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.
** Following Thunder Rosa and Marina Shafir’s match on the 6/8 AEW Dynamite, Rosa posted a photo on social media of them together as it had been insinuated that Rosa ‘sandbagged’ Shafir during their match. Shafir was the focus of a Captain’s Corner virtual signing and said she has nothing but respect for Rosa.
My thoughts before wrestling Thunder Rosa were that I had massive amounts of respect for her. My thoughts were the exact same thing afterwards.
Shafir’s significant other is WWE’s Roderick Strong. She shared that she has boots being made that are going to have the inscription, ‘Mrs. Shitty Little Boots’ as a nod to Strong.
I don’t know the story behind the sh*tty little boots. It’s just a chant, or one of the first times I saw Roddy [Strong] wrestle at PWG, I didn’t even know who he was but, I just was drunk and I found myself chanting, ‘Sh*tty little boots’ and then lo and behold, I’d be, you know, marrying him and then having his baby [Shafir laughed], because he has like short boots. His boots don’t lace up into his calf. He actually has shorter ankle boots and I think that’s so much cooler. I just like shorter boots and I actually have a pair of little boots and on my boots, on my next pair of boots, I’m gonna have inscripted, ‘Mrs. Sh*tty Little Boots…’ Not for a little bit [Shafir responded when asked when she’ll bring the boots out].
** Back in January of 2019, Daniel Garcia, Kevin Blackwood, Puf and Kevin Bennett were involved in a car accident. Garcia recounted the accident in detail while on Talk Is Jericho and shared that the guardrail they crashed into went straight through the middle of the car. Garcia, Puf and Bennett thought Blackwood passed away as he was unconscious while they were communicating to one another. One of the more frustrating moments for Garcia was speaking to a paramedic who asked him to try to walk although Garcia had already stated that his legs were broken.
We [Garcia, Kevin Blackwood, Kevin Bennett & Puf] were on our way home from a show in Montreal, booked by Carl LeDuc, the guy who got beat up in ‘Wrestling with Shadows’ by Stu Hart in The Dungeon. Alex Abrahantes was also in that scene as well I found out. Yeah, he was. We were on our way home from the show in Montreal. Montreal to Buffalo is about six, seven hours… It’s like 4 in the morning, we’re about an hour out from home, we were so close to being home. We’ve done these drives like so many times. We were getting booked in Montreal every single month and we just hit some black ice, the car spun out and we crashed right into the end of the guardrail. So the guardrail basically splits the car in half… We hit it straight so it went straight through the front of the car to the back… One of the Buffalo guys [Garcia said when Jericho asked who was driving the car]. Me and Blackwood were in the backseat and we both broke — I broke my femur in my right leg and my fibula and my tibia in my left shin and ankle… So I was sleeping in the back and I remember I woke up and we were spinning and in my mind — it feels almost comical now. I was just like, oh man, here we go, strap in and I remember we crashed and the sound was disgusting. Just the ripping through the car, you could hear it. It was nasty. But, after the crash, it was almost peaceful. You couldn’t hear anything, it was no traffic, there was dew on the ground because I was able to get to the ground somehow and I remember just laying there and I looked up at the front of the car and I see the people in the front and Puf is trying to break through the glass window to get out and I remember being almost like calming. I was in this exact tone, like how I’m talking. This is exactly how I was talking and Kevin Bennett, he goes, ‘Daniel, are you okay?’ And I went, ‘Yeah, I’m good. I think I broke both my legs though.’ But that’s exactly how I said it. I was so at peace, so calm and I remember it just being so cold out. It’s the middle of the winter… January. It was just freezing and we couldn’t find our phones to call the ambulance. Luckily, Puf found his phone and was able to call and I remember he was arguing with the paramedics on the phone because they were like, just asking for information that was hard for us to get at the time. Like, ‘What highway are you near? What exit are you near?’ We don’t know. We think our friend is dead in the backseat. We thought Blackwood was dead in the backseat. He’s completely knocked out. I’m laying on the grass, I can’t move at all and I think I’m about to get hypothermia, it’s so cold and we were just all in shock and luckily the paramedics come. The thing that made me mad the most is the paramedic says, ‘Well can you stand up?’ And I said, ‘Oh, I think my legs are broken’ and they go, ‘Well you gotta try’ and I’m like, ‘How do you want me to try? How do you want me to go about this? I’m pretty sure they are broken’ and then I remember we went to the hospital and my mom showed up and Pepper [The Blade] showed up and then I went into surgery.
Kevin broke his — the same thing in his left ankle but he didn’t break his femur and I think he had some head trauma as well at first, but he’s okay now and then Puf and Bennett who were in the front seats, they were fine luckily, and I think — I remember right after surgery, I said to my mom, I said, ‘Thank God it was me and Kevin that got hurt’ because Kevin Bennett in the front had just had a baby and Puf, also in the front, weighs — he’s a big man. He weighs like 400 pounds so I don’t know how he would have recovered and it would have been bad for Kevin to have to take off work when he just had a newborn baby and stuff so, thank God it was me and Kevin are the ones that got hurt.
Garcia discussed the marquee spots that he’s been put in-in AEW. He feels that he’s earned the trust of Tony Khan but at the beginning, he was very surprised at the opportunities he was being afforded.
We were driving from L.A. to Vegas; me, The Blade and Laura or The Bunny. We were all driving to L.A. and we’re eating at a diner and I just open up my phone and I’m like, oh, I guess I’m wrestling Mox at The Forum on Wednesday. I just see a tweet from Tony [Khan] saying, ‘Daniel Garcia’s wrestling Mox’ and I feel like now, the trust is very warranted that he has in me because he knows he gives me something, I’m gonna do my best with it and I’m gonna do it well, but off the bat, I don’t know what he was thinking. I don’t know how he had so much trust in me. I had no TV wrestling experience for him to just say, yeah, we’re gonna put him against all these big stars in big main events. It blew me away.
** The June 9th edition of Stories with Brisco and Bradshaw featured former Lucha Underground creative head and WWE writer Chris DeJoseph. He looked back on stories from his time in WWE and recounted when Vince McMahon told him he ruined Monday Night Raw. There was a segment during which Mick Foley was supposed to be getting checked for a concussion, but the on-screen doctor was looking inside Foley’s mouth.
DeJoseph: I also ‘ruined Raw’. I ‘ruined’ multiple seasons of Raw. I ‘ruined’ Raw forever [DeJoseph said sarcastically]. I think one time, there was this doctor, Dr. Rios, do you remember Dr. Rios? So, Mick Foley had gotten beaten up and the doctor was checking him for a concussion so, Vince [McMahon] is like, ‘Go back there with Dr. Rios.’ It’s like a 15 second scene with just Dr. Rios checking on Mick Foley and so — for a concussion. So, Dr. Rios tells him — we’re going live and it’s like, ‘Here we go. We’re going live with this shot’ and Dr. Rios has a tongue depressor and has Mick Foley stick his tongue out and looks down and Vince calls me into Gorilla, he’s like, ‘What the hell was that!?’ He’s like, ‘He’s checking him for a concussion. Why is he looking down his throat?’ You know? He’s like, ‘You’ve single-handedly ruined Raw.’ I said, ‘He’s a doctor.’ I said, ‘I’ve never checked anybody for a concussion.’ I told Dr. Rios, I said, ‘Check on Mick Foley for a concussion.’ He’s like, ‘Dammit! You gotta tell him how to be a doctor!’
Continuing on the topic of stories involving Vince McMahon, who is currently under investigation by WWE’s Board Directors, DeJoseph stated that he once worked on a promo for Chris Jericho and McMahon asked if a middle schooler wrote it. DeJoseph went to meet with Jericho and Jericho asked him to go pitch it again. DeJoseph said he only changed a few words around and then McMahon loved what he wrote.
DeJoseph: Once, I wrote a Chris Jericho promo and he [Vince McMahon] told me, ‘Who wrote this? An 8th grader? This is garbage.’ He’s like, ‘Go back to the drawing board and write this thing again’ and I went back with Chris and we went over it and Chris is like, ‘I like this. I want to say this’ and he’s like, ‘Go back to him and pitch it again’ and so I went and I pitched the same thing to him and Vince is like, ‘All right, that’s much better, much better.’ I think I might have changed like a few words. But, Jericho’s like, ‘No, this is exactly what I want to say.’ He’s like, ‘Go pitch it again.’ I was like, ‘He just told me it’s the worst thing I’ve ever done.’
DeJoseph spoke about what he picked up from Michael Hayes. A piece of advice that stuck out to him that he got from Hayes was not to book for the bottom of the card until he figures out what the top of the card wrestlers are doing.
DeJoseph: One of the biggest I learned was like, Michael Hayes would be like, well if — ‘Stop pitching things for people that really don’t matter.’ Until you know what the top of the card is doing, you have no business coming up with anything on the bottom of the card’ so it’s like, what’s [John] Bradshaw [Layfield] doing? What’s John Cena doing? What’s Triple H doing? ‘Those are the ideas you need to come in with first and then work backwards and fill in the rest, which was a great piece of advice because a lot of people would just die on that. I got my Simon Dean pitch and it’s, you know… that never would get you anywhere so it was like, come up with the ideas for the top talent and that will probably be a good thing for you to do.
The night before DeJoseph’s first live TV event as a WWE writer, he and fellow writer Sean Conaway drank at the bar with JBL and Ron Simmons. DeJoseph and Conaway missed their flight and it was JBL who came into the production meeting to negate any backlash for them being late.
JBL: Was that one of your first TVs?
DeJoseph: Yeah, yeah, yeah. That was like my first pay-per-view and Bradshaw had just finished a match with John Cena, like a No Holds Barred match or something like that and I think you were — I swear, you were bleeding through your jeans and everything still, at the bar with like — Ron Simmons was there and a couple other people, I can’t really remember but, me and this guy Sean Conaway who was the other writer’s assistant, we went to the bar to get a drink afterwards and you said, ‘Hey, you guys like to drink?’ And we were like, ‘Yeah! We’re fresh out of college man. Yeah, we can drink’ and you’re like, ‘Oh! You think you can, huh?’ And then, somehow I got caught in something that I didn’t mean to say that I accidentally said and then the next thing you know, there was a giant tray of Jack Daniels shots and I think we went shot for shot and all I know is I woke up the next morning and I was just outside of my hotel room and I woke up and I looked at my phone and I was like — I called Sean and he was like, ‘Hello?’ And he was still in bed. I was like, ‘We just missed our flight to Green Bay man. We’re so dead. We’re gonna get fired’ and then actually, we ended up getting — got to Green Bay late, we had to walk into the meeting late and I think you actually came into the meeting and then actually said something nice about the fact that we drank with you that night so that kind of saved my butt a little bit.
JBL: I did. Yeah, yeah, yeah because… I thought I could help save you. I got stitches in my head, I’m all busted open. We’re sitting there doing shots and I see D.J. and Sean at the bar. You know, they’re two new guys and I thought, well I’ll invite ‘em over to drink with us and I said, ‘You guys want to come drink?’ ‘Oh yeah! We just got out of college. We’re like right in our prime.’ ‘Okay, cool.’ I ordered a case of beer and like 20, 30 shots of Jack… D.J. woke up outside of his hotel room, so I play golf the next morning, then I went up there, I found out that he’d gotten in trouble so I went in the production room to make it, you know — to try to ameliorate the problem. I figured if I could get Vince [McMahon] laughing, he wouldn’t fire him and it worked.
DeJoseph: And he didn’t, thank God.
** During Pro Wrestling NOAH’s press conference on 6/17, Keiji Muto responded to Hiroshi Tanahashi’s comment that he’d like to share the ring with Muto as a part of his retirement tour. Muto said he would like that, but he belongs to NOAH and wants to follow the path they have mapped out for him. He questioned that if the match were to happen, would he go to New Japan or would they come to him about it.
I’d like that [match with Tanahashi] … but I belong to NOAH now, and I want to go on the rails that NOAH has laid out. Now it’s about the company. I think you have to research whether the fans want it or not. I want to do it, but… I’d love to do it, but there’s the schedule (of both organizations), and I’m sure there’s a lot of ‘adult stuff’ going on. We’re competitors after all. If I were to do it, would I go to New Japan?… Or would they come to me? Is it best if they come?
** As Ric Flair is approaching the date of his final match, he stopped past the Two Man Power Trip of Wrestling Podcast and during their conversation, he expressed his feeling that come match time, he’ll be more fundamentally sound in the ring than “85 percent of the roster in either company.”
In 2018, I had four heart operations in seven weeks, right? Four different doctors. So, who do you believe? Everybody’s got a different theory on what I can do, what I can’t do. So the first guy says I can’t go skiing. Told me never to go above 10,000 feet so I went to Vail [Ski Resort], 20,000 feet, I went skiing. I fell down skiing. I fell down in the ice-ice skating so if I can do that, I can wrestle and I’m drinking again so, which I’m never supposed to be doing [Flair laughed]. It’s easy to blame any aspect of what I’ve been through on what could happen but it’s not — I’m not worried about it, does that make sense? And I’m just having fun and I’m enjoying the competition it creates within myself and just wanna show off. If I can do it at 73 and I’ll be better fundamentally than 85 percent of the roster in either company. I’m not talking about flying off the top rope and that but, punching, kicking, psychology of wrestling. I’ll be better than 85 and I got another month-and-a-half to train. I won’t go in there not ready.
In addition to Flair’s in-ring return, there is going to be a roast with Flair as the focus. He said he’s not nervous about it because he his more dirt on the guest speakers than vice versa. Flair added that he already told on himself in his ESPN 30 for 30.
No [I’m not nervous about ‘The Roast of Ric Flair’]. I got more sh*t on them [guest speakers] than they got on me. My 30 for 30, I told on myself. They haven’t told on themselves yet. When you’ve told on yourself, there’s nothing more to do [Flair laughed]. But I’m not married so I can’t get divorced again.
The late Harley Race came up and Flair told the story of when he saw Harley fight two men at the same time in a bar and broke both their noses.
I’ve seen him [Harley Race] in bars too. ‘So you think you’re that f*cking tough wrestler?’ You know he’s left-handed with that iron bar in his hand, from the car wreck that killed his wife. This thick [iron bar] from here to here to his wrist. He almost lost his arm. This thick, a piece of metal that wide right here, right? So he’s smoking and someone says something smart to him, ‘Are you sure you want to ask that question?’ ‘Yeah, you phony wrestler!’ ‘Okay…’ [Harley throws a punch] I mean moved their face, space and time and then headbutt the guy next to him and the sh*t was on.
He knocked the one guy that was standing five feet away. He about killed the first guy. He still had a cigarette in his hand when he said ‘phony wrestler’. Hit him and the guy behind him, bam [headbutt], completely demolished his nose then he grabbed the guy and turned around, headbutted him, broke his nose, both of them laying there covered. Then he ordered a beer. ‘Another beer please.’
** Dave Hebner passed away at the age of 73. Earl Hebner took to social media to honor his brother with the following post:
Yesterday I had to say my last goodbye to my other half, my partner in crime, my road buddy for years, my brother for 73 years. I love you David, I’ll never count you out.
Yesterday I had to say my last goodbye to my other half, my partner in crime, my road buddy for years, my brother for 73 years. I love you David, I'll never count you out. pic.twitter.com/VBj1DrJlI1
— Earl Hebner (@earlhebner17) June 18, 2022
** Generation Of Wrestling welcomed Lio Rush onto their podcast and as they were chatting about Rush’s time on WWE’s main roster, he confirmed that when he wore an earpiece on-screen, Vince McMahon and Michael Cole were giving him things to say. Rush added that over time, he gained trust on the microphone and along with the likes of Paul Heyman and Sami Zayn on Raw, he had wiggle room with his verbal material.
Man, at first, it was pretty frustrating [Lio’s promos being written for him] because, you know, I got brought up to Raw because they knew that I could talk. So when I got to Raw, they started writing some stuff for me and that’s stuff I wouldn’t have necessarily said myself. But I am grateful for it because it kind of broke me out of that comfortability level that I had. I needed that. I needed to step out of my comfort zone and say some things I probably, normally wouldn’t say. But, I needed to perfect that because if I could perfect that, then I can, you know — those times when I do go out there and wing it, it’ll be that much better. So, you know, I remember in the beginning a little bit, they started writing for me and then, I’ll never forget, it was about two episodes of Raw, I think it was like two episodes, I had an earpiece and yeah, I got Vince [McMahon] and Michael Cole in my ear telling me what to say. That was real. Yeah, that was real… they were pointers. They weren’t telling me like word for word for word but they were giving me those pointers on the direction to go in. But then after a while, once they realized, they’re like, ‘Okay, we can utilize Lio in a different way than managers in the past,’ they were like, ‘He should start doing some stuff’ so that’s when you started seeing me flip and do a whole bunch of sh*t around the ring and off the apron. There was just no way I would have been able to do that with an earpiece in my ear and a mic in my pocket so, they scrapped that and I started doing some social media promos, a lot more social media promos, just talking and they started gaining more trust in me. So they would give me scripts but they let me move stuff around and add in things and I think I really built up my trust with them when it came to talking which was a huge thing at the time because at the time, there was only three people — I believe there was only like three people doing that and that was me, Paul Heyman and Sami Zayn and I thought that-that was pretty cool that I was a part of those people that they trusted to just go out there and talk.
** To promote the new season of Miz & Mrs., Maryse and The Miz appeared on CBS affiliate ‘KOIN 6’. Maryse spoke about how she always says she’s done in the ring and ultimately ends up returning. She thinks she’ll wrestle again at some point.
It’s great [being in the ring] and that’s — [Maryse laughed] I always say never. ‘I’m never gonna be back in the ring’ and I’ve said that after WrestleMania with you [The Miz], that was 2016. Then I had a baby, I said, ‘Nope, never. I think I’m done.’ Four months later, I was back in the ring then I had a second baby, ‘We’re really done.’ No, back in the ring again so I really — I can’t at this point. I think I’ll be back again. I always say I don’t wanna be back because I don’t wanna get hurt because I have children and it’s hard to commit to this. This is an extreme sport. It’s hard to commit to that and you gotta go full on if you’re going so I love it, but, it’s almost like it’s — it’s not sad in a way. I’m just trying to pull myself out.
Always, always [they pull me back in somehow]. It’s like they plant the seed and then [I’m back] … I was like, ‘No, no, I can’t. Okay, I’ll come!’
** Tama Tonga was the focus of a virtual signing hosted by New Japan Pro-Wrestling. Tama is not currently looking to return to New Japan STRONG. He says being in Japan is where his focus is and he wants to continue climbing the ranks there.
At the moment, no [I’m not looking to return to NJPW STRONG] because my focus is purely on here [Japan], the main, this is what’s important, you know? And my focus is here, moving up here. New Japan of America, that can — that comes second and third, fourth, fifth, sixth. New Japan Pro-Wrestling here in Japan is number one and should have all my focus.
** This past February, independent talent Megan Bayne suffered a torn ACL. She was present at MCW’s Spring Fever show in May and the promotion released a clip from a backstage interview that was done with Megan. She stated that she’s in physical therapy and doing everything she can to get herself ready for an in-ring return.
For those of you who somehow don’t know, two months ago, I had ACL surgery so yes, unfortunately, I cannot compete… Since surgery, I’ve been heavily in physical therapy, just doing anything I can to get myself ready to be back in the ring.
** While doing a virtual signing with The Asylum Wrestling Store, Thunder Rosa stated that she wants to be Alundra Blayze’s last opponent.
I’m gonna retire Madusa, just said it… Yeah, she knows that. She’s a good friend. Definitely, I would like to retire her for sure.
** New Japan Pro-Wrestling is going to crown the first-ever STRONG Tag Team Champions. There will be an eight-team tournament and Christopher Daniels and Karl Fredericks are slotted for the tourney. The rest of the field along with the bracket will be revealed at the June 19th STRONG ‘Ignition’ taping.
** Anthony Greene and Stallion Rodgers are heading to Pro Wrestling NOAH. The organization also announced that Ninja Mack is returning on July 16th for a singles match against Dante Leon.
** IMPACT Wrestling’s Jordynne Grace is the focus of a ‘Muscle & Fitness’ piece. She stated that Dakota Kai and Rhea Ripley are dream matches of hers.
** NJPW New Japan Road Results (6/18/22) Hachioji, Japan – Attendance: 1,955 people
– TAKA Michinoku def. Akio Fujita
– Tomoaki Honma & Tiger Mask def. Clark Connors & Yuto Nakajima
– Minoru Suzuki & Yoshinobu Kanemaru def. Tomohiro Ishii & Ryohei Oiwa
– YOH, Hirooki Goto, Toru Yano & YOSHI-HASHI def. HOUSE OF TORTURE (EVIL, Gedo, Dick Togo & Yujiro Takahashi)
– United Empire (Aaron Henare, TJP & Francesco Akira) def. Jado, Master Wato & Ryusuke Taguchi
– Los Ingobernables de Japon (Tetsuya Naito, Shingo Takagi & SANADA) def. Togi Makabe, Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Kazuchika Okada
– Hiromu Takahashi & BUSHI def. SHO & Taiji Ishimori
** There is a feature story on the ‘StarTribune’ website about Minnesota’s own Madcap Moss that was to promote the 6/17 Friday Night SmackDown in Minnesota.
** Part two of Hiromu Takahashi’s interview with the official NJPW site is up.
** Nyla Rose guest appeared on Busted Open Radio with Dave LaGreca, Tommy Dreamer and Thunder Rosa.
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.
