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.
** Simon Hill spoke to Colt Cabana on his ‘Keep It Locked’ podcast and one of the topics that came up was AEW’s balance of TV time for veterans and the talents who are deemed the future of the company. Cabana applied that to commentary as well and while he is glad to have Tony Schiavone and Jim Ross around, he thinks it is important to highlight Excalibur.
Yeah, it is important [to have Jim Ross & Tony Schiavone] around but it’s also important that we understand to move on to the future so as great as J.R. and Tony Schiavone is, the most important thing is that we’re highlighting Excalibur because he is amazing, he is so good at what he does and I know Jim Ross is so important to the wrestling industry and has been around for so long, but this is my personal thought. His job is to essentially push the young guys and give the young guys the rub and Excalibur is the future and he’s amazing at what he does so, I love being around the older generation. [When you] take a step back in our locker room: Sting, Taz, Jake The Snake Roberts, Vickie Guerrero. As long as — in WCW style, as long as they’re not the focal point of the show and our wrestlers, the Fenixs’, the Omegas, The Young Bucks, the Hangman Pages, as long as these are the wrestlers, PAC. These are the wrestlers that are pushing wrestling into the future, that’s important and I think AEW has a great grasp and I think we do use the veterans very well in those spaces. Arn Anderson, Tully Blanchard. I think it’s so fun that Tully is with The Pinnacle and when he dressed up in that outfit and he did that match, he was what he was and was really good at it and all these guys are really good at it. Not trying to take over the spotlight but helping new wrestlers come into the spotlight.
Cabana discussed his current position in All Elite Wrestling. He’s a member of The Dark Order and is glad to be along for the ride. Cabana then heaped praise onto talents such as Hangman Page, Kenny Omega, Stu Grayson, Evil Uno and John Silver.
Honestly, I’m just along for the ride. I love to play my part, I love to, you know, I don’t know. I’d love to be champion, sure. I’d love to be. Yeah, but I don’t know if that’s the biggest goal. I would just love to be a part of this team, taking over the wrestling world and we’ve done such a great job and we’ve started. [We’re] in such a great place and it’s such an exciting — I think a lot of people know that I like the weirdness and nostalgia of wrestling. I romance about wrestling a lot so I love that in 20 years, people are gonna be like, ‘I can’t believe you were around during the start of AEW.’ The same way I was around the start of Ring of Honor. It’s just like I know I have this great place in wrestling, I’ve done some wild things, NWA Worlds Champion, I’ve wrestled in India and I’ve wrestled in the northernmost part of Canada and I’ve done these bizarre shows in Mexico, Lucha VaVoom shows and also I’ve been a part of AEW. My story runs so wide that-that’s just fun to be knowing — I look around at the locker room every single time I’m there and I just look at these bizarre cast of wrestlers and know that I’m a part of it and I think it’s really cool and I know it’s something special and a lot of these wrestlers, you know, some of them were the ‘chosen ones’ or whatever. You know, [Chris] Jericho and there’s Big Show and these guys have been around and they have their own struggles but, not compared to these indie wrestlers who were shunned, who were told that they couldn’t be stars and to be in the locker room, to see a guy like Hangman [Adam Page], [guys] like The Young Bucks and Kenny Omega and there’s just such a long list of all of these wrestlers who were just kind of told like, ‘Ah, you’re not a star’ and then another promotion starts up and says, ‘Yeah, you are a star and we’ll put you on national television. You’re gonna be amazing and you are.’ That for me is always really special. Evil Uno and Stu [Grayson], these are two guys that are — no one would put them on TV and now here they are and we’re thriving in The Dark Order and it’s so fun. John Silver’s another guy. How many trials did that guy have over the years? A million, you know?
** Renee Paquette welcomed Tommy End, also known as Aleister Black onto her Oral Sessions podcast. Black was released from WWE on June 2nd and coming out of his release, he publicly spoke about his experiences in the company on several occasions. During his conversation with Renee, Black shared several pitches that were made on his behalf which included The Undertaker, Samoa Joe and Brock Lesnar respectively.
One of the cool pitches for me was that for a moment when I had the match with AJ [Styles], one of the things that leading up to WrestleMania was that during the end of my match with AJ [at Elimination Chamber 2020], you know, Undertaker appeared and helped me, saved me, stopped the beat down that The Good Brothers gave me. One of the pitches was that at WrestleMania, it was gonna be the other way around so it was AJ and Taker and one of the pitches was towards the end of that match, The Good Brothers would come out or something to that extent and I would be the one to help Taker and I always thought — the fact that they even considered that was like wow, you know what I mean? It was very cool. One of the other things that was always very cool is that [Paul] Heyman’s idea was to have either Samoa Joe or Brock Lesnar come into ‘the room’ at the time. Yes, [when I was doing the promos in the back]. So the thing was supposed to progress, obviously they never progressed. They always stayed the same which is one of my biggest regrets because I always wanted them to be much more than they were. I wanted them to have different verbiage, kind of like expand on it. I did what I could with them which is very minimal and Heyman fought tooth and nail for it but, at the end of the day, there’s obviously — if there’s a ‘no’, there’s a no. You can’t argue the ‘no’ all the time and one of the things we set course out to do was eventually having an interaction between me and either Brock Lesnar or Samoa Joe that would send [them] where I would cut this promo [in the] room and Lesnar would just come through from the darkness and would just choke me out and stuff like that and it would set up something similar to that. But again, the people have to understand, these are pitches. This is not a set in stone thing, this is the course of planning. These were all ideas that people were having in courses that were plotting and planning. They pan out, they might not pan out.
Dating back to his time in NXT, Aleister said it was relayed to him by Paul “Triple H” Levesque that Vince McMahon asked for him to be on the main roster several times.
So, I think we have to kind of go back to the start of my NXT career. I remember the match that I had with Velveteen [Dream] and that was a match that put me on the map and I remember Hunter telling me a while ago, about like a year-and-a-half ago, we had a talk. Even a year-and-a-half ago, I was going like, ‘What are we doing? Because it’s starting, stopping.’ Every time I thought we were going somewhere, we didn’t. Every time I saw the fans get behind me or the ratings were positive, no one pulled the trigger on it and Hunter told me that even back then, Vince [McMahon] was like, ‘I want that guy’ and then it was, I think the match with Johnny [Gargano] when I came back, again, ‘I want that guy’ and Hunter kept telling him, ‘No. I have this program with him. I want him to finish [and] write that out.’
In the days since his release, Black has publicly praised Paul Heyman for going to bat for him in WWE. He recalled Heyman telling him that he was five years ahead of the wrestling business.
He [Paul Heyman] reached out to me on the day that it happened. It was very sad. Paul has always said to me, ‘Tom, I think you’re five years ahead of the business.’ He’s like, ‘As brilliant as I think you are, I think that’s also sometimes your biggest issue is that you’re so far ahead mentally that people have to catch up to it’ and he still now, he still believes. He’s like, ‘I still believe you’re gonna do great things’ and you know, we’re far from done. I am absolutely far from done.
** Following an episode of NXT this past February, there was concern for Kyle O’Reilly’s health following a segment with Adam Cole. It began to make the rounds on social media that O’Reilly had a seizure. He spoke to TV Insider and said it was humbling to know how many people cared. He was sad that his sister had to read the rumors before she could get in contact with him
It’s a testament to how things can take off. It was weird and also humbling to know so many people really cared and wanted the best for me coming out of the scenario. People were concerned and offered support, which was really cool to know so many people cared. It took off like wildfire.
My sister. That was the first thing she saw was this rumor on Twitter before I’d even had the chance to give her a call and let her know I was okay. She called me in hysterics freaking out. That made me sad because here is someone who is family who sees something on Twitter and was concerned. I knew [social media’s speculation] came from a caring and genuine place. They were concerned. I can’t fault anyone for that.
** While chatting with Ryan Satin on the ‘Out of Character’ podcast, Johnny Gargano spoke about he and Tommaso Ciampa’s series of matches with FTR (Dax Harwood & Cash Wheeler) in NXT. Gargano doesn’t think he’d be where he is now if their TakeOver: Brooklyn 2016 match didn’t go the way it did.
And then obviously, our work with Revival [Cash Wheeler & Dax Harwood]. I cannot say enough good things about that. That really cemented us and really kind of — that was obviously our first TakeOver. TakeOver: Brooklyn at the Barclays Center was our first one and to go in there with those guys and to have that match, I don’t think I’d be sitting here today if that match didn’t go the way it did. I think that match went so well, it made them realize like, ‘Oh, wait a minute, we might have something special here with these guys’ and obviously the rest is history. But to be able to do that in Brooklyn then have the 2-out-of-3 Falls in Toronto, we were made men from those matches.
Gargano expressed that he feels the goal post is often moved for him. He said there have been conversations about him only being a good tag team guy and then only being a good singles wrestler and then questions about his on-screen character.
I feel like that’s been the constant flow of my career, to where — especially in NXT where I started in a tag team with DIY and it became, ‘Okay, well Johnny’s just a great tag team guy,’ then DIY broke up and then me and Tommaso have these matches — me and DIY broke up and then me and Andrade had these matches. Like, ‘Oh well, he’s just a great singles guy but can he tell a story?’ But then me and Tommaso [Ciampa] had our feud but, ‘Okay, well he can tell a story but you know, what’s his character?’ And now I’m doing The Way thing so I feel like every single time I just try to reach them goal posts that people keep moving. I feel like every time I do something, people move the goal posts. I gotta try to get to that goal post now. So I’m waiting to see what the next thing is but as an artist and as someone who is creative, that just challenges me to change things up and try something new and I think in this business… that’s where being around for a long time, I think that’s where that comes in because the more you change — I get it, it’s a TV show. You don’t wanna watch the same character on that show for five years, I 100 percent get that, especially for me being in NXT for so long, I felt like I needed to evolve, I needed to change and what you see on TV right now is a result of that.
** The latest guest on ‘All Real Wrestling’ was Davey Richards, who will be in action on July 10th for MLW’s return in front of live fans in Philadelphia. Davey spoke about his decision to join MLW. He said he had other offers on the table but feels he made the right choice by choosing the organization.
It’s funny because I’ve been kind of — so I never wanted to be the guy that was just on the tail end of his career, broken down, couldn’t go anymore and then finally I get the hint that, eh, maybe I should leave. I wanted to at least leave — to me, match quality is the most important and when I couldn’t perform, if I ever got to that level, I would have been really embarrassed so I’m glad that I left when I was on top. But I just got to a point to where — there was a couple reasons. I’m sure we’ll talk about [those] later but, it was just — it was one of those things where… the IMPACT thing was great and when I came back, I can’t name names but I had a few different companies reach out and MLW was just — I watched their product and the way we spoke and corresponded was just like man, this is awesome, this is great. This is what I personally think wrestling should be and is. That’s not a knock on other companies, just, you know, everyone has their own taste. Musical taste, movie taste, wrestling taste and I really think I made the right decision signing with MLW. I can’t tell you how good I’ve been treated and how excited I am for July 10th.
Richards is a multi-time tag team champion in several companies and promotions alongside Eddie Edwards. Davey stated that it is inevitable that he and Eddie will reform The American Wolves.
The things [gear] I’ve ordered have been trunks because personally, I like trunks but, I almost — I mean, inevitably, somewhere down the road, The American Wolves are coming back, you know what I mean? And I was like, ‘Do I save the tights?’
Well it’s the elephant in the room. Well I didn’t say when nor do I know when but inevitably, you know what I mean? It’s gotta happen, right?
It was the Global Syndicate Wrestling promotion that first brought Davey Richards back into the fold of pro wrestling. Richards thought that no one would remember him and explained how the conversations began with himself and Global Syndicate.
I was truly convinced that — because when I stepped away, I stepped away completely. You know, and I was pretty certain people weren’t gonna remember me at all or just be like, ‘Oh yeah, that guy,’ because I didn’t engage a lot on social media. I was very focused on other things at that time and then I gotta hand it to Global Syndicate Wrestling because they’re the ones that really, ‘Hey, you should come back and we’d like to book you’ and I’m like, ‘To wrestle?’ They’re like, ‘Yeah. Are you physically able to?’ And I’m like, ‘Oh yeah, I’m in the best shape of my life’ and I’m like, ‘Yeah, why not?’ And there’s always been — it’s bigger to me than just returning to wrestling. I can’t do anything half-assed, especially when it comes to wrestling because it’s such an emotional connection for me. So it was like, ‘All right. If we’re going to do this, someone’s gonna pay to see me. They’re gonna get their money’s worth.’ I don’t believe in half-assing things.
** Carlito was one of two guests on the most recent episode of Rewind, Recap, Relive. Carlito was in the final two of the WWE Championship Elimination Chamber match at New Year’s Revolution in 2006. He was curious as to why the finish of the match was John Cena defeating him with a roll up but he soon found out as Edge cashed in Money In The Bank. Carlito was not aware that-that was happening.
I think that’s [New Year’s Revolution 2006] when they [WWE] started keeping stuff from the boys because I remember the finish, I think it was a roll up and I always thought, ‘Like man, that’s a little anticlimactic, a roll up?’ ‘Oh no, no, it’s gonna work fine’ or whatever and I just remember the whole night I’m like, ‘Man really? We’re gonna do that? Alright, whatever.’ Then all of a sudden, the roll-up happens and then Edge’s music hits and I’m like, ‘Ah, okay, I see. Now the roll up makes sense.’ Yeah, and that was the first time they ever — that was the first time somebody cashed in the Money In The Bank thing so yeah, they even kept it from us so that was like, ‘Okay, I see what they’re doing.’
Carlito and John Cena were intertwined in a number of storylines throughout their time together in WWE. Carlito said it was Cena who proposed that he start using the “Backstabber” as a finisher.
The Backstabber, that’s [John] Cena’s fault. I just thought it was a cool move and Cena kept on pushing it on me, ‘That’s gotta be your finisher, that’s gotta be your finisher.’ ‘Yeah, but I gotta do that every night’ and he’s like, ‘Yeah, but it’s a cool finisher’ and I was like, ‘Alright’ so I guess I gave in because you know, my first couple of years when I came to WWE, I didn’t have a finisher, I was doing different things. So I said, ‘Yeah, alright’ so I kind of said, ‘Alright, it’s a cool move, nobody else does it. I mean, let me go ahead and use it and solidify it as my own finisher.’ Seems like everybody started using it after I left.
** That 90’s Wrestling Podcast welcomed W. Morrissey (CazXL) onto their platform. He was asked about a potential reunion of himself and nZo (Enzo Amore) in IMPACT Wrestling. Morrissey does not know what nZo is currently focused on but he has his own plan in place for his time in IMPACT.
I have no idea [if there will be an nZo/Morrissey reunion in IMPACT]. I don’t know where he’s at. He’s got music he’s focused on, he’s got wrestling, acting. There’s a lot of things in entertainment that he has his eye on so, I don’t know what he’s 100 percent focused on right now but right now in IMPACT, I’m here as a singles and I’m looking at making a name for myself on my own.
Morrissey is interested in a tour of Japan. With IMPACT and New Japan Pro-Wrestling exchanging talent, Morrissey definitely wants to explore the possibilities.
100 percent. I can’t even go into detail on that. The answer should just be in blinding, big, bold letters and numbers. One hundred percent. That’s the answer to that question. Yes.
** Britt Baker guest appeared on the ‘Rasslin with Brandon F. Walker podcast. The AEW Women’s World Champion further opened up about her friendship with Tony Schiavone. As far as Schiavone’s role on commentary goes, Britt said she does not like to insult the fans’ intelligence by way of Schiavone trying to make them believe that he isn’t rooting for Baker because she’s a heel.
Right, don’t insult the fans’ intelligence. Fans know that Tony [Schiavone] and I are very good friends, we have great chemistry. No one’s gonna believe it if he says he’s unhappy that I cheated to win the title. He’s so happy for his main homegirl.
** WWE abandoned their trademark filing for ‘The Collective’. The Collective is the title that Game Changer Wrestling uses for their multi-promotional week of events.
** Steven Muehlhausen of DAZN.com conducted an interview with Kyle O’Reilly. He told the site that he is still figuring himself out as a singles performer. O’Reilly added that he does not know what to do with the styling of his on-screen character right now.
I think it’s important that as performers, we’re always growing and evolving and trying to be different and unique. There’s aspects of how I was in Ring of Honor and PWG that I certainly (would) like to capture again, more so like the intensity and the physical aspects of it as an in-ring performer. The look and all that sort is something that I’m playing with. I still really have no idea what I’m doing. I have no sense of style. I go to the thrift shop and just grab whatever kind of mishmash, mismatched outfits I can find. The more mismatched it is, the more I dig it. I like just throwing stuff at the wall and see what works, and if it gets people talking for better or for worse, then I’ll take it. A lot of people hate the hair. A lot of people hate the new look, but what’s old is in right now.
** Ring of Honor commentator Ian Riccaboni noted on Twitter that he was told ROH is going to be returning to Philadelphia with fans in attendance and further information would be communicated soon.
** Terrell and Terrence Hughes, sons of D-Von Dudley, guest appeared on The Turnbuckle Tavern podcast. Terrence dove into he and his brother’s goals as a team. They were attempting to get into New Japan Pro-Wrestling prior to the COVID-19 pandemic but those plans fell through before the ball got rolling.
I think coming from the most decorated tag team, I feel like we have to go for that goal of becoming one of the most accomplished tag teams in the modern-era of tag team wrestling. I think for — obviously you have [to] base in all the major promotions in order to do that. So, obviously WWE being the major company to be able to get a big run there or if AEW also was in that. I always wanted to travel to go to New Japan. We were actually trying to get to New Japan right before the Coronavirus but it fell through so if I can touch base in all of the major companies including WWE, AEW, NWA, New Japan and just really make a name that way, I think that’s probably the ultimate goal for me.
Elsewhere during the discussion, Terrence gave his take on the differences between doing extra work for WWE and AEW.
Yeah, I would say AEW extra work is more like, you have a lot of opportunity to get a job. WWE extra work, I don’t think — I think it’s very rare that you get a job out of that. I think their opportunities are more for their PC tryouts at the Performance Center so I think when you walk in the building of AEW and you’re doing extra work, you’re more thinking of, ‘Okay, I have this, this, this opportunity [to] really show something.’ When you walk in the doors of WWE extra work, you’re more like, ‘Okay, how do I not mess up a small part or maybe get a bigger part?’ You’re not really trying to get a job or anything. You’re more doing that when you’re doing the PC tryouts.
** At New Japan Pro-Wrestling’s Dominion show, Shingo Takagi defeated Kazuchika Okada to become IWGP World Heavyweight Champion. Takagi spoke to the press 24 hours after the match and here’s a quote via NJPW1972.com:
Okada had the record for most defenses of the previous IWGP Heavyweight title. He represented that belt, but I feel now it’s with me, the prestige of this title has been elevated a bit, if I do say so myself. Tanahashi, Okada, they’re definitely factors, but what drives me most is beating out the people of my generation. Ibushi, Naito, they’re the guys that make me the most competitive. Ibushi and I debuted at the same time, Naito and I have that past in the Hamaguchi Gym.
** No further details were shared, but Gangrel announced on Instagram that he is no longer affiliated with ‘Gangrel’s Wrestling Asylum’ school. He added that people have not seen the last of himself or the students that are training/have trained there.
** Dave Marquez’s Championship Wrestling from Atlanta product will be taping out of Center Stage soon.
** Doc Gallows, Karl Anderson and Rocky Romero dove into the recent WWE releases and those talents’ futures on the Talk’n Shop podcast.
** Kyle O’Reilly did an interview with Miami Herald’s Jim Varsallone.
** Jerry Lawler is scheduled to appear at ‘Hidden Gems Novelties and Collectibles’ in Metropolis, Illinois on August 1st.
** Adam Cole, Xavier Woods, Tyler Breeze and Cesaro play Super Mario Party:
** WWE’s Liv Morgan turned 27-years-old on 6/8.
** Gisele Shaw was a guest on ‘A Wrestling Gal’ 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.
