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 ‘Forbidden Door’ event, Jon Moxley defeated Hiroshi Tanahashi to become Interim AEW World Champion. Tony Khan guest appeared on ‘My Mom’s Basement’ with Robbie Fox and dove into his decision to put the belt on Moxley. He recounted Moxley’s reaction when he informed him that he was going to be the interim champion following CM Punk’s injury.
Well he’s [Jon Moxley] been a great champion for AEW in the past and he’s absolutely one of our biggest stars. One thing that the fans in the arena really never got to see… and Jon Moxley defended the title on Dynamite many, many times in a closed-arena situation on closed sets and then during the COVID era, we really started to let fans back in and so he would have 1,100, 1,200 to 1,250 maybe fans at some of his defenses, maybe 1,300 and the way we worked it was we had 25 percent capacity so we were creative about how we got fans into Daily’s Place… Jon was a great champion throughout that era and really, he got robbed of the title and the way Kenny Omega won it from him at Winter Is Coming in 2020, it was not becoming of a champion and Jon really deserved better and I always thought the fans really deserved to see Jon out defending the title on the road.
I just thought Jon would step up and do a great job so as soon as I heard that [CM] Punk was down, I called Jon. We were in Ontario, California and Jon was at an Airbnb with Renee [Paquette] and I told him about it and he was very excited about it but he also asked, he’s like, ‘So you don’t need me to drive to Ontario right now?’ [Khan laughed] And I said, ‘No, no, it’s okay.’ He said, ‘All right, great. Well I’ll see you soon.’ So that was cool and since then, he hasn’t had a day off and we really appreciate Jon Moxley.
Rocky Romero was the middleman for Gedo and Tony Khan as they were putting Forbidden Door together. Khan met Gedo for the first time in Chicago and Jon Moxley requested that Khan and Gedo take a photo together.
Both of us [Gedo & Khan] were thrilled with how it came together [Forbidden Door] and it was great to finally have Gedo here in the flesh, meet him in Chicago and shake his hand.
Yeah [that was the first time Gedo and I met]. There’s a great photo that Mox took to commemorate it. Actually, Mox asked for it. It’s on his phone and so Mox took a photo of Gedo and me to commemorate the ‘meeting of the minds’ as he called it.
** Steve Fall of NBC Sports’ ‘Ten Count’ podcast welcomed Marko Stunt onto the show. As Stunt was looking back on his time in AEW, he said one of the ideas he wanted to bring to fruition was teaming with Paul Wight and Wight expressed interested in teaming with Stunt as well.
So I actually — I had this real weird block where I didn’t wanna insert myself into places that I didn’t feel I needed to be inserted. I had many ideas that never really got spoken up about. There was one and it would have been with Paul Wight though, where me and him had talked a bit about doing an angle, maybe even starting it on Rampage — or not Rampage, but Dark just to see how it gets over but where I’m getting beat week after week and bullied and then he’s on commentary and I’m getting bullied one week and finally he gets tired of it. He throws his mic down and he comes down to the ring and saves me. This was him pitching it to me actually and he’s like, ‘Yeah, then we can form this best buddy duo and I’ll be your best friend’ and he’s like, ‘Man, I’ll play it up so well.’ He’s like, ‘This is my best friend!’ And he started singing, but he was — that would have been my dream angle right there regardless of where it was being posted and he’s my favorite wrestler ever so, yeah, he’s [legitimately] my favorite of all time.
Stunt has wrestled just over five matches this year. He said he has slowed down on the in-ring front and the idea of taking a break from performing has crossed his mind. He said he’s been focusing on his music and helping run a local promotion where he’s residing.
With wrestling, I’ve slowed down a little bit. I’m not gonna lie, just to kind of focus on a few other things like my music a little bit and then the booking [helping with a local promotion] and running that type of stuff as well. Who’s to say what’ll be happening. In a year from now, I could be wrestling, I could not be wrestling, you know? And it’s been a thought that’s crossed my mind to not wrestle for a while. But, it’s kind of hard to say what I’m gonna do, you know?
** New WWE signee Valerie Loureda spoke to Robbie Fox on ‘My Mom’s Basement’ about joining the sports-entertainment company. Loureda was a part of American Top Team while she was fighting for Bellator and said Dan Lambert was excited for her when she informed him about the conversations with WWE. She expressed how grateful she is to A.T.T. for taking her in when she was 18 years old.
Dan [Lambert], he’s such a big fan and he’s amazing and when I was talking to WWE, I did tell him and he was so excited for me. He was like, ‘Go for it Val.’ He has one of his stars in WWE, his other star in AEW [Paige VanZant] and it’s just, he’s as happy as he could be right now.
He is [a happy coach] and he’s amazing with us and I’m so grateful for what he did for me in American Top Team because American Top Team took me in as an amateur. I was 18 years old. I did one amateur fight and five pro fights with ATT. They grew and they made my career, you know? And they told me, ‘Valerie, the door’s always open. We always love you here. Whenever you wanna come and train, you can come train with us. You know we love you but we understand that it’s your time to move on and fly.’
** Prior to challenging for the NXT Championship at Great American Bash, Cameron Grimes was interviewed by Comicbook.com. He told the site that he feels underappreciated by the crowd that attends NXT 2.0 shows.
Maybe, right? I feel like I definitely, with the C.W.C., the Capital Wrestling Center, I feel underappreciated with them. But that’s just how they are. They like to look at the new shiny toys, and then once the toy gets its reward, they think it’s a bad toy. But that’s okay. I’m completely fine with it because I’m going to keep that grind that got me here. The people fell in love with me because of my passion and that passion’s not leaving. So I’m going to just keep pushing it forward. I may be underappreciated, but I’ve been underappreciated my whole career. I’ve always been the underdog. I’ve always been the ugly duckling. The scruffily beard, the crazy body hair, I’ve always been looked at as less than when ultimately I’m better than.
** While on Sportskeeda’s ‘The Wrestling Outlaws’ show, Brian ‘Road Dogg’ James said he’s in talks with a nearby ‘wrestling company’. James is based in the state of Florida.
But you know, make it a brand and start trying to get my name out there and some of my knowledge out there to help. I’ve been in talks with a local wrestling company, not too local, but a wrestling company about doing something. So, really excited about my future. I am getting out and about and meeting everybody, and that’s really cool because I feel like I’ve been hiding behind the camera for a decade.
** Episode 248 of the Front Row Material podcast features an interview with Jack Evans. He shared a prank that was consistently pulled by Angelico in AEW. Angelico would put a chip in the shoe of a fellow talent and if the chip was crushed, the talent had to eat the chip.
In AEW, the big rib was… while everyone was at their matches or the TV, whatever, Angelico would sneak in, he’d put a chip in someone’s shoe and if they put their foot in and broke the chip, they had to eat it. So like, little, little things like that.
Evans reflected on memories from his career and crossing paths with T.J. Wilson. Evans feels that Wilson is probably the best wrestler he’s ever been in the ring with.
Wrestling-wise? Probably T.J. Wilson, Tyson Kidd, because he’s one of the best ever. So underrated. That’s probably the best I’ve ever been in the ring with. Just if anything goes wrong, he’s just the ring general of ring generals and like, especially at that time, him and Harry Smith, The British Bulldog’s son Davey Boy Smith Jr., they just watched wrestling non-stop and everything so like, they were like an encyclopedia for wrestling so definitely them, especially Tyson Kidd.
** On ‘WWE Die Woche’, Kofi Kingston chatted with Sebastian Hackl live over Instagram. Kingston spoke about the idea of WWE hosting one of their major Premium Live Events in Ghana, West Africa.
Oh man, I think it’s one of my dreams [WWE hosting a Premium Live Event in Ghana] because I feel like, especially — so I’ve always been so supported by the Ghanaian people and especially going back in 2019, being able to go to Ghana as WWE Champion, I’ve never experienced such just love and support and happiness and people just so proud for me to be there and I feel like if we were to have a WWE event, wow, it would just be amazing, not just for me. There’s just a huge wrestling fan base over there and the energy is just unmatched, a lot of people say that. Africa is obviously a welcoming continent and the different countries like to welcome people from outside but, more particularly, Ghana tends to be — a lot of people say that Ghana is just like the most welcoming nation in Africa and I might be bias but I’ve never met anybody that has gone to Ghana and has not felt completely welcomed, completely changed in a lot of different ways. It would just be amazing to have that and I say nothing is impossible, nothing is impossible.
Kingston went on to share his thoughts about the reigning Intercontinental Champion Gunther and his partner Ludwig Kaiser. Kofi heaped praise onto them both and feels they are great acquisitions for the SmackDown roster. He said Gunther has a mature wrestling style and viewers will soon find out how good Kaiser is as well.
Well look man, I think they are [Gunther & Ludwig Kaiser] — everyone knows — everyone maybe doesn’t know but, if you’ve looked at Gunther’s history, he is very good, he is very good. I think it was only a matter of time before he became a champion and here he is as the Intercontinental Champion less than what? Like two months into his debut on the main roster. That is incredible when you think about it and how much prestige the Intercontinental Championship has man and him and Ludwig I think have an amazing dynamic and I think what a lot of people don’t know right now but they will is that Ludwig can go too. He can go, you know? He can go. Right now, he’s out there talking a bunch of trash and hyping Gunther up, you know? But at the same time man, they’re both very, very good so I think that it is a great acquisition for the SmackDown roster, for WWE, obviously for Germany. I’m sure you guys are really, really proud to see y’all boys up there doing their thing and doing it very well man. I think that Gunther is kind of wise beyond his years. I see a lot of maturity in his style and aggressiveness and just the way that he — you know, his mentality, he’s not scared, he’s not scared. He feels like he belongs and I’ll watch a lot of his matches and be like, oh man, he’s only been on the roster for like three months and he’s already doing these incredible [things] so, seeing a match against him and Ricochet is like, you know, the two kind of opposites kind of going at it but at the same time, they bring out the best in each other, you know what I’m saying? So I’m excited to see what the future holds. If this is the beginning, the future’s very, very bright for Gunther and Ludwig.
** Tony Schiavone and Aubrey Edwards welcomed Kiera Hogan onto AEW Unrestricted. She touched on the chemistry she has formed with Jade Cargill and Red Velvet which led to the formation of ‘The Baddies’ in AEW.
Literally man, it’s been so organic, just the whole process. Us joining Jade [Cargill] and being The Baddies, everything has happened so organically and it’s been great. We’ve had instant chemistry even when I was just coming to Jacksonville. I was always talking to Jade and Red [Velvet] and I mean, we just hit it off immediately and I know Red’s a dancer so I was like, ‘We should do TikTok’s together.’ She was doing her own TikTok’s and I was doing my own and I think we were doing Fan Fest for Revolution and that was the first TikTok I did with Red and it got so much traction, I said, ‘I think people really like these collabs’ and then of course, I got with The Baddies and then the collabs just started rolling in and that’s our thing now.
Kiera shared the story of the first time she wrestled Ruby Soho on the independents. Soho knocked herself out after doing a top rope senton. Kiera wants a rematch and thinks it would be great.
So, back in the day, I had a match against a Heidi Lovelace… and it was at A.W.E. and that match did not end the best. You know, she went for her top rope senton and knocked herself out and had to end the match. That was the first time that it happened to me and she was snoring with her eyes wide open, I will never forget it. I feel like I definitely need a rematch with a Ruby Soho, definitely… I know we would kill it. I just know it.
** On the 7/6 Busted Open Radio, Mickie James and Jazz were on the show. They discussed talents being in developmental in relation to the structure of NXT 2.0. Mickie feels that by them going straight into that system, it can leave some talents without grittiness and edge.
James: Same. 1,000 percent [I believe in paying dues] but I also feel like a lot of the ones that are in-house kind of [developmental wrestlers], they’re missing a bit of that edge of that real life grittiness, toughness that — you know what I mean? That real life grit, that struggle that kind of puts that grit in your teeth a bit.
Even on television where that can kind of transcend because unless you know what real struggle feels like, it’s really hard to emote that type of emotion whether it’d be anger or sympathy and that’s just a, you know, and I’m not saying that they’re not struggling but I don’t feel like — once you get to developmental, it’s a breeze. You’re grateful to have a steady paycheck and to know where your money’s coming from and not have to worry if you’re gonna have to sleep in the car on your way home.
Later in the conversation, Jazz was asked does she sometimes wish she was in her prime in today’s era of wrestling. She does have those thoughts, but also feels she had her run in the time period she was meant to have it.
Jazz: I think about that all the time [if I would’ve fit better in today’s era of women’s wrestling]. I always use the term as, I was just ahead of my time. I feel I was needed and I was where I was supposed to be during that time, during that era. But yeah, I most definitely would have fit into this era as well. But I feel that if I wasn’t there during that era, then you probably wouldn’t know who Jazz is, you know?
** Jeff Jarrett joined the ‘JMart & Ramon’ show and Cody Rhodes became a topic of conversation. Jarrett said he’s been texting with Rhodes and mentioned that he’s ‘rehabbing like a son of a gun’.
We’ve been texting [Jarrett & Cody Rhodes] and he literally, surgery and went back to work. He is rehabbing like a son of a gun so…
** Bryan Danielson filled in for Nikki Bella on the latest Bellas Podcast.
** The G1 Climax 32 match cards were revealed. Royce Isaacs and Bad Dude Tito, who have been competing on NJPW STRONG are going to be on the G1 tour.
** C4 Wrestling announced Eddie Kingston for their August 19th show.
** Kaito Kiyomiya is first up to face Keiji Muto on his retirement tour. Their match is taking place at NOAH ‘Destination’ on 7/16 and Kiyomiya commented on the upcoming matchup.
** The newest Battle of the Brands episode from UpUpDownDown.
** To promote Friday Night SmackDown in Fort Worth, Texas, Raquel Rodriguez appeared on FOX 4 KDFW.
