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.
** Jim Ross and Conrad Thompson covered the 2000 WWE SummerSlam pay-per-view for the latest edition of Grilling JR. Ross talked about the main event of that show which featured the spot where Kurt Angle suffered a concussion by way of a “Pedigree” on a table. Ross then spoke about Darby Allin suffering a concussion not too long ago on Dynamite. Ross voiced his concerns about Darby and his style of wrestling.
“We had Darby Allin get a concussion several weeks ago on AEW and you just wonder how a guy like Darby, he’s working his ass off to get over, becoming one our most popular stars but I don’t want him to become concussion prone, and the way that Darby wrestles, so spectacularly in a young Jeff Hardy-like fashion, Darby takes a lot of risks. So, Kurt would take a lot of risks and we’ve seen that time and time again. But you worry about brain injuries, because again, you can’t see it, you don’t see the bruising, you don’t see this or that, the blood, the wound, whatever and so it’s always that fear of the unknown…”
Ross also discussed the value of WWE’s Intercontinental Championship and feels that over the years, some of that value has been lost.
“I’m not sure I could even tell you today who the Intercontinental Champion is in WWE. The title has been devalued a great deal, which is unfortunate because of the tradition and its tenure.”
The SummerSlam 2000 card featured Jerry Lawler defeating Taz in a singles match. JR recounted why the higher-ups in WWE were not too fond of Taz and how his debut match in the company made the decision-makers sour on him.
“Taz’s debut in the Garden, the match you alluded to where he stopped Angle’s winning streak, there were issues in that match which the administration didn’t like the way Taz delivered one of his suplexes. There was the thought that he might not be as safe as he should be. Kurt didn’t complain. He rarely complained about anything, but there was just that sentiment backstage that, ‘J.R. hired this guy. He comes in with all this fanfare.’ You guys take the ball that I handed him and he had a great debut in the Garden against one of the greatest we’ve ever had, a Hall Of Fame guy. But there was just something missing in that match that didn’t sit well with Vince and some of the decision-makers.”
** Jay Lethal guest appeared on the ‘Sitting Ringside with David Penzer’ podcast for an extensive discussion. Lethal discussed being let go from IMPACT Wrestling in 2011. There was a running joke that Lethal and Terry Taylor had, who worked in Talent Relations at the time which had to do with starting off their conversations by jokingly telling Lethal he was fired until one day, it was no longer a joke.
“A few weeks later while sitting home, not in the [roster] rotation, I got a call from Terry Taylor and I actually wrote about this because Terry Taylor, whenever he was in Talent Relations… he would always say, I’m not kidding… he would always call me and the way the conversation would start every single time is, I’d go, ‘Hello?’ He’d go, ‘Jay Lethal?’ I’d say, ‘Terry Taylor.’ He’d go, ‘You’re fired,’ and I would laugh and we go and talk about whatever he wanted, and kudos to Terry Taylor and I commend him so much and a lot of people would think this was cruel but I actually respected it and I loved it. The fact that he didn’t change anything up when I was getting let go. He called me, he said, ‘Jay Lethal?’ I said, ‘Terry Taylor.’ He goes, ‘You’re fired’ and I start laughing and I said, ‘I’m about to go to baseball game right now, what’s up?’ He goes, ‘Well, I’m sorry. I’m not joking this time. I didn’t wanna make this phone call but I’m so sorry. We’re letting you go, we’re letting you out of your contract early’ and I go, ‘Wait, what!?’ So he legit started the conversation the same as we always do which is, ‘Jay Lethal, you’re fired’ and for the life of me, to this day, I still don’t know what happened. I was still feuding with Ric Flair so maybe I said — I don’t know. But, when one door closes, another one opens and I really feel like all those things I mentioned before, getting to work with those guys and perfect my promos and breaking out of my shell helped prepare me for what was about to come which was being the face of Ring of Honor Wrestling so I remember hanging up the phone with Terry Taylor, I called my best friend Sonjay [Dutt], so nervous with tears in my eyes. This was the first time I ever got let go from somewhere. I bought a house. What do I need to do? And he calmed me down because a year prior, he had got let go from IMPACT Wrestling and he said it’s not the end of the world so, I remember calling Terry Taylor back for another explanation of what just happened because I was kinda drawing a blank and then I had a few talks with Ring of Honor. I really had no downtime in between getting let go from IMPACT Wrestling and signing with Ring of Honor because as luck would have it, maybe two months later they had been purchased by Sinclair Brodcasting so it was really the perfect timing for me. Like I said, I really won that lottery. It’s being in the right place at the right time. My career is that Charlie and the Chocolate Factory golden ticket.”
Jay Lethal has been a part of Ring of Honor since departing from IMPACT Wrestling and during the interview, Lethal was asked why he chose to stick around in ROH opposed to making the move to AEW. Lethal keyed in on loyalty as a big reason why he has stayed and on top of that, it has/had to do with being properly spotlighted as a Black performer in pro wrestling.
“I was Ring of Honor all the way and here’s why; maybe a little hard for some people to believe. Everyone at AEW, everyone that I heard at the time so we’re talking before it was formed. At the time, everyone I heard was going, they’re all my friends and I just wanna be with my friends, but I do have some friends who weren’t going so it wasn’t that everyone was going and here’s the big kicker for me, I can’t tell you how much loyalty means to me. It’s something that I pride myself on, my dad prides himself on it as well and a lot of my wrestling decisions I run past him and we talk about it and you can’t — loyalty shouldn’t be something that can be purchased and the reason Ring of Honor has my loyalty is because from a very young age, when I got into Ring of Honor and only about a year-and-a-half to two years, they were putting me in the ring with guys like CM Punk, guys like Samoa Joe, teaming with Samoa Joe. From a very early age, they really rolled out the red carpet for me and then when I left, [Ring of Honor] came back with their arms wide open to me. I’ve never really had to want for anything. Everything that has ever been offered to me storyline-wise, I’ve never even wanted to shake a stick at because it seems that everything the company has done for me has propelled me even higher and higher to be the face of the company, they gave me the World Title and the Television Title at the same time and they didn’t make me take one off. Now, the crazy part about that is, think about… I’d have to defend both belts in two separate matches [at] the same time was unprecedented. In fact, after I did it, the WWE did a very similar thing with one of the best wrestlers I’ve ever seen, Seth Rollins. So… they’ve always, always gone above and beyond for me so I love that place. They’ve made me the face of the company and there’s something to be said to that, and I’m just extremely loyal to them and that was an extremely big decision on why I did not leave. I love Ring of Honor. If I had my way, I’d stay there forever, put a big Ring of Honor tattoo on my back because I love the company, I love the people there, pretty much everybody in the locker room and here’s the thing that weighs heavy on me and my dad as well, as far as the wrestling business goes… it’s hard to get into that top spot as an African-American wrestler. It’s hard to be portrayed as just a good wrestler. You don’t need this weird or funky gimmick just to appeal to a certain group of people in order to get your character over. In Ring of Honor, I’ve always been able to portray — and IMPACT didn’t do that to me either but I’m just saying where I am now and the spot that they’ve given me, that top spot, it’s not a spot that’s awarded to many African-Americans so that also weighs heavily on me too. So I’ve developed a strong love and loyalty to a company that has gone above and beyond for me so I can’t see myself leaving anytime soon.”
Towards the conclusion of the interview, Jay Lethal admitted that it would be cool to one day work for WWE in some capacity because that’s the company that sparked his love for pro wrestling.
“Now I will say this: It would be cool, while I’m still wrestling, it would be cool at some point to say that I have gotten to work with or for in some capacity the company that helped shape my love for professional wrestling and that company just happens to be the WWF or WWE. So if it happens, sure it’d be cool but yeah, I would not feel slighted or sad or mad or upset or I wouldn’t feel like I missed something or didn’t get to accomplish something if it did not happen.”
** According to Dave Meltzer of F4WOnline, Excalibur will be on the call for the 9/2 episode of AEW Dynamite. Excalibur has not appeared on the show since July 29th after multiple videos surfaced of him saying the “n” word. Excalibur did call the action for last week’s AEW Dark taping.
** Jon Moxley spoke with Bleacher Report Live ahead of Dynamite on 9/2 and reiterated that fans will be in attendance at 15 percent capacity at All Out this Saturday.
“AEW All Out, this Saturday, September 5th emanating live here from Jacksonville, now at 15 percent capacity they tell me so we’ll have a few fans in the building to help bring up the energy and we had, I don’t know how many it was. 500 or something, 10 percent capacity the other week and I kinda forgot we were gonna have actual fans in the building kinda ‘till I came out and then seeing actual fans in the building even though they’re distanced and far away, it still kinda gave me a boost of energy. I got kinda pumped up walking down the ring so it should be even more exciting this weekend.”
** Rusev started up another Twitch stream and during this session, he reflected on his time in WWE and reiterated that he has nothing to be sour about regarding his time in the company.
“When they signed me, they never said they’re gonna push me. They never said, ‘Hey, you signed this contract back in FCW. We’re gonna push you to the moon.’ They didn’t have to do any of that. I had so much fun the entire time there. We all have frustrating times but I’m pretty sure everybody has a frustrating time [wherever] they work. But when you think about it, if I was not there I would’ve never met CJ [Lana], and that alone, it just gives me good feelings just thinking about that. If nothing else, just that I know my wife that’s more than enough and on top of that, living my dream, traveling the world and all of that. There’s nothing to be sour about. You just gotta move on man, and I’m happy. I’m not miserable at all. I was happy the day I got fired, I’m happy still and I’ll be happy tomorrow.”
** Former DDT Extreme Champion Akito noted on Twitter that he’s now the Vice President of CyberFight Co., Ltd. Pro Wrestling NOAH, DDT and Tokyo Joshi Pro are under the CyberFight banner.
** Finn Balor will be a part of a four-way 60-minute Iron Man Match on the 9/1 episode of NXT to determine a new NXT Champion. Ahead of the match, Balor spoke with Newsweek and told the publication about his excitement level for his feud with WALTER before the COVID-19 pandemic began. Balor also mentioned that he was going to be a part of NXT UK TakeOver: Dublin this Fall.
“We were building to the match with WALTER, which was something that I was super excited about, but the world kind of went to s**t. COVID came and kind of shut that down, but you know that’s something that definitely isn’t gone. I think when we all get back up and running and the doors open back to normal, that WALTER match is something that I’ve definitely got my eyes up and it’s something I’ll look forward to.
There was NXT UK: Takeover Dublin, where there was a lot of exciting stuff planned that I was gonna be super-involved in and then obviously got taken away, but I think it’s just gonna be put on pause and hopefully when everything gets back up and running, me and WALTER can get out there one-on-one, because in my opinion he’s kind of like an anomaly in this business. [Wrestlers like WALTER] come along very, very rarely and he has the same star attraction as [Brock] Lesnar, and getting in there with him and testing myself against him, I’ll be able to sleep that night.”
** Multi-time WWE Women’s Champion Lita streamed live on Twitch and one of the members of her chatroom asked her about the possibility of an Evolution II pay-per-view. Lita started off her answer by sarcastically saying who would want a second Evolution event.
“I don’t know. I mean why would you have the second version of a historical pay-per-view that sold out and was very well received by the community? Why would you do that? Yeah, I would love there to be an Evolution II.”
** Nikkan Sports conducted an interview with RAW Women’s Champion Asuka. Asuka talked about some of her goals that she set for herself upon arriving in WWE and one of her main goals was to strengthen the company’s women’s division.
“When I came in, the word ‘Diva’ wasn’t used anymore, and female athletes were also known as ‘superstars.’ I’m going to strengthen the women’s division from now on. I thought this was my mission. When I was just coming to WWE, I played the main role at the NXT competition several times. It was rarely said that it’s really amazing! ‘Congratulations to the main!’ It was rare for a female player to appear in the main at WWE, but now I am left to the main of PPV and TV broadcasting. Isn’t it one of the first motivations to start closing the gender gap in WWE?”
Asuka also compared wrestling in America to wrestling in Japan. She stated that while in Japan, there were not many women that came to see her wrestle so that was a positive change for her to see when she arrived in NXT.
“Well, I think it’s unique. When I was in Japan, there weren’t many women coming to see me, so it was really nice to be a fan. At that time, I was conscious of trying to increase the number of fans who are watching male professional wrestling. The world of female professional wrestling is like a small village. I was thinking of getting the fans to be fans, and I thought that if they didn’t become happy players, they wouldn’t reach the level that would be accepted in the world.”
** WWE announced that President and Chief Operating Officer of Parkwood Entertainment, Steve Pamon has been elected to their Board of Directors.
** New York Post has a feature story up about MJF and his AEW World Title match at All Out. MJF recalled a negative fan experience that he’s had and brought up how one fan attempted to kidnap him.
“At AEW, a fan tried to dress up I believe like a pilot and was trying to convince our security that they were supposed to fly me out on a private jet after the show. I can assure you that-that guy was most certainly not my pilot, so there was once a fan who literally tried to kidnap me. I’ve seen it all. When I was in Mexico, people threw a car battery at me and urine at me. That’s because I don’t tiptoe around. I don’t hide how I feel.”
MJF then spoke about his opponent at All Out, AEW World Champion Jon Moxley. He mentioned Moxley “having his hand held” in WWE by Vince McMahon. MJF reiterated that he plans on being in AEW for life.
“It’s great that they had their hand held sometimes by VKM, awesome. But I didn’t. I didn’t come from that product. I didn’t come from that land. I am AEW born and bred. I will be AEW until I die. This is my company. This is where I started. This is the company that I’ll end in.”
** Trish Adora was a guest on The Jobber Tears Podcast. Trish discussed body shaming in wrestling and recounted a recent experience she had having to do with the subject.
“Yes. All the time. Just being a part of the business is just one big nice body shame over the course of, you know. I believe that wrestling is so comparative by nature that it is — and very indirect ways, you know what I’m saying? It’s about saying that… so okay, I didn’t know if I was even gonna go there but if I could really quick so, a little bit ago, somebody made a comment about boob size and how that could influence whether or not I made or not, and I just remember kinda going, ‘Nah, I don’t think that’s how that works.’ You just have to not accept that, because there’s too many examples of people who didn’t accept that and that are just fine. So I can’t buy too much into that so it was just me kinda going, ‘Oh, is this one of those moments where somebody is trying to make me feel some type of way about my body?’ I don’t think that wrestling [can] cure my body insecurities. I don’t believe that at all, but I’m also not gonna bring anybody’s insecurities into wrestling so to hear people go like, ‘Oh you know, if you lost a little weight, you would have an easier time wrestling’ or even if you bulked up some. ‘Oh, you’re looking really frail nowadays. You should bulk up some.’ Just things like that. It goes back to me going, ‘If I produce my art in a way that makes me happy, everything’s technically correct, not knocking people’s heads off or anything like that, is it okay if my boobs are like this?’ I’m just saying. Is that okay? Does it matter if my hair is like this? Does it matter that I lost 20 pounds in the last four months? So it’s very — those comments that you have off to the side, those are just…”
** WWE issued the following press release about their charitable relationship with The V Foundation:
Cary, NC [September 1, 2020] – The V Foundation for Cancer Research, a top-rated cancer research charity, is recognizing Pediatric Cancer Awareness Month by increasing awareness of the disease and calling for more funds to support pediatric cancer research. Just four percent of federal cancer research funding is dedicated to pediatric cancer, and more than 15,000 new cases of cancer were diagnosed among children in 2018 (the most recently available National Cancer Institute data). The month-long campaign, in conjunction with long-time partners Dick Vitale and WWE®, highlights the critical need to fund research for children with cancer. Throughout September, the V Foundation will spotlight pediatric thrivers and the researchers who work tirelessly to stop childhood cancers. The V Foundation has funded nearly $50 million in research for pediatric cancer.
“Parents, siblings, grandparents, aunts and uncles – we all feel the pain of a child diagnosed with cancer,” said Susan Braun, CEO of the V Foundation. “And we all recognize the incredible power of hope. It is the excellent research into cures for pediatric cancer that fuels that hope. The V Foundation, with champion Dick Vitale, strives to make more of that life-saving research a reality until the disease is totally cured.”
Kicking off the month, Dick and Loraine Vitale will present the Annual Dick Vitale Gala, “Passion 4 Pediatrics,” virtually on September 4. Vitale is a champion for pediatric cancer research, raising nearly $30 million through his Gala for the pediatric fund in his name at the V Foundation. Private funding is critical to propelling research for the leading disease-related cause of death for American children over 1 year old. For more information or to participate in the Virtual Gala, please call the Mary Kenealy Events Gala Office at (941) 350-0580. To donate, visit v.org/donateforkids.
The V Foundation and WWE are in the fifth year of their partnership to raise money for pediatric cancer research through Connor’s Cure. During September, WWE is hosting the Connor’s Cure Superstar Challenge, a virtual challenge to honor Connor Michalek, an 8-year-old WWE fan who battled medulloblastoma, a rare tumor that affects the brain and spinal cord. No set distance or donation is required, and participants can run/walk anytime during the month. To learn more or to register, visit v.org/superstarchallenge. Additionally, to support children fighting cancer, WWE produced the “Support Tomorrow’s Superstars” campaign for pediatric patients undergoing treatment. To learn more about Connor’s Cure, visit v.org/connor.
Vitale and WWE have combined their efforts this year to fund three pediatric V Foundation Translational Grants totaling $1.8 million, with $900,000 being contributed by Vitale and WWE. Translational Grants are three-year awards of $600,000 total and support bench-to-bedside research. Two of the grants will fund studies related to DIPG, a universally fatal brain cancer, and the third grant will fund research for solid tumors in children.
“We are thrilled to team with Dick Vitale to help further critical research and studies that are necessary in the fight against pediatric cancer,” said Stephanie McMahon, WWE Chief Brand Officer. “Through WWE’s partnership with the V Foundation, and in honor of Connor Michalek, we are committed to continue helping find a cure and will not stop until we do.”
“Words cannot describe the excitement and joy I am feeling learning that Stephanie McMahon and her WWE team have united with us in providing funding that will play a vital role in battling pediatric cancer,” said Vitale. “It is simply amazing what they are doing to attack the cancers that have caused nightmares for many youngsters and their families. These grants are made possible by the generosity of WWE and the kindness and generosity of those who have donated to our Gala. We feel confident that these research grants will make a difference in the outcome for children with cancer.”
The V Foundation has proudly awarded more than $250 million for cutting-edge cancer research. The V Foundation holds a 4-star (highest) rating from Charity Navigator, America’s largest evaluator of charities, and is among the top 3% of all charities evaluated. The V Foundation is a GuideStar platinum-rated charity.
** Brandi Rhodes was interviewed by Entreprenuer.com. The main focus of the interview was AEW’s ‘Heels’ project and the topic of generating revenue from said project came up. Brandi stated that this is not something they expect to be profitable for a long time, if ever.
“One thing we’re seeing, and this has been growing across the board, is that more women are watching AEW. So learning information like that only helps when you want to form a community for women. The other thing is, from a marketing standpoint, this is not something we looked at and said, ‘Hey, we’re gonna make a ton of money off of this.’ It’s not unlike a lot of small businesses. This is not something we expect to be profitable for a long time, if ever. The only reason we ask for money for membership is because there’s a cost to run it. There’s this big website that’s multifaceted and allows these women to communicate all the time and to do live in-persons and parties and meetings via Zoom. We update with different news and photo galleries and posts. They’re getting access to a lot of people who are putting in a lot of work. We can’t start a website out of the clear blue sky. If we did, the product would not be good, and they would not enjoy it and stick around.”
Once the COVID-19 pandemic is over, Brandi hopes that the women of the AEW ‘Heels’ community can get together at an event to meet up and possibly hang out after a show.
“That was actually what I was thinking about before all of this happened. Then it became, ‘OK, how do we do this in this current situation?’ Because the plan has always been for Heels to be a community thing, and community to me means people get together. Because AEW is known for having pay-per-views where most of the audience travels to them, this is something I saw as an opportunity to get together quarterly and do these large-scale events and meet people. And that didn’t happen because of the state of the world, so that’s something we’re looking forward to. Things have gone so positive given the current affairs, I can only imagine how great it’s going to be when these women who are bonding at a distance do get together. A dream situation would be at Double or Nothing in Las Vegas, those girls being able to get together, have dinner, sit together at the show and have an event that’s members-only where we have these parties in person with the same information and bonding. But in the meantime, we’re having an awesome time doing things the way we are.”
** The National Wrestling Alliance posted a new video to their YouTube channel of the top five ‘Most Shocking’ moments from their NWA Powerrr series.
** Justin Barrasso of Sports Illustrated spoke with Finn Balor and Balor expressed the disappointment he felt for Karrion Kross having to relinquish the NXT Championship due to injury. Balor said it was extremely similar to when he had to relinquish the Universal Championship after SummerSlam 2016.
“The situations are almost identical. Karrion is someone I’ve had very little interaction with, but I was devastated when I heard what happened. My heart broke for him, to be honest.”
** Ringsiders Wrestling chatted with Aaron Solow recently. During their conversation, Aaron revealed that he and Ricky Starks were a part of Rusev’s WrestleMania 31 entrance as they played the role of the soldiers holding the Russian flag.
“Ricky and I were actually in Rusev’s entrance for Mania 31. You can never tell. Unless there’s some technology that can really zoom in, you’ll never be able to tell. But we’re the soldiers for Rusev when he comes out and we’re holding the Russian flag.”
Prior to going out in front the crowd, the extras were met with handshakes from Linda McMahon who thought that they were actual soldiers.
“And then another funny story about that is because we were dressed in the soldier uniforms the whole time and we’re kind of just all in line waiting. Ricky, myself, the other extras and I think it was Linda McMahon. Linda McMahon comes walking up to us and she starts shaking all of our hands and I’m wondering why is she doing this and then by the time she gets to me and Ricky she’s like, ‘Thank you for your service.’ I don’t know what’s going on. I just nodded my head and when she walked off I was like, ‘Oh God, she thinks we’re real soldiers.’”
** Renee Michelle was interviewed by Wrestling Inc. She reflected on the 24/7 Title segments she did with Drake Maverick and R-Truth and shared that she was not aware of the complete details of the 24/7 Title segment at her wedding until two hours before it happened.
“Unbeknownst to me, my dear husband, I knew that he asked two days prior to the wedding that, ‘Hey, WWE, they’d like to film this.’ I’m like, OK, it’d probably be something like Sarah Logan and her husband, something like that. No, I did not get the full details, until he told me two hours prior to the wedding, and that’s when they started doing that 24/7 charade. So yeah, two hours prior to the wedding and if anything, I have like a very elderly, southern Grandma. She’s very southern, so I’m like, OK, can we just film this portion first, and then you guys can get [out] the way you guys please.
We could do the actual ceremony first, and then be able to do whatever we need to do which was actually one take. I did not know where Truth was sitting at. I seriously did not know where he was sitting at. Like I thought that it was going to happen during the reception or whatever, but unbeknownst to me, ended up doing the ceremony. But I had no idea he was sitting where he was sitting at. So that’s just how it unfolds.”
** MLW’s Hammerstone was cast as a figurehead of JBL Speakers.
** Matt Cardona did an interview with Fightful.
** CBS Sports chatted with Finn Balor ahead of tonight’s edition of NXT on the USA Network. Balor further elaborated on his recent comments during the ‘Spark In The Dark’ podcast concerning his time off after SummerSlam 2019 and how consumed he was by the WWE bubble.
“It was just that the workload was so heavy. I worked 172 matches that year and that’s in different cities every night, so you have to add in probably an extra 50 days of travel. So, I wasn’t really home for a couple of years. I hadn’t really taken a break. Having come straight out of an eight-year run in Japan and straight into five years solid in WWE, I had become kind of encapsulated in the WWE bubble. I had distanced myself so much from family, friends and what was reality. I just realized that I needed to take a little step aside and reset everything and get a new perspective on what was important. I feel like taking two months off — people say I was taking a break, but it was two months. It’s not that long when you’ve been working for 20 years, nonstop, 230 days a year on the road. It was a vacation. I got married and came back and felt more focused and rejuvenated.
Also, I feel like when you’re doing something for so long, you kind of get caught up in the cycle of doing something the same way and relying on what you know works. I felt like I needed to change my style a little bit in the right. It’s very hard to transition a style overnight, so getting to step away and kind of lose sight of what everyone else is doing around you — even though we don’t want to be influenced by the people around us, subconsciously, when we’re so deep in the WWE environment, you automatically start performing like a WWE wrestler because it’s a certain cadence. The matches are at a certain tempo, and gradually everyone starts performing the same even though it’s not intentional. It’s kind of like a subconscious performance. I felt like I needed to step away from that and reset my performance and feel like it was kind of more me making the decisions and not my subconscious going out there and following the pattern of what was a WWE match.”
** The IIconics (Peyton Royce & Billie Kay) reacted to their split following RAW. Peyton and Billie lost a tag team match to Ruby Riott and Liv Morgan in-which the stipulation was that the losing team had to split up.
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQvr6VWHahM[/embedyt]
** Sports Illustrated and Pro Wrestling Sheet have Q&A’s with David Arquette.
** Here’s the newest edition of AEW Dark:
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ne1Nlst5J64[/embedyt]
** Variety has an article up about the animated film ‘Rumble’ that’s set to release in January of 2021. Becky Lynch and Roman Reigns both did voiceover work for the film.
** Kevin Kelly interviewed Fred Rosser ahead of Rosser’s NJPW debut this week at ‘Fighting Spirit Unleashed’. Rosser credited Lance Archer and Rocky Romero for getting him in contact with New Japan at different points over the past year and-a-half.
“And it was Rocky Romero who reached out to me during this whole pandemic and said, ‘I have an opportunity for you’ and I had to clear it with my family. I was devastated because I didn’t wanna affect my family. It was fear of the unknown so I cleared it with a close uncle of mine who’s a Urologist here in L.A. and he said it sounds like a great idea and that’s when I ultimately signed on with New Japan Pro-Wrestling thanks to Lance Hoyt, thanks to Rocky Romero.”
** Wrestling Inc. conducted an interview with Rob Van Dam. RVD recalled when Vince McMahon wanted to know the meaning of he and Rey Mysterio’s ‘420’ move and here’s what RVD told Paul Heyman to relay back to Vince:
“One night before the match, Paul came up to me and he said, ‘Vince wants to know what the 420 leg drop means.’ I said, ‘Why?’ He said, ‘He needs to know if the commentators can’t say if it’s a drug use. He wants to know is it a drug use?’ And I said, ‘No, it’s the name of our move.’ He goes, ‘I know, but he wants to know what it means.’ I said, ‘It’s 420. I pick Rey Mysterio up. Then I jump up while I’m holding him up and all of our legs come down on the guy, so it’s four legs and twenty is our combined shoe size. I wear twelve. He’s eight,’ and he’s like, ‘OK, I can work with that.’”
** Booker T gave his thoughts on the report (via PWInsider) that Brock Lesnar is now a free agent:
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xf5_YQj8YXY[/embedyt]
** TV Guide released their list of the top 100 shows on cable television and AEW Dynamite was included on that list.
** Below is the lineup for NJPW’s ‘Fighting Spirit Unleashed’ show on 9/4:
– Alex Zayne & Fred Rosser vs. Clark Connors & The DKC
– Karl Fredericks vs. Misterioso
– Brody King vs. Hikuleo
– Jay White vs. Flip Gordon
** Former IMPACT Knockouts Champion Jordynne Grace will be a part of FLAWLESS Wrestling’s debut on October 10th.
** TheWrap spoke with Eva Marie about the ‘Hard to Kill’ film and how her time in WWE has helped her get to where she is now.
** The NWA uploaded a clip to their YouTube channel of Nick Aldis responding to Mike Bennett’s challenge for a NWA Worlds Heavyweight Title match on 9/15 at United Wrestling Network’s ‘Prime Time Live’.
** Shotzi Blackheart was a guest on the Swerve City Podcast with Isaiah “Swerve” Scott and Teasy. Shotzi talked about teaming with Tegan Nox on NXT to face Sasha Banks and Bayley for the WWE Women’s Tag Team Titles and how nervous she was for the match.
“Yeah, I was sh*tting my pants for sure. Like, oh man. When I first started wrestling, I was looking up to Bayley and Sasha and Bayley is from San Jose, [California]. I was raised in San Jose and she’s actually really good friends with one of my sister’s best friends so we always had a connection and she came to some of my indie shows like my first year of wrestling. So, it was cool to finally be like, ‘Oh, we’re sharing it now. We’re in it.’”
** Kurt Angle will be a guest on Stone Cold Steve Austin’s ‘Broken Skull’ sessions later this month on the WWE Network. Episodes of ‘Velocity’ are also coming to the streaming service.
** Road Warrior Animal laid out his plan to Sportskeeda about how he would book Ronda Rousey’s return to WWE.
** Tracy Williams was the most recent guest on the ROHStrong podcast.
** Rob Van Dam spoke with Jeffrey Harris of 411Mania.
** To promote the airing of the ROH Pure Title tournament, Ring Of Honor posted the following video of Silas Young and Jonathan Gresham competing in a Pure Rules match.
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KATxRyh3COw[/embedyt]
** Part two of Dominik and Rey Mysterio’s appearance on the ‘Keepin It 100 with Konnan’ podcast was uploaded to the podcast’s YouTube channel.
** Los Angeles Times interviewed David Arquette and one of Arquette’s goals is to work with AEW and WWE to help their talents transition into acting. Elsewhere during the interview, Arquette spoke about the car ride with Luke and Jack Perry after his neck was cut in a match with Nick Gage. Arquette made a joke that no one in the vehicle found amusing.
“Jack was also on the card that night. They both took me to the hospital. Luke was running around like, ‘Who’s in charge of medical here?’ He didn’t know why these cameras were around following [us]. At one point in the car ride, because I knew that my jugular hadn’t been hit, but I didn’t know how bad or where [my wound] was … at one point I turned back and said, ‘Well, at least I finally got my first crimson mask!’ And nobody laughed. It wasn’t very funny at all. It was actually something I was kind of proud of; that’s when you get the whole bloody face. But nobody laughed. It was like telling a joke at a funeral.”
** Paul “Triple H” Levesque talked to Yahoo! Sports about the Arsenal Futbol club using his theme song to get them ready for their Premier League games.
** Shayna Baszler was the latest guest on ‘Superstar Savepoint’ on the UpUpDownDown YouTube channel.
** Former IMPACT World Champion Sami Callihan turned 33-years old on 9/1.
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.
