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.
** Hannibal TV conducted an interview with Ricky Banderas a.k.a. Mil Muertes. Banderas has participated in multiple WWE tryouts and it was his dream to join the company. Although he was not able to reach that goal, he said Lucha Underground filled that void for him.
For the people who don’t know, I was doing tryouts in 2000, 2002, 2006, 2009, 2010 to [get to] WWE and finally, you know, I just.. I just, like, go ahead. Maybe this is not my future or I don’t know. Always something happens. But, I was always trying to get to WWE, always, always. That was my big dream to get to WWE. But, something happens, [in] comes Lucha Underground. So when Lucha Underground comes, that’s — that was my dream come true, being in the States and now people know who Ricky Banderas [is] like Mil Muertes.
He was later asked if he thinks there’s a chance he’ll ever work in AEW. Banderas responded by stating that he is not sure because he’s under contract to MLW. He added that he would be open to competing for AEW in the future.
Man, I can’t tell you [if I’ll work with AEW]. I’m just — I’m here [in MLW], you know? And maybe in the future, who knows? I would like to work with them, you know? Something different but the thing is right now, I’m under contract with MLW so, before when I was a free agent in the States, yeah, I was definitely interested to work with them but they got a lot of talent, they got a lot of talent. A lot, a lot, a lot. So, who knows?
From 2007-2008, Banderas was with IMPACT Wrestling. The same month that his debut aired on TV, he became the first-ever AAA Mega Champion. According to Banderas, IMPACT wanted him to sign a multi-year deal, but he had to give up being Mega Champion. He was not willing to do so and departed IMPACT the following year.
[I left TNA] because I was the first champion, first [Mega] champion of AAA. They wanted a contract for three years in TNA but for me to come to TNA, I had to drop the belt and for me, being the first foreigner to have the belt of AAA, the first one so, I just made the decision that maybe it’s not professional dropping the belt and then coming to TNA. I said to Jeff Jarrett for that time, ‘Hey Jeff, I’m sorry. I know you want me to be here. I’d love to be here but I have the belt of AAA and dropping the belt and coming to you so for me, [it’s] not professional. So maybe we wait some time and we can do it in the future and this, for me, is my decision.’ [He] said, ‘Oh. Thank you and I’m glad you have that decision. That’s professional.’ So that’s why I just left TNA because I was — my run in TNA was for like one year and they wanted to sign me for two or three years in TNA.
** During her latest Facebook gaming stream, Ronda Rousey was asked if she’ll be with WWE past WrestleMania 38. She stated that she will be around for a while, adding that is she is going to be with the company until she and Travis Browne are ready to bring another child into the world.
Yes, I am staying [in WWE after WrestleMania 38]. I’ll be staying for a while. I just had a baby. I’m not ready to have another one yet so, I’ll be staying around ‘till we’re ready for number two, or four.
** Inside The Ropes caught up with Eddie Kingston for an interview. Kingston gave his thoughts about Cody Rhodes’ exit from AEW. Kingston is of the mindset that if someone is not happy or satisfied where they are, they should go elsewhere and he wishes Cody the best.
Uh, no [I was not surprised when I heard Cody Rhodes was leaving AEW]. When I heard the news, I said, ‘Okay, cool.’ I’m not — I understand this business man, you know what I mean? And I’m a firm believer in if you’re not happy somewhere, go somewhere else, and he — whatever he plans on doing, good for him. I wish him luck. I have no problems with Cody, I never had any problems with Cody. I liked fighting him [Eddie laughed]. But other than that, I had no problems with him and I — whatever he wants to do, that’s his life. Everybody has their opinions but at the end of the day, our opinions don’t matter with him because he has to do what’s right for him. So, if he feels like not being at AEW is right for him, hey, good luck brother. Do your thing. I gotta worry about me.
** EC3 and The Narrator (Jedediah Koszewski) went live on the Control Your Narrative YouTube channel. EC3 addressed if their promotion will introduce championships and here was his response:
EC3: I want to create something that’s worth fighting for and every wrestling promotion; televised, untelevised, independent has a champion. What are you really the champion of? You’re the champion of the local V.F.W. Are you the champion of this respected brand? There’s only so many world champions before the term dilutes itself and it isn’t as meaningful. So, everyone can have the championships, they can have their world championships and their Intercontinental and the United States and like, but not everybody gets a title either. Not everyone gets a trophy. So will there be championships within the Narrative? As we evolve into the future, perhaps but right now, what are you gonna be the champion of? The South Side Music Hall? You’re gonna be the champion of the abandoned warehouse we shot that [Free The Narrative] in? You’re gonna be champion of the barn we’re gonna run in Indiana?
At the time of the recording, Koszewski stated that they were in pre-production for ‘Free The Narrative 3’ and are hoping to release it by April or May. He then broke down their programming format which includes seasons, ‘awakenings’ and live events.
Koszewski: We are in pre-production for ‘Free The Narrative 3’. We are going into that production. It’s going to be at a secret time in a secret location real soon. Hopefully we’ll have it out in late April or May. That’s what we’re discussing with our network right now. At that point, ‘Free The Narrative’ will end as a trilogy. We will have an end to that. At that point, we then will go, okay…
We’re gonna go seasonal with eight to ten episodes and you know, maybe be able to do two, three seasons a year so there will be downtime which we will be filtering it with live events. Live events will be filmed as ‘awakenings.’ ‘Awakenings’ will be network specials, so we’ll be able to take all the content on the road and all the really cool matchups that we’ll do as live events, give them to you on the network. That’s kind of what we’re discussing and how the model’s evolving and you know, then hopefully take this sh*t internationally.
It was shared that they are putting together a documentary about Control Your Narrative and how it came to be.
Koszewski: That will probably be in the Control Your Narrative documentary that we’re working on. It’s another thing, yeah. We’re gonna put out a documentary about how this all happened and you know, how it started as a movement and it started as one man being released on a certain day and just giving up a moniker of being ‘Top One Percent’ and actually finding who he is in reality and it’s been quite the ride since.
** Back in September 2021, Tony Khan offered Lee Moriarty an AEW contract. Lee was the latest guest on the AEW Unrestricted podcast and laid out the road that he traveled which led him to signing with AEW.
That was a wild 24 hours. So the week before, I had wrestled in Chicago with AEW leading into the All Out weekend and I got the message to come out that Sunday before that week from Christopher Daniels so at like 10 o’clock at night, I was coming home from my three-day road show and I got this message and I was like is this really Christopher Daniels or this a fake email? And I read it and I remember because I had to work probably all five days that week so I had to figure out something. I end up using my last vacation week going out to Chicago for like four days. I wrestled Joey Janela on that Dark and then, I got home a few days later from the weekend. Literally, I think 4:30 in the morning on that Wednesday, before the match against [Daniel] Garcia, I had a text from Shawn Dean and QT [Marshall] and they’re like, ‘Hey, can you make it out to Cincinnati?’ Which is four-and-a-half hours from Pittsburgh. Thankfully, I had to wake up to go to the restroom or else I might not have seen that message. So I just got up and just drove straight out and I made it just in time for the call time and I’m wrestling Garcia who is someone I’ve wrestled a few times on the independents and he — he and I — I feel like those are my two biggest rivals on the independents coming up. So, getting to have that match against him on Elevation, then that moment after when Tony Khan offers me a contract which was very genuine. Like I didn’t know that was happening; was really, really cool.
** Mark Andrews welcomed Drew McIntyre onto his ‘My Love Letter to Wrestling’ podcast. McIntyre touched on the passing of Adrian ‘Lionheart’ McCallum, who died in June of 2019.
And we had that conversation [McIntyre & ICW promoter Mark Dallas discussed their future goals] and look at us now and just some of the lads within ICW, especially because I’ve known them for so long and you know, he’s not with us now but I always throw Adrian in there as well, ‘Lionheart’. You know, he was doing some great things and I wish we knew what was going on with him at the time because he was gonna continue to do great things and it’s a shame, obviously what happened and none of us will understand. That’s why myself, yourself [Mark Andrews], everyone that knew him are probably such big advocates for mental health now because you never know that somebody’s struggling until it’s too late a lot of the time but he was one of the pioneers as well.
** The Players’ Tribune published a piece that was written by Sting. He deep dove into his past addiction vice and how he became trapped after taking one painkiller to help him sleep better. Here’s an excerpt from the article:
I tried so hard to be home as much as humanly possible. I’d leave the house for the road at the last possible minute, but, obviously, the strain on my family was very real. I was juggling a lot – trying to be a father and trying to be Sting at the same time – and for some reason, around ’96, I really wasn’t sleeping well. Maybe four hours a night. It was starting to take a toll on me, and I had to go overseas for something, and I remember I had this fleeting thought, and that one little thought ended up taking me down the darkest path you could ever imagine…. I thought, Hey, maybe a painkiller would help me pass out.
And the pills were everywhere, back then. Somas, Vicodin, Lortab, muscle relaxers, whatever. They were floating around like candy. You could take them for pain, or to pass out on planes, or just to have a good time. For some reason, they were never my thing. But I just couldn’t sleep, and I had a million things going on, and so I thought…. Hey, what’s the big deal?
So when I got to my hotel room, I took a painkiller and drank two beers, and I slept like a baby for the first time in months.
The thing about painkillers is that they sneak up on you. The feeling you get addicted to is that moment when your head hits the pillow and you don’t have a care in the world. It’s not so much euphoria that you’re chasing. It’s more like peace. At least you think it’s peace. But it’s so, so, so deceptive.
Taking a little pill and a beer or three becomes automatic. You don’t even think about it. And then before you know it, you can’t remember the last night you didn’t take one. So you’re in the hotel bar after the show, and you say to your buddies, ‘No, no, I’m good tonight. I’m taking a break.’
And they look at you like you’re crazy, and they all laugh, and they say, ‘O.K., Stinger, whatever you say, bro. They’re here when you need ’em.’
Then you try to fall asleep, and it feels like your brain has an itch that you can’t scratch. You can’t settle yourself down. You’re restless. Your brain is going a thousand miles an hour. You want one of those pills. Tomorrow, you won’t need it. Tonight though, you’d kill somebody for that little pill. And so you go and get one — just to get you through the night. You drink a glass of wine. You turn on the TV. You nod off watching a movie, and you sleep like a baby.
Now you’re trapped.
** Heading into the Crockett Cup, Nick Aldis chatted with Robbie Fox on My Mom’s Basement to promote the event. Aldis expressed that the NWA is not under the illusion that they are a big-time player in the wrestling space, but he wants the promotion to be like the In-N-Out Burger of wrestling.
Look, the NWA [Aldis smirked], I don’t — you know, we’re not under any illusion that we’re this big player, yeah? Right? Like, we’re — my analogy is always like I want this place to be like the In-N-Out Burger of wrestling where it’s like we ain’t trying to take over the world. We just want — when you have the opportunity to sample the NWA, we want you to be excited about it and to be like, ‘Oh yeah, let’s go. I can’t wait to, you know, get stuck into this. This will be good, this will be quality.’ Do we always hit the mark? No. You know, does anyone always hit the mark? No, but again, that’s where my personal ownership of my stuff comes in because what I can control is that whenever my name is on the marquee in the main event, I want people to be confident that okay, I’m gonna buy this pay-per-view or I’m gonna, in this case now, subscribe to All Access, $4.99 for Christ’s sake. I want people to feel like, ‘Okay. This one’s worth my three hours,’ okay, because I understand it. If you’re gonna take three hours out of your day to watch a wrestling show and I’m on last, I want you to come away from that feeling that-that time was worthwhile, regardless of who I’m in there with and whether I think they’re an asshole or not.
** Ahead of the standard release of WWE 2K22, Creative Director Lynell Jinks and Art Director Christina Diem Pham appeared on the Wrestle Buddies podcast to chat all things 2K22. Jinks discussed how importance it was to create a fresh gaming experience with this latest edition of WWE 2K.
You know, to us, honestly, we tried to do that [create a fresh gaming experience] in 2K20 with the new controls, right? And you know, we remapped a bunch of —
I felt like it was a step in the right direction but it didn’t solve the main issue and to us that was accessibility and fun, right? Where, when you look at, you know, our control scheme in 2K20, even 2K19 and the year before that, you’re like, oh, we have all of these things that we’re asking the users to perform and you know, if you’re a more advanced user and you have the patience to learn those systems without a tutorial, you know, like, good luck and that can hinder the fun factor especially with a reversal stock that if you’re not good at reversals and you keep missing or you use ‘em all and you’re dead at the end of the match and you’re pretty much like, ‘All right, I have no more reversals. This person’s basically gonna hit their finisher and I’m done,’ right? And so, we looked at all of these issues that plagued us in previous iterations and looked at our control scheme and try to figure out what was the best way that we can inject fun, competitiveness and also, intuitive controls that also can be deep and so we looked at not only old wrestling games but just, you know, Batman or Spiderman. Just all these types of games where combat or having multiple actions is associated to multiple different buttons where you have to perform, you know, like climb on a wall or climb on a surface because wrestling is not — people saying, ‘It’s a fighting game.’ It’s not a fighting game. It’s like, there’s so many more variables that we have to take into account like climbing a ladder, climbing a Hell In A Cell, climbing a steel cage, all of these things that wrestling fans have come to know and love. That has to be intuitive for the users to pull off; new users and like I said, just people who are familiar with the product. So, that was our influence and I felt like after iteration and iteration and luckily with the extra time, I felt like we landed on something that is accessible and it doesn’t compromise the depth and it’s fun for everyone.
** Newly crowned IMPACT Knockouts Tag Team Champion Madison Rayne guest appeared on GAW TV. She dove into the evolution of her on-screen character and feels that throughout the years, she’s been able to attach herself to solid wrestlers and add to the presentation to form a team. Rayne feels she has gotten more comfortable as her career progressed.
I don’t know how I do it [evolve as an on-screen character], but I somehow have continued to just find my place and find my comfort zone and I think… I don’t need to, but align myself with all these phenomenal women. Lisa [Marie Varon] and I were a tag team, Gail [Kim] and I were a tag team, now Tenille [Dashwood] and I are a team because, like, these are some badass women and solid wrestlers and I bring a little bit of promo skill to the table so I think that’s been my thing. I just find these really stellar, like five-star performers and I just attach myself to them [Rayne smiled] and it’s kept me in the business for a long time.
You know what? I don’t know how I’ve managed to find a comfort zone within every different era that I’ve been part of and I’m incredibly thankful that I’ve been able to do it and that the — all of the different generations of management at IMPACT Wrestling have given me the opportunity to kind of learn about myself and grow and I loved all of the stuff that I did when I was doing the ‘Killer Queen’ version of me, but it’s weird and I remember Traci Brooks telling me this a long time ago that you’ll be your most comfortable in the ring and in life once you hit those mid-30 years because you know who you are, you’re more secure. Like you’re not walking to the ring second-guessing, putting one foot in front of the other. You just kind of fall into who you are and it works. It just works because you’re comfortable and what you’re doing feels natural and I guess that’s just something that comes with age. I don’t know.
** Prior to AEW Revolution, Powerhouse Hobbs sat down with Jim Varsallone for an interview. He spoke about how being on AEW Dark helped him improve as he got incorporated into the fold of the company.
Well that’s where I got my start, AEW Dark and just working those shows, you still get to work the live crowd. You know, you still get to somewhat be on TV even though it’s on YouTube but you still have to work your cameras. It’s the same thing, just — only difference is it’s, uh, the vibe, for me personally is a little different because it’s not on national television but YouTube is across the world, so it’s maybe somewhat of a different stage but, everything you do on Dark, you can do on national TV.
** While speaking to Ringsiders Wrestling, Charlie Haas shared that he thinks Chad Gable would’ve been a good fit for Team Angle in the early 2000s.
He [Chad Gable] would’ve been great. I would have loved to have him in there with Team Angle. You know, we always — before my brother [Russ Haas] died, Team Angle was supposed to be for four people but yeah, it would’ve been great. I would’ve loved to have him, yeah.
** Former NXT Champion Bron Breakker spoke to Sports Guys Talking Wrestling coming out of NXT Roadblock. Breakker shared the advice that was given to him by his father when he was getting his start in wrestling and said he hopes to impact lives like his was positively impacted when he was growing up.
Um, man he [Rick Steiner] didn’t — there’s — just treat this like you treat any other sport. Just show up to the building, be the hardest worker that you possibly can be. Just be respectful man and treat people with respect and handle this like you handle anything else. Just be a good human being to people, be respectful. You know, that’s what I try to do man. I wanna be a good human being and I wanna be a positive influence and you know, just kind of want to impact people’s lives. Certain guys, when I was kid impacted mine in the business and influenced me to be better in sports or influenced me to be a part of wrestling today and that’s all I’m trying to do.
** Below is the trailer for season two of NBC’s ‘Young Rock’:
Our YOUNG ROCK is back THIS TUESDAY!! 🚨🌺💪🏾@NBC’s BIGGEST COMEDY returns!
My life has been one helluva ride. Grateful to share the lessons I’ve learned with you and your families
🙏🏾👊🏾Mark your 🗓 & let’s have some fun!
SEASON 2 PREMIERE
TUES 8PM on @NBC@SevenBucksProd pic.twitter.com/LyXTRYz33J— Dwayne Johnson (@TheRock) March 10, 2022
** New Japan Pro-Wrestling’s Shingo Takagi and IWGP U.S. Heavyweight Champion SANADA are going to be teaming up with Tatsumi Fujinami on May 12th for Fujinami’s ‘Dradition Pro Wrestling’ promotion.
** The Peacock series ‘WWE EVIL’ will begin streaming on March 24th. John Cena is hosting the program and it is an 8-part docu-series that takes a look into the minds of WWE’s most memorable on-screen antagonists.
** San Antonio Express-News published a feature piece about Thunder Rosa. On the 3/16 episode of Dynamite, Thunder Rosa is challenging Britt Baker for the AEW Women’s World Title in a Steel Cage match. The bout is taking place in San Antonio.
** NJPW New Japan Cup (3/10/22) Kofu, Japan
– DOUKI, Taichi & Zack Sabre Jr. def. Master Wato, Ryusuke Taguchi & Tomoaki Honma
– Hirooki Goto, Kazuchika Okada & YOH def. House Of Torture (Dick Togo, EVIL & SHO)
– United Empire (Aaron Henare, Great-O-Khan & Will Ospreay) def. Los Ingobernables de Japon (BUSHI, SANADA & Shingo Takagi)
– New Japan Cup 2022 Second Round: YOSHI-HASHI def. Kosei Fujita
– New Japan Cup 2022 Second Round: Tetsuya Naito def. Gedo
– New Japan Cup 2022 Second Round: Jeff Cobb def. Satoshi Kojima
– New Japan Cup 2022 Second Round: Hiroshi Tanahashi def. Bad Luck Fale
** The following WWE 2K22 video is from the UpUpDownDown YouTube channel:
** The Briscoes (Mark & Jay Briscoe) appeared on NWA Weekly to discuss the upcoming Crockett Cup tournament.
** Barstool Sports’ Brandon F. Walker spoke with Powerhouse Hobbs.
** Matt Cardona was a featured guest on ‘Podcast: The Ride’.
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.
