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.
** Joining Renée Paquette on The Sessions podcast was multi-time AEW World Champion Jon Moxley. Moxley shared that he inadvertently kicked off the conversation about Anarchy in the Arena that took place at Double or Nothing 2022. He said there were other parties that wanted to do another Stadium Stampede and he stated that he was not doing that.
That was the whole idea behind Anarchy in the Arena (at Double or Nothing). They wanted do a Stadium Stampede again and I was like, ‘I ain’t doing that.’ That’s how the conversation started anyway. It was like, ‘I ain’t doing that’ or whatever. ‘Okay, if I was gonna do it, I would do it once in one take, live in front of the whole crowd’ and that was Anarchy in the Arena.
Due to an AEW house show in Troy, Ohio, Moxley could not make his scheduled date for O.T.T. (Over the Top Wrestling) in Ireland. He was furious he had to miss that booking because he’d been advertised for it and some tickets were purchased because he’d been advertised. He added that he had no issue doing the AEW house show and he will make up that date for OTT.
If I do an indie show, now all the tickets are sold and the whole thing is built around me and they’re streaming it and everything. It’s like, I can’t just call off and so I have to go and then I have the commitments to AEW. The thing with O.T.T. the other week, I was f*cking furious about (that) just because — totally happy to do a house show. You’re telling me you’re gonna do a show and I only have to drive 90 miles to Troy, Ohio? Great. What better way to spend a Saturday night. But I was already booked on that day. It’s just this weight. The days I missed when I was in rehab, I missed a DEFY show and whatever else and a bunch of AEW shows and pay-per-view and having that weight on my back of a date I gotta make up, I feel so bad about it. I hate having that weight so now I still have to go to OTT. I don’t know. I probably shouldn’t even advertise it because I don’t wanna jinx it at this point. I’m just gonna show up one day. But I will make that date up. So, sorry about that unfortunate circumstance, fans in Ireland.
Further speaking on taking independent dates and AEW’s house shows, Moxley said he collaborates with indie promotions to send AEW talents there to get reps and added that he does indies for that same reason. He would like to implement some of those independent promotions into AEW’s house shows.
Another idea that I’ve been trying to do is just working with other indie companies and sending guys there on their days off. Like DEFY, REVOLVER, all these places and that helped a lot too for guys. Just to give them more — you know, wrestling on TV is completely different than not being on TV. I don’t do indies because they pay me a bunch of money or anything. I do ‘em because I want that extra practice to stay sharp, to try things out. There’s stuff I do on an indie show that I made up on the spot on an indie show that I did on TV and pay-per-view, where I was like, ah! It’s kind of just like a jam session if you’re a musician. Just pick up your guitar and start picking and see what happens. I need that so, that’s been kind of successful. It’s been something I’ve been trying to implement, you know? And with the house shows, if we could start doing more of those, that would be a good thing too.
There was a conversation about Texas Death matches and Moxley feels that has become a staple in AEW. He recalled requesting that type of match for his bout with Lance Archer at NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 14 solely because Archer is from Texas.
I’ve been kind of developing my own new style. I’m not saying I invented a style, but I’ve just been kind of coming up with my proprietary blend and a Texas Death match is the perfect example. We didn’t adhere to a formula in those Last Man Standing matches. Typically, you can have big, long (matches), they can be kind of slow paced. They do big stunt bumps and then everybody just lays there for nine seconds. What we have going in AEW with these Texas Death matches is a really cool thing because they are fast paced. It started with me and Lance (Archer) in Japan, because it was right before I went out to challenge him. It was just gonna be a No-DQ match and I asked him and Gedo just because Lance is from Texas so I was like, ‘Let’s just give it a different name, something cool.’ I was like, ‘What if I say Texas Death match?’ And Gedo goes, ‘Oh! I like.’ So we go out and I just said, ‘Texas Death match’. We didn’t even know what the rules were gonna be… Then after that, I went and looked up all the old school Texas Death match rules and it’s like, you get a fall and then the ten count starts which could be very drawn out. So me and Lance decided almost basically just knockout or submission and standing ten count, which was pretty unique for Japan because they don’t do those and the crowd got really with it, ‘Seven, eight, nine!’ So me and Lance did that in Japan and then Tony (Khan) had the idea to have a big night for Lance, Texas Death match 2 with me and Lance, another bad ass match, same thing, really, really fast paced. Not drawn out, big, long, slow ten counts and then Cowboy (Hangman Page) did one with Lance and he did one with (Adam) Cole and then me and Hangman did one. So I feel like that’s an AEW staple match now. It’s pretty cool.
While speaking about helping out backstage in AEW and giving advice, Moxley deep dove into his interest in Marina Shafir as a wrestler and feeling that she has untapped potential. He saw her compete at Bloodsport and wants to bring that version of Shafir over to AEW.
Marina Shafir for example, so much potential there. She’s the only one of her species we have at AEW. We only have one of her. I see her wrestling different than everybody, looking, talking, acting different than everybody because she has all these martial arts skills and judo, high level judo and stuff and MMA experience and she’s such a natural at so much of it, you know? She’s new at the pro wrestling stuff; the running and ducking and selling and bumping and all that but I seen her wrestle at Bloodsport which we got a Bloodsport coming up on March 30th… If you don’t want none of this Marina… She’d whoop my ass. But I seen her wrestle at Bloodsport and it was like she was a different wrestler that I’ve seen working on Dark and Elevation, stuff like that. It was like she was totally different because she was in her element. She wrestled Masha Slamovich, very talented girl and she’s wrestling barefoot and moving around and her footwork and her movement and kicks and everything was just like totally different because she was in her element and I’m like, we need to bring that to TV and that just brings a whole new kind of element to the division, you know? So, just a suggestion, I was like, you know, ‘You used to wear boots. In Bloodsport, you’re wrestling barefoot. I’m not saying you should wrestle barefoot. If you don’t wanna wrestle barefoot then don’t. I don’t give a sh*t, it’s all good, whatever. But I’m just saying, the fact that you were barefoot drew my eyes to your feet and it made me notice how good your footwork was and it made you look way more athletic. It added a whole new dimension.’ It wasn’t just like, somebody’s wearing blue boots and somebody’s wearing red boots. It just created this whole other dynamic to her. Lately, she’s been trying that out… I’m just trying to get her to loosen up and she has and she works really hard to work on these little things as she goes out there to get better every single time. I’m just trying to get her to be loose and do what she knows how to do. You already know everything you need to know. It’s just putting it where it needs to go and all these little things, you know? And that just takes experience. So one of the matches she had, I think it was with Athena. They actually had a good amount of time. It wasn’t just four or five minutes and once they hit the halfway through the match marker and they were in a good sweat and warmed up and started going, you saw her change gears and seeing that, that’s what I’ve been waiting to see and it’s still subtle and I can notice it but when they got into the zone and changed those gears, I was like, ‘Oh!’ It pumped me up. It gave me a high like I was in the ring. So that’s another good thing about coaching is I realize I could not be able to wrestle, but I can still get that same satisfaction and that same high by helping other people, bring that out of them. She had a match in REVOLVER I was there for with Billie Starkz and it was awesome and it gave me the high like I was in the ring. Like, ‘Oh my God! F*ck yeah!’ So I’ve been doing a lot of that.
** Guest appearing on Jemele Hill is Unbothered is Raw Women’s Champion Bianca Belair. Belair feels she’s currently the face of WWE’s women’s division and hopes to be in the Hall of Fame one day.
I’m still feeling like I’m just getting started. I feel like, yes, I am the face of this women’s division right now and it’s really cool and I get to walk out and I see the ‘EST’ signs and I see little girls dress like me, that look like me and I know that I’m having an amazing impact but I wanna just keep going with this. I feel like I’m just getting started. I hope to be looked at as a pioneer and be — I’m gonna be in the Hall of Fame one day, but I feel like I’m just getting started.
At this year’s WrestleMania, Belair is going to be defending her title against Asuka. She is more nervous for the upcoming WrestleMania than she has been for the past two because of what’s at stake. Belair could become the longest-reigning Raw Women’s Champion of all time. She then shared that she was more nervous for WrestleMania 38 than she was for 37.
I actually feel like this is my biggest WrestleMania yet. I know I main evented WrestleMania 37. I remember coming out of that and I remember going into WrestleMania 38 thinking, I’ll be fine, I won’t be nervous. I mean, I main evented WrestleMania my very first WrestleMania. If I did that, then I’m definitely gonna not be nervous for this one. I was more nervous for WrestleMania 38 than I was WrestleMania 37. So I feel like I’m gonna be even more nervous for WrestleMania 39 this year in L.A. but I feel like this is my biggest WrestleMania yet because there’s so much on the line. I could possibly go three-peat at WrestleMania and be Ms. WrestleMania. If I win at WrestleMania, I’ll be one week shy of being the longest-reigning Raw Women’s Champion and so I feel like everything’s on the line. I’m on the cusp of maybe becoming indubitably the greatest Raw Women’s Champion of all time. If I win, I’ll be on the mountain top but I’ll have everything to lose. If I lose, I almost go back down to the mountain top and all the work that I’ve put in for the last three years, it’s like, ah! I was this close but almost doesn’t count so, I feel like there’s a lot riding on this WrestleMania then I have to go against Asuka, who I’ve always considered one of the greatest women’s wrestlers in the world so, to me, I feel like I’m gonna be even more nervous for this WrestleMania. It’s huge to me.
** This Friday, Rey Mysterio is going to be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame. He told the New York Post about when he was informed by Paul ‘Triple H’ Levesque about the honor. One of the first things Mysterio said was he’s not ready to retire and Levesque assured him this was not that type of situation.
I was pulled aside by Triple H and he mentioned to me, ‘Rey, we would love to induct you into the Hall of Fame.’ It was very shocking to me. It was like, ‘Wow.’ I remember the first words that came out of my mouth were just like, ‘I’m not ready to retire.’ He’s like, ‘No, it’s not like that.’
** While Edge was on Sportsnet 590 The Fan, he listed off names he’d like to share the ring with in WWE. Among those named were Sami Zayn, Kevin Owens and Drew McIntyre. Edge mentioned Montez Ford who he believes will be champion one day. Above all, he’d like to get back in the ring with Sheamus.
I’d love to get in there with a guy like Montez Ford, because I really feel like his upside — yeah, he’s gonna be champ someday. I truly believe that. I’d like to get in there with Sami Zayn. We’ve never been in there together. I think that would be really cool, really fun too. Kevin Owens, we wrestled once in Madison Square Garden, non-televised, it was a blast. He’s another guy and I’m not just saying them because they’re Canadian (he laughed). That’s just off the top of my head. I’d love to get in there Sheamus, honestly almost more than anybody, because I feel like at this stage of our careers and with the stories we could tell now, the kind of match we could have now would be so much better than it would’ve been 15 years ago and he’s a guy that no matter how many years we’ve both been in the company, we’ve never had a one-on-one match and that seems crazy to me so I feel like that needs to be rectified. I’d like to get in with this incarnation of Drew McIntyre. It’d be good to get in there with Rey (Mysterio) again. I’m just having fun honestly. That’s the beautiful part about it.
He dove into having the chance to tag with Beth Phoenix at Elimination Chamber. Edge recalled years ago when Phoenix did not think she made an impact on the wrestling business and Edge told her to give it some time and she’ll begin to see the impact she made, as exampled by a talent such as Rhea Ripley taking inspiration from Beth.
Oh absolutely (it was an easy decision to team with Beth Phoenix). When I retired, we weren’t dating yet, so we didn’t start dating until, I guess, probably six or seven months after I retired and so that possibility was never anywhere, it wasn’t anything. The idea of me wrestling, I say that ship had sailed. It wasn’t on the horizon. It was like on the other side of the world. So, coming back was not even an idea. So the idea of coming and then also coming back and being able to team with her whom I’m now married and have children with, insane. There’s no way I thought that would ever happen but when it was first brought up to me, I was like, ‘Oh my God, that would be amazing. That would be so much fun,’ especially the first time we teamed was against Miz and Maryse and they’re the perfect foil, the perfect villains and then we get to do it again and we get to do it in Montreal and I get to see Beth, you know, face-to-face with Rhea Ripley and understand what that meant to both of them because Beth was one of the women that Rhea looked up to and realized, okay, you can be a strong woman and do this. You don’t have to just be a model. You can actually be a wrestler, because Beth was always a wrestler first and foremost and women like Rhea saw that and were inspired by that and I know Beth, for a long time, thought she didn’t move the needle or make any difference and I said, ‘You did. You just haven’t seen it yet. Give it five years’ and sure enough and then comes the Rhea Ripleys and Bianca Belairs and all of these women who are amazing athletes, insanely strong, great wrestlers and so for them to both be able to have that opportunity because of the storyline and getting to team, it’s a blast, it really is. Our kids could care less.
Looking back at his career, one of the matches Edge wishes he could have had was against Stone Cold Steve Austin. He said he was doing TLC matches when Austin was at his peak and he would have liked to see that version of Austin versus ‘The Rated-R Superstar’.
Steve Austin (is someone I wish I got to wrestle) … He was at the top of the card and we (Edge & Christian Cage) were doing the TLC matches. So our careers coincided but never at the point where there’s like I had become Rated-R Superstar and he was The Texas Rattlesnake, because I feel like that would have been really fun.
** In a profile about Bianca Belair, Charlotte Flair and Rhea Ripley that was published by ESPN, Flair revealed that she’s interested in doing a bodybuilding competition and is considering doing it this summer.
I would love, love, love to do a [bodybuilding] competition. I’m thinking about doing it this summer. I know what goes into it from a diet standpoint and how lean you get. How do I make that work on the road?
** Ahead of the AEW: All Access premiere, The Pop Break caught up with Britt Baker and Adam Cole. Britt spoke about her job as a dentist and said because of HIPPA laws and not wanting to get AEW or herself sued, footage was not recorded of her working on patients. She went on to share a story of Eddie Kingston seeing her in scrubs and coming to the realization that she’s actually a dentist.
So actually because of HIPAA Laws and I don’t wanna get sued and I don’t want anyone in the company to get sued, we didn’t do a lot for me with patient stuff. You’ll see there is still a lot of me being a dentist or me leaving for the dental office. It is very well represented that I have a lot going on and two of those things are being a professional wrestler and being a dentist. It will be a very real thing for fans to even see me in scrubs, like wow, she is a dentist. Some people say it but I don’t think they understand it like I do when I go to a dental office and I come back from work and wrestle. I don’t think they process it. For some reason when they see me in scrubs, it all clicks even on the roster. I remember one of the Jacksonville shows during the pandemic, I drove from work to where we were going to film Dynamite and Eddie Kingston saw me in scrubs and said, ‘Holy s***. You are a dentist.’ I’m like, ‘Eddie, you have known me for years. What do you mean?’ There is something about the scrubs, I don’t know if it gets people.
** At NXT Stand & Deliver, Tiffany Stratton is going to be part of the NXT Women’s Championship Ladder Match. Stratton appeared on WWE Die Woche and expressed that she’s looking forward to the match.
I haven’t really thought about that (what match types I’d like to be part of). That (Ladder match) is definitely something that I’m checking off my bucket list. I’ve always wanted to have a Ladder match and it’s my first Ladder match and it’s on one of our Premium Live Events so I think that is probably one of the matches that I am definitely looking forward to.
If Stratton had the opportunity to challenge for the NXT Women’s Tag Titles, she’d choose either Bianca Belair or Chelsea Green as a partner.
Man, I would say either Chelsea Green, or Bianca Belair (to go after NXT Women’s Tag Titles with). She’s one heck of a competitor as well.
** SANADA’s new signature move, ‘Deadfall’, was named by Akihiro Nanba, who is the bassist and lead vocalist for the punk rock band ‘Hi-STANDARD’. Nanba is a close friend of SANADA’s and he was present to see SANADA win the 2023 New Japan Cup tournament.
** The Daily Show welcomed L.A. Knight onto the stream:
** Kevin Hart welcomed Logan Paul onto his ‘Cold as Balls’ show.
** Atsushi Onita and Yoshitatsu are defending the AJPW All Asia Tag Team Championships on April 15th against Takao Omori and Black Menso-re in an explosion match.
** ‘Living Local DMV’ chatted with Rey Mysterio.
** A collaboration project with Pro Wrestling NOAH and the ‘Hokuto no Ken’ video game was announced.
** Santino Marella was interviewed by ‘Metro’.
** There’s a Q&A with Billie Starkz in Last Word on Sports’ wrestling section.
** NXT talent Tank Ledger joined Good Morning Football on NFL Network.
** Episode #683 of Vegas Bad Boyz Of Podcasting featured John Morrison.
** Justin Barrasso of Sports Illustrated spoke to Aubrey Edwards and Amanda Huber about AEW Heels.
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.
