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** The Ringer Wrestling Show welcomed WWE Hall of Famer Mike Rotunda onto the show to celebrate the birthday of his son, Windham Rotunda a.k.a. Bray Wyatt. Mike touched on the Uncle Howdy teases and stated that he does not religiously watch wrestling after being in the business for as long as he was. He’s getting back into it but does not know what’s going on with the teases and wants it to be a surprise.
To be honest with you, I want it to be a surprise (Uncle Howdy teases). But there is something bubbling so… I don’t religiously watch the show anymore. So, I’m not up to score on everything, which I’m kind of getting back into it now. I took a hiatus from it after 13 years of seeing it every night — after 40 years of seeing it every night, I kind of drew back… Now, I’m starting to get back in but there’s stuff bubbling. I don’t know the ins and outs, as per se, but hopefully it’ll be good… Above my paygrade to figure that out (Q.R. codes). That’s for sure.
Earlier in the conversation, he looked back at The Wyatt Family and thought WWE could have gotten more mileage out of the group.
I thought at one time, WWE could have personally got a lot more mileage out of The Wyatt Family. I was there every night. They wanted him (Windham Rotunda) and The Wyatts to be babyface, which never happened and if you miss that opportunity in the business, you’re kind of cutting the shelf life of a character down by doing that and keep trying to make ‘em be a heel and if people like you, let ‘em like you. They’re buying the tickets, they’re watching the shows and if they’re telling you that, to me, I would listen to that. But, that’s just how it worked out.
The Undertaker narrated the documentary about the late Windham Rotunda. Mike shared a story from their time together in WCW and remembers Undertaker telling him about an opportunity with WWF/E and Mike telling him he should go.
I first met Mark before he was Undertaker. He was at WCW and I can remember riding with him and I don’t know, we just hooked up for a trip. We were going out of Atlanta to do some show and they weren’t really doing anything with me or him, as far as what they could have done character-wise. I had already been in WWE so I kind of knew and we were riding along and he was young. I mean, he was green and he goes — and he knew that I had been to WWE before so he asked me a question on the road. We were riding together, just him and I and he goes, ‘I got a message from WWE that they were gonna make me a lot of money and Vince said that’ and he goes, ‘Do you think it’s true? Or should I stay here in WCW?’ and I said, ‘If Vince told you he’s gonna make you money, you go make money with Vince’ and he went and became The Undertaker so, maybe Undertaker remembered that, I don’t know. We never talked about it but, Taker had a great career.
** As Bret Hart was speaking to Jesse, J.D. and Small Town Tyler, he recounted leg wrestling matches between wrestlers and wrestling personalities that he witnessed. Some of the matchups include Fabulous Moolah versus André the Giant, King Kong Bundy versus Yokozuna, Jimmy Hart versus Bobby Heenan and Bret remembers Owen Hart convincing Rhonda Singh (Bertha Faye) to leg wrestle Luna Vachon.
Back in the old days, a lot of the wrestlers would settle their differences by pulling the beds apart in the hotel room and having a leg wrestle, sometimes two or three or four in the morning and I saw a lot of serious grudge matches. I saw André the Giant, he took on Fabulous Moolah one time in a leg wrestling and beat her pretty soundly but I mean it was special occasions like that when you get enough alcohol going and get the blood going and get the challenges going out and I’ve seen, like I said, King Kong Bundy took on Yokozuna one time back in ‘94, which is still sort of a legendary battle that a lot of the wrestlers still talk about and of course my brother Owen (Hart) was instrumental in getting a lot of the lady wrestlers to take each other on. I know big Bertha (Faye), Rhonda Singh was a famous Calgary wrestler at the time. She had leg wrestled Luna Vachon in a real barn burner (he laughed) …
Going back to some of the old battles in the hotel rooms and stuff like that, I remember when Jimmy Hart beat Bobby ‘The Brain’ Heenan and it was a huge upset that everybody talked about for weeks…
** During ‘Speedball’ Mike Bailey’s appearance on Talk Is Jericho, he expressed his opinion that Eddie Edwards is the most underrated pro wrestler in the world right now.
Again, the X Division and the whole high-flying part of IMPACT is always fantastic but lately, I’ve been mixing it up with The System which is Moose, Brian Myers and Eddie Edwards. Eddie Edwards, who I think is the most underrated professional wrestler in the world right now. Consistently fantastic and amazing.
** Before the Best of the Super Juniors final at NJPW Dominion, El Desperado was interviewed by NJPW1972.com. He shared with the site that being paired with Yoshinobu Kanemaru helped him grow more than anything. Together, they won the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Titles four times.
I’m someone who can read the same manga tons of times, or listen to the same album five times a day, but at the same time, I get restless very quickly, and I always want to try new things. It’s fine for people to think, ooouuu, I’m in NJPW now, I made it and be happy with that. But if just being here made you great then everyone would be the best.
For me though, more than anything I learned from NJPW, it was being with (Yoshinobu) Kanemaru that made me grow more than anything. Like, off the charts. That’s because wrestling has all these different approaches to it, and you can’t know who will fall into what approach. Strong Style is one phrase, but it means something so different depending on if you’re a fan, or a wrestler, or you think you know what the true essence of it all is. I’m definitely not someone who knows the true essence of Strong Style, but I have my own Strong Style.
** Prior to the 6/7 Friday Night SmackDown, Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes made the local media rounds and stopped past WDRB and WAVE.
** Guest appearing on Heal Squad with Keven Undergaro was Thunder Rosa.
** Dragongate Japan Pro-Wrestling ‘Rainbow Gate’ Results (6/8/24) from Kudamatsu City Hall in Yamaguchi, Japan
– Strong Machine J, BIGBOSS Shimizu & Flamita def. Luis Mante, Hyo & JACKY KAMEI
– Yasushi Kanda def. La Estrella
– Último Dragón & Genko Horiguchi def. Kzy & U-T
– Ben-K, B×B Hulk & Minorita def. Madoka Kikuta, Dragon Dia & Ryoya Tanaka
– YAMATO, Dragon Kid, Susumu Yokosuka & Kagetora def. Shun Skywalker, KAI, ISHIN & Jason Lee
** Ice Ribbon Results (6/8/24) from Ice Ribbon Dojo in Saitama, Japan
– Saran & Sumika Yanagawa def. Nanae Furukawa & Tsukina Umino
– ICExInfinity Title League B Block: YuuRI (6) def. Asuka Fujitaki (1)
– ICExInfinity Title League A Block: Tsukasa Fujimoto (5) def. Kyuri (5)
– Arisa Shinose, Mio Shirai & Misa Kagura def. Ancham, Hamuko Hoshi & Yappy
** June 8th birthdays: Liv Morgan.
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.
