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 winner of the 2023 NOAH N-1 Victory tournament was Go Shiozaki. He is getting his shot at the GHC Heavyweight Title on 9/24. Justin Barrasso of Sports Illustrated interviewed Shiozaki and he spoke about winning the tourney and how tough and hard it was on his body.
It was a very meaningful fight for me (2023 N-1 Victory final). I respect him (Kenoh) a lot. Now that I have beaten him and captured the N-1 Championship, I have to show my maximum strength and lead NOAH into the future.
N-1 Victory 2023 was a very tough tournament, especially this time, because there were many international players and a larger number of participants. At the same time, the number of matches increased this year, so it was hard on my body to compete in a series of singles matches. It was very hard to keep that condition up.
** Speaking with Good Karma Wrestling, Skye Blue expressed how much she’s been able to learn from Toni Storm while being in the ring with her. She added that she loves wrestling Toni.
Definitely Toni Storm too. I have learned so much just wrestling her a handful of times. I love being in the ring with that woman, she is so talented and so amazing and she’s been all over the world so she knows so much about women’s wrestling…
** Joining Chris Van Vliet to record an episode of his podcast was Nick Aldis. When his departure from the NWA was brought up, Aldis stated that he’s done talking about Billy Corgan, adding that Corgan has shown people who he is.
I mean, look, you know, I’ve moved on, right? I have. There are people who work there (NWA) who I care about a lot, and I’m really, I’m really happy that my contributions to that company, sort of facilitated those guys earning a living. But, you know, again, there’s nothing I really need to say. The evidence is there for anyone who wants to look, you know? I’m sort of done talking about Billy (Corgan) and that whole thing… He’s kind of shown everybody who he is. And that’s unfortunate, but I’m certainly not going to spend any more time, you know, saying anything sort of denigrating about him or the company or anything like that. People can make up their own minds and it looks like a lot of them have and that’s pretty much it.
While in NWA, both Aldis and L.A. Knight were featured talents. Aldis is not surprised to see Knight’s success in WWE and views it as inspiration. He stated that Knight is on the run of a lifetime.
Look, it (L.A. Knight’s success in WWE) doesn’t come as any surprise to me, and I don’t think it has come as a surprise for anyone who has followed his stuff in the last few years. I see it as a great inspiration and there is hope yet. He’s literally on the ascent and it is the run of a lifetime.
** Prior to Kenzie Paige becoming NWA World Women’s Champion at NWA 75, she made the media rounds and was interviewed by Web Is Jericho. She dove into her relationship with NWA owner Billy Corgan. She shared how much he’s always believed in her even when she didn’t believe in herself. Paige brought up that Corgan signed her sister, Kylie. Corgan has spoken with their family and she feels their relationship is past wrestling as he cares about her personally.
He (Billy Corgan) really has changed not only my life but my family’s life. When I went to the NWA, mentally and physically, I felt I wasn’t ready to be there. To have a guy (with his status) take a chance on me not once, not twice, but three times, and put me on pay-per-views even when I didn’t believe in myself — that takes a lot. So obviously he saw something in me. Then to have my little sister get into wrestling and after a year — he also signs her, and he’s like, ‘I want you two to be together. I want you to help your sister and let her grow.’ It goes past business at that point, because he cares about my personal life and my family. He talks to my dad, he’s talked to my mom. It goes deeper than, you’re a wrestler and I’m the owner. He looks out for me and my sister. Especially with wrestling being a family business in all aspects of my head, that’s what I needed. That’s the comfort I needed from him, and I really appreciate that.
** The 8/18 Friday Night SmackDown saw Edge compete in his hometown of Toronto, Canada and it was the last match on his current WWE contract. Santino Marella told Refin’ It Up that he was at that SmackDown and got to catch up with Beth Phoenix.
She’s (Beth Phoenix) the best. I always say, ‘Beth is what you want.’ In any role, you want a good employee? That’s what you want. You want a good wife? That’s what you want. You want a good wrestler? That’s what you want. Beth is what you want. In any role you can imagine, Beth is what you want in a human being. She’s just the best. A mom? That’s what you want. I just saw her on Friday too when I went to SmackDown and she was there with the kids and my son Marko met her kids and it was a nice moment.
** A live edition of Colt Cabana’s Art of Wrestling podcast was recorded at Starrcast 6 and among the guests that joined the show were Maki Itoh and Taya Valkyrie. During Itoh’s block, she was asked what she wants to do next in wrestling and said she wants to wrestle with Jon Moxley.
Itoh: I want to wrestle with Jon Moxley.
Switching over to Taya’s interview, she spoke about spending five years of her career in Mexico for AAA. She stated that she felt protected for the most part because she had Penta El Zero Meido, Daga and Rey Fénix around and they went through that experience together. Valkyrie said there were certain places in Mexico that she could not go to because the cartel would be around, or she stood out too much.
Valkyrie: I think I just kept telling myself that (I felt safe when I was living in Mexico for five years). But honestly, after a while, for example, I always say this, me, (Rey) Fénix and Pentagón (Jr.) and Daga and all us kind of started in AAA at the same time so, I taught them English, they taught me Spanish and we all kind of became a little group and I felt very protected because we were all going through kind of the same thing and although I was just the weird blonde girl from Canada that was hanging out with everybody, but I just made it work and so we all kind of stuck together as a family and got through it. Obviously, there was a lots of times where there’s some sketchy stuff that happened or you’re at the border and there’s cartel and I can’t go to this part of Mexico because I’m blonde and I stand out and those things are real-life issues that I was very aware of but I did have people watching my back and I was not allowed to go certain places at certain times because of just the safety issues. But, overall, I felt fine, I kept telling myself. One day, there will be a book (she laughed).
** The latest guests to join Chris Jericho’s Talk Is Jericho podcast were Aussie Open (Kyle Fletcher & Mark Davis). Davis recounted the early days of Aussie Open and said he thinks Butch (Pete Dunne) was the first person who told them they should put their singles careers on hold and focus on tag wrestling.
Because we were just traveling so much, living in the same place and we were just two dudes from Australia, promoters were like, let’s put them together as a team, and it really just evolved naturally from there. I think the first person who said it to us was Pete Dunne. He’s like, ‘I think you guys are great as singles wrestlers but, you should forget about that for the time being and focus on this tag team stuff. So I think you have something here that people in this country don’t really have and people here aren’t really focusing on that as an act’ and so we just started getting used more as Aussie Open and it just became this natural thing. Our bond and stuff grew as the tag team grew and it’s just been this very natural thing. I think people have seen it happen in front of their eyes. People who have followed us at least from the United Kingdom and onwards and yeah, it just bloomed from there.
** Sam Roberts welcomed Riddick Moss onto a live recording of Notsam Wrestling. Moss looked back on his ruptured Achilles injury that he suffered in 2018. He called it a ‘blessing in disguise’ and feels he came back from it a better performer.
The Achilles, it’s gotten a lot better but you hear these stats about guys not being able to get back to their old form and so there was a bit of worry in that but, I think it was about 10, 20 minutes in, I was plotting out my recovery and I thought, you know, today is April and if I can be back by this point and we can start doing stuff before I’m even back and I was kind of planning it out and it actually, I think, it was a blessing in disguise because there are times in wrestling and anything in life where you can kind of just get too down in the weeds and get frustrated over the little things and sometimes you need something to give you some perspective and stepping back out of the weeds, the everyday of being in wrestling but also giving me something to just focus all my attention towards and not worry about what this guy over here does doesn’t affect my Achilles so I just could focus on my thing and then also kind of gain some perspective and I came back in a better mindset and I think actually, just being out of it, but watching and trying to learn, came back a better performer.
** As Ken Anderson (Mr. Kennedy) was speaking with the Attitude Era Podcast, he shared his thought that modern wrestling should go back to the Attitude Era style and presentation.
To this day, I feel like wrestling — personally, I feel like wrestling needs to go back to that (Attitude Era). I like the adult, sort of edgy. Not just salacious for the sake of being salacious but, you know, adult humor and I feel like everybody does the — and that goes for independent groups too — everybody goes for the family friendly stuff. AEW’s a little edgier but, I like to swear personally. I don’t wanna swear just because. I don’t want everybody to bleed just because but, I think if there’s a good use for it, you should use it.
** The latest guest on Developmentally Speaking was Dutch. The AEW/ROH talent looked back on his time in WWE developmental and recalled his name being thrown around for a season of NXT while the program was game show based. Dutch expressed that he feels he was signed to the company too young.
So I do remember, my name was being thrown around for one of the seasons of NXT when they were doing the game show on SYFY, like that type of stuff, and then it got switched to the all-female version. It was a last-minute thing where they were like, alright, we’re gonna make them all-female instead. Then after that, I think they stopped with that type of show and then eventually, FCW would transition into what NXT is today. But, there wasn’t any real discussion (about going to the main roster). If I knew what I know now, I would have done things way, way, way differently. But I didn’t really have the mindset, the political brain in the wrestling world to give my input or give my thoughts at the time. Looking back, I think I was definitely hired too young at the time. I wish I had a little bit more experience, but I mean, everything happens for a reason and I am where I am now because of the experiences that I’ve had over the last 14 years so…
** Episode #125 of Ryan Satin’s Out of Character podcast is a chat with Ilja Dragunov. He looked back on his time with wXw Germany. The former Unified World Wrestling Champion spoke about how much he grew in the promotion.
This is like my home promotion (wXw Germany). I have a lot of appreciation for every single person there. This promotion was a time where I completely made myself… All my matches I had there, I grew as a person there, I grew as a performer there, I learned a lot of stuff there, met a lot of people there. I think with my work through wXw, I had my first bookings outside in the U.K. and from there, probably my first booking in the States so… all my first big moments were in wXw.
** An interview with Colt Cabana is on the Developmentally Speaking YouTube channel. Cabana dove into the time when he was with WWE and pitched the idea of teaming with Charlie Haas.
And then they (WWE) tried me out as ‘Matt Classic’. I did a dark match as Matt Classic. That was a gimmick I did in Wrestling Society X. This was in OVW and I remember Dave Lagana was really pushing for it to get me up there and then, I don’t know if this coincides with it but Charlie Haas started doing something very similar, maybe even a month later and then I was pitching for me and Charlie Haas to do a tag team because I saw he was swimming in nothing and I was like, I always want to come from the bottom. I never pictured myself — and I remember David Lagana once said to me, ‘You gotta stop pitching these lowbrow ideas.’
** On October 8th, Shota Umino will be the focus of a talk show and there is going to be a match signing ceremony for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Title bout at NJPW Destruction in Ryogoku. Hiromu Takahashi is defending the title in a three-way against Lio Rush and ‘Speedball’ Mike Bailey. Both the talk show and signing ceremony are taking place at United Cinemas Toyosu in Tokyo, Japan.
** Guest appearing on The Babyfaces Podcast were The Street Profits (Montez Ford & Angelo Dawkins).
** MLW Middleweight and World Tag Team Champion AKIRA appeared on Straight Talk Wrestling.
** At Starrcast 2023, Knockouts and 3 Counts spoke to Masha Slamovich.
** New Japan Pro-Wrestling put their support behind technicians who fix up bridges in Japan.
** ROH World Tag Team Champion Adam Cole spoke to New York Post.
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.
