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.
** Adam Scherr, the former ‘Braun Strowman’ appeared on Highspots Wrestling Network’s ‘Virtual Gimmick Table’ show. Scherr was released from WWE in June and in several days, he’ll be a part of the ‘Free The Narrative’ show on FITE. Scherr spoke about the free time he has on his hands now that he’s a free agent.
It’s kind of cool to have the opportunity just to do stuff. I was very fortunate in my time with WWE but it was very, very time consuming. I didn’t have a lot of time to do other things so now during my downtime when I’m trying to figure out what I wanna do when I grow up, I get an opportunity to go out and, you know, explore different avenues, try different things and I’m enjoying it. I definitely miss being in the squared circle though. I promise you that.
Before becoming ‘Braun Strowman’, Scherr appeared on WWE programming as a member of Adam Rose’s ‘Rosebuds’. It was then that Vince McMahon spotted Scherr and questioned why he was a part of the Rosebuds.
I was a Rosebud. That’s what got me seen. Vince [McMahon] himself saw me doing the Rosebud gimmick, he goes, ‘Why is this guy doing this?’
** DNC DIGITAL pushed out their interview with Mercedes Martinez. As the conversation rolled on, Martinez discussed her working relationship with Paul ‘Triple H’ Levesque. She recalled when she first signed with WWE and Levesque apologizing for taking so long to get her in the company.
To be honest, it was always business. I’ve always kept myself at a business point with everybody there. Unless you knew me from the indies on a personal level, I didn’t let a lot of people in because I look at it as this is my job of employment. Everything was always going to be business. We always had a business relationship. When I got hired and I finally got to sit down and talk to him [Triple H] or stand up I guess because we were standing up while we were talking. It was more like him saying, ‘Sorry it took us so long to get you here. It was just never the right timing to bring Mercedes in. We always wanted you but there was just never the right time. We didn’t know what to do with you’ and I was like, ‘No,’ I was like, ‘I’m just glad to be here now. What is my role now to be here?’ And that conversation went to the fact that, you know, ‘Hopefully, there will always be something here for someone like you. When you hang up your boots, there’s always gonna be something maybe going forward to a trainer’ and I was like, ‘Yeah.’ I was like, ‘When that time comes, we will talk again’ and that was, you know, that was really the only one-on-one conversation we really had for the year-and-a-half I was there because like I said, the pandemic hit so I didn’t want to be near really anybody. Creatively, when I think I came back to NXT with the [Io Shirai feud] and stuff, it was more when he was hands-on with my character. More hands on with my promos and not directly towards me but especially with the Tian Sha stuff, that was really hands-on where he’s like, ‘Mercedes, you have to do –’ and that’s where it was really cool to see his workings and how his brain works and I was like, ‘Man, that’s cool.’
** Episode 272 of Keepin It 100 with Konnan featured former NWA Worlds Heavyweight Champion Nick Aldis. Aldis recapped NWA’s EmPowerrr and 73rd Anniversary shows. He admitted that he had a ‘healthy skepticism’ of EmPowerrr because of the lack of TV experience that some of the talents on the card did not have.
And look, I’ll say this; I had a healthy skepticism of the show [EmPowerrr], simply because there were a lot of talent on that — not because of women’s wrestling or anything like that but like, there was a lot of talent on that show that had no TV experience. Very little TV experience and I was concerned about some of the card more in the sense of from the logistics side of it. Like timing and the manpower and stuff like that because obviously, we’re still working with a pretty limited infrastructure so it’s like, there’s a lot of us wearing a lot of hats. We were working with a different production crew…
Aldis did receive a call from FITE C.O.O. Michael Weber. Aldis was told that in regards to FITE pay-per-views, the NWA was in the top ten and still climbing.
Home run. It really was. It was super stressful and I think in the aftermath of it, we realized that we bit off a lot and it was — there was times where it was tough to chew it but we did it and I think we all agreed that the fact that the shows were such home runs was the saving grace because I think if they would have just been all right and just been sort of mildly successful, I feel like we would’ve been — we all would have been super burned out but because it went so well and I got a call from Mike Weber at FITE the day after I think to say, ‘You guys are already — for FITE pay-per-views, it’s already like top ten and it’s still climbing’ and stuff like that. Yeah, [we were going head-to-head with] another gimmick boxing thing. It’s so many of ‘em. It’s hard to keep up with them all but yeah, I think it was [Jake Paul], he fought Tyron Woodley.
** Brian Cage guest appeared on Dan Severn and Don Frye’s ‘Toxic Masculinity’ Podcast. Frye shared some of his memories with the late Curt ‘Mr. Perfect’ Hennig and recalled Hennig h-bombing him while they were on a flight. ‘H-bomb’ is the term used for Halcion which is a medication used to help people sleep. Frye ended up sleeping for close to two days.
Curt [Hennig] was a great guy. I loved Curt. He would come around. Brad Rheingans broke me into the business up there in Minneapolis and him and Curt were good buddies because he had broke Curt in and Curt would come over while we were training and hop in the ring sometimes and show us and then he’d pull ribs on us. Sh*t, he h-bombed me one time. We got on an airplane up in Minneapolis and I didn’t — he h-bombed me so hard I didn’t wake up for like two days. Didn’t know what was going on because I had already checked into the hotel and all that. You know, all I remember is coming to breakfast one day going, ‘What the hell happened? How did we get here?’
Cage dove into the creative process and freedom in AEW. He feels that the company could benefit from the fellow Executive Vice Presidents having more say-so in the final creative decisions.
What’s crazy, creative team? No. It’s just Tony. Tony Khan who owns it [AEW] and he does so much anyway already, it’s literally just all him. He’ll have some help or input from other guys and some of the EVPs that you know helped start it like The Young Bucks and Kenny Omega, Cody Rhodes. They kind of help do their own stuff, but Tony pretty much has the final and only say on majority of the entire product which is a little nuts. I do think that it could benefit with some of the people helping out on that.
** Chris Denker welcomed Adam Cole onto his ‘Into The Danger Zone’ podcast. Upon Cole’s AEW debut, the only individuals he told about his pending arrival was Xavier Woods, Tyler Breeze and Cesaro. Cole told them shortly before he appeared on-screen.
I told — the only three people that knew that I was debuting at AEW, the day of, just a few hours before, just a few hours before was DaParty (Xavier Woods, Cesaro & Tyler Breeze). They were the only ones who knew.
And just, again, it was one of those things where I literally told nobody but, I felt like I had to tell them but it was also super last minute. Like I was in the trailer, you know what I mean? It was like one of those. I’m like, ‘Boys, thought I’d tell ya, I love y’all’ and of course, again, because I know we can trust those guys. Nothing got out or anything like that. They knew very, very, very shortly before it happened.
During the conversation, Cole confirmed that he found out about Tyler Breeze’s WWE release while streaming. A clip of Cole made the rounds on social media on the day of Breeze’s release, but Cole did not comment on why he made the facial expression he did when he looked at his phone.
I did kind of briefly want to touch on this because I heard — and I’ve never talked about this, ever. But there was a video that surfaced on Reddit and on YouTube. While I’m playing Hollow Knight and it’s me on my phone. Did you ever see this? That was very real [my reaction to getting the notification about Breeze’s release]. The fans were correct, because I know some people were like, ‘How do you know if that’s what happened?’ I had to [no sell it]. I had to. Yeah, yeah. I had to. It was not my business to be the one to say that-that’s what happened at all. But for people curious because I know so many people have talked about that video, that was very real. That was exactly what happened and I was very sad and very upset. Again, that’s life and that’s the way that things happen but of course, he’s one of my best friends and that was an unfortunate situation.
** IMPACT Wrestling talent W. Morrissey chatted with Cultaholic for an interview. He told the story of when he almost burned he and Jon Moxley’s apartment down while they were rooming together in developmental:
Our first week living together [Morrissey & Moxley], I almost burned the apartment down on accident. I put a DiGiorno in the oven. I believe they talk about this on that [WWE] Story Time or WWE show. Put a DiGiorno in the oven and then fell asleep and when I woke up, the entire apartment was filled with smoke and it wasn’t so much that-that was irritating. It was that for months, our clothes smelled like pizza, months, and this is within a week of living with him.
Going into his IMPACT Wrestling debut, Morrissey was going to use the name ‘William Morrissey’ but 20 minutes before going out, he was approached by Doc Gallows, Scott D’Amore and Don Callis who suggested shortening his first name.
Yeah, so I wanted to disassociate myself from anything I’d done in the past. I wanted a clean slate, a fresh start with IMPACT and I always liked Kevin Nash and Scott Hall when they went to WCW using their real names, so until about 20 minutes before airtime, at Rebellion, I was gonna be ‘William Morrissey’ but then [Doc] Gallows came up to me and Scott D’Amore and Don Callis and we were like, ‘Maybe we should just switch it to W. because William Morrissey, it’s a lot’ and so, like I said, 20 minutes before the show aired, we switched it up to W. Morrissey which now it seems apropos. I like it so much better.
** WWE recently wrapped up an overseas tour and during their stop through Scotland, Jinder Mahal was the focus of a media junket. He shared (via Inside The Ropes) that initially, he spoke to Vince McMahon about pairing the former Indus Sher (Veer & Saurav) with him. Saurav was in India, so Shanky was slotted in.
Yes. So when I came back, I spoke to Vince about giving me the Indus Sher tag team, Saurav and Rinku, Veer and Saurav. Unfortunately, Saurav was in India, so I got Shanky.
Mahal added that he is hoping for Saurav to make it back once he gets his visa issues sorted.
So it wasn’t the original plan, but, you know, making it work, and hopefully when Saurav makes it back. He’s dealing with some visa issues. I think once they get sorted, you know, let’s add more more to the group because the Indus Sher tag team in NXT, phenomenal, great look.
** Gunn Club (Billy, Austin & Colten Gunn) sat down with Robbie Fox of Barstool Sports for a conversation about their run[s] in AEW. Billy and Austin dove into how Austin got brought into the company. Austin was not happy in Ring of Honor so he decided to reach out to Cody Rhodes about a tryout. Austin requested that his father not be a part of any negotiations or the process.
Billy: They [Austin & Colten Gunn] worked for everything that they’ve gotten. I mean they — I didn’t, not one time and this is honest God’s truth did I go to anybody and say, ‘Hey, they really work hard. Can you hire them?’ Because then, then you get the feeling, ‘Okay, now we have a little bit of an obligation to kind of lean forward to do this’ and he [Austin] literally, when he got hired, he literally went to them and said, ‘Hey –’ because he went somewhere else first. He went to ROH first and it just wasn’t working out. He was just miserable and that’s okay because that’s a — when he came home, I just literally asked, I said, ‘Can you live with this? I mean is this something — don’t do it just because you’re miserable. Life is miserable. This business is miserable. You have to be able to wade through it like I waded through it for 20 something years. You just have to be able to be strong enough to know that there’s gonna be big ups and downs.’ So, when he left ROH and he went to AEW, [he] asked them if, ‘Hey, do you mind if I get a tryout?’ Or whatever. I didn’t do it. I didn’t do a thing.
Austin: I requested dad not to be in the meeting and I came back, I was super depressed and super down and dad gave me the pep talk and I go, ‘I have — all right, if I plan this correctly and I get an okay –‘ so I called Cody [Rhodes]. That’s who I called and I go, ‘Hey Cody.’ I was like, ‘I don’t want dad to know that I’m calling you right now. I don’t want anything –’ I literally just asked dad for Cody’s number so I called him and I go, ‘Hey,’ I go, ‘I’m in a rough spot and I understand you don’t give out free tickets but listen.’ I was like, ‘If you give me one shot, one opportunity to seize everything I ever wanted.’ [Austin laughed] So he’s like, ‘I’m cooking mom’s spaghetti.’ So I asked Cody, I was like, ‘The January 1st show, I have 30 days to get my ass in shape, to look the best I ever could at that time’ and I was like, ‘Can I do it?’ And I was like, ‘If you give me one shot, literally I don’t care if it’s a singles or a tag, I will show you that I’m serious, I’m capable of taking this all the way’ and Cody was like, ‘All right. We will give you one dark match. It’s not gonna be long but it’s just to see how well you work, what you can do,’ blah, blah, blah and I go, ‘Perfect. Thank you so much.’ I called Mike O’Hearn and I called Mike O’Hearn the day after and I go, ‘I need 30 days to get me just shredded. I need to look the best I could’ and I stuck on the 30-day blitz. But he helped me get just my body right, dad helped me get my mind right and I just trained for 30 days and I went out there and it just… it [first AEW match] was against Shawn Spears and 10 [Preston Vance] from the Dark Order. It was a dark-dark. It didn’t even air. It was literally just to see how well it worked and I came through the tunnel and literally, it’s just been up. It’s been awesome. It’s been a dream from there.
Heading into AEW All Out, Gunn Club turned heel and beat down Paul Wight. Billy said he was itching to turn heel and has never liked being a babyface.
Billy: I think it was a collective kind of idea and I think Tony [Khan] kind of wanted us to kind of just — but the problem with doing that is how do you — I’ve been a good guy for a long time. It’s hard. When we heard it, we went, ‘Oh, good luck with that.’
So we were [itching to turn heel]. I hate being a babyface. I hate being a good guy with a passion, although it was just where it went and that’s what I’ve been for the past 20 years. But I love being a bad guy though. It just gives you a little more freedom and plus me and my aura and the way that I am, I’m a really good heel. It’s just when I had Brian [Road Dogg], you just can’t be that. No matter how much they hated me, they, ‘Oh, if he wasn’t with you, we would hate your guts.’ But I think he [Austin Gunn] has more heel, being a bad guy tendencies than this one [Colten Gunn], although now we kind of get to feed off of each other. It was just how do we get to where we need to get to and I think that’s where the sacrificial lamb of Paul Wight comes into play, because he is — I wouldn’t say he is a bigger babyface than we are or than I am — bigger in life. It’s just how do you get the people to switch over and believe and that’s the biggest thing is rather than just do something to go, ‘Oh okay. Now you’re bad guys, we get it.’ You don’t want them to do that. You want to do something that makes a statement that they go — that they legitimately go, ‘Okay, that’s uncalled for’ kind of thing but being a bad guy is awesome. It’s so — like that’s all me. That’s all me.
Elsewhere during the conversation, Austin dove into how difficult it was for him as a singles talent. There was the struggle of wanting to be accepted by the crowd but the crowd often leaning towards the opposite direction.
Austin: I think my experience with singles is just like, I didn’t really have a character yet so it was just really hard to get people and you have to learn body language and when to fire up and you have to learn all these little opponents and you’re doing it by yourself so if you can’t do it, there’s nobody to rely on. There’s no Colten [Gunn], there’s no dad [Billy Gunn] on the apron to rely on to help you with that so it’s like if you don’t have the people from the get-go and you lose ‘em and you’re just like, ‘Come on!’ And they’re just like, ‘No. Boo.’ Then you really have no fallback. That’s the hard thing about singles is you have to be so in-depth with your character they have to know your — I don’t know. That’s just my experience. I had such a hard time as a second-generation wrestler. It’s just like, ‘Please cheer for me because of who my dad is’ and they’re like, ‘No. That’s why we don’t want to’ and it was just so hard being a babyface during that time and it’s just hard.
** Former two-time WWE Tag Team Champion Doug Basham was the latest guest on That 90s Wrestling Podcast. During his time in WWE, Basham was a member of The Cabinet group along with JBL, Orlando Jordan, Jillian Hall and Danny Basham. Doug recalled JBL pitching the idea to have members of The Cabinet have all the titles on SmackDown going into WrestleMania 21 and then losing all the titles coming out of WrestleMania.
It was great. It felt good again being two-time WWE [Tag Team] Champion. The company, all eyes were on The Cabinet. I think JBL was the champion. I don’t think Orlando [Jordan] had the U.S. Title yet and JBL actually was wanting to pitch the idea for The Cabinet to have all the gold going into WrestleMania [21] and then all of us losing it coming out of WrestleMania. But they had a different direction they wanted to go with-with that because I think we lost the titles to Eddie [Guerrero] and Rey-Rey. Eddie and Rey [Mysterio], yeah, because to help their storyline along. I think that’s when Eddie was becoming champion or turning heel. I can’t remember. I’ve been hit in the head a lot. I can’t remember how everything went.
Doug and Danny Basham were called up to the main roster from Ohio Valley Wrestling. Doug detailed that journey and being told to cut his hair so he and Danny would both have shaved heads.
So it was actually SmackDown [that Doug & Danny Basham were called up to]. We went, Danny and I — I had a mullet, and I had a big ‘ole head of hair and I had that because when you punch, the hair would fly and water would go up. It just had a really good look to it and good visual when somebody would punch me and I’d fall down and stuff. So, I got moved up to get taken a look [at] without Danny and I had a couple of weeks I was up on the road, did a bunch of singles matches on the house shows, did some dark matches before the TV would start and then maybe got on a couple of the Velocity’s and stuff and then they brought Danny up and put us together as a tag team to take a look at us because Jimmy [Cornette] was like, ‘They’re a tag team. Look at them. They look great’ so we went up there and we worked together and Johnny Laurinaitis wanted to — because Danny couldn’t grow hair but I could cut my hair and they wanted to see what we would look like bald. So, they said, ‘Doug, we wonder what you would look like bald?’ So what do you think I did? I’m like, ‘Okay, they just told me they’ll cut my hair’ and I’m like, ‘Sh– oh man. This is — okay. They’re paying my checks, they’re writing the checks for me. Guess I better go see what I look like bald’ so I went, cut my hair, showed up to TV the next day at OVW TV, walked in and Jimmy just went — you guys have heard the story. [He] just went bananas like, ‘What the f*ck? You look like a 40-year-old truck driver.’ I’m like, ‘Jesus Jimmy. A 40-year-old truck driver? I think I look younger without hair.’ It’s funny now, back then it wasn’t because his reasoning was correct, you know? We could have really drew an angle and wrote a story and I could’ve cut my hair that way and lost it but I think WWE just kind of liked to mess with Jimmy a little bit. Not a little bit. They liked to mess with him all the time just because they thought it was fun and they get giggles out of it which, you know, wasn’t right but I worked in the WWE and had to do what they asked me to do, wanted me to do so that’s how The Basham Brothers were born. Cut my hair, they looked at me, they looked at us together, we went out and worked together and we did the switches and stuff and got away with it and then The Basham Brothers were born.
Currently, Doug Basham is working with Ohio Valley Wrestling as a writer, agent and producer. He said Al Snow slowly reeled him back into wrestling which eventually led to Doug taking on those aforementioned roles.
That one time, Al [Snow] said, ‘Hey, come watch the show.’ ‘Okay, I’ll come watch the show.’ [I] went, was in the back watching the show and he goes, ‘Hey man, you wanna come back next week and help me with the matches? Agent a match or two?’ ‘Oh yeah, okay man. I would love to’ so what he was doing, he was slowly pulling me back again. Pulling slowly, ever so slowly. He was being very cerebral. Al Snow, you got me. So one thing led to another and one thing led to another and then another match led to another match and then I started going more and more and more and then Al asked me, ‘Hey, would you like to go to a training session and show some of the guys, teach some of the guys?’ ‘Oh yeah, absolutely.’ Little bit at a time, little bit at a time and this was last year, about this time last year I think. About this time is when I started and here we are a year later man. I’m now the head trainer at Ohio Valley Wrestling, I’m helping to produce the show, I’m helping agent matches for the show, I’m helping to write TV for the show. Oh Al, you got me Al. You got me. But, I’m back. I’m back at OVW. I started at OVW, left OVW, did my career. Left my career and started another medical career and then came right back so my career has done full circle and I’m back where I started in OVW to try to carry on my uncle Danny [Davis’] legacy of Ohio Valley Wrestling and give back to wrestling what wrestling’s given to me and share some of my experience and knowledge with some of these younger guys to hopefully get them where they wanna go and do this for a living.
** Marie Shadows, former employee of WWE who worked on their WWE Network service, returned to the Perched On The Top Rope podcast. Marie said back in 2018, Paul ‘Triple H’ Levesque asked fellow WWE employees to log in the ALL IN and Wrestle Kingdom 13 shows so he could remember to watch both events.
I remember coming back from lunch early and I got to sit in the room just to wait until everyone else comes back before we start working again, and again, we have boss number one, we have supervisors and they’re talking about ALL IN and what Triple H wants. Triple H actually wanted them to log ALL IN to watch it and also they were talking about Wrestle Kingdom [13]. I keep forgetting the number Wrestle Kingdom that was happening that year in 2018, but it was basically the one that headlined with Kenny Omega versus [Hiroshi] Tanahashi at the end of it so I’m there sitting and I’m like, ‘Am I supposed to be here? Is this for me to hear? I don’t know man. I don’t know the protocol’ and you know, my co-worker was like, ‘You know, just stay here. It’s fine.’ So I’m listening in on all this stuff where they were like, ‘Yeah, Triple H wants us to watch ALL IN and to log in and also to watch Wrestle Kingdom’ and then they had other conflicting time frames and stuff like that so, you know, if anyone ever wondered why in The Young Bucks’ book, they were a little bit surprised when Triple H called them again and they were like, ‘Hey, we’re gonna up the money,’ it’s because Triple H watches everything. Triple H has his eye on everything across pro wrestling so that was sort of cool to be in that as a fly on the wall to hear the behind-the-scenes stuff of what happens in the other building and what Triple H does and stuff like that.
** Scott Fishman of TV Insider pushed out his interview with Booker T. The two parties discussed representation in wrestling and Booker brought up Bianca Belair and Big E as examples of that along with mentioning himself as one of the Black independent promoters.
It’s refreshing to see so much color in professional wrestling these days and doing it their own way. I got to give them props. It’s all about them right now shining. Big E, put the rocket on him and send him straight to the moon. I’m loving it. I’m watching Bianca Belair break through that glass ceiling. Me as a promoter, I’m kind of the first Black guy doing it from this perspective and opening a wrestling school for 17 years and producing all these shows. I always think about Paul Boesch. People said he’s a good dude and good to people. I want the same reputation. I have nothing to gain from this other than the ability to create. If I create something good, we’re creating something good as a team. This is the future of professional wrestling.
** At IMPACT Wrestling Hard To Kill event in early January, Alex Shelley was supposed to team with Rich Swann and Chris Sabin to face Kenny Omega and The Good Brothers (Doc Gallows & Karl Anderson). Shelley later explained that because of the number of sick and injured patients at his workplace, they modified their mandates and with that came more restrictiveness and he was unable to travel. Shelley spoke to Fightful and told the site that he is open to returning to IMPACT Wrestling.
It’s fine. I just don’t work for them. I wasn’t able to main event one of their pay-per-views and that was when COVID numbers spiked and due to my occupation outside wrestling, my company had restricted travel with new mandates and vaccines and so on and so forth. To be honest with you, I wasn’t going to be wrestling for IMPACT much longer. We had not agreed to that, let’s put it that way. Not that I have anything against them at all. I was so happy to come back and I was so thrilled with my time there to wrestle The North. I think the North are just incredible, Josh Alexander and Page both and it helped Sabin come back and ease in after an ACL repair.
But at the same time, they’ve just got so many guys on their roster. For me, scheduling wise actually, it works out quite a bit better to wrestle on the weekends currently because I do have a career outside wrestling. I can definitely say I have nothing but praise for IMPACT in its current incarnation. They do everything well. Scott D’Amore handles things amazingly. I really, really love being there. I would love to go back, I really would. But I’ve only got so much time. There’s only so many hours in a day.
** The Dallas Morning News has an interview with Liv Morgan. She told the publication about her time in NXT and feeling that she didn’t have anything to sink her teeth into because she was still learning the ins and outs of wrestling.
I worked in NXT quite a bit but I never really had anything that I could sink my teeth into or I feel like I never really had anything that challenged me. I mean everything was challenging. I was still just learning how to work and I just was figuring things out with myself but, I never really was challenged and so I feel like I’m doing so many firsts for the first time on, you know, Raw or SmackDown. Like my first promos, my first stipulation of this match. I feel like I’m kind of just doing everything for the first time in front of everyone’s eyes, and I hope that I just kill it every single time.
** While at an independent event in Florida, Cezar Bononi chatted with Jim Varsallone of the Miami Herald. Cezar said that since he’s started working with AEW, he got his passion for wrestling back.
It’s been great. I met so many good people. I got into AEW at a point in my career that I was — I was not happy with wrestling anymore and all of that got my passion lighting up again so I’m really happy to be working right there and coming to Miami, we’re coming to Miami [in October].
** Ahead of the 9/28 NXT 2.0 show, Mandy Rose chatted with Steven Muehlhausen of DAZN. She discussed her move from the main roster to NXT and believes she can help the lesser experienced talents of NXT 2.0’s women’s division.
Sometimes switching it up is always good. NXT needed a woman like me. Like I said in my promo last week, they needed a mainstream superstar to be able to help some of the women evolve. I don’t have the most experience in wrestling compared to some of the women and a lot of the women in all of WWE. But when it comes to mainstream qualities, I have a lot of those. So I feel like why not come and help some of these women, whether it’s anything related to WWE, or whether it’s the way they dress, the way they look, the way they present themselves, the way they are perceived, the way they speak in interviews, and the list goes on and on. It’s rebranding my character a little bit. I always think it’s great to evolve. I think change is always good as well. So I wanted to switch things up a little bit. So I’m having a lot of fun in NXT. It’s been a great experience so far. I have a little bit more creative say as well, which is really cool. The whole new brand of NXT 2.0 and Mandy 2.0, it’s all coincides. It’s just the beginning.
Mandy Rose reappeared on the show with a new hair color alongside fellow members of ‘Toxic Attraction’ (Gigi Dolin & Jacey Jayne). Mandy feels the new look has added an edginess to her on-screen presentation.
A little bit of both. I love switching it up. I laugh because the last couple of years, I went from blonde, long hair to short. I got my hair cut on national television by my former best friend and former tag team partner (Sonya Deville). Then I went back and kept it blonde and then now brunette, so I feel like I’ve had a lot of changes with hair. I’m going to keep it this way for a little while. It was definitely my decision. I had the idea to do that. I wanted to switch it up with my character. I wanted to become a little edgier. I thought it made a lot of sense with my group Toxic Attraction, kind of swaying the fans to think that first they probably thought I was going to try to make the girls more like me, but I think they rubbed off on me a little bit. I always say the most successful people in life are always listening, always learning, are always trying to change, so it doesn’t matter who you are. If Gigi and [Jacey] rubbed off a little bit on me on their edginess and I wanted to become a little edgier, I thought why not and just have a more aggressive side to me and instead be focused on the gloating and be like, ‘It’s all about Mandy Rose and The Golden Goddess, and I’m still hot’.
** Prior to her match at WWE Extreme Rules, Liv Morgan spoke to Comicbook.com. Morgan expressed that she has always felt like the crowd has been behind her in-person and on social media. She added that she does not have to worry when they feel like she’s not being utilized because they are vocal.
I feel like, you know, luckily I feel like it increases over time so I’m like thank you. I’ve always felt, and I don’t even know why, I really don’t even know why but I’ve always felt like I’ve had a very good strong core of a fan base that supports me no matter what, whether I’m objecting in a wedding, whether I’m not on TV for tons and tons and tons of weeks. They’re like ride or die so I’m grateful for them and I welcome all fans and all new fans. I love them all the same. I feel blessed and very lucky to have their support. The WWE Universe, not everyone gets it so I’m grateful and I’m thankful. I hope I just give them many more reasons throughout my career to want to support me.
You’re going to hear about it. I love that because if I want to complain or if I want to say something, I don’t really need to because I know they’re going to do it for me. Yeah, you know, we’re going to tag Vince McMahon, we’re going to tag Stephanie, Adam Pearce, where’s our girl? You know?
** Following 2point0 (Matt Lee & Jeff Parker’s) Texas Tornado tag match against Darby Allin and Sting on 8/18, Tony Khan offered the duo AEW contracts. 2point0 dove into their contract offers during a recent Q&A on their YouTube page.
Lee: So it was after that Sting match in Houston, right after that match.
Parker: Put Sting through a table.
Lee: Things didn’t go our way that night. We didn’t get the win but, got a little consolation prize.
Parker: And yes, T.K. [Tony Khan] was the one to give us the news. I’m sure most of you — he’s very hands-on. He’s always in the thick of it. Always accessible, absolute great boss.
** While doing a virtual signing for K & S WrestleFest, Tony Nese stated that the roughest finisher he’s had to take in WWE is Angel Garza’s ‘Wing Clipper’.
I’m gonna mess up the name of it I think but, [Angel] Garza does the Angel’s Wings I think it’s called? Is that what it’s called [Wing Clipper]? Something with Angel — yeah, that one actually, believe it or not, it’s one — it crunches your body so much. It’s killer. So I would say that’s probably the toughest one I’ve taken there.
Nese, a former member of the 205 Live roster spoke about the revamped NXT. He has not seen a full episode yet but is looking forward to seeing Bron Breakker’s on-screen progression. Nese added that he noticed Breakker putting the work in at the Performance Center.
I love the look. I love the production of it and everything. I haven’t really watched it in full. I’ve kind of just saw clips here and there. But I think the presentation of it I thought was pretty cool. As far as whatever they’re doing with the talent, it seems like they’re just kind of sticking with the same storylines, right? Just doing the same things. I’m excited to see, what is he? Bron Breakker now, right? Yeah, Rick Steiner’s kid. I’m excited to see what he’s gonna do. I’ve been able to see him train at the P.C. and everything and the dude wants it, he’s a machine so, he’s gonna be very exciting to follow.
** Darren Paltrowitz has an interview with MLW’s Calvin Tankman.
** Kenny Omega and Adam Cole guest appeared on the JePodcast.
** MLW World Heavyweight Champion Jacob Fatu chatted with Wrestling Inc.
** The Butcher and The Blade spoke to Spectrum News about AEW’s forthcoming show in Rochester, New York.
** Chris Charlton conducted an in-character interview with Will Ospreay that is up on New Japan’s YouTube channel.
** Al Snow is hosting a seminar for the ‘South Central Wrestling’ promotion on October 23rd.
** Jim Varsallone caught up with Dana Warrior. Varsallone also spoke to Tyler Breeze.
** NJPW’s Jado turned 53-years-old on 9/28.
** CBS 58’s Mike Curkov has an interview with Mick Foley:
** Cesaro went live on Instagram with WWE Deutschland.
** Madison Rayne and Taryn Terrell did a signing for East Coast Autograph Auctions.
** Cody Rhodes continued to make the media rounds to promote Rhodes to the Top and he appeared on PIX11 News:
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.
