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.
** The most recent guest on Ringside Rant was Damo, also known as Killian Dain. Dain was released from WWE on June 25th and he further opened up about receiving the call about his release while at the Performance Center. He said he was present at the PC to be a part of a session that was hosted Robbie Brookside and Diamond Mine’s Hideki Suzuki.
It is a part of the industry. It always has been, you know? There have been plenty of guys before me who were incredible talents and got released and for me personally, I went through every range of emotion on the day. In fact, the funniest part is I was actually in the Performance Center when I got the phone call so, it’s even worse because I’m actually in the building and I’m going, ‘Ah, okay. This is awkward.’ We were doing extra ring training every Friday. There’s an opportunity for anybody who wants to go in and work [with] coaches and I had been going in every Friday because Hideki Suzuki and Robbie Brookside were taking sessions and Robbie’s a — I’ll talk to him and he’s been a massive influence on my career and Hideki Suzuki is this incredible Catch wrestler. He was one of the last people trained by Billy Robinson so I’ve really enjoyed picking his brain so I was in — myself, Tim Thatcher, actually my wife Nikki [Cross] was there and a bunch of others and we’re having a good day and sadly, it didn’t end a good day but, I went through every range of emotion to be honest. The weirdest part of it all is that initial ‘what if’ and then that subsides really quickly because you start getting excited about what’s next and that’s the weirdest part of this week, you know?
As the conversation rolled on, Dain was asked if there was a point when he was considered to join the NXT UK brand. He shared that there were plenty of discussions concerning that, including being a part of the first WWE United Kingdom Championship tournament.
A bunch of times [a move to NXT UK was discussed]. So when I first started with NXT, the UK was being talked about as a possibility. So I was all set to go in the first tournament and things like that and then I was put into SAnitY so then that changed everybody’s perception because I couldn’t really go and be like a national representative for Northern Ireland or whatever in the first tournament, while also being a crazy guy back in the States so… I mean even when we were first talking about it, I was speaking to some of the people who were creating it. We were talking about names because they were worried about offending people and whatever else, because calling something the UK — WWE UK, sorry, and then bringing in Irish people and whatever else. ‘Was it gonna be a problem?’ Whatever, so there’s all kinds of crazy questions when it first started, but yeah, we talked about it right at the start and then later on again, there was another time I was meant to go over and it just didn’t happen. I think we were getting promoted. I think that just didn’t become a possibility but when I was up on the main roster and we had a couple of good moments and a couple of bad moments and I said to Triple H, I said, ‘Listen, if there’s anything on NXT, NXT UK just to supplement this, I’d be more than happy to do it’ because for me personally I think I was 33 or 34 and I was ready to go, ready to wrestle so literally the first thing that did happen when I did come down to NXT was we went over to the Download Festival and I got to do a few matches at Download Festival with the NXT UK guys which was awesome for me because a lot of those guys, I knew from the scene or I trained.
Dain, a former member of SAnitY alongside Eric Young and Axel Tischer (Alexander Wolfe) were split in 2019. Killian Dain said that prior to Young being released in 2020, they were going to head over to NXT UK to feud with Imperium and Tischer was going to be the centerpiece of the feud. Tischer shared a similar story during an interview in May.
One of the craziest things is right before COVID, right before COVID was about to hit, myself and Eric Young at the time were gonna go to NXT UK and we were gonna feud with Alexander Wolfe and Imperium with the potential of ‘will he? Won’t he?’ With Wolfe so, but COVID hit, releases happened, things changed, there’s no travel to the UK. All the guys over there were completely isolated from us. We were isolated from them. In fact, we, you know, I guess everybody across [there] was isolated from us so there was no more crossover and sadly that wasn’t gonna happen but the craziest part of it all for me was it was gonna be an NXT Dublin which would have been utterly outrageous and that would have been the best possible experience for me, but it sadly wasn’t to be and with the way COVID went and everything else but, it’s one of those cool ‘what if’ scenarios that E.Y. [and I] will text each other about and stuff so…
Prior to Dain joining SAnitY, current IMPACT Wrestling talent Madman Fulton was a part of the group, but he went down with injury and was replaced by Killian. He expressed how replacing Fulton was not a good feeling but he also had the thought in his head that he is living a dream of being featured on WWE programming.
For me personally, it [SAnitY] was one of the best experiences of my life but, the very first day, you’re talking about December 7th, we filmed that a couple of weeks ago in November and that was the best and the worst day of my life, because in regards to the best, I’m debuting on WWE television, my wife [Nikki Cross] is a part of the group which is awesome but, I’m replacing a guy who got hurt and it really sucked because Sawyer Fulton was a great guy, we were friends outside of this. He’s one of the fellas I always keep an eye on, and it was literally the worst day of my life, you know, because replacing somebody sucks. Somebody gets hurt and then months later, he got released himself and I think I had about eight waves of guilt, you know what I mean? Because every single — every time something else happened and you’re like, ‘Oh God, [that’s for] Sawyer.’ But he’s a great talent and he’s done really well for himself and he’s carving out a name for himself now at IMPACT so, all fingers crossed for him and what he does next but it was just a terrible situation, having to replace him and then at the same time you’re going, ‘Well this is my dream and this is everything that I’ve ever wanted’ and you know, it was a crazy double-edged sword for me.
** Lucha Libre Online pushed out their interview with Jimmy Wang Yang. He mentioned that he and his daughter, Jazzy, recently met with Mickie James. Jimmy teased that his daughter might be a part of NWA’s Empowerrr event.
So, I’m gonna give you a little secret. You know, so me and Jazzy Yang [his daughter] just had a meeting with Mickie James.
Yeah, so whatever you wanna do [with that information] is fine but there’s something happening at the end of August for a company. History moment for that company and just stay tuned and make sure you check out Jazzy Yang.
** While speaking to Steel Chair Magazine, Matt Cardona was asked if IMPACT Wrestling is a company that he can see himself settling in exclusively. Cardona stated that he does not like to focus too much on the future and would rather live in the moment.
I was actually thinking about this today. I don’t like to plan ahead, I don’t like to look five years down the road or one year. I like to just live in the moment and take advantage of the opportunities that present themselves because you never know especially in this business, anything can happen, so I like to just take it one day at a time, one match at a time, but Impact is the place to be right now, and I’m just excited for Slammiversary. Like I said, I hope I get that match [against Brian Myers], and then we’ll deal with what’s next.
** Bandido is challenging RUSH for the ROH World Championship at Best in the World and to promote the match and the pay-per-view, he appeared on the ROHStrong Podcast. Below are several highlights from the podcast:
– Bandido wrestled with a dislocated shoulder in the main event of ALL IN. The injury occurred when he took a clothesline and landed awkwardly on his shoulder.
– When he was first contacted for ALL IN, he was under the impression that it was a smaller-scale independent show. It wasn’t until he arrived to the Sears Centre that he got an idea of how big the show was going to be.
– Bandido recalled Ultimo Guerrero telling him that his size would give him a lot of problems in pro wrestling: Okay, oh my God. This is top secret, okay? Yeah, he [Ultimo Guerrero] told me that, ‘You are very, very tall for a mini luchador. Very short for a normal luchador.’ He said, ‘You have a lot of problems because [you’re in this in-between space].’
** The latest episode of Insight with Chris Van Vliet featured Mojo Rawley, who was released from WWE this past April. In 2019, Mojo took on a new character and that led to him sporting blue face paint. He admitted that he was not a fan of that and did not want to do it. The first TV match he had with his new persona was against Apollo Crews and they were under the impression that they would have more than a minute to work.
Brother, I was so against that. I really didn’t wanna do that. Truthfully though, the way the sketches came back, they didn’t look half bad and I was like, ‘I hope when I wear this, it looks this cool’ and it couldn’t be furthest from. We had these promos. I pitched this idea of like, you know, everybody looks at themselves in a mirror, everybody hypes themselves up, everyone has that degree of vanity, let me run with it. Let me cut promos, berating someone for any shortcomings and failures and you don’t know who I’m talking to. You might think it’s Zack [Ryder], you might think it’s whoever I’m in a program with, drop subtle hints, you find out later it’s me and now we can take this whole new attitude and run with it. There’s a couple ways we were gonna go with it and somehow, that morphed into me losing my mind and drawing on my face and I don’t know what it became. We literally did one match with that character. Me and Apollo [Crews] were paired together on a Europe tour and I remember, you know, it was two-and-a-half-weeks of everyday working together and we put on some great matches. Him and I always had great chemistry. I thought that there was so much there that we pitched together and against each other, but we put on matches that nobody was really expecting out of us and the fans really gravitated on and it’s hard when you got two guys who have zero TV time, [when] it’s a cold match and you’re going out there following all these rivalries and it was in the reports every night by the producers like, ‘Hey, these two are really, really on to something. Let’s give them a run.’ So they booked Apollo for my debut match in this character and we were stoked. ‘Dude, this is it for us. Let’s go out there and kill it, show everybody what we got and this is gonna be our first real opportunity to not do one of these two-minute TV matches where you can’t show anybody anything,’ and then we found out it was a 60 second match that was more or less written out entirely for us. So, two-and-a-half-weeks of killing it turned into that. We were just like [sigh] and that was that. Character over. It’s like, ‘Alright.’
At the conclusion of Mojo’s brief feud with Matt Cardona, he thought there was more that could have been done with it. He brought up the promos he put out on social media that got their feud some traction. After splitting from Cardona, WWE wanted to completely separate Mojo from the ‘hype’ persona.
You know, I can’t remember whose idea it was, if it was mine or Vince [McMahon’s]. I know — Zack [Ryder] got hurt and I had my singles run and I had a good stretch there for a time and then Zack came back, we tagged and I knew everyone knew we were gonna break up because we prefaced it for months, but I don’t think anyone knew who was gonna turn on who. That was kind of our saving grace for that, and we didn’t really know either and the thought came down to have me do the heel turn and I was all for it. I know they wanted me to get away, as far away from the whole ‘hype’ persona as possible. They didn’t want me to mention the word ‘hype’ at all, and we had a good run there for a while. I was a little — I would’ve preferred if Zack and I could’ve had our run for a bit. I mean I turned on him and then they aired a [WWE] dot com exclusive, detailing the breakup and then we had our one match on the kickoff of a pay-per-view, then when you’re doing a kickoff match and some of these other matches, you have so many handicaps on it. You can’t swing for the fences and show people what you got. That’s why Zack and I were like, ‘Dude, let’s just go at each other on social’ and I cut a couple of promos on my cell phone in my garage that got really good traction and he had some great clap backs as well but that was it man. We turned and then we had the kickoff match and then that was it. They broke it off and then I had one of my — we like to joke around, the classic semi-push where you start to set up the push and then the push never comes.
As Rawley began his run in NXT, he had his first match seven weeks after he arrived in the company. There were some that were not happy about Rawley getting that opportunity before them.
I think they [WWE] were really high on me in the beginning and you know, they were like, ‘We just need to teach this guy a few things and just let his hype take care of the rest’ so I actually had my first match at a live event seven weeks after my first day, and yeah, it was very, very quick. I remember backstage, some dudes were not happy about that, which was so funny because there’s seven people in the audience. It’s like, ‘Guys, who cares? Like come on.’
Towards the later stages of Rawley’s run with WWE, he was used for community service and public speaking events. He feels that Titus O’Neil is at the top of the top when it comes to that and expressed that Titus is one of the top three most valuable people in WWE.
I got pigeonholed a lot as being this big, hyped up guy that very much did a lot outside of the ring. I was one of the very few guys you could use for a lot of these community service drives, public speaking, red carpet events, like all those kind of things because surprisingly, there aren’t a lot of guys in the company that can do those. You know, Titus O’Neil is the poster boy for that stuff. I mean honestly in my opinion, I think Titus is top three most valuable people in all of WWE. I know that might come as kind of a shock to some people but, we got tons of guys that can wrestle. Almost everyone on the roster can put on a hell of match if given the right push and the right opportunity but how many guys do we have that can really go out there and make change and bring in a new fan base from doing all these promos that he does and there’s no one I’ve ever met that does more in that space than Titus.
** Jessica McKay and Cassie Lee, the former Billie Kay and Peyton Royce guest appeared on ‘Straight Shooting’ with Matt Rehwoldt. While looking back at their run in WWE, Cassie Lee credited New Day (Big E, Kofi Kingston & Xavier Woods) for their role in helping take The IIconics act to a “larger than life” scale.
Lee: We got a lot of our inspiration from The New Day. They helped us massively. When we first debuted, they were like, you know, just letting our minds be so creative and they would be like, ‘Yes, use that, do this better, make this more respectful. Maybe don’t do that, try this’ and they really helped us really bring The IIconics to larger than life instead of just being a little bit generic.
McKay went on to give her take on how to navigate WWE if one was a longtime fan before joining the company. She explained that it should be treated as a business and the childhood dream thoughts should be stored away.
McKay: I always thought that like, you know, so we grew up as wrestling fans, right, but I always — there was a time when it clicked to me. I think we had just come up on the main roster and I was like, ‘Oh wow, the dream, the childhood dream of becoming a WWE superstar, you kind of have to leave it.’ It’s like when you debut, you have to leave it and just put it away in a box, otherwise you’ll just destroy it in my opinion and you have to really think about the reality of working for WWE in the business aspect. You have to separate the two, otherwise you’ll kill your childhood dream and you’ll become bitter or hate wrestling and there was a time where I was like, ‘Wow, you really have to separate it to keep the passion and the love for it’ and still understand this is a business and they need to make money and all these other factors that go into running a billion dollar company.
** On 6/26, Akira Francesco defeated Koji Iwamoto for the AJPW World Junior Heavyweight Title. Akira did an interview with the Alliance Pro Wrestling Network and explained how much the title win means to him.
Yeah, absolutely. I was like super, super happy after I won the title because it was my dream. When I came to Japan two years ago, that’s my dream, the junior division and to be the top [of] the junior division and now here I am. Of course I still have a lot to do, but it’s a big accomplishment for my career and being the first European to do it is absolutely amazing for me.
** Eva Marie guest appeared on the Mikhaila Peterson Podcast and discussed her second go-around with WWE. This interview was recorded while Eva’s vignettes were still airing on Monday Night Raw to promote her return.
Well, in WWE, it’s like this massive soap opera and I’m a bad guy, I’m a heel, and so I was a heel when I was in WWE five years ago and right now, it’s just like, you know, little vignettes and kind of making that grandiose character that people love to hate, and it’s kind of cool because what we’re doing is we’re touching a little bit on my real life on the sense of what I do on a day-to-day basis but on the flip side, we’re also throwing in the WWE sprinkle, you know? Letting the fans decide, ‘Is she coming back –’ I don’t know if you’re familiar with wrestling. Good guy is called a babyface, a bad guy is called a heel so right now, the WWE universe, one of the best fanbases in the world, you know, they see these vignettes that have aired the last two weeks and they’re like, ‘Wait, is Eva Marie coming back as a babyface? No way’ so it’s fun to let them play with not knowing exactly where it’s gonna lead up to and go, but that’s definitely the WWE part, you know? It’s not really me per se doing that, so you have to look at that, anything WWE-related, you have to look at that as like a character.
** Sportskeeda released part one of their interview with Tommaso Ciampa. Tommaso shared that he and Timothy Thatcher have discussed the idea of doing a tag team Fight Pit match. Ciampa also explained why he believes the Fight Pit is better suited for an arena with live fans in attendance.
So it was physical. I would love to do a Fight Pit in a big arena where there’s screens and the reason I say that is because the live element of it that I did not know was gonna be missing until I got there, it was in the C.W.C. and we’re at the time, super limited on how many people could be in the arena and then the cage, if you’re fighting on top of the cage and there’s not screens or anything then no one can really see what’s going on, as far as the live audience goes and then when you come down into the cage, depending on where you are and obstructed view and stuff, I think for the performer, it’s just one of those things where you’re like, ‘I didn’t know in the moment what was going on but I could feel a different energy’ and now hindsight, when I look back, I’m like, ‘Oh, it probably wasn’t the greatest experience as a viewer live just because of the handcuffs that were put on us and I feel like if [you] put that Fight Pit in a Barclays [Center], an Allstate [Arena], put it in a bigger arena where people are seeing it in-person, live, they can follow it on the screens, I just think it’s one of those things that could become something crazy special and Timmy [Thatcher] and I have already talked quite a bit about that possibility of a first-ever tag team Fight Pit and it’s hard to not think about it while you’re doing it and it’s just like yeah. You get the right opponents, right circumstance, right everything and that could be special.
** The Battleground Podcast welcomed Ring of Honor’s Mandy Leon onto the show. When asked what ‘dream match’ would be on her radar, Mandy said a rematch with Io Shirai would be her pick. She recalled wrestling Shirai on a STARDOM tour and Mandy competed on that entire tour with a torn ACL.
I think I would love to wrestle Io Shirai again. I wrestled her in Japan with STARDOM when I was new and shouldn’t have been wrestling her and I was completely, terribly injured throughout that whole STARDOM tour. I shouldn’t have been wrestling. Yeah, I was wrestling on a completely torn ACL, which my matches were not that great but anyways… I did [compete through it]. But I think Io for sure because we had a decent match in Japan and I would love to wrestle her now so many years later, now that I’m healthy and have more experience and I’ve traveled more so I think Io Shirai.
** TJ Wilson appeared on the TWC Show and shared that he produced Seth Rollins vs. Finn Balor vs. The Miz at WrestleMania 34. Wilson mentioned the names of the producers that helped him get acclimated into his current role in WWE. He also added that he learned a great deal from Seth Rollins in their collaborations.
I’ve also been a part of a lot of men’s matches too. It’s just the last little while like where it’s become this, but I remember Seth [Rollins], Finn [Balor] and Miz at WrestleMania. That was awesome.
A lot of good Finn/Seth matches from that time and the truth is and I don’t say this enough in interviews but, I learned a lot from Michael Hayes and Jamie Noble and every producer that I’ve ever worked with honestly. Fit Finlay, Mike Rotunda. Honestly, I don’t wanna try to miss any. Dean Malenko. But when I came in as a producer, a lot of those guys, they all helped me out — Arn Anderson — they all helped me out. But then, working with Seth, I worked with Seth a lot at that time and he really — I learned a lot working with Seth from this side of things that I do now, so Seth really, really helped me out a lot. I learned a lot from him.
** During an interview Barstool Sports’ Robbie Fox, Adam Cole listed off his personal Mount Rushmore of wrestlers and that list included Shawn Michaels, Stone Cold Steve Austin, Kurt Angle and CM Punk.
So, the four that stick out to me as far as what they mean to me, Shawn Michaels is obviously on that list, Stone Cold Steve Austin is on that list, Kurt Angle is my other one and then CM Punk is number four. That is my [Mount Rushmore], for all personal, different reasons. Shawn being — the relationship that we have now and again, I really do think he’s the greatest pro wrestler of all time. Stone Cold Steve Austin is the reason I am a wrestling fan in the first place. Kurt Angle, I think at one point made me really appreciate the skill and technical ability of what we do and again, in 2004, nobody could touch Kurt Angle.
And then CM Punk was the guy who got me into the independents, Ring of Honor, started watching stuff overseas, his promo ability is second to none. I’ve made it very obvious before that he’s a guy that I have studied quite a bit as far as promos go so those four as far as my personal Mount Rushmore are the ones that stick out to me.
** Dana Brooke and Ulysses Diaz are engaged to be married. POST Wrestling would like to send our congratulations to the couple.
** ‘Metro’ conducted an interview with Chris Adonis. He reflected on his backstage run-in with Hardcore Holly while they were both a part of WWE. Holly felt disrespected by Adonis because Adonis did not greet him. Holly then attempted to get his match changed that night so he could be in the ring with Adonis.
Bob Holly just had a bad impression of me from the start, and that’s a whole other story. But I ended up missing my first TV taping in Ohio Valley Wrestling, and Bob Holly happened to be there. So, he knew that I’d missed it – again, that’s a whole other story, but he already had a bad impression of me. So, I go with the OVW crew to visit SmackDown so they can see the talent before the show and what not. I’m making way round backstage, I greeted mostly everyone I’ve come in contact with. But I walk through the locker room and I’m just walking straight to my bag and I don’t see out of the corner of my eye, but Bob Holly’s there and he’s having a conversation with a couple of other vets. I went straight to my bag, and Bob already had a bad taste in his mouth about me but he took that like I was shunning him or not showing him respect. When really, I wouldn’t say it was that at all. He got really angry, man. He’s cutting promos on me. He was trying to get that [match] switched to me, essentially so he could rough me up, probably chop the s**t out of me and all of that. I was just really worried, like, ‘Oh man, will I be able to withstand this?’ It was just really a mindf**k, but on the drive home I realized, ‘This is what you wanted to do, this is your dream. This is what you’ve wanted to do your whole life, so you don’t have any other option, you gotta push forward and you gotta learn from this.’
** Bell To Belles has an interview on their site with Mickie James. Mickie further elaborated on the list of names who she could share the ring with at NWA’s 73rd Anniversary Show. At the conclusion of her answer, Mickie mentioned that she would love to wrestle in Japan and it is on her bucket list.
So many! And I am honored. Top of the list, even though I know we’ve seen it before, Serena [Deeb]. Oh, I think the AEW champion Britt Baker is killing it, right now. I think Knockouts Champion Deonna Purrazzo is in a class all her own, and would absolutely love a chance to work with her. I know I and all my fans are looking forward to the chance to work with Thunder Rosa. I think Kylie Rae and I could have an incredible match together and would love to wrestle her. And personally, on a real level, I would love to stand face-to-face with Kiera Hogan. Because that’s a real moment. However, the biggest thing I’m learning in putting this whole event together is the amount of truly talented women out there. It’s pretty incredible to see. Also, I’d really love to go to Japan. I’ve never been, aside from WWE. It’s pretty much the only place left for me. It’s on the bucket list.
** AEW Road to Road Rager:
** NXT Tag Team Champions MSK (Nash Carter & Wes Lee) talked to Daily Star about their recent interaction[s] with Edge at the WWE Performance Center. Both Lee and Carter explained how special it was to get advice from Edge and discussed how Edge was engaged with everyone who was present.
Lee: The energy there was just electric. When he walked into a room, everyone’s eyes were just drawn to him. The magnetism that man has is very, very special. It is like he was oozing a mission, he was driven to do something and we could just feel it – it was infectious to us. It was just dope having him around, I couldn’t really pick his brains because I was still trying to find the words to say! He did actually give us accolades for our Push Moonsault, he said he’d seen that and was impressed by it, so that was really cool. While he was here, he was influencing and giving advice to people. He wasn’t standoffish or shying away from people and seeming like he didn’t want to be there. He was engaged with every person and watching every match. That is very refreshing to see. For somebody who has been doing this for so long but still love it and want to give back so much, it’s motivating for us because those are the levels we want to reach.
Carter: You can just tell that he had so much left and so much to give to the product. For him to be able to finally get everything out that has been pent up for all those years, it’s really cool to see. You don’t want to see anyone go out like that… nobody wants to see that. It’s just really cool to see him go again.
** NJPW STRONG SPIRITS mobile gameplay courtesy of New Japan’s YouTube channel:
** Lucha Libre Online ran their interview with Cherry, who was paired with Deuce and Domino. There was once a backstage segment involving Cherry, Dave Bautista and Ric Flair on WWE TV. Bautista and Flair pitched the idea to Vince McMahon to have a program with Cherry, Deuce and Domino but things did not go beyond that segment and several matches.
I remember being at the hotel, I think it was Bangkok and Dave [Bautista] had told me that Ric [Flair] and him wanted to do a program with us, that they were really enjoying it and he was gonna call Vince [McMahon] while we were overseas so I was like so excited. I’m like, ‘Oh my gosh, this is great,’ because it was right after the segment where Deuce is backstage looking for me and he finds me in a locker room and I come out and it’s Batista’s locker room, but as we roll away, Batista goes into his locker room and it’s Flair and you know, Flair does his thing so, all the fans loved that. They have always asked me about that backstage segment which was great, so unfortunately, Vince had other plans for Ric and Dave, so even with them being behind it and pitching it, it didn’t really work out which stinks, but that just kind of shows the machine behind there, you know? It’s like that’s great, the top guys on our program wanted to do something with us. We got free matches out of it, but it didn’t go where we could’ve taken it, and done a lot with it but that’s just the difference with OVW. We had a lot of creative control as opposed to what WWE does. They have different plans for different people so, not that we couldn’t have done a program but with them being the top guys and us being a lot newer, it wasn’t gonna be something they were gonna put a lot of steam behind, just yet at least so, yeah. That’s how it works.
** Dave LaGreca and Bully Ray welcomed Nick Gage onto Busted Open Radio. As the conversation rolled on, Gage shouted out the talents who consistently appear for GCW such as AJ Gray, EFFY, Allie Katch and Jimmy Lloyd.
We got a guy, AJ Gray. I wanna give a shout out to AJ Gray man. That guy’s been grinding for a while now. He’s starting to f*cking pullout. We got a guy named Jimmy Lloyd. I don’t know if you know Jimmy Lloyd. This stinky boy Jimmy Lloyd. He’s tearing it up right now. Yeah, he does stink man. I don’t know what his problem is. We got EFFY. We got the Second Gear Crew. Listen, we got one girl in there which is Allie Katch and she’s been wrestling guys. I wrestled her before in a deathmatch and I’m gonna tell you guys, I took it to that girl man. I beat her down and she just kept coming up, getting up, went in the locker room and thanked me for the match while she was bleeding very profusely and I just — that girl is a tough girl, man. I just wanna give her a shoutout. She’s one of my favorites going right now.
** WrestleZone pushed out their chat with Chuck Palumbo. He spoke about the similarities between his on-screen biker persona that he used in WWE and the comparisons that were there between himself and The Undertaker. Palumbo recalled asking Vince McMahon what Undertaker would think about their on-screen personas having similarities and McMahon told Palumbo to give it a try since Undertaker reverted to The Deadman.
It’s interesting because Taker in real life is not really a biker. He had a few motorcycles, but he didn’t turn wrenches. He wasn’t really into it, that was a gimmick for him, and you’re right, for me to do it, it was kinda real for me. Unfortunately, some fans may say that it was a knockoff of what Taker was doing, right? Some fans might feel that, ‘Oh, you’re just copying’, which it wasn’t. It was just a matter of Vince and I talking. He’s a motorcycle guy, I’m a motorcycle guy and talking about this and doing it. I remember actually asking [Vince] what Taker was gonna think about it or whatever and he basically said, ‘No, that’s over with, just go try it.’
** Below is episode one of AAWomen, which spotlighted Allysin Kay, Hyan and AAW Women’s Champion Kris Statlander.
** MMA Fighting’s Mike Heck chatted with Jake Hager.
** TAP DMV and WWE expanded their partnership. As a part of their agreement, starting this week, NXT will go live in the Philippines on TapGo, which is TAP DMV’s new on-demand service. Weekly episodes of NXT UK are also coming to the service starting July 11th.
** Episode 96 of AEW Dark:
** A story about Illinois’ Iron Spirit Pro Wrestling promotion as they are gearing up to present their first show since the COVID pandemic began.
** MuscleManMalcolm has an interview with Sefa Fatu.
** Josh Alexander vs. Jake Something is official for AAW’s United We Stand show on 7/9.
** Ahead of NXT Great American Bash, Kyle O’Reilly chatted with Robbie Fox on ‘My Mom’s Basement’.
** Matt Cardona documented his trip to Cedar Point theme park:
** Sports Illustrated published the written version of their interview with Adam Cole.
** Tru Heel Heat’s SP3 spoke to Wesley Blake.
** Alyssa Marino welcomed Ashley Vox onto her ‘Let’s Get Cereal’ show.
** GIVEMESPORT ran their interview with Cesaro.
** Kayla Harrison of Professional Fighters League chatted with Jim Varsallone.
** The latest New Day: Feel The Power podcast.
** The following video is from the UpUpDownDown YouTube channel:
** Arn Anderson spoke to Michael Morales of Lucha Libre Online.
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.
