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.
** An in-person episode of Out of Character was recorded with Alpha Academy (Chad Gable & Otis). Gable shared his thoughts about Endeavor acquiring WWE and the merger with UFC. He thinks it makes sense and expressed that he’s excited about it.
We had heard a lot of talks about the company potentially getting sold and stuff recently and you never really know what to buy into or what to believe because there’s just so many rumors. But I will admit that this partnership is not one that even, I don’t know, it didn’t cross my mind really, the way they announced it. But to see it, it makes a lot of sense. I think it’s gonna be a really cool, dynamic group and I heard the term ‘combat sports entertainment’ thrown out… and I’ve never even thought about that before or heard that but to me it’s like, the doors that-that opens and the possibilities, I think it’s gonna be a wild ride. I’m pretty excited for it.
The weekend prior to the announcement of the WWE-Endeavor deal, Gable and Otis competed in the men’s showcase tag match at WrestleMania 39 night one. Going into it, Gable thinks some of the public perception was that it was a match just to get people on the card. He added that they delivered and said do not be surprised if the showcase match at WrestleMania becomes tradition.
I think when that match got announced (men’s tag showcase at WrestleMania), a lot of people thought, oh, they’re just throwing this on the card to get a bunch of guys a match, you know, whatever, fair enough. But, we didn’t look at it that way. I think all of us treated it like, this is our chance, chip on our shoulder. We got a chance to prove something here that not only did we deserve to be on this show from the beginning but if they’re gonna do it and call it a showcase thing, that’s exactly what we’re gonna give ‘em and don’t be surprised if going forward, this becomes a tradition where they do this showcase thing because we showed them what we can do when they give us an opportunity like that.
** TV Insider caught up with Rhea Ripley and she told the outlet about what she has picked up from working under Paul ‘Triple H’ Levesque and Vince McMahon respectively. She said under Levesque, she built up her self-confidence and just being her true self on-screen. Under McMahon, she learned to be ready for everything because things can always change.
With Triple H, I built up my self-confidence, going out there and being true to myself. Reacting to things on the spot as I would and not just doing it to please people. I also learned about cameras and positioning and all the stuff people don’t think about. Presenting myself in a way that I am bigger than life… That if I don’t believe I’m the best thing there, nobody else will. When I went to Raw and Vince was in charge, the one thing I learned most was to be ready for anything. Be prepared 24/7 because things change so rapidly. It was sink or swim. Lucky for me, I definitely kept my head afloat and swam.
** While guest appearing on Busted Open Radio, Deonna Purrazzo stated that the most humbling experience of her career is getting released from WWE. She thinks because she had worked with the company on multiple occasions prior to getting signed, she went into the contracted portion of her time there with a ‘big head’.
I think it (most humbling experience of my career) was getting released from WWE and just having to kind of go back to the drawing board and figure out — we talked about it. ‘Do I even want to be a wrestler? Do I have a passion for this anymore?’ And kind of just having to pick yourself up by the bootstraps and be like, find my passion again and then find the ability to find my confidence. I had zero confidence when I came into IMPACT and you know, Tommy (Dreamer) and I talked about it, Scott D’Amore and I talked about it. I was this lost puppy that didn’t know who she was or what she could do and I needed someone to believe in me so I could maybe believe in myself and I think that-that reality is the most humbling of like, I’m not all I thought I was. I went into NXT with all this indie hype, but I’d just been able to travel the world and I worked with WWE in so many different ways up until that point that maybe I went in with a little bit of a big head like, hey, I deserve to be here. I proved I deserved to be here and it was like, b*tch, you don’t deserve anything and you know, that was the really humbling experience of like, okay, what do I do to prove myself again and find if I love this?
** Looking back on FTR’s WWE main roster debut in 2017, Dax Harwood said on his FTR with Dax Harwood podcast that he wishes himself and Cash Wheeler could’ve debuted in a segment with The New Day (Big E, Kofi Kingston & Xavier Woods) instead of a match. He added that it was still a great reaction and he considers it the second biggest reaction him and Cash have received behind their return to AEW at Revolution 2023.
I wish we wouldn’t have debuted having a match (Harwood said about FTR’s WWE main roster debut). I wish we would have debuted in a segment with The New Day and the reason is because we debuted in a match with The New Day. Even though we did win against the biggest tag team in the world and one of the biggest tag teams of all time, we had to play on an even playing field with them. It was an almost 50/50 match because they are The New Day. If we could have come in with that same reaction, the same energy those fans from around the world were giving us, but it could’ve been a segment or it could’ve been an attack or whatever, that would’ve been different. That would’ve been a different way to introduce us but we were introduced in a match where it was 50/50… But that’s just how I would have booked it. Anyways, it was still a great moment, still a great reaction. Our second biggest reaction now of all time behind (AEW) Revolution.
** The Australia-based World Series Wrestling promotion is ran by Adrian Manera. He was interviewed by Piers Austin and recounted when he received a letter from WWE’s legal team as he was putting together the first W.S.W. tour in 2005. Manera said in hindsight, the letter was ‘nothing’ as he had friends of his, who are lawyers, look into it. He shared a note that Matt Hardy was booked for a main event spot on the tour but he was brought back to WWE.
When I was putting together this talent (for the first World Series Wrestling tour), I thought, well I’m gonna need WWE names because, you know, that’s what the fans know. I thought, let’s get a holistic show that has sort of IMPACT guys, some Ring of Honor talent and so on and so forth so, anyway, I put together what I thought was a pretty amazing roster for what was around at the time and I just never forget my dad saying to me, this is when he brought up the, ‘If you’re gonna do it, do it properly or don’t even waste your time’ so, he goes, ‘Whatever venue WWE ran, you run the same venue…’ Just big kahunas, that’s all (Manera smiled). So, he goes, ‘Yeah, you want your fans to think it’s WWE coming back. This is what you need to do’ so, anyway, I took his advice and when I say I ran the same arenas, not quite. So we did Newcastle Entertainment Centre, we did Motorpoint Arena, which is massive, which I think is called Hisense Arena now and we did the Homebush, Olympic Park Sports. We had Test, we had Jeff Jarrett, we had Rhino, The Dudley Boyz, Gail Kim, all sorts of people. Anyway, long story short, promoted it, huge buzz, a lot of interest and back then, the internet, nowhere near like it is now. There’s no social media. I’m faxing contracts to The Dudley Boyz who were in Japan at the time and they’re faxing back to me at my office… I don’t even know how I pulled it off in hindsight. Just trying to communicate with people with the technology with the way it was back then but, long story short, tickets went on sale, first week, bananas, like a million times better than what I could have anticipated and I thought, f*cking hell. Here I am, 25 years old, 26, I’m gonna be a f*cking millionaire, look at me. I’m king dick. That’s honestly what I thought to myself, and I thought, thank Christ there’s other wrestling fans out there that wanna come and watch what I think is good and then during this time, during my negotiations with the wrestlers and announcing the tours and running the ads on Raw or on Foxtel and all that kind of stuff, the TV ads, I got a letter from the WWE legal department about something or rather and I just f*cking died. Like I just shat myself and in hindsight, it was nothing and I had a couple of friends who are lawyers and I said, ‘Hey, look at this.’ ‘Oh, we can go back and…’ I said, ‘I’m not f*cking going back mate…’ So I just thought, you know what? Not necessary. That was just something little so I had to amend something which was fine but I just thought, f*ck, they’re aware of me. How crazy? Here I am, this young f*cking 25-year-old guy having a crack and obviously, they don’t like someone stepping on their toes, you know? And then all of a sudden, I had signed Matt Hardy for that tour… because he was a free agent and then all of a sudden… Yes (he split from WWE at that time) with the whole Edge and Lita — yes, yes. So I had signed Matt Hardy for that tour. Anyway, and he was supposed to be in the main event with Jeff Jarrett then all of a sudden, ‘Oh, sorry dude. I’m going back to WWE.’ ‘Okay, no worries’ so then you know, that didn’t pan out.
** On the newest edition of The Sessions with Renée Paquette, Renée said she wants to chat with AEW/ROH owner Tony Khan about doing features on current and former staples of the Ring of Honor brand such as Nigel McGuinness, Samoa Joe and Claudio Castagnoli.
Here’s a thing I would actually love to do for AEW and for Ring of Honor, everything that falls under that umbrella, I wanna talk to Tony (Khan) about this because I would love to do features on people like a Nigel (McGuinness), like a Samoa Joe, Claudio Castagnoli. For newer fans that are maybe less familiar with their catalog, with why these guys are your favorite’s favorites. I would love to do features like that to just update — because there’s so many younger fans. If you weren’t watching however long ago, you don’t know — of course, you can see that these guys can still go. Nigel’s not wrestling but these other guys I just mentioned, you can see how talented they are, you understand why they’re great in the ring but to go back through their catalog and understand some of the rivalries they’ve had, how they changed what professional wrestling is. I would love to do features like that.
** Lucha Libre Online’s Hugo Savinovich chatted with nZo/Real1. In WWE, nZo was paired with Big Bill f.k.a. Big Cass and he hopes that when people look back on their team, people accept what they were able to do together.
I just had a great run (with Big Bill in WWE) and I hope that one day when the history books are written that people will accept what we did and the fact that we did it without politics. Just the crowd.
** On IMPACT Wrestling programming, Sami Callihan is having to go through stages to get into The Design (Deaner, Angels & Kon). While speaking to ‘Counted Out with Mike & Tyler’, Callihan commented on the storyline and responded to the question of if it’s weird for him not being the leader of the group like he was with o.V.e. (Ohio Versus Everything).
I don’t think it’s weird, I think it’s storytelling (Callihan said about being in The Design but not being the leader). What’s good about professional wrestling is professional wrestling is like nothing else on the planet as far as entertainment. It’s like melodrama, it’s action, it’s horror, it’s everything you could ever think of in one thing and I’m just saying, stick around and watch the story because IMPACT Wrestling, we tell stories. We are one of the rare companies that we tell a story from start to finish. There’s no ending it in the middle, there’s no forgetting about it like it never happened. We tell stories to the best of our ability and I think we do it better than anyone.
** There’s a feature story about Rhea Ripley that was published by British GQ. She recalled being part of the NXT invasion episode of Friday Night SmackDown in November 2019. Rhea was at the gym when she got the call. She got to the airport, was brought to the venue and went straight onto television.
We’re on the clock 24/7. We could get called to do anything at any time. When people on SmackDown got stuck in Saudi Arabia [in 2019], it was 12 o’clock, I was at the gym and I answered my phone to them [WWE] saying, ‘We need you to get on a plane right now.’ I was an NXT star at the time. I had to quickly go home, shower, pack a bag and head to the airport. We legit landed and went straight to the show. I remember Shayna [Baszler] getting off the plane, getting in the venue and running straight out onto live television.
** There’s a throwback video on the Jacobs-Prichard Wrestling Academy Instagram page of Edge, Beth Phoenix, Natalya, FTR (Dax Harwood & Cash Wheeler) and Kenzie Paige in the ring together.
** For the first time since 2019, Rey Fénix is scheduled to compete for the AAW promotion. He’ll be at their May 6th show.
** Keiji Muto (Great Muta) and Yoshiki Inamura’s vlog of their trip to California for Muto’s WWE Hall of Fame induction:
** Arab News was part of a media event that was organized for Mustafa Ali.
** Sports Illustrated’s Justin Barrasso interviewed Hiroshi Tanahashi.
** K & S WrestleFest hosted a virtual signing with Jake ‘The Snake’ Roberts.
** To promote NJPW Capital Collision and Collision in Philadelphia, Rocky Romero appeared on Wrestling Observer Live.
** Big Japan Pro-Wrestling Results (4/13/23) Korakuen Hall in Tokyo, Japan
– Chicharito Shoki, Kaji Tomato & Kazumasa Yoshida def. Kazuki Hashimoto, Kota Sekifuda & Tatsuhiko Yoshino
– Andy Wu, Ryota Hama & Yasufumi Nakanoue def. Kankuro Hoshino, Isami Kodaka & Yuko Miyamoto
– Fuminori Abe & Takuya Nomura def. Hiroyuki Suzuki & Yuji Okabayashi
– Barbed Wire Board Death Match: Masashi Takeda & Takumi Tsukamoto def. Mad Man Pondo & Necro Butcher
– Fluorescent Light Tubes Death Match: Hideyoshi Kamitani, Ryuji Ito & Yuki Ishikawa def. Abdullah Kobayashi, Daiju Wakamatsu & Kazumi Kikuta
** At the WrestleMania 39 media junket, The Jobber Tears Podcast spoke to Braun Strowman.
** Joining Bobby Fish on The Undisputed Podcast was former NXT U.K. ring announcer Andy Shepard.
** Liv Morgan goes sneaker shopping with CoolKicks:
** There’s an interview on the WhatCulture Wrestling podcast feed with Shelton Benjamin.
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.
