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.
** Bushiroad founder and President Takaaki Kidani spoke to ‘Sports Graphic Number’ for an in-depth discussion about STARDOM. On the topic of STARDOM heading overseas, he said he doesn’t see that happening until the pandemic is over. He does have an idea in mind to bring STARDOM to Southeast Asia.
No, that’s still a long way off [overseas tour]. After the corona is over.
There is a local subsidiary in New Japan in the United States, but [we] want to do Southeast Asia and East Asia. Since Asia has a [big fan base], STARDOM may even be easier to do than New Japan.
Kidani said if they were to go overseas, it would be beneficial to have local talents from different areas on the tour. He added that his goal for STARDOM is to surpass New Japan Pro-Wrestling.
Well, it would be nice if there was a local wrestler for about one [show]. So … it might be better to get new [wrestlers] from various countries. There is one person from each country who speaks in the local language … Stardom has a lot to [think about]. First of all, Stardom is good.
I think it can be 100 times larger than here. But first of all, I want to make more breaks in Japan. I want to make it 10 times as much as New Japan. I don’t think it’s that difficult. Well, my goal is to surpass New Japan! Shall I say that?
STARDOM’s digital and subscription numbers were discussed. He said STARDOM reaches four million views a month on YouTube and STARDOM World has 10,000 subscribers and one-third of those subscribers are overseas.
I don’t want to go to something I’ve never seen, so I’m just giving it up on YouTube. The total number of views has increased considerably, and now it is 4 million views per month. I would like to make this 10 million playbacks and increase the number of [subscribers] to about 500,000.
On the official channel, not only standard ones such as announcements, breaking news, and past [matches], but also a wide variety of things such as planning videos and those taken with a smartphone of the entrance scene are uploaded every day. While providing fans with the opportunity to see STARDOM every day, it also increases the chances of accidental interest and the choice of stardom. The number of subscribers to the channel is 138,000, which is second only to New Japan in the domestic professional wrestling organization. The official Twitter of the group is also in second place, and so is Instagram. Stardom World, a video distribution service, has nearly 10,000 members, of which about one-third are from overseas. All numbers are going well.
** The Bella Twins (Nikki & Brie Bella) guest appeared on Sippin’ The Tea TV with Ariane Andrew and Matt Dillon. Both Brie and Nikki were asked if they would like to return to the ring. Nikki said that her doctors have her on the retirement bench for life at the moment and for Brie, while giving her answer, she spoke about Bryan Danielson’s AEW debut and how he went back and forth between deciding on WWE or AEW all summer.
Brie: I go back and forth because it’s hard because I’m mom first and I’m all about my kids and when I did the comeback, the second one and leaving Birdie every week, it was hard. Mentally, I just was like, ‘How am I gonna get through this?’ So it’d be hard to leave both kids now especially with Bryan [Danielson] on the road every week. It’d probably be a period of time where a couple days maybe — right? [Bryan’s debut was a big surprise]. It was amazing. It was pretty — I have to tell you, all summer long, he kept going, contemplating, going back and forth because he took the summer off and I just remember every other day he just — he honestly didn’t know where he was going to end up and then just finally one day, it spoke to him. He felt it because I was like, ‘I am not helping you make a decision. You are 40-years-old. This is probably gonna be your last run, so you just have to let your heart tell you where to go’ and I’m like, ‘Just because I’m in WWE doesn’t mean you have to be there’ because I don’t think — I don’t know if I’ll make a comeback to be honest. Maybe — I told Nicole, maybe in a year or so but right now in my life, we’re so busy with our companies and the kids. I’m taking Birdie to school. That’s a whole thing in itself.
Nikki: I would love, one day when Matteo is maybe three and he knows it. Like to have my son be ringside while his mom kicks ass, that would be amazing to me. But like, because he is my everything, I have to listen to the doctors and as of now, they put me on the retired bench for life and so it would just take a lot of scans and x-rays and all this different stuff for them to actually approve me to do a run and so, that would be — I’m like Brie [Bella]. That’d be years down the road.
The former WWE Divas Champions assessed WWE’s women’s division. They feel that the company has a great deal of talent at their disposal, but they want to see more. Nikki reiterated that she wants in on the creative team.
Brie: So it’s weird because I feel like lately you’ve seen a little bit of a drop. You know, now that Becky [Lynch is] back, I feel like, ‘Okay, there’s gonna be momentum with the stories but there for a while, it felt like the girls were getting so much and then all of a sudden went back to so little. You would watch either Raw or SmackDown and the stories just didn’t feel like they were getting as much depth as they should have and not as much time.
Nikki: And there’s so many incredible women wrestlers or sports-entertainers at WWE. WWE has this incredible platform. They really do and I just wish they would showcase their women even more because they know how to do it. We’ve all been there and done it and as a fan, I wanna see more from them. I want to be entertained more, I want to fall more in love with stories. I wanna be like, ‘Wait! What is she gonna do with him or her or it?’ Or whatever it may be this week on Raw. I wanna think about that all week, I wanna imagine different things and then I wanna be shocked on Monday night and I wish we’d get more of that because we have so many talented women and I just wish, you know, sometimes I’m like I want to be on the creative team for the women in WWE.
Following up on that, Brie admitted that she has been confused by some of the women WWE have released such as Ruby Soho, Jessica McKay, Cassie Lee and others.
Brie: There’s so many things that WWE is great at but that, for some reason, misses the boat with me. Like you can have an incredible tag division. But look at some of the ones they got rid of. Like Riott Squad, I’ll never understand it. Even Mandy [Rose] and Dana Brooke to me look like a great tag team walking out. The IIconics [Jessica McKay & Cassie Lee]. I try to wrap my head being like, I mean, did they threaten someone backstage? Because other than that, I don’t understand. Is there heat we don’t know about?
The Bella Twins were formally inducted into the WWE Hall Of Fame this year. They went in as a part of the 2020 class. Brie believes the reason they were inducted is because of what they did for women’s wrestling in a mainstream.
Brie: But I do have to say the one incredible thing that hit Nicole and I really hard with the whole women’s movement is when they started to bring up John Cena’s name and Dwayne Johnson, The Rock and then they’d say The Bella Twins and I remember we were like, ‘What?’ And I think that’s why Vince [McMahon] inducted us into the Hall Of Fame because I know some people were like, ‘I can’t believe they got inducted.’ But we did something outside of wrestling for the women and I think that was the big movement too was mainstream fell in love with women’s wrestling, you started seeing more females and young girls come to the shows because of Total Divas and Total Bellas but then, mainstream started to look at not just The Rock and John Cena anymore. They started to look at the women and now you’re seeing the women go into Hollywood which is crazy. You see all these women’s wrestlers now going into Hollywood and for us over anything, that’s incredible because it’s nice to see women have something after wrestling because women’s careers are shorter than the men’s.
Brie dove into some of the struggles she, her sister and fellow cast members of Total Divas endured during their WWE careers. She mentioned how much hate they received, the online criticism and added that they also wanted to prevent fellow cast members of Total Divas from receiving the hate that was being thrown at them.
Brie: I think the biggest thing that feels incredible is that we allowed ourselves to be authentic in who we were and we weren’t afraid. We knew judgement was gonna come, we knew haters were gonna come and we allowed it with open arms. We’re like, ‘Come hate us. It’s okay. Love us, whatever it is you feel’ but we saw the opportunity with reality television and being okay being a Diva Search girl and something different from that, you know, the look and the model of a wrestler that I think because we were okay with it, it allowed so many other people to be and then it was the reality show and I mean you’re an O.G. Ariane [Andrew] with that and I think all of us allowing us just to — how many people hated us backstage? We dealt with so much b.s., but for all of us just to let go and be like, ‘We’re gonna put our lives out there. We don’t know if the mainstream world will like us, but we’re gonna do it’ and I think taking that leap of faith and all of us being courageous in that moment, I think that’s what exploded the women’s division and Nicole and I definitely had to be the ones. For some reason, we were getting so much of the hate and we just wanted to shield the show [Total Divas], we wanted to shield all of you who were on it so we were embracing it and we had to deal with so much backstage stuff, to then the audience to then online and I think it was the first taste we all got to the online bullying. But her and I were like, ‘Nope, we’re gonna keep going. We’re not gonna allow this negativity [to] ruin the positivity we’re feeling’ and I think because, you know, we’re twins and we have each other, we just knew we had to keep each other positive and happy because there was some days we’d break down. It was hard but we just gave each other strength all the time like, ‘We have to keep going.’
** While speaking to Robbie Fox of Barstool Sports, Eddie Kingston shared that he had a panic attack following his TNT Title match against Miro at AEW All Out. Eddie was overwhelmed by the amount of attention he received and does not view himself in the manner that some may view him in.
I was very open on another interview after the pay-per-view [All Out] with Miro, I got a lot of attention from the match and I had a panic attack that night, because I didn’t like the attention, because I don’t see myself as this big Eddie Kingston on f*cking TV, TNT, no. I’m a pro wrestler. This is all I ever wanted to do, that’s it. I’m not a celebrity, I’m not an actor, I’m not… I’m not anything. I’m just me and I’m just a pro wrestler man and this is what I always wanted to do and this is what I fought for.
Kingston recently deactivated his Twitter account after some back and forth regarding CHIKARA. The #SpeakingOut movement occurred during the summer of 2020 and stories concerning former CHIKARA promoter Mike Quackenbush were brought to the forefront. Eddie said he did not know the details of what occurred because he it did not read into it.
I remember the day all the CHIKARA stuff happened, Bryce [Remsburg] called me and he was very down and out. I don’t know the whole stuff that happened because I stopped reading it because it was during that Speaking Out and that hit my soul, the Speaking Out. Like all of this stuff happening and I was like, ‘Whoa’ and it’s during the pandemic, we’re all at home, you know what I mean? It was like, ‘Oh man, what –’ you open your phone up, it’s this person, that person, this person and I knew some of the guys. I was close with some of the guys and I’m like, ‘What is going on here?’ I actually talked to some of the guys that were accused of stuff and I told them, ‘Yo, get help. Get help. That’s all I could tell you. Get help’ and I hope they are. They will never be back at wrestling I don’t think but, that’s fine. At least get help for your future, you know what I mean? But anyway, I digress. But all that stuff was so mentally whatever, so I didn’t read anything about what happened with CHIKARA. I just didn’t read it.
Dating back to February, Eddie Kingston and Jon Moxley have been paired together on-screen. Kingston said it was Moxley and Tony Khan’s idea to put them together.
Mox. Mox and Tony [Khan had the idea to pair us up]. That was their idea. I just — one day I was sitting there and they go, ‘Hey, we got this idea’ and I went, ‘Whatever. Whatever you guys wanna do’, you know what I mean? It took me forever to get on with a major company so I’m just like, ‘Hey, whatever y’all wanna do, we’ll make it work, let’s go.’ I’m here to do my job.
** Santana Garrett did her first post-WWE interview with Lucha Libre Online. Although she was not able to do much during her time as a part of WWE’s main roster, she’s grateful for her time in the company. She added that it felt like nobody really knew she was on the roster.
Man, I felt on top of the world [that I made it to WWE]. It was literally a dream come true for me. So, it was a pretty surreal feeling and I have to say, I enjoyed my time there. Kind of got lost in the shuffle unfortunately with the pandemic happening, getting moved up to main roster and you know, nobody really knowing that I was there, not there. But, I am very grateful for all the opportunities and also excited for what’s to come.
Santana was able to have frequent discussions with Paul ‘Triple H’ Levesque. She did not get to speak to Vince McMahon, but knows McMahon was the one who wanted her on the main roster.
Most of the ideas, pitches were done with the writers, the WWE writers. Triple H was always super down to earth and if you needed to chat, you would just, ‘Hey, you got a minute?’ And he’d tell you yes or no, but it was always yes. He always — he’s such a down to earth person. With Vince [McMahon], nothing one-on-one but I mean he’s the one that saw me wrestle and said, ‘I want that girl’ so, never an opportunity for a one-on-one conversation though.
She dove into some of the pitches that were suggested when she was called up to the main roster which includes the Wonder Woman-esque character she previously portrayed, being a part of a duo with Chelsea Green or a trio with Chelsea and Vanessa Borne.
So I had a match against Liv Morgan. I think it was Liv Morgan and then one against Bianca [Belair] at the beginning of the pandemic, maybe right before it happened and that is when there was interest. Like, ‘Hey, we want this girl.’ I actually got moved up [the] beginning of summer of last year, was brought to TV about four or five different times with different ideas; coming in as this bad girl group with Vanessa Borne and Chelsea Green and myself. Coming in as a tag team with Chelsea, coming in as a singles wrestler doing the whole superhero, Wonder Woman character that I’ve done these past 12 years, and it just never happened unfortunately. We were written into the shows a couple times and then it’s like, you know, things change all the time and that’s wrestling and that’s life so it just unfortunately didn’t happen so then I had my match in January with a bunch of just talented women and I figured, ‘You know what? This is my time to shine.’ Head to toe, had my hair done, had somebody else make my gear because I typically make my own gear and I’m like, ‘I’m feeling good’ and I did a great job, I got great feedback from the producers and it’s like, ‘Okay, we’ll see you soon.’ Great. Feeling on cloud nine, you know? And then just weeks went by and you continue to, ‘Hey, just following up. Just wanna check’ and it’s like, ‘Okay, yeah, after Mania.’ After Mania, more and more people are getting released. I’m like, you know, just hanging out at the house, reorganizing my pantry for the hundredth time, waiting for my time to debut and it just never happened and then I got the call, ‘We’re doing budget cuts’ and that was it. That was about just over 90 days ago because I just ended my 90-day non-compete which allows me freedom to do whatever I want and so a few days after my non-compete ended, I went to AEW.
** Bellator’s Jessica Borga appeared on WWE television earlier this year as a member of ‘Lashley’s Ladies’ on Raw. Borga was offered another chance to appear on Raw but she turned it down. She told Mirror Fighting why she turned it down:
Honestly, it was just a fun little thing that happened on the side. I have a friend who’s big on the media side within the WWE and Bobby Lashley needed some girls, which is not my normal character I guess you could say. So I thought it’d be a fun little thing to do on the side, and it was a great opportunity as well. They wanted me back, but I didn’t want to do that; fighting first and everything, but it was a fun little side thing.
** The 9/21 episode of NXT 2.0 featured the in-ring debut of Dante Chen. Dante is the first wrestler from Singapore to secure a WWE contract. He spoke to Yahoo News Singapore about his debut and said he did not find out he was competing until the day of.
I didn’t even know that I was scheduled to compete, or even who my opponent will be, until the very day itself. I was asked to be at the arena at 11am, and a couple of hours later, I was told that I would be making my debut facing Trey [Baxter]. There were only a couple more hours to prepare by then. I’ve known Trey as we’re all under the same umbrella of the WWE Performance Center, so we met and had a quick huddle to work out what we wanted to do in the match. Then it was like ‘good luck and see you later’.
Chen said he has become comfortable around the Performance Center coaches and shared that he was not as nervous for his debut as he thought he would be.
I don’t exactly see him [Shawn Michaels] or Triple H every day, so whatever inputs that they might want to give me, it’s usually passed down to my coaches and then to me. But I’m comfortable living and training in Orlando with all the coaches. When I made my debut and entered the ring, I was surprised that I didn’t feel as nervous as I thought I would. It has so far been a great experience.
** On the most recent New Day: Feel The Power podcast, the trio reflected on Big E’s WWE Championship victory. Big E looked back on his days in NXT and told the story of when he lost to Xavier Woods in a three-minute match.
I’d been wrestling now, I think at the time, it was the start of the new rebranded NXT and NXT is going through another rebrand but at the time, this is probably what? I wanna say maybe 2011? Maybe even 2012. ’11 or ’12, so I’d been wrestling for a little bit, still young and whatnot and you know, I think I’m progressing but I see we’re doing a full taping, several tapings and I am not on the show and in fact, I’m on a dark match. So I’m on the show, but I’m not actually on the show. That was recorded but never even really aired. It was just a pilot episode and as you know, I was in the three-minute match with a young — he was young but still a vet. You know, still an O.G., and yeah, that was you Woods-y and you beat me in three minutes and I thought, ‘Man, boy I got some work to do.’ No, no, but you know how it is. You know how it is when you’re on NXT or when NXT’s starting and you think, ‘Okay, I got something to offer here’ and it’s clear that at the beginning, there are no plans for you and I, at least as far as we know. I think back to those moments. I think back to moments where I thought I was getting along, I was getting better.
Kofi Kingston heaped praise onto Big E while discussing E’s journey to this point. Kingston made a point to say that there is nobody on the current WWE roster with more personality than Big E.
Your journey [Big E] thus far has been such a beautiful journey. You know, you were talking about being in NXT. I’m getting crazy goosebumps right now, goosebump central right here man. You were talking about being in NXT just now and being outside with a bunch of other guys who didn’t have illustrious careers or who didn’t quite make it and whatever the reason may be, whether they were overlooked or whatever, you know, you could have been one of those people but the difference, what makes you different than anybody else, again, is your ability and the drive that you have. I’ve been telling everybody like all week; your story. We joke about it but you were somebody who someone came up to you and asked, ‘Hey, you wanna be a wrestler?’ ‘Oh, sure. Why not?’ You know what I’m saying? And to go from that point to getting to where you are now, the odds are — it’s almost impossible and it’s been your incredible hard work that has gotten you here. Being somebody who had no knowledge of wrestling and going through developmental, going through NXT and excelling, making it into the main roster is a feat in and of itself, and then getting onto the main roster and then being told like, ‘Oh, well, you don’t have enough personality’ when they’re telling you not to have personality and then criticizing you for what they’re telling you to have so the mental game, the mental game would take a lot of people out of it. It would make them wanna quit or make them want to stop or make them not wanna get better. But you overcame all of that, you showed everybody how much personality you had and I would argue that nobody on the roster has more personality than you, you know what I’m saying? That in and of itself is incredible.
** The Indian Express pushed out their Q&A with The Great Khali. It has been several years since Khali wrestled in a sanctioned match and he was asked what he misses the most about the performing in the ring. Here was his response:
There are many things I miss, but what I miss the most is people cheering for me. Thousands of people cheering around you, believing in you, and going crazy for you is a godly feeling. I miss that vibe but other than that, it is pretty same. I continue to train, and now that the Covid situation has eased up a bit, we are back to training people in my academy.
The topic of mental health came up and Khali expressed that there were times when he felt the weight and pressure of working for WWE. He feels that over time he got used to the pressure and started performing his best under it.
When you are a part of such a global platform, it’s obvious that there is a lot of pressure and stress – in the ring as well as outside. So, I used to feel a huge pressure to perform my best when I started initially. You know, billions of people are watching you live and there is pressure to do your best. I used to sweat initially, but I slowly got used to it. I knew what my strengths are and then performed my best under pressure.
Khali helps train wrestlers in India. He feels that an equivalent to WWE can be set up in India.
Wrestling is very popular in India, perhaps the Indian viewership of WWE is more than American viewership. So yes, definitely a WWE equivalent can be in India. I am working towards it and contributing towards making wrestling more feasible in India.
** 80’s Wrestling Con did a virtual signing with Alundra Blayze. She expressed the thought that she feels she should have won the WCW Women’s Championship. She made it to the finals of the championship tournament but lost to Akira Hokuto.
We’re gonna go there. So, why didn’t I win that title [WCW Women’s Championship]? Why didn’t I? I mean I deserved that title. Why didn’t I get it? Because we had nothing but men around a booking committee, circle jerking men that controlled everything in our business. That is why.
So they got so scared of me, they had to give me a title and they’re like, ‘Oh sh*t. We’re gonna have her wrestle the guys. Oh! So let’s give her the Cruiserweight.’
Blayze added that does have interest in an on-screen manager or commentary role within wrestling.
Well I really thought that was gonna happen [her becoming a manager]. You know — no, you never assume but anyway, would I love it? Absolutely. Absolutely. Or even commentating. But I would really watch my f-bombs and the f’s and the sh*ts.
As the conversation progressed, Blayze recalled a time when Scott Hall told her that some of the male wrestlers did not like to follow she and Bull Nakano’s matches.
So, what I heard, there was one guy who had enough cajones to actually come out and say, you know, ‘Duce, the guys don’t even want to follow you and Bull Nakano anymore’ and the guy that said that-that was really genuine, that was so cool was Scott Hall.
He had the cajones. What did he have to lose? That was really cool and to hear it from a guy after all these years, it makes you think, ‘Wow, you guys really,’ you know?
** Ahead of the 2021 WWE Draft kicking off on 10/1, Angelo Dawkins spoke to Sportskeeda. In the event that he and Montez Ford are split up, Dawkins said neither of them have thought about it but they’ll be prepared if it happens. Dawkins added that not a lot of people are aware of what he can bring to the table.
We haven’t really thought about it, but I also know if it were to happen, we’ll both be ready. I mean, Tez just showed last week that he can handle it. You know what I’m saying? I’m not shying away from it. It’ll be a fun little contest. It’ll be a fun little time. We’ll still support each other, no matter what.
Not a lot of people know what I can bring to the table. I’m the powerhouse of the team. So like not many people have seen me really move. I don’t really need to fly because I got the flyer next to me. You know what I’m saying? I got Tez with me. So my job is just to go out there and run people over and knock them down and throw them and all that types of stuff. And I let him handle the high-flying stuff. So, if it ever happens to where we’re on different brands, I think I got a different side that nobody’s ever seen of me before to show.
** Rick Bassman welcomed John Layfield onto his Talking Tough show. Layfield looked back on his WWE Title reign and ultimately dropping the title to John Cena. Layfield said he would not have enjoyed the reign as much if it happened early in his career and added that he was happy knowing he lost the belt to Cena.
I had a championship run. At the time, it was a record-length run and it came really late in my career and I thought that my career was over. I had two hernia surgeries, I had a torn bicep, I had all kinds of injuries. I thought my career was over and at the last minute, I had to come back and wrestle and they ended up putting the championship on me for quite some time and that run to me was so unexpected. If I would have had it when I was 23, 24, 25, I’m not sure I would have enjoyed it as much because I was 40 I think it was and I was old for a first time champion and I just enjoyed every second of it. I mean it was so much fun and I remember when John Cena came along and just the joy of helping a young guy that I knew was gonna be the guy. I didn’t know he’d be the guy that did all the movies and 16-time world champion but I knew he was gonna be the guy and I knew my job was to make him as good as possible by making myself the bad guy as much as possible and I remember that day when I walked out of the Staples Center at WrestleMania [21] when he had won the title from me and he’s now the guy and I said, ‘That’s cool. I’m done. I’ve had it’ and that was really a cool feeling to kind of think, ‘You know what? That was a good way to walk out.’
He would not mind taking on an on-screen managerial role in WWE, but feels that him being taller than a lot of the wrestlers prevents an opportunity as such from coming forward.
You know, I’d love to be. The only problem with being a manager is I’m 6’6 and that’s tough because I’m so much taller than a lot of the wrestlers. Not that they’re even shorter than they were but you know, it’s hard for tall managers because you want a short manager that makes their guy look really big. When Vince [McMahon] used to interviews, with even Andre The Giant, he would take off his shoes and he’d spread his legs to make himself shorter to make the guys — the interviewers that they have, they’re all small. It’s to make the guys look bigger, so I have a little bit against me with my height.
** At MLW’s Fightland event, Alex Shelley will be competing in the Opera Cup tournament. He chatted with Pro Wrestling Illustrated ahead of his first-round match and said he was first contacted about working with MLW last year.
It’s the right place, right time. They contacted me about a year and a half ago, and it didn’t really work with my schedule because of my career outside of wrestling. But now, it does. On top of that, for me personally, I want to be creatively inspired. I want to be challenged. And I want to be excited about the wrestling I am going to produce. And when I saw the MLW roster, that appealed to me, as well.
Outside of wrestling, Shelley works in physiotherapy. The idea of having another career came into his mind while in TNA and the environment at the time led him to making that decision.
I think it was different for me and for where I fell generationally. I’ve been doing this for 20 years, even though I’m still only in my late-30s. I remember very, very clearly around 2008, in TNA, due to the way the company was structured and how they operated at the time, I remember thinking that I don’t want to do this here forever. I don’t enjoy it. I love wrestling, love it so much, and I’ve given so much to it. But that environment just wasn’t good for younger wrestlers. That’s when I started making a contingency plan, and the obvious answer was to get an education. So, I got my first Bachelor’s degree in 2012. Then, I went to Japan for a little while, and Japan was an amazing experience.
Shelley was asked what keeps him going in wrestling. He said he loves the creativity of it.
Yes it is. It’s very much a love of creativity. But also, wrestling is supposed to be fun. Wrestling is a sport, and what do you do with sports? You play sports! And I was that kid that grew up playing sports. I loved it because I loved helping people, and I loved pushing myself, and loved just being in the moment and feeling that stress—not the bad stress, but the good stress, which is what you feel when you’re in the ring. You almost go into autopilot … And I think that’s the most fun. And to be paid to do that is such an honor, such a privilege. And to be able to use your body and to help other people, I mean, to anyone who has ever spent one minute watching me, thank you so much!
** Rey Mysterio guest appeared on BT Sports’ The Run-In show. Rey spoke about how prior to Dominik Mysterio getting into wrestling, he was feeling like he didn’t have what it took to hang around anymore and once Dominik began training, that passion came right back to Rey.
Oh yes, 1,000 percent yeah [working with Dominik has reignited my passion for wrestling]. It gave it a different meaning to wrestling and to what has been put in front of me, my path, my journey for the 46 years that I’ve been alive in this world, you know, it just gave it a different meaning. At points I remember I would tell my wife, ‘Ah, I don’t know if I have it anymore. I feel beat up, burnt, tired, this aches, this hurts’ and once Dominik started, all of that just kind of just brushed away and I’m a different person now. Every time I step into the ring, I get to enjoy it more. It’s a lot of things that I didn’t enjoy back then. Now I’m taking advantage of all of that.
In several dark matches, Rey, Dominik and John Cena teamed up against Roman Reigns and The Usos (Jimmy & Jey Uso). Rey said John Cena was very helpful to Dominik and gave him a multitude of pointers to integrate into his game.
He [Dominik Mysterio], believe or not, he’s learned so much in the past year that he’s been in the ring. But, the last couple of weeks that we’ve had when we were wrestling The Usos, Roman [Reigns], and John Cena, Dom and myself, he learned so much being in the ring there with Cena. I can only give him so much advice and kind of guide him as much as I can and he’s only gonna listen or take what he wants. It’s very hard for kids to listen to their parents. They’d rather listen to an uncle or somebody else but it’s never the dad so with Dominik, he picked so much up from Cena and just Cena guiding him and helping him out with little details of the match has made such a huge difference so now, based on the couple weeks that we had with John and myself, he’s learning how to pick up those little pointers that Cena gave him.
** Sean ‘X-Pac’ Waltman welcomed Brody King onto his Pro Wrestling 4 Life podcast. Brody discussed the formation of Violence Unlimited (Himself, Tony Deppen, Chris Dickinson & Homicide). Brody pitched the group idea to Ring of Honor but was surprised when they green lit it.
During quarantine, we had the disbanding of Villain Enterprises so I was kind of like, ‘What am I gonna do? How am I gonna stick out and reinvent myself and show that I’m a top player still?’ And that’s when I kind of came up with the Violence Unlimited thing which used to be a tag team I was in on the independents and was just kind of pushing that forward and then I kind of pitched the idea to have this feud with The Foundation to have this like [Antonio] Inoki versus [Giant] Baba, All Japan, New Japan rivalry of we’re fighting for the purity of Ring of Honor and what we feel it is and I kind of pitched them the guys I wanted to be a part of that and they were like, ‘Yeah, let’s do it’ and I was like, ‘… Wait, what? You said yes?’ And I mean, especially having Homicide in there and Chris Dickinson and Tony Deppen. It’s like I kind of got my murderers row of guys I wanted and it was crazy.
** Cody Rhodes told ESPN’s Sportsnation that out of AEW’s recent roster additions (Bryan Danielson, Adam Cole & CM Punk), he is most looking forward to sharing the ring with Cole.
Adam Cole [I’m excited to face the most from the recent signees]. It’s an easy question for me to answer in terms of I feel Adam Cole is very well known by the hardcore wrestling audience and of course fans of The Elite and Bullet Club and that entire portion of this revolution, but I also think most casual fans or lapsed fans or just new fans have only seen just the tip of the iceberg with what he’s capable of. I know Bryan Danielson is one of the best in the world. I know CM Punk, even after a seven-year absence is one of the best in the world. They’re helping pull this wagon and they’ve only been here for a few days. Adam Cole gets to show a whole new audience and gets to interact and create a whole new brand for himself just because now he has such a large platform to do it within AEW. He’s the one I’m most excited about getting in the ring [with], when and if that challenge presents itself.
** Wrestling Inc. pushed out their conversation with EC3 ahead of his Free The Narrative event on FITE. He’ll be facing Adam Scherr, the former Braun Strowman in the main event. EC3 explained the ins and outs of him calling out Scherr for a match and why they’re facing each other.
Whether friend or foe, in The Narrative, you fight because again, the fight isn’t against an opponent in the ring. The fight is against the person inside you, and Adam Scherr is going through an awakening right now. He’s lost everything that has meant something to him. He’s not only lost his cushy job as being a star in a corporate wrestling world, but he’s also lost friends.
He’s lost family along the way, and the only person that’s accountable for that is himself. So in Free The Narrative: The Monster In Us All, Adam Scherr is going to have to confront him himself, the creation that he’s become. He’s not his own man. He was created. He was created in a sports entertainment lab by a mad scientist. He’s Victor Frankenstein’s monster, and to eventually get past that, to move forward with his life and his career, he has to kill what’s been created. He has to kill Braun Strowman. He has to kill the monster. I’m just happy to assist.
** Lulu Pencil spoke to Minoru Suzuki for an interview and Hige Channel has the written version on their site. Minoru was asked about the differences between performing in America and in Japan. He stated that no matter where he goes, his style remains the same and added that he likes to give people what they wouldn’t expect.
No matter where I go, what I do is the same. It’s all about who’s weak and who’s strong. Simple as that, and at the same time, I don’t change (my style) according to the crowd. Showing what the crowds want, that’s boring as hell. Giving them what they wouldn’t expect, now that sh*t [is] interesting.
** During the latest Get Funk’d with Allan ‘Kwee Wee’ Funk show, the former WCW talent told his guest Sonny Oono about the time he was severely hurt at an independent show in Finland. Sonny Siaki broke Funk’s jaw, nose, orbital socket and more.
I don’t know if you [Sonny Onoo] know. I was in Helsinki, Finland wrestling, I don’t know if you remember Elix Skipper? He was on Team Canada and Sonny Siaki was in the [WCW] Power Plant but he didn’t last very long with us on TV. He kind of quit because he thought he could go to WWE, which didn’t work out for him so, but he ended up smashing my face over in Helsinki, Finland in a match and it almost killed me. I was over in a hospital for three weeks. I had a broken orbital socket, nose, I was bleeding. Broke both my eardrums, my jaw so that’s when I was going to Japan so I had to quit going to Japan because I couldn’t do anything. So I was out for about a year. A year to the day that I went back to Japan and I only wrestled a couple more times and then, I don’t even know why they quit using me. They stopped using a lot of the American guys at that time.
** Taylor Wilde’s latest podcast episode was dedicated to the late Shannon ‘Daffney’ Spruill.
** The following video is from Shayna Baszler’s YouTube channel:
** Carlito joined Mickie James, Lisa Marie Varon and SoCal Val on GAW TV.
** ROH Women’s World Champion Rok-C appeared on Wrestling Observer Live.
** Jessica McKay and Cassie Lee brought Robbie Eagles onto their ‘Off Her Chops’ podcast.
** Angelo Dawkins spoke to FOX 56 to promote WWE’s SmackDown event on 10/29.
** The newest edition of Goldberg’s CarCast podcast.
** Kayla Braxton was a guest on Steven’s Wrestling Journey.
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.
