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.
** Thunder Rosa went live on her YouTube channel for a Q&A and shared that she and El Editor, videographer, writer and podcaster, are in the process of putting together a short film.
Rosa: So yeah, we’re gonna do – he [El Editor] is writing a short film for me. I’m gonna come here [Monterrey, Mexico] when I — tape it here. So, we’ll be doing Indiegogo in the next couple of months because it’s gonna be self-funded. Again, a lot of the projects that we’re doing are self-funded because as you guys see, this year, I focused a lot more in the last month-and-a-half on YouTube and content creation. But next year, we really, really want to make sure we do other stuff for you guys to see another side of Thunder Rosa.
El Editor added that the film is going to be somewhat of an origin story but will also spotlight the stories of women in Mexico. He described it as an action-drama. Rosa said El Editor is to credit for some of her recent wrestling-related vignettes.
El Editor: Right now, I’m writing a short film for Thunder Rosa to start and… it’s kind of like an origin story but at the same time, it’s going to address a lot of the things that have happened — well in your life but as well as the life of many women, and Mexican women and how there’s sometimes some of them don’t make it so, we’re going to address that and it’s gonna be action, but it’s also gonna be a little bit of a drama so, we’re gonna have — we’re gonna see Thunder Rosa cry a little bit. Hopefully I can coach her to [cry].
So, what we’re trying to do is, you know, make the Thunder Rosa [name] branch into other media. The short film, we will try to make it so that it will become a feature length. Just try to make it really fast pace and entertaining for you guys so, we will start a — what it’s called? An Indiegogo you said?… Yeah so, we’re gonna start with that. That’s gonna be — for the next year, we’re also gonna make some vignettes that I think you guys are going to enjoy just to make sure that everybody knows [Thunder Rosa] is La Mera Mera.
Rosa: Exactly. Just like the promo that you guys saw at GCW, he was the mind behind that and we’re doing a lot of collaboration together so this is El Editor that you guys see. [The] person that is writing all the little comments there, he’s the one. He’s one who’s in charge of doing all the videos and that’s why the videos have come with such more quality and they make more sense so again, yeah.
** Episode 101 of D-Von Dudley’s Table Talk podcast is up on his YouTube channel. D-Von stated that he would like to either wrestle alongside his sons Terrence and Terrell or be their on-screen manager. D-Von wouldn’t mind either of those happening under the WWE banner but does not think Vince McMahon would allow it to happen.
Well, I’m gonna say this: I think at 49 years of age, you know, Vince McMahon’s philosophy is that I’m too old to be back in that ring, nor does he want to see me in there so I mean would I? That was the one thing I always said: If I was gonna come back and risk my back, it would be with my boys. I would definitely do that with them but, I just don’t see it happening on a WWE level, just for the simple fact as you know, I’m 49 years old and things like that, I think Vince doesn’t — wouldn’t wanna see me back on his TV again, not in that type of role.
Oh, manage? Absolutely. You know, take a bump here and there because I’ve done something to cheat the other team? Yes, I could see myself doing that if Vince would allow me to, if my sons ever came to the company, it would be nice, you know, to be able to be on the road with them and doing that. But, I don’t know. I don’t see it happening. People say, ‘Oh, maybe if you put it out there, maybe it will manifest and put it out there.’ I can but I also know Vince. I just don’t think that would ever happen.
D-Von also shared his thoughts about the passing of James Guffey (Jimmy Rave). D-Von worked alongside Guffey in TNA and although they were not close, D-Von said James was a nice person and they would laugh together when D-Von told James to slow down in the ring because D-Von couldn’t keep up with his speed.
Well yeah, I mean in TNA [I worked with Jimmy Rave]. You know, we did a couple of things together. Not much, but we did a few things and he was a nice guy. You know, never had any issues, bad issues with him. Whenever we were in the ring together, he was a little faster. He was one of those guys that were a little fast in the ring so, I used to tell him, ‘Kid, slow down, slow down. I’m old, I’m gonna blow up, stop’ and he would laugh about it but, I didn’t know him that well but I knew him well enough to be able to talk about him and be able to say he was a nice guy, you know? He was fighting demons, just like a lot of us do in this business and some of us conquer ‘em and get rid of ‘em and some of us don’t, you know? And it was the unfortunate that Jimmy Rave passed and he was still battling his demons so, I wish his family nothing but the best and my condolences go out to his family and I’m not sure if he was married or had any kids but, you know, my condolences go out to his wife and kids if he did and his friends and just, it’s a sad day in the wrestling world to have lost someone that had made a name for himself in the business so, it’s one of those things you don’t ever want to hear, you know, the passing but it’s life and things happen but when you’re that young, mhm.
** Kevin Eck welcomed Ring of Honor C.O.O. Joe Koff onto the ROHStrong Podcast. Koff spoke highly of ROH booker Delirious (Hunter Johnston) and his ability to piece a show together. Koff said the reason Delirious has been in the position he’s been in for so long is because they share the same vision and he knows what Koff is looking for.
I know he [Delirious] doesn’t like to hear about this and I’m not gonna spend a lot of time because anything I would say here, I’ve already said to him personally. He has been a remarkable partner for me. He is one of the smartest minds in the business and he’d probably be one of the smartest minds in any business, because he’s a good thinker, he’s a good critical thinker. He’s emotionally non-emotional. He understands what is supposed to happen in the ring because you know, he wrestles or he wrestled in his past and sometimes still wrestles. He knows what’s going on, he knows what it’s supposed to feel like. He’s not someone who’s asking anyone to do anything he hasn’t done himself and that to me is very pivotal in my leadership team. I want people who are followed because they believe in what they believe in. You know, and Hunter is a classic example of that. Somebody told me and I never even knew this was a statistic; I mean I guess there’s a wrestling Elias Sports Bureau-type thing but someone told me he’s like the longest continuous booker of any promotion and I guess he is. I would never even think of it and I would never even use that as a benchmark for anything. The reason he is that is because he knows what I’m looking for and he knows how to execute that. It’s his vision, it’s my vision, it’s our vision. I’m not gonna tell him who should be in what match.
Koff explained how a conversation with the late Mike Graham changed his approach to the wrestling business. From that conversation, Koff learned that he should focus on the business side of wrestling and when he began working with Delirious, he told him that he would never tell him who should win or lose a match and who should be in certain spots on the roster.
But when I put together the thing of Battle of the Belts, I was working with of course Wahoo McDaniel at the time who was the booker in that territory. Mike Graham, who’s the son of Eddie Graham, The Fabulous Eddie Graham who created Championship Wrestling from Florida and I used to watch wrestling in the 50s and 60s as a part of The Fabulous Graham Brothers, him and Dr. Jerry and you know, Mike was saying, ‘I understand your concept, I really like it. We’re gonna only have championship battles’ and he said, ‘Give me an idea of who you think should be in some of these matches’ and of course I had Ric Flair against Wahoo McDaniel because I just thought that would be an unbelievable match which it was but I’m not gonna throw out the name so I don’t wanna — the name’s not important but his comment was — because he was somewhat of a gimmick wrestler and I liked his gimmick, and I said to Mike, I mentioned this wrestler’s name and Mike said to me, ‘Nobody’s interested in that for this kind of caliber match. You’re not understanding what you’re trying to put forth, because you don’t have that feel for it yet.’ He didn’t say ‘ever’, he just said ‘yet’ and I looked at him and I thanked him. I said, ‘You just taught me a very valuable lesson.’ Everyone wants to be the booker. We see this online all the time and you know what? I think there’s gonna be an opportunity down the road where we can have the fans being the bookers which we’ve [ROH] tried it. We’ve done shows like that in Columbus and you know, those shows where we’ve actually asked the fans to put together the matches and the fans today are much smarter and really — they’re smarter than the fans were in 1984 and if I’m insulting anybody from 1984, I don’t mean to. That doesn’t mean you weren’t an unbelievably ardent wrestling follower. Everybody’s smarter with technology and facts and figures and analytics and stuff like that. But when Mike Graham told me that, I said, ‘Your role in this business is to be in the business of wrestling. Not to be in the wrestling business.’ The wrestling business is special, it takes a special mind, it takes special understanding of the guys and what they have to do and what they go through and you know what? How would I know? I was a salesman at a television station who just loved wrestling, and I learned it from Mike and when I met Hunter [Delirious] for the first time, I said to him, ‘I’m never gonna tell you what I — I’ll give you what I think, I will give you suggestions but I will never tell you who should win and who shouldn’t win and who should be there and who shouldn’t either’ and that’s how I worked with Hunter all this time.
** The latest guest on Ryan Satin’s ‘Out of Character’ podcast was Happy Corbin. As their conversation rolled on, Corbin admitted that he was hesitant and still is at times about being in a tag team. He listed several ways that a team can have a downward trajectory because of one person. Corbin said he is still looking out for himself but does enjoy having Madcap Moss with him on-screen and wants to help him achieve success in WWE.
It was brought to me [pairing with Madcap Moss]. It was brought to me for sure and it’s funny because I’ve kind of always been like an anti-tag, anti-teammate, anti, I just wanna be on my own. Yeah [a lone wolf] and that’s really true to kind of my life in general. I have a small core group of friends that are really good friends. I played football but like, it’s a real feeling. In college, we lost the National Championship game and one of our receivers was like, ‘If you wanna win, throw me the ball.’ Four seconds left, quarterback hits him dead in the numbers, he drops the ball and we lost the National Title and I’m going, ‘I did everything I could to win that game and he cost me that win’ and I think that-that has kind of brought me into a little bit of this. I wanna be responsible for me. I don’t want anyone else responsible for me whether it’d be a tag partner and it’s not just that kind of stuff but it’s how many times have you seen a tag team and one of the guys gets injured so now this guy’s off television and it’s hard to get restarted? Or, you know, I’m not a babysitter. We’re all adults here so, if I’m with a tag partner or somebody in my corner and they go and do something stupid and now it’s all over social media, it reflects on me so I’ve always kind of been anti-that and they did The Knights of The Lone Wolf and we saw how that went. It obviously did not go as planned and then they brought Madcap to me and they said, ‘This is where we’re gonna go’ and you know, he’s another college football player, he’s a guy who wants to succeed in this business, he carries himself extremely well so I was like, ‘This is one that could work’ and it’s not reliant on like a tag team. We are gonna have tag matches, we’re gonna be individuals. I think he elevates me, adds a layer and I elevate him and I think Vince [McMahon] has a vision of now bringing guys in and when you put ‘em with someone who’s established, it helps them. It doesn’t put them on an island like, ‘Okay, here’s day one’ and we all know the funny thing; you’re either gonna work Dolph Ziggler or me or whatever and these guys are gonna help you and then after that it’s like, ‘Well where do you go?’ And a lot of guys struggle with that point so this is a new way. They’re bringing Ridge Holland and he’s working with Sheamus a little bit, they got [Rick] Boogs with Shinsuke [Nakamura] and I think it’s a new, really good way to kind of bring guys up from NXT to the main roster and they’re not just swimming on their own. It automatically elevates you when you’re in the ring with someone established.
So having Madcap with me, I love it, he’s funny, he’s hardworking. I trust him not to go out and do something stupid because he’s a level-headed guy and I think it’s gonna give him wheels to be successful. I know he was up with the Underground Raw stuff and a little bit with the 24[/7 Title] and he kind of struggled and this has put him on a different level I think and that’s what’s important to me and the whole premise behind what we do is to help elevate other guys, to bring other guys up, to make new superstars, to have guys to compete against, to really just — the more superstars we have, the more guys we elevate, the more people wanna come watch our show, the more competition there is and that’s a good thing so, I love it and again, I was against it for nine years and now, I’m going, ‘Okay.’ I’ve dipped my foot in. I’m like, ‘We’re doing okay’ but if something were to happen, it’s not one that can bring me down so it’s kind of a selfish thing to say but, at the end of the day, I’m putting food on the table for my family and this is what provides that money for the food so I’m looking out for myself.
Corbin’s work as a heel over the years became a focus point during their discussion. He recounted Matt Hardy and Seth Rollins respectively telling him that he does a good job as a heel and he made their jobs as babyfaces easier.
The people I look up to, when they’re like, ‘Dude, you’re doing a good job’ or they pull you aside. You know, I’ll never forget, Matt Hardy pulled me aside one time on a Europe tour and he was like, ‘Dude, I just wanna say thank you.’ He’s like, ‘I don’t think people appreciate what you do’ and Seth Rollins has done the same thing and told me, ‘You work really hard to be a bad guy and it makes my job easier’ and like so when you get that appreciation, especially from guys you’re working with on a regular basis then that’s the adoration, the gratitude that I appreciate so all the other stuff is just noise.
Corbin sports pants when he wrestles. That stems from his former head trainer at FCW telling him that his legs were too distracting for him to wear trunks. Corbin has worn pants in his matches ever since.
My legs haven’t felt that breeze in a WWE arena ever and so I wore trunks one time when I first started in developmental and I wore trunks. One of the guys — I didn’t have trunks yet. I had ‘em made and I put trunks on and went like this [stuck his leg out] and there was no way those trunks were going in public because they did not cover everything. So I was like, ‘I have a show tonight.’ It was like one of those shows with just — it was a Wednesday night show when we were FCW when it was like 25 people and I was like, ‘I don’t have anything to wear’ and Memo Montenegro, another talent, who’s Alberto Del Rio’s brother, he’s like, ‘I have some of my brother’s trunks. See if they fit’ so I wore some of his trunks for the first show ever and I got back and the head trainer was like, ‘That doesn’t work.’ I was like, ‘What do you mean?’ He’s like, ‘Your legs are white and tattooed and distracting’ because my thighs are covered and he’s like, ‘You gotta go pants’ and so that was the first time I’ve worn shorts on television [recent episode of SmackDown]. It’s just really funny.
** Ring of Honor commentator Ian Riccaboni and former ROH owner Cary Silkin pushed out a new episode of their ‘Last Stop Penn Station’ podcast. Silkin and Riccaboni recapped Final Battle and shared their favorite memories from the show. Silkin enjoyed the tributes from the former ROH talents and thinks it “sucks” that WWE talents couldn’t send in videos. Silkin did speak to the likes of Kyle O’Reilly and The Young Bucks about the show.
Silkin: I’m sorry, you know what really sucks? Although — Adam Pearce made a really nice tribute and even a YouTube video but, and he’s — you know, WWE doesn’t allow these guys to do that and you know, so at the show, if you saw the show… I was wondering about [Colt] Cabana.
But yeah, if you haven’t seen the broadcast yet, there’s some very nice tributes from Bryan Danielson, Eddie Edwards, CM Punk, Adam Page, Adam Cole, Jimmy Jacobs, always a princess, and The [Young] Bucks.
You know, guys like Kevin Steen, Kevin Owens [helped shape Ring of Honor]
You know how rare it is to get a phone call anymore? I got some nice phone calls from — I got one from Cabana, I got one from Kyle O’Reilly and who else? Someone else in there, couple other in there and I got a bunch of messages from The Bucks, they watched the show. Jimmy Jacobs, number of people. It was also nice to see Prince Nana, who by the way, it was cool that he was on AEW. Good for Nana.
One of the stand-out matches for Cary Silkin at Final Battle was Shane Taylor versus Kenny King. Cary thinks that match was difficult to follow and it put the Women’s World Title match in a tough spot.
Silkin: I would have never, ever expected — I knew it would be good, but you know what I’m gonna say, right? Kenny King and Shane Taylor. Those guys tore it down and they’re not known — they can go [despite that match type not being their style]. Man, they were fantastic. It was wonderful. There was only one problem with it though, nobody could follow it. So, it took the wind out of the sails because the girls title match was next, and it was fantastic but on the entrance, I felt bad for Willow [Nightingale] and Rok-C because Rok-C eventually was like, you know, ‘Come on people!’
Riccaboni chimed in and said the situation began to sink in for him when he received an entrance and an abundance of cheers during the pre-show. Ian compared what he felt at Final Battle to what he felt when ROH and NJPW ran Madison Square Garden.
Riccaboni: I got an entrance also [during the Final Battle pre-show]. That was the first time I ever — it clicked for me what was happening when people were very excited to see me because normally it’s usually polite, ‘Hey Ian. Yeah Ian!’ You hear like one of two people, ‘Ian.’ They were ruckus for everybody, not just myself and I took a couple steps out to the stage and I almost started to go down the stairs and got [a] kind of jolt. I had a physical reaction to what was happening and that was something I won’t forget. That was the first time I’ve ever been overcome. I think I was, you know, at The Garden, I was trying to take it in but I was also nervous. I was also, you know, that was the big one and by now, two years later, it’s almost three, I don’t wanna say it’s old hat to call an event but, you know, the different types of gravity hits you in different ways so…
** Fresno State University basketball players Hayley and Hanna Cavinder are a part of WWE’s inaugural NIL class. The duo was profiled by TIME Magazine and Hayley said she and her sister did not grow up wanting to be wrestlers and this opportunity fell into their laps. She feels the sport is right up their alleys because of the entertainment aspect.
Hayley: We definitely didn’t grow up wanting to become wrestlers. It just kind of happened. It’s right up our alley because it is entertainment. And that’s what Hanna and I do on the side.
Paul ‘Triple H’ Levesque was interviewed for the piece and expressed that WWE can amplify Hayley and Hanna’s respective and collective brands along with their charisma.
Levesque: In today’s world, somebody like the Cavinder twins who are already out there showing that they are pretty much larger than life and creating brands on their own, those are people that are interesting to us. They clearly have the personality and clearly are smart enough to figure out how to manipulate that charisma to make something of themselves. We can amplify that.
** BT Sport pushed out their conversation with Liv Morgan. She was asked to recount the first time she noticed that the crowd was fully behind her this year and Liv pinpointed the lead-up to Money In The Bank. It was then when she realized people wanted to see her reach that next level of success in WWE.
I think leading up to Money In The Bank. I think that was the first time I really was just like, ‘Woah. They’re here with me. They are wanting this for me.’ It was like very one specific moment. It was a [SmackDown] and it was during a commercial break. I cut a promo to the crowd just talking about Money In The Bank and how this is, you know, finally my time and I’m ready and then they just broke out into, ‘You deserve it’ chants and it just filled my whole entire heart. In that moment, I just was like, ‘They’re on this journey with me,’ you know? They’re here and they’re wanting this. It was that very moment where I just was like, ‘Wow.’
Gosh. No. No, I haven’t figured anything out [Morgan laughed]. No, I just honestly — I just try to be myself and I just try to do what feels right and I love the fans so much, I love to relate to them, I love to let them know that you know, I listen to them, I also watch them and I think we have kind of just developed this organic relationship, you know? They’ve seen me grow. I’ve been in the WWE since I was 20 years old, I’m 27 now. You know, they just have seen me progress and so, I feel like they just feel like they have been on this journey with me which they totally have. I wouldn’t be where I am if it wasn’t for them.
** Stephanie Hardy of the Hardy Wrestling Podcast welcomed AEW’s Aubrey Edwards onto the show. While listing some of her favorite wrestlers, Aubrey included Sonny Kiss on that list and heaped praise onto Sonny for her in-ring style and contributions to changing how people view professional wrestling.
I really think — I’ll put Sonny Kiss in this conversation as well because Sonny Kiss has done so much for gender representation, being a non-binary individual but also being authentically herself and just her style is so different. It’s very rhythmic, gymnastic, dancery but also you get like the little bits of Sonny in there with a twerk every now and then thrown in. But Sonny will also punch you in the face that you’re just like, ‘Oh my God’ and you’re knocked on your ass. So I think having that juxtaposition of like a beautiful badass as she calls herself I think is great and I think what she’s doing now is doing a lot to change how people view wrestling.
** NXT 2.0’s Bron Breakker chatted with Quetzalli Bulnes on El Brunch de WWE. Breakker feels he’s not portraying a character on TV and is just being himself.
You know, it’s kind of who I am. I’m not really… you know I’m not really — I don’t have a character that’s per se that I’m portraying or anything. It’s just me, it’s who I am. I have an old school mentality. I think it’s just how I was raised and being in sports my whole life. You know, I think that’s got a lot to do with it for sure.
** Tokyo Sports ran a story about 79-year-old Great Kojika (Shinya Koshika), who has been a co-holder of the Niigata Tag Team Championships since December 2020. Kojika is the founder of Big Japan Pro Wrestling.
** SmackDown’s Xia Li spoke to ‘Character Media’ for an interview.
** Episode 286 of Being The Elite:
** Matt Hardy spoke to ‘Essentially Sports’.
** Kurt Angle was a guest on the K100 with Konnan and Disco.
** Slam Wrestling published their interview with Matt Cardona.
** ROH Pure Champion Josh Woods appeared on Wrestling Observer Live.
** Shinya Hashimoto vs. Riki Choshu for the IWGP Heavyweight Title at the Tokyo Dome in 1997:
** Brian Myers joined Doc Gallows and Karl Anderson on their Talk’n Shop podcast.
** Daily Record caught up with Drew McIntyre.
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.
