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.
** Guest appearing on the latest Talk Is Jericho podcast was Will Ospreay. While speaking about New Japan Pro-Wrestling, Ospreay expressed his thought that the company making Zack Sabre Jr. their guy would be the right move. He named other talents he thinks are ready to step up and said he hopes people continue to support the NJPW product.
I guess I just ran with it (when it was my time to be the main foreigner in NJPW) but I’m very curious who they’re going with now. I guess they’re gonna go with Zack (Sabre Jr.) now over in New Japan. I think that’s the right decision. The guy’s nearly fluent in Japanese as well. That’s like the best thing about it… (David) Finlay’s getting a push and deservedly so. He’s worked extremely hard. Even the (BULLET CLUB) War Dogs. That match that we done where we kind of flipping cage of death before we left. They’ve all got guys like ready to go and (Yota) Tsuji’s there, Shota’s there. They’ve all got guys ready to go so I’m hoping that people don’t give up on the product. I still want people to be invested in New Japan and still enjoy the shows and I believe guys like Jack Perry are going over there so AEW is still supporting them which is like, that’s all you want in a relationship. You just wanna be able to know that even though these guys are coming over here, not only can we come back and do shows for New Japan but, we’ll give you some of our guys just to make sure that the relationship is all good.
At AEW’s All In event at Wembley Stadium, Ospreay picked up a win over Chris Jericho. He confirmed that he pitched the idea to Jericho for them to have a match at All In. AEW President Tony Khan officially put the match on the books just before Forbidden Door II. Jericho added that a comparison to Bret Hart versus British Bulldog at WWF SummerSlam 1992 is what sold Khan on the match.
Jericho: The match (at AEW All In) was your idea too, wasn’t it?
Ospreay: I contacted you and I said, ‘I’m not owed anything. But, we was meant to do it in the Tokyo Dome. I wanna do it here. If the opportunity is here, I’d love nothing more to wrestle my f*cking hero man. It’s Bret-Bulldog, it’s Canada versus England, its home turf man’ and then obviously, you said you’d pitch it to Tony (Khan). We didn’t hear nothing for a while and then I think it was just before Forbidden Door, it was like, yeah, it’s gonna be me and you.
Jericho: What got him, because you know he’s such a fan, was the Bret-Bulldog comparison and he loved that idea.
Closing out the conversation, Ospreay touched on his bout against Michael Oku at Revolution Pro Wrestling’s High Stakes 2024 event. He shared how much he loves their on-screen story and hopes there’s a place for Oku in either AEW or ROH.
I really liked my one with Michael Oku (at RevPro High Stakes 2024). I really love that one. Just the one a few weeks ago… If you know the trilogy of course, if you watch it in just itself, I’m sure it’s a good match but if you know the fine details that we put in, I really worked hard on trying to put in those fine details and Michael — Michael and Amira (Blair), bless ‘em. As an act, at first I didn’t think it was gonna work every single time but they’ve really shown case that it’s really like a modern-day Macho Man and Elizabeth so like, that’s what I love about it. I really do hope that there is an opportunity over here for him down the line because I believe Tony (Khan) was really impressed. I think the best thing for him is obviously the experience and still traveling the world and doing that so I don’t see why a Ring of Honor couldn’t be… you know? There’s some guys here that are incredible but he has worked hard enough to deserve a spot I believe.
** While speaking to NJPW1972.com, Zack Sabre Jr. weighed in on Hiroshi Tanahashi becoming President of New Japan Pro-Wrestling. He was more surprised by the timing of the announcement but not Tanahashi being slotted into that role. He spoke highly of Tanahashi and feels there’s now more avenues for an open flow of communication between office and talent.
The timing (of Hiroshi Tanahashi becoming NJPW President surprised me), maybe, but not the result. I think most of us thought that would be the end goal for someone like Tanahashi, with his tenure as well as his journey through the generations of New Japan. And he’s a very astute and intelligent man. So I definitely thought if there was going to be another wrestler-president, it would be him. It’s just that he takes so much pride in his wrestling that I thought it would be further into the future.
So the timing did surprise me, but I think the way he slotted in, there’s nobody more equipped for the job. I think there’s more avenues for a free flow communication between the office and the wrestlers now and not two separate groups in a way.
Speaking about Ren Narita, Sabre Jr. feels he’s better off in HOUSE OF TORTURE opposed to being a “Katsuyori Shibata clone”.
(Ren) Narita is certainly someone that’s much better off in House of Terror — I refuse to call them Torture (laughs). It’s much more interesting to see him this way instead of as a Katsuyori Shibata clone. He had to put himself in an environment where he could succeed, and he has a much better chance of doing that now, where he would have struggled next to Umino.
** A new portion of an interview series that NJPW did with SANADA was released. He touched on the change in presentation for himself and Yuya Uemura coming out of leaving Los Ingobernables de Japon and coming back from excursion respectively. He said fellow Just 5 Guys members Taichi, DOUKI and TAKA Michinoku have not changed that much from who they were in Suzuki-gun but does not think it’s a bad thing. He does feel it is necessary for the overall image of Just 5 Guys to change.
Regarding Yuya (Uemura), his appearance when he was a Young Lion and his appearance now that he came back from overseas are different, aren’t they? I am also different from my days in Los Ingos. But I don’t think the three of them (Taichi, DOUKI & TAKA Michinoku) have changed that much. I don’t think that’s a bad thing, and I think that if we evolve from there, we can change our image.
I think it is necessary for us to change as a unit. Of course, I don’t think that is the only thing that is needed…
** Chris Van Vliet invited Mike Rallis (Riddick Moss) and Tenille Dashwood onto his podcast. As the conversation shifted over to Rallis playing the role of ‘Madcap Moss’, he shared that he found out he was going back to the Riddick Moss on-screen name through a tweet from a fellow X user.
Well, I actually found out via Twitter (that my name was going back to Riddick Moss). A fan tweeted me, ‘Hey, they updated the website. He’s back to Riddick Moss.’ So, the communication for that one… When you’re a priority, you’re a little bit more involved in those decisions and then, for whatever reason, I’ll let everyone draw their own conclusions but, when I was in NXT, I wasn’t much of a priority. The beginning of the Madcap run until about halfway through, I think, 2022 I think, I was on every Premium Live Event — that’s what they were calling them now? I was on TV every week and then, never again. Something’s changed. I did actually (send them a screenshot). I said, ‘Hey, actually, I got a tweet. Is this true?’ ‘Yeah, you’re like Riddick but, it’s kind of like Madcap’s a nickname now’ and I was like, alright, whatever (he laughed).
** The latest guest to appear on AEW Unrestricted was ‘The Bounty Hunter’ Bryan Keith. He recounted attending ROH Supercard of Honor IV in 2009. He approached Bryan Danielson to get an autograph and they ended up having a conversation. Danielson invited Keith to watch the show’s main event with him which was Jerry Lynn versus Nigel McGuinness.
Bryan Danielson has been one of my favorite wrestlers since I was like 13, 14 years old. The first time Ring of Honor came to Houston, ever, first time they came was in the George R. Brown Convention Center and I still got the program where he signed it for me and not only did he sign my program, initially, the main event was about to start and I saw him over to the side so I ran over there and I had a P.W.I. magazine and I was like, man, I need Bryan Danielson to sign my P.W.I. magazine. Ran over there, asked him if he could sign it and in the midst of me just talking to him, ending up just shooting the, you know, with him and he was just like, ‘Aye, you want to watch the main event together?’ And I was like, ‘Heck yeah.’ Me and Bryan Danielson are chilling while talking about wrestling while watching Jerry Lynn versus Nigel McGuinness go at it in Ring of Honor.
** NJPW President Hiroshi Tanahashi is continuing to make the media rounds and the latest outlet he spoke to was SUUMO. He recounted the days of his career in the early 2000s when the crowd was booing him. Initially, he did not know how to react but began to look at it from the perspective of when he gets booed, his opponent gets cheered and the result would be the match turning out better. He began to lean into that role. Tanahashi noticed the crowd getting behind him after a match against Manabu Nakanishi in the summer of 2009.
The booing started in 2006, about seven years after my debut, and to be honest, I was confused. I had never felt like people didn’t like me, and I had always thought that everyone likes me. So I didn’t know how to deal with the sudden booing…
But as I was being booed, I realized something. When I was booed, my opponent was cheered in return. In other words, the more I was booed, the more exciting the match would be. After I realized this, I purposely made my character more charming so that I could get more boos…
June 20th, 2009, at the Osaka event (was when I began to notice the crowd getting behind me). It was a match against the champion, Manabu Nakanishi. Mr. Nakanishi is from Kyoto, and the local fans were very supportive. On the contrary, I was booed more than usual by the Osaka fans.
The match started with a mixture of Nakanishi calls and boos, but as I, with my uncharacteristic appearance, worked hard against the champion, the fans recognized me, and started shouting ‘Nakanishi’ calls and ‘Tanahashi’ calls. It started with booing, but everyone was happy that I won. After that day, the booing gradually decreased, and I began to receive cheers at every venue I went to. I think the fans recognized that Tanahashi… he worked hard at wrestling.
** At For the Love of Wrestling, Mandy Rose was the focus of a Q&A session. She was asked to name two people she would reform Toxic Attraction with other than the original members. She named Cora Jade and Sonya Deville.
Ouuu, good question (what two different people would she choose to reform Toxic Attraction with). I would say, gotta go with my girl Sonya Deville because, you know, used to be tag team partners and Cora Jade.
** The wake for the late Yutaka Yoshie was held in Maebashi, Japan on 3/14. Among those in attendance were Tatsumi Fujinami, Kyohei Wada (refereed Yoshie’s last tag match), Suwama, Osamu Nishimura and KENSO.
** At DDT Pro-Wrestling’s 3/17 event, Kenta Kobashi will be present for the KO-D Openweight Championship match as he’ll be doing commentary.
** Pro Wrestling NOAH Results (3/14/24) Gifu Memorial Center in Gifu, Japan
– Dragon Bane & Alpha Wolf def. Ninja Mack & Alejandro
– Takashi Sugiura def. Hi69
– Manabu Soya, Daiki Inaba & Shuji Kondo def. Timothy Thatcher, Saxon Huxley & Shuhei Taniguchi
– Go Shiozaki def. Junta Miyawaki
– Muhammad Yone, Akitoshi Saito & Atsushi Kotoge def. Naomichi Marufuji, Masa Kitamiya & Hajime Ohara
– Ulka Sasaki & HAYATA def. Kenoh & Yu Owada
– Anthony Greene def. Ryohei Oiwa
– Kaito Kiyomiya, Yoshinari Ogawa, Daga & Super Crazy def. G.L.G. (Jack Morris, L.J. Cleary, YO-HEY & Tadasuke)
** SoCal Val hosted a Q&A with Jake Hager at For the Love of Wrestling.
** Madusa joined David LaGreca, Bully Ray and Tommy Dreamer on Busted Open Radio.
** WJBF welcomed Austin Theory onto their programming to promote a WWE house show.
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.
