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.
** During Nick Aldis’ appearance on The Universal Wrestling Podcast, he further commented on the note that both he and Cody Rhodes were looking to do a trilogy with their feud that churned out two matches. Aldis recalls suggesting the third bout take place in London, England.
And I think that once we had the match (Aldis vs. Cody Rhodes at ALL IN) and then we knew that the Nashville match (NWA 70th Anniversary Show), I had some conversation with Cody about like, ‘Do you think we could do a trilogy?’… From what I recall, I just remember sort of throwing it out there like, ‘What if… it’s a Broadway in Nashville and then we do number three in London’ and it was kind of like (Aldis smiled) … We were excited about that.
In 2009, Aldis became IWGP Tag Team Champion with Doug Williams. He explained why feels there’s an asterisk beside that title win. He expressed that at the time, he did not think winning the belts would help him.
The only thing I remember (about winning the IWGP Tag Team Titles) was Doug [Williams] had been very well established in Japan for NOAH and I remember thinking… and again, I’m not trying to upset anyone but the IWGP Tag Team belts only meant something to fans who knew the lineage of them and what they represented and all that. Having said that, I knew me winning them would not go over well. So, trust me when I tell you when I got told what was happening, I was like, ‘That’s not good for us. It’s not good for me. If anything, it’s gonna hurt me because those fans are gonna go, what the f*ck? He’s never even been to New Japan…’ I said the same thing that any of the fans who sh*t on it would have said. But again, you don’t have a say. You’re not going to say, okay, well I don’t wanna win the match, you know?… And people are very sensitive about New Japan when it comes to that kind of thing and I just wanted no part of it because I was like, if they wanna book us and have us go over there, whatever, then fine. But why win their belts on a TNA show? It just felt unnecessary and it’s funny because it gets brought up and for me, I just sort of erase that. I bring it up for heat sometimes, right? Like, ‘I’ve been IWGP Champion, GHC Tag Team Champion, TNA Tag Team Champion’ but it’s like, I know that the IWGP Tag Team Champion reign has a by asterisk next to it… For me, I don’t think of it as that. I have too much respect for New Japan and the IWGP Tag Titles to sort of take our weird, convoluted run with them seriously and then yeah, we did a Ladder match where like one New Japan belt and one TNA belt were up there. It was so convoluted (Aldis laughed).
At a point in the conversation, former President of TNA/IMPACT Wrestling, Dixie Carter, became a talking point. Aldis said there are misconceptions of Carter and added that the mistakes she made and business tactics were not different from a lot of other top executives in wrestling. He thinks the reason she faced more scrutiny is because she’s a woman.
I owe Dixie [Carter] a lot and I always will and I’ve always been grateful to Dixie for her sort of sticking her neck out for me. She’s certainly not innocent… She was ruthless, she made judgment calls. She did what she thought she had to do. But again, how is that different to any other top executive in professional wrestling? I think that it’s very easy — and I think sadly, a lot of the reason that her stuff comes under more scrutiny is the fact that she is a woman and the fact that she is perceived to be — obviously, her family is extraordinarily wealthy… And I think that maybe because she was portrayed for so long as this sort of clueless, ditzy, kind of easily manipulated person that — you know, she was aware of all that. She wasn’t naïve to the fact that this narrative was out there about her and I think that maybe unfortunately, she tried to overcompensate then. She then tried to, I’m gonna be ruthless… I’ll show these wrestlers who’s boss. Which of course then makes you a heel in a totally different way and it’s just difficult. It’s difficult to navigate these waters.
** As Ronda Rousey was live on YouTube for her gaming stream, she mentioned that there’s a chance she will not be at the 1/6 Friday Night SmackDown. Later in the stream, she expressed how interested she is in the post-prison version of Dominik Mysterio.
Oh my God, ‘prison Dom’. Talk about ‘prison Dom’… Did you see his video of him talking about how he came out of prison a changed man and he has the teardrop? It reminds me of John Waters ‘Cry-Baby’. Johnny Depp, and he’s like, ‘Electricity killed my parents!’ I don’t know, I loved it so much. I loved it so much (Rousey smiled).
I’m like, what happened in prison? (she laughed) What did he see?… Mhm (the teardrop could indicate that he killed someone). So did he kill someone to go to prison? Or did he kill someone in prison?
I can just picture him calling Rhea [Ripley] up being like, aw mami… Things I’ve seen.
In 2022, Rousey wrapped up her program with Liv Morgan. Rousey would be open to wrestling Morgan again but wants thumbtacks involved this go-round.
Yeah, I would (face Liv Morgan again) … I want thumbtacks next time (Rousey laughed). They won’t let me.
** While on Busted Open Radio, Mickie James shared her thoughts about Mercedes Moné (f.k.a. Sasha Banks) debuting for New Japan Pro-Wrestling at Wrestle Kingdom 17. James feels Moné could have stayed with WWE and been on top there but now she’s able to go after opportunities that some may have thought would never come to fruition.
James: I know she’s gonna kill it. I have no doubt about that. I think wherever she goes, she’s gonna shine… If I know Sasha, if I know Mercedes Moné, she wants to have some awesome matches and she wants to face people she’s never faced before because she loves wrestling and she loves being able to put on those different types of matches so I think she’s gotta be very excited about all these new opportunities and I’m sure she could sit there and cherry pick the ones that she wants if she wanted so, it’s really exciting and I think that she’s got so many options between acting and wrestling and everything else. It’s gonna be fun, it’s gonna be fun to watch her, because she is betting on herself.
She could’ve stayed in that WWE bubble forever and she would’ve been fine and protected and she would have always been a star, she’s a marquee name. So, it’s exciting and I think it’s exciting for wrestling and it’s exciting for wrestling fans because now, there’s these opportunities and these matches that they never thought that they would get. But there’s a possibility of getting those matches. She could show up and be Saraya’s tag team partner.
Tommy Dreamer chimed into the conversation and recalled running into Mercedes pre-pandemic at an airport in Mexico. He said Mercedes was there training on her own dime and feels it’s an example of how much she loves pro wrestling.
Dreamer: This was pre-pandemic when she [Mercedes Moné] left WWE the first time and everyone was speculating, what she was doing, where she was at and then all of a sudden, I’m at an airport at like 6 AM in Mexico and I see her there and so we’re just talking and I’m like, ‘What are you doing here?’ And she was just like, ‘I’m training,’ and I was like, ‘What are you training for?’ She goes, ‘I always wanted to learn the lucha style’ and I was just like, ‘Really!?’ I mean, she was totally disappeared from everywhere. This was, again, pre-pandemic. We were there for IMPACT Wrestling and I bump into her at an airport in Mexico City and she was there training on her own dime, hanging out, learning lucha. I mean, that shows you how much the woman loves professional wrestling.
** It was in February of 2021 that Lee Johnson officially signed with All Elite Wrestling. He looked back on that as he was talking to Aubrey Edwards and Alex Abrahantes on AEW Unrestricted.
Man, that was wild (signing with AEW). I was super nervous going into that match. I was teaming with Cody [Rhodes]. We go into this match and I obviously understand, you know, what’s going on. I hadn’t won. I don’t even know what my record was but I can promise I lost to everyone on the roster. Aubrey [Edwards], you reffed a lot of those matches and we would come back… or we would see the match and we’d be like, ‘Yup, we know what it is.’ So, I think it was really cool to go into that particular time and everyone was ringside. There was people over in the stands where everyone would sit during the pandemic eras so it was really awesome to get that moment and to have everyone out there with me afterwards; Cody, Dustin [Rhodes], Q.T. [Marshall], Arn [Anderson], you know, etcetera were out there so, for me to have that moment after going through so much is what it felt like… At that time, it had been a year maybe and it was so awesome. I felt good. I felt like the man.
A.R. Fox is a member of the AEW roster as well. Fox trained Lee. He touched on what it was like for him to see his trainer get signed by AEW.
Man, I’m so happy for that guy (Johnson said about A.R. Fox signing with AEW). He deserves it. He’s been so good for so long and even back then, I knew it and I was just waiting for someone to pick him up.
When Arn Anderson did the ‘Glock’ promo on Cody Rhodes, Lee Johnson was present in the ring for it. He shared that he could not hear anything that was being said but found it hilarious once he watched it back and heard the exchange.
A funny story about that actually (Arn Anderson’s ‘Glock’ promo) because there was this meme going around where I was almost kind of straight-faced when it happened. I didn’t give much reaction. I couldn’t hear anything. So he does this Glock thing and I wanted so bad — I popped when I watched it back, but in the moment, I couldn’t hear anything that was going on so I was trying to focus so hard on listening. I was just like, I couldn’t hear. So I wish I had heard in the moment for sure.
For a period of Lee’s AEW run, he tagged with Brock Anderson. He stated that the best part of it was having Arn Anderson around and his knowledge at their disposal. Johnson added that it was cool to see Arn watching his son wrestle.
I think having the knowledge of Arn [Anderson] and then also getting to see his son work. Man, Arn and Brock [Anderson], I would say Brock is like his mini-me. They are just alike, they look just alike, everything, so, definitely having Arn there for us. I think having Arn there alone is the coolest thing, to have him as a manager. But then to see his son work and his son is — Brock is a great guy and Brock listens to everything that anyone tells him which is great. He wants to do as good as possible every time so I think for sure, having Brock and Arn was spectacular.
** At the STARDOM press conference on 1/5, Marika Kobashi appeared. She’ll be competing for the promotion going forward.
** Pro Wrestling NOAH has a show scheduled for January 8th. It’ll be free to watch on YouTube up until the fourth match.
** DDT Pro Wrestling Results (1/5/23) Itabashi Green Hall in Tokyo, Japan
– Antonio Honda & HARASHIMA def. Danshoku Dino & Yuki Ino
– Three Way Tag Team Match: DAMNATION T.A (Daisuke Sasaki & KANON) def. DISASTER BOX (Kazuki Hirata & Toru Owashi) and Yukio Naya & Yusuke Okada
– Yuki Ueno & Yuya Koroku def. Ilusion & Makoto Oishi
– Tetsuya Endo def. Hideki Okatani
– MAO & Shunma Katsumata def. Kazuma Sumi & Toi Kojima
– Chris Brookes def. Takeshi Masada
– Kazusada Higuchi def. Yuki Ishida
– Konosuke Takeshita vs. Yuki Ueno – Time Limit Draw (10:00)
** On Figure Four Daily via F4WOnline, Tom Lawlor discussed his match against Katsuyori Shibata at the INOKI BOM-BA-YE x Ganryujima event.
** Episode #33 of Xavier Woods and Tyler Breeze’s Battle of the Brands series:
** Liv Morgan’s appearance on ‘Sole Collector’:
** John Poz of the Two Man Power Trip of Wrestling podcast released his interview with Gerald Brisco.
** Jim Varsallone of the Miami Herald conducted an interview with Deonna Purrazzo.
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.
