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.
** In October, Roxanne Perez made her SmackDown in-ring debut. She tagged with Shotzi and Raquel Rodriguez to take on Damage CTRL (Bayley, IYO SKY & Dakota Kai). While on El Brunch de WWE, Perez discussed how ‘surreal’ of a moment that was for her and getting to share the ring with someone she aspired to be like in Bayley.
That was very surreal. So, SmackDown was actually the first live WWE show that my dad actually took me to so I was maybe like 11? And it was over there in Laredo and he surprised me. He was like, ‘Come on. We’re going somewhere’ and I was like, ‘Where are we going?’ And we get to the arena and I walk in and they have all the WWE merch and I was like, ‘We’re at a WWE show!’ And it was SmackDown. So to have my debut on SmackDown and then be able to be in the ring with such amazing women that I — I actually know Raquel [Rodriguez] and Shotzi from the independent scene. So Shotzi, I had a match with her once on the independent scene and then Raquel, we never wrestled but she was on the same show that I was in my debut when I was 14. So I’ve known her for a very long time so that was really cool to be paired up with them and then, being able to wrestle one of my childhood idols, Bayley, everything in that moment, it was just so perfect. It was a really full circle moment and my mom was there as well so she was in the crowd and she was so happy so, yeah, that was surreal.
Thus far in her time with WWE, Perez is a one-time NXT Women’s Tag Team Champion alongside now-rival Cora Jade. She looked back on that accolade and reiterated that she and Cora would often talk about how they were going to win titles together in WWE.
I feel like I keep saying it’s just so cool to me but it really is because when I was younger, I wanted to be a WWE superstar but I also wanted to be a WWE Champion. That was always my goal. At the time, I wanted to be Divas Champion one day and now, there’s so many more opportunities besides just the Divas Champion because that’s all there was. Now we have the Women’s Tag Team Titles, the 24/7 Championship, we have the Raw Title, the SmackDown Title so there’s so many more things to accomplish now for women in WWE and I think that that’s so amazing so, just to, in that moment, hold those [NXT Women’s Tag] titles with, at the time, my best friend, not anymore. But at the time, that was a very cool moment because me and Cora, we used to talk about when we were both on the independent scene, we hadn’t made it to WWE yet and we would message each other and say, ‘Oh, one day, we’re gonna be on WWE together and one day, we’re gonna be tag team champions together’ and to share that moment with her and be in the ring with her and just look at each other and say, ‘We did it. We manifested this.’ It was really cool.
** Episode #24 from season four of Taylor Wilde’s ‘Wilde On’ podcast featured Taya Valkyrie. She stated that she would be interested in venturing into the producer/agent/creative side of wrestling. Valkyrie then touched on her partnership with Rosemary and how they bounce ideas off one another.
Yeah, absolutely [I’d like to venture into producing, agenting and/or creative writing]. I feel like I am very good in the role of the creative side of it and the visual aspects of wrestling. My character and promos and things like that. I would absolutely love it, something I would love. It’s just something I think is very interesting and the television aspect of what it takes to be in the truck and what is it that just makes the show that much better, you know? Because this is a business where we can do so many different things and I think that more women should be in those positions so I definitely would wanna take the opportunity to learn to do that and to help other people come up with how they wanna present themselves or what the story could be. For example, I feel Rosemary is one of the most creative people I’ve ever worked with and me and her, when we talk on the phone about ideas… it’s like we’re in vomit… We could just write a story for the next year. We work really well together and I just would love to do that and be able to do that for other people too.
** On episode #161 of Cultaholic’s Desert Island Graps, Anthony Ogogo joined the show and expressed that he has not gotten the television exposure in AEW that he would like but he’s continuing to work hard.
Well, it [him coming into PROGRESS Wrestling] started after they came back from a two-year hiatus because of COVID and I wanted to come back with a bang and I wanna bang. I bang hard with my fists and I bang hard in anything I do and unfortunately, for reasons out of my control, I haven’t had the exposure on AEW TV that I would have liked but I think my hard work and my ability and my own charisma I think would suggest I possibly could have. But listen, I’m working hard, I’m working hard and got my head down. I’m busting my ass to get as good at this craft as possible…
Ogogo added that he trusts AEW management, specifically highlighting Tony Khan and his coach Q.T. Marshall. He trusts that the powers that be will bring him back to TV at the right time. Within that same breath, he clarified comments he made about Luigi Primo getting more AEW TV time than he has than year. He said he was half-joking, half being serious.
I haven’t been featured much in AEW for a while whilst we kind of figure things out. Not on TV. I’ve been doing lots of [Dark] Elevation, gaining experience, getting better at honing my craft and I trust the boss. Like Tony Khan, he’s an absolute genius, like Q.T. [Marshall], he’s a genius. Them two together, then you got Sonjay Dutt who’s unbelievable. You got Pat Buck, Tony Schiavone is really, really good. Got The Bucks, you got Kenny [Omega]. In AEW management, you got geniuses all around the space. It’s great how they work together as well, led by Tony Khan. He’s a genuine, phenomenal human being… and QT’s my coach so Q.T. and Tony Khan, I really trust around that. I trust that they’re gonna bring me through at the right time and I’ll get the chance when it’s the right time for me and my development in my career. But I do get frustrated because I am away from my family a lot, I am in the country I don’t particularly like being in, working hard, chasing this dream and I wanna get the chance and I got frustrated recently because the pizza guy [Luigi Primo], that pizza guy was on TV and I got a little tweet. Again, half-joking, half being serious. This pizza guy who’s… He’s not Shawn Michaels in the ring, put it that way. He got more time on AEW TV this year than I had and it pissed me off because it’s supposed to be a sports-based product. I get it, I get it. I understand what they’re doing. Again, but I just wanna wrestle. I just wanna get good and have fun and he got kicked in the face in like three seconds and I’m the one that asked for it. Of course I’m gonna ask for it [Ogogo laughed]. So I just wanna be on TV and show people how hard I’m working and how good I can be because you can do all the training in the world. I’m in the gym every single day, lifting weights, training weights, doing my cardio and I can score as much as I can get. Learning, doing bumps.
** The fallout of Nick Aldis publicly sharing that he will be heading into free agency continued to unfold this week. NWA Worlds Heavyweight Champion Trevor Murdoch talked to PWTorch’s Sean Radican and weighed in on the situation between Aldis and Corgan.
I have all the respect in the world for Nick as a pro wrestler. I also have respect for him for being one of the guys that helped speak up for me to bring me into the NWA. If it wasn’t for that, I wouldn’t be in the position I’m in today. So, I have a ton of gratitude for Nick in that aspect.
My only issue was I didn’t agree with Nick dragging the company and dragging the guys in it. When you start making comments like, ‘The show is too embarrassing for me to be a part of,’ first off I think that’s a little bullsh*t. Secondly, you’re disrespecting all the men and women — Nick’s not the only part of the show. Since we started Powerrr, it hasn’t been ‘Powerrr about Nick’. It’s NWA Powerrr, so there’s a lot of talented wrestlers that have come through there that have helped make NWA successful. I just don’t think bringing all those men and women into the middle of your argument or public squabble is the right thing to do.
** Gerald Brisco and John Bradshaw Layfield welcomed Brian Gewirtz onto their Stories with Brisco and Bradshaw show. Gewirtz shared that he produced all the backstage vignettes at WrestleMania 17.
I specifically was producing all the backstage vignettes for WrestleMania 17, running around like a lunatic and I was asking like, ‘Bruce, are you gonna help?’ He’s like, ‘I’m in the Gimmick Battle Royal. I can’t do anything.’ So I’m like, ‘Okay, great.’ So, I was producing all of them and it was a huge success and really well received…
Reflecting on how he got his start with WWE/F, Gewirtz said he initially turned the company down. He was offered the opportunity to write for the company website but that was not appealing to him.
Originally, Vince [McMahon] said, ‘I’ll make you an offer you can’t refuse and you’ll come work for us’ but I did refuse it because it was an offer to write on WWF.com at the time and it’s just like, dude, I’m not leaving — I’ve written on three shows, I’m in the Writers Guild. I’m not going to leave Hollywood to go write about the Big Bossman’s favorite snacks or whatever they were writing at WWF.com at the time.
** When Saraya arrived to AEW at Dynamite Grand Slam, she came out to the song ‘ZOMBIFIED’ by the band Falling In Reverse, which her significant other Ronnie Radke is a part of. While talking with Renée Paquette on The Sessions podcast, there was a point when Saraya thought she would not be able to use the song shortly before she was scheduled to go out. Tony Khan got Saraya in a group chat with AEW legal and it was sorted out with Ronnie’s label. Radke encouraged his side of the situation to let Saraya use the song for free the first go around.
That whole thing too [the theme music] because Ronnie’s label, there’s a bunch of people there and then legal in AEW so, ten minutes before I was initially just supposed to walk out there, [Saraya & Renee Paquette’s manager], he came in and he was just like, ‘Ah, I don’t think we can use Ronnie’s music.’ I’m like, ‘Are you sh*tting me bro?’ I was like, ‘Absolutely not. I can’t just change the music. This is the music’ and it’s not because it’s Ronnie’s song. I’m just like, ‘This is the perfect song.’ So, I was just like, ‘F*ck.’ So then I text Tony [Khan] and Tony’s in the middle of running this show. The show’s live right now and he’s at the Go Position at the moment and he’s f*cking 100 miles an hour because people ask him questions and I text him and straight away, he got me in this group chat with legal and was just like, ‘Let’s get this song done’ and within two minutes, they come running in there being like, ‘Okay, we got it done.’
So I also texted Ronnie too. Ronnie couldn’t be there this time because he had to do rehearsals because he was about to do a show, right? A festival. So I was texting with him being like, ‘Oh my God, babe, they’re not gonna let me use the song’ and then he was just like, ‘I got this.’ So he’s doing his side and Tony’s doing his side and within like minutes, they got it done. So I was just like, oh thank God. Ronnie’s like, ‘Let her use it for free for the first one. We’ll figure it out later on’ so I’m just like, oh my gosh. Thank gosh.
** For the latest edition of Brian Hebner’s Refin’ It Up podcast, Trey Miguel guest appeared and as they were discussing Miguel’s IMPACT X Division Title reign, Miguel said the three way with Steve Maclin and Laredo Kid from ‘Turning Point’ 2021 was one of his least favorite defenses. Miguel boiled it down to things possibly not clicking that night but he has enjoyed working with Maclin and Laredo separately.
I remember not being the biggest fan of that match afterward if I’m being quite honest [three way with Steve Maclin & Laredo Kid at Turning Point 2021]. Afterward, that was probably one of my least favorite title defenses as X Division Champion and I don’t know, something felt like it just — I don’t know if it wasn’t clicking or what but, we approached it the best way that we could’ve I believe. I don’t know how the other two feel about the match but, it wasn’t my absolute favorite and those are two of my favorite wrestlers separately. Maclin was one — I’ve only had less than a handful of one-on-one feuds but I was pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed my feud with Maclin, and Laredo Kid and I have wrestled each other in probably more matches together than I’ve shared with anyone else on our roster at this point… Some people like lemonade and some people like ice tea and they form together and don’t like Arnold Palmer and this, for me, was one of those scenarios. I can’t tell you in great detail what the approach was or what the mindset was but I just know coming out of it, I was like…
Ahead of Miguel and ‘Speedball’ Mike Bailey’s match airing on the 11/10 IMPACT on AXS, Trey touched on he and Bailey’s in-ring chemistry. He said their match at Against All Odds might be his favorite singles match.
I actually hadn’t worked with Mike Bailey at all before he got to IMPACT. I think I had only been on two shows with him and both of them were overseas. One was for Fight Club: PRO in Wolverhampton and the other was O.T.T. in Cork, Ireland and it was him and PAC that night and I remember that night, that was one of the most memorable matches I had ever watched, from any perspective, being a fan or a wrestler. That match was just absolutely insane and after it, I remember saying like, ‘If I ever do get to wrestle Mike Bailey, I hope we do half of what they did out there’ and getting to do that at IMPACT, for that being our first time, I think that is really cool and [our match on the 11/10 IMPACT on AXS] will mark match three if I’m not mistaken and they only get better if you ask me… I take a lot of pride in the match that Bailey and I put on at Against All Odds earlier this year. I think that would probably be my favorite singles match I’ve ever done was with Mike Bailey.
** While speaking to Wrestling Inc, Timothy Thatcher expressed that he’d be game for facing any member of AEW’s Blackpool Combat Club (Jon Moxley, Bryan Danielson, Wheeler Yuta & Claudio Castagnoli).
There is [a lot of talented people in AEW]. Battling anyone from that Blackpool Combat Club is kind of up my alley, isn’t it? … Mr. Regal has always been very kind to me as well. And if he picks you to be in his corner, he’s amassed quite a crew over there with Claudio and Moxley and Dragon and Wheeler. So yeah, those guys are always worth a fight.
Thatcher is with Pro Wrestling NOAH and is coming off challenging Kaito Kiyomiya for the GHC Heavyweight Title. He gave his thoughts on Shinsuke Nakamura being scheduled to return to NOAH to face Keiji Muto (The Great Muta). Thatcher thinks it’s incredible that this is happening.
Yeah, of course Nakamura is a big star for them. And I know when we started in NXT, I know previously that they were allowing… obviously the NXT guys sometimes could go other places and do other things. After I got signed, I was allowed to go back to Germany and have one more match in wXw, which is greatly appreciated. But then that kind of stopped, obviously COVID kiboshed a lot of stuff. But as you move up the thing, obviously Nakamura is a big SmackDown star and all that stuff. That’s a different thing than allowing some of your NXT stars to go out to different places. So it is incredible that it happened. Yeah, that’s very amazing. So it’ll be great, January 1 will be — that’ll be an epic contest I think.
** The Women’s Wrestling Army promotion became a topic of conversation during ring announcer Bobby Cruise’s appearance on Busted Open Radio. Cruise co-founded the promotion with Maria Kanellis-Bennett. He stated that it is growing slower than they expected but they are continuing to move forward.
I feel that I am so very, very fortunate right now and the Women’s Wrestling Army thing aside just for a minute, because Maria [Kanellis-Bennett] and I think we have something really going with that and it’s growing a little slower than we expected but we are going to get there and we are collaborating with some other people. It’s gonna be a really good thing.
** There’s a feature story that Men’s Health published about Sheamus. He was asked to name the most difficult Celtic Warrior Workouts he’s done thus far and his sessions with Xia Li, Becky Lynch, Bobby Lashley and Bianca Belair came to mind.
Xia Li [from the original series], was insane. I could barely wait to get away from that one. I’ve never seen anybody work out like her. A close second to that one was Becky Lynch’s CrossFit workout. I’d never given up on a workout before, but I gave up on that. I had to stop. Both workouts that made me stop were both women. Xia Li and Becky Lynch—they both broke me. And now, in the new workouts, it’s the Bobby Lashley warmup. I couldn’t walk for two days after that. He starts off with a minute wall sit, 20 walking lunges on each leg. Another minute wall sit, 19 lunges on each leg. A minute wall sit, and it goes on and on and on. In the beginning, you think, oh no, I have all these lunges to do. As the lunges go down, you’re like, oh, sh*t, now there’s less time between the wall sits. That’s one you could do anywhere, any place. It’ll be a better cardio workout than any treadmill or any bike. And then the other one was Bianca Belair. She had me do these side squats. I’m not going to lie: At my bachelor party, I couldn’t sit down. I had to stand up. And that was the next day. I couldn’t even sit down at the bar.
** A Bushiroad subsidiary is releasing a New Japan Pro-Wrestling protein drink that Hiroshi Tanahashi is the face of.
** Pro Wrestling NOAH ‘Global Honored Crown’ Results (11/10/22) Korakuen Hall in Tokyo, Japan
– Dark Match: Yoshiki Inamura & Kai Fujimura vs. Yasutaka Yano & Taishi Ozawa
– GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championships: Shuji Kondo & Hajime Ohara def. Atsushi Kotoge & Seiki Yoshioka (c)
– GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship: Dante Leon def. Ninja Mack (c)
– GHC Tag Team Championships: Satoshi Kojima & Takashi Sugiura (c) def. Mohammed Yone & Akitoshi Saito
– GHC National Championship: El Hijo de Dr. Wagner Jr. def. Masakatsu Funaki (c)
– GHC Heavyweight Championship: Kaito Kiyomiya (c) def. Timothy Thatcher
** On November 11th, Yota Tsuji is making his CMLL debut.
And …
Hola CMLL pic.twitter.com/3CEyxsSjT3— 辻陽太 Yota Tsuji (@tsuji_njpw) November 10, 2022
** Episode #25 of Xavier Woods and Tyler Breeze’s Battle of the Brands series featuring Xia Li.
** Dragongate ‘The Gate of Evolution’ Results (11/10/22) Nagano Arcs in Nagano, Japan
– Big Boss Shimizu & Strong Machine J def. Kota Minoura & Minorita
– KAI, Diamante & ISHIN def. Don Fujii, Shachihoko Boy & Kaito Nagano
– Susumu Mochizuki def. Ryu Fuda
– Shun Skywalker, B×B Hulk & H・Y・O def. Genki Horiguchi, Takashi Yoshida & Punch Tominaga
– Dragon Kid & Eita def. Kzy & U-T
– Yuki Yoshioka, Dragon Dia & Madoka Kikuta def. Masaaki Mochizuki, Yasushi Kanda & Mochizuki Junior
** November 10th birthdays: Bob Orton Jr.
** Jim Shahen Jr. of Times Union interviewed ‘Hacksaw’ Jim Duggan.
** Former NXT UK talent Nina Samuels joined GAW TV.
** To promote NWA Hard Times 3, Matt Cardona appeared on Busted Open Radio.
** WWE Deutschland released their interview with Alexa Bliss that was recorded in Cardiff, Wales ahead of Clash at the Castle.
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.
