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.
** Dave LaGreca and Tommy Dreamer welcomed Bryan Danielson onto Busted Open Radio. During their conversation, Danielson was asked about Ring of Honor’s upcoming hiatus. Firstly, he addressed the real-life ramifications for talents and staff who will no longer have that guaranteed income. He then spoke about his personal connection to Ring of Honor and said he probably wouldn’t be where he is without the company.
I was just sad and especially I guess what the hard part in all of it is I think of the people in the jobs, right? You know what I mean? They’re not gonna do the full-time contracts or anything like that anymore or that sort of thing and then we’re coming — this is coming in a year where it’s like okay, we still got the pandemic going on, we’ve got a lot of people getting cut from the WWE side, you know what I mean? There’s not a ton of full-time jobs out there and you know, people who sign these contracts and they buy houses on these contracts and they think it’s guaranteed money and all that kind of stuff and where that really hits hard for me is like I was fired twice by WWE and it’s funny because both times, I was fired shortly after I had bought a new car and you have to think, none of these are nice cars and they are used cars or whatever, you know what I mean? But like, in both of them, I wasn’t able to pay it off in full but the first time especially in 2001 when I got fired. I had a 350 dollar a month car payment. All of a sudden, that car payment really — I was having to work two jobs between that and insurance and all that kind of stuff. I bought the car with the idea that, ‘Oh, I’m gonna make 500 dollars a week for the next three years’ or whatever it is, you know what I mean? And all of a sudden you don’t have that guaranteed money coming in and you’re trying to find stuff and you don’t have a college education and you’re making 50 to 75 dollars per indie show and whatever it is, you know what I mean? Like, it can put you in a rough spot and especially now, if those contracts are much higher I assume than my developmental stuff and that’s with the Ring of Honor and the WWE cuts, people are buying houses based on that and then all of a sudden they’ve got a mortgage, all that kind of stuff so my first thinking in that is the people. I’m concerned for the people.
Second, there’s just a sadness there of like if it weren’t for Ring of Honor, I probably wouldn’t be where I’m at today because that was the main platform where people got to know me, right? And that was the main platform where I was able to show my ability to wrestle and that kind of stuff and so yeah, you know, it makes me a little bit sad but what I hope is that they’ll come back with a sort of reinvigoration kind of; with a plan and come back and be awesome, you know? Because I think the more awesome wrestling companies there are, the better it is for everybody. I think that’s one of the things that’s been great now is AEW’s been great for wrestling fans but it’s also been great for wrestlers, you know? It’s been great for me to be able to have that kind of choice when my contract was up. I could’ve stayed in WWE or go do something else. So I think yeah, I think it would benefit a lot of people if Ring of Honor were to be able to stick around and then be a great promotion.
On last week’s AEW Dynamite, Danielson had a segment with AEW World Champion Hangman Adam Page. The crowd was mixed on Danielson and he received his fair share of boos. Despite that, Danielson does not think he is a heel.
So I don’t know what people are talking about [saying he’s a heel now]. I thought the people of Virginia were giving me a really tough time and I gave them a little bit of tough time back. I don’t think anything I said was wrong or even mean. To say that, ‘Hey, congratulations Hangman Adam Page. You are the world champion and I’m a little disappointed it’s not Kenny Omega because that’s who I wanted to beat for the AEW World Championship and I’m a little disappointed that you’re not wrestling tonight, that you haven’t been wrestling that much and I’ve been wrestling every single week since I’ve come back, since I’ve come to AEW’ and I don’t think any of that is overtly mean… so yeah, I think because people boo me and I’m not gonna lie, I do enjoy being booed. There’s something just so fun about it. So I might lean into that a little bit more but like, yeah, there’s nothing I said that was wrong or mean or anything like that other than just that now, because of that, I’m probably gonna kick all of his friends’ heads in and I don’t think — but I think I would be doing that anyways so you know, so yeah, I don’t consider it a heel turn. I’m just being me.
Before Danielson was cleared to return to the ring in 2018, he wanted to appear for Tommy Dreamer’s House Of Hardcore promotion and wrestle in a bodysuit but WWE would not allow him to. Both Danielson and Tommy Dreamer recounted this story.
Dreamer: And for everybody listening, I remember I visited WWE. You [Bryan Danielson] hadn’t come back yet and I was talking to then [Director of Talent Relations] Mark Carrano about something and I was just like, ‘Yeah, I need somebody to wrestle’ and he [Bryan] was like, ‘Can I wrestle? Can I do it?’ Right in front of Talent Relations. ‘They won’t let me wrestle, I wanna wrestle.’ He’s like, ‘Hell, I’ll do it under a mask’ and then we talked, you were like, ‘Yeah, I’ll do it. Just get permission from them. I wanna come back and wrestle’ and that was just on my own House Of Hardcore crap, but, right then and there, I was just like, ‘Oof, man. I would love to have that’ but I also knew your heart and your drive where you knew your body, you knew you were coming back and that’s when I was just like, ‘Oh man.’ But he loved the business so much, he just wanted to come wrestle on an indie because WWE wasn’t allowing him too.
Danielson: Yeah, I cannot confirm or deny that I had plans to wrestle under a full body suit on an independent show that they wouldn’t let me wrestle [on] so, I cannot neither confirm or deny that rumor that hasn’t been started by anybody but me but [Bryan laughs] … but yeah, that’s true.
On tonight’s Dynamite in Chicago, Danielson is taking on Colt Cabana. He spoke about their match at Ring of Honor ‘Gut Check’ in ’06 when Danielson separated his shoulder early in the match.
So I don’t know when the last time I wrestled him [Colt Cabana] was. Actually, it was really interesting, we wrestled each other in Chicago and it was an hour draw. This was 2006 [ROH Gut Check] and I don’t think that was the last time we wrestled each other but, that’s the one that’s most memorable to me because I separated my shoulder five minutes into [it] and then we wrestled another 55 minutes. Maybe the worst one-hour draw in the history of wrestling, I don’t know [Danielson laughs]. But yeah, that’s the one I remember.
** Wrestle Kingdom 16 is a three-day event in 2022 and on the third day (January 8th), New Japan Pro-Wrestling and Pro Wrestling NOAH are collaborating to present a NOAH versus NJPW show. Tokyo Sports caught up with Tetsuya Naito to get his thoughts on the announcement. Naito feels that New Japan asked NOAH for help because of how much the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted business. He wishes NJPW took a more dignified stance.
I want to be a driving force for the fans to get up from the Corona disaster through the power of wrestling that will be generated by the interaction. If that’s the case, why haven’t they [NOAH and NJPW] interacted for five years? If they really have such great power, why didn’t they just have them in the World Tag League instead of next year? To me, it looks like New Japan, which is suffering from Corona, asked NOAH for help, and I wish they would have taken a more dignified stance. I wish they would have taken a more dignified stance. They say they’re doing it for the fans, but in the end it looks like they’re doing it for their own organization.
If Naito is going to be on the 1/8 card, he would like to wrestle alongside members of Los Ingobernables de Japon. Naito said this NOAH/NJPW show is attracting more attention than the Tokyo Dome shows.
If I really wanted to do it [compete on the show], I’d say so on a regular basis. If I had to pick one, I’d say… people who only watch NOAH usually come to watch, right? In fact, this tournament is now attracting more attention than the Tokyo Dome (January 4 and 5). I’d like to have a match [with] LIJ there.
The former IWGP Heavyweight Champion thinks the announcement did its job which was to attract attention from all over. He does wish it could have been made after Best of the Super Juniors and World Tag League concluded.
I think it was a good announcement for the pro wrestling world in terms of attracting attention. However, I think it should have been after Best of the Super Juniors and [World Tag League] were over at least. I wish they would have thought more about the timing.
** The latest guest on Freddie Prinze Jr.’s ‘Wrestling with Freddie’ podcast is King Woods. Woods recounted being in WWE developmental and listed off some of the character pitches he had in mind. He was told that he had too many ideas.
Literally every decision that I’ve made in my life was to try to gain a skill that might possibly help me in wrestling and so when I got to the point where I was in developmental, I was like, ‘Cool. Now I need some sort of gimmick. I need something’ so I tried to be the son of Papa Shango. So I was a motivational speaker, I was that 90’s guy so I had a Yak Bak, [Teenage Mutant Ninja] Turtles backpack, I tried to be me essentially. I tried to be a ‘Real American’ with Jack Swagger. I had so many different things to the point where one time I got a review that said I have too many ideas. So in my head — that’s what I said [doesn’t get how having a lot of ideas is a bad thing] and so in my head, I was like, ‘I don’t even understand what that means’ so I would get upset and, ‘Now I’m gonna make more ideas and try to be more creative!’ And I had so many people telling me — I have a list, a legitimate list, [Tyler] Breeze will tell you this, he’s seen this. I have a list of things in developmental that I wanted to do and it’s a list of things people told me I will never be able to do and I’m almost done with it. I’m almost done checking things off of it. It’s disgusting how good it feels and so all of that is why once it got to the point where we could try to create New Day, I had this idea in my head and I don’t know if I ever voiced this to the guys or it was something I was consciously doing but, I quickly realized in trying to figure out how to get our chemistry and in-ring stuff all together and to the point of the chemistry we have now which we were able to get from house shows. We were on house shows like four or five months before we were on TV.
So having that setup helped us a lot and in trying to get our chemistry down, we kind of shed the gimmick because that wasn’t — the gimmick became secondary to our chemistry and then once we realized that, we leaned fully into our chemistry and then it could be literally whatever it wanted to be, you know?
** Lucha Libre Online spoke to referee Mike Chioda at an event in Puerto Rico. Chioda said he’ll only be refereeing for a couple more years and then he’s transitioning to the production side of wrestling.
My passion for refereeing in professional wrestling is still there. So I still have it in my heart and it’s just, nothing much has changed. Like I said, I’m a little bit older but older is wiser so, you know, I have a lot of experience in production and refereeing and I only have a couple more years of refereeing and after refereeing I’ll be just doing production and training referees and so forth.
** Thunder Rosa joined Busted Open Radio and said she would like to share the ring with Ember Moon, who was released from WWE earlier this month. Rosa feels that WWE did not give Ember the platform she deserves.
Ember Moon, I have not had the opportunity to work with her and she’s like one of the Dallas veterans — I mean Texas veterans and she, you know, she worked for so long in NXT and then I don’t think they gave her that platform that she deserves because she’s so good, she’s so underrated. So hopefully I get the opportunity to work with her. It would be a banger. Yeah, she’s really good.
Rosa expressed her gratitude to AEW President Tony Khan for believing in her. She feels that the last two years of her career have been special but she’s going to take it to the next level in 2022.
I just wanna say I’m really thankful that I found somebody like Tony Khan to believe in what I can bring to a company like this. I don’t think that if he didn’t see what my team, my husband, everybody has seen, I wouldn’t be able to be where I’m at right now and I was given so many tools and so many opportunities and such a great platform that I am so blessed I was able to surround myself with positive people that want the best for me and want to see me succeed. So I don’t think I would have done this by myself and again, I’m very, very thankful to the people that are around me, that care for me, that want me to be the best that I can be and 2021 was just a step above 2020 at another level and 2022 is gonna be like — I don’t even have words to describe what 2022 is gonna bring for me and for my career and for my brand so, yeah I’m super happy right now.
** AAA’s Triplemania Regia on 12/4 will air on FITE. Here’s the updated lineup for the show:
- Vacant AAA Mega Championship — Five Way Match: Hijo del Vikingo vs. Jay Lethal vs. Samuray Del Sol vs. TBA vs. TBA
- Cain Velasquez, Psycho Clown & Pagano vs. LA Park, Rey Escorpion & Taurus
- AAA World Tag Team Championship: FTR (Dax Harwood & Cash Wheeler) (c) vs. The Lucha Brothers (Penta El Zero M & Rey Fenix)
- Murder Clown, Monster Clown & Dave the Clown vs. Puma King, Sam Adonis & DMT Azul
- Dragon Lee & Dralistico vs. Laredo Kid & TBA
- Tito Santana, Carta Brava Jr. & Mocho Cota Jr. vs. Abismo Negro Jr., Arez & Psicosis vs. El Cuatrero, Sanson & Forastero
- Marvel Match: Leyenda Americana & Gran Mazo vs. Venenoide & Enganso
- Faby Apache, Lady Shani & Sexy Star II vs. Lady Maravilla, La Hiedra & Flammer
** ROH World Tag Team Champions The OGK (Matt Taven & Mike Bennett) joined the ROHStrong Podcast. While discussing Taven’s feud with Vincent, Mike Bennett shared that Taven fought for Vincent to win their blow off match at Glory By Honor in August.
Bennett: And Matt [Taven] won’t put himself over but I will. Just to play into line what he said when he won the world title and then his next [objective] was to lift Vinny up behind him, he’s not just speaking out of his ass. He’s 100 percent true because he fought for that finish to lose [at ROH Glory By Honor] so he could get Vinny over and he’ll never tell you that but I will because I’ll put him over any day of the week. He fought to make Vinny a made man and people need to know that.
Both Bennett and Taven have been involved in the wrestling business for over a decade respectively. Taven is hoping to one day transition into an agent or office role and knows that is a goal of Mike’s as well.
Taven: I learned so much through being in this wrestling business for the last 13 years that I would love to kind of continue that and work behind the scenes and be helping these guys, whoever’s coming up in the future. Obviously me and Mike [Bennett] have helped train guys in the past but, being agents or being part of the office I think is both of our long-term goals when you are starting to kind of see the fruits of that work, it’s just kind of another thing that’s getting pulled from you right now but I think those experiences that we had here in Ring of Honor will guide us wherever we go next to kind of fulfilling that long-term vision of one day being able to work behind the scenes.
At the last set of ROH TV tapings before Final Battle, multiple talents have said the atmosphere was both upbeat and gloomy at points. Taven credited the ROH women’s division for uplifting everyone at the tapings and bringing a positive vibe.
Taven: I remember walking into the lobby after I flew in and I had been very positive after getting the news [about ROH’s hiatus] and just kind of upbeat and I came in and it was all these sad faces in the lobby, so I’m, you know, immediately just go to the dumbest thing I could think of. I’m like, ‘What’s up sad boys!?’ And I thought that would get a big laugh, oh it did not. It did not. All these guys are uncertain about their future and stuff but the next day [at the ROH TV tapings], the women’s division uplifted the entire locker room because they were so positive and they were just so happy and it really was because Maria [Kanellis-Bennett] and Bobby Cruise had-had a meeting with them and I wasn’t there, I don’t know what was said but whatever was said, it was the right thing, you know? And they had put so much time and effort into that division. I think those girls appreciated everything that they had done and again, I wish they — I wish I knew what went down because the next day, it was like night and day from when people landed in the airport and it really all came from that women’s division really picking up the locker room.
While on the topic of Ring of Honor’s women’s division, Mike Bennett added that there was a monitor sellout backstage for Rok-C and Miranda Alize’s match for the Women’s World Title at Death Before Dishonor.
Bennett: It was a locker room sellout when Miranda [Alize] and Rok-C were in the ring having that match [at Death Before Dishonor] because everyone wanted them to kill it and everyone wanted Maria [Kanellis-Bennett] and Bobby [Cruise’s] vision of women’s wrestling to succeed because as a whole, that made us all better but even more from a personal level, everyone in the locker room likes Maria and likes Bobby, so they wanted to see them succeed and then on another level, everyone knew and started — because they were new, we grew and started to love Miranda and we started to love Rok-C and we welcomed them to our family so then we wanted to see them succeed.
** The main event of WWE’s 2021 Survivor Series saw Universal Champion Roman Reigns defeat WWE Champion Big E. Paul Heyman talked to Sports Illustrated and heaped praise onto Big E, stating that he doesn’t view Sunday as a loss for him and added that Big E is a credit to the lineage of the title he’s holding.
I didn’t see that as a loss for Big E. I saw it as a magnificent victory. Away from The New Day, all on his own, without anyone else in his corner, Big E stood tall and brought the fight to Roman Reigns.
Big E is a credit to the lineage and the history of the WWE championship, from Buddy Rogers to Bruno Sammartino to Pedro Morales to The Rock to ‘Stone Cold’ Steve Austin, Triple H, John Cena and Brock Lesnar. Big E has achieved what so few realized he could. Much like Roman Reigns breaking away from The Shield and standing on his own to become the No. 1 superstar on the brand of SmackDown, Big E has broken away from The New Day and achieved superstar status as the focal point of Monday Night Raw. I’m beyond impressed with the accomplishments of Big E.
** The latest from Hiroshi Tanahashi’s Ace’s HIGH is up on NJPW1972.com. He stated that he would like to see Yujiro Takahashi go on one babyface run. Tanahashi jokingly added that it has nagged him to see Yujiro as a heel for this long.
He’s [Yujiro Takahashi] always been capable of more on his own; it’s nagged at me for a long time. He’s spent so much time as a heel, I think he could have one babyface run in him. Maybe put some long tights on, team with me one time, heh.
** NXT 2.0’s Dante Chen announced that his father passed away on November 8th. POST Wrestling would like to send our condolences to Dante and his family.
** NJPW Best of the Super Juniors Results (11/24) Korakuen Hall
– Kosei Fujita vs. Ryohei Oiwa – Time Limit Draw (10:00)
– Best Of The Super Junior Tournament Match: Master Wato [4] def. Ryusuke Taguchi [4]
– Best Of The Super Junior Tournament Match: YOH [2] def. Robbie Eagles [4]
– Best Of The Super Junior Tournament Match: Yoshinobu Kanemaru [8] def. SHO [8]
– Best Of The Super Junior Tournament Match: El Desperado [5] def. DOUKI [4]
– Best Of The Super Junior Tournament Match: El Phantasmo [4] def. Taiji Ishimori [6]
– Best Of The Super Junior Tournament Match: Hiromu Takashashi [7] def. BUSHI [4]
** Adam Cole vs. Anthony Greene was made official for the 11/30 AEW Dark.
** AEW’s Scorpio Sky appeared on the Lakers Nation podcast.
** ROH World Champion Bandido is scheduled for Jonathan Gresham and Baron Black’s ‘TERMINUS’ debut show on 1/16.
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.
