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.
** Longtime referee Earl Hebner joined Gerald Brisco and John Bradshaw Layfield (JBL) on their Stories with Brisco and Bradshaw show. Hebner recalled when a promoter in Toronto wanted him to come in and reenact the Montreal Screwjob finish within said promotion. He offered Hebner $5,000 and Hebner declined.
Hebner: This is no sh*t, a guy, some promoter from Toronto, I can’t think of his name, he called me up and how he got my number, I don’t know. He called me up and said, ‘I wanna work a deal like Bret Hart on my show.’ He said, ‘I’ll give you 5,000 dollars to come over here and do that match but I wanna do the same finish.’ I said, ‘It’ll take 10,000 dollars to bury me. I ain’t coming.’
Owen Hart’s name came up during the chat and JBL told the story of being sent to find Owen as his music was playing for his entrance. Owen was backstage on a payphone.
JBL: (Jack) Lanza told me one time, I was sitting there — because I love Jack, even when he had to get onto me. But I always loved it and he goes, ‘Where’s Owen!?’ And I said, ‘Jack, I don’t know.’ He goes, ‘Go get him! His music is playing.’ So I went and I finally found a Payphone Bank backstage and I found Owen on the Payphone calling somebody and his music’s playing. He can barely hear the person on the phone. He knows his music’s playing, he has to. So I’m sitting there and I go, ‘Owen, um, your music’s playing’ and he goes, ‘Oh, yeah, sorry.’ He goes, ‘Hey, I gotta go.’ He goes, ‘When did that happen?’ He goes right back to his phone conversation. ‘Owen, Jack’s gonna kill me if you don’t come. You gotta go now.’ Owen was awesome.
** During Jordan Oliver’s time in MLW, he was part of the Injustice faction with Myron Reed and Kotto Brazil. While speaking to Straight Talk Wrestling, Oliver shared that he hadn’t thought about it until it was mentioned, but he does think it was a missed opportunity to not do a match between himself and Myron Reed for the MLW World Middleweight Title.
I honestly hadn’t thought about it until right now but yeah, huge missed opportunity. Holy sh*t. Me versus Myron Reed on MLW for the Middleweight would have been incredible. I think now that he’s back doing more indies and stuff, we’ll probably wrestle a few times. Just because of what you said right now, now I’m thinking about it. I think people would probably think the same thing.
** Joining Bobby Fish’s Undisputed Podcast was Trevor Murdoch. The former NWA Worlds Heavyweight Champion told the story of when he was cursed out by Jun Akiyama after their match in Japan. Murdoch hit him with a stiff forearm that knocked him out for a bit. Akiyama eventually came to and afterwards, Murdoch shared that Akiyama said all his curse words in English so he could make it clear to Trevor how he felt about what occurred.
I remember my last tour of Japan — my first but it was the last night of the tour and was trading forearms with (Jun) Akiyama and the whole tour, Gator had been telling me, you know, ‘These Japanese guys, they hit you, you hit them back just as hard… Don’t give them an inch’ and the whole tour I’d been getting beat up. So the last night, I’m gonna stand tall, I’m gonna show Akiyama I can hang with you bro! And he comes in and just smokes me with a forearm and it knocked me off my balance so I came back and I just, you know, I gave him one right back. But that second one obviously was a little bit harder to the point where it knocked me off into the ropes. Well, I, being the young boy, not knowing my steps well, I came off the ropes and when I came in, he started coming in, I came in this way and that point caught Akiyama right here. Knocked his hands up in the air, took the Nestea Plunge and you know you screwed up when the whole Japanese crowd goes, ‘Ouuu!’ And I looked over at Bison (Smith) and I go, ‘What do I do?’ ‘Pick him up! Pick him up!’ And I picked him up and I got him in a chin lock and I’m just working it but the whole time I’m rubbing his neck going, ‘Please Akiyama, please. Please God, please’ and I feel his body starting to shake and he’s now starting to come to and realize what I had done. He just slowly gets up as he’s shaking, spins and gives me the deepest side suplex that he could have. I watched my knees shoot past my head and touch the mat. Drop me on my head, rolls out and you can see on the tape, he goes and tells (Akitoshi) Saito something and I’m sure it was something to the effect of kick his ass because Saito just comes in and he started lighting me up chest-to-back with kicks…
‘Kicks a little in there’ is an understatement and I remember at the end of the match, Akiyama came back to the locker room, cussed me in English, so I could understand how mad he was at me. Because you know how sometimes, Japanese guys, they get mad, they go off in Japanese and you can’t understand what they’re saying. He wanted to make it very clear how he felt about me and what he thought about me and for a man who doesn’t speak a lot of English, he knew a lot of English cuss words… ‘You too f*cking stiff motherf*cker.’ Sorry, I don’t know about the language on this thing but, he cut a promo on me. ‘Motherf*cker, too f*cking stiff! F*ck!’
** Episode #14 of Armbars & Sidebars featured a chat with Bateman. There was a point when Bateman and Brody King were a team. Bateman said there were a few times when King went to bat for him at several different places. He added that Brody is one of his favorite partners ever.
I still love him (Brody King), I still consider him family. He was also always very good for me, always tried his best. I know he went to bat for me several times in several places, so like, a real friend. Some of my favorite tag matches I’ve had were with him. Him and Andy Brown I think may have been my two favorite tag partners.
Looking back on the earlier days of his career, Bateman recalled not being comfortable on the microphone and he planned on not speaking at all. He felt he was not good on the mic and lacked self-confidence in that department.
No. Not even a little bit (was I concerned with promos when I started training). Promos, I was so bad. You could argue I’m still not great at it but I was so bad at talking. My plan was to never speak. That was actively my plan. I was just going to find a way to just never have to talk… Yes (I was terrified & did not have self-confidence). So those hands are perfectly intertwined right there, absolutely. One, I wasn’t good at it and I never really had the confidence for it. I got more confidence as I got older.
** The latest pre-NJPW G1 Climax interview to be released is with two-time GHC Heavyweight Champion Kaito Kiyomiya. He told the site that he wants to beat Kazuchika Okada in the tourney finals.
Well, (Kazuchika) Okada. Gotta be. I have to beat Okada, and I want to do it in the (G1) final.
Kiyomiya is in the A block and said he’s focused on taking out IWGP World Heavyweight Champion SANADA.
Maybe so (there’s a lot of youth in the A block), but all I’m looking at in the block is SANADA… Obviously, I have to be here to take out the IWGP World Heavyweight Champion, and that’s SANADA.
** Guest appearing on the Insiders Edge podcast was Lindsay Snow. She recalled her first match in wrestling being against Brandi Lauren. Brandi stepped up to face her after Snow was having trouble lining up opponents because of her background in jiu-jitsu.
Oh man, my first match was against Brandi Lauren and she was like the only girl that would wrestle me. Everybody was scared to death of me because I had this reputation being from jiu-jitsu that a lot of people were intimidated by that and so a lot of girls thought that I wasn’t gonna be able to work, so they didn’t wanna work me. So, Brandi, she stepped up to the plate. Thankful for her because without Brandi, I wouldn’t be here today. I thank her all the time. I still talk to her; I have her name tattooed on me (she laughed). But Shotzi actually did (it) so it’s pretty funny and I tattooed, ‘I heart Brandi’ on Shotzi.
** On September 6th, members of NJPW’s CHAOS faction are hosting a ‘secret meeting’. Kazuchika Okada, Tomohiro Ishii, YOH, Toru Yano, Hirooki Goto & YOSHI-HASHI will be present. It’ll be at the Kojimachi Fire Station in Tokyo, Japan. NJPW will not be providing highlights of the event when or after it happens. Tickets go on-sale July 13th.
** Daily Mail Online’s chat with Matt Hardy.
** Ahead of Kento Miyahara and Katsuhiko Nakajima’s singles match at NOAH’s July 15th event, NOAH’s website pushed out their chat with Nakajima.
** July 11th birthdays: MCW’s Nick Armstrong, James Castle, Jeff Cobb & T.J. Wilson.
** Lucha Libre Online’s chat with WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions Liv Morgan and Raquel Rodriguez.
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.
