get to where she is today.
I think that’s one hundred percent spot-on, specifically the last two years that were the hardest of my entire life. I went through some really, really tough times where I just felt lost and I had to do a lot of work on myself and self-reflection and growth within myself to get back to this point right now. It was not easy and I know a lot of people, especially over the last year, have kind of gone through a lot of ups and downs with the pandemic and, whether that’s being away from family or job situations, it’s tough. For me, like you mentioned, being fired from NXT during their cuts right at the start of COVID really rocked me because that was my dream job. My whole adult life, that’s what I had worked for so long and so to kind of lose that, I lost a bit of myself at that time but then it worked out exactly how it was supposed to because not that I’m glad I was one of those cuts but I can sit here now and know that I’m exactly where I’m supposed to be.
I’m a good person and I’ve grown so much and I’ve got some people in my life that really, really love me and care about me and have helped me through a lot of tough stuff in the last year or two. You just learned that, ‘Hey, empathy goes a long way and caring for others goes a long way’ and that’s the kind of people I want to be surrounded with. So I learned what I want out of my career, what I want out of people I spend my time with. I learned so much about myself and I truly feel that I’m the best version of Rachael that I’ve ever been right now and in the absolute best possible place that has embraced me and loves what I do and cares about me as a person as well as a performer. That’s hard to come by in professional wrestling but I have found that with Impact, even in just the short time I’ve been here. I’ve found that here.
Rachael’s father, Paul Ellering was not big on letting his children watch wrestling. Rachael said it took a while for him to get on board with her pursuing a career in the business.
That is absolutely true, my dad did not let us watch wrestling. He kept his work life and his home life completely separate. So it really wasn’t until I was, you know, 15 or 16 years old and kind of rediscovered it if you will on my own and fell in love with that on my own that I knew this was what I was born to do, I am meant to be a professional wrestler and a great one at that. I had to kind of find that on my own. My dad, even when I told him that-that’s what I wanted to do, did not love that idea, he told me to accept one of the scholarship offers, I had to go to college, get my education and figure it out from there and I did that. I went to college, I had my Bachelor’s degree and I’m a professional wrestler so it ended up working out for both of us. It took a little while to get him on board with me doing this but I think now he knows that, above all else, I truly love professional wrestling more than anything, it’s the greatest thing in the world. When someone feels that way about something, you got to let them do it.
** Zach Gowen was cut from WWE in 2004. U.K. outlet ‘Metro’ caught up with Zach and he says he saw his release from the sports-entertainment company coming because of the number of issues he had with fellow talent in the locker room.
I definitely saw it coming because I had so much heat in the locker room with the other wrestlers and the office. I didn’t wanna get fired – I didn’t wanna quit! But I was so immature emotionally, not only as a wrestler but as a human being, that I couldn’t handle the gift that was being given to me. I wasn’t equipped, I didn’t have the tools to navigate through that level of success successfully.
** Kris Statlander is returning to AAW on June 11th to defend the promotion’s Women’s Championship.
** Baron Black, who has been appearing on AEW programming since April of 2020 chatted with 411 Mania. He reflected on contracting COVID-19 in the Summer of 2020 and how he navigated things coming out of his positive test.
I mean yeah, it [having COVID] was [a scary experience]. I was one of those people that it really didn’t affect me, I didn’t know I had it until I just took a test. I was taking the test because I had some projects coming up that I wanted to do so I was required to take a test and I took a test, the test told me I had it, I didn’t even know, and I really didn’t show any symptoms ‘till about six-to-seven days after I got a positive test, and then I had two pretty brutal days and then I turned around and recovered pretty quickly after that so it was real interesting because at that point in time, people had a lot of symptoms, you know? Everybody was [showing symptoms] and then you had the asymptomatic people starting to creep up and I was one of them because I didn’t even know I had it at that point so, but yeah. That set me back from some opportunities but, as long as I got through it, that’s all I cared about at that point. So I got through it. I had probably a bad 36 or 48 hours then everything cleared up from that point and I was really back on my feet in like a two week, two-and-a-half-week period. But I still took some time because there was so many unknowns about COVID and the virus. I still took some time to gradually get back into my workout schedule. I didn’t just jump right in to where I left off, you know? Just wanted to take some time, make sure my body healed up completely for it and ever since then, I actually felt stronger after I had it so it was a really interesting thing for me.
** Ahead of his North American Title defense on the 5/18 NXT, Johnny Gargano spoke to Matty Paddock for an exclusive interview. Gargano feels that his heel turn was 100 percent needed and it was something he was thinking about for quite some time.
100% it was needed. There were only so many times you can see a white meat Johnny Gargano go out there and overcome the odds, get beat down and put in an ambulance – I don’t know how many times you can watch that! Creatively it’s something [I’d] been thinking about for so long. I have a notepad on my phone full of ideas and I’d just been waiting for this moment and for this challenge – and that’s what it is, too, a challenge. It’s a challenge for NXT and for me. I’ve been wanting to turn this thing upside down and take everything you know about Johnny Gargano and change it 110% and it is scary, changing something you’re comfortable with – and it is a comfort zone. For me, I wanted the challenge of going out there and making people hate me because I know I am capable of it. Everyone had kinda felt it coming, but I definitely brought it to them as much as possible. It was definitely the way to go. I was very adamant about it and was very excited about it.
** That Hashtag Show released their interview with Allysin Kay. When asked about her dream opponent for a Bloodsport show, Kay named Shayna Baszler as that opponent.
I will say in particular, Bloodsport dream match would be Shayna Baszler.
I think we would have a very interesting match. I think it’d be a little exciting, just a little bit. Can we get her fired? I’m just kidding, we don’t wanna do that. I’m just kidding. But, maybe one day in the far future or I don’t know, maybe her place of employment will start doing those matches, I don’t know.
** Prior to WrestleMania Backlash, Rhea Ripley spoke with India Today and told the site that it is still registering that she could be one of the leaders of WWE’s women’s division going forward.
It’s so weird for me to think that I could help carry the women’s division forward. It’s so crazy for me to think that way. I do see that happening with people like Bianca Belair, Raquel Gonzalez, Dakota Kai. I see it happening with all young girls, I do hope that one day all the NXT girls come up and we carry the women’s division forward. We can do exactly what the men have done. But it’s a crazy thought. A little girl from South Australia, who just loved wrestling, now I am here as the RAW Women’s Champion and see myself as the current and future of the women’s division. It’s exciting and yes, I do see it happening.
** Cultaholic conducted an interview with NXT UK’s Rampage Brown. Brown reflected on his first go-around with WWE as a part of FCW. He believes that him departing and gaining the experience that he did was the best road to lead him back to WWE.
So my time in developmental was in 2010 and it was a completely different place to now. And I was in a different place too. I think I was 24 or 25 at the time and it was a completely different world, what I’d come to, to what I was doing at the time.
I think that me leaving and going away, and getting another ten years’ experience – growing, maturing and seeing things differently – that definitely helped me as a performer and is helping me with returning to be in this position. As soon as I hit the ground, I’m ready to go. Everybody knows what I’m here for. It’s definitely a different turnaround to last time.
** Jim Ross talked to talkSPORT’s Alex McCarthy about the first time Vince McMahon saw Brock Lesnar.
** Mid-Day.com conducted an interview with Drew McIntyre. He offered his thoughts about the return of Jinder Mahal and McIntyre praised Mahal for not wavering, despite the obstacles that have been placed in front of him over the past several years.
Very excited for Jinder. He and I go way back as everybody knows on screen, but off-screen too. And he was part of my wedding party. We had him in a kilt and he’s educated me in Indian culture over the years. He just went through a lot of injuries back-to-back and he’s not wavered his work ethic or let them affect [him] mentally. It’s great to see him back in the ring and looking so physically incredible as he always does.
** Kevin Owens, Drew McIntyre, Seth Rollins and Adam Cole are scheduled for this Wednesday’s WWE The Bump for the program’s 100th episode.
** Episode 256 of Being The Elite:
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOn_fd7hgNs[/embedyt]
** Wrestle Carnival’s ‘Carnival Of Honor’ show on September 12th, 2021 is going to air on Ring of Honor’s ‘Week By Week’ show on the ROH YouTube channel.
** Rich Swann joined the NextGenTN Podcast.
** Tatsumi Fujinami & Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Masahiro Chono & Jushin Thunder Liger:
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6NAhE1LtPg[/embedyt]
** Fightful’s interview with Johnny Gargano:
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJhG9h9VJNk[/embedyt]
** Wrestling Inc. spoke to EC3 for an exclusive interview.
** Rey and Dominik Mysterio are going to be on the next episode of WWE After The Bell.
** Daniel Boal of the ‘Evening Express’ detailed his experience learning how to wrestle with Aberdeen, Washington’s own Len Ironside and Leo King.
** The Daily Item covered WXW C4’s show that took place on Saturday in Sunbury, Pennsylvania. Promotion owner and former WWF Tag Team Champion Samu spoke to the publication about the show.
** Steel Chair Magazine ran their interview with Bianca Belair.
** Jim Varsallone of the Miami Herald spoke with Jim Ross.
** Drew McIntyre appeared on the debut episode of Sportskeeda’s inSide Kradle 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.
