If any of the quotes from the following podcasts or video interviews are used, please credit those sources and provide an H/T and link back to POST Wrestling for the transcriptions.
** At the Revolution pay-per-view, Shane ‘Swerve’ Strickland made his AEW debut and on the latest episode of Rampage, he picked up a win over Tony Nese in his in-ring debut. Strickland appeared on ‘Say Less with Kaz, Lowkey and Rosy’ and touched on his arrival to All Elite Wrestling. He was not expecting the entire arena to react to him and only thought certain pockets of the venue would respond.
I expected certain sections [to react during my AEW debut] but not the entire arena. You know, and I was like, ‘All right. Let me play with them. Let me test them real quick.’ I was like — so I just go to the mic, I’m like, ‘Whose house?’ They go, ‘Swerve’s house!’ And I’m like, ‘Oh, okay. It’s real.’
It was like Church. I was like, ‘Ouu!’ It all hit me at one time so I was just like, ‘Oh my God’ and then it got louder the second one. I was like, ‘You know what? I’m gonna ride off with two. I’m gonna let y’all go.’
** The current MLW World Middleweight Champion Myron Reed was interviewed by The Jobber Tears Podcast. He has been a part of MLW since 2018 and shared that it was Shane ‘Swerve’ Strickland who put his name on the line so Myron could get into MLW.
After I reached out to them [MLW], I waited like a few weeks man and I eventually got a — got hit back and they had told me, they was like, ‘Yo –’ because you remember [Shane] Strickland was champion there? Like one of the first ones when they came back. I think he was the first one. This man put in a word for me and he was like, ‘Yo, check that man’s resume. He’s tough’ and pretty much, Strickland helped me get signed on there. It wasn’t even the people that I thought was gonna help me get signed because some of the guys there I believe was working with IMPACT and MLW but it’s just… in this sh*t, you really on your own. You really on your own. I owe that man Strickland a lot. He didn’t have to put his neck out for me.
Reed did receive a contract offer from the now defunct EVOLVE. He questioned how the organization could offer him a deal with little financial gain attached to it.
Like I was talking about EVOLVE, I think we did like a four-way there and that was pretty much, yeah, we were booked but after those bookings is when all the sh*t started happening when they were hitting me up about signing. I was like, ‘How are y’all gonna try and sign somebody and barely give them no money? I don’t understand this.’ But the thing is I did get to have a match with Darby [Allin] though. It was a four-way and I definitely want a one-on-one with him. That man is crazy. He’s going crazy.
** Shane Hagadorn, who works for All Elite Wrestling as a content creator, operations specialist and is a member of the merchandise team, guest appeared on the Front Row Material podcast.
Shane is putting together a book about the history of Ring of Honor titled ‘Code of Honor’. He said the cutoff point in the book’s story is Final Battle 2021. Hagadorn created digital content for Ring of Honor and wrestled for the company for over four years in the early 2000s.
So the book is called ‘Code of Honor’ and then it’s got a subtitle that I can’t remember off-hand that is twice as long as the name of the book but it’s essentially a look into the history of Ring of Honor and it’s 20 years as, to me and to my editor Jonathan Snowden — who wrote a really excellent book about Ken Shamrock recently — that Ring of Honor is the most influential company in pro wrestling in the last 20 years and so it’s delving into the history of the company from the end of ECW and what of that led into the creation of Ring of Honor then exploring the next 20 years up through pretty much Final Battle of 2021 kind of being the endpoint, because if you didn’t — every book has — you had to go into it thinking this is gonna be the endpoint because it’s [like an] ever-evolving story if I just — you keep going, the book never ends. You never actually finish because the story never ends, so that’s kind of like the endpoint of it, looking at it up to there and just talking. Talking to the people who lived it as a wrestler, in the office, as a fan, people that were business associates. For example, I’ve spoken to some of the people we worked with at HDNet. I’ve talked to Evans Ginzburg who is one of the Associate Producers on ‘The Wrestler’ from working with that. Trying to talk to some of the people we’ve worked with internationally, you know, with the sum of those tours in Japan and the UK. Just anybody who’s had various experiences through the company being in any form, you know, with a mix of newsletter history and stuff like that. Just trying to paint the big picture of the company and all the ups and downs of it over the last 20 years so it’s not my story of the company. It is a story of the company, told by those who lived it. So I’m gonna refer to it as kind of an oral history.
The book, ‘Code of Honor’ will be out on Hybrid Shoot Press, probably the end of next year. My deadline is December so probably won’t see the light until early next year unless I finish it early but, there’s a lot. Talking to a lot of people and then filtering through the interviews for the content that I want and then finding all the historical references and newsletters and everything. There’s a lot going on here [Shane laughed]. So much more than what I could have anticipated and so many people just willing to tell me their stories too which is super cool.
Now that AEW President Tony Khan owns Ring of Honor, Shane was asked if he’ll go back to creating written content for ROH. He is not aware of that being a possibility, but thinks it’d be fun to add to his workload.
I have no idea at this point how, if that will come to me in any shape or form [creating digital content for ROH again]. I have no idea but, if it did, that’d be fun and cool to tack that on to everything else I do. I do have a great wealth of knowledge with that history up to a certain point. You know, there’s a certain point where I’m just like, ‘Nope. I have no idea.’ But, the first decade or so of the company, that’s… I know it very well, very intimately.
Hagadorn explained how he got started with AEW. He was brought in by Jeffrey Jones, the company’s Digital Director. They worked together in Ring of Honor.
Yeah, I worked with Jeff [Jones] in Ring of Honor and you know, so he would eventually be the person that I would send stuff to that would get posted on the Ring of Honor website so he knew firsthand from our relationship what I did and what I had to offer and you know, he reached out to me prior to the first Double or Nothing in 2019 and that’s when I started writing content for the website, for the AEW website, was way back then. I was lucky enough to kind of be in from the very beginning. Not the ‘very’ beginning but kind of at the ground floor before the very first show. I was contributing even leading up into that.
** At IMPACT Wrestling’s ‘Multiverse of Matches’ event, Deonna Purrazzo is scheduled to host an open challenge for the AAA Reina de Reinas and ROH Women’s World Titles. She told The Wrestling Estate that she’d like to see Athena (Ember Moon), Mia Yim, Toni Storm or Tegan Nox answer the challenge.
There’s a lot of non-compete contracts that will be up. There’s Mia Yim, Tegan Nox, Toni Storm, Ember Moon, so many women on everybody’s radar right now and I would love for them to answer the challenge.
Purrazzo is in possession of the ROH Women’s World Title and the company is now owned by AEW President Tony Khan. Purrazzo was surprised when the announcement was made but added that whatever Khan needs from her as champion, she’ll be sure to deliver.
I was literally just as surprised as everybody else was. I don’t know what the future holds. With AEW’s relationship with Impact last year, I developed a good relationship with Tony Khan. Whatever he needs from me as the Ring of Honor Women’s World Champion, I’d be more than happy to oblige and defend my championship on whatever show that he needs me to. It’s exciting – I’m in a good position.
** Big Kon, formerly known as ‘Konnor’ in The Ascension, told the Two Man Power Trip of Wrestling podcast that after he and Vik were released from WWE, they met with Road Warrior Animal, Demolition (Bill Edie & Barry Darsow) and The Powers of Pain to clear up any negative feelings about The Ascension having a similar look to those respective teams.
So, you know, when this happened [the comparisons between The Ascension and Legion of Doom], when this comparison started, this was right at the end of our NXT run, I believe right before we’re about to get called up to the main roster and I remember Dream [Dusty Rhodes] telling us, ‘It’s very important that you guys explain to yourselves that there can only be one L.O.D., there can only be on Demolition, there can only be one Powers of Pain and there can only be one Ascension. It’s very important that you guys talk about that because you don’t ever want to emulate another team.’ You really don’t. You want to be your own person or your own team and when going back, you look at the NXT version, you could see we were doing our own thing, you could see that’s who we were. You know, that’s why people bought into it. They know that was who we were and then, you know, the comparison, it was a tough pill to swallow because we specifically never wanted to be compared to anybody, you know? And I — and Vik, I don’t know if he talked to you about this or not but we had the opportunity to speak with [Road Warrior] Animal, in person together and we talked to him and kind of explained that we were sorry, that we hoped that there was no ill will towards us because of that and he understood and I think the best part about that was talking to him man-to-man, face-to-face about it and that was really important to us and then of course we talked to Demolition and I talked to Powers of Pain because I know The Warlord pretty well and so we felt like we had to do that out of the respect to those men because those are men that paved the way, that allowed us to feed our families and that was very important to us… But yeah, that was one of the things that we took upon ourselves to do once we were done [in WWE] was that we were like, ‘We’ve got to talk to these men if we can and clear the air, at least just to make sure’ and they probably didn’t give a damn to be honest with you, but it was the right thing to do, at least from a man’s perspective. The way I look at it, that was the right thing to do.
** Barstool Sports’ Brandon F. Walker conducted an interview with The Acclaimed (Max Caster & Anthony Bowens). Caster recalled Mark Henry saying that one of the greatest things Tony Khan has done besides creating AEW was putting Caster and Bowens together.
This is one of the best compliments, my favorite compliment I ever got: Mark Henry told us that the best decision Tony Khan ever made besides starting AEW was putting The Acclaimed together and that is my favorite compliment I ever got. It gave me so much confidence when he said that because you know, it’s easy to lose sight of these things. It’s easy to think, ‘Oh, you know, The Acclaimed, we’re still trying, we’re still a young team.’ No, we’ve proven ourselves. We’re a top team. We’re one of the top teams, if not the top team in AEW just based on fan reaction, just based on the D.I.Y. mentality that we have. I mean, there’s not much that we can’t do, so, it’s the titles, it’s becoming more famous and a better presence in the world because I think we deserve it. We’re talented, we can do it. Put us out there on your red carpets, put us out there on your reality shows, put us out there on whatever other events you wanna do because The Acclaimed is always gonna represent in the best way possible because we can do so many things, because we do cover so many demographics, because we are the best wrestlers in AEW. We are the best wrestlers in the tag team division and if anybody wants to argue that, they can come see me in the ring and that’s perfectly fine. But, that’s what we’re doing this year.
** The Shining Wizards Podcast welcomed Anthony Henry onto their show. He discussed his working relationship with former EVOLVE owner Gabe Sapolsky and expressed that Gabe was good to him. Henry credits Sapolsky for getting him signed to WWE in 2021.
Gabe [Sapolsky is] a polarizing figure, I would say in the world of wrestling. You either love or hate him and he has a lot of haters and I always stand by the fact that he’s always done well by myself, he’s done well by [JD] Drake actually. He’s probably the reason why I got hired initially to WWE and if it wasn’t for that, I wouldn’t be wrestling now at all because I was actually retiring as I got signed so, yeah. He’s always been a big supporter of mine so, I love Gabe and he does have a great mind for wrestling. You’re absolutely right.
** Ahead of the NWA’s Crockett Cup event, Billy Corgan sat down with Robbie Fox for an interview. Corgan stated that he’s in favor of NWA Worlds Heavyweight Champion Matt Cardona’s vision concerning the direction of the organization.
Well he [Matt Cardona] kind of barged his way in and at some point, I said to him, ‘Look, if you’re gonna be here, you can run your mouth all you want but we’re here to wrestle.’ As Tim Storm likes to say, former champion, you know, ‘We like to settle things in the ring.’ So, you know, the thing about Cardona that’s confusing is he’s got a lot of heat with a lot of people in the company. They don’t like the way he’s talked about the company and they don’t like the way he’s positioned himself. But as an entrepreneur myself, particularly in the music field, I appreciate that at some point, you just gotta make some noise and Matt Cardona certainly was overlooked as a talent when he’s been other places. He, whether you wanna call him a ‘shameless self-promoter’ or somebody’s who’s figured out how to game the system and take advantage of social media and stuff like that as a way to promote his brand, I respect that as a promoter and so what he brings the NWA is valuable. He’s a great professional wrestler and he’s obviously now a champion but, he also brings a sense of modern style which I’m all about so, even though I’m positioned as the guy who sort of represents the throwback part of the NWA, I’m actually much more progressive than I appear to be in public and so, in many ways, I lean more towards Matt Cardona’s vision of where the NWA needs to go than what people would assume about me, given my age and the history that I grew up in-in terms of professional wrestling.
** MLW CEO Court Bauer joined ‘Tuesday Wrestling Tuesday’ with Jonathan Hood and spoke about the on-screen relationship between Richard Holliday and Alicia Atout. Court first noticed their chemistry during the earlier stages of the pandemic, but he and his staff did not think they would lean into it.
With [Richard] Holliday, we saw something occur during the pandemic with our ‘Pulp FUSION’ digital shorts where Alicia [Atout] and Holliday just had undeniable chemistry and then we started seeing comments on social media and on YouTube about, ‘Look at these guys.’ ‘Are they dating?’ ‘What’s going on with these two?’ There was an actual theory that they’re brother and sister. I don’t know. I mean, [I don’t know if they’ve done] the 23andMe DNA test but [Bauer joked], you know, I think we saw something but we didn’t really ever think we were gonna go with it and we were like, ‘Wow, these two are interesting’ so we started having them do interviews more backstage and she started to kind of become the de facto scoop-exclusive interviewer for The Dynasty and then you started to see a relationship develop and sometimes in wrestling when it is real, it’s undeniable and people really see it for what it is and you go with it.
** 26-year veteran Angel Orsini joined The Bob Culture Podcast and expressed that she’d like to work with members of IMPACT Wrestling’s Knockouts division, specifically mentioning the likes of Rosemary and Su Yung.
I would say that there’s so much talent out there right now that I see so many people with a lot of potential. I’m really excited about the opportunities to work with these up and coming girls. As much as I am, some of the girls that are like [in] TNA because I wrestled Velvet Sky and Angelina Love and Traci Brooks before they got to TNA and you know, I’m really excited about the girls in TNA that I haven’t met yet and I’m looking forward to meeting them and hoping that I get to work with them in the future. I love these undead girls: Su Yung, Rosemary, [Havok]. My character to wrestle their character[s] would be off the hook. Yeah, I’m excited about that. I would love to work with those girls because my character is all about the light and angelic and theirs is like the undead and zombie and demonic, you know? It’s the perfect setup.
Angel played a role in the training of Molly Holly. She discussed how good of a person Molly was to her and being happy to see what Molly has achieved in pro wrestling.
Yes, I did [train Molly Holly]. I was her first teacher. Before she met Lanny Poffo, she had just moved from Minnesota down to Florida. She had been at a wrestling show. I think it was maybe like Florida Championship Wrestling that I met her and she was with some people and they said they were training her and you know, they meant well but they — I just immediately saw in her attitude and I just said, you know, take this girl under your wing and I have this big sister kind of spirit because I am the firstborn and I care very much about my younger siblings and that matters to me and part of that is understanding that there’s bad elements in this world and including in our business where people can be taken advantage of and I have that very much, you know, big sister, motherly, protect my little hen. Protect the little chicks, you know, motherly hen kind of, and that’s how I felt about her. I recognized her athleticism immediately. I saw her wrestle and I was like, ‘Wow. She’s got so much potential.’ She also was in gymnastics, so I had her — she actually was my roommate for a while and I would go train with her and we would work out and yeah, I think that was like for several months before she met Lanny Poffo and I’ve always just thought the world of her and I’m so glad to see her be so successful. I can’t even convey to you how much of an awesome person, what a great human she is and so I’m so glad for all of her success.
** While speaking about the different roles that are crucial to a pro wrestling product, Jeff Jarrett reflected on being a part of GCW’s Hammerstein Ballroom show. He looked back on that experience during The Ringer’s MackMania podcast.
I have said this many, many times, so you can be a red-hot, box-office attraction. Go let The Rock and Stone Cold go have a match without a referee. It puts things into perspective. You can’t really have a match without a referee so everybody has a place, everybody has a role. So, with that education that I was brought up on, if I’m going into the locker room and for the evening, I’ve got to give out orders, you got to sort of have that demeanor. If you’re coming in to be a talent, if you’re coming in to do a one-off — you know, I just did something in GCW and it was really a cool vibe that I got to experience a sold-out Hammerstein Ballroom and this promotion has had a huge groundswell and I’ve watched them from afar through my FITE lens so, that’s a good question. But you’ve sort of got to have some experience to know how to handle the different situations.
** Episode four of ‘REAL ONES with Jon Bernthal’ featured Kurt Angle.
** ‘Leo Presents’ uploaded a video to their YouTube channel with Jeff Hardy guessing pro wrestling theme songs.
** At SXSW, WWE’s Stephanie McMahon and Barstool Sports CEO Erika Nardini recapped their paths that led them to being in the position[s] they are in present day.
** The Associated Press caught up with Gable Steveson.
** Trish Stratus was the focus of a Highspots ‘Sign It Live’ stream.
** Former NXT Creative Producer Ryan Katz has released his book. It is available to purchase on Amazon. Katz finished up with WWE this past January.
** NJPW New Japan Cup Results (3/15/22) Okayama, Japan
– Tiger Mask & Tomoaki Honma def. Ryohei Oiwa & Ryusuke Taguchi
– El Phantasmo & Taiji Ishimori def. Kosei Fujita & Master Wato
– BULLET CLUB (Bad Luck Fale, Chase Owens & Gedo) def. Guerrillas Of Destiny (Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa) & Jado
– United Empire (Aaron Henare, Great-O-Khan & Will Ospreay) def. El Desperado, TAKA Michinoku & Zack Sabre Jr.
– Los Ingobernables de Japon (BUSHI, Hiromu Takahashi, SANADA & Shingo Takagi) def. House Of Torture (Dick Togo, EVIL, SHO & Yujiro Takahashi)
– CHAOS (Hirooki Goto, Kazuchika Okada & YOH) def. Suzuki-gun (DOUKI, Minoru Suzuki & Taichi)
– New Japan Cup 2022 Third Round: Jeff Cobb (w/Great-O-Khan & Will Ospreay) def. YOSHI-HASHI
– New Japan Cup 2022 Third Round: Tetsuya Naito def. Hiroshi Tanahashi
** Ronda Rousey’s latest Facebook gaming stream.
** Ice Ribbon’s Tsukasa Fujimoto got married. POST Wrestling would like to send our congratulations to her and her significant other.
** AEW’s MJF turned 26-years-old today.
** Shane ‘Swerve’ Strickland and A.J. Francis (Top Dolla’s) music video for their song ‘Digits’:
** To promote NBC’s ‘Young Rock’, WrestleZone chatted with Chavo Guerrero and Al Snow
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.
