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.
** Former UFC Heavyweight Champion Josh Barnett was interviewed by THE HANNIBAL TV. Barnett expressed his thought that he’ll never be inducted into the UFC Hall of Fame. He said there’s too much history between the two sides. Barnett was stripped of his title after it was revealed that he once again tested positive for banned substances. He still appreciates the accolade and does not think he’s above it. Barnett still holds the title of the youngest UFC Heavyweight Champion.
No, I don’t think so (he said when asked if he thinks he’ll be in UFC Hall of Fame). I don’t think they’ll ever put me in the Hall of Fame. I think there’s too much history, maybe, between all of us and you know, who knows? But I just don’t ever see that happening and I don’t live to be recognized necessarily by Hall of Fames. I’m not gonna act like I don’t care about those things or I’m too big, good for it because I’m none of those things. I actually appreciate the pomp and circumstance of these aspects of the industry. I mean, hell, I have given Lifetime Achievement awards to Erik Paulson and Yoshiaki Fujiwara. So, I’m, myself, really honored when given the opportunity to recognize these individuals. Especially to those that I figure probably don’t really know them or maybe have forgotten or any number of reasons why this person isn’t really known to the fan base… As for me being in the UFC Hall of Fame, I just don’t ever see that happening so, oh well.
** An extensive conversation with Sami Callihan is available on the Wrestling is Life is Wrestling podcast feed. Callihan spoke in-depth about his run in WWE NXT. Along the way, he revealed that he was going to wrestle under a mask and tag with Samuray Del Sol (Kalisto) as The Lucha Dragons. Plans were scrapped after Callihan broke his ankle.
They were like, ‘Okay, we want you to wrestle more like a lucha guy or a small guy.’ Everything that makes me-me, don’t do it. Don’t be aggressive, don’t be a striker. So, at one point, I was supposed to be one of the Lucha Dragons. They were gonna put me under a mask with Kalisto. Yup. We were working on live events, like me and Kalisto in tag matches and I remember we wrestled The Ascension. We wrestled Big Kon and — so I was like, finally, I’m gonna get my break in NXT. I’m gonna get on f*cking television. This is gonna be f*cking great, awesome. I was in a match with Konnor and Viktor of The Ascension. I did a Mexican headscissors, over-rotated, landed on my feet, broke my ankle. So, back to the drawing board. Now I’m just miserable again for another four or five months.
Elsewhere during the interview, Callihan heaped praise onto Xavier Woods. When he first started in WWE, Woods wanted to make Sami look good in the ring. He called Woods one of the best human beings he’s ever met. Callihan feels the match with Woods went great but when he returned backstage, he was yelled at. Bill DeMott told him he was too small for the match to be as violent as it was and said he would not be on shows for a while. At the next NXT TV taping, writer Ryan Ward told Callihan that due to protocols, they could not debut anyone new. Callihan did not wrestle on another show for six months.
I was the first one of any of the new (Performance Center) class to get on a live event — coconut show — which isn’t aired, it’s a house show and I wrestled Xavier Woods who’s like one of the best human beings I’ve met in my life… He goes, ‘This is make-or-break for you. You gotta kick it out of the park or you’re gonna be with the other trainees, for a while’ and I was like, ‘Awesome.’ He’s like, ‘Dude, hit me as hard as you f*cking can.’ He goes, ‘I’m not gonna tell (on) you.’ He goes, ‘Be you.’ To his credit, he’s like, ‘Be you dude,’ and he also did that for me one of the times I was an extra and I had to roll around the ring with him. He’s like, ‘Dude, hit me as hard as you can. They like that sh*t.’ He’s like, ‘I’m not gonna b*tch.’ So we have our match and it’s tremendous, it’s amazing. I’m over cloud nine. I get to the back and as soon as I walk through the curtain, I am getting screamed at. ‘That was way too violent.’ Yada, yada, yada. ‘That’s too aggressive,’ that’s this, that’s this and then Bill DeMott was like, ‘You’re way too small to be that violent. You can’t be that aggressive. If it wasn’t for Xavier, that match would have been a mess.’ Yada, yada, yada and I was like, what the f*ck is going on? ‘You’re not gonna be on shows again for a while till you can learn not (to) be so aggressive…’ So the next TV taping came around. Ryan Ward’s like, ‘Hey man, we can’t debut anyone new until we go through some protocol with NXT’ and yada, yada, yada. I didn’t wrestle again on a show for six-and-a-half months. Miserable, going to every live event, setting up, working security, doing all the stuff and I see other people start to get cherry-picked to debut on NXT.
He went on to further look back at the hacker-esque character he portrayed in NXT. Callihan stated that Paul ‘Triple H’ Levesque told him to stop doing hacker promos because that was not his character. Callihan added that the writing team was putting together verbal material for him that leaned into a character as such.
They debut me with the hacker character with just the vignettes. I attack Juice (Robinson) and I cut a promo and then Triple H yells at me, ‘You’re not a hacker. Quit cutting hacker promos.’ But the writers were writing me hacker promos. I was told, ‘This is just a cool way to debut you. You’re not a hacker. It’s just like Jericho’s Save Us Y2J. You’re not a hacker,’ but they keep writing that, keep writing that, keep writing that.
** Current Anthem Sports Group and former WWE executive Rob Kligman guest appeared on EssentiallySports’ Think Tank show. He spent eight years with WWE. Kligman revealed that he created the synergy between Snickers and WWE.
I’ve created, at WWE, the synergy between Snickers as well as WrestleMania. It’s been there for eight years. I was the first one to be able to put it on WrestleMania. Gosh, after 30 years of never having a sponsor (for) the biggest event there is, Snickers has become synonymous with WrestleMania.
** The Masked Man Show welcomed Chelsea Green onto the platform for an hour-long discussion. Along the way, Green shared that she’d be more than open to being the person that makes a Cardi B look good in the ring and taking the pin.
At some point, the people need to be entertained and it might not be by flips, or it might not be by a UFC-style fight. I’m never gonna be Shayna (Baszler). I’m never gonna be Zoey Stark, like badass, doing a flip onto a ladder. No thank you! But, when you have Cardi B come to WrestleMania and you need someone to make her look good and you need someone to bump around for her and you need someone to lay on the ground while she pins them, that’ll be me and I’m okay with that because at the end of the day, I would love laying down and staring up at those WrestleMania lights just as much as I would pinning someone. There’s some people that don’t feel that way and that’s okay too.
She dove into the trust that is put her into by WWE. That is exampled by when Green jumps up on the ring apron during a match or says something on the fly. She said they trust her comedic timing and for her to make it work.
I am not joking, I do not preplan what I’m gonna do. I do not preplan what my face is gonna do. My face, those facial expressions, the things that come out of my mouth, the ridiculous things that — when I hop up on the ring, I don’t even know that I’m gonna do that two seconds before. It is just happening and I think that’s the difference in this era of my career is that, like, I don’t give a — I’m just doing what I think is right in the moment and what I think is right for this character and the best part of this character is it’s so ridiculous, that I can do that. I can do whatever, I can say whatever. I mean, every now and then, someone will tell me to, ‘Dial it back’ or someone will tell me to not hop in the ring at this point because it’s distracting and stuff like that but for the most part, they just trust that my comedic timing is on and that something is gonna happen that was funny or clippable or gonna go viral or something like that and I’m very grateful for it because I don’t know man. I drink like half-a-Red Bull, maybe max, and then I just go out there.
** As Ronda Rousey is making the media rounds to promote her new graphic novel, she spoke to Shakiel Mahjouri of CBS Sports. Rousey was asked what it would take for her to sit cageside at a UFC event.
I mean, it’s just one of those things that, like, I don’t really want to go to a stadium full of people for fun (Rousey said about her possibly sitting cageside at UFC event). I’d rather be out, on my farm or on the beach or something else like that. I think I just have to have a reason to go but, I don’t know. If my kids end up fighting or something like that or someone I end up coaching, you know, ends up fighting, I would go… It’s not really my scene anymore. When I was younger, I wanted to put on a hot dress and go to the fights and hang out with everybody and now I’m just kind of like an old lady that just wants to sit home and sip tea. I don’t know, and plus I wouldn’t wanna go just to, ooouuu, I wonder how people are gonna react to me. I would wanna have a reason to go or something but, we’ll see. I’ll play it by ear but man, if my kids wanna fight, they would end up being absolutely incredible so that’s kind of how my mom got dragged back into judo and stuff like that. She quit judo and then she never went to a tournament again and then I got into it and she was very much involved in it again and so, if my kids or my kids from my dojo end up getting into it, then I would have a reason.
** Joining Cody Rhodes for the debut episode of his new series, ‘What Do You Wanna Talk About?’ was Bayley. She named Candice LeRae as someone who is going to take full advantage of the opportunity once she gets the spotlight on her.
Candice LeRae (is someone who will deliver when she gets her opportunity) … She’s awesome. I used to watch her. We’re around the same age. Because she started so young, I would go to the indie shows at the school I trained at and she was wrestling Gail Kim. I looked up to her as far as being on the indies and being a girl from California. She was all the way in SoCal and I was in NorCal so it’s like we never — we tagged with each other once but we’ve never had… If she gets her moment, I hope it’s against me.
** Daily Star rolled out their chat with TNA Knockouts World Tag Team Champion Alisha Edwards. She told the outlet that she is eyeing a rematch with WWE’s Naomi.
I was just asked this earlier and I’m gonna stick with my same answer. I want a rematch with Naomi and Trin. I don’t think I was fairly awarded what I was supposed to get, which is that Knockouts Title in September of last year. So I would love to have a rematch with her, whether it’s in a TNA ring or if it’s in a WWE ring or even NXT ring.
** Yuji Nagata and Tomoaki Honma will be appearing at Haneda Airport in Japan on July 12th. They’ll be doing a collaboration with C.I.Q. (Customs, Immigration & Quarantine) and the Metropolitan Police Department to rid of fraud, prevent illegal stay and employment, and to ensure a safe and secure living environment for foreigners in Japan.
** The Attitude Era Podcast welcomed Trick Williams onto the platform.
** NXT North American Champion Oba Femi guest appeared on The Crimson Crunch:
** Muscle & Fitness has a feature on Tyrus.
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.
