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.
** Armon Sadler of the Stay Busy podcast welcomed new WWE signee and former AEW TBS Champion Jade Cargill onto the show. When asked about her 2023 AEW Double or Nothing entrance featuring her line sisters from the A.K.A. sorority, she said she’d like to do something like that again. Cargill looked back on that entrance and recalled telling her line sisters that if the crowd did not understand, do not worry about it because it’s a moment for them as members of their sorority.
I would love to do that (recreate similar entrance from AEW Double or Nothing 2023). One thing I did like doing was integrating wrestling with The D-9. Why not? I was trying to get everybody from The D-9 out there. I just obviously got A.K.A. because I’m a part of the sorority but I wanted us all to be out there because people don’t know what that is in this industry. So I was trying to open the eyes of a lot of people and before I went out there, one thing I said to all my line sisters was, ‘Hey, this is a moment for us. If they don’t understand, that’s fine. It’s about us right now and we’re gonna make some names and people are gonna know who we are because they’re gonna sit back and say, what is this? What’s going on?’ But I didn’t care about all that. I wanted to make my sorority proud, I wanted to represent because that’s a big part of my life. It’s not something easy. You gotta dedicate a lot of time and service and gratitude to (it) and so I just want everybody to see how proud I am to be a part of a stellar sorority.
** On his Grilling J.R. podcast, Jim Ross recalled communicating with Stone Cold Steve Austin about creative ideas and how Austin could be challenging to present ideas to. This specific portion of Austin’s career that Ross is speaking about is Austin’s non-wrestling role in the early 2000s. He said Austin always knew what he liked and did not like, but the issues arose when Austin was asked for his ideas and he did not always have those readily available.
No, I don’t think he (Steve Austin) was just happy to be there (in WWE in his non-wrestling role), whatsoever. I think he was challenging to present creative to. Steve’s the kind of guy, he can tell you right off the bat, what he liked, or more specifically, more often, what he didn’t like. The negative at times was he didn’t have a better idea. He knew what he wanted when he heard it and he was very good at that. His instincts were phenomenal. His downfall if there is one with Stone Cold and you kind of gotta look for it because it’s not that readily available is, ‘Okay, then what’s your idea?’ And he didn’t have that. That was not his forte. Well he damn sure could execute what he believed in as we saw with numerous occasions. But he was challenging to book for. We’d done so much with Steve. Steve just needed a hot heel to work with and to get in the ring with and to do his thing and sometimes, that didn’t materialize. But make no doubt about it, he is the number one guy that everybody was trying to create for, come up with an idea. But it wasn’t easy with Steve because like I said, we had done so much. What more can you do? What other vehicles can you drive to the arena or in the back or whatever? How many Corvettes can you trash? How many Zambonis can you drive? All those things so, it was always challenging because the creative prior to this was absolutely tremendous. So I think that’s where his frustration came from. ‘How come I don’t have any ideas like those?’ Well those just don’t come automatically, and it’s challenging. But he could take a little something that he liked and make it really, really good and I thought his work with (Eric) Bischoff was outstanding. Bischoff was a very, very good villain.
** At AEW WrestleDream, Bryan Danielson is going one-on-one with NJPW World Television Champion Zack Sabre Jr. Seattle, Washington outlet, The Stranger, ran a piece on Bryan and he said he feels he’s never had a really great match in Seattle. The Washington state native said whenever he was there with WWE, he wouldn’t be doing much.
One of the things that escaped me my entire career was I’ve never felt like I’ve had a really great match in Seattle. The whole time I was in WWE, whenever we’d come to Seattle, we would really just kind of be doing nothing. I’m really looking forward to this as being my first real chance to have a really great match and in front of what, to me, is my favorite crowd to wrestle in front of in the entire world.
** The newest episode of ‘Wrestling is Life is Wrestling with Cody Deaner’ was part two of his conversation with Steve Maclin. The former IMPACT World Champion dove into his transition from WWE to IMPACT and getting past the point of feeling like he was on eggshells like he was at WWE. Maclin said he noticed the same mannerisms from Trinity Fatu when she first joined IMPACT. He approached Trinity and told her to not worry herself and she was going to do great.
The only difference was just getting past that point of not walking on eggshells (in IMPACT like how I was in WWE).
And I didn’t realize too until Trinity (Fatu) came in and I saw her face and I saw the look she had before she debuted, just her mannerisms. Hey listen, I was like, ‘I’ve been where you’re at.’ I was like, ‘My bit of advice, don’t give a f*ck. Go out there and just be you. You’re gonna go out, you’re gonna kill it and if something is wrong, they’re gonna tell you and they’re not gonna bury you for it. They’re just gonna tell you, hey, maybe try this or maybe don’t do this’ and it was just one of those moments where it was just cool to see that on the opposite spectrum.
Looking back at Maclin’s time with the NXT brand, he admitted that it was frustrating seeing younger people come into NXT after him and get called up to the main roster before he did.
It’s motivation and it’s also at the same time, sometimes you get a little angry and it’s more the anger was at the younger people that were coming in after me (in NXT), where I’d work their tryout and then they’re getting called up within a year-and-a-half. I’m just sitting there, ‘Wait a minute. What’s going on?’ But then at the same time, that’s when you learn that this is the business. This is an entertainment business, there’s a role for everyone. If you’re not fitting that mold… You just gotta find whatever your mold is, your niche that gets you to where you need to go and that’s just one of those things. It’s not our show. Control, again, what you can control, you do your best and you learn and that’s what helped me in WWE was getting to where I am now with IMPACT and that’s the one thing I felt when I did come in. I was like, alright, cool. I have a big chip on my shoulder to come in here, but I also have a lot of baggage of stuff and knowledge and talent that I can bring to the table and that’s one thing that I (say) every time that I’m grateful for from WWE.
Elsewhere during the chat, Maclin expressed how happy he is to see Chad Gable being featured in a prominent position on WWE television.
I love seeing friends that I was with in the P.C. being successful on SmackDown and Raw and I’m sitting there seeing people like (Chad) Gable get his opportunity and I’m watching, I’m like, ‘F*ck yeah, man.’ Because he’s a good human being. He’s a guy that f*cking stuck out. He gave everything to it and he gives everything to it and he’s getting that push right now and it’s one of those things where you see a friend doing that, you’re just like, it’s good to see and that motivates you even more. You can be bitter all you want. ‘Ah, that should be my spot.’ No, that’s his spot right now because he earned it. So now you have to go earn your spot. Wherever you’re at, you gotta go earn whatever you’re doing and then it elevates you.
** As ‘The Butcher’ Andy Williams was speaking to Sam Roberts, he recalled being at the television monitor with PAC when Bryan Danielson went one-on-one with Minoru Suzuki on AEW Rampage. Butcher stated that he and PAC were excited and hugged because they liked the match so much.
Dude, there was a match last year, you might remember this, it was (Bryan) Danielson versus (Minoru) Suzuki. Dude, me and PAC watched it together and hugged after like our team won a Super Bowl.
** Comicbook Nation pushed out their chat with NXT Champion Carmelo Hayes. He stated that he would like to have a rematch with Ricochet. Hayes says the former WWE Intercontinental Champion brought the best out of him at Worlds Collide 2022. Hayes added that he feels he was able to give Ricochet a boost of confidence.
I wanted it the next couple of days after the first one (Hayes said about a rematch with Ricochet), just because I enjoyed working with Ricochet that much and going up against him and I think he brought a lot of me, he brought the best out of me in a lot of ways and I think vice versa. I think that I gave him kind of a boost that he needed. Just a confidence boost because at that time, he had lost the Intercontinental Title and he was kind of just doing, you know, here and there, little spot things here and popping up here and disappearing there. Come into NXT and since then, he’s been able to kind of get his feet back together and start making moves again and I only grew since then. So I’d like to see this version of Carmelo Hayes versus that version of Ricochet and see what we’re able to do with that.
** One of the questions Chris Van Vliet presented to Becky Lynch during their conversation is what else does Lynch wants to accomplish in wrestling. She mentioned winning Elimination Chamber and Money in the Bank. Lynch followed up on that and said she’s just in it for the love of wrestling and already feels she’s left the business better than she found it. She wants to continue making it better.
Gosh, that’s kind of one of those questions that I do get asked fairly regularly (what else does she want to accomplish in wrestling). And it’s a nice point where you can say, ‘Yeah, I want to main event WrestleMania again, I want to do this again, I want to do that.’ Again, I want to do this, I would like to win the Elimination Chamber, you know, I want to win Money in the Bank. But really comes down to cementing the legacy. And how do I make every match that I have great? How do I elevate the women in NXT? How do I push the business forward? How do I leave it better than I found it? And I already feel like I’ve left it better than I found it. But I want to continue that, I want to keep pushing that. I want to make myself proud, my daughter proud, my family proud and the audience proud. I want them to enjoy watching me, I want them to go, what’s next? And be invested in the matches that I’m having, the people that I’m wrestling. So I suppose that it comes down to consistency and the love of the business. I just love this. I just love this, I love going out there, love going out there in front of the crowd and giving them all that I have, put my body on the line, put my mind on the line, taking risks. I think it’s more, right now, it’s more of just the love of the game than, ‘What else do you have to accomplish?’ I’ve been lucky enough to accomplish many things. And there’s probably many more things that I will accomplish. But I just love this. How do I make this better?
** WWE’s 2024 Elimination Chamber Premium Live Event is emanating from Optus Stadium in Perth, Australia. Bronson Reed, who hails from Adelaide, spoke to WWE on TNT Sports about how excited he is for the event.
I am super excited. I’ve always wanted to be a part of a WWE event in my home country. Now we have WWE Elimination Chamber Perth and it means a lot to me, you know? It’s almost a culmination of my whole career. I spent a long time in Australia, grinding on the Australian independent scene, hopefully trying to get eyes on the Australian wrestling scene so to see an event like this in my home country, it’s gonna mean the world, not only to myself and the people in WWE from Australia like Rhea Ripley and Grayson Waller but also to all the wrestlers back home.
** On Busted Open Radio, Tommy Dreamer told the story of when he got back in the mix to build to ECW/WWE One Night Stand 2006. Dreamer, Edge and Mick Foley had ideas for how they wanted to start things off. They had producers who had a different vision and Dreamer added that those producers did not know what ECW was. The producers’ plans stayed intact for that first go-around, but they apologized to Dreamer, Edge and Foley afterwards.
2006, I make my return to WWE to promote the WWE-ECW One Night Stand. Me, Edge, Mick Foley come up with this amazing stuff. Our producers, we had two of them, did not get it and it did not come off the way we want it to and then neither of them, later, they didn’t know what ECW was and they were my producers and as much as me, Mick Foley and Edge wanted to change it, we couldn’t and I was very unhappy with that debut… And then they apologized to us later.
** Going into NXT No Mercy, Tiffany Stratton sat down with ComicBook Nation. She stated that the Lights Out match she had with Wendy Choo in 2022 is probably one of the best matches she’s ever had.
I think I did something similar (to an Extreme Rules match) with Wendy Choo. It’s actually probably one of my best I’ve ever had… It was a Street Fight. I think — yeah, it was a Street Fight I believe and yeah, honestly, I feel like that was one of my best matches I’ve ever had.
** In an update on KO-D Openweight Champion Chris Brookes, after undergoing a medical evaluation, doctors determined that there has been some damage done to his shoulder, but Brookes is able to continue wrestling. He’ll return to the ring at DDT Pro-Wrestling’s October 14th show.
** NJPW released another free preview of a long-form interview that was done with SANADA.
** NJPW Road to Destruction Results (9/28/23) Tokorozawa Municipal Gymnasium in Saitama, Japan
– Satoshi Kojima def. Oskar Leube
– United Empire (Jeff Cobb, Great-O-KHAN, HENARE & Callum Newman) def. Togi Makabe, Toru Yano, Tomoaki Honma & Oleg Boltin
– Yuji Nagata, Shota Umino, Master Wato & Hiroyoshi Tenzan def. Minoru Suzuki, Ren Narita, El Desperado & Yuto Nakashima
– BULLET CLUB War Dogs (Drilla Moloney & Clark Connors) def. Kevin Knight & Tiger Mask
– BULLET CLUB War Dogs (David Finlay, Chase Owens, Alex Coughlin, Gabe Kidd & Gedo) def. Tama Tonga, Tanga Loa, Hikuleo, El Phantasmo & Jado
– Kazuchika Okada, Hiroshi Tanahashi, Tomohiro Ishii, Lio Rush & YOH def. Los Ingobernables de Japon (Tetsuya Naito, Shingo Takagi, Yota Tsuji, Hiromu Takahashi & BUSHI)
– HOUSE OF TORTURE (EVIL, SHO & Yoshinobu Kanemaru) def. SANADA, DOUKI & TAKA Michinoku
** As Grayson Waller was making the media rounds, he was interviewed by Fox News Digital.
** Ahead of NXT No Mercy, Adrian Hernandez interviewed Ilja Dragunov.
** Big Japan Pro Wrestling Results (9/28/23) Shinkiba 1stRING in Tokyo, Japan
– Daichi Hashimoto & Kazuki Hashimoto def. Kankuro Hoshino & Tempesta
– Death Match: Minoru Fujita & Yuichi Taniguchi def. Abdullah Kobayashi & Yuko Miyamoto
– Barbed Wire Board Death Match: Daiju Wakamatsu & Ryuji Ito def. Kazumi Kikuta & Yuki Ishikawa
– Daisuke Sekimoto & Kazumasa Yoshida def. Daimonji So & Yuya Aoki
– Ender Kara & Leyton Buzzard def. Kota Sekifuda & Rekka
– Fuminori Abe & Takuya Nomura def. Hiroyuki Suzuki & Takuho Kato
** September 28th birthdays: Maggot (wXw Germany).
** Mick Foley was interviewed by Eugene Weekly.
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.
