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.
** AEW hosted ‘The Firm Deletion’ which aired on the May 5th episode of Rampage. It was taped at The Hardy Compound and it saw The Hardys (Matt & Jeff Hardy), HOOK and Isiah Kassidy defeat Big Bill, Ethan Page, Lee Moriarty and Stokely Hathaway. Reby Hardy spoke about her cameo appearance while on the Drinks With Johnny podcast. She stated that she initially did not want to be involved. Reby was not expecting the positive feedback to the Twist of Fate she hit on Stokely Hathaway. She jokingly added that she feels the director had it out for Stokely. She recalled her children beating on him for three minutes.
Probably absolutely not (Hardy responded when asked if she’ll be making a comeback to wrestling).
I am in no in-ring shape. I have no business being near a ring. Up until the last second, literally they’re setting up the lights (for The Firm Deletion) and I’m telling Matt (Hardy), ‘You know, it’s cool if we don’t. I’m cool with not doing it. If you want to just do something else.’ He’s like, ‘No! No! We need you and we want you in it’ and it’s so funny because the feedback from people, of course people online again love to complain, ‘Oh my God, she has to insert herself in everything. Why is she in this?’ And I’m like, I literally wanted zero to do with this. I was not really particularly comfortable. I haven’t done dick in a ring for seven years so I was freaking out.
A lot of people said that (they enjoyed my Twist of Fate on Stokely Hathaway) and that was nice to hear because that was not the reception that I was expecting. I thought everyone was gonna be the majority of like, what the hell is this f*cking fat momma doing in there right now? (She laughed) But, it was cool, it was fine. The whole thing is ridiculous, right? So what, if I’m the part that needs to make sense then they’re really messing up somewhere else along in the story so… I swear to God, I feel like the director had it out for this guy (Stokely), because there’s the part that aired on TV which was about 16, 17 minutes and then there was like a 22 final version which is like the director’s cut. But even more than what was shown in the director’s cut which was still about 30 seconds more of just my children wailing on this man. It kept going. I kept waiting for him to yell cut and he’s just there — it was a good three minutes straight of my kids beating the sh*t out of this guy. Who did you piss off? What did you do? Because yeah, it was fun though. What an incredible night there and to have everybody involved just like the good old times, you know? When we did it in TNA, it was just us and the one baby which of course back then, I thought was hectic enough but now we’re wrangling four kids and my dad’s out there tasing people, Señor Benjamin so yeah, it was a family affair. It was a lot of fun though.
Later in the conversation, Reby shared that she’s writing a children’s book titled ‘Life of a Gothic Baby’.
I have actually written a children’s book. It’s called Life of a Gothic Baby. We’re gonna be starting pre-orders and it’s about inclusivity and sort of not having preconceived ignorant assumptions about people who are different from you. Really sort of embracing gothic and alternative cultures and different families because there’s not that much representation especially not in children’s literature for any gothic or alt family so, it’s all about that. Sort of embracing who you are and being proud and not judging people for what they look like.
** Joining Tommy Dreamer on his House Of Hardcore Podcast was Brian Hebner. The longtime referee shared that Shawn Michaels was unsure about him officiating his match against Kurt Angle at WrestleMania 21. Mike Chioda had to sell Shawn on the idea. Chioda is who Michaels preferred to work with but after the match, Michaels told Hebner that he had a bright future in wrestling.
Kurt Angle and Shawn (Michaels), WrestleMania, don’t know the number. I’m not good at that and don’t even know the location. But, that was a great match at WrestleMania, the best on the card that night in my opinion and Shawn wasn’t so sure about me being his referee that night because he was on Raw, I was on SmackDown and (Mike) Chioda was his referee and so, Kurt Angle really had to sell the fact that I was gonna be fine to him and then after it was all said and done, he was like, ‘You’re gonna have a hell of a future in this business kid.’ So it was pretty cool coming from Shawn.
Brian spoke candidly about how tough his father, Earl Hebner, could be on him in WWE. Earl was the lead official and would make the assignments and he put Brian on Sunday Night Heat and Jakked. After a while, Brian wanted to move up so he asked his dad to watch a match he was going to officiate. Earl picked at Brian using the ring rope to help himself up. Brian went on to pass that same information to refs he would lend advice to. Although Earl was tough on him, Brian feels it made him one of the better referees to have ever done it.
Finally when I started to get the gist of it (refereeing) or when I thought I was getting the gist of it, worked many, many house shows, many, many live events, many indies and finally got that break and was able to come to WWE and when I got there, my dad who was in charge of all the referees, making the assignments, he never put me on anything except for Heat, Sunday Night Heat, Jakked, all these shows they had that were not their big programs; obviously your Monday Night Raws or SmackDowns. So, one day I had thought I did a great job. I was already on Velocity and Sunday Night Heat for a year-and-a-half and I was like, alright, I’m tired of this sh*t man. I wanna go to the main roster and f*cking be on the main guys. So I really wanted him to look at this next match because I thought I had everything in my mind done and I felt like I did a great job and I came back to him and I was like, ‘So what’d you think?’ ‘Something wrong with your f*cking legs?’ I said, ‘What are you talking about?’ ‘Is it something wrong with your f*cking legs?’ And I went, ‘No, there’s nothing wrong with my legs dad. Why?’ ‘Well keep your hand off the f*cking rope. That’s what old referees do that can’t get up on their own. Let me do that. You need to hop up on your ass and just get up and don’t use the rope anymore. You’re still not ready’ and I’m like, jeez man… Everything else was fine but that one thing right there will make you or break you and then I’m like, okay, wow, alright. So we used to say, if you go back and watch any of my body of work, you’ll never see I never touched that rope and that’s something that I’ve now always taught David Spencer, you know who I’m talking about who often used it as well when I got to IMPACT and a lot of referees so I helped them with that as well because it is a very important rule because it’s lazy. Generally when you’re a referee, you’re usually in your 20s and 30s if not less. So you need to get up. You just need to get up. It’s just professional-looking and it’s just the way it’s supposed to be done. So, anyway, that’s just a small example of his hardness on me. But, I guess it was for a reason and in my opinion, that’s why I believe I’m one of the better refs that have done it.
** As Charlie Haas was participating in a virtual signing for East Coast Autograph Auctions, he said if he were to reunite with Shelton Benjamin, he’d love to share the ring with AEW’s FTR (Dax Harwood & Cash Wheeler) and The Young Bucks (Matt & Nick Jackson).
Man, if Shelton (Benjamin) and I get back together as a tag team, there’s a lot of great tag teams out there that I would like to work with, especially the ones in AEW. FTR would be great. Who else would be good? Never wrestled The (Young) Bucks, I’d love to wrestle The Bucks… and there’s a lot of great tag teams out there.
** During episode #79 of The Extreme Life of Matt Hardy podcast, Matt touched on his WWE Cruiserweight Title program with Rey Mysterio from 2003. It was relayed to Matt from higher ups in the company at the time, such as Michael Hayes, that it was the most interested Vince McMahon had been in a Cruiserweight Title match. Along the way, Hardy expressed how happy he is to see Dominik Mysterio finding success.
It’s funny because my wife actually just found this clip… Dominik’s first appearance on WWE programming and it was the match where I wrestled Rey Mysterio in Anaheim at The Pond and we’d had a program that had started in like February or so and then we worked at WrestleMania and I screwed him out of the championship to retain the title, and then we had a return match in Anaheim which wasn’t too terribly far from San Diego and it was obviously in SoCal and you know, Dominik (Mysterio) was sitting there ringside and I talked to him after the match, I remember that but my wife was like, ‘Oh! This is Dominik? The guy that’s wrestling now? This is Rey’s son?’ And all she can think about obviously is our kids, right? And so yeah, it was really his first notable appearance on WWE programming when I first met him and I remember taking pictures with him, you know, when I had met him before then. I posted one to Instagram a while back and we actually DM’d back and forth a little bit which was funny but real happy for him and real proud of how great he’s doing too. But that match with myself and Rey, I remember some of the people in the office like Michael Hayes said, ‘This is the most excited Vince has ever been for a Cruiserweight Championship match’ or whatever because we actually did a good number and he loved the match, he loved the way we did it, he loved the story behind it and Vince was also a fan of the Matt Hardy Version 1 character too so he dug that stuff and he was also a huge Rey Mysterio fan. I mean that’s pretty obvious too. He realized that Rey was something very, very special. That match did a lot for the cruiserweight division at that time.
The focus point of the podcast was The Hardys (Matt & Jeff Hardy) versus Sheamus and Claudio Castagnoli at WWE Great Balls of Fire. At the start of their 30-minute Iron Man match, Matt took a ‘Brogue Kick’ and was pinned. He was against starting the match off that way but Vince McMahon was adamant about kicking it off in that manner.
Vince (McMahon) was very adamant about that being the start of the match and I wasn’t a fan of it (Matt taking a Brogue Kick for a pin immediately). He wanted to put us in the hole right from the beginning. Vince was very adamant on that happening at the very beginning.
But just keep in mind, Cesaro (Claudio Castagnoli) comes at me and I’m distracted by him and we really haven’t established a legal guy yet and then I turn around and see what he’s doing and then I eat a Brogue Kick.
Not necessarily (the worst thing to put the baby faces at a disadvantage early) but once again too, I also know how people think. It’s just like, you don’t want to get beat within seconds of the match just starting. So I feel like sometimes characters need to be utilized a little bit stronger. I think you can put the babyface behind the eight ball but you don’t have to necessarily do it like that. But once again, Vince was adamant on that. We heard it over and over. I think I even threw something else in there to get it like, you know, 90 seconds in or whatever and he said, ‘No, I want it right from the jump.’ He was adamant about it… Because it was his idea and it was gonna happen because it’s his show and his world… He wanted us behind from the start and he said, ‘This guy, his tag team partner rushes you, you’re distracted, you don’t see it coming, the guy hits you with with his finish when you don’t see it coming’ and that’s why he wanted to do it and ultimately at the end of the day, I do what I’m told at work.
** While on Ryan Satin’s Out of Character podcast, Friday Night SmackDown ring announcer Mike Rome discussed if he misses doing backstage interviews for WWE.
You know, sometimes I do (miss doing backstage interviews for WWE). The days are just very different. When you’re ringside, one, I got the best seat in the house. Two, I’m checked into the entire show and I’m kind of like making sure it goes but when you’re backstage, it’s really easy to lose track of time and I don’t know, it’s not fully knowing what’s going in the show just because you’ve gotta go do this interview, you gotta do this interview and honestly, I got to be there at a really cool time. I did a lot of stuff with (Chris) Jericho and Kevin Owens backstage and Big Show was still there. A lot of those guys, (John) Cena, those guys were still there when I was backstage so I got to do some really cool interviews at that time and you know, I think I was there at the right time and then, you know, having transitioned to the next thing and I like it out there. It’s been fun.
** Guest appearing on Stories with Brisco and Bradshaw was Dory Funk Jr. Looking back on his days as an active wrestler, Funk Jr. said the money was very good in Japan. He added that it was like being world champion.
The money was very good in Japan (when I was wrestling). It was like being world champion. The pay was the same.
Now all of the Americans didn’t get paid the same. But on a tour of Japan, there could be four Americans. They weren’t all pulling money like former champions.
** STARDOM Results (7/9/23) Korakuen Hall in Tokyo, Japan
– Three Way Match: Fukigen Death def. Hina and Ram Kaichow
– Mei Seira def. Momo Kohgo
– Natsuko Tora, Momo Watanabe & Ruaka def. AZM, Miya Amasaki & Lady C
– Hazuki & Koguma def. Saya Iida & Hanan
– Mai Sakurai & Thekla def. Nanae Takahashi & HANAKO
– Saki Kashima & Ami Sourei def. Starlight Kid & Rina
– Natsupoi, Saori Anou & Yuna Mizumori def. Club Venus (Mina Shirakawa, Mariah May & Waka Tsukiyama)
– Tam Nakano, Mayu Iwatani, Giulia & Syuri def. Maika, MIRAI, Saya Kamitani & Suzu Suzuki
** Pro Wrestling NOAH ‘Sunny Voyage’ Results (7/9/23) Tama Mirai Messe in Tokyo, Japan
– Hi69 def. Taishi Ozawa
– LEONA & Yoshinari Ogawa def. Kai Fujimura & Super Crazy
– Seiki Yoshioka & Shuji Kondo def. Alejandro & Hajime Ohara
– Hideki Suzuki, Kazuyuki Fujita, Saxon Huxley & Shuhei Taniguchi def. Go Shiozaki, Masa Kitamiya, Mohammed Yone & Yoshiki Inamura
– Adam Brooks & Ninja Mack def. Dante Leon & Stallion Rogers
– G.L.G. (Jack Morris, Jake Lee, Tadasuke & YO-HEY) def. Go Shiozaki, Katsuhiko Nakajima, Eita & HAYATA
– GHC National Championship: El Hijo del Dr. Wagner Jr. (c) def. AMAKUSA
– Kaito Kiyomiya & Kenoh def. Daiki Inaba & Manabu Soya
** Dragongate Japan Pro-Wrestling ‘King of Gate’ Results (7/9/23) Edion Arena Osaka #2 in Osaka, Japan
– Kzy, BIGBOSS Shimizu, Jason Lee & JACKY ‘FUNKY’ KAMEI def. Masaaki Mochizuki, Susumu Mochizuki, Yasushi Kanda & Mochizuki Junior
– King of Gate 1st Round Match: Takashi Yoshida def. Problem Dragon
– Dragon Kid, Genki Horiguchi & Último Dragón def. B×B Hulk, Minorita & Ryoya Tanaka
– King of Gate 1st Round Match: YAMATO vs. Don Fujii (15:00 Time Limit Draw)
– H.Y.O, ISHIN & Shun Skywalker def. Dragon Dia, Yuki Yoshioka & Madoka Kikuta
– King of Gate 1st Round Match: Ben-K def. KAI
– King of Gate 1st Round Match: Kota Minoura def. Naruki Doi
** After IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion Hiromu Takahashi defeated YAMATO at Dragongate’s July 2nd event, Takahashi suggested the idea of tagging with YAMATO.
** New upload to Xavier Woods’ UpUpDownDown YouTube channel.
** Prior to losing the wXw Women’s Championship, Ava Everett was interviewed by Pro Wrestling Illustrated.
** Powerhouse Hobbs was interviewed by McGuire on Wrestling.
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.
