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 AEW President Tony Khan’s appearance on ‘In The Kliq’, he was asked about the idea of Bryan Danielson competing in NJPW’s G1 Climax tournament with the caveat of the question being ‘this summer’. Khan does not know if Danielson could disappear from AEW TV for that period of time, especially if he’s world champion.
I’m not sure (if Bryan Danielson will work the NJPW G1 Climax this summer). I think, to be honest, I think it would be great in many ways but Bryan Danielson, it’s quite possible, could be the AEW World Champion and either way, I think it’d be hard for him to disappear from the show but especially as the AEW World Champion. I’m not sure he’ll be able to get away from the show that much and we’ll have to see what happens here coming out of Revolution with MJF versus Bryan Danielson for the AEW World Championship in the 60-minute Iron Man match there in San Francisco on March 5th.
He commented on the status of Kyle O’Reilly. He said Kyle is doing better and is overcoming multiple injuries and hopes he’ll be back with the company soon.
He’s been doing better (Khan said about Kyle O’Reilly). Hopefully, we’ll look forward to getting him back but it’s a number of injuries and a tough recovery and really, really miss him and hopefully he’ll be back with us in AEW soon.
Coming up in March, AEW will be hosting their Revolution pay-per-view in addition to TVs from the Bay Area. Khan confirmed that East Palo Alto native Powerhouse Hobbs will be featured that week.
Absolutely, you’ll see Powerhouse Hobbs out in the Bay Area. He’s one of the great homegrown stars of AEW and he’s a homegrown star out there in the Bay Area and we’ll feature him that week. We’ve got two shows at the Cow Palace and the pay-per-view at the Chase Center. It’s a big week, March 1st, March 3rd and March 5th.
** Coming off of his ‘Loser Leaves Japan’ match loss, Jay White was interviewed by Sports Illustrated. He discussed his time at the head of BULLET CLUB and said he always found it funny when people compared him to Kenny Omega. He thinks a lot of people wanted him to try and be like Omega.
I always chuckled when people compared me to Kenny Omega after I took over BULLET CLUB. I don’t think you can find two wrestlers who are more different than me and Kenny. I think a lot of people wanted me to try to be just like Kenny, but that’s just not me. If I tried to do that, I would have failed. I did it my way.
** Ahead of A&E’s ‘Biography: WWE Legends’ premiere, Jake ‘The Snake’ Roberts joined The Ringer Wrestling Show’s ‘Cheap Heat’ podcast. Roberts was asked about his relationship with WWE and says he has no hard feelings towards the company. He added that he feels they missed the boat on him because he still has a lot to offer.
I don’t see where we (Roberts & WWE) have any problems man. I work for AEW, but, I certainly hold no grudges, and if they do then that’s on them, you know? And I think if anything, they’ve missed the boat. I had a lot left to give, I still do, and now at AEW, I’m trying to teach the young guys how to do good interviews and we can certainly use that (Roberts laughed).
Circling back to the topic of the A&E series, Roberts has seen a screening of his episode and is happy with it.
Yes, I have. Yes, I have (seen my A&E Biography: WWE Legends episode)… Extremely (happy with it). It’s hard, it’s very truthful, it’s very raw but it’s real and that’s the only way I would do it.
** The latest edition of Cultaholic’s Desert Island Graps show featured Dirty Dango. He recounted being yelled at after saying a few words into a camera during a WrestleMania entrance. He explained that a friend of his, who he broke into the wrestling business with, passed away. They promised each other that if they ever wrestled on a WrestleMania, they’d say what they thought Shawn Michaels said into the camera while he walked to the ring at WrestleMania 14.
My best friend who I broke into the business with, he passed away and we both loved Shawn Michaels and when he came out at WrestleMania in Boston, he looked in the camera and he said something we thought he said. I’m not gonna say on here (the podcast). But, we always promised each other driving up and down the road, doing countless indie shows and driving up and down 95, ‘If either of us ever makes it to WrestleMania, you gotta look in the camera and say what we thought Shawn said when he was walking out to go wrestle Austin’ with Hunter and, you know, Mike Tyson as the ref. So f*ck, I actually make it to Mania. So I’m like, sh*t. Kevin passed away, but I gotta do it now so I wrote ‘Kevin’ on my wrist tape if you go back and watch and then when I came out with the girl dancing, I looked in the camera and said what I thought I needed to say and I spit out my gum and I got yelled at for it when I got to the back but I had to do it so, yeah, pretty cool story, right?
I mean it’s one of things and Kevin’s brother was watching and he got all teared up and I got yelled at but, whatever. No one can ever take that away from me so…
** One of AR Fox’s trainees is WWE United States Champion Austin Theory. Fox touched on his relationship with Theory while on the AEW Unrestricted podcast. He mentioned that Theory got him front row tickets for his match at WrestleMania 38 and Fox expressed how proud he is of his former student.
It’s just awesome, he’s insane (Fox said about Austin Theory), and (we) talk all the time and it’s just mind-blowing. He’s happy to be there (at WWE). It’s crazy, it’s just crazy. He got me front row tickets to his Mania match against Pat McAfee and he ended up getting Stunnered by Stone Cold so like to just describe it like that. We stood outside one arena where WrestleMania was being held one year and took a picture and five years later, he was one of the big billboards on that same arena… I’m just proud. It’s just crazy and we still talk a lot. It’s always exciting when we talk. He’s just telling me, ‘Oh! I think I wanna be doing this’ and all this stuff and I’m kind of amazed too at how — you know, I knew he would do good but he is doing really good. Main events, long main events too where he’s in control of top guys, beating them up and I’m just like, yo, that’s pretty crazy when you think about it and he’s closing segments a lot. That’s just crazy.
** Mickie James, Lisa Marie Varon and SoCal Val welcomed Kelly Kelly onto GAW TV. She discussed how the dynamic amongst the women’s roster was different in WWE when she was last there compared to when she was full-time. Kelly feels the division was more tight-knit during her full-time days and it seemed like the current crop of talent are doing their own thing.
It is different, it’s very different (Kelly said about the backstage environment in WWE). I feel like when we were there, all the girls, we were so close, tight-knit and maybe they are. I just know when we were there, it was just like everybody together, talking, sitting in the locker room, sitting down and then I feel like when I went back, no one was really in the locker room, everybody was kind of doing their own thing, which is totally fine but I just feel like we just were such a tight-knit group back then.
** Masha Slamovich was the focus of an interview conducted by Women’s Wrestling Talk. She told the outlet she believes she could put on a ‘legendary deathmatch’ with Sami Callihan.
I’m highly convinced that-that level of violence (deathmatch wrestling) is illegal on most television broadcasts but I think myself and Sami Callihan could put on a legendary deathmatch.
** On an episode of ‘Stories with Brisco & Bradshaw’, John Bradshaw Layfield (JBL) told a story of when him and Eddie Guerrero had to follow an Undertaker match which JBL described as tough to follow. JBL praised Guerrero for his strategy to start their bout which was to let the crowd calm down and get bored before turning up the in-ring action. Initially, JBL was focused on going out there and keeping the crowd at the level they were at.
I was working with Eddie (Guerrero) one time and Taker was on right before us and anytime Taker is on before you, a lot of times, there’s nothing left and that’s on purpose. It’s one of those, follow that (he laughed). I’m not gonna be on last? Follow that. So, he had one of the best matches, as he always does, tremendous match and I’m sitting there watching it going, ‘You gotta be kidding me. We gotta follow this?’ And so I get out there and I have all these ideas in my head. We’re gonna do this, we’re gonna go out, we’re gonna do all this crazy stuff. So anyway, I get Eddie in a headlock and I call this spot and he goes, ‘Nah, no, no. Sit here ese.’ So I sit there for a while, I call the spot again. I said, ‘I’m gonna take you outside.’ He goes, ‘No, no. Sit here ese.’ So finally, I realize what he’s doing, because I was so nervous of trying to keep the people up, I forgot to work, and I sat there in a headlock with Eddie. Start the match, main event match, following that hot match with Taker and I just sat there in a headlock forever. The crowd started coming down, the crowd started getting bored, crowd started getting a little bit listless and he goes, ‘Okay ese. Let’s start’ and we started doing our stuff and by the time we are done, they were all on their freaking feet and screaming and when I came back, I just hugged Eddie. I said, ‘Brother, that was freaking Picasso.’ That, to me, is working. That, to me, is the one thing — you gotta have the confidence. That takes a lot of confidence to sit there in a headlock for a long time with (a) hot crowd, knowing you gotta bring them down because you got 30 minutes and you gotta bring ‘em back up.
** The WWE on FOX YouTube channel released Ryan Satin’s sit-down chat with Bianca Belair. She detailed her journey to securing her pro card and being victorious in a fitness competition in December 2022. Belair said it was Bobby Lashley who recommended the organization she got her pro card in.
It does, it does (take a lot of time to get prepared for a fitness competition). I was in this space where, like I said, I just wanted to accomplish as many things as possible inside and outside the ring and I was talking to Bobby Lashley one day at TVs and I was telling him how I was getting interested in the physique world and the fitness world and he mentioned the organization that I got my pro card in and after you put an idea in my head and somebody tells me, ‘I don’t know if you can do that.’ Well now I’m gonna go do it and I did it and I did it during a rough time during like, I had the Ladder match with Bayley and we went to Saudi Arabia and we had the Last Woman Standing match and so having to train and find time to — I sometimes would get into my hotel at 1 o’clock in the morning. I’m at the hotel gym doing my cardio to get it in and meal prepping and it was rough but it was like a personal journey for me because we all know, I’ve been open about like, I’ve struggled with eating disorders and I had a very unhealthy relationship with food so I was like, this is a personal journey for me. I wanna see if I can face my fears of dieting and staying under control and I did it and it was like the most amazing feeling ever. It was an amazing journey for me.
** As a part of NJPW’s 2022 Super Junior Tag League tournament, KUSHIDA formed a partnership with Kevin Knight. He told NJPW1972.com that the formation of their team was a ‘happy accident’ and it was something that just happened from being around each other.
A lot’s happening at once. Like my team with Kevin Knight, that was all a happy accident in a way. After coming off my hand, foot and mouth disease, I was working to come back, and Kevin was there to train with me. It isn’t a teacher-student thing, it was the two of us both working to the same goal together.
KUSHIDA is one of the coaches at the NJPW Academy alongside STRONG Openweight Champion Fred Rosser. KUSHIDA feels that is the best role for him when it comes to NJPW of America.
At the end of the day, this is the absolute best role for me for NJPW from America, and I’ll be giving it absolutely all I have.
** The first 10,000 people to arrive to the Tokyo Dome for Keiji Muto’s final match event will receive a NIVEA sample set.
** SmackDown Women’s Champion Charlotte Flair is going to be the honorary race official for the DAYTONA 500.
** Cody Rhodes guest appeared on BBC Sounds.
** To promote Major League Wrestling, John Hennigan spoke to ‘In The Kliq’ and Mo’Kelly on KFI AM 640.
** Dylan Postl (Hornswoogle) recapped his history in Royal Rumbles and Battle Royals on his ‘Going Postl’ podcast.
** There’s an interview on the Ring The Belle YouTube channel with Candice Michelle.
** Zelina Vega is scheduled to be at the 2023 Crunchyroll Anime Awards on March 4th in Tokyo, Japan.
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.
