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.
** Mike Johnson of PWInsider spoke with All Elite Wrestling Co-Executive Vice President Cody Rhodes. Cody successfully defended the TNT Championship against Sonny Kiss at Fight For The Fallen. Cody admitted that initially, he was not aware of the importance of that match from Sonny Kiss’ perspective in regard to the support that the LGBTQ and black community had for Sonny going into that bout. Cody stated that it was referee Aubrey Edwards who smartened him up about the importance of the match.
“So Sonny, the match we had, the day, as the day went by it dawned on me a little bit more, the severity of what it meant to have this fluid gender and open homosexual to have himself/herself challenging for the TNT Title. To me, Sonny is an outstanding athlete that has an incredibly different approach, presentation-wise, and a different type of charisma, the only like, reference-able charisma that I can think of what Sonny does is almost like Gorgeous George from the radio days, and just the overall pomp and circumstance of the presentation Sonny has, but that day as the day went on, it became more clear to me that this meant a lot to more people than just wrestling fans and I, you know, forgive me for being naive to that, I want to, I want to love and respect everyone on our roster, so it was a great learning experience for me and Aubrey Edwards was the one who kinda brought it in for me, brought it home in terms of how important it was. I’m almost tearing up as I say this, but it was. She said to me in the hallway, this is a big deal to a lot of people and I, I just, you know, you know I’ve been to the end zone before and I gave her the like, nod and I turned around and I went back and I gave her one of the longest hugs I think I’ve ever given anyone because I got it, and I could fill us in. So with that in mind, I want to make sure that, that I’m responsible to that, you know not only did she tell me that’s important and that’s a big deal, now I have to be responsible for that. Sonny doesn’t have over 10 years of experience like I have, I’ve worked with some of the greatest wrestlers of all time, and if I don’t take that experience in the ring and the match sucks, it’s not Sonny’s fault, it’s my fault. So with that in mind, I really..I was really proud we were able to carry it the way we did. There were some things I thought we could do better, but they were things that I could do better, and I was proud of Sonny, I was proud of Aubrey, I was proud of TNT, very proud of AEW, we’re moving forward on what does life look like really in 2020-2021 and beyond, it’s represented on AEW and doing it in a way that’s not just, ‘Hey we check the box, here’s a big PR press campaign.’ Instead, doing it in a real functional way made me proud.”
Rhodes also spoke about the TNT Championship and how the title has been presented thus far and in the midst of his answer, Cody revealed that he only plans to wrestle for five more years.
“Well I think AEW has always presented, especially to experienced talent, even myself in management, just looking at myself from a wrestler the way I present it to other experienced talent who have a lot of equity is that you’ll play your music how you want to, there is no writing core, there’s much less scripting going involved. With that in mind the TNT Championship has been, kinda been open mic, it’s an open challenge but it’s been an open mic for me pretty much every week as far as how I want my wrestling career, what I want to do next. It’s very important to me, very…I think some people might think it’s silly but I’m a wrestler so it’s not silly to me but it is important to me that I grow as a wrestler. I’m only going to do this for 5 more years and the next 5 more years I want to really carve out that bell to bell aspect of what I was able to do, cause I’ve always been very confident in myself in the ring, and I try not to be overly confident, but we’re dealing with different athletes now and we’re drawing from all walks of life in terms of the wrestling world…that’s what I always loved about The Elite. There’s all these rumors about the Elite and our relationship and things of that nature but one thing that’s for sure is why it has worked is because Matt and Nick have this incredible, high paced meta-like wrestling approach to tag team action that’s really just remarkable to watch, and then Kenny maintains some of his DDT elements and his Puro-roots and the long form New Japan style match, and what I brought to the table was classic Jim Crockett Promotions old Southern wrestling, old Southern drama, but what I think is special about the group is I think everyone in the group is capable of doing what the other could do in a way, and that’s what I wanted the TNT open challenge to represent – my ability to hustle bell to bell, because it’s what I train for every day, it’s very much a professional sport to me and I train like a professional athlete, so I’m going to want to be the best at it. And per recruitment of or I guess scouting of opponents pretty much been half and half, when I think of it in my mind. Tony has some people he wants to see get in the mix, and then there’s some people I’ve wanted to see get in the mix, and never really is it a hard sell to one another on these things. Arn Anderson’s actually been involved, his involvement goes beyond the on-screen coaching role, it really is special to have him around and Jerry Lynn secretly is the, kinda been attached to me by the hip for the last few weeks and my gosh, I’m so glad to have him because it feels like 2007-8 all of a sudden again, it feels like I know nothing, and he doesn’t do it in a mean spirited way but it’s never about, ‘Oh what you did well or what worked.’ It’s about, ‘Well you could have done this, you could have done this’, and really special…he’s found his identity as a coach, but this has gone very well, and I’m a large critic, very well in terms of viewership and ratings, very well in terms of critical reception to the matches but the trick is it’s gotta keep getting better and I think there’s an element of unpredictable to the open challenge that I want to kind of turn the volume up on.”
** Riddick Moss joined Dan Matha on the ‘Spark In The Dark’ podcast. During their discussion, Matha mentioned that Moss’ contract with WWE was set to expire this past February. Moss did not react or respond to the comment.
Elsewhere during the podcast, Moss talked about the royalty check he received for he and Matha’s ‘Outliers’ shirt while they were teaming together in NXT.
“We got our merch check for — I can’t think of what it’s called. I mean, well it was whatever tiny percentage but there was like 87 bucks made. So I think there was four shirts bought and I know my mom and dad were at least two of them.”
** Big Swole chatted with Tony Schiavone and Aubrey Edwards on the AEW Unrestricted podcast. Swole recounted the brief period of time she spent with WWE and recalled meeting Brock Lesnar backstage at an event. Swole claims to have walked up to Brock Lesnar and jokingly told him that she can kick his ass.
“So, the whole entire day, I’m just clowning with people. People that I know and stuff like that. I see Brock Lesnar and every time he walks past, all the extras, ‘Hello sir. Hello sir. Hello sir.’ Like acting like some — they got wedgies acting all stuck up and stuff and I’m like, ‘He’s just a regular person. Stop bothering this man.’ So the last person bothers him and they’re like, ‘Thank you so much!’ I walked up to him and was like, ‘Hey. Brock, right?’ He’s like, ‘Yeah?’ I was like, ‘I just wanna let you know I can whoop your ass,’ and the fact that I had the balls to say that because I was like, ‘I’m gonna make him laugh’ because obviously, he was so pissed off with everybody just stopping him 24/7 and he’s like, ‘That’s funny. What’s your name?’ I was like, ‘I’m Aerial, I’m Aerial.’ He’s like, ‘Okay, I’ll remember that. You can whoop my ass?’ ‘Yeah, I can whoop your ass.’ He’s like, ‘Okay, okay’ and he walks off.”
Swole has overcome a great deal of adversity in her life and she shared that when she was 12-years old, she was struck by lightning while playing outside in her backyard.
“As my mom says, she’s like, ‘Oh yeah, the devil’s been trying to kill you for a very long time’ and you know, I was like, ‘Yeah, it all started when I got struck by lightning’ and I was like welp. What do we do next? ‘Well I don’t know. Stay from going outside.’
I was 12, I was outside and you know old school houses used to have those metal poles for the gutters and stuff. So I had my hand — because I’m stupid — I had my hand on the gutter and I had my rings and stuff like that. You know had mood rings and all that other stuff and [I] was outside and I loved the rain and literally, it came down, it just went through and just shocked the heck out of myself and I just dropped and my parents were like, ‘Alright, well… better pick her up.’”
** Chris Jericho welcomed Sonny Kiss onto the Talk Is Jericho podcast. Kiss opened up about the pay she received in Lucha Underground and how frustrating it was being under contract with the organization.
“Woof, that contract issue, I don’t even wanna get into that for legal reasons.
It was a nightmare. We were probably, maybe making four grand a year. We couldn’t [go] anywhere else at all and there was times when I couldn’t pay my cell phone bill or anything. I can’t even contribute to my rent. It was bad.
They [Pentagon Jr. & Fenix) were amongst the first to get out though. I was really happy for them and everybody. I was amongst the last because Cody was just like, ‘Don’t worry, we’re gonna still book you to the moon. We’re gonna make sure you’re still here,’ which was great. I really appreciate him for that. So January is when they announced AEW. I didn’t get the contract until TV happened. So, it was brutal.”
At the age of 26, as of the podcast, Sonny plans to continue wrestling for another ten years.
“I mean obviously, it’s a weird thing because most wrestlers say they’re gonna retire and they end up [coming back]. I say, as far as in-ring, I wanna maybe have another ten years, because I’m 26 right now. That’s still pretty young.”
** Doc Gallows was a recent guest on The Wrestling Inc. Daily podcast. Doc revealed that during the Boneyard match taping between Undertaker and AJ Styles, Undertaker suffered a serious injury in-which he lost a lot of blood and a tendon of his was wounded as well. Undertaker did wear a bandage around his wrist during the airing of the match.
“Man I don’t know. After seeing him there and seeing how tough and how hard he is, he definitely has one more in him. Early on in the shoot, he goes to throw that back-fist and his arm goes through the freaking window. It’s a laceration, there’s tendon, there’s blood and I mean a lot of blood and a lot of swelling, and if it were somebody else, they might’ve stopped that. There might have been serious medical attention but there wasn’t. He wrapped it with a towel, he took a ten second break and he’s back out there fighting and rolling around in the dirt. That’s a bad ass dude. That’s legit. I watched it with my own two eyes so, as far as that goes, in the right setting, I think yeah and I think it was great for those two to do it in that setting because you can’t have WrestleMania with AJ Styles and The Undertaker in a empty Performance Center. That’s a match that deserves — it deserves the crowd reaction that it would get. I said that at Slammiversary too. As much fun as Slammiversary was and as great as it was and as cool as it was and how I really think it was a big shot in the arm, the only thing missing were — when that Motor City Machine Guns graphic showed up at the beginning of that pay-per-view, that would’ve been a hell of a pop and it’s a shame. I told those guys, ‘It’s a shame you didn’t get to get that pop’ so it’ll be fun when the world opens up again to feel those reactions and stuff.”
Gallows was asked about the tag team division in WWE, specifically the Viking Raiders (Ivar & Erik). Gallows believes that the higher-ups in WWE don’t believe that tag team wrestling can draw money and he added that later down the line, he hopes to have a match against War Machine, not The Viking Raiders.
“It used to [bother me seeing tag teams being misused in WWE] but I understand it. I mean, they [Viking Raiders] were a hell of a team. They’re a great team. We’ve had great matches with those guys. But, they’re War Machine-lite. We were Gallows and Anderson-lite. It’s the PG version, it’s the character version. Sometimes, in that company I feel like the people that are making the final decisions don’t have as much as modern touch, especially when tag teams are never a focus there because I don’t think that they actually believe tag team wrestling can draw money which I think has been proven all around the world not to be the case. But, it just is what it is. Those guys are characters. I hope they can make some good money for their families and pay off their houses and do all that stuff that you like to do as a wrestler so you can secure a good future for yourself but, at the end of those deals, there will be a place for War Machine to come and I’d like to stand across the ring from them again. The real War Machine. Maybe not the Vikings, you know?”
** At the conclusion of Pat McAfee’s interview with Adam Cole, they got into a heated exchange after McAfee made light of Cole’s size. The “altercation” begins at the 2:10:30 mark.
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_o-kZmjaX8[/embedyt]
McAfee posted direct messages with himself and Cole after their “altercation” happened.
** Justin Barrasso of Sports Illustrated spoke with AEW President Tony Khan about Sammy Guevara’s return to AEW Dynamite on 7/22. Guevara was suspended by the company in late June for the derogatory comments he made on the ‘RAW’s 4th Hour’ podcast on-which he stated that he wanted to “rape Sasha Banks”. Khan explained his reasoning behind bringing Guevara back after several weeks.
“Sammy completed four weeks of extensive sensitivity training, and his curriculum included subject matters of tolerance, gender, race relations, and why people’s words matter. During his suspension, he was very contrite. I asked him to use that time to try and become a better person, and I think he did. Sammy was off television for a month and suspended without pay for 30 days, and I think it was the right time for Sammy to come back because he’s shown that he’s very sorry and that he can change. He’s spent every day over the past month trying to prove that.”
Khan added that Guevara needed to show he had made strides in order to keep his job and make amends for the words that he put out.
“I meant what I said about re-evaluating his status with the company based on his conduct. Sammy needed to make a lot of strides to keep his job and make amends for stuff he shouldn’t have said. None of us knew he said those things, and it’s stuff that was years old, but that doesn’t make it right. I think Sammy was very happy to have an opportunity to apologize, publicly and privately, and do something to turn a terrible comment he made into something positive.”
** WWE announced that Klaudia Bermudez-Key has joined the company as their new Vice President and General Manager of Latin America.
** IMPACT Wrestling’s Acey Romero guest appeared on the ‘Living The Gimmick’ podcast. Romero detailed IMPACT’s COVID-19 precautions and said that he’s felt safe at their tapings.
“IMPACT’s been taking extreme measures. For starters, they recommend us two weeks before tapings to self-quarantine and then for tapings itself, we have our own hotel rooms now. Usually, we double up but we’ve been having our own hotel rooms which has been great, and then we get our temperature taken and we get our blood-oxygen levels taken. A bunch of more science-y stuff that I don’t even know about. But they take the measures. Gloves, the anti-bacterial stuff, all that stuff. E.M.T.’s. They take all the measures and they make sure after tapings that they’re checking on people to see how we’re all doing. So I always feel safe. I never felt worried about coming to work and getting… being at risk.”
Romero admitted that IMPACT has not been doing COVID testing but reiterated that they are taking temperatures, establishing social distancing and keeping a limited number of people in the studio where matches are being taped.
“Not full-blown COVID testing, as some would say. But like I said, they are doing their best. There’s only a certain amount of people that can be in the studio at a time while taping. Social distancing has definitely been put in play, and like I said, they’re checking on us as much as they can to make sure we’re doing well and are taking their precautions.”
** Air Wolf joined The Culture Cast.
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rc_z3eYEmmo[/embedyt]
** The next portion of Hiroshi Tanahashi’s interview series with NJPW1972.com is up on the site.
** Brandi Rhodes joined The Paltrocast with Darren Paltrowitz and spoke about why she missed the Chris Jericho cruise in January of 2020. Rhodes revealed back in January that her passport was stolen but she dove more into that situation during this interview.
“I was not on the Chris Jericho cruise and I feel like I can talk about it a little bit more. So I had every intention of being on the Jericho cruise and I actually had wanted to wrestle. The day before, we were supposed to fly to Miami. We fly to Miami, stay the night and then head out to the cruise the next day. I went to the gym. I packed all of my things in my backseat from being in the gym and then I drove about a mile from there to a different nail salon that I’d never been to before. But it looked really nice and didn’t seem too busy. So I popped out to get my nails done, I came out, someone punched my window in, took everything out of my car that they could see including my bag which had my passport in it. So, I did not skip the Jericho cruise. I was robbed, and my passport was part of what was robbed too. Thankfully I had my purse so I still had my I.D.’s and credit cards and all that stuff but yeah, I got ganked.”
** WWE Intercontinental Champion AJ Styles went live on Twitch on 7/22 and towards the end of the stream, AJ answered a great deal of questions from the chat and was asked what has been his favorite match thus far and he feels that it was against John Cena at SummerSlam 2016.
“I don’t know. I’ve got a lot of great matches, ones that I’ve enjoyed. I don’t think any one can top that first one with John Cena at SummerSlam. Thought that was really good.”
AJ also touched on the TNA Unbreakable match with himself, Samoa Joe and Christopher Daniels that is highly spoken of and highly regarded as one of the best matches that most have seen in TNA history. Styles feels that the match could’ve been better and he joked that Samoa Joe went to the final portions of the match too early while more could’ve been done.
“Unbreakable, I think it was 2005 and it was good. It was so good! But, it could’ve been better. I’d love to put all the blame on [Samoa] Joe but he went home in our match a little too early. But, I didn’t stop him, but it was good but it could’ve been a lot better had we did what we were supposed to do because we had to ad lib a lot there at the end so, but it was still good. We were happy with it.”
** WWE Hall Of Famer Lita joined Corey Graves on WWE’s After The Bell podcast. Towards the end of the conversation, Lita was asked when fans cans expect to see her back in the WWE and Lita said she’s all for it. She did state that she believes WWE doesn’t need her right now and she’s happy watching the roster get their shine.
“I’m down, I’m down. I can’t say if I was never in the ring again I’d feel that something was missing from me. But I think that it’d be a fun opportunity and a good short team goal and just something to add to the resume but, you guys don’t need me. Everybody is doing awesome there so I can get by just watching how great everybody’s doing but, if the stars aligned, I could be down.”
** Brian Cage joined Tommy Dreamer and Bully Ray on Busted Open Radio. Cage was asked if he thinks he’s connecting with the AEW fan base and he responded with the following:
“That’s actually a good question. Yes and no, and I think that’s because I haven’t — it’s been great with Taz, everything we’re doing, but I’ve done some cool squashes. I’ve had that one match with Mox that a lot of people probably weren’t happy with the ending with it. But, there’s still a whole lot to me that we haven’t seen or got and truth be told too, I would love for us to kind of turn around and be a little more fan-favorites [because I’ve always been more a fan] of that than being the quote, unquote bad guy.”
** DDT Pro Wrestling ‘Summer Vacation’ Results (7/23/20) Korakuen Hall
– Mad Paulie & Soma Takao def. Keigo Nakamura & Yukio Naya
– Danshoku Dino, Seigo Tachibana & Super Sasadango Machine def. Kazuki Hirata, Naomi Yoshimura & Toru Owashi
– DDT Extreme Division Championship — Special Rules: Shinya Aoki (c) def. Maku Donaruto
– Chris Brookes & Drew Parker def. Daisuke Sasaki & Nobuhiro Shimatani
– KO-D 6-Man Tag Team Championship: Kazusada Higuchi, Saki Akai & Yukio Sakaguchi (c) def. Antonio Honda, HARASHIMA & Riho
– Hideki Okatani, Jun Akiyama, Makoto Oishi & Mizuki Watase def. ALL OUT (Akito, Konosuke Takeshita, Shunma Katsumata & Yuki Ino)
– KO-D Openweight Championship: Tetsuya Endo (c) def. Yuki Ueno
** As first reported by Fightful Select, former IMPACT World Champion Tessa Blanchard is sending back the IMPACT World Title belt. IMPACT and Blanchard cut ties in June. The following note comes by way of Fightful:
“Tessa Blanchard and IMPACT Wrestling are on the outs, and reports have emerged suggesting that she demanded a large sum of money to return the title. Her side of things has disputed that, and mentioned that not only did Tessa not try to hold up IMPACT, but that the company only provided an address to send the belt this week. They claim the title is planned for a safe return.”
** On the latest installment of Vickie Guerrero’s podcast, she discussed her role within All Elite Wrestling and what it has been like to be a part of the company thus far. Vickie spoke about wanting fans back at shows and she mentioned that AEW does have dates lined up for fans to see their events live but those dates are continuously pushed back due to COVID-19.
“I love the schedule. They have to pinch me whenever they tell me, ‘Oh you only work once a week’ and right now, AEW does have some dates on the calendar that’s supposed to be live audiences but I know that they keep pushing them back because of all the different things going on with COVID. But, we’re hoping that this vaccine comes out and things get back to normal and we can have the fans back in our arenas because we all miss them. We miss the yelling and the booing and the cheers — just the noise does add a lot of excitement on our part to be out there in the ring.”
** Brian Pillman Jr. did an interview with talkSPORT’s Alex McCarthy. Pillman Jr. shared that his singles match against Brian Cage on AEW Dark was not originally scheduled to happen but it came about as a reward from his first match on AEW Dark against Shawn Spears.
“That was the biggest thing for me. The Brian Cage match was never really supposed to happen, that was, more or less, I’d like to say a reward for doing so well in the first match. They realized I was a good guy to go out there, to sell and continue telling that story for Brian Cage and building him up for the monster that he is.
I give a lot of credit to Shawn Spears for being such a genius in the ring and such a mastermind that a lot of people don’t give him the credit for.
He made me look so good that the office in Cody [Rhodes] and Tony [Khan] were so impressed [that they] gave me the opportunity against Brian Cage. And I’d like to think I knocked that one out of the park too, so we’ll see what the future holds for me.”
Continuing on the topic of All Elite Wrestling, Pillman Jr. said that Chris Jericho has been an advocate of his in the company and is one of the big reasons why Pillman was a part of Double Or Nothing in 2019.
“Me and Chris have been close for a long time. That was also somebody that was pulling for me in the company [AEW] and he helped me get the opportunity at the Double or Nothing pay-per-view about one year ago. That was May 22, 2019. So it’s been about a year since I’ve been there, so it’s been a long time. They wanted to see how far I have come and what improvements did I make and I think they were all happy with that. I think Chris was very happy with that. I got to sit with him and chat with him at the shows too. Everybody in that locker room is very hungry, very determined. It doesn’t matter whether you’re on Dark or Dynamite, what matters is that there’s hundreds of thousands of people watching online and on TV and we’re going to go out there and put on our best work.”
** Ahead of his match with Dominik Dijakovic on the 7/22 episode of NXT, Karrion Kross spoke with Daily DDT. Kross credited Lucha Underground for helping him shape his character and he heaped praise onto writer/producer Chris DeJoseph for his creative mind and vision.
“I always thought Chris DeJoseph was a genius. He came over from WWE and he went over to Lucha Underground and he brought his creative mind there. It doesn’t surprise me that things have circled back to what we’re seeing right now in terms of the cinema stuff. I think that sometimes when things become a really big deal and they’re really cool and they’re really interesting, they were kind of done in similar ways prior to that. It’s almost like it was ahead of its time. I think it’s really cool that we’re doing cinematic stuff and I think now more than ever it’s the perfect time to start introducing stuff like that. We are in the business of telling stories and what better way to do that, especially with WWE. I mean, it’s the best entertainment company in the entire world and they can do anything. It’s definitely something they should be doing and I’m glad to see it.
I really found myself there. I think that everything that people are seeing right now, while I wasn’t necessarily doing it on screen, I think inside myself I found it working there. I put that away because I knew one day when I got here to WWE, I really wanted to let that out. Chris DeJoseph really helped me find that.”
When it came to being officially released from IMPACT Wrestling, Kross had options on the table but he always had his eyes on WWE, but just wasn’t sure when it would happen.
“I had considered signing in other places the entire way to getting here and the only reason I did that was because I wasn’t even sure when it was going to happen. I knew in my heart it was going to happen, but when, I couldn’t tell you. What I wanted to do in the meantime before we got to that day, whenever it was, was to become as valuable as possible and to get as good as I can before I get here. That was always in the back of my mind what I was doing. Aside from doing my best to entertain and improve, I wanted to try to find the best version of myself so when I got here, I was going to be in the best position to contribute to what we’re doing.”
Among the several names that inspired Karrion Kross on-screen, two of those names are the late Brian Pillman and Sean O’Haire who Kross spoke in-depth about respectively.
“I definitely think him among a few other people were really inspiring towards something I wanted to bring to life that I felt really confident and sincere that I could pull off on a consistent basis. I think character continuity is really important and essential for a television show. When you’re trying to find your confidence to stick to something, you have to be really sure and a lot of the influences that I’ve had, Sean O’Haire being one of them, I always felt really positive that I could do what I’m doing right now because I was always bringing back that energy for television programming and stuff like that.
Brian Pillman was another guy. He had something that was so… I guess the world that comes to mind is intangible. He had a magnetic energy where if you were flipping through the television and you had no idea you were watching wrestling and Brian Pillman was on screen, he could capture your attention and you were not going to change the channel until he was off of it. You might stick around just to see if he comes back. I don’t know what to call that, I don’t know what that is. But it’s a feeling, it’s a feeling that people make you feel.
Steve Austin, The Rock, all of those guys. They had that thing where people knew when they saw them that there was something special about them and I don’t necessarily know if you can find that. I think it’s something you need to feel yourself and chase it.”
While he has his sights set on getting an NXT or North American Championship match, Kross is looking forward to the possibility of matching up with a Daniel Bryan, Shinsuke Nakamura and/or “The Fiend” Bray Wyatt.
“I think Daniel Bryan will be an outstanding match one day when we get to it. I believe it’d be absolutely killer. Bray Wyatt is another one that many people want to see and I think Shinsuke Nakamura will be an excellent match.”
** AJ Gray did an interview with WrestleZone:
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_7RF0L-_qSg[/embedyt]
** India Today spoke with Drake Maverick to chat about him continuing to work for WWE after being released and later being re-signed to the company. Maverick stated that now that he’s back under contract, he has the goal of main-eventing WrestleMania in his sights.
“Every time, I am inside the ring, there is no complacency. I don’t want to be in that situation again. I work very hard to make sure that doesn’t happen again. The best use of my second chance, I have said this since Day 1 in this company. I want the main event at WrestleMania. I am going to shoot for the stars as I have always done. I am going to overachieve what I have always done. I am a go-getter and I will go get it.”
** Xavier Woods joined the ‘Nobodies Watching Wrestling’ podcast.
** WWE filed trademarks for “Intercontinental Championship” and “The Man”.
** AJ Mendez (Lee) and Aimee Garcia are launching Scrappy Heart Productions, which will be a content company devoted to elevating diverse voices. The full story can be read on Variety.com.
** Madison Rayne was the most recent guest on Taylor Wilde’s ‘Wilde On’ podcast. Rayne touched on the topic of female commentators in wrestling and credited Renee Young and Beth Phoenix for setting the stage for other women to take on the role of being a lead commentator on a nationally televised wrestling program.
“I’m trying to carry the ball along. Obviously I’m not the first. I was doing commentary specifically for the Knockouts matches a few years ago and then WWE let Renee Young do some commentary and WWE has Beth Phoenix doing commentary at NXT so, I’m one of a very, very small, very small group of women who are blazing a trail but I certainly was not the first and I’m thankful for the Renee Youngs and Beth Phoenixs’ of the world to even create that idea that allowed me to explore this new avenue in my career and again, very thankful to everyone at IMPACT who gave Josh [Matthews] and I headsets together…”
** Kristen Ashly of Bell To Belles chatted with Killer Kelly. Kelly shared her thoughts about the #SpeakingOut movement on social media and feels that it’s something that needed to happen a long time ago in wrestling.
“I feel like this movement was something that was needed a long time ago. Women and men need to be able to voice their concerns about what bothers them and makes them feel uncomfortable.
Bullying and any sort of harassment have no place in wrestling or anywhere else in the world. People cannot be silenced any longer, and I think that’s amazing. Wrestling will be a safer place because of the people who spoke out.
Now people aren’t afraid of speaking, and in my opinion, it has created a place where people will look out for each other more and make other people think very, very hard before saying or doing anything considered wrong. I’m sure this movement will provide a safer environment, for everyone.”
Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, Killer Kelly was preparing to head to Tampa, Florida for WrestleMania 36 weekend, where she was going to be in action at Josh Barnett’s Bloodsport event. Kelly hopes to one day work a Bloodsport show when the pandemic has less of a hold on the world.
“That event is literally my dream scenario for wrestling, and I can’t wait to wrestle (and kick ass) at Bloodsport III. I’m hopeful, and Barnett said that whenever it’s possible, we will do it. But, safety first.”
** Michael Elgin uploaded a new video to his YouTube channel and spoke about what he’s currently going through, mental health struggles and being let go from IMPACT Wrestling.
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XUyQKm2CZkw[/embedyt]
** Fightful’s Sean Ross Sapp released another portion of his interview with EC3. In this portion of the interview, EC3 spoke about Drake Maverick urinating on himself at the 2018 Survivor Series pay-per-view and how Maverick took the initiative to make sure the spot went as planned.
“I think NXT’s awesome and fun. Hopefully they use him [Drake Maverick] to his capabilities as a story teller and a veteran presence and talent that can help mold a generation of people that might not get it yet. He’s awesome. If it was a different world and he was free to try something else, I would have been excited to see what he really could do, but at the same time in this world’s climate… NXT’s cool. They’ll let him be him. I mean, the guy pissed his pants for that company. For real pissed his pants. That wasn’t—the thing malfunctioned. Did you know this? So, someone has this great idea where he pisses his pants, send him out there with a malfunctioning [pant pisser]. It didn’t work. To watch him, he’s such a professional in the back of his mind, and he’s very paranoid, ‘Oh, man, I need a full tank just in case I need to pee my pants,’ and he did.”
** Xavier Woods and Tyler Breeze hosted a SmackDown vs. RAW 2006 live stream.
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M9gtkecyeF8[/embedyt]
** There is a new VLOG on Ethan Page’s YouTube channel which features behind-the-scenes footage from Slammiversary and the post-Slammiversary television tapings.
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gtnUIbHwIRs[/embedyt]
** ‘The South African’ has an interview up with RAW Tag Team Champion Montez Ford.
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fUnxz6kivD0[/embedyt]
** Daniel Bryan returned to The Bellas Podcast to host another edition of ‘Bella Brains’.
** Tokyo Joshi Pro ‘Brand New Wrestling 4’ Results (7/23/20) Korakuen Hall
– Mirai Maiumi & Sena Shiori def. Moka Miyamoto & Suzume
– Mahiro Kiryu & Pom Harajuku def. Haruna Neko & Himawari Unagi
– Hikari Noa def. Raku
– Mina Shirakawa def. Yuki Kamifuku
– Miyu Yamashita, Mizuki & Natsumi Maki def. Maki Ito, Nodoka Tenma & Yuna Manase
– Princess Tag Team Championship: Miu Watanabe & Rika Tatsumi (c) def. Hyper Misao & Shoko Nakajima
– Princess Of Princess Championship: Yuka Sakazaki (c) def. Yuki Aino
** The likes of Rusev and Paige will be included in the “sports streamers” section on Twitch’s homepage catalog.
** Drake Maverick chatted with Daily Star for an exclusive interview.
** Ruby Riott reunited with Sarah and Erik Rowe and the video can be watched at this link.
** Bill Pritchard of WrestleZone interviewed Doc Gallows. Gallows discussed the COVID-19 precautions that were taken while filming Talk ‘N Shop-A-Mania and also taking precautions while filming the Being The Elite skit with The Young Bucks.
“In talking about protocols, it’s the masks, the social distancing, the temperature checks. It’s where it used to be thirty of us sitting around and shooting the sh*t and hanging out together, you can’t do that anymore. You have to social distance, even putting gloves on to get your catering food or whatever it may be, everybody’s being careful.
We went to AEW to shoot the BTE gimmick with the [Young Bucks] in the hotel for their show and we actually had the finger prick and had the COVID test there, and it’s the same stuff. We shot Talk ’N Shop A-Mania two weeks ago on my property in Georgia. My wife’s an ER nurse, she’s on the frontlines. We made that decision, because financially we’re in a situation where we can do that and she’s working on her doctorate now. She puts scrubs on and gloves, a mask and we had a COVID check at the end of my driveway because you have to do that. It’s a different time and hopefully, this pandemic stuff will ease up and slow down but it’s irresponsible not to be safe. We’re driving right now, we’re in Tennessee crossing into Georgia, and if we’re walking into a gas station everyone’s got a mask on and it’s the same thing with wrestling. With wrestling, you’re more at risk because you’re out there sweating all over each other and you’re in close contact, so you have to be as careful as possible. It’s something that none of us were prepared for or used to.”
** Peyton Royce uploaded a video to her YouTube channel featuring Billie Kay and Shawn Spears. Spears and Kay competed to find out who knows Peyton better.
** Military.com ran a story about Sgt. Slaughter being used on the promotional poster for the WWE/World of Tanks collaboration.
** Rusev reacted to his United States Championship match against John Cena from Fastlane 2015:
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIrtr96FtWs[/embedyt]
** SLAM! Wrestling chatted with Calvin Tankman.
** Melina rejoined Mickie James, Lisa Marie Varon and SoCal Val on G.A.W. TV.
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5lXJl26UjMY[/embedyt]
** Fightful released their interview with Ivelisse.
** The following matches have been announced for the 7/28 episode of AEW Dark:
– S.C.U. vs. Santana & Ortiz vs. Private Party
– Orange Cassidy vs. Serpentico
– Peter Avalon & Brandon Cutler vs. FTR
– John Silver & Alex Reynolds vs. Best Friends
– Sammy Guevara vs. Fuego Del Sol
– Scorpio Sky vs. Corey Hollis
– Abadon vs. Skyler Moore
– Lance Archer vs. Frankie Thomas
– Penelope Ford vs. Kenzie Paige
– Dark Order vs. Captain Shawn Dean & Will Hobbs
– Wardlow vs. Aaron Solow
– Joey Janela & Sonny Kiss vs. Michael Nakazawa & Pineapple Pete
** The ‘Dallas & Robo’ animated series starting John Cena is moving to the SyFy network starting August 8th.
** Jim Ross, Excalibur and Taz recapped the 7/22/20 edition of AEW Dynamite on the All Elite Wrestling YouTube channel.
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKaZCwICRjg[/embedyt]
** Comicbook.com published their interview with Karrion Kross.
** ‘Jezebel’ has a long-form feature up about The Bella Twins’ professional career.
** Digital Spy chatted with AEW Chief Brand Officer Brandi Rhodes.
** RJ City was a guest on the Big Ben & Friends podcast.
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2pBTGR_s2zs[/embedyt]
** Here’s a video from the WWEPC YouTube channel featuring Daniel Vidot talking about his family:
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhAj32gUR8Y[/embedyt]
** The Battle Royal from ROH’s Free Enterprise event in February was uploaded to the Ring of Honor YouTube channel. Flip Gordon was the winner of this match and the results from said event can be read here.
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJiRuU7rYus[/embedyt]
** Mia Yim streamed the conclusion of ‘The Last of Us 2’ video game.
** The U.K. outlet ‘Metro’ chatted with Drake Maverick.
** CinemaBlend has an interview up with ‘Ultimate Tag’ production designer James Pearse Connelly, who discussed how the show was inspired by pro wrestling.
“With Ultimate Tag, we had gotten the show right over the holidays, actually, a fair amount of time ago. I remember having breakfast with my fiancee in Toronto, just getting into the holidays, and I had a call with the executive producer, and I had a bunch of coffee. And we were just chatting up a storm, and it just clicked where she had said, ‘You know, I don’t want this to sound prescriptive, but I want to watch the show and have the same feeling when I watch like, World Wrestling Entertainment. You know, spectacular and exciting and extreme. There’s lot of eye candy and it’s a sporting event, but it’s also entertainment.’ That was a sort of ‘aha’ moment that I’ll never forget. I thought, ‘Oh, yeah, that’s what we should do for Ultimate Tag. It’s tag meets that sort of really entertaining wrestling.’”
** FTR (Dax Harwood & Cash Wheeler) spoke with Alicia Atout of ‘A Music Blog, Yea!?’
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cqraMeEpHqc[/embedyt]
** Dave Mastiff joined Andy Shepard on Instagram Live on the NXT brand’s official Instagram account.
** The newest episode of Ohio Valley Wrestling television has been uploaded to the organization’s YouTube channel.
** For her latest column for the Calgary Sun, Natalya wrote about those who inspire her.
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.
