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.
** Donnie DaSilva and Jimmy Korderas welcomed MVP onto their HUGE POP! podcast. Along the way, Will Ospreay’s name came up and MVP mentioned that he’s spoken to Ospreay about not pulling out everything he has every time he’s in the ring because it’s not sustainable for his body. He stated that Ospreay has a great attitude. MVP acknowledged the other side of the coin and said Ospreay is delivering what the audience came to see.
Me and Will (Ospreay) talk and I’ve told him, ‘Hey brother, that bump card is a real thing, and I understand your exuberance and your desire to go out there and do all these amazing things all the time, but you can’t. It’s not sustainable. It’s not physically sustainable. So, go out there and give them a great show, but hold back a little bit and save some of that stuff for the pay-per-view, save some of that stuff for the important moments, you know?’ And Will has such a great attitude and despite his incredible talent, he really is a humble kid. I met him on the indies back when I was doing a U.K. tour years ago, when he was just a skinny, little kid who was like, hey, this kid could actually be something, and throughout the years, we’ve stayed in touch and I’m proud of his success and everybody has to come into it at their own time. I remember being a younger wrestler, having to work with older veterans and being like, ‘Ah, this guy’s gonna be lazy. He’s not gonna wanna do anything…’ And at this point in my career, I get it now. But, the other part is you also have to know your audience, and you gotta give your audience the match that they wanna see, and if people show up to your restaurant for Italian food and you’re serving Chinese, well, this isn’t what I came here for. So, you also have to know your audience and be able to perform for your audience and you know, you can get into your tribalism with that about what’s right and what’s wrong but, I came at the end of one generation and I did the crossover into the new generation and I would see a lot of the old-timers, they’re, ‘Look at this idiot flying over the top rope. Jesus. Anything to get over. You don’t need that… and all this ECW junk and all this trash and what are you doing all those flips for?’ Blah, blah, blah. Well, as I recall… was it Karl Gotch? I think? Or Lou Thesz? Called Harley Race a spot monkey. I can’t substantiate that but I’ve heard that.
So, it’s all generational, right? Every generation is, ‘Oh, you’re doing it wrong,’ and aye, but if people are showing up to buy your content, then you’re doing something right. Even though I have my own criticisms of certain styles of working and how people do it, I’m from that generation. ‘Hey, slow down. Make it count.’ There are some people (who) wanna see flip, flop and fly. Don’t stop, don’t take a break, don’t sell, don’t grab a hold, keep going. ‘That’s what I wanna see,’ and I’ve always felt that professional wrestling was a buffet. It’s a little bit of everything for everybody. You got a little ha ha over here, a little brutality over here, a little athleticism and gymnastics over here. Should be a little something for everybody and when The Hurt Syndicate comes on TV, what we give you is authenticity and believability.
** While guest appearing on Insight with Chris Van Vliet, Michelle McCool spoke about her Loser Leaves WWE match against Layla at Extreme Rules 2011. As of this writing, that was McCool’s last singles match. After the bout, Kia Stevens (Awesome Kong/Kharma) debuted, and Michelle shared that they did not find out about her arrival until minutes prior to the match.
I was happy with my last match for sure. It’s one of my favorite matches (against Layla at Extreme Rules 2011). I think Layla and I had a great match. I think we told a great story, and then Awesome Kong coming out for her debut, which we only knew minutes before, and what’s crazy is — again — just love the business and you know it takes two to tango. I vividly remember coming back and Hunter and the boss and a couple people saying, ‘Thank you so much for doing business. Thank you so much.’ I’m thinking, see, it shouldn’t be an issue that you do business. Like, what? And we dealt with that a lot, LayCool dealt with that a lot. ‘No, I don’t want them to beat me’ or, ‘I don’t want –’ you know, whatever. I wouldn’t think twice to have her come out there and kickstart — what an honor for me. You come beat me up and then, add salt to my wound and send me on my way. Yeah, for sure (it made the match more memorable) …
** In January 2023, Roxanne Perez became NXT Women’s Champion for the first time when she defeated Mandy Rose for the title. Perez told the No-Contest Wrestling Podcast that when Shawn Michaels told her she was winning the belt, he told her not to tell anyone. Perez immediately ran to Cora Jade to tell her.
I remember freaking out (when I found out I was winning NXT Women’s Title for the first time). Obviously, I got told the day of. Probably like a few hours before the show started and I was not expecting that one bit. Obviously, it was everything that I ever worked for, everything that I ever wanted. It was my first singles title in the WWE and it was finally happening. I remember getting out of the room — and if Shawn (Michaels) sees this, sorry — but he told me, ‘Don’t tell anybody’ and I ran to Cora (Jade) and I was like, ‘Guess what’s happening?’ I was like, ‘Don’t tell anybody.’ She was freaking out with me. I called my mom. I was like, ‘You need to be watching tonight.’ Yeah, that was insane and I remember winning and literally just crying as soon as they handed me the title. Literally the feeling I get right now. Sitting there and them bringing the title to me and seeing Booker T in the aisleway. It was just like, wow, every single thing that I’ve done to get here was so worth it. Those five-hour bus rides by myself on the greyhound where I was scared for my life. The times where I didn’t think that maybe it wouldn’t happen, the times when I was so stressed out because it was just a waiting game of like, okay, I started really young, I’m 13 years old. Now I’m 15, now I’m 16. I still can’t get the opportunities because I’m not old enough but I see the people around me getting the opportunities and I just had to hold on to the fact that like, okay, one day, it’s gonna happen. I know it’s gonna happen and that solidified everything. All the hard work was so worth it, and I was just, you know, a 20-year-old kid from a small town called Laredo, Texas. So, it’s so possible.
** Guest appearing on the B4 The Bell Podcast was Joaquin Wilde. The current L.W.O. member stated that he’s open to returning to TNA Wrestling under the ‘DJZ’ name seeing as how there’s a partnership between WWE and TNA.
Surreal. You never imagine that WWE, TNA would be working in any kind of capacity where like — it’s great. I’m so happy for my friends at TNA that are getting those opportunities to appear on NXT. I was really happy for Trey Miguel. Me and him go way back. I was really happy to see Rosemary. So happy to see her get an opportunity. These are really cool crossover stuff and it’s great for the NXT talent that’s gone over there too. They get to work in front of a different audience. They get to be exposed to a different way of doing wrestling than just the way they do it in the Performance Center. I think that’s important. So, dude, a great partnership. Would I be interested? Hey, if they wanna resurrect DJZ for one more night, I still got the light-up costume. It’s in my closet. We can dust it off. Let’s see what happens.
Elsewhere in the conversation, Wilde spoke about the slingshot maneuver he does where he springboards off the ropes onto opponents on the outside. He remembers Shawn Michaels asking him if he really wanted to go through with it.
Really, it’s about maximizing your minutes (Wilde said about his signature slingshot move) … You don’t see me a ton on WWE television. It’s not like I’m wrestling every week so every time I do get a match, I kind of treat it like it’s life or death. So, I go all in, full send on everything I do and I had that idea — we call it the catapult slingshot… It’s been an idea that I’ve had for a long time. I’ve messed with it at the Performance Center. But it had to be the right situation to finally use it and I’d been sitting on it for like two years actually. Before that one that I did at NXT, it had been in my back pocket for like two years. Just waiting for the right moment, the right situation to finally bust it out and yeah, it finally popped off at NXT and I was so surprised. It went viral. Couldn’t believe it but…
I got other variations of it that people haven’t seen yet. So there’s still more in the back pocket. Again, waiting for the right situations. Maybe you’ll see it on WWE television one day.
So I mean, I’ve had to be talked off ledges plenty times. So the first time that I did the catapult actually, I remember Shawn Michaels pulled me aside and was just kind of like, ‘Are you sure?’ He’s cool. He said it too… ‘I understand the part of you that wants to do this stuff and we want to keep you safe but we also understand that there’s a part of you that probably hears me trying to talk you out of it’ and just kind of like, man, leave me alone (he smiled). Let me do my thang.
There’s an added pressure there, like, no, I got it. I’m doing this. It’s like, well, if I fail now, Shawn Michaels is never going to look at me the same again, you know what I’m saying? So there’s an added pressure to that too.
** As there was a recording of the Power & Glory podcast, Mario Mancini revealed that him and Paul Roma wrapped up filming for a ‘large documentary’ on HBO Max.
I got a very surprising phone call this week to be a guest on a pretty — a large show. (Paul) Roma and I just got done wrapping up a very large documentary for HBO Max.
** Kotaro Suzuki commented on Logan Paul using his ‘Mass Driver’ finisher on Monday Night Raw.
** A Fox Sports feature on Kyle Fletcher ahead of AEW Grand Slam: Australia.
** Maple Leaf Pro Wrestling added Billy Gunn to their March 14th and 15th shows in Windsor, Ontario, Canada.
** Mickie James guest appeared on KSAT to promote the A&E program ‘WWE LFG.’
** February 13th birthdays: Tommy Dreamer.
** There was a Washington Wizards versus Indiana Pacers NBA game on 2/12 and WWE’s L.A. Knight was present. The game was in Washington D.C. and Knight hails from Hagerstown, Maryland.
** NOW Toronto published their interview with Chelsea Green.
** WWE Women’s Champion Tiffany Stratton appeared on Inside the Arena.
** Straight Talk Wrestling has an interview up with Jack Cartwheel.
** A feature story on Ricochet via Cameron Hawkins of Uncrowned.
** Darren Paltrowitz of the Paltrocast spoke to Tessa Blanchard.
** The latest episode of the Gabby AF podcast featured a chat with Ric Flair.
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.
