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.
** The trio formerly known as ‘Undisputed ERA’ (Adam Cole, Kyle O’Reilly & Bobby Fish) have reunited in All Elite Wrestling. Cole talked to Renee Paquette and Miesha Tate on their SiriusXM show about the group being back together in another company. Cole said it’s hard to believe but also not hard to believe because he and O’Reilly have worked with one another in the same companies dating back to 2009.
You know what’s crazy? To say this is like yes and no [could he have imagined Undisputed ERA reuniting in AEW]. The reason ‘no’ is because again, you think about all the stuff that we did for those four years in NXT and how awesome that time was together with those guys and I thought, ‘Okay, cool. We had that moment together and that was a really, really fun time period.’ Now imagining doing that elsewhere is really surreal to think. But at the same time, I have not-not worked in the same company as Kyle O’Reilly since 2009. So — literally since 2009. I started wrestling in 2008. Me and him have worked together, either against each other as opponents or as a group or a tag team since 2009 so that small period where Kyle was not in AEW, that was the only three or four months or whatever where I hadn’t been in the same company as Kyle. So it feels right at the same — at this point, I’m just convinced that wherever Kyle is, I’m gonna end up — yeah, it’s just meant to be. So, to answer the question, yes, it’s beyond cool. I love Kyle O’Reilly to death.
While further discussing Kyle O’Reilly, Cole made it clear that he did not want to sway Kyle’s decision when he was a free agent. He was there for Kyle as a soundboard and knew O’Reilly would make the best choice for him and his family.
Yeah, well Kyle [O’Reilly’s] a great guy and it’s a big reason I love him so much so, and Kyle had a very similar story to me in that he had a wonderful experience at NXT. He has nothing bad to say about anybody there. He had a great time, he grew a lot as a wrestler, just like I grew a lot as a wrestler in my time there so he was weighing the pros and cons and kind of thinking like, ‘What would be good for me? What would be best for me?’ And I kind of let him make his own decision because the last thing I wanted to do in any way shape or form was try to talk him into doing something, because Kyle’s very good at making the right call and making the right decision and I knew he was gonna do what was best for him and his family and as he was weighing the options out and we were talking, again, I was just there kind of as a soundboard and Kyle just decided on his own what we wanted to do and I think he made the right call and I’m very excited he’s here.
** A new episode of ‘Casual Conversations with The Classic’ was pushed out featuring Malakai Black. When asked about the end goal for his character, Malakai said his plan is to be beaten by an individual who is not yet known. Malakai wants to take the 20-plus years that he’s invested into his character and use that to propel said individual.
My final thing, my absolute final thing, I want to be positioned in a way that when this individual who is obviously not known at the moment, beats me, it’s like, ‘Oh wow, he beat Malakai. Damn.’ It’s like, ‘Yes, that’s a big deal’ and I wanna do it in a certain way where it means something to this person. I don’t wanna just throw it away. I don’t wanna just — yeah [fade away or vanish] but — and it’s also not a — I don’t believe in retirement stuff. When I’m done, I’m done. I’m not a big, ‘Oh, let’s do this whole retirement tour and wave goodbye. Oh my God, see you.’ That’s just not me. Also, it wouldn’t fit what I do. But I want it to have purpose. At the end of it, I want the current 20-something years that I’ve been doing this — let’s say I can go another ten years and at the end of the ten years, the 30-plus years that I’ve invested, I give that to someone else and it means something to that person and it helps that person to propel and it, you know, makes sure that the individual that we pass all this stuff onto carries that and makes the business better. As long as I can leave the business knowing that I did something good or that I made it better, you know, or I tried making it better, that’s what it eventually all comes down to because let’s face it, no one — the business owes no one. The business will be fine with me, without me. You can take one of the biggest stars of wrestling nowadays and take him out of it and the business is still going to be fine because it’s an always rotating wheel of people coming in and out and no one — no one’s above the business really, you know, when it comes to strictly professional wrestling. Sure there’s people that have transcended like, you know, Dwayne [Johnson] and Steve Austin and stuff, Dave [Bautista] and [John] Cena. They’ve transcended the business, but you know, even when they transcended, the business was fine because the next person was already in line, you know? And that’s just how that goes and I just wanna make sure that when I’ve done my small part in this business that whoever I give that to has a nice setup for the next thing, for this person to kind of like build his own path and hopefully get a boost off of that. Who knows? You know, we don’t know where I’m gonna be at that moment but I hope that I’m positioned in a way that the win or the story or the setup is built in a way that it benefits this person.
He touched on the singles match and post-match moment he had with Dante Martin. He knew he was going to give the head nod to Martin ahead of time and was aware that by him acknowledging that Martin gave him a fight, it would not be bad if he lost the match.
For instance, when I had the match with Dante [Martin], you know, I already knew ahead of time that what I did at the end would be beneficial for him and also, I knew that him not being able to beat me wasn’t necessarily a bad thing for him because of it. If I can… what’s the word? If I can acknowledge that this kid gave me a run for my money without being compromised, then that helps him. You can put someone over without them beating you, you know? And it’s all because of the way the character was built and it was almost out of — it wasn’t out of character but it was something that people wouldn’t expect within the boundaries of this character for Malakai to do something like this, right? For me to do that.
Malakai reflected on his AEW debut from this past July. He expressed that not many people were aware and detailed the days and moments leading up to it. He stated that Tony Schaivone was informed about his arrival five minutes before the debut segment took place.
Yeah, I thought about that one for a while [his AEW debut]. I just knew that I could sell Tony [Khan] on it and it’s also a reason why we waited so long to really have a conversation because obviously, contractually I wasn’t allowed to talk to Tony. There was conversations between agents and lawyers and stuff but me and Tony are not allowed to discuss any of these things until my contract is over, right? But, that worked to my advantage because I had one moment and one moment only to convince Tony of the idea that I had and Tony just loved the whole idea. They were in Miami and apparently that building [James L. Knight Center] has blackouts. Like legit blackouts so, they — he was like, ‘Dude, that’s so perfect that you wanna do that because’ and then he started talking about the building because he was sold and it allows us to, you know, keep it in because I don’t care what anyone says, no one knew that I was coming. My contract wasn’t made until literally — almost the day of. It was the day before but it was later in the day so I don’t care what anyone says, saying that like I came to AEW, it was all — no, it was not in the cards at all. All of this was decided two days and then the day later, my contract and all that stuff was — that afternoon, my agent went in hard. They had a long conversation, but we needed to get it done because I couldn’t appear otherwise. So, the good thing is like I said, it allowed us to keep it minimal. The day I came in, I was in a hotel room the entire day. No one really knew that I was there apart from a handful of people. I wouldn’t even say a handful of people. Tony Schiavone wasn’t even told until like five minutes before he went out. They didn’t tell him anything so, and then when it was about time, I walked through the locker room and everybody just went [points at him] and then everybody goes, ‘Oh sh*t, he’s here’ and then, ‘Oh, what the f*ck is gonna happen?’ And then we did it and the reaction was just phenomenal because it was — it’s definitely been one of my absolute favorite moments of 2021 because it’s also like I was benched at that point for like eight, nine months just sitting at home, writing, creating stuff and you know, I had an inkling of hope when they started rolling the vignettes on SmackDown and you know, kicking Big E in the face and like yeah, we were supposed to start and then it just obviously got, you know, story is known. So it was such a full circle moment and a funny thing is actually, the day after me and Big E talked about it, for a little bit because it was just funny how in that time frame where he was going and then later on when he won the championship, we talked again. It was just like, ‘Isn’t it wild how like within the span of two months, our entire careers have just taken a 180?’ Because even back then, he was like, ‘I don’t know what’s going on. I don’t know what’s going on.’ We all felt that so it was fun to do that and I was really happy and the response was great and you know, I’m looking forward to what we’re doing now and yeah man, it’s been a wild 2021.
Malakai has established his ‘Blxckmass Clothing’ brand. The idea to start something of his own came to mind while he was in NXT. There was workshop held during which talents were told that a career as a pro wrestler will not last forever, so start forming something that they’d like to do or pursue outside of the career field they’re in.
So about five, four, five years ago, in NXT, they told us that they wanted us to create branding. They set up workshops which is really good because they said very realistically, very sober minded and something that I also, as I’m speaking, wanna put in the minds of like perhaps younger wrestlers or even not even younger wrestlers, maybe people, right? This, being a pro wrestler, working in WWE, working in AEW, working in perhaps IMPACT or New Japan or other places that allow you to create and you know, make a good living off of wrestling, it will end one day. That is the harsh reality of everything and that’s okay, you know? But there is a life after you being a professional wrestler and that’s what they said too and I’ve always agreed with that because I’ve always been mortally aware of the fact that this is not a permanent gig, you know what I mean? So I was always busy. I’m always busy putting money aside, I’m a big saver but you know, it takes more than just saving money, right? You wanna have something that in case everything goes to sh*t, you wanna have something to fall back on and that was the perfect time for me to start something that I wanted to do and they really helped [with] putting some thoughts in my head as to what kind of project could I do and it’s at the same time that Bobby Schubenski of Blackcraft Cult reached out to me who is nowadays, one of my closest friends and he’s been like a mentor to me because that dude is so business savvy. I’ve learned so much from him.
** The latest guests on Renee Paquette’s Oral Sessions podcast were Killer Kross and Scarlett Bordeaux. It was previously confirmed that Kross landed a movie role and he shared more information about it during the chat with Renee. He’ll be playing the role of an underground fighter and Scarlett is in the film as well.
Kross: Basically, the people who have known me for a while, people who have been fans of my work, they were pretty blown away about the stuff that was, you know, coming out publicly about the [WWE] release and stuff like that. They were also pretty excited and had basically just reached out and were like, ‘We would love to get you in this thing.’ I’m not sure how much I can talk about it but I think it’s okay for me to say that I’m gonna be playing an underground fighter in a very bad town. It’ll be very violent but it’ll also be a little bit of a dark comedy so…
Bordeaux: I have a very small role in it but I’m in it as well.
As Kross’ main roster stint got underway, he began to sport a harness-like chest piece to the ring. When Kross was first informed about the change of his character, he laughed while showing Scarlett Bordeaux the image. Kross said he went along with it because he did not want to be labeled as ‘difficult to work with’.
Kross: I got an email with like the — what it was supposed to look like [character change] and apparently the music was supposed to change, the entrance was supposed to change and this was supposed to be like an enhanced standard version.
Bordeaux: Evolving. Evolving something that was already good to something different and better and you know, just different.
Kross: And so when I saw it, the picture of it, I showed to her, we were sitting on the couch and I just started laughing and I said, ‘I could get comfortable wearing this but this is not gonna get over in 2021.’
Bordeaux: And it’s confusing too because it’s like why is the music I’m singing, it’s still there? And then there’s a mask there but there’s no explanation so sometimes if there’s [something explained] why all of a sudden you put a mask on, why is Scarlett still singing? But when there’s no explanation, people feel like they’ve had something taken away versus if there would even have [been] a new song and a whole new presentation, people are [like], ‘Okay, this is new’ but I just felt like [that was] maybe [a lesser] version than what it was.
Kross: I look at it like this: Nobody wants the reputation of being difficult to work with. Nobody wants the reputation of being a mark for themselves, for not wanting to do business and here I am. I, for me personally, had the dream experience at NXT. I walked in there, my ideas were embraced, we collectively collaborated on stuff.
Early in their conversation, Kross explained that there was a sense of relief when he was let go from WWE. There was also a sense of disappointment as Kross felt there was a chance for things to be salvaged.
It was unusual but to be honest with you, I kind of felt like it was coming [WWE release]. I mean, I felt like the situation could have been recovered with like the presentation on main roster, you know what I mean? I felt like it could have been recovered. It’s fiction, so like in a world of fiction, the possibilities are endless but I was like, yeah, I had a weird feeling that night. Just on the debut, I kind of feel like this is the direction it’s going in so, there was like a sense of disappointment but it was also like a sense of like relief as well because you know, as an artist, imagine if you’re a comedian, for anyone who’s listening who’s maybe not exactly a wrestling fan or hasn’t done wrestling. You go on stage and right as they’re about to drop your name in front of the crowd, the, you know, person who owns the night club is like, ‘Hey, you can’t use your best jokes by the way so go knock it out of the park’ and it’s like what!?
** Colt Cabana guest appeared on ‘Into The Danger Zone with Chris Denker’ and stated that he has booked himself an acting role. Cabana was unsure if he could speak in-depth about the role as of the podcast recording.
I do some acting on the side too. I’m actually — eventually, I will — I booked myself a big role and I’m very excited about it but that will come out. I can’t talk about it, I know. I don’t think I can talk about it.
Cabana is a member of AEW’s Dark Order faction. He hopes that by the time himself, Stu Grayson and Evil Uno hit the tail end of their careers that the younger members of Dark Order will be big stars within AEW.
So I think that’s part of the fun thing too is when me and Stu [Grayson] and [Evil] Uno are kind of finishing up with our careers, we hope that 5 [Alan Angels] and 10 [Preston Vance], you know, will be at a point where they’ll be big enough stars and they’ll have enough and hopefully, us, as some of the veterans of Dark Order will have given them enough confidence and advice and allowed themselves to be themselves enough and they feel comfortable in it that they’ll be able to become huge stars with AEW.
The late Tracy Smothers became a talking point during the conversation. Cabana said Fuego Del Sol reminds him of Tracy because of the positivity that Fuego likes to show towards others.
I’m 41 now and I’m still wrestling at a very high level so, he [Tracy Smothers] was four years younger and he was wrestling at a very high level but had so much knowledge and had been around and he just wanted to give to everybody. He wanted everyone to be better, he wanted a good scene, he wanted good people. You know, he had some demons and he did some stuff but like, even so, his positivity — I was watching Fuego on the internet today and just how — screaming positivity — Fuego Del Sol and I feel like Fuego Del Sol has a little bit of Tracy Smothers in him, which is funny. I think they’re both, you know, Fuego’s from Alabama and Tracy’s from the south too, you know? So…
** Maven, Gene Snitsky and Nunzio (Little Guido) partook in a virtual signing for 80’s Wrestling. Maven told the story of when he wrestled CM Punk in a dark match prior to Monday Night Raw. After the match, Maven relayed to John Laurinaitis that something is wrong if Punk isn’t hired.
Maven: During one of my times as Hardcore Champion, Johnny Ace comes up to me and he’s like, ‘Maven, I know you’re wrestling tonight. I need a guy tonight to do a dark match with this guy named CM Punk. Can you give me six minutes?’ And I’m like, ‘God dammit Johnny. Do I –’ I didn’t want to. If I was on Raw, I wanted to devote everything to that, you know? I was like, ‘Is he okay?’ And he’s like, ‘You’re gonna be fine.’ Come to find out, I go out there, I go back behind the curtain and Johnny’s like, ‘How was it?’ I’m like, ‘If you don’t hire him, something’s wrong. I don’t know what you’re looking for.’ He was pretty good.
In 2002, Nunzio joined WWE and kicked off a six-year run with the company. After ECW closed, Nunzio had been in contact with Paul Heyman and Heyman told Nunzio that he would get him a job with WWE. It did not happen immediately, but Heyman was able to get Nunzio a tryout which led to him being signed.
Nunzio: After ECW closed down, Paul Heyman, as we all know, he went to WWE and whatever happened with all that and he kept in touch with me and he was always like, ‘I’m gonna help you out. I’m gonna get you a job with WWE. I’m gonna get you in, get you in’ and it took a long time because WCW closed down, ECW closed down so a lot of big names f*cking floating around that they had to sign first and I wasn’t one of them. So after like a year, I was trying to keep in touch with him and you know, he was like, ‘I’m gonna get you in, I’m gonna get you in’ and then kind of like gave up, and then about two years later or a year-and-a-half later, I get a phone call from Paul and he’s like, ‘Congratulations’ and I haven’t talked to Paul in a year. So I’m like, ‘Well…’ ‘I told you I’d get you in’ and I’m like, ‘What are you talking about?’ ‘I told you I’d get you a job.’ I’m like, ‘Okay.’ ‘John Laurinaitis will be calling you.’ He goes, ‘Don’t say I called you. He’s gonna be calling you.’ So I’m like, ‘Okay. I’ll talk to you later.’ So I go inside and I tell my wife, ‘Paul just called me. He tells me I have a job. I have no idea what he’s talking about, you know?’ So a couple days later, John Laurinaitis calls me up and he’s goes, ‘Hey, we wanna bring you in for a tryout.’ So I said, ‘Okay.’ I didn’t tell him Paul called me. He told me not to say anything and then he goes, ‘How’s your schedule? What are you doing?’ At the time I was working for Snapple and stuff. He’s like, ‘When can you get off?’ ‘I gotta give a couple weeks notice to the people’ and he said, ‘Okay.’ I said, ‘I’ll let you know,’ and they flew me into Texas and I did Amarillo and I did Dallas. Those two TVs, I worked with Funaki one night and as weird as it is, I worked with [Johnny] Stamboli one night too and not knowing I was gonna tag with him. I do the two days, second night, Paul comes up to me, he goes, ‘Did anybody talk to you?’ I’m like, ‘No.’ He was like, ‘Give me a minute.’ Ten minutes later, John comes over to me — no, J.R. comes over to me because at that time, they were grooming Johnny for his job and he goes, ‘Go talk to John Laurinaitis. He wants to talk to you’ and he offered me a contract, right there. So I think I had the job, but they didn’t want me to — Paul already… and do my two matches, two shows or whatever I did.
Gene Snitsky had a storyline with Glenn ‘Kane’ Jacobs and he feels had it not been for Jacobs being patient and helping him with the fine tunings of his character, he would not be where he is.
Snitsky: And I’d like to second that [Triple H made things easier in the ring] but I’d also like to mention Glenn [Jacobs], Kane, that was my big storyline. Dude, he made it so easy for a new guy to walk in and become like the biggest heel in the company at the time. He literally like — just, you know, ‘Do this, do that’ and like helped me with all the little fine tunings of the character and the actual storyline because let’s face it, if it wasn’t for him, I wouldn’t be here because he could’ve said, ‘Snitsky’s the sh*ts. I don’t wanna work with him’ and I would’ve never been sitting here talking to you guys and I would’ve never graced you with my presence, you would have never got to see this amazing beard in person. So, you can thank Glenn for that.
The Major Wrestling Figure Podcast crew and Maven have collaborated on several occasions. While doing a toy drive, Maven asked Brian Myers would he ever go back to WWE if they asked him to return. Myers did not want to say ‘never’ but he doesn’t think he would go back.
Maven: We [Maven, Matt Cardona & Brian Myers] did a toy drive for the holidays last week and I asked — I probably shouldn’t say this but I asked Brian, I was like, ‘Would you go back if they asked you to right now?’ And he was like, ‘I don’t wanna say never, but probably not.’
Maven talked about earning the respect of fellow talents in the locker room. He recounted Hardcore Holly being upset with him because he did not hit Holly in the ring the same way Holly was hitting him.
Maven: The way I earned respect was I think I had Bob Holly [Hardcore Holly] for probably three or four weeks of house shows. I kept my mouth shut, I did what Bob said, I came back, I thanked him, I hugged him. I never b*tched, I never moaned, I never complained. He did [chop me hard] and you know what? Here’s the craziest thing: You wanna know what Bob got mad at me [for]? I didn’t hit him hard enough back. He got mad that I didn’t hit him, because I’m out there, you know, obviously I don’t wanna — I don’t wanna hit him hard. He’s like, ‘Lay it into me brother.’ He’s like, ‘I’m gonna hit you. Hit me back.’
** During episode 45 of MC! True Long Island Story, Matt Cardona recounted Dolph Ziggler not being too excited about dropping the United States Title to him at WWE TLC 2011.
I remember finding out I was gonna go over that day [at TLC 2011]. I was very excited. [Dolph] Ziggler, I don’t think Ziggler was too excited about it. I mean who — I [think he] thought, ‘Oh, this is fun. You know, I’m doing this feud with my friend. Oh, I’m losing?’ I tell this story all the time: My family, they know we’re buddies so they’re like, ‘Oh, was he happy for you?’ I’m like, ‘Well… Eh…’ But no, I’m just kidding. Well I’m not kidding but I’m kidding.
** Jushin Thunder Liger’s latest blog was published to Tokyo Sports. He wrote about Katsuyori Shibata’s upcoming Catch Wrestling match on night one of Wrestle Kingdom 16. He said he has high hopes for Shibata but is admittedly concerned about Shibata’s well being.
Of course I have high hopes for you. That’s why there was such a [big reaction] when he announced his return. However, I don’t want to just let go and be happy, but I also need to look at the reality. You haven’t fought for about five years. You haven’t fought for about five years, and you’ve had serious injuries and a lot of time off. The reality is that things don’t always go as planned. I think it’s probably better to be too nervous about that.
** After being out of action since March of 2021 with a shoulder injury, Go Shiozaki returned to Pro Wrestling NOAH in November and had his first match back earlier this month. Proresu TODAY caught up with Go and spoke to him about his comeback. There was a point during rehabilitation when Go wondered if he’d be able to come back from his injury.
At that point, I already felt impatient and wondered if I would ever be able to come back. I became impatient. At that time, I had a chance to go to Mr. Kobashi’s gym. I met Mr. Kobashi and asked him, ‘How are you doing?’ He said, ‘Well, don’t be in a hurry.’ He said, ‘You have to take a break now, but you should take a break when you can, and when you can move and train, you should do it to the best of your ability.’ Then he said, ‘The worst thing that can happen is if you rush to move it, it will get worse again.’ It was a natural thing to say, but when he said, ‘I’ve been doing that for a while, and I’ve had some pain again,’ it was really persuasive. It was something that just sunk in. That kind of thing eased my impatience and all that.
He was asked how he’s feeling physically and responded by saying he is 100 percent recovered.
I’d say I’m 100% recovered. From here, I’m trying to make it 100%, 120%, 150%, 200%.
** IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champion Tiger Mask was interviewed by NJPW to discuss he and Robbie Eagles’ title defense on night two of Wrestle Kingdom 16. Tiger Mask recounted his initial impression of Eagles when he first came to New Japan and Tiger admitted that he was not impressed.
When he first came to Japan, me and Liger teamed up, and Liger was defeated by Robbie. At the time, he was still small and wasn’t that impressive. However, as I continued to work with him, I learned his highflyer moves, plus his kicks, and I realized again that he had solid skills.
Tiger Mask joked that he and Rocky Romero should have teamed up and Rocky could have brought back the ‘Black Tiger’ character.
But I also think that Rocky should have teamed up with Tiger Mask [as] Black Tiger (laughs). (laughs) Of course, I’m in a formal tag team with Robbie now, but without that, if Rocky became Black Tiger and teamed up with Tiger Mask, I think the fans would be excited, even though it’s not a festival, since this is the 50th anniversary of New Japan Pro Wrestling.
** Darren Paltrowitz pushed out his conversation with JONAH. JONAH shared that Sami Callihan told IMPACT Wrestling Co-Head of Talent Relations D’Lo Brown that he should reach out to JONAH about working with IMPACT.
Yeah, I mean I had friends in the [IMPACT Wrestling] locker room. I think Sami Callihan was sort of big on telling D’Lo Brown to contact me and he was the one that got in touch with me. He’s part of their Talent Relations and sort of scouted me and watched some of my stuff and then presented that to the higher-ups of IMPACT and that’s how it all came to be.
** ‘Wrestling Inside The Ropes’ welcomed Matt Taven onto the show. Taven reflected on his 60-minute draw with Jay Lethal at ROH 17th Anniversary and said it was after that match when he realized he would be competing for the ROH World Title at G1 Supercard in Madison Square Garden.
Honestly, I was on cloud — because, there’s maybe a rough outline but nothing set in stone clearly and honestly, I didn’t know I was gonna be at MSG [G1 Supercard] really until that day [ROH 17th Anniversary] and when we come to the back and I realize like, ‘I’m going to Madison Square Garden,’ you’re like, ‘How does this happen?’ You wanna share that with everyone.
At ROH Glory By Honor night two, Taven was defeated by Vincent in a Steel Cage match. Taven went to bat for Vincent and went against the original finish of the match which would have saw Taven victorious. He explained why it was important to him to make sure Vincent got the win.
[It was important to make sure Vincent got that win] because that’s what other people did for me. You know, that’s what Jay Lethal did for me and I’ll never forget it and when it was time to do that for someone else, I thought that that’s how we do things in Ring of Honor. That’s what made this place so special was that there wasn’t these egos of like, ‘Well oh, I still gotta stay strong.’ It was like, ‘No, we –’ who am I if my opponents aren’t on my level, you know what I mean? Then what am I doing? I’m just kind of patting myself on the back but, I’ll never forget the things that people did for me and I would be nowhere without those things and so, obviously me and Vinny, Vincent, have a past together and I saw him come up and I said this before of like I used to go with Mike [Bennett] to shows when he first got signed to Ring of Honor and I was just trying to get in and then when I was established in Ring of Honor, Vinny would come and try to show his face and get noticed and talk to people and we all come from the same school, from Spike Dudley’s ‘Lock Up’ and it was just one of those things where we had been in the trenches with one another and we knew how good each other were and how much we fought and deserved these spots and it was like, ‘This is how this happens. This is what makes the wrestling world continue to go.’ If you stop that tradition, well then you’re kind of stopping the tradition of this business and it was Vinny’s time. You know, I had-had my moments obviously in the sun and as much as maybe people think I still needed that, ‘Oh, you need to get back on the horse and get back to where you were.’ I was like, ‘I can do that while doing this at the same time.’ You know, I always think of Jeff Hardy saying how, ‘I shine when I sell. When I sell for people, I look good as well because of the way I do it’ and I always kind of have that in my head is like, ‘I can shine in my losses as well.’
** Prior to Jeff Hardy’s release from WWE, he spoke to ‘Metro’ for an interview and the site shared highlights from that conversation. Jeff felt there could be one more Hardy Boyz run and questioned if it would be in WWE or AEW.
I totally think there is [a chance of a Hardy Boyz reunion]. That’s what’s exciting about it – just being honest, will it be in WWE or AEW? I feel like there will be one more [run]. I don’t know that, but it’s like everything I’ve had visions of in wrestling, it’s always happened.
** While speaking to Sportskeeda, Drew McIntyre spoke highly of his WWE ‘Day 1’ opponent, Madcap Moss. McIntyre deemed Moss a “student of the game” and credited him for being attentive and asking questions.
He’s somebody who does ask questions [behind the scenes], got a great attitude, a great work ethic, which does exist now but not as much as it used to, which is a bit disappointing. He does have that work ethic, which is amazing to see.
He does ask questions, he wants to get better, and I can just think of something recently where he was just full of questions. And I was really in a hurry to get somewhere, but I was so impressed he had so many questions…. He’s got the right attitude. He’s a student of the game.
** Tokyo Sports has highlights on their site from Kazuchika Okada’s ‘talk session’ to commemorate the publication of his book. Okada shared his thoughts about the health struggles that Antonio Inoki has dealt with. He hopes that Inoki can be present when New Japan Pro-Wrestling celebrates their 50-year anniversary. He jokingly added that he wouldn’t mind slapping Inoki to cheer him up, which is a nod to Inoki’s Bom-Ba-Ye show two decades ago when people lined up to get slapped by him.
I think Inoki-san was the same when he was active, but I think the audience came to him because of his weakness. I’ve seen him fighting his illness on TV, but everyone cheered him on. I’m sure they’ve received the power of Inoki-san’s message to show us his good health again, so I’m sure they’ll be cheered up. I’m sure he’ll be energized. I’m sure he’ll be energized and can do anything. Next year will be the 50th anniversary of New Japan Pro Wrestling, so I hope you can come to the venue again. I don’t mind if I slap him to cheer him up.
** World of STARDOM Champion Utami Hayashishita sat down with ‘Sports Graphic Number’ ahead of STARDOM’s 12/29 show at Ryōgoku Sumo Hall. Utami feels that she is out of her father’s shadow. Hayashishita’s father is Kiyoshi Hayashishita, who starred in the reality TV series ‘Big Daddy’ which focused on his family.
I’ve already surpassed my father on my own. At first I was concerned about it, but I don’t feel as conscious of my father’s existence as I used to. ‘Oh, she’s my daughter.’ ‘Father? Oh, it’s Kiyoshi.’
Utami also has a goal of breaking Io Shirai’s record for the most consecutive World of STARDOM Title defenses which stands at 14.
** WWE’s Reggie was interviewed by ‘Metro’.
** R-Truth appeared on The Ryan Show.
** Nikki and Brie Bella welcomed Bryan Danielson onto their podcast.
** The following is from New Japan Pro-Wrestling’s YouTube channel:
** Us Magazine’s feature about WWE’s Bianca Belair.
** Daily Star published the written version of their interview with JONAH.
** To promote WrestleMania 38, Drew McIntyre spoke to Texomashomepage.com.
** ‘Border Shutdown Redux’ episode of Tama Tonga’s ‘Tama’s Island’ podcast.
** Shakiel Mahjouri conducted an interview with Liv Morgan ahead of her Raw Women’s Title match at WWE ‘Day 1’.
** GHC Heavyweight Champion Katsuhiko Nakajima was interviewed by Proresu TODAY.
** Sports Illustrated has a feature story about Matt Hardy’s new podcast that is launching January 7th.
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.
