** NWA Powerrr talent Zicky Dice was the most recent guest on the ‘This Is NWA Podcast’. On top of his current run in the NWA, Zicky has worked a handful of independent shows throughout his career and he has also done enhancement talent work for WWE. He shared some of those enhancement talent stories during the podcast which include him interacting with Jeff Jarrett, Michael Hayes and Shane McMahon.
“I went and did extra work at WWE in June and I don’t know if you remember what I was wearing at NWA. I had some bright-colored suit on with [a] fanny pack or whatever but before I quit… let me rewind, I was about to quit wrestling and then I was like, ‘You know what? F*ck it. I don’t give a sh*t what anyone thinks about me. I’m gonna do what I want,’ and that’s when ‘Outlandish’ Zicky Dice started having the most fun. When I stopped biting my tongue, when I stopped, ‘You’re not gonna wear that suit to WWE.’ Why would I not? Why would I not? And I did, and Jeff Jarrett came up and he grabbed my fanny pack and he’s like, ‘Look at you. That fanny pack. Gosh damn,’ and then Michael Hayes came up to me and he’s like, ‘You trying to steal my style kid?’ And I called him dad in front of everyone. I go in there and they give you a tryout match before SmackDown and I wrestled my buddy Levi Shapiro and we stole the show. I did a few magic tricks in the ring. No one’s seen that yet. If you look up some of my old stuff, I do magic. I get to the ring and I called out Nigel McGuinness right before I did my finisher and got a standing ovation, and the year before I got a standing ovation. I’m pulled to the side and they’re like, ‘You know we never give anyone standing ovations, you look like a superstar, you’re this, you’re that,’ and then you hear nothing, which made it hard for me to go back to my normal job and give a sh*t, right? Because you see the prize and you see what you’re going for and they’re like… Adam Pearce came up to me and I’ll never forget this. He said, ‘So you popped all the boys by the ring but can you work?’ And I said, ‘With all due respect, if I were to [have] worked, would you have watched?’ And he said, ‘Probably not,’ and he said, ‘Who trained you?’ I said, ‘Your Universal Champion Seth Rollins.’
It was like this crazy high and everyone’s like, ‘I heard about your match.’ Like I ran into Shane McMahon at the airport. He came up to me and he’s like, ‘Are you the magic guy I heard about today?’ And you hear all this stuff and then it’s like, then what? And then what? So it left a bitter taste in my mouth and I just continued to grind and continued taking bookings.”
Zicky Dice is in the tournament to crown a new NWA National Television Champion. He spoke about his position in the organization and feels he’s at the bottom of the totem pole but said he’s had talks with management about taking the next step.
“It’s so crazy too. I don’t even have a secure spot in the NWA. I’m at the bottom of the totem pole and I really, really wanna be there. So, we said we’d have a talk after the next set of tapings but, you win the title then I guess they have to keep me around, right?”
Zicky is a graduate of the Black and Brave Wrestling Academy which is partially owned by former WWE Universal Champion Seth Rollins. Zicky said that Rollins is at the facility more than ever and is very easy to access and always willing to help his trainees.
“I wanna be the first Black and Brave student who signs a contract so I can show everyone else who went to the school, ‘Hey, it can happen.’ I wanna show people like, ‘Dude just do it.’” Zicky was then asked if Seth Rollins is at the school consistently, “100 percent. He’s even there more now. Okay, so a lot of people get this all the time: ‘Oh yeah, you went to Black and Brave but Seth Rollins is never there.’ Bullsh*t. He gets in the ring with you, he’s hitting me. I’ve [driven] with him. You can pick his brain every damn night. He’s there for you so when we were there, they didn’t have the facility that they have now. We were running out of QC CrossFit in the Quad Cities. So we had to set up and tear down the ring every Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. Back then, Rollins is working RAW on Monday, SmackDown on Tuesday so Tuesdays you have Marek Brave and Krotch training, and then Wednesday, Thursday, you have all three. You’re doing CrossFit in between, so this [is] CrossFit Jesus so it’s mandatory that you take CrossFit classes in between and on top of your workouts before and after training. It was hands-down one of the hardest things I’ve ever done but I knew if I was gonna get the money and I was gonna do this, I was gonna take it serious, and make it happen.”
** San Francisco Chronicle ran an article about 49ers Defensive Tackle Earl Mitchell who was picked back up by San Francisco after retiring from the NFL. Mitchell was called by management about returning in late December. He was working as a talent scout and recruiter for WWE and regularly made trips from his home in Houston to Orlando where the WWE Performance Center is located. Mitchell also served as an apprentice and learned various aspects about the business but for now, he is focused on helping the 49ers get to a Super Bowl.
** Luke Harper has changed his name to “Brodie Lee” on his social media pages. On December 8th, he was officially released from WWE.
** Lilian Garcia chatted with Jim Varsallone of the Miami Herald for an exclusive interview.
** On the ‘Wrestle Kingdom night one’ edition of Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer shared more details about New Japan Pro-Wrestling mentioning Jericho’s video about putting the AEW World Title on the line if Hiroshi Tanahashi defeated him at Wrestle Kingdom. Rocky Romero and Jericho talked to Tony Khan about including the AEW World Title in a New Japan storyline and Khan approved. Also, the Ford GT that was featured on this past Wednesday’s episode of Dynamite was Shad Khan’s vehicle.
** Matt Jackson posted a photo of himself and Nick Jackson outside the Toyota Arena in Ontario, California and captioned the photo, “Venue hunting for 2020.”
** To promote an upcoming edition of AEW: Dynamite from Coral Gables, Florida, Jim Varsallone of the Miami Herald interviewed AEW Chief Brand Officer Brandi Rhodes.
** All Elite Wrestling announced their ‘Tribute To Memphis Wrestling Legends’ segment that will take place on Wednesday’s edition of Dynamite in Mississippi. They’ll be honoring Brian Christopher Lawler, Angelo Poffo, Randy Savage, Lance Russell, “Hot Stuff” Eddie & Tommy Gilbert, Austin Idol, Dave Brown, The Rock & Roll Express and “Handsome” Jimmy Valiant. F4WOnline learned additional details about the segment and one of the notes is that Dave Brown will be calling AEW Dark with Excalibur. Doug Gilbert is appearing to honor Tommy and Eddie Gilbert. Lance Russell’s son, Shane, will be honoring his father at the show. On behalf of Angelo and Randy, Lanny Poffo will be in attendance. Kevin Lawler is scheduled to be present on behalf of Brian Christopher and also, Memphis wrestling promoter Randy Hales and radio/podcast host Brandon Baxter worked with AEW officials to put the festivities together.
** Lana did an interview with Reel Talker and talked about her acting career, Rusev and more topics were covered during the 17-minute discussion.
** Here is episode 91 of MLW Fusion:
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pvObJBJGS4A[/embedyt]
** Tessa Blanchard was voted IMPACT wrestler of the year for 2019.
** Santino Bros.: ‘At Last’ Results (1/4/20) Cudahy, California
– Rey Romero Jr. def. Robby Phoenix via DQ.
– Battle Royal: Winner: Ruby Raze
– Dom Kubrick def. Viva Van
– Che Cabrera & Rico Dynamite def. Los Luchas (Phoenix Star & Zokre)
– Heather Monroe def. Andy Brown
– SBW Championship #1 Contender’s Four-Way Match: Douglas James def. Eli Everfly, Lucas Riley and Matt Vandagriff
– SBW Championship: Ray Rosas (c) def. Slice Boogie
– Jake Atlas def. Joey Kaos
** WWE Live Event Results (1/4/20) Cape Girardeau, Missouri
– Kevin Owens def. Seth Rollins
– SmackDown Women’s Championship: Bayley (c) def. Lacey Evans
– Aleister Black def. Buddy Murphy
– RAW Women’s Championship: Becky Lynch (c) def. Natalya
– WWE Universal Championship — Triple-Threat Match: “The Fiend” Bray Wyatt (c) def. Daniel Bryan and The Miz
– Roman Reigns, Braun Strowman & Big E (w/ Kofi Kingston) def. King Corbin & The Revival (Dash Wilder & Scott Dawson)
** NXT’s Elliot Sexton uploaded a new episode of ‘SMUG’ to his personal YouTube channel:
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qN6nBBlZTR4[/embedyt]
** On this coming Tuesday’s episode of IMPACT Wrestling on AXS which is the company’s go-home show before their ‘Hard To Kill’ pay-per-view on January 12th, there will be a special look into Sami Callihan and Tessa Blanchard’s feud as they head into Hard To Kill to compete for the IMPACT World Championship. Jessicka Havok is taking on Rosemary. Moose is teaming up with Rob Van Dam to face Brian Cage and Rhino. Also, Madison Rayne and Kiera Hogan are coming together with IMPACT Knockouts Champion Taya Valkyrie to face Jordynne Grace, Tenille Dashwood and ODB. Adding on to those matches set for Tuesday is Desi Hit Squad (Mahabali Shera, Rohit Raju & Raj Singh) versus TJP, Fallah Bahh and Daga.
** Sendai Girls: ‘New Year Senjo’ Results (1/5/20) Tokyo, Japan
– Mikoto Shindo def. Yurika Oka
– Aiger def. Sakura Hirota
– KAORU & Meiko Satomura def. Charli Evans & Yuu
– DASH Chisako & Manami def. Haruka Umesaki & Sareee
– Syuri def. Chihiro Hashimoto
** Tokyo Joshi Pro Results (1/5/20) Tokyo, Japan
– Nodoka Tenma & Yuki Aino def. Mizuki & Sena Shiori
– Akemi Daredosore def. Pom Harajuku
– Three Way Match: Shoko Nakajima def. Mahiro Kiryu and Yuki Kamifuku
– Miyu Yamashita, Raku & Suzume def. Haruna Neko, Hikari Noa & Natsumi Maki
– Miu Watanabe, Rika Tatsumi & Yuka Sakazaki def. Mina Shirakawa, Mirai Maiumi & Yuna Manase
– International Princess Championship: Thunder Rosa def. Maki Ito (c)
** Ring of Honor backstage correspondent Quinn McKay did an interview with Jim Varsallone and talked about how she got her start in Ring of Honor. It was current ROH World Tag Team Champion Jonathan Gresham who sent her information to the ROH dojo which led to her becoming a part of the company.
“So I hadn’t been wrestling all that long. I only had two or three matches on the independents and then I went to a Jonathan Gresham seminar at St. Louis Anarchy in Illinois, and I guess I really impressed him there because he sent my bio and some head-shots to the coaches at the dojo and they got me up there. I think it was February when they started talking about doing developmental contracts the first time at the Ring of Honor dojo, and I was really honored to be one of the first five contracts and the only woman to have been offered a contract at that point out of the dojo, so, that was really groundbreaking and really rewarding so, I think that’s kind of the short of it.”
** Pro Wrestling Tees announced that all Ric Flair merchandise will be removed from their site in one week.
** ICW New York announced Nick Gage versus Low Ki for their ‘No Holds Barred’ show in Tampa, Florida on April 2nd.
** Coming off the helms of Lana and Bobby Lashley’s wedding, WWE put together a video of the top ten times someone was hit in the face with cake in WWE:
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYTdjSRvvWA[/embedyt]
** Alexa Bliss was the focus of the latest ‘Canvas 2 Canvas’ episode.
** NXT’s Xia Li joined Sheamus for a new edition of Celtic Warrior Workouts:
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1AzHdJ_cEhc[/embedyt]
** WWE debuted their ‘Break It Down’ show on the WWE Network and featured on the first episode is former RAW Tag Team Champion Drew McIntyre. During his portion of the show, Drew talked about having his name changed from “Drew Galloway” to “Drew McIntyre” shortly before his WWE debut and it was Stephanie McMahon who suggested the change.
“Stephanie McMahon, says to myself and Michael Hayes, ‘Is Drew Galloway your real name?’ I said yeah and she said, ‘Hmm… we’re gonna need to change that,’ and I’m on in legitimately about two matches, maybe ten minutes max. So myself and Michael Hayes ran straight to talent relations. He quickly told them bring up Wikipedia — a bunch of Scottish names. We went from A all the way through, listening to all these names with a very limited time frame to get a new name and as soon as I heard McDonald first, he [Michael Hayes] liked. I went, ‘Nope! I know a Drew McDonald, can’t be him. I need three syllables. Fans have to chant it when I’m good one day’ and he said McIntyre with Mac-In-Tyre. That’s the one. We ran straight back to Gorilla and they quickly told the ring announcer, ‘His name is Drew McIntyre now’ and the music hit, and if you look closely, the screen behind me, you may catch the ‘Galloway’ on the screen because of the titantron. It said Drew Galloway.”
** New Japan Pro-Wrestling announced a paid attendance of 30,063 for night two of Wrestle Kingdom 14 at the Tokyo Dome. The night one number was 40,008.
