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.
** Naomichi Marufuji has previously stated that he would retire within five years. Pro Wrestling NOAH’s official website asked him to speak more on that and here’s what he had to say:
I have been changing the Marufuji character for the past 25 years in terms of my condition. If that goes on for 40 or 50 years, I won’t be able to show Marufuji even if I change it. At this point, I think that people can still enjoy wrestling while making changes. Maybe it’ll be about five years before we can do that.
** Going into AEW Double or Nothing 2023, Taya Valkyrie worked a program with Jade Cargill that culminated with their match at the pay-per-view. Valkyrie was the focus of a RDP Promotions virtual signing and spoke about working with Cargill and her move to WWE.
I had a great time with Jade (Cargill in the ring). I always enjoy working with all different types of people, all different levels of experience and she was very respectful, she worked so hard. She’s a star. Just look at her when she walks in a room. Everyone turns and looks at her… Natural progression is to want more and want something different and she really started her career in AEW and I mean, it’s a natural step to kind of want to explore and see what’s going on there. Just like I’ve left places and gone to others, sometimes we want some change, we want some new challenges. She’s gonna be facing all new people that she’s never faced before and so I’m excited for her. I just, you know, wish her all the best.
Elsewhere during the signing, Valkyrie expressed interest in wanting to wrestle her husband, Johnny TV, in AEW.
I think that I’ve already wrestled my dream opponent and I want to wrestle them again, but, in AEW and that would be my husband (Johnny TV). If people don’t realize it, we have wrestled before. Also, I mean we’ve wrestled as a team… We did our two Dirty Dishes matches and those were so fun. I actually just rewatched one recently and I was like, ‘I think we need to do this again.’
** While speaking to Jim Varsallone, Kelani Jordan reflected on her journey through WWE NXT thus far. She touched on making it to the finals of the women’s Breakout tournament and being a part of the women’s Iron Survivor Challenge at NXT Deadline.
This journey has been absolutely phenomenal. It’s so crazy because I started last October so a little over a year ago and it’s so cool to see how far I’ve come in such a short amount of time. I never would have thought a year ago that I would be a finalist in the NXT women’s Breakout tournament, that I would be heading to a major P.L.E., NXT Deadline, in the Iron Survivor Challenge and my debut was six months ago — well maybe like seven now. But I’m just mind blown, like what? You never know what you can do until you do it and I’m so happy that they’re taking that leap of faith with me and just giving me the opportunity to do so. So, I will have to say my journey has been quick, but I love every step of it.
** In The Iron Claw film, Ryan Nemeth played the role of Gino Hernandez. He told the Grue Rume Show how he got the role and recalled director Sean Durkin saying that Nemeth ‘brought Gino’ to the movie. Nemeth said that was great feedback to receive.
Well I got to be part of the film (The Iron Claw) in the same way that I’ve gotten part of anything else is I auditioned and booked it I guess and I was very lucky. I remember I auditioned from Atlanta. I was visiting my girlfriend because she was shooting Gotham Knights in Atlanta so she was living in Atlanta. So I would go back and forth, stay with her and it was kind of hard but, while I was there, I got the audition from my manager. He was like, ‘Hey, there’s a wrestling movie they’re casting. Can you get this self-tape done?’ I was like, ‘Oh man.’ I told her, ‘I’m sorry. I know I’m here to visit,’ and she’s like, ‘Let’s do it…’ She’s an actor. She has the whole self-tape setup ready to go so we shot the thing, I felt really good about it and then he just didn’t hear for a while and I thought, well, I probably didn’t get that part. That’s okay and then as I was on a flight to or from AEW somewhere, I don’t remember where but I had the Wi-Fi going. I always like to have the Wi-Fi on a flight. My manager texted me and goes, ‘Hey! Open your email. You need to confirm this. You were just offered a role, like a supporting, major role in The Iron Claw’ and I was like, ‘What? Oh, oh, oh, sh*t, sh*t’ so, I had to go and he was like, ‘Please confirm. Where are you!? I’ve been calling you’ and I’m like… you can’t get phone calls on a plane. You can only get texts. So he was like, ‘I need to tell A24 that you can do this movie. Where the hell are you?’ So I hurried up and tried to download things then it said confirm and all that. I was like, ‘Whatever the dates are, I’m doing it. Let’s do it,’ you know?… I took him to the premiere with me in L.A. and he was like, ‘Remember when you were on a plane’ and I was like, ‘I’m sorry, I’m sorry.’ But you know, wrestlers fly a lot. Sorry.
On the final day when I wrapped, Sean (Durkin), the director pulled me aside. He said, ‘Ryan, you brought Gino to this film’ and I just wanted to start balling. It was a rewarding thing to hear man. So, just know when you watch the movie and there’s just a little bit of Gino, just know that I freaking put months into that, and I had such a blast dude. It was so fun.
** Drew McIntyre sent a message to ICW Scotland ahead of their final Fight Club show.
** Comments from NJPW President Takami Ohbari and STRONG Women’s Champion Giulia are featured in a Metropolis Japan piece.
** NJPW’s Togi Makabe is returning to the ‘Kingdom’ movie franchise. He’ll be a part of the next film titled Kingdom: Return of the Great General, which will be released July 12th, 2024.
** Pro Wrestling ZERO1 announced that Shoki Kitamura is going to be absent indefinitely at his own request.
** The latest excerpts from an interview series that NJPW is doing with IWGP World Heavyweight Champion SANADA.
** There’s an interview with Pretty Deadly (Elton Prince & Kit Wilson) that Jim Varsallone conducted.
** Kento Miyahara was interviewed by Daily Sports Online:
** Dragongate Japan Pro-Wrestling Results (12/17/23) Nagoya Congress Center in Nagoya, Japan
– Yoshiki Kato & KAI def. Kaito Nagano & Daiki Yanagiuchi
– Ben-K def. Problem Dragon
– Kota Minoura def. JACKY ‘FUNKY’ KAMEI
– BIGBOSS Shimizu, Strong Machine J & Jason Lee def. Masaaki Mochizuki, Susumu Mochizuki & Yasushi Kanda
– Dragon Kid & Último Dragón def. Kzy & U-T
– Four-Way Tag Team Match: Madoka Kikuta & Dragon Dia def. Shun Skywalker & ISHIN and H.Y.O. & Luis Mante and Genki Horiguchi & Kagetora
** Darren Paltrowitz interviewed Rhino.
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.
