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.
** FTR (Dax Harwood & Cash Wheeler) guest appeared on ‘The Walkway to Fight Club’ podcast and they were asked when they are going to go after the AEW World Tag Team Titles. Cash Wheeler says they’ve been ranked longer than their actual title reign was. He joked that once they hit the 52-week mark, they’ll challenge for the belts.
Wheeler: I think we’ve now doubled our actual title reign length [Wheeler said about how long FTR have been ranked in AEW]. I’m not joking. I really think we have. It was like 62 days for the title reign and we’re at 19 weeks now I think as number one contenders so…
Harwood: To be fair dude, I don’t know if my shoulder wants to have any more belts. I can’t carry it in my bag. I gotta start checking the bag and I’m too cheap to do that so I don’t even know if I want ‘em. Let Swerve [Strickland] and Keith [Lee] keep ‘em [Harwood laughed]. Whatever, that’s fine.
Wheeler: At this point, it’s honestly just become funny because it’s been such a long-running thing and like he said, we don’t really need anything else right now. We have too much to carry as it is and we get to work with people in Mexico, we get to work the pay-per-views with what Ring of Honor is doing, we get to go do stuff with New Japan. The schedule’s already pretty crazy as it is. So yeah, it would be nice to add the AEWs and have four titles here and have ‘em all because at the end of the day, more than anything, we wanna be AEW champions but the time will come. We’re never gonna lose focus on that so, when we’re ready, maybe when we hit the 52-week mark as number one contenders, we’ll cash in [Wheeler smirked].
Harwood: It all goes back to the conversation Cash and I had whenever we were in our deep moment. When it’s ready to happen, it’ll happen and if it doesn’t, oh well, it doesn’t happen.
They did speak highly of the current AEW World Tag Team Champions, Swerve Strickland and Keith Lee. FTR thinks they’re carrying the tag division pretty well and hopes to work with Swerve and Keith while they’re still champions.
Harwood: I’m very pleased and very proud of Swerve [Strickland] and Keith Lee’s title reign. I think they’ve done so well with the opportunities they’ve been given. The matches, their promos, actually trying to work together as a team even though they weren’t necessarily a real tag team so I think the work they’re doing is awesome and they’re carrying the tag team division pretty well.
Wheeler: I will just add this real quick. The way that it looked like they were gonna team up for one or two matches and then start some sort of thing between themselves and instead, they worked that out and they’ve made this dynamic really cool where now, they’re earning each other’s trust and they’re starting to understand they’ve got each other’s back because that’s a real thing when you’re doing tag team wrestling. If you haven’t been tagging for a long time, you wanna know that the other guy has your best interests in mind. It’s been cool seeing them develop that, seeing that play out on-screen a lot, even in the ring, not just in promos. Really cool. So, I hope they hold onto ‘em for a little while because when we do cash in, I’d love to work with them but, right now, they’re doing just fine and you got The Acclaimed and ‘Ass Boys’ coming up too so, there’s plenty of stuff to go around and like I said, we’ll stick around a little while longer and we’re gonna be champions again before we end up calling it quits so, don’t worry about us.
Harwood: We’re just along for the ride brother.
** Brian ‘Road’ James and Nick Aldis were welcomed onto K100 w/ Konnan & Disco. Konnan and James recounted working together in TNA as ‘3 Live Kru’ along with R-Truth. They filmed a segment in Nashville, Tennessee and they were approached by an individual who asked them what they were doing in his neighborhood. Konnan said the individual had a Glock on his waistband. The mood of the situation changed when it was discovered that said person was a wrestling fan.
Konnan: I just remembered something that may bring a smile to your face. Some of the best time that I ever had in my career was in 3LK [group with R-Truth & Road Dogg]. Bro, I have to bring this up so, I wanna say we were in Nashville or Charlotte. I think it was Nashville.
Road Dogg: It was Nashville.
Konnan: Okay, and we went to the hood and when I say the hood, it’s the hood and it was funny because this kid…
Road Dogg: We weren’t going to buy anything or anything [he laughed].
Konnan: So, we were in the motherf*cking hood and we were gonna tape a vignette and some kid rolled up in a bike and he had like a Glock in his f*cking waistband and he was, ‘What the f*ck are you doing in my hood?’ And we were like, ‘Nah, we were gonna shoot a thing.’ ‘Who the f*ck are you?’ And he was like, ‘Yeah, I’m Road Dogg’ and, ‘I’m Konnan’ and, ‘Ahh!’ They popped. The guy popped because they all watch wrestling, thank God. This motherf*cker [Road Dogg] got into — do you remember the Starsky and Hutch or no?… Do you remember a guy called Huggy Bear? Okay, this guy came out, Bootsy Collins, Huggy Bear’d out, f*cking tie die, all these colors. Big f*cking hat, big glasses. Platform shoes with glitter and looked like a stripper and bro, he was just walking and talking that sh*t and they were cheering him. It was f*cking awesome.
Road Dogg: It was awesome [he laughed].
During the Nick Aldis portion of the podcast, he shared that he told Mickie James not to send the tweet out about feeling like she may be done in pro wrestling. He told James that she’d just be ribbing herself. Mickie is appearing on this week’s IMPACT Wrestling on AXS to make an announcement.
Aldis: I’ll tell you one thing, I begged her not to send that tweet [Aldis referencing Mickie James tweeting out that she feels she may be done in wrestling], because I was like, ‘You’re ribbing yourself. You’re just ribbing yourself’ but there you go.
It was a tweet when she was alluding to being done with wrestling and of course, ever since it’s like, now… my rule with Mickie is always this though: If she says to me, ‘Can I tweet this?’ The answer is already no. I said, ‘You’re ribbing yourself because regardless of where you actually stand and where this is going, you’re going to be inundated with questions and people are gonna keep bombarding.’ We were at the gym the other day and some guy was like, ‘Hey, I thought you retired.’ I was like, ‘Well, don’t say I didn’t warn you. Here we go.’
There was a conversation held about the shows under the AEW banner and Tony Khan being the sole creative source. Konnan thinks Khan could benefit from passing some of those creative responsibilities to other people. He remembered asking Khan about that and Tony said he does it because he loves it.
Konnan: That’s [what] I don’t understand with Tony Khan with all these shows. I asked him once, I go, ‘Yo Tony, all these f*cking shows. How are you doing them all at the same time?’ ‘Because I love this’ and I’m thinking to myself, yeah, I love it too but I know that I can’t handle four shows. Let me tell you what I would do. I would take one show and give it to you [Brian ‘Road Dogg’ James], I’d give one show and maybe give it to Gabe Sapolsky, I’d give one show — maybe give it to [Vince] Russo and if you guys give me good ratings, you stay. If you don’t, I’ll put somebody else but bro, one show is f*cking hard enough.
** Episode #153 of the PWTCast featured Chelsea Green as the guest. She weighed in on what the next 3-4 years of her career could look like. Green said maybe she wants to go back to WWE or form a trio in AEW with Britt Baker and Deonna Purrazzo or be a valet for Matt Cardona. She stated that above all, she hopes she’s happy and successful throughout the coming years.
Oh my gosh [Green responded when asked where she sees herself in the next three-to-four years]. It’s crazy because 2014 and ‘15 and ‘16, all I wanted was WWE and then I found IMPACT Wrestling and all I wanted was to be champion and then I left IMPACT and I was involved in ALL IN and Lucha Underground and then WWE and then after WWE, NWA and Ring of Honor and now it’s just like, I don’t even know because I’ve checked off so many, if not all of my personal boxes, my to-do list so maybe I’d like to get back to WWE and have the run that I wish I’d had. Maybe I would like to be in a stable with my best friends Deonna Purrazzo and Britt Baker at AEW. Maybe I just wanna be Matt’s valet at GCW, you know? [Green laughed] There’s so many different ways that my career could go right now being a complete free agent that it’s hard to kind of narrow it down so I don’t know, but I hope that in three-to-four years, I am just, if not more successful than I have been the past year as a free agent and as happy. As successful and happy as I have been the past 365 days because it’s been a really, really, really fun and creatively fulfilled year.
Green compared her current run in IMPACT Wrestling to her first run with the company. She looks back fondly on the first go-around and said her current run is comfortable.
You know what? I actually had so much fun last time at IMPACT Wrestling that it is so hard to touch that first run because aside from me being very young and naïve in wrestling, I was also young, naïve and champion, you know what I mean? I was the IMPACT Wrestling Knockout Champion. I mean, I don’t know that you can get any better than that. I think that this is an equally fun run and possibly could turn out to be an even better run in IMPACT because I’m doing it with my best friend and you know, I came into IMPACT Wrestling in two thousand and… I mean I kind of came in-in 2015 and ‘16 but I got signed in 2017 if I’m remembering that correct and I made friends with the division. I came in not knowing anybody but, those girls became some of my best friends; Sienna, Allie, Mia Yim, Rosemary and this time around, I know everybody. I don’t wanna say I’m a veteran because I always feel like I have so much more to give, but I’m not a newbie anymore. I know my place and I know my role in the division and I know all my bosses, I know my co-workers so, it’s just a really comfortable run this time. I know I belong and I have nothing to prove but I still am trying to give it my all.
** There’s an interview on the MMA Uncaged YouTube channel with A.J. Mendez (A.J. Lee). She was asked about CM Punk’s venture into MMA and commented on how he inspires her by being a risk-taker.
I’m constantly inspired by how much of just a risk-taker he is [Mendez responded when asked about CM Punk’s venture into MMA] and even now, to see him getting back into wrestling. He’s just brave and confident and I’m really proud of everything that he’s done.
** The IWGP Women’s Championship tournament is set to begin at NJPW Royal Quest II. Jushin Thunder Liger wrote about the title for his latest blog post on Tokyo Sports. Liger noted that the negative opinions about the title are noticeable. While touching on the mixed tag matches at NJPW x STARDOM ‘Historic X-Over’, he questioned if it would be difficult to keep the women and men from wrestling one another as the match gets more intense. He went on to tell a story about Antonio Inoki that had to do with controversy creating opportunity and Liger feels this crossover event could create opportunity. Below is an excerpt from the write-up:
The new IWGP Women’s Title by Stardom seems to be a hot topic of discussion. Some fans are saying that it’s complicated, and some are saying that it’s not like the IWGP… and so far the negative opinions are more noticeable.
First of all, regarding NJPW x STARDOM Historic X-Over, I think it’s okay to do it since we are part of the same group of companies. In the beginning, part of me wondered about mixed matches too. Even if the target of attack is only men for men and women for women, as the match progresses and gets more heated, it would be hard to stop, wouldn’t it?
Fans today may not know this, but on February 18, 2001, at Ryogoku Kokugikan, Mr. Inoki came out dressed as a homeless man.
The audience was in an uproar, and we said, ‘Mr. Inoki, why are you doing something so eccentric again?’ Some people said, ‘Why do you want to show off so much?’ But, after all, the next day’s sports newspaper pictures were all of Mr. Inoki.
At a later training camp, when Mr. Inoki said, ‘Raise your hand if you thought I was crazy at that time.’ I and (Tanaka) Kero were the only ones who honestly raised our hands. He said, ‘You don’t understand anything. Come here a minute.’ I was made to sit next to him during meetings.
I was taught directly by him, and I think that the more controversy there is, the more of an opportunity this event may be. ‘Who’s going to fight who in New Japan and Stardom? What is a mixed match?’ It could be an entry point for people who don’t know about it.
** For episode #76 of Ryan Satin’s ‘Out of Character’ podcast, he welcomed Finn Balor back onto the show. Balor gave his take on Paul ‘Triple H’ Levesque now overseeing WWE creative. Balor expressed how good of a communicator Levesque is.
I think it’s great [that Paul Levesque is leading WWE creative]. Very happy to see he’s back, he’s healthy and it’s gonna be an interesting time for the company for sure.
Communication [is one of Levesque’s strengths as a booker]. He’s an incredible communicator of his ideas and he’s very hands-on with everything. Triple H has always been very available for everyone and very present ringside before the shows.
** While recounting some of his favorite segments that he’s produced in WWE, Brian Gewirtz told Chris Jericho on the Talk Is Jericho podcast that he looks back fondly on the promo by Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson when he imitated his opponents in the six-man Hell in a Cell match at Armageddon 2000. Gewirtz said those in the match did not find Johnson’s promo to be funny.
I really liked, and you know, I write about it in the book as well but the idea of, just as a promo, The Rock making fun of everybody in that Armageddon match in 2000, where we had some success with him imitating Triple H and then we kind of just, ‘Can you pull this off?’ As far as literally imitating everybody in the match? That includes [Steve] Austin, that includes Undertaker, that includes Kurt [Angle], that includes Rikishi, that includes Triple H again. ‘I don’t know. You think you can do it?’ And Rock being Rock, it’s like, ‘Well, I don’t know. But we’re gonna do it and we’re gonna do it live.’ So, you know, to see that and to see that still replayed 20 years later, even though backstage, as I would later find out, got a ton of heat amongst the boys who were parodied who didn’t necessarily see the hilarity in it. For me to see the audience react to it, that was a lot of fun and that was like 13 months into my tenure there where upon doing a promo like that, I was like, this is gonna be a fun place to work.
Gewirtz has spoken at length about being on trial at Wrestlers’ Court. He added that he thought Glenn ‘Kane’ Jacobs was the bailiff for effect, but he was actually there to restrain people at certain points. Sean ‘X-Pac’ Waltman was not happy with Gewirtz and there were also some words shared by Perry Saturn.
So many people chimed in and it really got — I thought Kane as the bailiff [at my Wrestlers’ Court session] was there for more effect and pageantry. But he actually was needed as a bailiff to restrain people at certain points. X-Pac, who again, I get along with great now but at the time, was pretty incensed over some things because it really — it delved from the doll incident [Edge gifting him an action figure]. Nobody was really talking about the doll, other than me trying to talk about The Flash’s origin story to dead silence. It was really more about all the locker room violations I had violated without knowing it.
Perry [Saturn] said something to the effect of like, ‘I’ve been here 67 days and he only shook my hand 31 of those days and then the other days, he didn’t even shake my hand or nothing. You’re welcome.’
They talked about the celebrity guest host period of WWE TV. In Gewirtz’s opinion, one of the worst hosts was Reverend Al Sharpton. Gewirtz said it’s nothing personal, but it’s always easy to see who is there to promote or going through the motions or living their dream.
Al Sharpton [Gewirtz & Jericho agreed might have been the worst guest host for WWE Raw]. Honestly, and this isn’t a knock against Al Sharpton. This is more of just a general — there’s a distinct difference between guest hosts who are on the show and who are fans of WWE and people who weren’t necessarily huge wrestling fans but were 100 percent committed to doing it. I remember Jon Heder/Napoleon Dynamite. I don’t remember how huge a WWE fan he was, but he was literally up for anything. He wore a cape, he called himself ‘The Flame’ I think and taking a bump. He was really happy to be there.
It was also someone who had their own show on — I forget which cable news outlet he [Sharpton] had but you know, he’s very famous. But from a WWE standpoint, from a how good is Raw gonna be standpoint, I don’t really think he had any interest in doing a bit with Santino [Marella]. I think he was like, all right, I’m gonna go out. I think he was out in seg one, he was out the door afterwards. It was like, I’m gonna do my thing and leave and when you have that dynamic on the show, the fans are razor sharp. They know who’s there to have fun and who’s there to promote something and who’s there going through the motions and who’s there, literally, again, living their dream and they can tell so when you have Al in that case, it wasn’t anything — not a personal knock against Al Sharpton or even him as a performer who was just like, he’s there to do his thing, promote whatever he’s promoting and then leave.
** In 2019, Gisele Shaw was part of WWE’s all-female tryout in the UK. She reflected on that experience as she was speaking to PopCulture’s Brian Jones. Shaw enjoyed the camaraderie amongst herself and the fellow attendees and went on to share her biggest takeaway from the tryout.
Yes [I did have a WWE tryout in 2019]. I think that was in the U.K. and it was the first-ever all-women’s tryout, yes.
You know what? It was pretty cool that I’ve never done the whole all-women’s tryout because my first tryout with them, it was mixed, men and women and so, it was really nice. I also knew the women that were there who were trying out with me so I think that it was — to have a camaraderie already before coming to the tryout and to experience that, I feel like it just made us grow our bond closer and my takeaway from that was, you know, it was a great experience and it definitely tested me on being in in-ring shape, being not only just a character but also — or rather not just be a wrestler but also, if you want to be on TV, there’s so many things to look into. Not just the wrestling but also the performance side, the character side and I think that was my biggest takeaway from there.
** New York Post received confirmation from Pat McAfee that ‘The Pat McAfee Show’ is no longer part of SiriusXM Radio network.
** Two years ago at WWE Payback, Roman Reigns captured the Universal Championship. His two-year anniversary celebration is airing on the 9/2 Friday Night SmackDown.
** Complex Unsanctioned pushed out their season finale episode with AEW’s Nyla Rose.
** The collaboration between NJPW and the Saitama Seibu Lions baseball team is continuing. The team has an organization that saves and protects wild lions. Togi Makabe is going to be representing NJPW on 9/7 at ‘Save Lions Day’.
** Mia Yim plays Grand Theft Auto:
** New Japan’s Great-O-Khan was named the ambassador for Gee! Store in Tokyo, Japan.
** Tosaka Eiji, President of Big Japan Pro Wrestling was interviewed by Proresu-TODAY.
** CBS Pittsburgh story about WWE. Titus O’Neil was interviewed for it.
** The newest edition of ‘Canvas 2 Canvas’ on WWE’s YouTube channel is centered around IYO SKY.
** Sky Sports hosted a Q&A with Drew McIntyre to promote WWE Clash at the Castle.
** August 30th birthdays: AEW referee Mike Posey, Trey Miguel.
** Prior to NWA 74, Thom Latimer returned to the Two Man Power Trip of Wrestling Podcast.
** Part one of Marti Belle’s appearance on Tommy Dreamer’s House of Hardcore podcast.
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.
