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.
** Bruce Prichard and Conrad Thompson covered the 1/1/07 episode of Monday Night RAW on their Something To Wrestle with podcast. That edition of RAW featured Kevin Federline picking up a win over then-WWE Champion John Cena. Before getting into the topic, Prichard was asked about Atsushi Onita’s meeting with WWE. Prichard stated that the purpose of the meeting was to set up something between Onita, FMW and WWE but Onita was also interested in pitching the idea of a exploding gimmick match in North America.
“Yeah, at the time that was loosely the premise that [Atsushi] Onita wanted to — Onita was floating out there that he was selling having a Bomb match in the United States. That was not what the meeting was about for us and it was just to do something with Onita. We did some stuff with [Ken] Shamrock and Vader, with Onita’s group and Víctor Quiñones did an awful lot with Onita’s group and he also did work with us as well. So this was an opportunity for Onita to come over and see, ‘Hey, is there a way to work together? Could we do something? And oh, by the way, have you ever seen this Bomb match?’ Which was absolutely — other than the King of the Hill match, one of the silliest, stupidest things I’d ever seen in my life.”
Diving into the topic of Kevin Federline, Prichard said that Cena was all for Federline pinning him and the idea for it was possibly Cena’s.
“Loved it. I think even before John [Cena] knew and it might even have been John’s idea but John was like, ‘Nobody gives a sh*t if I just go out and beat him up.’”
** Renee Paquette was a guest on Sports Media with Richard Deitsch and she expressed that she misses being a part of television production. She explained that-that does not necessarily relate back to her role in WWE but she does miss certain aspects of the roles she took on while a part of the company.
“I miss the people so much. Those people become friends and family. You spend so much time with them. That’s the hardest part is being away from people. You stay in contact with people once you’re kind of out of the fold. It’s just not the same so that’s the thing I miss the most. But I think from the professional side of it, I miss doing TV. I miss being on TV, whether it’s wrestling or not. I miss that whole atmosphere. I mean yeah, there’s definitely times that you miss the production side of things, even just seeing the production crew and whatnot but just like that big event feel, you know? I think that’s something that I miss. Like having the pyro go off and getting ready for that countdown, when the doors have opened. Well not like we’re doing that right now but, as the show starts to get ready and that energy starts to come alive, that everyone gets ready to perform, I do miss that but I think — I just miss [being on] TV right now and as much as I’m staying occupied with doing my podcast and I’ve got my cookbook coming out and creating a human, there are things that I miss. I actually always thought this was a stupid side note, but I always figured that when I was pregnant that I’d get to be gigantic on TV and that was something that I was genuinely looking forward to. So I’m a little bummed that I don’t get to be like the size of a house on TV. I always thought that-that would be really great. But yeah, I miss doing my job and I don’t necessarily mean my job in WWE. There are aspects of that-that I kind of miss but there’s the freedom of it that I’ve really been enjoying as in sort of figuring out what I really want my next step to be and that was really sort of part of the whole thing [with] me leaving as well. Like, ‘What do I want to do?’ And I’m still figuring that out about what exactly I want to do, what’s going to fulfill me. I always come back to the, ‘Damn, how do I get the Kelly Ripa gig?’ So I’m trying to figure out what the stepping stones are to kind of put me in line for something in that world. That’s something I would love to do.”
Renee was the first full-time female commentator for Monday Night RAW and the next person Renee thinks will be in that spot for either RAW or SmackDown is current NXT commentator Beth Phoenix.
“I think that we will [see another woman at the RAW (or SmackDown) commentary desk]. Absolutely we will. As much as I was like sort of the test rabbit for that and however we wanna look at that whether you say it was successful or wasn’t successful, it was something that happened and we were all learning and we were all figuring out like I was figuring out what the hell I was doing. I was trying to figure out what my role was there. Vince [McMahon] was figuring out what it was like having a female on commentary. Kevin Dunn was learning what it was like having a female on commentary and the fans. I mean obviously the best person for that gig [is] Beth Phoenix. I think she’s fantastic. I think she’s just so good at what she does. She’s just so smart and her love and passion for wrestling is number one for her, aside from her family and whatnot. But, you can feel that when she’s talking and she’s been very lucky in the sense of working at NXT in that more nurturing environment and learning how to get better and taking that time, getting in the booth and she’s been able to work with a series of different announcers as well so I think that’s something that’s really beneficial as well too whether she’s working with Vic Joseph or Tom Phillips, working with Wade Barrett who’s now there. She’s just got so many different characters that she can jump on there and figure out how to navigate those waters so I think by the time it [comes for] her to do RAW or SmackDown, I think she’d fit in totally seamlessly and I think the fans would love it. I think they’ll be ready to hear that and I think she would absolutely crush it.”
** On the latest episode of the Grilling JR podcast, Jim Ross and Conrad Thompson hosted a Q&A for their listeners. Ross has published two books thus far and he said there have been discussions about him putting out a third.
“If we can all come up with a theme, what would this third book be about? ‘Well it could be about AEW.’ It could be about a lot of things. There’s discussion about doing another book in 2021. We haven’t finalized those discussions because I have yet to be presented something that intrigues me enough to want to invest totally back into writing another book. But if we come up with the right ideas, absolutely. I enjoy it. It’s cathartic to me. I like doing it and I like working with Paul O’Brien.”
Ross was asked about the career of Goldust (Dustin Rhodes) in WWE. Initially, Ross was not too sure about the character but eventually grew to like it. At one point, the idea was pitched for Goldust’s on-screen manager Terri Runnels to have an artificial penis to add to the overall character.
“Well I was skeptical, because we wanted to get as close to the edge without jumping off and committing suicide as we could, and there was a lot of — I had to look up what androgynous meant, because the way it was presented in the beginning, it was like homophobic to some degree and I was a little uncomfortable with that, but you know, it evolved and the great thing about Dustin [Rhodes] is he made that character his own. He lived it. He became that character on-camera and did a great job. But I was a little leery in the beginning because I didn’t quite understand where we were going with this thing, and how is it gonna end up. I think I told this to Terri Runnels one time that in one booking meeting, we thought about — because the sexual overtones in that character and that package were really prominent, and so at one time they talked about having her have a subtle prothesis penis to add to the — because all of these ideas kept piling in. The more perverse it seemed like, the more they discussed. But leery in the beginning, got comfortable afterwards because Dustin was so good at it. It became one of our more entertaining characters in my view.”
Back in 2013, Jim Ross was let go from WWE stemming from an incident that involved himself and Ric Flair at a media event. As the story goes, Ross and Flair had a few drinks at the event and Ross was supposed to look after Flair. Ultimately, Ross was let go and Flair remained with WWE. Here’s what J.R. had to say on the matter:
“Well, that was bad decisions on my part. I had a couple drinks but I wasn’t drunk. That was a story. That was a lie. That was cover your ass sh*t, and when I got to the shoot, I was the host, moderator, whatever and I went into the quote unquote green room, the liquor was flowing like water, and I think, ‘Oh, this is gonna be interesting.’ So a lot of the guys that did drink had drank too much. Naitch and I-I guess were considered two of those guys but are you kidding me? You’re gonna set the artery of the greatest wrestler ever over an announcer? Sh*t, and I wouldn’t have done it either. But yeah, that was controversial and I think I got taken off the team at that point. But it was poorly organized and I made bad decisions, let’s just get that out of the way. I made some bad decisions. I don’t mind taking responsibility for screw ups. We’re human. But you gotta learn from those screw ups to move forward and I think I did that. But it was kind of funny how that worked out. It’s an interesting question. J.R. gets canned and [Ric] Flair gets a statue.”
** Yoshitatsu told Tokyo Sports that he’s interested in recruiting John Cena to All Japan Pro Wrestling after Cena followed him on Twitter.
** Major League Wrestling provided an update on the health of Septimo Dragon who was involved in a motorcycle hit-and-run incident. MLW noted that Septimo is recovering in intensive care. He was transferred to Ciudad Médica de Irapuato al hospital general to undergo a third procedure. He suffered internal injuries and blood loss but has been stable since the third operation.
** SPORTbible conducted an interview with Jeff Hardy. While on the topic of ideas that Hardy wanted to do which were turned down by WWE, Hardy once pitched for Brock Lesnar to spear him mid-Swanton but WWE was not keen on the idea.
“Back in the day I was wrestling Brock Lesnar and I had this idea. Me and Kurt Angle actually tried it but we failed. The idea was for Brock to spear me upside down as I’m doing the Swanton Bomb and they shut it down real quick back then. In the other wrestling world known as TNA, we tried it but we failed. We were close but we failed.”
Hardy spoke about the pain he has put his body through throughout his career. He said he doesn’t regret anything that he’s done. Hardy recalled hitting his head on the ring steps during the Symphony of Destruction match on RAW against Elias. On the 12/14 episode of RAW, Hardy teamed with Kofi Kingston and Xavier Woods and there was a spot that he was asked to do but couldn’t because of back pain.
“I watched one [match] with D-Von Dudley. We watched the match back and it was so rushed because we were cut on time but it was such a good match. Now, in my older life, I’m like, ‘Man, I can’t do that now!’ But back then it was so crazy-cool. No regrets, I love everything I’ve ever done and I’m going to achieve more before I pass away hopefully. No regrets. I’m at one with earth, man. When we talk about spirituality, I feel like the wind and when I look at the moon and the sun, I’m connected to everything. I’m so blessed to be here and it’s amazing. Just recently with that Symphony of Destruction match, I did a Swanton through the table and my head hit the stairs. But when he hit me in the ass with the guitar from the whisper in the wind, man my back is still hurting from that and here we are two weeks later! That Swanton Bomb to D-Von and Bubba Dudley in that first TLC match really hurt my back and my hands were bruised for like two weeks. But we heal. I’m lucky enough to heal so there’s no serious injuries, which is amazing.
The other day we had the six-man tag with the New Day and they said, ‘You do this big spot and hit the whisper in the wind’. I told them, ‘I can’t hit the whisper in the wind tonight because my back hurts!'”
** Depositions for the case against Phillip A. Thomas, who broke into the home and allegedly stalked WWE’s Daria Berenato (Sonya Deville) are scheduled to begin next month, via PWInsider. Amanda Saccomanno (Mandy Rose) will make her deposition on February 2nd at 1 PM EST. Berenato is set to give her own an hour later. Several police officers who were called to Berenato’s home at the time of the break in are going to be deposed on 2/18 and Phillip Thomas will follow suit on February 25th.
** FTR (Dax Harwood & Cash Wheeler) received the green light from Amanda Huber to change the name of their “Goodnight Express” finisher to “Big Rig” in honor of the late Jon Huber (Brodie Lee).
** Maria Kanellis-Bennett joined Kevin Eck on the ROHStrong podcast. Kevin Eck is a former member of the WWE creative team and he shared a story about Sara Amato, formerly Sara Del Rey’s signing with WWE. Several of the writers at the time along with Eck wanted to add more talent to the women’s division that could enhance the in-ring product but Vince McMahon was of the mindset that viewers did not want to see female talents compete like the men.
“Quick Sara Del Rey story from back when I was in WWE, because I was a fan of her work and we were — me and some of the other writers were trying to get the women’s division to be a little more than just two minute — because we had Natalya on the roster and Beth Phoenix and we’re like, ‘Let’s utilize these people’ and Vince [McMahon] said, ‘Nobody wants to see the girls fight like the guys’ and so it was a losing battle. I remember one time, one of the SmackDown head writers came in and he said to me, he goes, ‘Okay, Sara Del Rey has been signed.’ He goes, ‘Now before you say anything, not as a talent, as a coach and we’re not using her as a talent at all so don’t even go there,’ and I was like, ‘Wow, we’ve got Sara Del Rey’ and it’s like do not under any circumstances pitch her being on TV. I couldn’t get over that.”
Maria Kanellis reflected on her first go-around with WWE. She discussed having to change the perception of herself to the media following her first departure from WWE because the media thought her on-screen character was exactly who she was off-screen.
“They’ve [WWE] had me do a few of those things in the past where people were surprised of like, ‘Oh, I didn’t think you would be able to,’ or when I was on Celebrity Apprentice. Everybody thought I was an idiot and I was like, ‘No,’ and the producers wanted me to play an idiot on a reality show which was I like, ‘That’s not happening.’ It’s silly. But then, once I started transitioning out of WWE and deciding what this new me was going to be, as a character or whatever, [it] took a little while because I would do these interviews after WWE released me and people thought I was an idiot and so I would have to like to fix this whole issue at the beginning because I’m like, ‘Nobody’s gonna hire an idiot.’ So, alright, we gotta fix this problem and so I would gradually make a difference in this image everybody had of me before. Celebrity Apprentice definitely helped, but in the wrestling community I had to fix my major image problem which now, my husband had to experience that all over again as well of him having a major image problem leaving WWE.”
** Here’s the newest episode of Being The Elite:
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6BKUOJGyTc0[/embedyt]
** Dominik and Rey Mysterio chatted with Konnan on the Keepin It 100 with Konnan podcast. During their conversation, Konnan spoke about the most recent AAA Triplemania event and stated that it was the hardest one he’s ever had to put together given the circumstances.
“The hardest Triplemania I’ve ever had to put together was this last Triplemania because there were no fans and COVID and all that bullsh*t, and it was very hard because especially all the wrestlers, they kept turning around looking for fan reaction, and even though I had already told them ahead of time, ‘There’s no fans, don’t look around for fans, look at the camera,’ they’re so — Rey, I always use this word. When we came from Mexico to WCW, we literally had to be deprogrammed, because we only knew lucha, we only knew that style, we only knew that psychology. Now you also have to kind of deprogram the wrestler because he’s, ‘Okay, I know if I do this here, I’ll get a pop.’ Well there’s not gonna be a pop. ‘I know if I do this, people are gonna get into it. I know when I come out, they’re gonna pop’ and none of that is happening and I’m sure that when you guys [Rey & Dominik] are wrestling, millions of times you probably thought, ‘F*ck, if there were people here, the roof would f*cking go nuts,’ you know what I’m saying?”
** While chatting with CBS Sports, Ric Flair told the publication that he thinks Charlotte Flair is the best women’s wrestler of all-time.
“She’s the best woman on the roster, but she’s the best woman of all time. I’ve been in the business 49 years. Give me an example of who you think is better. You can’t. I love Trish [Stratus], I love Lita. But I can walk into a room and say my daughter is the best. We can sit and debate it. I’ll have that debate just like you, and I can have the debate about Aaron Rodgers and Patrick Mahomes.”
** Bleacher Report caught up with Keith Lee ahead of his WWE Championship match on the 1/4 episode of RAW. Lee further spoke about the change in his ring attire and stated that it was a choice he made on his own.
“I wanted to do something different and what I had was supposed to be a trial thing to see how it looked. I was going to train in it and just kind of see, but personally, the sleeveless shirt look is something I actually like and have worn before. I didn’t mind it. The shorts, that was a flop and no one knew it would be because they were rushed.”
From the side, it didn’t look that bad. From the front, it looked like this situation that was unfavorable and unsavory. As soon as I wore them, I said, ‘This was all I had, I’m sorry. I was not prepared.’ Nobody really cared, it was just a chuckle for me and the boys, but the fans, it was like, ‘Oh my god!’ ‘All right, I got the boys to laugh for the night and I tried these things out.’ I committed, but I knew I was switching the moment I [wore] them. As soon as my match was over, I texted my gear lady and said, ‘Hey, we got to get these shorts back. I have to get the tights going because these shirts are not going to cut it.’ She said, ‘Already on it!’ She was a sweetheart and I was grateful for her because the hectic-ness of being on Raw was unruly, man.”
There was a WWE 24 special created about Keith Lee that was released on the WWE Network in November of 2020. Keith said that originally, that was simply supposed to be a mini documentary about his debut on RAW.
“I honestly didn’t know much about it at all and really, it wasn’t supposed to be anything other than, ‘This is his debut on Raw and this is how he got here.’ As I had conversations with people and as we talked about more things, more opportunities came about to talk to family and they were like, ‘Listen, this can turn into something really cool if you’re up for it.’ That team, I give them all the credit because they were great and fun to work with, my family enjoyed them and I enjoyed them.
I gave the reins to them and it became so much more than a WWE 24 of Keith Lee debuting on Raw. This became a 24 of here’s how Keith Lee got here. This is what he went through to get here. This is where he came from, this is how he grew up. You’re seeing a man that is a culmination of all of these things. To me, that is such a cool approach to it and being able to include friends and peers and people who have been mentors in the documentary itself was super touching. It was magic.”
** The Black Rasslin’ Podcast welcomed Chris Bey onto their show. Bey opened up about his fortitude while working solely as an independent wrestler. For the year of 2019, Bey wrestled in the same trunks in all of his matches and shows because that was within his budget. Those shows and matches were for the likes of WWE, Ring of Honor, IMPACT Wrestling and a great deal of independent shows.
“Before the video games came how they are now where you can have a character and change — have four preset outfits under that character or however many you can do now. I haven’t played a game in forever but, before that I was making 17 versions of my character in different slots so I could just have 42 different outfits, you know? Selections so I could just go through all these different outfits. I was spending hours on video games creating outfits, creating outfits. But, things just weren’t in the budget. Chasing that independent grind, things just weren’t in the budget as much as I would have liked them to be to provide me with those opportunities so much so that in 2019, I wore one pair of trunks the entire year. They’re the trunks that I — and they’re the last pair of trunks I wore until I switched back over to tights so like I wore them to 205 [Live], Ring of Honor, all my IMPACT stuff, all the championship wins, the match with Shotzi Blackheart. Like everything, they’re a part of that whole year.”
** Raven was a guest on the ‘Scheduled For Two Falls’ podcast. In mid-February, Raven was spotted in the crowd during AEW Dynamite and he was also backstage watching the show. He was asked if he’d ever consider taking on an on-screen managerial role in the company. Raven responding with the following:
“Not until Covid is over due to my preexisting conditions. I’ve had a heart attack and have diabetes. It’s great that Jake [Roberts] is out there but I feel he’s really rolling the dice. I’d love to but I don’t want to take a chance.”
During his time in the WWF/E, Raven claims to have became close with Shane McMahon which led to some varying opinions about him from those higher up in the company to his co-workers.
“Yeah that’s true. Me and Shane [McMahon] used to be really tight but we drifted apart. He’d go out with me every night. Big heat with Linda and Vince. The boys thought I was kissing ass for my career but it actually killed my career giving me heat.”
** A feature about Lacey Evans via the Air Force Times.
** Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling Results (1/4/21) Korakuen Hall
– Suzume def. Arisu Endo
– Moka Miyamoto & Yuna Manase def. Haruna Neko & Pom Harajuku
– Hyper Misao def. Shoko Nakajima
– Mirai Maiumi, Miu Watanabe & Nao Kakuta def. Aja Kong, Mizuki & Raku
– Mei Saint-Michel & Sakisama def. Hikari Noa & Sena Shiori
– Miyu Yamashita def. Maki Ito by KO
– Princess Tag Team Championship: Nodoka Tenma & Yuki Aino (c) def. Mahiro Kiryu & Yuki Kamifuku
– Princess Of Princess Championship: Rika Tatsumi def. Yuka Sakazaki (c) by TKO
** Former WWF Tag Team Champion Chris Kanyon would’ve been 50-years old today.
** Pro Wrestling NOAH ‘New Sunrise’ Results (1/4/21) Korakuen Hall
– Atsushi Kotoge, Daisuke Harada, Junta Miyawaki & Yasutaka Yano def. FULL THROTTLE (Hajime Ohara, Seiki Yoshioka & YO-HEY) & Kai Fujimura
– Daiki Inaba & Yoshiki Inamura def. Manabu Soya & Tadasuke
– Kazuyuki Fujita def. Masao Inoue
– Akitoshi Saito & Shiro Koshinaka def. Mohammed Yone & Shuhei Taniguchi
– Osamu Nishimura def. Kinya Okada
– Hao & Nio def. Stinger (HAYATA & Yuya Susumu)
– Kazushi Sakuraba, Takashi Sugiura & Kazunari Murakami def. Katsuhiko Nakajima, Kenou & Masa Kitamiya
– Yoshinari Ogawa def. Kotaro Suzuki by DQ
– Go Shiozaki, Hiroshi Hase & Kaito Kiyomiya def. Keiji Muta, Naomichi Marufuji & Masato Tanaka
** Big E received coverage from ESPN Radio for his Brodie Lee/New York sports teams tribute[s] on SmackDown.
** ‘Wide Open Country’ ran a story about the children of musician and actor Kris Kristofferson who one of which went on to become a pro wrestler and was a part of WWE developmental from 2012-2014 under the name Garrett Dylan.
** New episodes of the Texas-based SWE Fury promotion are coming to CW 21, CW 33, The Action Channel and YouTube on January 9th.
** Rugby World has a feature on pro wrestling in their latest magazine that includes an interview with Paul “Triple H” Levesque and Senior Director of Talent Development, Canyon Ceman.
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHQD1zwoKms[/embedyt]
** Ace Austin and Hakim Zane (Rohit Raju) were announced for Ohio Valley Wrestling’s ‘Nightmare Rumble’ on January 9th.
** Alicia Atout spoke to ‘Alpha Female’ Jazzy Gabert.
** Matt Hardy posted the following video boasting about the accomplishments of he and Jeff Hardy. Matt also mentioned the tandem now known as The Hardy Bros (Riddle & Jeff Hardy) and how Vince McMahon is obsessed with the original Hardy Boyz.
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Oy38FiH0r0[/embedyt]
** Darren Paltrowitz caught up with Diamond Dallas Page.
[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRBRZUAlXPs[/embedyt]
** During his Hall Of Fame podcast with Brad Gilmore, Booker T talked about shooting a segment with LL Cool J on RAW in 2002. Booker also spoke to Justin Barrasso of Sports Illustrated to promote RAW Legends Night.
** AEW referee Bryce Remsburg has a birthday today.
** Sean “X-Pac” Waltman chatted with Wrestling Inc.
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.
