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.
** At Big Texas Comic Con (via Tales From The Collection: Autographs & Fan Mail), Trish Stratus was the focus of a Q&A panel. She agreed that it’d be cool to have another match against Mickie James. Stratus added that it’d be great to see James come back to WWE and get a better send off. Trish joked that it would be great if she’s involved in that send off.
With Mickie James? I’d love it. Wouldn’t that be so cool (to have another match with her?)
But people, we’ve talked about that. Like, if we could come back at this point too because we’re both still doing it from our era. We’re the only two that’s still doing it so to be able to come and maybe interact again, who knows? I would love that for her. For her to come back in WWE and have just a better send off, for me, I think would be really great. Does it involve me? I don’t know. Even if it didn’t. If it did involve me, it’d be freaking great (Trish laughed). But, yeah, I’m a huge fan of hers… I would like that.
The conversation turned over to current WWE Women’s World Champion Rhea Ripley. Stratus remembers working with Ripley on a Canada live event loop in March 2022. Stratus shared that at the time, Ripley expressed that she was feeling frustrated because she felt WWE did not know what to do with her.
So yes, I met her (Rhea Ripley) actually on the Canada shows. She was a part of it and we teamed up against Becky (Lynch) ironically. I helped her, came to her aid and she’s great, she’s hungry and I remember at that point, they had nothing for her and she’s like, ‘It’s so frustrating, you know? It’s like they don’t know what to do with me. We’re gonna do this but then –’ everyone I think goes through this thing and then you find that, whether it’s creatively or whether it naturally, organically happens, it’s really cool to see when that thing hits whether it’s a development from creative or organically. It’s very cool. So to see her in the position that she’s in now, the way they’re booking her and just to see her do her thing and come into her own has been really awesome to watch. She’s fantastic.
The WWE Hall of Famer expressed that Fit Finlay is her favorite producer to collaborate with. She added that it was great to work with Petey Williams during her recent run. Williams produced the Steel Cage match between Stratus and Becky Lynch at WWE Payback.
He’s amazing (Stratus said about Fit Finlay) and the last match I had, I really wanted to work with him. I did work with Petey Williams, from TNA, IMPACT and he was pretty awesome as well so, it was great to work with him but, Fit Finlay for sure (is my favorite producer). He’s my boy.
Later in the Q&A, Stratus reflected on working with two-time WWE Women’s Champion Jazz. Stratus said she had to step her game up while working with Jazz.
Jazz, it was a great underdog story. She really made me have to really step up my game because she beat the crap out of me (she laughed). But, you know, she was just so, so strong and so amazing in the ring, it was like I had to bring my game up to her level.
** Adrian Hernandez conducted an interview with Swerve Strickland. He asked the AEW talent if it was frustrating seeing a lot of talk concerning All In being about CM Punk and Jack Perry’s altercation opposed to the actual show. Here’s how Strickland responded:
No (it’s not frustrating for me that backstage situations can get talked about more than what happens on the show). Because the show happened and you can’t take that away from us. We performed and for the 80,000 people that were there (at All In) and witnessed it, they don’t know anything about it. They watched it. They watched it and they experienced it and then whatever noise that came on that was supposedly backstage, that didn’t disrupt their enjoyment of the show and it didn’t disrupt the people watching the show either… People, I feel like who were there, were off their phones, living in the moment and we did everything we could to put on one of the best performances we could for that show and that time and to give them something that they’re gonna live their life — I feel like they’re going to live the rest of their life remembering that, passing those moments down to their children, to the next children and they’re not gonna pass the other stuff down to their children and the next children. That’s not what passes on. What we did in that ring, that’s what happens. That’s what goes down as history and they’re gonna pass it down from generation to generation to generation.
** Guest appearing on Talk Is Jericho was Adam Copeland. He looked back on his program with Seth Rollins in WWE. He stated that him and Rollins knew early on that they had great chemistry. Copeland added that they fought hard to take their feud outside of the arenas.
Get in there with (Seth) Rollins and we just think similar, we look at things in a very similar way and we assumed, ‘Okay, we probably got a trilogy here’ and if we do it that way, then I think here’s our beats. But you never know until you get in with someone to feel like, ah man, this is great, and it was within two minutes. It was like, ah, this is gonna be a no-brainer. Do this in your sleep.
I really loved the trilogy with Rollins. I really, really love that. I loved the story from beginning to end. I love that we went outside of the arena and started to do that because we really had to fight hard for that. So that was fun, and then the matches, you know? So that was a big one.
** Rolling Out has an interview with Bianca Belair. The three-time WWE Women’s Champion shared an interaction she had with University of Colorado Boulder head coach, Deion Sanders. She said Sanders messaged her and said Belair inspired his daughter because she wore a long braid to prom. Belair added that she does not know if Sanders was trolling her or not.
Deion Sanders, he actually messaged me and told me I inspired his daughter because she wore a long braid for her prom. I don’t know if he was trolling me or not. But she did wear a long braid…
** While speaking to Cultaholic Wrestling, Sami Callihan stated that he wants to create a documentary about Matt Cross a.k.a. MDogg20.
I’ve been talking about this for years. I wanna do a documentary on MDogg20 (Matt Cross) because he is a dude, that for my generation is one of the most influential dudes in professional wrestling. I don’t think people realize how much he’s really had a hand in — the dude has just masterfully just worked all around the world for every major promotion in the planet and I don’t think he gets the praise he deserves. Dude’s somehow been a part of everything and I think he’s a really cool story to tell that’s still — now, even though he’s getting a little more up there in age, he’s still a journeyman, he’s still traveling the world, he’s on the road more than he’s at home and I think that’s such a cool story that can be told and should be told.
** NJPW pushed out another portion of a long-form interview that was conducted with IWGP World Heavyweight Champion SANADA. While looking back at his time in All Japan, SANADA spoke about sharing the ring with the duo of Daisuke Sekimoto and Yuji Okabayashi. He expressed how great of a team he thinks they were and how they influenced him.
Sekimoto-san and Okabayashi-san also influenced me as a wrestler. Although they were the opposite of me and (Manabu) Soya-san in terms of style. I learned a lot from them in terms of how they presented themselves in the ring. They were so simple, so dynamic, so easy to understand and they were a really great team. I thought they were ‘rebechi’ (slang for ‘on a different level’). (Laughs) I was really inspired by them, winning and losing repeatedly, and although I didn’t see them as rivals, I felt that I didn’t want to lose to this tag team, and that I didn’t want to lose to them in order for us to gain more momentum.
** To promote a WWE house show in Springfield, Missouri, Grayson Waller appeared on KOLR10 & Fox49. Back in 2019, Waller was cast on Australian Survivor: Champions v Contenders. He reluctantly said he would go on Survivor again.
This worries me because it says a lot about me as a person but I definitely would, I definitely would go back (on Survivor). It’s just something about competing out there too and doing — the challenges were my favorite part. So for someone who’s super competitive, doing all those, I really miss doing those but I would definitely do it again and I assume on day three, I would completely regret my decision and not like myself for doing it again but how many chances do you get to go out and do that? Especially as a Survivor fan.
** NXT play-by-play commentator Vic Joseph shared that his father passed away on 10/10. He was on the call for the 10/10 NXT on USA Network alongside Booker T. Joseph noted it allowed him to escape for a few hours.
** On the lead up to Katsuhiko Nakajima’s final match with Pro Wrestling NOAH on 10/28, the promotion is going to be releasing some of his best matches on their YouTube channel.
** Ryan Nemeth and Dolph Ziggler are hosting a comedy variety show on November 24th in Chicago, Illinois. Ziggler was released from WWE in September after nearly 20 years with the company.
** As Paul Heyman was speaking to Fox News Digital, he heaped praise onto NXT’s Tiffany Stratton.
** Tokyo Sports was among the outlets that Tetsuya Naito invited out to hear him discuss Just 5 Guys (SANADA, DOUKI, Taichi, Yuya Uemura & TAKA Michinoku).
** Joining Mickie James and David LaGreca on Busted Open Radio was Tasha Steelz.
** Grayson Waller was interviewed by Daily Mail’s Alex McCarthy.
** October 11th birthdays: Rhea Ripley, Dusty Rhodes and Taz.
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.
