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.
** During his appearance on Metal Injection’s Squared Circle Pit podcast, MVP discussed his transition from producer to a full-time talent within his current run in WWE. MVP said the crossover occurred because he was released as a producer in 2020 and then immediately brought back on as a full-time talent.
And then they offered me a position as a producer. ‘You give it 90 days, see if you like it’ and I decided, ‘Alright, yeah, let’s give it a shot.’ I was gonna retire anyway and the pandemic hit and so it was just before that, they had asked me, ‘Hey, can you go on-screen and do a get-over segment with Drew McIntyre?’ ‘Sure, I’d love to.’ ‘Can you do it again next week?’ ‘Sure, I’d love to’ and before I knew it, every week I’m on television and I got released from my position as a producer but was immediately brought on — there was a seamless transition. I was kept on as talent and it just — one week turned into another and we’re doing this Performance Center and then the Performance Center turns into the ThunderDome and so much for retirement, here I am so no, I never thought that I’d be managing the WWE Champion. I never really thought that I’d be a manager in this industry. But I’m having so much fun and I’m glad things did transpire the way they have. I appreciate Paul Heyman opening up that door and allowing me to come back and show everybody that I still got it, as the saying goes, ‘You still got it!’ And of course I’m thankful to Vince McMahon for giving me the opportunity to contribute on this level and I tell the young guys all the time, ‘Thanks for letting me play.’
While further reflecting on his return to WWE at the 2020 Royal Rumble, MVP said there were several occasions prior when he and WWE were in discussions about bringing him back for a Royal Rumble but things did not work out.
The Royal Rumble was taking place in Houston. So in the past, WWE had reached out to me about being a surprise entry in the Royal Rumble and you know, a couple times it didn’t work out and other times we didn’t come to terms but it was never any animosity. It was just, you know, business. But this time I reached out to them and made it clear that, ‘Hey, I’d love to be a surprise entry, it’s in Houston, I live there’ but most importantly, I just wanted my son who is now a wrestling fan to see daddy in the WWE and Paul Heyman facilitated that and you know, it was spectacular to be able to come back to the WWE universe at a Royal Rumble but it was supposed to be a one-off just for my son to see daddy.
** Austin Aries was the most recent guest on Straight Talk Wrestling. Aries departed IMPACT Wrestling following their 2018 Bound For Glory event after walking off after his title loss. While running down a list of organizations and companies he’d be interested in working for, he mentioned that he wouldn’t mind returning to IMPACT and patching some things up there.
Absolutely, absolutely [I would be open to returning to or debuting in a major organization]. I think it really comes down to each of these different companies, whether you’re talking — we can name ‘em. We can start from MLW where I’ve been before, Ring of Honor which I said has a long history, IMPACT Wrestling, where I left a little controversially and I’d probably like to go back and maybe remedy that in some people’s eyes. New Japan is a place I’ve never actually wrestled so there’s some interest there, some fresh matchups that maybe fans would be intrigued with. Obviously, AEW is the place that everyone wants to be right now. You know, and then WWE, a place I’ve been before. All these different places, they bring positives and they bring potential — I don’t wanna say negatives but there’s plus and minuses to all of ‘em, from scheduling to financial, maybe what’s in their protocols right now. That’s something that’s important to me as we’re in this world so, but yeah, I’m definitely interested because one thing I think that time away also let me do is it let me appreciate this again and realizes that-that window closes for all of us at some point physically.
Aries was cut from WWE in 2017 after one year under contract. Hindsight being 20/20, he understands some of the reasons why he was let go and doesn’t blame the company.
You can’t get upset, business is business. They [WWE] make business decisions. You know, I had to take my personal feelings out of it and look [at it] from a business decision. I mean at the time, listen, I was what? 38 years old, I’m under 5’10, I’ve been injured, I had a orbital bone fracture, herniated disc. If you’re just looking at dollars and cents, it’s probably not a guy you wanna continue investing [in]. If I’m doing my Madden Franchise mode, that’s a guy that might get cut, let’s be honest. If I got a 23 year old on the bench that’s healthy and willing to do whatever, this guy over here that’s probably taking up a little bit more of my salary cap. That’s for me what — I think because I’ve grown [to be] such a fan of sports and that side of sports, the general manager side, it allows me to detach and go, ‘Well, looking at it from this standpoint, it makes sense.’ I might not like it, but that makes sense.
** Planet Comicon hosted a panel featuring AEW’s Britt Baker and Leva Bates. Baker was asked about CM Punk’s arrival in AEW and she feels AEW is changing wrestling for the better. She compared it to inmates running the asylum and that formula working out.
I think it’s AEW continuing to change professional wrestling for the better. It’s just another, you know, notch that we’re checking off. It’s a very big one at that but, Tony Khan is a genius but not only that, he’s a wrestling fan so when you have somebody that’s like you and I when we’re all wrestling fans who’s running the show, he’s gonna put out a product that he would want to watch, that I would want to watch and that’s why you all are watching it and loving it because the inmates are essentially running the asylum but it’s working.
While fleshing out her on-screen character in AEW, Baker said going in the direction of a full-on dentist character was something she and Tony Khan wanted to stay away from. Chris Jericho, Cody Rhodes and Kenny Omega all played roles in helping Baker put her character together.
Well I was very vocal about that-that I didn’t want to ever go that direction [Isaac Yankem] like ever. I was very confident that-that was something that I would not be able to pull off. I didn’t think that it was something the fans would want, could be wrong, I don’t know and I just — Tony never wanted that either. Tony Khan, he never envisioned that for me so we were pretty much on the same page and when I came to him with the ‘Role Model’ idea, he loved it and from day one, from then on he just kept contributing his own ideas, I had my ideas, Cody [Rhodes] had his ideas, [Chris] Jericho had his ideas, Kenny [Omega] had his. It was just so — like a melting pot of every genius wrestling mind in AEW just helping me, contributing.
She went on to speak about why Tony Khan is the perfect boss for her. Him giving her the leeway to continue pursuing her dental career was a massive plus. She mentioned that there’s no reporting to the Performance Center every day and she’s able to live both of her dream jobs.
So the first time I actually met him [Tony Khan] was at the pep rally in Jacksonville when we announced what AEW was and he was so cool. He was like, ‘Hey Britt, I’m Tony, nice to meet you. I’m such a big fan’ which was so cool and early, early on when I was negotiating, he was so supportive of me being a dentist and that was it. For me, this guy’s like a dream boss. He’s gonna let me do two jobs, two plan A’s. It’s like he’s not gonna just make me commit to him and him only. I don’t have to report to the Performance Center every day of the week. I get to be a dentist and then also get to wrestle on TV so, he was the perfect boss for me in my opinion.
** The latest guest on Stories with Brisco and Bradshaw was Glenn ‘Kane’ Jacobs. He recalled his storyline with Shane McMahon in 2003 and one specific segment when Shane pushed Jacobs into a dumpster that was on fire. Prior to filming the segment, Jacobs lit the flame. He was told by Vince McMahon that there was Pyrogel in the dumpster but soon found out that there was gasoline in there and the flames immediately rose.
Talk about Ellis [Edwards]. Ellis was our stunt coordinator and safety guy for many years. When I was working with Shane McMahon, we were in Tucson, Arizona. I believe it was Tucson and we did the deal where that was where we had a flaming dumpster outside the building and I was gonna try to throw Shane into it and of course, he ended up getting out of it, knocks me into the dumpster. So, the dumpster is filled with cardboard and they had like piano wire run around the very outside of the — the perimeter of the inside of the dumpster and that had rags on it with — it was supposed to have been Pyrogel, was what I was told and Vince [McMahon] was the one, was the person producing and directing this so he’s like, ‘Okay –’ I have a lighter, I throw it into the dumpster and Vince tells me, ‘Now it’s Pyrogel, so stay here for a second because that takes — it’ll be five seconds before it ignites.’ ‘Okay.’ It wasn’t Pyrogel, it was gasoline so I throw the lighter in, it’s right in my face, right? Boom, do the deal with Shane, they put that out so now around the outside, instead of having all the big flames in the middle, they put all that out and reset it. Around the outside, they just had the rags with the Pyrogel so it looked like it was burning but it was on the outside. I get knocked into the dumpster, okay, so that’s the end of the show. Well then Vince decides, ‘It’d be really cool if Glenn does the Jason Voorhees’ where I bring my — out from this flaming dumpster, my hands comes out, like Kane’s still around. So, we still had the flaming towels on the perimeter of the dumpster and I’m sitting there and Ellis is like, ‘Wait a second. You gotta have soot on your hand. I gotta make it look like you’re burnt.’ So Ellis starts rubbing this stuff on my hand. I’m about to reach up through the dumpster, through the boxes and Ellis goes, ‘Now be careful, that’s flammable’ and I’m like, ‘There’s open flames right there. Thanks man!’
Jacobs looks back fondly on his team with Daniel Bryan. He said he was beginning to become burned out on playing the sadistic monster heel and loved doing the comedy character work.
Well, I really did [love doing the comedy stuff] because for so much of my career I was a very dark character and you did the same thing John [Layfield]. You started out as the cowboy and you know, then went to the Wall Street tycoon and it’s just fun to be able to show folks the different sides as a performer, and there were times that I got pretty burnt out because it just got boring. You know, it’s like look, I can do the mean, dark, sadistic character. That’s not a challenge anymore and I would always laugh when I hear about actors and stuff that would get burnt out. I was like, ‘Oh, this is actually a thing.’ Just as a performer, you wanna challenge yourself and do some different things.
Elsewhere during the conversation, John Layfield shared a story involving Vader and The Undertaker. Vader had the idea of doing a moonsault, Undertaker catching him mid-air and transitioning into a ‘Tombstone Piledriver’. After Undertaker said no to the move without verbally saying it, JBL encouraged Vader to try it anyway.
He [Vader] goes, ‘I gotta work with Undertaker at Royal Rumble’ and he goes, ‘I think I’m gonna have to put him over’ and I said, ‘You think?’ He said, ‘I’ve got an idea.’ He says, ‘Do you think if I did a moonsault and Taker caught me and could Tombstone me?’ He said, ‘Could he do that?’ I said, ‘Of course he could.’ I said, ‘Listen, just call it on the fly.’ So Leon, he can’t stand it. He’s got this big move that he can’t tell, so finally he’s sitting by Taker. We’re somewhere down there in Florida getting ready for Rumble and he’s sitting by Taker and he tells him the spot. He’s going to do a moonsault, Taker’s gonna catch him and spike him. It would have impaled both of ‘em. It would have killed both of them. So Taker’s sitting there just looking straight ahead as Leon’s talking to him from the side. Taker pats him on the leg, gets up and walks out of the dressing room, doesn’t say a word. Leon looks at me, he goes, ‘What does that mean?’ I go, ‘He loved it.’ Taker pulled me aside later and he goes, ‘Have you been riding with Leon?’ I said, ‘Maybe.’
** Renee Paquette recorded a live episode of Oral Sessions in Las Vegas with Charlotte Flair. On the topic of how much longer she wants to be in the ring, Flair doesn’t believe there is a timeline for her. She did add that if she could, she would go back and redo certain feuds like her program with Sasha Banks because of what she knows now as a performer.
No, I don’t wanna be like my dad and be like 45 and still, ‘I’m never gonna retire.’ I don’t know. I don’t have a timeline, because I feel like — this is what I’m angry about — not angry, I just think too much about it. I’m like had I known now what I knew in 2015, like I wanna go back and just redo so many feuds. Like, if I could redo Flair versus Boss [Sasha Banks], like and be the performer then that I am now and know — no, I know [there’s still time] so like there’s no time limit for me. I’m not like, ‘Oh, this has to be done.’ Like I feel like I’m only getting better with age, with looks, everything is just clicking now. So, I don’t know.
As the Raw Women’s Title match at Money In The Bank got underway, Flair gave the middle finger to the crowd in attendance because they began to chant Becky Lynch’s name. As the match progressed, the crowd chanted ‘this is awesome’ at both Flair and Rhea Ripley. Flair explained that she feels respect should’ve been given upfront if the crowd knew what she and Ripley were capable of.
Well for like a moment, I walked out, like after the match I was like walking to Gorilla and I was like, ‘Aw yeah, I gave them the bird. Am I gonna get in trouble?’ Yeah because they pissed me off. It really pissed me off. Well hear me out, because I’m like I’ve got Rhea Ripley, first big pay-per-view with me and I get it, everyone’s excited to have Becky [Lynch] back, I’m excited to have Becky back. But you guys went from chanting ‘Becky’ to ‘this is awesome’. If you know what I’m capable of, show the respect upfront. I don’t know, I’m just so — I’m usually so cookie cutter and black and white and happy Monday, happy Tuesday but in that moment, I just felt it because I just was like, ‘Let me steal the show with Rhea Ripley because I know she’s that good. Like don’t disrespect her.’ I’m used to it, I can take the beating.
She went on to list several names in WWE that she’d like to have a program with such as Naomi.
I’ve never had a program with Naomi. How is that possible? No, I’ve never had a program with Naomi, I’d love to work her. Obviously I’ve never had a long thing with Shayna [Baszler] or Nia [Jax]. Oh, you guys want NXT or Raw or — Shotzi [Blackheart], yeah, anyone that I haven’t worked. I actually had a match with Bianca [Belair] in NXT, but Bianca for sure. I mean just more the merrier, bring ‘em all.
** Roman Reigns appeared on Sportico’s ‘Business Beyond the Game’ series and was asked if he ever considered wearing a mask during his in-ring career. That was not a route Reigns ever thought about going because he wanted to present as just himself.
You know, and I think there’s some traditions within the wrestling culture that come along with the mask wearing. You know, obviously, our luchadors within lucha libre and the Mexican influence with that style of professional wrestling all the way to our mythical characters, not necessarily an Undertaker but a Kane and different — even superhero characters like my brother [Matthew Anoa’i] and The Hurricane back in the day so, for me, it was just about presenting myself and making myself that superstar. Not necessarily the character but finding that character within to be able to display that charisma and that personality that I wanted.
While on the topic of possibly transitioning into film, Reigns is aware he cannot wrestle forever. He mentioned The Undertaker being the greatest WWE superstar of all-time and not being able to be involved forever in an in-ring capacity. He added that there’s more to life than what goes on in the ring but if he can stay involved, he wants to be.
Yeah, I absolutely — you have to be smart about it. We all want to believe that, you know, as I’m not portraying the superman character, sometimes as men, we have to remind ourselves that you’re not superman, you can’t do this forever. You can’t fall down for the rest of your life. There’s gonna come a point where you just don’t move as quick, you’re not as strong as you used to be and you don’t recover nearly as fast as you used to and I would like to save a few miles on that calculator there and if I can continue to entertain and be a part of the creative process and be able to dive into different characters and build, be a part of a production that creates that escapism within the big screen then I would love it or a TV show or something like that, it’d be phenomenal but, for me to think that I can do this forever, the very best, even The Undertaker, in my opinion the greatest WWE superstar of all time, nobody’s done it longer at the elite level that he’s done it. So much respect for him but even time caught up to him so we all have to be smart and we have to remember that these performances aren’t everything in life. They’re a big part of our lives and they’re vehicles that drive us and create motivation and satisfaction to a certain degree but, there’s more to life and being a father of five, being a husband, there’s a lot of things that I wanna do that aren’t gonna involve a wrestling ring so, if I can find a way to continue to tap into these skills that I’ve learned here in WWE and utilize them and continue to push my career even higher or even just stay the same where I’m at and just still being involved in really good projects, I’m totally down for that.
** The Women’s Wrestling Talk podcast welcomed Ivelisse onto the show. She gave her thoughts on why she feels ‘misunderstood’ in wrestling. Ivelisse stated that it seems like a trend to tear women down when they are paving a way for themselves.
Honestly, I really do feel it has a lot to do — and go ahead Twitter trolls. Take your — because I’m sure they’re gonna try to take whatever they possibly can from this. But I don’t care. Again, my higher goal has always been to shed light on anything that could improve women’s wrestling in any way, shape or form so, I do feel that a big reason is again, just because I’m a female, they feel the freedom to just pick me apart etcetera. It seems to be a trend. It seems to be a trend because it hasn’t been just me, it’s been other females as well that have — any female that starts growing a bunch of steam or whatever, somehow, some way they wanna find a way to bring them down, drag them down or whatever and it just seems to be something the media enjoys or people just enjoy and I really feel it’s something that needs to shed light onto to just move on from something like that and do the opposite because it is a major problem in society and it’s not just in wrestling, it’s in everything. Any female that is like, you know, gunning for something and actually making a difference or making strides or making changes or anything like that, somehow, some way they have to find something to kind of try to trample on that or whatever.
** The Asylum Wrestling Store hosted a virtual signing with Buddy Murphy. He said he’s hoping to share the ring with the likes of Kenny Omega and Malakai Black. Murphy feels he and Malakai have unfinished business.
I think that — so I’ll say two. I’ll say Kenny Omega, and I will say Malakai Black because there’s unfinished business. I feel like he and I will be going back and forth for a while.
This past Friday during AEW Rampage, CM Punk made his return to wrestling. Murphy shared that he’s always been a big CM Punk fan and thinks it’s good for wrestling that Punk is back.
So I didn’t see it live, but I saw it on Twitter after. I think it’s awesome man. I am a massive CM Punk mark, massive, and it’s exciting, right? You know what I mean? And if it’s gonna excite him to come back then, there must be something brewing in the kitchen so, I’m excited for it man. I’m kind of — I want everything in wrestling to get better. I think that Punk going to AEW not only elevates AEW but then might kick WWE in the butt to lift some things too, because everyone has the talent for it, right? So, but we’ll see. Only time will tell.
Towards the later stages of his run in WWE, Murphy was involved in a storyline with Aalyah Mysterio, daughter of Rey Mysterio. Murphy said he wanted Aalyah to turn heel and align herself with him and Seth Rollins.
She [Aalyah Mysterio] was awesome. No complaints, true professional, Dominik was a professional, Rey was a professional. They definitely were the easiest part and Seth [Rollins], you know what I mean? The talent, working a part of it was definitely the easiest part of it. So, yeah, no complaints, awesome to work, awesome person. I actually wanted her to turn heel with us and join the dark side.
Ring of Honor’s Adam Brooks was brought up during the meet and greet. Murphy trained Brooks in Australia. He feels that Brooks is very talented but added that he can get better.
Well he [Adam Brooks] hasn’t done anything all around the world for a while because he’s been stuck in Australia. I think that it’s — and I’m like his teacher, so, I think he’s good but, I think that he’d be better and I think that he just needs to broaden his horizons more, look at the bigger picture and I think that-that would be his next step and I get it, we all kind of get stuck in those positions, but if he wants to do it, then he has to do that for the next step, if that makes sense.
** The High Spot Podcast welcomed former WWE and Lucha Underground referee Marty Elias onto the show. Elias recalled discovering Bayley while she was getting her start in wrestling and helping her get noticed by WWE.
I’m putting myself over because I never, ever do but I am today. So, when you talk about the ‘it’ factor, I knew Bayley had the ‘it’ factor when I saw her wrestle for Jesse Hernandez. I seen something in her and I seen this girl in this tag team match working with Jesse Hernandez who brought me into the business and I seen this girl and afterwards she came down and I was like, ‘Hey.’ I said, ‘What’s your name?’ She goes, ‘Oh, Davina.’ [I] was like, ‘No, what’s your real name?’ She goes, ‘Oh, I’m Pam, Pamela.’ ‘Okay, nice to meet you Pamela Martinez.’ So, she, you know, was somebody who had the ‘it’ factor and at the time, I was helping Funaki because Funaki was doing scouting for them [WWE] and they were looking for new talent and stuff and I seen that she had it and that’s why I pulled her aside and I said, ‘Look, I work with Funaki. I’m Marty Elias. I used to work there.’ I said, ‘But, you know, I’m helping Funaki.’ I said, ‘If you could please send me some photos, some of your matches or whatever,’ I said, ‘I would really like to get those to him.’ So she goes, ‘Okay, no problem’ and I said you know, so, she sent me everything but she didn’t know that I was giving ‘em to Funaki for WWE. She thought I was giving them for Funaki, Taka [Michinoku], Kai En Tai dojo, wrestling in Japan. That’s what she thought. So I got all the stuff from her and so I said, ‘Look, I’m gonna give this to Funaki.’ Two weeks later, WWE called her and she did a camp in El Segundo which was attended by [William] Regal, Bill DeMott, all these others and she went to that camp, WWE signed her. They sent her to Tampa, she went to NXT, she did her deal and then she went to the main roster and she’s Bayley who we all know today.
Marty went on to share that prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, he was filming for the Netflix series GLOW and several days prior to the shutdown, the episode he was a part of was taped.
Right when COVID hit, I was actually in the process of working with GLOW. We were actually shooting episode one of season four and we were doing a big wrestling scene for that and what happened is that I was actually gonna be part of the cast. I had lines, I had everything. I was going to be a circuit referee by the name of Lou for GLOW and you know, we’d actually shot that and we were right in the middle of that, right in the middle of that and when we finished shooting that day, I remember we all gathered around because we’ve been hearing about this thing from China or wherever it was from and it was like, okay, so, that was I believe a Wednesday. That Friday, they informed us that we were going down and they said we were gonna be down for two weeks which is what the producers told us at that time and that we would come back in two weeks. They were just taking precautions and such and then, we went home. We all went home.
** New Raw Tag Team Champion Riddle chatted with Jim Varsallone of the Miami Herald for an interview. Riddle shared his thoughts about the decision Gable Steveson has in front of him concerning his career choice. Riddle feels Steveson should do MMA first and then crossover to pro wrestling
I would say my advice is this: What do you want to do? If you want to keep doing what you’re gonna do and push that base and work hard and grind and risk everything, I would go into MMA. You know, because there’s no filter there. It’s all you but at the same time, MMA is brutal. You don’t make that much money, you fight hard, the guys you’re fighting are hungry dogs and they’re all trying to get to the spot that you’re trying to get to and the winner gets more money and everything else. But I’ll say this, if he wants to do both, I’d recommend doing MMA first then coming over to pro wrestling. But I know he said something about doing the Brock Lesnar style and going from pro wrestling over but my experience in seeing guys like CM Punk and others that make the transition, wrestling’s extremely hard on your body over time and I don’t think you wanna make that transition backwards, at least I wouldn’t. I wouldn’t want to go back to MMA now, unless the money was right and the fight was right. But that’s me personally and everybody’s different and the guy’s an Olympic Gold Medalist. He’s a heavyweight, I just saw him do a flying back[flip] after [he] beat a guy for the gold medal so, he’s working with a lot so, I think whatever he wants to do, he’ll be completely fine and super successful.
** Miro and Orange Cassidy were the focus of a panel at Steel City Con. Miro talked about his broken ankle injury from 2015 that led to him switching from wrestling barefoot to wearing boots.
No [I didn’t want to switch to boots], I just tore my ankle. I had a match with The Ryback and yeah, he gave me like a big body drop outside the ring and as soon as I landed — I landed fine but I was 315 pounds and my ankle just snapped and all the ligaments, it tore everything around and ever since I said, ‘No more.’ I just put some shoes on but the barefoot was great. I loved the barefoot. I was a huge fan of Umaga, I always looked up to him and that was maybe my tribute to him if you will.
When asked about the idea of CJ Perry (Lana) joining AEW, here’s how Miro responded:
It’s all up to her [CJ Perry]. People are asking that but it’s all up to her, it’s always been. I’m never gonna push her to go one way or the other. She’s a grown woman, I respect her decision. If she wants to go to AEW, she’ll go to AEW.
** Xavier Woods joined The Ringer Wrestling Podcast and during the chat, he gave his thoughts on being in that “little brother” on-screen role with The New Day where viewers believe that he’ll be the one to lose the match.
It was just funny to realize, okay, so in this role I’ve been trying to play into, I played into it so much. But I think it makes for a better story because it got to that point where KofiMania is occurring, you know? And when he, I think lost the second gauntlet or that was his second shot to do it and [Big] E and I had to fight through that tag gauntlet and every time I’m about to get pinned, people think that I will lose because I am the little brother and that makes our stuff more dramatic and so many people online are like, ‘Man, don’t you wanna be doing this or that or this?’ And it’s like no, I wanna make compelling stories that you’re interested in. So, even if you don’t believe in me, you feel something about me and you think I’m gonna lose and every time I kick out, you go, ‘Oh my God! What!? How did he kick out of that?’ Because I’ve been wrestling for 17 years, what are you doing? I know what’s going on. Still have a million and one things to learn but I feel like pretty competent and so, being in that little brother role for so long and then this past couple of months, getting the opportunity to have these singles matches and people seeing like — solid feedback of like, ‘Man, didn’t know Woods could do this’ and this and that and it’s like, in my head, I’m like, ‘I was doing this, I’ve been doing this for a minute.’ But we did too good of a job so [they] forgot.
** Loudwire brought Seth Rollins on for their Wikipedia fact check series. Rollins discussed The Shield’s WWE debut at Survivor Series 2012. He recalled himself, Jon Moxley and Roman Reigns almost having to carry riot shields and batons to the ring. Vince McMahon made light of the batons which led to Rollins, Reigns and Ambrose quickly getting rid of the item[s].
So, sort of true again. So we actually debuted in turtlenecks. If you watch the debut at Survivor Series, yeah, we were in turtlenecks and we had riot shields and clubs as well that they had made for us because we were supposed to be some sort of security, riot security group or whatever and we immediately realized that the shields, they were huge, they’re full body riot shields. You ever seen a riot? They’re massive. We very much realized pretty quickly that there was no way we were going to be able to jump the railing, run through the crowd, jump the railing and get into the ring with those. They were going to be cumbersome so the shields went by the wayside quickly and the batons, we had, you know, kind like riot batons that we were gonna use as weapons but, Vince McMahon, our boss actually saw us with the batons as we were rehearsing our debut and was like, ‘Aha! You need batons to beat somebody up? What kind of man are you?’ And we were like [tosses batons to the side], goodbye, see ya batons and so those live somewhere in a warehouse in Stamford, Connecticut now and we never used them and quickly switched out of the turtlenecks after the debut.
** AEW is running a Saturday Night Dynamite on October 23rd.
** Fightful’s Sean Ross Sapp ran his interview with Sheamus. During their conversation, Sheamus discussed the changes he made to his body and workout sessions to get prepared for his return to the ring in 2020. Sheamus went on to speak about the string of matches he has put on since his return up until present day.
When I went out with the concussion, I had a chance to reassess my body and work on some stuff, some instabilities in it. So, I worked on that. I worked with a guy called Ken in Nashville Hip Institute. I worked on all these different types of movements. I still do them before every match. It’s definitely helped me get back on track. So, yeah, I had some stuff that might put me out. I was kind of worried about it, but I’m back and that’s the great thing about it. Something like that motivates you because now I just go out for every match as if it’s my last match. So, I just go out there balls to the wall, fella, you know what I mean? Just go out there and go out there ‘cause I love what I do, mate. I sat on my couch for such a long time and unsure about what my future held or was gonna hold. It puts everything into perspective. When I was doing the Celtic Warrior Workouts, which is kind of on the backburner at the moment. But I did one with Edge, too. I saw every title that Edge had. The one title I hadn’t won, the IC title. I saw how much he wanted to get back as well. All these little things motivated me and sent me on the right course to come back in the ring. People talk about the ThunderDome era, well it wasn’t just the ThunderDome era, mate. It was the PC era. Without the PC era, the ThunderDome era wouldn’t have happened, do you know what I’m saying? All these things happen. I laugh when I hear people going, ‘I was the star of the ThunderDome era.’ Well, mate, where were you in the PC era? It’s not just that part. It’s the whole year and a half in that environment with no fans. I was just able to focus on different things. My promo, my character. Going out there, I got loose. My ring work has always been intense, but I was able to bring in a new level of intensity. I was able to bring out a lot of good stuff out of my opponents.
** UFC has a Q&A with Finn Balor on their YouTube channel. Balor said if he could wrestle anyone, he would choose to have a match with Shawn Michaels.
My favorite wrestler of all-time is HBK, Shawn Michaels and you know, if I had the opportunity to face him, yeah. For me, he’s the GOAT of pro wrestling and you know, someone I’ve been very lucky to have gotten an opportunity to work with in the last two years and he’s — they say don’t meet your heroes or don’t meet your idols but man, he’s far exceeded any expectation I could have had for meeting somebody.
** Boston 25 News are giving away tickets for the September 13th edition of Monday Night Raw at TD Garden.
** Vince McMahon turned 76 years old today.
** Kylie Rae and Nick Gage are teaming up at Freelance Wrestling’s show on September 3rd.
** While making the media rounds, John Cena chatted with News.com.au.
** Minoru Suzuki is debuting for PWX Wrestling on October 2nd at their show in Concord, North Carolina. He’ll be taking on Anthony Henry, the former ‘Asher Hale’.
** Xfinity hosted a Q&A with Edge.
** NJPW Summer Struggle Results (8/24/21) Korakuen Hall
– Ryohei Oiwa vs. Kosei Fujita goes to 10-minute time limit draw
– Satoshi Kojima & Master Wato def. Tomoaki Honma def. Tiger Mask
– Chase Owens & Jado def. Toru Yano & Ryusuke Taguchi
– Jeff Cobb & Great-O-Khan def. Kazuchika Okada & Hiroyoshi Tenzan
– Hirooki Goto, Robbie Eagles & YOSHI-HASHI def. DOUKI, Zack Sabre Jr. & Taichi
** Sammy Guevara sat down with Booker T for an interview.
** Zelina Vega spoke to Steel Chair Magazine.
** Big E appeared on the Endless Hustle podcast.
** Trevor Murdoch joined the NWA ‘Race To The Chase’ post-show to discuss his career versus title match against Nick Aldis at NWA 73rd Anniversary.
** The latest upload to the UpUpDownDown YouTube channel:
** Former ECW personality Joel Gertner appeared on Tommy Dreamer’s House Of Hardcore podcast.
** Prior to SummerSlam, Nikki A.S.H. joined Trent Seven, Jinny and Rob Armstrong on BT Sports’ ‘The Run-In’ show.
** Larne Times has a story about independent wrestler Jordan Mills, who wrestles under the name ‘Jordy Boy’.
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.
