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.
** Former NXT talent E.J. Nduka was released from WWE on May 19th. He detailed how he was told about his release from the company during an interview with Ringsiders Wrestling. Canyon Ceman, WWE’s Senior Director of Talent Development broke the news to E.J. and Canyon said it was one of the hardest releases he’s had to do. E.J. initially thought it was a joke but was soon informed that he was being let go due to budget cuts.
Oh yeah [my release came as a shock]. Every time I met with Canyon [Ceman], it was either a good meeting or I was getting a raise, so when I came into work Wednesday, 8 AM, I’m still waking up, I just walked in the PC, I’m getting ready to go get ready, put my shoes on, my boots and everything and one of the assistants says, ‘Hey, EJ, you have a meeting today.’ I said, ‘No I didn’t have a meeting on my schedule.’ She was like, ‘Oh yeah, Canyon wants to talk to you.’ So then I start smiling because anytime I talk to Canyon, I’m getting a raise, so I’m smiling ear-to-ear and he comes to the door and he’s kind of like, he wasn’t smiling. He was kind of like really serious so I’m like what the hell is going on here? So I follow him back to the conference room and he looks at me and he basically says, ‘This is one of the hardest releases I’ve done but, we’re gonna have to let you go.’ I thought I was on Candid Camera [reality prank show], I thought Ashton Kutcher was gonna come out. At first, I think I literally said, ‘Quit playing.’ I said, ‘Stop playing’ and then I start looking around in my seat thinking the cameras are gonna come out because we rib each other all the time. Although Canyon and I don’t have that relationship where I play pranks on him but that’s kind of the things that we do, the boys do at the P.C. like in our downtime. We joke around so I thought I was getting ribbed. Like I wholeheartedly — but then he turned, he sat back and he kind of started getting a little red and I was like, ‘Are you serious right now?’ And he was like, ‘Yeah,’ and I said, ‘Why?’ And he says, ‘Budget cuts’ and I’m like, ‘What!?’ And it took me literally like five minutes to process it because everything that I have heard up until that point was how athletic I was, my charisma, how well I was picking things up and so it kind of caught me off guard big time. I was totally blindsided.
** AEW President Tony Khan appeared on Variety’s ‘Changing Face of Sports Viewership’ webinar. AEW and WWE’s NXT products have been on separate days for over a month now. Khan discussed AEW having a 74-1 head-to-head lead over NXT in the 18-49 demographic and said that was important to WarnerMedia.
It’s definitely different people [watching the product] and we saw that because we were doing a head-to-head competition so there were two different shows on so for measurement purposes, we know there is audience and for those who don’t follow wrestling as closely, we’ve been competing head-to-head for better part of a year-and-a-half against NXT which is a WWE property and we’re very successful in the head-to-head competition and we won in the demographic 18-49 which is the thing that’s most measured. I believe we won 74-1 out of the 75 weeks we went head-to-head and I think we were 64-11 or 65-10 in the overall viewership which is the less tracked thing but it was a huge win for us and the 74-1 was what really counted to the network and so, that’s a great record and that show did eventually move, NXT did to another night and so now, we’ve gained some audience share and [it is] significantly up year over year and even before they moved, our ratings had held up the best of any wrestling show on cable in terms of audience attrition which is a huge issue in the cable business and so we definitely have a big, committed audience which is great for a start-up company and TNT took a big chance on us but I also took a big gamble in the wrestling space by investing tens of millions of dollars in wrestler contracts and infrastructure before I really had any commitments or revenue streams.
Prior the 5/28 Dynamite, AEW uploaded a video to their digital channels of Tony Khan addressing the report of a potential working relationship between WWE and New Japan Pro-Wrestling. Khan’s appearance on the webinar was recorded prior to that, but he stated that he would be happy to further collaborate with WWE.
And the [forbidden] door is me. That’s what I’ve figured out in my wrestling product. Really, the door is me. Like all along, I was the forbidden door. I just had to open myself up to these new experiences and I exchange deals and make pleasantries with other wrestling companies and bring their wrestlers to AEW so, there’s AEW, we have a competitor, WWE and I think objectively, [we’re] probably more competition-friendly to the other wrestling companies and even — but I’m happy to do stuff with WWE and we even opened that forbidden door by Chris Jericho appearing on Peacock with the WWE with Steve Austin, which I think made sense for both companies and was a great thing we’ve done with them so even in that sense, we’ve been able to make things work so I’m very open and I’ve worked with a lot of different wrestling companies and now I think to be fair, WWE in recent years has been more open to working with other companies too but for us, to have different companies, different titles being defended on our show, it’s a really big deal.
** Josiah Williams was let go from WWE last week as a part of the company’s recent cuts. The news of Williams being let go from the company was first reported by Fightful. Josiah took to his Instagram story to thank those who have shown him love and support.
My dream brought joy to others. My dream gave people faith, hope and encouragement. My dream has shown that it’s possible. Thank you for your love and support. It’s time to dream again.
** Axel Tischer, the former Alexander Wolfe in WWE has been making the media rounds ahead of his WWE contract expiring in June. One of the outlets he appeared on was Cultaholic’s ‘Desert Island Graps’ show. Tischer was a member of SAnitY with Eric Young, Killian Dain and Nikki Cross. He listed off several pitches that were given to Vince McMahon in hopes of getting the group some TV time.
Let us [SAnitY] start a riot, let us be like fire starters in a skit where like some people are starting to fight each other and we cause the chaos for that, stuff like this, you know? And E.Y. [Eric Young] had a great idea about doing something with social media that the fans can decide who we fight next, so in the way of like, ‘Hey, you have your three choices and the choice is up to you who we will purge first’ or there’s this thing like, ‘What do you want to do that SAnitY does next?’ And three options, I don’t know. Light a car on fire, whatever, just — destroy Vince [McMahon’s] office or something like this where we kind of get this little airtime but also get the fans involved on social media so, and he listened to me and blah, blah, blah but probably for me, I probably — my English is okay but it wasn’t that much and also you’re maybe a little bit nervous, you know what I mean? Because you’re standing in front of the boss, so… and you’re probably, ‘Mhm, okay, awesome. So you have the contact of your writer, right? So pitch this to him and make sure he brings this up to me again’ because it’s the thing, you have to be prepared when you go in his office and if you talk with him about the topic, he maybe [loses interest] after five minutes. He’s not listening anymore probably because when it takes too long, so you maybe have to go in and that’s something that I got as advice afterwards. Just have a concept.
Eric Young is currently with IMPACT Wrestling and is the head of Violent By Design (Cody Deaner, Joe Doering & Rhino). Tischer stated that what Eric Young is doing with Violent By Design is what he wanted to do with SAnitY.
We stay in contact, we’re still good friends [Tischel & Eric Young]. No, we just had a small chat but nothing about, ‘Hey, come over to IMPACT or whatever,’ and yeah, basically what you see with Violent By Design is basically E.Y.’s vision of what he had for SAnitY as well so a lot of things in there is basically all the material we couldn’t use on NXT or main roster.
Tischer recalled an experience he had with Stone Cold Steve Austin in Texas during WrestleMania 32 weekend. Tischer had been attempting to get a photo with Austin and he came into contact with Steve after his segment with Shawn Michaels and Mick Foley at WrestleMania. Austin had a torn rotator cuff but no one was aware. He still made sure to take photos with Tischer before the two went their separate ways.
The next day, I just had another little chat with him [Steve Austin] and then, yeah, that’s a good one. So, I did not sign on WrestleMania [32] day and then he had the surprise appearance with HBK and Mick Foley, where he Stunned New Day and Rusev and blah, blah, blah, all those guys and when he had dislocated his rotator cuff.
He’s like I’m not showing it’but he was legit hurt but nobody knew because he didn’t show at all so in the end, it was for me. I saw him after backstage and I kind of ran up to him just to [catch] him. He walks backstage, pain as hell in his shoulder and he’s not flinching once kind of or he’s not making any move of like, ‘Ah’ and I went up to him and he looked pissed, but not like pissed because he’s angry, because he was in pain probably. Again, nobody knew, I didn’t [know] and I ask him, ‘Hey, are you [going] to the after show party?’ He said, ‘No, will not go.’ I said, ‘Okay. So probably I will not see you tomorrow so but, would you mind doing the picture right now?’ And he said, ‘Yeah kid, fine.’ Took my phone, just one of the staff guys, ‘Hey, come over here, take some pictures of us’ and he took the picture.
** All Japan Pro Wrestling referee Lee Nikkan tested positive for COVID-19. She is currently undergoing treatment at her home and has not had any contact with AJPW wrestlers or staff.
** While speaking to PWInsider, MJF expressed how much enjoys being the villain. He went on to say that he is glad the comparisons involving him have stopped over the last several years. He did not see it as a knock being compared to EC3 or The Miz but now feels he’s incomparable.
I love it. I feel like I’m just an agent of chaos, at this point. I’m one of the most polarizing, if not the most polarizing thing, in not just professional wrestling, but all of the media. And I love that. I was despised when I flipped off that snot-nose Brad at a signing. I was on TMZ. I was despised after I cut the promo behind the podium on Jon Moxley. I was despised after Dinner Debonair. I was despised after Blood & Guts, and I’m going to continue to be despised, and people are going to continue to have split opinions about me. And the reason that I’m happy about that is because no matter what I do, people have to talk about me, and they can’t help it. I’m the most talked about guy in this business right now, and that’s pretty crazy, considering the fact that I’m in a company that’s not even two years old yet and I think that’s the power of me, as a performer, that I am able to bring such a massive spotlight to All Elite Wrestling. Honestly, I feed off of it. I love it. But the one thing, no matter what happens weekend and week out on Dynamite, that I am so glad has stopped, is the comparisons. I have almost not seen any comparisons since I debuted. When I debuted, I was compared to EC3 and Miz. And again, that’s not a dig, but that’s not a knock, which is why it sounds so interesting. I think both of those guys are tremendous performers, but now, nobody’s comparing me anymore because I’m impossible to compare. How do you compare perfection? It’s impossible, and it’s cool to see now, even though these people hate me and they do after. After they’re done burying me as a human being, they can’t help but put over the fact that I am the top villain right now in professional wrestling, and I’m damn proud of it.
** On the 5/31 edition of Monday Night Raw, Shayna Baszler is taking on Reginald in singles competition. Graham Matthews of Daily DDT conducted an interview with Baszler ahead of the match and she shared her thoughts about intergender wrestling and the psychology of it. Baszler believes that whether it’s pro wrestling or another form of combat sports, if a woman is trained to compete against men, she can hold her own in the ring or the octagon.
I am also in support of intergender wrestling when it makes sense and when I know the woman knows what they’re doing. I wouldn’t suggest that just anyone… I don’t know if it’s even appropriate to name names. I wouldn’t tell Lana to get in there with any male on the roster, but someone like myself who’s a technician and is experienced competing against males and I know how to balance technique against strength, it’s a little more fitting for someone like me.
I’m not all Gung Ho, ‘All women should fight on the equal ground as the men.’ If there are women who are trained to do that, I’m all for it. I think the argument for me is that people don’t necessarily believe all the time that a woman can balance out that male vs. female aspect. But it is possible and I will show that.
** The most recent guest on the ROHStrong Podcast was Allysin Kay. Back in 2018, she competed in WWE’s Mae Young Classic against Mia Yim. It had been eight months since Kay last wrestled due to blood clots. She almost missed the Mae Young Classic and explained how things ended up working out for her.
Oh absolutely. I don’t know what would have happened if I was with someone for the first time because yeah, I definitely had concerns coming back because I wasn’t able to warm up really. I wasn’t cleared — I was like cleared the last second basically so, I almost didn’t even wrestle for the Mae Young Classic. Like one of the alternates was gonna take my place if I couldn’t get cleared in time and it came down to the wire with I needed a doctor’s note, my doctor’s office was having such a ridiculous issue at the time with — I don’t know. They had like a power outage, they couldn’t send it to me, it was wild. I’m like, ‘You gotta be kidding me. I made it this far and then they’re gonna take me out.’ But I ended up getting it obviously because I competed but I also didn’t compete and so because I was waiting for this last doctor’s note they needed, I couldn’t get in the ring even to practice anything, before the Mae Young Classic. The two or three days that we were there, everyone else is in the ring going over stuff and warming up and practicing or lifting or whatever they wanted to do at the P.C. and I couldn’t do anything. I couldn’t get in the ring, I couldn’t touch a weight until I got this letter, so, I basically went into it cold and I feel like it was okay because of all the experience that I’ve had. All the experience has led up to that point and it was — I feel like it was for that reason, you know? If I didn’t have all that experience, I don’t think it would’ve went as well.
In November of 2020, Allysin announced that she was a free agent and no longer contracted to the National Wrestling Alliance. She spoke about how hard the pandemic hit the NWA and it caused most of the roster members to take pay cuts.
I was under contract up until October 2020 and we came to a mutual agreement basically that I could be let out of my contract a couple months early so I could go work the indies and whatnot, which is a whole thing in itself because we were working the indies under contract and then they [NWA] kind of changed their minds that they didn’t want us to anymore but just the pandemic affected us financially, you know? Our pay was — I think almost all of us took a pay cut during that time, and it was just a situation where I needed to go, I needed to go make money. I needed to pay my bills and so they let me out of my contract a couple months early and yeah, now I’m here.
Kay is going to be a part of Ring of Honor’s tournament to crown a new Women’s Champion. One name that Allysin is looking forward to sharing the ring with is Trish Adora.
Oh absolutely. I love it [being in a tournament with talents I haven’t faced before]. I’ve been watching a lot of, specifically Trish Adora’s work and I’m very excited for a potential matchup with her. Well all of them really of course but I particularly, I feel like Trish has been on the rise on the indie scene and someone that’s newer to me, but I feel like is very technically sound, very exciting in the ring. I’m very [much] looking forward to the possibilities, the possibilities of this whole tournament.
** The Fight Game Podcast welcomed Jon Moxley back onto the show to promote his new book. Moxley was asked if he has learned anything from the pandemic era of wrestling and said he has not. He discussed not being a fan of taping multiple shows in one day along with other routines that the pro wrestling business has incorporated into the fold since March of 2020.
Honestly, no [I didn’t take anything from the pandemic era of wrestling]. I don’t wanna work in an empty building, I don’t wanna work in front of fake fans. If we have to do it — I mean, we and other companies too. Everybody, from IMPACT, Ring of Honor, New Japan, even the ThunderDome and all that, everybody figured out a way to make it work in wrestling and in other sports too. Like hockey and all them, you know? UFC. I mean everybody figured out a way to do it but like, honestly, I didn’t learn sh*t. I wanna go back to full crowds. I don’t wanna tape multiple shows in a day, I don’t wanna be out there changing outfits as if it’s a different day. I am not — I don’t like that. I like showbiz, live TV, I want the adrenaline, I wanna go out there live and do it once. There are times we were taping Dynamite or Dark or Elevation where like I might have screwed up a move, trying to do some lucha move or some sh*t with some of these f*cking kids, and I’m like, ‘I screw it up’ and I just go, ‘Let’s do it again’ and then I get it right the second time and it’s cool because you can do that when it’s taped. But I’m like, ‘If it wasn’t taped, would I have screwed it up the first time?’ Nah, I bet I wouldn’t have because I would have been concentrating harder, I would’ve been more — because it’s live. I wanna do it live, I want real people. I wanna walk out of the arena, I wanna walk back through the locker room, hear the crowd outside the curtain, I wanna do it live one time. F*ck the pandemic. We figured it out, we got through it but once that’s over, I’m not — you know, I would love there to be, ‘You know, I learned a very valuable lesson’ but nah, I didn’t learn sh*t. I wanna do it live, live people, that’s what I want.
** ‘Wildcat’ Chris Harris chatted with Piers Austin on the ‘Shooting The Sh*t UNCENSORED’ podcast. Harris is well known for his time as a part of America’s Most Wanted with James Storm. He shared that during their run together in TNA, Vince Russo wanted to split them up in 2003.
What a lot of people don’t know is — and I’m a [Vince] Russo fan. The guy takes a lot of heat, but I’m a Vince Russo fan but back in, let’s see, the company started in ‘02. We were doing some great things that first year but they had ideas of breaking us [America’s Most Wanted] up in ‘03 already. Vince had some great ideas but he also kind of likes to shotgun a lot of stuff and when you got something going good with a tag team, it’s like, ‘Okay, well let’s split ‘em up and have ‘em feud and we’ll see what we can get out of that’ so there was talk of splitting us up in ‘03 and even though I still consider us — you know, we were young guys trying to keep our mouth shut, we saw we had something going so we actually spoke up and I don’t know if there was some heat on us but, we spoke up and said, ‘We really think we can — there’s more life in this and we can keep going’ so there was a little back and forth as far as storyline goes but they wound up keeping us together and we stayed another few years and then the little twist with the heel turn.
In 2008, Harris departed IMPACT Wrestling following miscommunications between the two sides about getting a new contract signed. He recalled both Dixie Carter and Jeff Jarrett approaching him at his last TV taping for TNA in ’08 and Jarrett congratulating him on signing a new deal although he had not signed anything. He believes they wanted him to stay.
The only thing I can remember hearing was the word ‘restructure’. They were just trying to restructure all the contracts to where they were all kind of on a level playing field I guess, which I’m not sure if I bought that because as I said before, they were bringing a lot of top names in and I know they weren’t getting pay cuts so, I’m not sure what it was man. I never got a really great explanation because if I did — and you kind of hear after being in the business for so long, you kind of hear this, maybe we just weren’t communicating right. Maybe if we had communicated a little bit more, I feel like things could’ve been worked out because I don’t think they wanted to let me and go and I certainly didn’t want to be let go. We just needed to come to some kind of happy medium I guess and we just weren’t communicating, so much that I remember at one of my last TVs, on the same day and I don’t even know how this got out there but two different times, Jeff [Jarrett] and Dixie Carter each had come up to me at separate times and congratulated me on signing a new deal and as I’m shaking their hands, I’m looking at ‘em saying, ‘I haven’t signed. That hasn’t gotten that far yet’ and so they were kind of shocked because I think they thought something was gonna happen so that makes me feel like they wanted something to happen, I wanted something to happen and it didn’t so somewhere along the line, there was a breakdown in communication and I wish we could’ve done that whole situation over and made something work but, that’s just looking back. I was taking my chances and going in a different direction.
Harris believes that TNA held a small grudge against him for departing the company and joining WWE. He tried to get back in contact with TNA after his exit from WWE but they were not open to working with him.
When I tried to talk to ‘em [TNA] about maybe coming back, they weren’t hearing it so they did hold a grudge for a little bit. Eventually, I think things were okay but yeah man, they weren’t interested in doing something with me, even when I tried to talk to them about coming back so…
They took it personal man and they were probably — I don’t know. I can’t speak for ‘em. I don’t think anybody has that bad of a heart but I don’t know if they kind of had a smile on their face when they saw it didn’t work out with WWE or what but, when I had talked to them about, ‘Hey, can we do something as far as coming back?’ They were not interested.
As new faces began to make their way into TNA/IMPACT Wrestling, Harris was nearing the end of his first run in the company. One of those new faces was Kurt Angle, who Harris openly made remarks about having too much TV time.
I kind of joked a lot of the time and I don’t necessarily put Kurt Angle in this category because he was such a great addition for us and he came in and he was great with all of the guys, he wanted to work with the young guys. But Kurt was in so many segments on TV. It was like one after the other so I made a crack a couple of times where it’s like, ‘You know, well he’s having so much TV time that nobody else has a chance to really build their character or anything’ and so they started putting me with him and actually saying stuff like that on the air. Like you know, ‘Hey, I guess if I’m gonna get TV time, I gotta be in a Kurt Angle skit,’ and so I’m not sure what direction they were taking from that. What I heard was I was eventually gonna be put with him, hopefully [get] something done but I didn’t know if they were just saying that because [my] contract was coming up.
Looking back on his time in WCW, Harris stated that there was a ‘country music’ character that he was presented with, but it never came to fruition. He was told that it was too country and southern.
I thought it was maybe cool to pursue something like that because somebody in a [country music] video, maybe show clips or packages or anything like that to debut a new character and when they [WCW] came up with it, I thought it was a great idea. They even talked about sending me in a direction of [working] with Jeff Jarrett because he had been doing kind of — I don’t know if you call it country, southern kind of with the guitar and things like that so they had talked about a direction with him where I could actually work a program with him, but to tell you the truth, it didn’t last long, it was in the talking stages and what I had heard was and I kind of laugh at this but, they wind up saying it was almost too country, too southern kind of a thing to do, which the reason I chuckle about that is because we’ve always considered WWE [as] like the northern, New York kind of territory. WCW is a southern territory. How is it too southern or country? So it was kind of shut down right then and you know, I didn’t have any pull so it wasn’t like I could pull for it so, yeah that was true man. They brought up the idea, I wish we would have done something with it. I don’t know how long it would have lasted because the company was only in business for another year so, but yeah man, it would have been cool. There’s some truth to that.
** Rey Mysterio chatted with Ryan Satin on the ‘Out of Character’ podcast and one of the topics that came up during the interview was the Latino World Order faction that was formed in WCW. Rey believes the group would find success if it were to be reestablished in today’s landscape.
I don’t think so [a new Latino World Order would be a ripoff] because you know, if you think about it, things that were cool back then are becoming cool once again and I truly believe that the LWO would [have] huge success nowadays. You know, you don’t know, it might happen.
Mysterio told the story of his first tour of Mexico with WWE. He had previously lost his mask and there was a wrestling council who made the decision that Rey could not wrestle in his mask in Mexico. At the end of the night, he was able to get clearance to sport his mask.
In Mexico when we went for the first time with WWE, they didn’t want to let me wrestle with the mask on because I had lost it already, so… it’s maybe about a year-and-a-half, two years almost [into my run with WWE] and WWE was going on tour, so I was like, ‘Really? I’ve been wrestling with it since I signed with WWE.’ The point is they didn’t care but at the end of the night, they were like, ‘Go ahead man. It’s cool, it’s okay.’ So we pulled it off and the rest is history.
Aalyah Mysterio, daughter of Rey, had been featured on WWE programming for a good portion of 2020. Rey stated that if Aalyah wanted to get into the business full-time, he would support her decision.
It’s funny you say that. My wife just asked me yesterday, she goes, ‘What would you say if your daughter all of sudden just said, Dad, I want to break in the business.’ I’d say, ‘I’d be the first to train her,’ you know? I can’t say no, but of course she has to continue with her medical field. That’s what she’s doing right now, she’s going to college to be in the medical field so I’m looking forward to that but again, if she decided to switch her mindset, I would be right there to support her.
** Chavo Guerrero welcomed Rikishi onto his Suplexes and Cervezas podcast. Rikishi reflected on the earlier days of his in-ring career when he and Sam Fatu would consistently wrestle Kevin and Kerry Von Erich. Their first encounter resulted in Rikishi and Sam being stiff in the ring with The Von Erichs to prevent them from causing damage with chair shots. When Rikishi and Sam got to the back, they were prepared to fight Kerry and Kevin because they weren’t sure of how The Von Erichs would react to what occurred in the ring.
Kevin and Kerry [Von Erich], the two stiffest ones. The two stiffest ones, and so when we [Rikishi & Sam Fatu] get out there with them, the angle starts, Kerry’s coming to my back — I mean Kevin, he’s actually coming to my back and Sammy sees him, he’s getting ready to whale a chair on me. Now we’ve watched them hit people with chairs over there in Texas. Dude, they used to f*ck people up. Like it got to a point to where, you know, like concussions and stuff really can end your career. They hit you wrong in the back of your head and your vertebrae, it can kill you, exactly so when Sammy seen that and this is the — this is that part when we’re hungry Samoans. Before he even got a chance to bring that chair down, out of nowhere, Sammy, I mean just whacked him with the damn — another chair. Now, everybody in the locker room, when they seen that, we’re just coming in. When they seen that, they for sure thought we were fired, because we just beat up the boss’ sons and blah, blah, blah. So we come back in the locker room, here comes Kerry and Kevin and we’re sitting there, I said, ‘Aite, if this sh*t jump off, you grab that chair, I’m gonna grab this bat here beside me and let’s get it on.’ As soon as they came in, it was that pause and then all of a sudden, ‘Man! That was good sh*t guys!’ And we knew then, we knew then, ‘Okay, these motherf*ckers is right up our alley then. These dudes are crazy.’
** The latest guest on Highspots’ Virtual Gimmick Table show was Raven. The former ECW World Heavyweight Champion shared that he needs surgery on both of his knees.
Basically, it’s like any other day. All my days are easily lived life. Tuesday, I see the chiropractor. Every Tuesday, standing appointments. Other than that, I’m happy, I’m content.
That [chiropractor] definitely saved me. Although I do need knee surgeries now, two of ‘em, one for each knee. It is terrible.
** The post-Double Or Nothing episode of Being The Elite:
** Sports Illustrated caught up with Sting for an exclusive interview. He told the publication that he always appreciated the fans for giving him the willpower to continue his match against Seth Rollins at the 2015 Night of Champions show. Sting said he will never forget how the crowd made him feel.
The fans knew something wasn’t right. They started chanting, and they started chanting some more. I’ll always remember the way that made me feel. That made up my mind–I needed to find a way to finish. I will never, ever forget that night. The way the fans reacted, it was so organic. It meant the world to me. People still say to me, ‘You should have the belt. They shot themselves in the foot by not doing it.’ We had a really good match up until the point of my injury, one I’m proud of wrestling. And I was so happy to finish the match.
** Mike Johnson of PWInsider caught up with Pete Dunne. Dunne discussed staying involved with the NXT UK brand and working backstage at NXT UK tapings prior to moving to the U.S. full-time.
Yeah, I’ve definitely tried to stay involved. When I was back in the UK, I was able to work backstage and it’s almost more rewarding for me, being a part of that process, than it is actually being in the ring. I have a certain set of expectations for myself, right, and I’m never truly happy with a match that I’ve done. I’ll come to the back and I’ll start criticizing myself, and trying to work out where we can improve, but obviously being a part of that process, seeing people that are maybe not as far down the line as I am, and working with them and helping them to improve and get better is always something I find really rewarding, and hopefully can be a future career for me, down the line. Obviously, it’s tough right now with NXT UK. Obviously the lockdown measures and whatnot in the UK and the fact that there’s no audience, it can be difficult for talent brushing. They’re all doing a great job. And the fact that I’m still able to be a small part of these stables, even though I’m [on] the other side of the world is a great thing. And I’m glad that at the very least I get to be a part of it in some manner.
** Prior to AEW Double Or Nothing, Anthony Ogogo did an interview with SunSport.
** Darby Allin did a virtual signing for Highspots Wrestling Network.
** Lio Rush vs. Brian Cage is set for Warrior Wrestling’s ‘Stadium Series’ show on July 17th.
** WWE’s Montez Ford has a birthday today.
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.
