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.
** I think we all know how great of a wrestler Jon Huber (Brodie Lee/Luke Harper) was. I did my first deep dive into his work in 2018 and watched some of his work from Dragon Gate USA and several independent promotions prior to his signing to WWE and he always had it, a natural in the ring. But what stood out to me was seeing how many people talked about how good of a person he was. That stood out head and shoulders above anything else and how many people spoke so fondly of him.
Immediately when I see things like that, it makes me wonder what type of impression I’ll leave on the people I care about and love such as my family and close friends. Seeing and reading about the joy Jon Huber brought to people’s lives just by being a close friend, being witty as some put it and just an overall cool dude stood out among everything else. I feel for his two kids. The oldest, Brodie Jr. is the one I saw in interviews and at meet-and-greets with Jon. I can only imagine how crazy that must be to have this hero, your Pops, the big guy who has always been there for you to just be gone like that. I relate to that because I’m very close with my father and although I’m in my early 20s, I still view my dad in that light somewhat because he’s been there for me through it all and let me fall on my ass when need be but also helped me become my own person. He truly helped play a role in making me the person I am. Brodie Jr. is going to tough it out. His dad was a solider so that’s a trait he’ll take on as he navigates life, in addition to the support system that he has.
Jon Huber was a great in-ring performer. I always enjoyed him on WWE TV when he would yell, “Yeahhh!” randomly in a match and it was great, but you couldn’t pay me enough to take a lariat from him. His run in AEW was solid and I enjoyed seeing him in the role he was in, plus his theme was a hit. One small detail I enjoyed about his entrance in AEW was how the production team got the wrap-around shot before he hit the tunnel. They’d always zoom in and it helped that he’s over 6’0 so that only made his on-screen character seem more legit with the way he was shot. I love production details like that in pro wrestling and Brodie had the look to complete it.
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GS5LNcqi_Sc[/embedyt]
Wrestling has dealt with a great deal of loss in 2020 such as the loss of rising star Hana Kimura and Shad Gaspard who put his life on the line so his son could continue living his own. Shad was another individual that was well respected by his peers on a large scale. Rest in peace to all those individuals and much love to their respective families and peers.
Pro Wrestling Tees clarified that all proceeds that are made from Brodie Lee/Luke Harper merchandise on their site and AEW’s merch site will go directly to the Huber family. For the next month, the proceeds from the purchases on CM Punk’s Pro Wrestling Tees store will go to the family of Jon Huber. Mick Foley is following suit.
** The Crash Report welcomed Erick Rowan onto the show. This interview was released on 12/22/20. As the conversation went on, Rowan discussed his release from WWE and shared the last pitch he made to the company before being let go. He wanted to be involved in the 24/7 Title picture and work with Riddick Moss at some point in that story. Rowan was told that the company had big plans for Moss.
“Yes, I wanted a singles win in a championship match. It doesn’t have to be the Universal Championship, heavyweight championship. It could’ve been the Intercontinental, it could’ve been the U.S. Championship or it could’ve been the last pitch I had two weeks before I got let go, I pitched — and I’m telling you this — I wrote this down, I have proof of it. I sent it to a writer. I pitched the fact that the spider had died. It was my last-ditch effort after they refused everything. Have me just completely shut down, go to TV every week and when I finally do, people come up and say, ‘What’s wrong?’ Just start beating the crap out of random people until a person of authority who they finally got an authority figure I guess, says, ‘You can’t do this. This is wrestling. If you touch one more person, you’re gonna get fired’ or whatever, and this is before I got fired obviously. I shouldn’t have used that word for him. But, my pitch was, the last week I would go and I would beat the crap out of whoever had the — I think it was Riddick Moss at the time. He had the 24/7 Championship. I would beat the crap out of him, but then behind me would come a ref and I just put my foot on him, 1, 2, 3 and then as the guy came up to me, ‘What are you doing?’ I would just hold the belt up and you know what I mean? I can do this every week kind of thing, leave and for every week, I would just keep doing it until the guy had no choice but a babyface would come and try to compete against me. They would keep losing until they challenged me to a fight that has rules for the 24/7 Title, and then the babyface would win and then that would at least continue some sort of story in development with me.
I’ll never forget it because I saved the email. They said they had big plans for Riddick Moss, and then a week later I think [Rob] Gronkowski won it.”
Rowan reflected on his early days in WWE as a part of the NXT brand. Rowan stated that talents on developmental deals at that time were being paid $750 a week and he had to take care of his family along with paying for travel and his place of residency.
“Maybe, I don’t know. The funny thing is even when I was on the road or with WWE, with developmental, I think it was three months before me, Brodie [Lee] and Windham [Bray Wyatt] got called up to the road as The Wyatt Family. I had said to my wife at the time, I said — because we had done a WrestleMania, I had to take out an Amscot loan because they were paying you $750 bucks a week to support a family of three, including paying for your own place and car and transport. I remember they had a lot of us go to WrestleMania 29 for Axxess which is basically, we would go, we’d wrestle matches like at the signings and stuff before WrestleMania and I remember having to take out an Amscot loan and that was the first time I had to take out a loan just to kind of live paycheck to paycheck while working for WWE and to me, that just seemed ridiculous and I’d already been down there for a couple years. 2011 to about 2012. I had already had one ACL surgery which sidelined me for six months. So, I basically said, ‘If I don’t get signed within three months, I’m gonna have to quit. I can’t afford it. I’m gonna have to go back, get a job because it just ain’t gonna work out.’ I didn’t tell anybody that except for at home at the time and within two months, we were on the road so to me, things just happen when they happen and you gotta go with it.”
The Wyatt Family (Bray Wyatt, Luke Harper, Erick Rowan & Braun Strowman) was a crucial part of Rowan’s career in WWE. He was asked if he ever felt overshadowed by the Bray Wyatt character. He stated that he and Brodie often talked about how they just wished they got to explain on-screen why they were with Bray.
“Me and Brodie [Lee] like to talk a lot about this who is Luke Harper with WWE, how we always wished we were a little bit more of the minions, had a little bit more character as far as not just the background because that’s usually the way it was churned in to be is we were in the background, we were the big follies for whenever he would have a feud, the person he was feuding with would have to get past the two of us, in a wrestling competition or in other ways and we never got a chance to kind of explain why are we following him. Like who are these people. I wish that they would’ve explored that. Within wrestling, you can have that mystery, but I think they tried to hold onto the mystery a little bit too long and they just said, ‘Okay, well we don’t need to explain it.’”
Continuing on the topic of WWE, Rowan believes that had he not gotten released from the company this past April, he would’ve never left.
“It’s funny because to me, I was a lifer. I would’ve done anything for that company. I worked — before COVID obviously I worked sick, I worked hurt. I’ve had four surgeries for that company. I did everything. I came to work with a torn shoulder, still putting on matches. I tore my tendon in my elbow and I came in and I wrestled a 20 minute match two days later to give up the belts. So to me, I would’ve done anything. Yes, I wanted to get out and do other things and was hoping I could do things on my days off but that’s not too realistic with WWE and their crazy schedule. But I think the initial shock was kinda just disappointment as you know, you give and give and give but you’re not really appreciated for it. That’s kind of like the thought process and I get everyone’s released or whatever and you know, on that list, there were a few surprises and a few that weren’t just being used and it sucks because you were always used, you know what I mean? And you thought you were doing the best job you could but at the end of the day, would I have ever had the guts to leave? And I think that’s what I tell myself and I look at myself and I say no, I don’t think I would’ve had the guts to leave. There’s times like with the cage, I was unhappy but I did my job and I never tried to show my unhappiness at work because I knew things get bad but things get better and to me, them kicking me out the door basically said to me, ‘Okay, well what do I want to do?’ And luckily I got that call and kind of was told, ‘Okay, I know what I want to do. How do I get there?’ And now it’s just that journey of getting there and I’m not a stranger to it, it’s something I’m used to and if I want to wrestle, there’s plenty of opportunities to wrestle other places and I take ‘em when I can because I like to wrestle. But as far as that creativity and that stuff that I’m lacking, like right now, like in WWE, I never had this creativity and never got to use it. With acting, you get to use it and the only one to blame for yourself is you. I think some of the [funnest] times I’ve had since being released are just doing auditions because I’m acting. I may not get the roles but I’m doing this acting and getting this practice, getting these reps. Nobody sees it except for these casting directors who need to take a chance on somebody and it’s just doing stuff like that right now and to me, it’s rewarding and no one sees it. But to me, it’s rewarding.”
** Pat McAfee guest appeared on the Busted Open Radio holiday podcast recording. He reflected on his experience inside WarGames and spoke about the injuries he suffered during the match including a broken toe.
“After Sunday night’s WarGames, I must admit, I don’t know if I fully understood what I was signing up for. Okay, there was a moment before that match backstage where the boys and I were getting ready to go out there and I’m pretty calm, cool, you know, excited for what’s about to go down and there’s like smelling salts, there’s some pacing going on, there’s a lot of it — it feels like you — the tension was palpable back there… and I was just kind of chilling, and then after going through one, I kind of understand why there was so much tension backstage. I mean my body was beat to hell, shoulder was completely bruised. My neck, we thought we potentially had a T1-T2 after coming off the top flatback and basically off the top of the cage and obviously the test came back and I’m good but the body’s sore, I got a broken toe, feels like I sprained my ankle somehow. I obviously had put on weight since then so I’ve been allergic to everything that’s been going on. It was an ass beating for sure and I didn’t get pinned so, I mean [I’m] still wondering about the results of it all.”
** Craig Tello is leaving his position as senior VP of programming and media operations in WWE for EA. Tello announced the news on his LinkedIn page. He will be EA’s new head of marketing communications & content strategy within the gaming division. He worked in a number of positions for WWE and also was a part of NPR, A&E Television Networks and Washington Square News.
** Glenn “Kane” Jacobs joined Tom Pritchard as a guest on the Two Man Power Trip of Wrestling podcast. Glenn shared his thoughts on the passing of Jon Huber (Brodie Lee/Luke Harper) and spoke highly of the man he shared the ring with on a number of occasions.
“Yeah I was shocked. Friend of mine texted me and told me and I was like, ‘There’s no way’ and Jon, he was a very good guy. He was a sweetheart, just a good person. 2020 has been an awful year. First Pat Patterson recently passed away, so it’s just been… it’s been a terrible year and this added to it. Like I said, Jon was just a great guy, had a wonderful family and I don’t know what else to say.”
Kane discussed The Undertaker’s ‘Final Farewell’ segment that took place at Survivor Series. He was in full ring gear for the portion of that segment that guests were a part of. He said it was always the plan for him to be in full ring gear.
“No, no, no. I was supposed to [be in ring gear]. Yeah, here’s the thing: Kane is Kane and despite different incarnations and all that, that was the reason for that because Kane and Undertaker I think, you know, pulled back the veil somewhat and sometimes we forget that. But that’s kind of what separates them I think from a lot of the other formers is the fact that they’re truly characters and I know people speculated [but] that was the plan all along so, some of those things I think sometimes people [begin] speculating and outthink themselves a little too much into it.”
Elsewhere during the chat, Jacobs reflected on his WWF Championship win at the 1998 King of the Ring pay-per-view. He joked that no one remembers that title win because the match prior, Mick Foley and Undertaker had their Hell In A Cell match.
“It was just awesome, I mean just awesome because [Steve] Austin was on a rocket ship going straight to the moon and just to be a part of all that, it was pretty amazing. Then of course, no one remembers that because that was the same night Mick [Foley] flew off the cage and went through the cage so to this day, I’m still pretty hot at Mick Foley because no one remembers I won my first world championship the same night he had the Hell In A Cell and went off of it twice. But anyway, it was a pretty amazing night.”
** New Japan Pro-Wrestling President Takami Obari chatted with Proresu Today for an exclusive interview. He told the publication that when he was 18, he was considering the option of wrestling for New Japan.
“I was doing it because volleyball was the most suitable sport, but I think I will enter university at the age of 18. You will enter the company at the age of 22. At that time, I received only one university and one company. It wasn’t a recommendation, but I received it head-on. The reason why I received only one was, ‘If you fall, you will become a wrestler.’ You can’t fall down. But when I fell, I was thinking of going on the road to becoming a wrestler. I went to check the location of Animal Hamaguchi Gym.
I wanted to become a professional wrestler in New Japan. That’s why universities and companies wondered if they could fall a little.”
** The latest episode of Being The Elite:
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L7O_79xnE1Y[/embedyt]
** Former AEW World Champion Jon Moxley chatted with Justin Barrasso of Sports Illustrated and shared his thoughts on the passing of Brodie Lee (Jon Huber).
“The first night we wrestled each other, we shared a hotel room together later that night. That was over a decade ago. He was an incredible person. While so many of us would be all hot about some wrestling angle, he would find a way to turn negatives into a positive or an inside joke. He was the exact person you wanted in the locker room. I was so glad to be around him again in AEW.
And we wrestled so many times. Whether it was on the indies, in The Shield–Wyatt war, six-mans on house shows and European tours, it felt like we were always together. When Tony Khan asked me about Brodie in AEW, I said, ‘Hell yeah, I want that match.’ We could wrestle each other in our sleep. He was so f—— good.”
** Pro Wrestling ZERO1 announced that SUGI and Iwasaki Eien will be free agents in the new year. Both will be able to work with ZERO1 as freelancers but will not be under contract.
** Conrad Thompson and Bruce Prichard hosted a Q&A for the newest installment of Something to Wrestle with Bruce Prichard. One of the questions asked of Bruce had to do with WWE not being fond of their talents switching up their looks consistently. Bruce says it has to do with licensing deals such as action figures, video games and things of the sort.
“It differs from time to time and here’s the issue with — it’s not so much permission or whatever but, when you have licenses out there for certain things and it’s for a certain look…
Right, [like action figures, video games etc.] You’ve got a six month lead on some of that stuff and then it comes out and you look completely different, then that particular item may or may not sell because they’re looking for the character they see on TV every week and if that character changes, then, ‘Maybe I want this one now.’ You still have to sell out and sell through the original item that was made so that’s the reason. There’s a lot more to it than, ‘Oh, I just don’t want them to get a tattoo’ or, ‘Oh, I don’t want you to change your hair color or your haircut. A lot goes into it. It’s a business decision.”
Prior to his return to a creative role within WWE, Bruce worked as a senior producer for Major League Wrestling. He dove into his time with the organization.
“You know, going and working with MLW at the time was a lot of fun frankly and I wasn’t sure what to expect. We were doing the podcast and Court Bauer was doing his MLW promotion, asked me if I’d be interested in coming and helping some of the talents with promos and just backstage and kind of help out with the TV production overall and like, ‘Okay, what can this be?’ But I had adapted a little bit different attitude by that point just saying, ‘What the f*ck?’ You know? I think my initial reaction had you asked me five years before, I would’ve said, ‘Nah, I don’t wanna do that sh*t’ and I changed my attitude to go try stuff, go see what the hell’s out there so I went and got to meet a lot of really good talent coming up, but play. It was an opportunity. It was an opportunity to go play and have fun so I thought it was fun. It was a blast just to get out and do something different in the wrasslin business.”
** Jazz announced that she is taking bookings for her retirement tour in 2021.
** The Two Man Power Trip of Wrestling podcast welcomed New Japan Pro-Wrestling commentator Kevin Kelly as a guest. The upcoming Tokyo Dome shows will be the second consecutive year that New Japan is running a two-night Wrestle Kingdom and Kevin gave his take on it and said a better deal can be negotiated for two nights in the Tokyo Dome opposed to one.
“Well this was the first year. Last year was the first year, or 2020, this year was the first year that they had to open up more seats day of, and that was for the first night and then I think there’s a bit of a habit. ‘Oh January 4th is Wrestle Kingdom’ so the attendance day two was a little less, but you have one setup, one tear down and you probably negotiate a little better deal on the building getting it for two nights opposed to one. So I would think that Wrestle Kingdom 2020, Wrestle Kingdom 14 was the most profitable one of all-time by far.”
Kevin Kelly dove into the Steve Austin-Brian Pillman storyline that saw Austin invade Pillman’s home on RAW. Kevin said that moment caused issues with USA Network executives and the company’s international television partners.
“It was nerve racking. It was very — it was unsettling because you had Brian Pillman in his house who had legitimately just undergone major surgery on his ankle for the second time and he was a — he just had a weird look in his eye the whole day. It was just very odd and it was kind of call it as we go along. There wasn’t a lot of prep or preparation. I did my one standup that was outside which was pre-recorded only slightly before RAW went on the air and the rest of it was live, live pal. So, man, and when we got done, it was such a rush, such a relief. My gosh, we did this. We just did satellite broadcasting live from Brian Pillman’s house and holy crap, I’m sure the world is going crazy about that. We weren’t on smart phones back then. We didn’t have Twitter so we couldn’t see like instant audience reaction but when we got back to Stamford, apparently there were a lot of people — but everybody was talking about it. There was some television executives at USA [Network] that weren’t happy. By the way, brandishing a gun on live television, not good, and internationally it was a nightmare because our television partners had different laws, different rules and internationally, everything had to be so covered up that they couldn’t really air any of it. It was hard for them to put together the international version of RAW. But again, it’s one of those things that I realized how monumental it was because here we are, so many years removed and people are still talking to me about it. It’s like wow, what a moment in time that you don’t realize at the time will be. You’re just kind of hopeful to get through it all and not screw up and yet so many years later, people remember it like one of their earliest memories from their fandom was like, ‘Oh my God, when Brian Pillman had the gun and Steve Austin was breaking into his house and you’re screaming’ and I’m like, ‘Yeah, it was real.’ Real gun, real everything. Real emotion, real reaction. You get that type of atmosphere, you’re going to get memorable television every time.”
During his time in WWF/E, Kevin was slotted into several different roles including the creative team. He claims to have came up with the idea of Triple H blowing up the relationship between Stephanie McMahon and Test [Andrew Martin]. Kevin added that he originally scripted the story to end with Stephanie cutting ties with Triple H and Vince McMahon.
“I’m responsible for the relationship between Triple H and Stephanie. That’s what I’m responsible for, because I came up with the idea along with my wife. My wife is partly responsible. We’re both big soap opera fans and so the idea of Triple H bamboozling Test [Andrew Martin] and marrying Stephanie to screw over Test and also to piss off his future father-in-law is soap opera 101 and again, the similarities between the two with their hair down would be easy to do so I wrote this whole big thing up and sent it in. Vince [McMahon] copied everybody like I’m supposed to and Vince was the first one to write back all in caps, ‘That’s great sh*t.’ It’s like wow and then Shane McMahon came down the hall and poked his head in my door and said, ‘Dude, that idea is crazy. I love it’ and then end up changing it how they needed to and that’s what it was so it was pretty cool to see. It’s cool when you see an idea that you have come to life. I of course wrote the end where Stephanie winds up leaving Triple H but also leaving her father and becoming this strong, standalone woman. They wound up falling in love and have children and have been married ever since so, they didn’t follow the script as it were. They wrote their own ending, a happy ending I’m sure.”
Elsewhere during the chat, Kevin explained how he got signed to WWE and it started with his longtime friend and current AEW staff member Billy Gunn putting in the word for him.
“Well I’ll give you the Reader’s Digest version because it’s a pretty long story but I had a friendship with Billy Gunn, going back to our days in Florida and I had asked Billy if they were ever looking for a local ring announcer for any of the Florida events, keep me in mind. Okay, then flash forward, he brought my name up and Bruce Prichard said, ‘Oh I’ve been looking for him because Vince [McMahon] wants to step away from the microphone so they wanna hire another announcer’ and I got the call, I got an audition and I got offered the job. I had to move to Connecticut and wound up spending seven years in WWE. It was a great experience, I learned a lot but it’s the relationships that you make. It certainly didn’t hurt and I think I was the top choice out of everybody because it was pretty much, I think they had a lot of different people in and out that were from different sports or different genres of entertainment. If you wanna hire a wrestling play-by-play guy, I think they need to know something about wrestling so I probably had a little of that going for me and you know, didn’t aggravate anybody while I was there, at least not at first and then, so that was how it all got started but it was because of my good friend Billy Gunn who I must always thank, contractually — I mean because he’s my friend.”
** WWE unveiled their slate of programming for the WWE Network leading up to the 2021 Royal Rumble. On the lead-up to the event, a Bianca Belair Chronicle will premiere, there will be a roundtable with Nia Jax, Mickie James, Charlotte Flair and Natalya watching back the first-ever Women’s Royal Rumble match. A new episode of WWE Untold is airing based on AJ Styles’ WWE debut at the 2016 Royal Rumble, a Pat Patterson documentary and more.
** WHEC-TV based out of Rochester, New York has a story up about Jon Huber (Brodie Lee).
** Ric Flair chatted with talkSPORT and told the publication about the promo he cut on Carlito in 2007 on RAW. Flair shared that ten minutes before that, Vince McMahon delivered some choice words to him about his performances and self confidence issues which led to Flair giving that impromptu promo on the fly about Carlito.
“What happened was, I just got my ass chewed up by Vince McMahon, literally ten minutes before that. Vince chewed my ass out and told me I needed to lead by example, not worry about what I was doing, that if he was worried he would take care of me. But he had just worn my ass out. I walked back to the locker room and Bruce Prichard was there and he said, ‘We need you to do this promo’. I said, ‘No problem!’ That’s the truth, there was no script. And I gave him everything Vince gave me and more! He didn’t say anything! He wouldn’t say anything to me, his Dad and I are best friends!”
** Randy Orton wrote the following tribute about Jon Huber (Brodie Lee/Luke Harper) on his Instagram page:
I knew Luke from work. I always called him Luke. Some of us call each other by our ring names, some real names. It gets confusing, but I always called him Luke. I’ve been in a wwe lockeroom more than half of my existence, and there is an unwritten code. Respect is at the top. You all have heard about how much we all respected Luke, about how much we all enjoyed his presence. It is a fact. I’m telling ya, on the back of a bus, traveling and away from family for weeks in a row, he was one of the ones I’d make sure to secure a seat on that bus next to. I’m not perfect, never thought I was. Neither was he. But talking to him, and conversing about our families, as most husbands/fathers do on these trips at some point, I learned that he was near perfect when it came to how he loved his sons and his wife Amanda. His wife was close to my wife, and she considers Amanda one of her dear friends when it comes to the word ‘friend’ in this biz. You see, many times there are acquaintances, or co workers, or fellow talent, but with Kim and Amanda, I felt as if they had that female intuition thing going on and were meant to be friends. Amanda’s attitude about the business her husband was in was a very positive one. It had given them everything, as it has me and my family. But often, as in most professions there are times when you get down on your current status. Luke and I often talked about the biz, and how it affected our lives, our families, and us as men. I remember him saying that he wanted to do more, and knew that he was capable of doing more. He was. Seeing him have the balls to take that leap of faith and seeing him make the decision was an inspiration to me. I was always very proud of him and out of my peripheral vision I watched him as a fellow 20 year vet and saw many things that impressed me. Not just his work inside the ring, but how he treated others in the back. I’m telling you guys reading this, that this mans character IS unmatched. I have many stories involving Luke and I, and I will always cherish them. Know that he was a great human being. I will be in that same lockeroom tomorrow and look forward to sharing stories about my friend, Luke. #RIPLukeHarper.
Seth Rollins posted a detailed message about Jon Huber’s passing:
I was hoping at some point that the perfect words would come to me, but the truth is I still can’t even come to terms with reality on this one. My heart is so broken. I loved Brodie. He was truly all the great things everyone has already said he is and if you ever met him you’d have known it in an instant.
He was a loving husband. A devoted father. He was a kind soul. A loyal friend. He was a grinder too, man. Passionate and thoughtful. Smart and funny. Dude had an infectious laugh and was such a shit stirrer. He was a person I looked forward to…and it god damn kills me to know I’ll never be able to do that again…
Back in FCW, I vouched HARD for Brodie to get hired at WWE based on knowing and working with him briefly in ROH. We spent a little time in Tampa together, but The Shield debut took me on the road pretty soon after he moved down. Luckily, the Wyatt Family followed us out of developmental shortly thereafter and let me tell you he was a real treat to have on the road. That’s where we really got to know each other.
I’ll always love him for prodding Bray and Braun to see how far they’d take their ridiculous oneupsmanship. He was often a monitor sellout because we’d all be waiting to see how many of Dana’s poses he’d sneak in during his match. He even came to me to try CrossFit when he wanted to lean up. I think he hated burpees more than I do. Funnily enough, he and I almost came to blows backstage during the Shield/Wyatt series. We were both so fired up trying to do right by our respective squads that we tended to get a little snippy towards each other. It was the best. He was the best.
And I’m smiling so big as I’m remembering all this good stuff, fighting back tears. I thought writing this would just be all crying and sadness, but it’s impossible to remember Brodie without laughing. He was just a light of good energy.
I looked up to Brodie. Not just because he was a physical mountain of a man, but because of how he was as a father and husband. And as I venture into those realms myself now, I really hope I can carry a bit of him with me. I hope I can be to my family even a little of what he was to his.
Love you, big man. Miss you already.
** While speaking to NJPW1972.com about his forthcoming match against Will Ospreay at Wrestle Kingdom 15, Kazuchika Okada expressed that he feels the constant interference from Bullet Club in main event matches in 2020 has turned off a lot of fans.
“Hmm. When I mentioned IWGP, I wasn’t necessarily saying I planned to be back in the title hunt. If you looked at the big title matches this year, it really hasn’t been what IWGP is about, don’t you think? BULLET CLUB interference in all these main events. Frankly, I think that’s turned a lot of people off. I think there are fans that have fallen away this year, and I plan to bring those fans back at the Tokyo Dome. Have those fans think, ‘I knew NJPW was always great, as long as Okada’s at the top.’”
** MLW FUSION is now available to watch on The Roku Channel.
** Will Ospreay spoke to NJPW1972.com and confirmed that Bea Priestley will be in his corner for his match against Kazuchika Okada on night one of Wrestle Kingdom 15.
** Paul “Triple H” Levesque spoke to Revolver Magazine about the life of Motorhead’s Ian Kilmister, also known as “Lemmy”. The last time Levesque saw Lemmy was during an interview that was conducted on behalf of WWE and Corey Graves was the host. Levesque hinted that Lemmy knew his time was running short and he wanted to enjoy the moment. Levesque was called to see Lemmy before he passed away but Levesque had a show to work.
“The last time I saw him, Corey Graves and I did an interview with him at the Rainbow, and he was kind of alluding to me, ‘I’m at the end.’ He knew. When we were heading out of the Rainbow, he didn’t wanna leave. And he never did that.
When he was in the hospital, [Motörhead manager] Todd [Singerman] called me and said that Lem had a small list of people that he wanted to see one more time. He said, ‘Is there any way you can get out here and see him before he goes?’ I had TV that day, but I told him I’d get on a plane as soon as I was done and come out there. Then he called me back a few hours later and said, ‘He’s gone.’”
Triple H shared a story involving himself, Lemmy and Stephanie McMahon. Lemmy was backstage at a show enjoying himself and invited Levesque to come hang with him. Once he found out Stephanie was with Levesque, Lemmy made a few adjustments to the scenery.
“I told this story at his funeral, but I went to see him on the tour with Dio and Maiden. I’d never been backstage with those bands before, but they’re all older and sipping wine and stuff like that. It’s very calm — an older, wiser rock & roll environment. Then we walk down the hall to Lem’s room, and my wife is with me. So Todd knocks and opens the door a little bit, and Lem is wearing a towel around his head like a turban, no shirt on, and I can see two topless women on the couch, booze and other paraphernalia everywhere. Todd goes, ‘Hey Lem, H is here. You got time?’ So Lem goes, ‘Yeah, yeah, bring him in.’ And then Todd says, ‘Steph is with him.’ Lem is like, ‘Oh, hold on a second.’
So the door closes, five minutes go by, and then Lem pops his head out, ‘Come on in!’ He’s still got the turban on his head, but his shirt is back on, the girls have clothes on, and they’re leaving. The drugs are all cleaned up, the booze bottles are stacked up neatly … [Laughs] He totally changed the environment, just out of respect for my wife. That’s how he was. He was always a gentleman.”
** MuscleManMalcolm conducted an interview with Myron Reed. Reed discussed the formation of the ‘Injustice’ group with himself, Jordan Oliver and formerly Kotto Brazil. He stated that it was Court Bauer’s idea to form the trio and he detailed how helpful Bauer has been to him throughout the years.
“I did my first couple of matches and he was like, ‘You’re killing it. Keep doing it’ and he’s like, ‘I need more character out of you. I need more character out of you. You’re killing it in the ring. I need more character out of you’ type-stuff and I was like, ‘What do I need to do?’ And then you know we discussed Injustice bro and me, him [Court Bauer], Jordan [Oliver], Kotto [Brazil], we discussed Injustice and we thought, ‘Yeah, we can definitely make this something dope’ and saw people was really liking it and we gained more confidence. We all were doing something really well in some sort of category and others was lacking in. Like maybe Jordan wasn’t giving it his all in the ring but Jordan wanted to do promos and we were like, ‘Who gives a f*ck about promos?’ But then we all started — him and Kotto made me love doing promos and now I feel like I’m more well-rounded and next year I’m trying to do something completely different. Like be even more well-rounded but the group is lit and Court honestly pretty much had the idea for everything. He’s dope at what he does and he’s always had my back and sh*t like that and if I needed anything, he was there for me. He’s a good dude bro.”
** Outsports listed off their top LGBTQ+ wrestlers of 2020.
** Raven, Rey and Dominik Mysterio appeared on the Keepin It 100 with Konnan podcast Christmas show.
** Trish Stratus joined Mickie James, Lisa Marie Varon and SoCal Val on GAW TV.
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bd0aG9GokXk[/embedyt]
** Proresu Today has an extensive interview up with Miho Abe, who accompanies Taichi to the ring in NJPW.
** Drew McIntyre was a guest on the Sports Guys Talking Wrestling podcast.
** Here’s Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Kota Ibushi from Wrestle Kingdom 9.
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IvLOlO5LUI[/embedyt]
** IMPACT Wrestling put a video up on their YouTube channel to promote Kenny Omega’s IMPACT in-ring debut at Hard To Kill where he’ll team with IMPACT Tag Team Champions Doc Gallows and Karl Anderson to take on IMPACT World Champion Rich Swann and Motor City Machine Guns (Alex Shelley & Chris Sabin).
** William Regal guest appeared on the Swerve City Podcast.
** Revolution Pro Wrestling ‘Epic Encounters 7’ Results (12/27/20) Portsmouth, England
– JJ Gale def. Gideon Grey
– SWE World Heavyweight Title Tournament Bracket A: Dan Moloney def. Rob Lias
– SWE World Heavyweight Title Tournament Bracket B: Ricky Knight Jr. def. Brendan White
– Gisele Shaw & Jamie Hayter def. Skye Smitson & Zan Phoenix
– SWE World Heavyweight Title Tournament Bracket B: Screwface Ahmed def. Chuck Mambo
– SWE World Heavyweight Title Tournament Bracket A: Charlie Sterling def. Joel Redman
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.
