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.
** At NJPW’s Battle in the Valley show on 11/13, Buddy Matthews will take on Kazuchika Okada. Matthews recently appeared on Wrestling Observer Live and shared that early in his career, he was offered a contract from All Japan Pro Wrestling to come train at their dojo. NOSAWA Rongai put Matthews in contact with then-AJPW President Keiji Muto after their match in 2009.
So in Australia, I wrestled the independents in Australia but it’s so small and so far away that it was just insignificant at the time. But I wrestled NOSAWA [Rongai] from All Japan, the deathmatch wrestler and I wrestled him over in Australia. He came and did like a little tour with a couple other peers. They end up wrestling him and he was super, you know — what’s the word? He enjoyed my work at the time. He enjoyed working with me, thought I had potential so he actually got on the phone to [The Great] Muta while we were in Australia and he put me over to Muta and they were going to give me a contract to stay at their dojo but, I felt like it wasn’t [the] right timing so it’s tough being this little Australian wrestler and being so far away and getting granted an opportunity but just not feeling — it just didn’t feel right and I don’t know why, you know what I mean? I should’ve been grabbing anything that came my way but it just didn’t feel right so I didn’t accept it and it didn’t really get much further than that and then, the one time it did feel right was when there was a tryout announced in Tampa, Florida for WWE and for some reason, I was willing to drop everything for it so, it’s definitely something on my wish list [wrestling in Japan] and on my bucket list to do. I wanna get over to Japan. I’ve been over to Japan and that was literally only for 24 hours. We were doing an NXT tour. It was Japan and then we flew over to Australia. But my opponent didn’t get his Japan visa in time I believe, so he couldn’t get on the plane, meaning I missed out on my match so, the one time I’ve been in Japan, I didn’t get to wrestle there and then — but the culture was awesome so ever since going there just for those 24 hours, it’s been on the bucket list. The people are awesome, the culture was awesome so, definitely wanna get there and perform at some point.
Matthews further explained why he chose to turn down the All Japan opportunity. He feels that if he went that route and failed, it would have destroyed his world. He had a feeling that it was not the right time to make a move like that.
And it was just something that — I knew that wrestling was one of the things that I was good at and I understood it so I didn’t want to fail in something at that point because I feel like that probably — kind of destroyed my world so to speak because the one thing I felt like I was good at and it didn’t go how I visualized it or whatnot then I would’ve felt like the only thing I was good at, I wasn’t good at so, it was just like this thing inside me that just told me, ‘Not yet.’ Maybe that there’s bigger things to come later but it was nerves, me, my own brain — it could have backfired on me terribly but I think just having that self-belief really. I know it sounds cliché but it’s kind of true when it comes to this, you know?
** Ring of Honor’s signing of Kellyanne was formally announced in February 2020. She did not make her debut with the company due to the COVID-19 pandemic and according to Kellyanne, a multitude of miscommunication issues. She sat down with Vince Russo for an interview and said she was going to debut at the ROH 18th Anniversary show, which was cancelled at the start of the pandemic. She was told she would be going to the finals of the initial ROH Women’s World Title tournament and the division was being built around her.
I was signed in 2019 and that was in big thanks to Marty Scurll. If it wasn’t for him, none of us here [in Australia] would have been signed and I remember I got a phone call from Greg [Gilleland] and I was at work and he offered me a deal and I don’t know how much I can talk about it but it wasn’t very good but I did it anyways because it’s the first time, you know? And I was meant to actually debut on their [18th] Anniversary. I was meant to debut, I was meant to win a match, go into the tournament, go against Serena Deeb, into the finals, amazing, right? What [more] could you want?
So 2019, I’m told all this and I keep getting told, ‘This is gonna be massive. We’re building this division around you. It’s going to be huge,’ you know? So I believed it and I remember I signed the contract and as I signed it, something in the back of my head said, ‘This isn’t gonna happen.’ Anyway, not saying I’m a psychic but, three months later the pandemic hit, everything’s cancelled and I’m okay with that because it’s out of my control, right? I can’t do anything.
She was on a per-appearance deal with ROH and since she could not appear, she was not being paid. There were other ROH contracted talents who were overseas that were paid throughout the pandemic.
So it was per appearance [ROH deal], we weren’t getting paid. However, what was kind of awkward and embarrassing is the fact that everyone else that was getting paid by Ring of Honor would make a deal about it because, ‘Oh, we’re getting paid through the pandemic’ and you know, on podcasts, ‘Getting paid.’ So then when I was asked about it, I felt almost pressured because they did pay us once and that was for the events that we were meant to do that we didn’t get to do. So I said, ‘Yeah, they’re looking out for us’ because I don’t want to be the one saying they’re not because then it becomes a thing. So, that felt sh*t then I felt like a loser almost. So, I didn’t like that either.
As time went on, Kellyanne began to write articles for the Ring of Honor website. She was not being paid for it but said when she did not submit the article by a certain day or time, she would get emails about it.
Kevin Eck reached out to me, who was a writer and he said, ‘Look, seen your promos. I think you’d be a good writer. Do you wanna give it a go?’ Boom, gave it a go.
So I was writing for their website, I was doing articles and that took a lot of time. There was no pay, they didn’t offer, which is cool, whatever. But, it took a lot of time and I had a full-time job at that time and if I didn’t have my article in by a certain time or day and keep in mind the time difference, I would get emails about it and that didn’t feel good either.
In early 2020, Marty Scurll re-signed with Ring of Honor and took on the role as a booker in the company. During the summer of 2020, he was named in #SpeakingOut. Ring of Honor and Scurll parted ways this past January. Kellyanne knew that Scurll being named in #SpeakingOut was not good for her, Slex and Adam Brooks because Scurll was the one who recruited them to ROH.
We had no communication at all and the [ROH] Women’s [World Championship] tournament was coming up. Now, just prior to this, SpeakingOut had happened and Marty Scurll was let go. So I knew that-that probably wasn’t good for us because he was the one that was rooting for us. So after that, no communication whatsoever, emails left unanswered.
While speaking about the current women’s wrestling scene, Kellyanne expressed that she feels it is the worst it’s ever been. That was mentioned when she discussed the idea of doing a podcast.
I especially want to talk to women about wrestling at the moment because I think women’s wrestling honestly is at its worst than it’s ever been. I really do and I don’t care how that sounds. I really don’t.
On November 3rd, Kellyanne announced that she is stepping away from in-ring competition but will remain in the wrestling business. She talked about the brain damage she suffered throughout her career that has affected her memory. She also added that she is not big on the direction that wrestling is going in-ring rise.
I know that I’ve done damage to myself because of wrestling. I know that my brain doesn’t think the way it used to and that’s scary because I’m very young. My memory isn’t right, you know? The concussions I’ve had, I shouldn’t have had. So when that happened, I said to my partner, I don’t think I can do this anymore. I don’t want to ever put myself in that position again and I wouldn’t wanna put anyone else in that position. So, I know that I can’t exist in this world, in this wrestling world that is. I know that, like you said [Vince Russo], as a nice person and if you wanna stay true to yourself, you really can’t exist in this and the thing is even if I wanted to, I can’t work with these people. I’ve tried. I’ve tried to plan a match the way [they] plan it and it doesn’t make sense and it feels empty. It doesn’t feel right. I feel like I’m doing a dance or a sequence and I remember when I went to England, I did this show and we had an eight minute match and there was already like 14 matches on it, it’s an all-girls show and I remember I was wrestling this chick and we had very little time to plan it and I kept it very [short] because that’s just how I do it and I was trying to tell some sort of story structure, something. I remember she said, ‘So what other moves do you do?’ And I said, ‘What do you mean?’ She said, ‘Do you have any more moves?’ I’m thinking, ‘What?’ I said, ‘We’ve got six minutes. What do you mean? Do we need — what?’ So I remember I said, ‘I mean, I could do a move I guess,’ and after that experience, I remember I was just like, ‘What is going on? This isn’t what I wanna do because I have seen where wrestling is heading and I specifically told myself, ‘I will never, ever wrestle like that’ because it goes against every fundamental to do with wrestling.
Early on in Kellyanne’s career, it was WWE or bust for her but now, she states that she would never work for WWE. She said she’s been scarred by the company many times.
For me, it was WWE or bust [early in my career] and that was because the product at the time was very good, for me. However, now that I’m older and what I’ve learned, I would never touch that place. I wouldn’t go near it, I really wouldn’t and that was hard for me to accept because when you have one goal in mind and when that gets ripped away from you, when you experience things, you know, it scars you. As you [Vince Russo] said, it really does and I was scarred by WWE many times and I just can’t believe I’m in this position. I can’t believe that I have to reach out to someone to finally feel like I can be heard for the first time, you know? It’s just crazy.
** Chris Jericho invited Jon Moxley onto Talk Is Jericho. The conversation was recorded prior to Moxley entering an alcohol treatment program. Moxley feels like he was the unheralded workhorse in WWE and never received credit for working as hard as he did for the company.
It actually was kind of almost fitting for me [pandemic to start when I’m AEW World Champion], because I almost felt like — I almost felt like I was the perfect guy because to have to kind of carry the torch and take on that responsibility for that period of time and the whole Daily’s Place, wrestling in front of no fans thing because in WWE, I always felt like I was kind of the unheralded workhorse who like kind of kept the lights on and was always the guy who was called to do the hard, crappy jobs and stay and do the dark match and get on — do the first match and get on a plane and literally run to the airport in your gear, get on a little, tiny plane and then go do the main event the next match and [I] feel like I never really got the credit for being as much — working as hard as I did. But I didn’t care. I was just like, ‘Hey, you know, I put my time clock in and I put my hardhat on and I go to work and if you’re paying me, I’m here to do what you need me to do.’
On 11/18, it will have been nine years since The Shield (Roman Reigns, Jon Moxley & Seth Rollins) debuted in WWE. Moxley spoke about the early days of the group and how they were not well received by fellow talents. He added that Chris Jericho was friendly to them.
Yeah, the early days of The Shield were wild man because the company was different, it was a different environment, the locker room was different. You [Chris Jericho] were there so you know, and a lot of people didn’t like us. I remember actually, you were one of the first guys — we did a random ass six-man with you early, early, early. Like we just started wearing the SWAT gear. We were still wearing heavy ass boots and busting people’s lips with ‘em and sh*t. We did like a random six-man with you and Sheamus and somebody or other and afterward, the first time we ever worked together and afterward, you were like, ‘Man you guys are really freaking good. You guys are right there, you’re in the pocket, you guys hit hard. You guys work like Japanese, you can keep the pace up.’ You were like, ‘These guys are freaking good.’ You were like one of the first guys who was like not mad at us for being there. Everybody else was really intimidated by our presence but you were like, ‘Nah, f*ck, these guys are good’ and then it wasn’t long before everybody started to want to work with us because we were having such good matches.
** On 11/4, WWE released a total of 18 wrestlers following their third quarter earnings call. One of those talents was Eva Marie, who was re-introduced on WWE television in June and paired with Doudrop. ‘Metro’ talked to Doudrop about Eva’s release and how helpful Eva was to her throughout this run.
Honestly, I’m absolutely heartbroken because that woman is a big sister to me. Behind the scenes, she is the nicest person you will ever meet… Every single person, she’s got a funny story with them. I just love her so much. I hope it’s not the last we’ve seen of her in WWE, I think she’s amazing. When you see her in real life, you’re like… you’re amazing at being a heel. But time will tell – who knows what will happen in this crazy world?
I feel like everything that has been thrown at me, I’ve knocked out of the park – especially being with Eva. She obviously has been here before so for me it was a bit calming to have someone that had the experience, and who could guide me.
** Chris Van Vliet pushed out his interview with Rob Van Dam. The WWE Hall Of Famer was asked about his relationship with Vince McMahon. RVD recounted former WWE senior director Mark Carrano putting it out there Van Dam was a part of the concussion lawsuit against WWE. Van Dam said that is false and he spoke to McMahon and it was never mentioned.
All along throughout everything, I have kept in touch with Vince [McMahon]. I know we have a good relationship. Specifically when certain things happen, there was something that got thrown around and got back to me that [Mark] Carrano said I was part of the concussion lawsuit against WWE, complete bullsh*t. It seemed in the moment to stop me from doing something I wanted to do. Very shortly around there, I talked to Vince and didn’t mention anything about it. There have been rumors that WWE had told me I could never wrestle for them again because of concussions, most people believed that was true. I don’t usually feel obligated to correct people when they are wrong, because you hear everything. But I have never talked to WWE about any concussions. That was some bullsh*t that someone pulled out of some divorce papers when the evil ex was being real nasty. At the time, she was saying that I was faking double vision, which throughout Headstrong was documented. But to get more money, my ex said I should have been working full time like I did in 2003. So that got out there and people think it is true.
In 2019, Van Dam returned to WWE for their Raw Reunion show while he was signed to IMPACT Wrestling. He thought he was going to do a ‘Five-Star Frog Splash’ in the segment but plans changed last minute.
Paul Heyman reached out to me, I then reached out to Scott D’Amore, and they gave me permission. I’m not afraid to do something that hasn’t been done before. I was hoping I could wrestle too. I was in my gear, I was ready, I thought I was going to run in, do a frog splash and all that stuff. But that all changed at the last second. Then I was like really upset, you get your hopes up and start compromising. But you get it.
Van Dam touched on his relationship with WWE post-Hall Of Fame induction. He does not know what is going to come of it. Recently, he gave his approval to an organization to make an action figure for him and they announced their figure on the same day that Mattel announced Van Dam’s WWE figure. WWE told Van Dam to cancel the other agreement.
I don’t know what will come of the relationship with myself and WWE. Even the merchandise that they make with me, I don’t know about it until it is out. It’s always been that way. Before I started collecting action figures, I used to sign them from the fans. I’m like, ‘Oh, I’ve not seen this one before.’ Now I have to get them all. There’s so many, I am obsessed with something when I get into something. There was a third party conflict though. I gave a third-party permission to make an RVD action figure. They are called Heels and Faces, their work is really good. I didn’t know WWE was doing anything with me, but at the virtual San Diego Comic Con, Heels and Faces made their announcement about my figure. But also Mattel was making an announcement on the same day about an RVD figure, and I had no idea. WWE got a hold of me shortly after and made me cancel the first one. It’s understandable, but I just don’t know. People ask me if I’m going to be in the videogame, I don’t know, I have very little to do with it. They are just using my likeness.
During his most recent run with IMPACT Wrestling, Van Dam said his on-screen presentation with Katie Forbes was inspired by what they were posting on social media. IMPACT saw what they were posting and decided to write it into the script.
That’s what’s funny. When people ask, ‘What happened to RVD?’ I mean it’s not many, but you are not famous if you [don’t] have some haters. So those comments come across, and they stand out because they are different. I’ve definitely been showcasing more ever since I met Katie Forbes. She’s a party girl, she’s fun and she’s awesome. Together, we make such a good couple, because we are open and we are honest as much as we can be. Of course, I have taught her a lot, because I have more life experience than her. But that’s something that’s cool. We went on a Cardi B cruise, Katie loves Cardi B, if you see a Cardi B video you wouldn’t be surprised. This big producer, Q, I think he produces Megan Thee Stallion, he VIP’d me and we hung out in this jacuzzi with all these girls shaking their ass and stuff. We posted a video of that, it went viral. It was then I realized how much of an impact I have on social media. Because then, IMPACT [wrestling] started writing that into the script. Specifically, I’m putting stuff on there which you wouldn’t know unless you follow me on social media. IMPACT must have thought I have a pretty decent following.
** K & S WrestleFest hosted a virtual signing with Shannon Moore. Moore last wrestled for TNA/IMPACT Wrestling in 2012 and said he’d love to go back and work with the talent there.
I would love to go do some stuff on IMPACT at some point. I would love to go back. They got a bunch of good, talented people there right now to rip it up with, you know?
After a stint in IMPACT Wrestling from late 2005 to early 2006, Moore made his return to WWE and brought over his ‘Prince of Punk’ character. He believes Paul Heyman had something to do with the character being scrapped because Heyman had CM Punk for WWE’s ECW. Moore stated that he’s not bothered by it.
Ah, he [Paul Heyman] killed it [Shannon Moore’s Prince of Punk character]. I’m pretty sure that was his plan was to kill off the Prince of Punk thing because — like I was feuding with AJ Styles in TNA and AJ was the main event material at the time so like, you had the Prince of Punk that had already established himself in TNA and then they were getting ready to bring Punk in and you know, that was CM Punk. Yeah, and they wanted to get rid of it but, you know, financially at the time I was going through a divorce and at that point, money talked and I come in, I was hoping they wouldn’t do it but I kind of knew what was happening and obviously they made the right decision though. CM Punk’s one of the biggest stars or the biggest star on the planet right now so, hey, I can’t argue that. Punk’s a star man and ultimately they made the right decision because they made a lot of money with Punk. So, you know, business is business. Gotta separate the personal side of things from the business side of things so I get it and it doesn’t make me mad because I got paid.
Back in the early 2000s, Moore was paired on screen with Matt Hardy while Hardy was doing his ‘Version 1’ character. Shannon shared his thoughts about Hardy being able to reinvent himself consistently.
I think Matt [Hardy’s] great. Matt, he’s — Matt’s great at recreating his character in different ways and it’s cool to see him just do all these different depths of his character and what he’s doing now, it’s awesome man. It’s — you never know, he might need an M’Fer following around one day over there [AEW], right?
While Shannon was with WWE, he worked a program with Brock Lesnar. He said he enjoyed it but it got rough at times because of how physical Lesnar can get, especially when his adrenaline gets going.
It was great. [Brock] Lesnar, he’s a beast man. It was the roughest couple of months of my life working with him. He about killed me, but you know, whenever you’re wrestling a 300-pound mad man and whenever his adrenaline gets going, it’s a — you’re fighting for your life. So, but dude, I have so much respect for him and it was a great time. It was a good program to have and to be able to look back and have those memories working with Brock.
** East Coast Autograph Auctions hosted a virtual signing with Charly Arnolt, the former ‘Charly Caruso’ as the featured guest. She was asked to name some of her favorite talents to interview in WWE and she named Kevin Owens and Chris Jericho. She said the duo would often go off-script and were talented on the microphone.
My favorite person to interview in WWE, this was years ago but this was when [Chris] Jericho and K.O. [Kevin Owens], you know, had their allegiance to each other going still. They were hilarious, oh my God. They killed me every single time and the best part about most of their promos were there would be — [they] have the points that they were supposed to get to but they would usually just go completely off-script and it was just hilarious. They’re both so good on the microphone so, yeah, K.O. and Jericho, best ones.
She discussed her full-time transition from WWE to ESPN. She feels there was a limited capability for her in WWE as a broadcaster but with ESPN, she can continue climbing the proverbial ladder in her field.
So the biggest difference for me from going to WWE to ESPN is where in WWE, I was surrounded by wrestlers. Here, I’m surrounded by broadcasters. ESPN is just — that’s all it is, it’s broadcasters so this really is the place to take the next step in my career. It’s a place where I can really climb the ladder whereas in WWE, I had a limited capability of what I was able to do there as a broadcaster because there’s just limited roles so, that’s it.
** News.com.au published their interview with NXT 2.0’s Xyon Quinn. He discussed the different layers to his character as exhibited this past Tuesday on NXT TV. He said there’s a lot about his character that will be revealed bit by bit.
I’m living the dream. I was singing Shawn Michaels’ ‘Sexy Boy’ in front of probably millions of people viewing it on the television worldwide. So I’m happy.
There’s a lot of stuff about my character that people don’t know yet and that will be revealed soon, just bit by bit. I think Xyon Quinn, it’s the fact that I’ve put that much effort and time into my character where people are starting to appreciate it and be like, ‘Oh OK, there’s more to it’. That’s what I like to do. I don’t like to come out over the top. I like to do my stuff kind of like the dark horse.
** While speaking to WhatCulture, Jeff Jarrett reflected on the likes of AJ Styles, Samoa Joe, Christian Cage and Brian ‘Road Dogg’ James departing TNA to venture into a new company or head back to WWE.
We can clip down talent by talent, but Christian’s a good buddy of mine. With a guy like him, there was no amount of money we could pay him to stay. He wanted to go back. A guy like AJ Styles, he knew he could go make more money. As TNA went along, and I’m talking about from 2002 to 2009 through 2012, he kept getting pay raises and he was building his name. It’s really a plethora of factors that come in, but also, WWE has changed over time. They view things differently. As the TNA story goes, we held onto the talent when our revenues increased and our core of AJ and Samoa Joe and Bobby Roode never left.
AJ went to Japan. He didn’t go from TNA to WWE. Samoa Joe went to NXT. Roode went to NXT. They didn’t depart until, candidly, they had enough of TNA. That homegrown talent never got an opportunity to get on the market. I know there were feelers, but we did everything in our power to hold onto them. Guys like Truth, and he’s timeless, he wanted to go back. Road Dogg was with us for a lot of years and he actually went to India and scouted talent and when he came home, he said, ‘Hey, man, I’m going back. I have an opportunity to make a lot more money.’ It’s on a case-by-case basis.
** Bell To Belles spoke to Tokyo Joshi Pro’s Yuka Sakazaki. Yuka said she wants to return to All Elite Wrestling.
** Recent IMPACT Wrestling signee Masha Slamovich guest appeared on ‘A Wrestling Gal’ podcast.
** Mickie James was a guest on Taylor Wilde’s podcast.
** Fightful’s Jeremy Lambert conducted an interview with Michael Kingston of Headlocked Comics.
** A story about Glenn ‘Kane’ Jacobs.
** Nottingham Post caught up with WWE’s Sheamus.
** Tony Schiavone turned 64-years-old today.
** Damian Priest chatted with ‘Metro’ about his match against T-BAR on the 10/26 WWE Raw.
** The Undertaker was in attendance for the Dallas Cowboys versus Denver Broncos game at AT&T Stadium.
🔔 …. @undertaker is on the sidelines today before the @Dallascowboys – Broncos game 💪
(@WWEonFOX) pic.twitter.com/E33vHc4NdK
— FOX Sports: NFL (@NFLonFOX) November 7, 2021
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.
