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.
** The newest episode of Insight with Chris Van Vliet featured Scorpio Sky as a guest. In AEW, Sky and Ethan Page were paired together as The Men of the Year. Sky said he’s happy for Page’s current success, adding that the NXT Champion is easy to work with and has a great work ethic.
I’m so happy for him (Ethan Page), so happy for him and I mean… I can’t even put it into words. He’s so talented. He can talk, he’s got the look, he can work. He’s easy to work with… I don’t wanna say he doesn’t have an ego, right? Because his name is All Ego. I can’t blow his nickname. But, we all have a form an ego but he’s (Canadian). So he’s polite (Sky laughed). Yeah, he’s very polite. I’ll just go back to saying he’s easy to work with. He’s a very go with the flow, similar to me. Just go with the flow type of guy. ‘Oh, okay. This is what you want? Let’s make it work. Let’s pull the best out of it’ and I think that’s why he’s so successful because his work ethic is there. He works and he eats it and he breathes it and he loves it and he puts his heart into everything he does and when you do that, eventually, something’s going to click for you and I’m incredibly happy to see that happening for him now.
Looking back at the early days of AEW, Sky feels Chris Jericho joining the company legitimized it. He compared it to when Hulk Hogan joined WCW. Sky said working with Jericho helped him a lot during that time.
I always tell people, like, ‘Chris Jericho legitimized AEW in the early days.’ Because people looked at us and they knew there was talent and they’re like, ‘Oh, okay. Young Bucks. Okay, S.C.U., Kenny Omega,’ yada, yada. But when Chris Jericho signs on, that’s when the television networks are like, oh, okay. They’ve got a guy. I always think it’s similar to when Hulk Hogan went to WCW in the mid-90s. It’s just like, it puts that stamp. Like, okay, we’ve arrived and for him to come in and take young talent like myself, like Jungle Boy, like Darby (Allin) — I just described myself as a young talent. Yeah, I love that (he laughed). Younger talent… He’s worked with so many guys and made us all good in some way, shape or form. Whether he won the match or not, he put us up there with him and he doesn’t have to do that. But that just shows he’s a giving guy and that helped me a lot in the very early stages of AEW.
Moving away from the topic of AEW, there was a point in Sky’s career where he appeared for WWE. He remembers there being a tryout in 2012, but at the time, there was a lawsuit between WWE and TNA and Sky had just appeared for TNA. When he got to said tryout, a producer told him he could not be there. L.A. Knight is on the record speaking about the same situation and said it was due to the lawsuit that he could not participate.
No (I didn’t get the chance to go back to WWE after 2012). So, there was the situation I talked to you about last time but then there was also another situation where I’d worked with — this is in 2012 — I had worked a couple of shows for TNA and then, I was called to go do a tryout. They did this L.A. tryout and I think it’s the one that Adam Pearce and Bayley got signed at, and I was there and a few other guys but I had done TNA right before that and at the time, there was like a lawsuit or something going on between two companies. So the moment I showed up, there was one of the producers that pulls me aside and he said, ‘Hey, you just did TNA. I don’t know how this slipped through the cracks but, we can’t have you here,’ and they had canceled L.A. Knight I think two days prior. He was also supposed to be at that tryout, and so they told him not to come too, because of that same thing, and so after that, I didn’t even really try to be honest with you. I just kind of went my own route of like, alright, well let’s see what I can do on the indies and that sort of thing. So, I just kind of worked my way towards an opposite direction. I kind of had the thinking of like, well, if nothing’s gonna happen there, I’m just gonna make my myself a star without them and I just kind of went the hard route.
Circling back to AEW, he spoke about his second TNT Title win in a Ladder match. Sky feels that win was not capitalized on to its fullest potential. He thinks he should’ve listened to the audience when they were rooting for him but that was not the plan. There were improvised moments in that match because Guevara got ‘rocked.’
That was a moment (winning TNT Title for the second time) … That was for sure a moment… We didn’t capitalize on that the way we should have. The thing with Sammy (Guevara) and I is the fans, in the beginning, he was the babyface, I was the heel and then they started turning during and we didn’t lean right into that and at the time, I was thinking, like, I need to probably go babyface here. Listen to the audience. But that wasn’t really the plan so, it was a little bit of a push and pull type of situation where we probably should have just listened to the audience and said, okay, this is where we’re gonna go. That’s how we could have capitalized on that moment but yeah, that was absolutely a moment and the funny thing about that too is — it ended up making it better but there was a mess up, because Sammy got a little bit rocked in that match, and so, when we watched the match, he falls off the ladder onto the barbed wire ladders. That was supposed to be the finish. But, like a spot or two before that, he was gonna do a springboard up on the ladder and I was gonna knock him off. But we skipped it because he was kind of rocked so we’re like, ‘Okay, let’s get home’ or whatever. So I knock him off the ladder, he hits the barbed wire. I start climbing. I look, I see him getting up. I’m like, ‘Is he getting up? What’s he doing? He’s supposed to stay down.’ He springboard, jumps on the ladder and he’s like, ‘What’s next!?’ And I’m like, ‘You’re supposed to stay down,’ and he goes, ‘Oh, sorry.’ I was like, ‘It’s okay. Just go back down.’ But it made it better, because the crowd, after I knocked him down the second time, they were like, oh, we know he’s winning this time. So you feel them build, build, build and then when I finally grabbed the belt, that’s when you had that big explosion. So I’m glad he did it. I’m not happy he got rocked but, I am glad that mistake took place.
** Prior to AEW Blood & Guts, the Battleground Podcast rolled out their interview with AEW World Champion Swerve Strickland. During the chat, he was asked about celebrities in wrestling and mentioned that he thinks rapper Kevin Gates could make the transition. He would go on to dive into the ‘slippery slope’ that comes with celebrities making that career move.
Oh, as far as wrestling, I’m like, mhm (Strickland pondered while thinking about celebrities who could transition into wrestling). I always thought Kevin Gates could do it. But, it’s all about the spirit of wanting to do it and being able to believe in it and Kevin’s off doing his own thing right now. So right now, I really don’t. Especially, where I’m at right now with the World Championship, once again, things move forward. So it’s like, okay, that’s not what we need right now, that’s not what I need right now. We need to focus on these things and these things and these things. You also run a slippery slope of like, you don’t want the celebrity to — not necessarily outdo and outperform… You don’t want that to overshadow a lot of the guys that had been putting in the work too and the talent that keeps the lights on, on night in and night out, night in, night out. You gotta reward those guys too and give them the opportunity to become those celebrities and then become that big, next thing. You can’t constantly, next celebrity, boom. Now, that’s who we’re running with. It’s like, alright, cool. That’s cool but, can’t take away from these guys that keep the machine and keep the thing going. There’s a slippery slope with it, in my opinion, and you don’t want that to be the standard to getting to that success. Wrestling still has to be a standard. Succeeding in wrestling still has to give results and be rewarded and that has to always be the pinnacle of that’s the work that you had to go into and still dedicate it to the art. To be the top of that art, if that makes sense… Like I said, it’s a slippery slope with that kind of thing. Pat Mahomes wasn’t a YouTuber then got into football to be a great quarterback. He’s dedicated to football to be the best quarterback in the game. You don’t wanna make it so that I don’t have to have 20 million followers first and then learn the art of playing football to get that status. We gotta be careful — we’re reversing the effect and the grind to get to that.
** Tommy Dreamer and Matt Camp welcomed Jeff Hardy onto Busted Open. He shared that he’s tired of The Hardy Boys theme song, and he’s been tired of it for quite some time. He added that he knows the fans love it.
When we (The Hardys) went back at WrestleMania 33, I remember talking to (Chris) Jericho after and I was like, ‘Yeah man, it was pretty cool. Even though they played that old ass Hardy Boys music,’ and still to this day, I was looking so forward to ‘Modest’ hitting and I’ve done this thing with The Hardy Boys music slowing down… But then it kicks into Modest, which is my original TNA theme, you know? And still, in the future, I think that can happen for sure but, yeah, I’m kind of tired of that Hardy Boys music or really tired of it to be honest. But the people (love it).
** Bloomberg Originals rolled out a piece on NFL Jacksonville Jaguars owner, Shahid Khan, father of AEW President Tony Khan. He reflected on losing out on the bid to purchase the then-NFL St. Louis Rams.
Obviously, it was surprising, disappointing (to lose the bid for NFL St. Louis Rams) but, things turned out great for me. It’s like football, you know? That you’re disappointed, you’re kind of knocked down and you kind of get up and dust yourself and say, okay, next play and the crazy part is I had met Wayne Weaver (first owner of Jags) with the Jacksonville Jaguars way earlier. I’ll never forget, I was in Stuttgart selling auto parts when I heard from Wayne, you know, in ‘11. ‘Okay. I think we’re serious now and we wanna get together.’
** Guest appearing on WWE – Die Woche was Naomi. She looked back on having to relinquish the SmackDown Women’s Championship in 2017 before WrestleMania 33. She confirmed it was an MCL injury that put her on the shelf. She ended up winning the belt back at WrestleMania.
Oh my gosh. That was such a crazy time (relinquishing SmackDown Women’s Title before WrestleMania 33) because the injury was real. It took me so long to get the championship and I was pretty devastated once I finally won it and injured my MCL. So, I honestly, at the time, didn’t know if I was gonna be better, if I was gonna be able to come back and even participate at WrestleMania so, just getting through that — even if I had wouldn’t have won it back, just getting back, I was happy about that, to be a part of ‘Mania and then to win it it back, that was like, woah. This is all happening right now. But, it was so long ago. It’s time for some new gold now.
** The newest interview that Developmentally Speaking rolled out was an hour-long conversation with Celeste Bonin a.k.a. Kaitlyn. The former WWE Divas Champion recounted crafting a storyline to get an on-screen Assistant General Manager role. She was supposed to beat Eve Torres in a match to get the role, but Vince McMahon switched the finish last-minute and decided that Torres was going to win.
I was writing different script ideas for storylines and I had started writing a storyline. I think Booker T was like the General Manager of SmackDown or something and I was more so on the SmackDown roster so, I was always traveling with SmackDown, and so I started writing this storyline where I was gonna be the assistant to the G.M. and I was kind of fighting Eve (Torres) for this spot, and Eve was like a down ass b*tch. I love Eve. She helped me so much. She’s such a wonderful person and I really look up to her in a lot of ways and she was really good to me and so we were kind of talking about that and I was writing it and it was gaining a little bit of momentum where Eve and I were having some backstages, setting up a match, setting up all this stuff and the day that her and I were supposed to have this match, I was supposed to win and get the assistant to the General Manager’s position. I was so excited and I was like, ‘Yes! Finally.’ I’m gonna have a main spot. So, it was either Booker T or Teddy (Long). I think it was Booker T. Anyways, so, me and Eve are out in the ring and I had done a photoshoot for the magazine at that time where I was dressed as the Ultimate Warrior so I had, like, full Ultimate Warrior outfit on. The armbands, like face paint and all. I was feeling so good because I’m like, ‘Yeah! I’m finally gonna get my debut’ and a writer, Tom comes out and he’s like, ‘I’m so sorry. Vince just changed this but Eve is gonna get this spot’ and it was just like that so… I think we didn’t even have the match or something and Eve ended up getting the position and I was like, damn. There was so many things like that where it was so close where I was gonna almost get it, almost get it, almost get it and then I didn’t get it and it was crazy because I had written that whole storyline and it was for me and then Vince (McMahon) gave it to Eve and it’s like, I couldn’t be mad at her because I know it’s not her and she’s so gorgeous and talented and wonderful so I get it so I was just really bummed.
** FOX 8 News in Cleveland spoke to Johnny Gargano about his father’s restaurant burning down.
** There’s an interview with Jeff Jarrett on the WTOP site.
** Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling Results (7/25/24) from Shin-Kiba 1stRING in Tokyo, Japan
– Arisu Endo, Suzume & Shino Suzuki def. Chika Nanase, Toga & Wakana Uehara
– Three-Way Match: Shoko Nakajima def. HIMAWARI and Uta Takami
– Kaya Toribami, Kira Summer & Moka Miyamoto def. Haru Kazashiro, Miu Watanabe & Runa Okubo
– Pom Harajuku, Raku, Rika Tatsumi & Yuki Aino def. Maki Itoh, Miyu Yamashita, Mahiro Kiryu & Yuki Kamifuku
– Mizuki def. Nao Kakuta
** A feature about Game Changer Wrestling’s tour of Japan in August, which includes quotes from the promotion owner, Brett Lauderdale.
** July 25th birthdays: Finn Bálor, Judais and Jake Something.
** Guest appearing on the AEW Unrestricted podcast was ‘Daddy Magic’ Matt Menard.
** There’s a feature on Chelsea Green by Muscle & Fitness.
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.
