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.
** The ‘Wrestling With Honor’ platform conducted a Q&A with Minoru Suzuki. Suzuki told the outlet that he wants to become IWGP World Heavyweight Champion and it is one of the reasons why he’s still competing for New Japan Pro-Wrestling.
Of course, I’m still aiming for IWGP. That is one of the reasons why I continue to fight in New Japan Pro-Wrestling.
When asked about the most significant moments from his career that he can recall, he listed meeting and training with Yoshiaki Fujiwara and Karl Gotch and closed by saying the most important thing is that he’s still alive as a wrestler.
I am proud to have met Yoshiaki Fujiwara and practiced with him… I met Mr. Karl Gotch, practiced with him, learned a lot from him, and most importantly became friends… And the most important thing is that I am still alive as a wrestler.
Suzuki thinks there is plenty for him left to do in wrestling, one of which is having a match against Chris Jericho. They teamed up at AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door.
I think there are still many more (things I can do in pro wrestling). But I hope in the near future, I can fight Chris Jericho.
** Joining Renée Paquette on The Sessions podcast was ROH Women’s World Champion Athena. She reflected on it almost being a full year since she debuted for All Elite Wrestling. She feels she has done more in AEW/ROH than several years of her time in WWE. Athena added that there are people who want to see Ring of Honor fail just to throw that in Tony Khan’s face.
It’s wild, it’s crazy (that I’ve been with AEW almost a full year). I think I actually had this kind of reflection a couple days ago. Well, the week before just the chaos ensued of last week. It was just like, I haven’t even been here a year yet. This is just everything that I’ve accomplished. I feel like I’ve done so much since I’ve been with AEW, since I’ve been with Ring of Honor that I’m like, this is more than what I’ve done in two, three years at WWE I feel like as far as character development, as far as having these matches every single week, day in, day out, just being a little snarky asshole at times on TV which I thoroughly enjoy.
It’s really cool to kind of sit back and just — this week in particular because I don’t think I’ve had a week like this in my career just like ever. Just going from Emi (Sakura) to Yuka (Sakazaki) and now I’m going to Miyu (Yamashita). It’s humbling, it’s anxiety-driven and it’s just like, I have a division on my shoulders and just that pressure is on to deliver because I think a lot of people do wanna see Ring of Honor fail. I think they wanna be the, ‘I told you so Tony’, told you so guys and just the talent here is not willing to let that happen so of course that pressure is on that not only do we want to be in the conversation of a Dynamite, of a Rampage, of a Raw, of a SmackDown but not only that, we wanna be above that. So it’s just the entire locker room feels that way and just going into it, we were like, ‘We gotta do this.’ ‘What are you doing? Hell yeah!’ ‘You go and do it’ and it’s fun, it’s awesome.
After Athena’s program with TBS Champion Jade Cargill, she felt lost for a bit but was glad there were options like Dark and Dark: Elevation. She doesn’t know if she’d mentally be able to come to work and not do anything. Athena described it as ‘WWE PTSD,’ the thought of being in catering for months at a time without performing.
When I full boar got here (AEW), I was still the good guy, I still had a couple of really good promos in there with Jade (Cargill) and then it became, okay, thank you for that. We’ll call you when we have something but, here’s Dark and then it became, okay — the entire time I was like, what can I do? And I just felt lost for a while. I was like, no one’s telling me I’m doing a bad job. Everyone’s like, ‘You’re great! You’re doing great!’ And I was like, why? What is happening? And it’s almost a little bit of that WWE P.T.S.D. that seeps in of like, am I gonna be in catering for four months? Oh my God! The benefit is I love the fact that when I come to work, I always have something to do whether it’d be Dark, Dark: Elevation, Rampage, whatever. I love that about this job because I don’t know if I can mentally come to work and not do anything. That would probably kill me more than anything else.
** Ryan Satin welcomed Damian Priest onto his Out of Character podcast. The interview was conducted the night after WrestleMania 39 night one and Priest weighed in on Dominik Mysterio’s entrance. He described it as ‘incredible’ and said he was laughing the whole way through.
I have no idea where that came from, but incredible (Dominik Mysterio’s WrestleMania 39 entrance). I was in tears laughing so much by the end of the video and then he actually has to make his entrance which was also awesome, so over the top but it’s Mania, that’s what we do and very fitting. I’ve never seen Dom look tougher than he did in that video package.
The next Premium Live Event for WWE is Backlash in Puerto Rico. Priest spoke about his excitement for it and said he’s been throwing that idea out there for quite some time.
That definitely would make up for it (Priest feels competing at Backlash in Puerto Rico would make up for not competing at WrestleMania 39). Wherever you’re from, whether it’s a different country or you just get to do something special there in front of your family, your friends and people who are proud to say they’re from the same place you are, it’s extra special so going back to Puerto Rico and having a Premium Live Event there, hasn’t been done since like what? ‘05 I think? It’s wild to think that this is happening. I’ve thrown comments a lot since I’ve been here in the last few years like, ‘Hey, any opportunities to do something in Puerto Rico? We should probably do something out there. It’s a lot of fans there’ and just keep pushing and pushing and finally, the decision was made for Backlash and SmackDown which is awesome so, two televised events back-to-back and it’s awesome where the company is right now. This is what we’re doing. We just did Clash at the Castle in Wales and Backlash in Puerto Rico coming up and then we got Money in the Bank in London. It’s awesome, we’re moving, you know? We’re moving.
** On the IMPACT Wrestling x NJPW Multiverse United show, Lio Rush went one-on-one with KUSHIDA. As KUSHIDA was making the media rounds, he spoke to Lucha Libre Online and reflected on that bout. He was happy to face Lio, called him unique and he’s someone KUSHIDA admired.
I think Lio (Rush) is very talented and a unique wrestler and that he’s one of the wrestlers that I admired. I moved from Orlando to L.A. one year ago. The difference, a lot of difference like heavyweights and junior heavyweights, men and women… Now I can see everybody equally and Lio is one of the special wrestlers so I was very happy to fight with him.
In another interview, KUSHIDA told the Paltrocast that he wants to win the IMPACT Tag Team Titles with Kevin Knight and defend them against Motor City Machine Guns (Alex Shelley & Chris Sabin). That would be a dream match for KUSHIDA.
So I like to do a lot of things at the same time so I want to bring Kevin Knight to IMPACT Wrestling, then we will get IMPACT World Tag Team Championships, then defense against Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin, Motor City Machine Guns. This is my dream match.
** When Chris Jericho looks back on the six-match stretch he had in New Japan Pro-Wrestling, he thinks his match with Hiroshi Tanahashi is his favorite out of them all. He expressed to Monthly Puroresu how easy it is working with Tanahashi.
I’d have to say the Kenny (Omega) match was amazing (in NJPW). I loved it. I think the Tana match was my favorite of the six that I did there. Because just, anything about Tanahashi… he’s so, so f–king good. Like, he’s so good. He is one of one. And Kenny is too! Don’t get me wrong. Two different ways, two different types of guys. And, f–king Tanahashi was so good man… It was so easy. But what a match we had – even though nothing crazy went down, just a special match.
** While at the WrestleMania 39 press junket, GiveMeSport caught up with Chad Gable. He’s perfectly happy continuing his tag team with Otis and is also interested in seeing what he can do as a singles. Gable feels he’s explored all he can as a tag wrestler.
We’re (Alpha Academy) in a very cool spot. We’re still a team, but they’re also using me in these singles matches, giving me some of the top guys in the company. I’m perfectly happy continuing as it is. Long-term, I’ve explored everything there is to do in tag wrestling, so I do want to see what I can do as a singles wrestler.
** On the newest edition of AEW Unrestricted, Kip Sabian dove into the formation of his on-screen persona when he was wearing a box over his head and sitting front row at AEW events. Sabian took inspiration from Shia LaBeouf and Halloween (Michael Myers) movies. He described it as a ‘serial killer-esque’ persona. He recalled wanting to write ‘not over anymore’ on the box but had a self-realization moment and said he was not that over to begin with.
I’m a big fan of the acting ability of Shia LaBeouf. Now, there’s a stunt that Shia did where it was for the red carpet for, I think it was Nymphomaniac was the movie and he turned up on the red carpet with a bag on his head that said, ‘I’m not famous anymore’ and he just stood there silently and it was like life art and I remember at the time, I was like, this is great. I don’t understand it but I like it. So then I did more of a deep dive into Shia and what he was doing with this life art stuff and I was like, ‘Man, that’s pretty cool. Maybe I’ll do that.’ Fast forward, I’m planning this serial killer-esque character. I’m a big fan of Halloween as well. I like Michael Myers. These shots that they use in Halloween, I think it’s some of the greatest — in my mind, it’s the greatest horror movie of all time for simplicity reasons only that all of the fear that you have is from a background shot of a dude just standing there. They can’t see him but we can see him. I love stuff like that. I was like, ‘Man , what if I could do this?’
I’m like, ‘Man, what could I write on this box?’ So I’m like, ‘Okay, Shia had, I’m not famous anymore.’ So I was like, ‘Ah, I can put I’m not over anymore’ and then I had a self realization of, you know what? I wasn’t really that over anyway. So I don’t think writing that — I’m already working out the jokes that can come back at me from this so I’m like, okay, how do I really feel? And I was like, do you know what? I feel like I’m severely underrated in the world of wrestling on a grand scale and you know what? I’ve had enough. So, I literally wrote ‘underrated’ and then I was like, I’m over it and I wrote it.
** As Jerry Lynn was doing a virtual signing for K & S WrestleFest, he shared a memory of the late New Jack. Before an ECW show, New Jack showed up at the venue and started chasing people with a chainsaw.
Memories of New Jack, I’ll just say, I’m glad I was on New Jack’s good side (Lynn laughed). I’ll never forget, I think we were in Cleveland and he showed up at the building. It was early, Lance (Storm) and I got there early and part of the parking lot was gravel and he showed up in a pickup truck with some gal and just checking in and then he decided, he said he was gonna go to the bar and when he left, I think he showered just about everyone’s rentals with gravel peeling out of there. But he came back, probably a couple hours later and came running in the building with a chainsaw running and started chasing people, and so I just high-tailed it from the ring all the way to the opposite side of the building and I thought if he trips with that chainsaw running, someone’s losing a limb.
** Ahead of Jake Lee defending the GHC Heavyweight Championship against Katsuhiko Nakajima on April 16th, NOAH conducted an interview with Lee. He commented on the upcoming title defense and mentioned that it’s something he’s talked about since joining NOAH.
It’s something I’ve talked about since the beginning of my entry. ‘Why?’ Of course you wonder, right? But you can tell by looking at Nakajima, right? He is good, strong and scary. He has the strength of a traditional pro wrestler and the skill and strength of a modern pro wrestler, and he embodies them at his age. That’s what you’re supposed to be seeing all the time. I’m checking out his techniques, his eye movement, his shoulder movement, and so on. I want to fight. I want to see how it will be like, what kind of fighter he is. Watching and fighting are completely different. As for the title match, no one wants to lose. More than that, I would like to see what kind of history Katsuhiko Nakajima has made and what kind of history he will make in the future. This may be a turning point for him. It is the same for me. I think that I can say that because I have been watching for a long time.
After Lee captured the GHC Heavyweight Championship, it was revealed that Tadasuke and YO-HEY joined his stable, ‘Good Looking Guys’, which consists of Jack Morris and Anthony Greene. He commented on them being added to the group:
Oh, there were more (members to Good Looking Guys). I just noticed that they were next to me. There’s no reason to reject guys who want to join or play with us, and we’re both cool. They are both cool, and I thought they could use their weapons and strengths as weapons.
** NJPW Road to Sakura Genesis (4/6/23) Tokorozawa Municipal Gymnasium in Tokorozawa, Japan
– Ryusuke Taguchi, Ren Narita, El Desperado & Minoru Suzuki def. House of Torture (Dick Togo, SHO, Yujiro Takahashi & EVIL)
– BULLET CLUB (El Phantasmo & Taiji Ishimori) def. Shingo Takagi & BUSHI
– Shota Umino def. Ryohei Oiwa
– Zack Sabre Jr. def. Oskar Leube
– United Empire (Aaron Henare, Great-O-Khan, Jeff Cobb, Kyle Fletcher & Mark Davis) def. Tomoaki Honma, Toru Yano, Tomohiro Ishii, YOSHI-HASHI & Hirooki Goto
– Tetsuya Naito & Hiromu Takahashi def. TMDK (Robbie Eagles & Akio Fujita)
– Just Five Guys (SANADA, Yoshinobu Kanemaru, Taichi, DOUKI & TAKA Michinoku) def. Kazuchika Okada, Hiroshi Tanahashi, Master Wato, YOH & Tiger Mask
** For Kenoh’s 15th anniversary show that Pro Wrestling NOAH is hosting in June, Kenoh’s personal YouTube channel is going to be in the tagline for the event. It’ll be ‘Kenoh Channel presents…’
** A new season of Battle of the Brands on the UpUpDownDown YouTube channel is up.
** There’s an interview with Dominik Mysterio on the Rio Rancho Observer site.
** April 6th birthdays: Arisa Nakajima & Hektor Invictus.
** NJPW1972.com pushed out their chat with Robbie Eagles.
** The written version of Pro Wrestling NOAH’s written interview with Katsuhiko Nakajima is at this link.
** NBC 10 WJAR has an interview with Mark Henry on their YouTube channel.
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.
