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.
** 2021 men’s Money In The Bank winner Big E chatted with Steven Muehlhausen of DAZN and while Big E is interested in a match between himself and WWE Champion Bobby Lashley, he feels that the person to cash-in on is Universal Champion Roman Reigns.
Those are all great options. I feel Roman’s the guy though. Roman’s the guy in the industry, and if you want to be remembered, if you want to do something cool, something special, that’s a great way to do it. Roman’s on a tear. This is one of the best runs I can remember. I feel like he’s definitely hitting his stride in a way that he hasn’t before. You can look at the entire scope of the rest of the industry, and you can determine who you think is the number one guy, who you think is the best, who should be at the very top. I think it’s not that difficult to make an argument for Roman being number one across all brands, across all boards. Beating him means that whoever beats him for that title, it’s going to be memorable. It’s going to mean something, and why not me?
This interview was conducted on 7/19 and Big E shared his thoughts about the reaction that John Cena received at Money In The Bank. Big E ranked it up there with Dolph Ziggler’s post-WrestleMania World Title win.
I could catch a jet now [to Raw]. It’s not that difficult. I am currently at home, but it’s a two-hour flight. You never know.
It’s the John Cena show tonight. So I am intrigued, though. This is the first Raw back with a live crowd. That Cena pop. Can I be a bit of a mark right here for a second? That Cena pop was one of the loudest I can remember. There are moments where you know something’s gonna come. So you kind of stick your head out, and you can kind of see the fans. I wish I had known, but I was back doing interviews and whatnot afterwards. But I watched it back. It was the loudest pop, and I said for a while was when Dolph (Ziggler) won Money in the Bank. But I was at ringside. This one might be the loudest pop I’ve ever heard since I’ve been here. They were very excited for John.
** Levi Cooper, the former ‘Tucker Knight’ in WWE was a guest on ‘Shooting The Sh*t UNCENSORED!’. Cooper further discussed his partnership/friendship with Otis and made it clear that there was never any jealousy towards Otis for his success as he began to transition into a singles act.
Okay so, I mean, I wouldn’t say ‘jealous’ because like I said, I genuinely love Otis. I mean we really have a little brother, big brother relationship. I still talk to this man every week and wrestling for WWE was more his dream than it was my dream. When I came in, it was like when I graduated from college, I got the opportunity to try out and wrestle for WWE but I was pretty prepared to just be an accountant. I had my accounting degree, I was in discussions with businesses and I was just gonna go wear a suit everyday and explain numbers and I had accepted that as like, ‘Okay, I’m done being an athlete now. It’s time for me to move on and get a big boy job,’ right? Then here comes WWE, ‘Hey, do you want to not grow up yet?’ ‘Yes, I definitely don’t want to grow up yet. Like let me keep being an athlete. That sounds amazing, I love it.’ So, I guess that’s kind of the ground layer.
As far as how Heavy Machinery’s matches were structured, Vince McMahon did not want Otis to do too much of the selling. Cooper was told that Otis should always be the comeback guy in their matches.
The time that I did run the comeback [in tag matches], it was sort of Vince [McMahon] saying, ‘Hey, I don’t want Otis to take the heat. You take the f*cking heat, Otis runs the comebacks. That’s how we do the deal here for you guys, got it?’ Yes sir, messaged received. He wasn’t necessarily heavily involved but that was definitely one of the things I remember being a thing where it was like, you know, we had for five or six months, Otis had ran the comebacks and I had taken the heat so we found an opportunity. I can’t remember exactly what the match was. Like, ‘Okay, it might make sense for us to do it in this way and they can cut him off like this and then he can take the heat for a couple minutes and then you can run the comeback’ and I think it was because I needed to take a fall. I can’t remember exactly what it was but, yeah, I just remember afterwards being like — he wanted to talk to us in Gorilla and just being like, ‘Hey, I don’t want him selling anymore. He’s too big to sell. It doesn’t make sense. You have to do the selling and he runs the comebacks.’
** Kevin Raphael and Pat Laprade welcomed WWE Champion Bobby Lashley onto Les Anti-Pods de la Lute. Lashley felt that when he made his return to WWE in 2018, there were some things that the company wanted him to improve on before moving to the next level. Lashley thinks he became more relaxed and began to have fun with what he was doing on television.
Then when I came back, there was some things the WWE still thought that maybe I needed to improve on and I think that some of those things were just relaxing and having fun with it. You know ultimately, the crowd knows what’s going on. If you’re going out there and you’re not having a good time, the crowd knows. If you’re going out there with a lot of confidence, the crowd knows. So for me, it was going out and having a good time and having an extreme amount of confidence and over the last couple of years, I felt like I’ve built that because first you gotta get to that point of humility, when you can take anything and that’s a big thing for some guys to do. Some guys walk away when they get put in that less-than light or light that they don’t think is them, making them look cool and everything like that. That’s not where I was. I was one of those guys when I came back, I was like, ‘You know, this is entertainment. This is a fight, this is everything rolled into one so I’m willing to do whatever it takes to get there.’ In acting, in theatre, in fighting, you get those ups and downs so if you can’t take the downs, you’ll never get to the ups.
** While speaking to Fightful, Mojo Rawley recounted Rob Gronkowski being held back from entering the ring by WWE security guard Lisa at WrestleMania 33. Lisa was not aware that Gronkowski was supposed to be a part of the Andre The Giant Memorial Battle Royal. Mojo added that Lisa thought she was going to get in trouble for initially preventing Gronk from entering the ring.
Bro, that was one of my favorites. She did everyone a great, great service that day. She made the whole spot, just so you know. But, Lisa’s definitely gonna kick the crap out of Rob. I think, actually, they had a Super Bowl or something and I would send Rob videos before the game of me and Lisa with Lisa talking trash if they lose, she’s gonna come down there and run it back and whip his ass and all this and that. That was kind of a great friendship we have. But, dude, that day, that spot, was hysterical because you know how the wrestling world can be and when you bring outsiders, they don’t tend to like it. So, there was a percentage of the crowd that when they showed Rob, some booed. I heard that and in the beginning in the match, knowing what was coming, I was like, ‘Ah, crap. This is not good.’ So, as the match went on, they were pulling for me a little more. Then it came time for the Gronk spot, so when he stood up afterwards, people actually cheered. Some people cheered Jinder for splashing him and some people started to boo Rob when he came up and [did] the spot. But, then when Lisa took it away from him, they realized how much they still wanted to see it. So, anyone that was booing, now was cheering and it made the whole thing perfect. It was great, but I was literally laying on the floor right underneath, and I’m like, ‘Lisa! Part of the show! Part of the show, let him go!’
She was so confused in the moment, I think afterwards she was still confused and she was worried that it was going to be held against her and taken out against her. Because I remember another one of the security guards ran up while this was going on and he just ran up, and he’s like ‘What the f—!’ He’s just shouted it out. I was dying laughing. I was trying so hard to dig my face into the corner of the barricade. But, dude, I tell you. It made it better.
Back in November of 2018 at Survivor Series, Lisa removed nZo (Enzo Amore) from the crowd as he was sitting in the front row. Rawley discussed seeing that unfold in person.
Enzo probably still has whiplash from that moment. Bro, I was in tears when I saw that and the wig that Enzo picked was the uncle from Napoleon Dynamite. Uncle Rico. That was the best and when Lisa snatched him, that was the first thing that went through my mind, ‘Dude, Lisa’s 2-0.’ Dude, she ejected him. Oh, yeah. She’s the best. Miss her, love her so much.
** During his ‘Hall Of Fame’ podcast, Booker T spoke about Big E winning the men’s Money In The Bank Ladder match. Booker expressed that he is glad Big E got his moment and he can believe in E successfully cashing in.
The era of the big guys are back, okay. You know why? I like Big E winning the Money In The Bank, because he’s believable, he’s believable. I can believe him winning it, and not that the rest of the talent out there I couldn’t have believed it. I’m just saying, Big E winning it, Big E cashing the Money In The Bank in, I can believe that as well as, I like Big E. Big E’s one of my guys and I hope Big E hears this. But I remember Kofi [Kingston] won the championship and Big E was there and I pulled Big E aside and I said, ‘Hey bro, I’m gonna tell you right now, your time is coming, you know what I mean?’ I said, ‘Trust me, cream always rises to the top.’ They can say what they want to say as far as when I made the comment, ‘Big E may need to change this a little bit in order to make it to the next level.’ The only thing is he has made subtle changes. He’s not still the same New Day character even though one may look at that, but I said, ‘Cream always rise[s] to the top and you’re gonna get your shot.’ This is it and I’m glad to see him in that position. I’m definitely glad and proud.
** WWE producer and Performance Center coach Steve Corino is coming out of retirement on August 27th. He’ll be wrestling his son Colby for the Premier Wrestling Federation promotion. The show is going to stream on IWTV. Corino’s last match was in 2016 against Cody Rhodes at a Ring of Honor taping.
** Kyle Davis, host and correspondent for the National Wrestling Alliance joined The Turnbuckle Tavern podcast. Kyle stood alongside Billy Corgan and Mickie James as they made the announcement about Empowerrr and the 73rd Anniversary Show. Davis was not aware of what Corgan and James would be revealing. He added that he has heard that the main event of NWA 73rd is based around Harley Race.
I’m super excited about it [Empowerrr & NWA 73]. When Billy [Corgan] made the announcement right next to Mickie James, I had no idea what we were gonna be talking about there. All he said was, ‘Hey, real quick, I’m gonna go out there and then I’m gonna say some stuff and you just be there.’ So I literally had no idea what the announcement was going to be when we made it. NWA 73, fantastic. An anniversary show unlike anything we’ve had before. I was a part of NWA 70, which [I] was pretty much before an off-camera part of it. I was just helping out, kind of running things there. But to be a part of the company now, where we’ve gone, that’s gonna be exciting as all hell. I have no idea what the main event is gonna be but I’ve heard rumors that it’s gonna be kind of based around Harley Race so, you know, Nick [Aldis has] that background and things like that. I don’t know what’s gonna happen, wrestling at The Chase.
Elsewhere during the conversation, Kyle recounted receiving a birthday prank call from Dean Malenko.
One of my friends works for AEW and randomly I got a call on my birthday this year and it was just a phone call and I hear, ‘Is your refrigerator running?’ And I recognized the voice and I was like, ‘I believe it is sir’ and [Dean Malenko] goes, ‘Jesus, you just called me sir. This just ruined the whole f*cking thing,’ and he’s like, ‘How are you doing?’ I’m like, ‘I’m doing good Mr. Malenko.’ He’s like, ‘Please don’t call me Mr. Malenko’ and he just had a conversation with me. My friend was like, ‘Hey, my buddy is a huge fan. Can you call him?’ I was like holy sh*t.
** John Cena has been announced for the following dates on the lead-up to SummerSlam on August 21st:
– Friday, July 23: SmackDown – Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse in Cleveland
– Saturday, July 24: Supershow – PPG Paints Arena in Pittsburgh
– Sunday, July 25: Supershow – KFC Yum! Center in Louisville, Ky.
– Monday, July 26: Raw – T-Mobile Center in Kansas City, Mo.
– Friday, July 30: SmackDown – Target Center in Minneapolis
– Saturday, July 31: Supershow – Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee
– Sunday, August 1: Supershow – Little Caesars Arena in Detroit
– Friday, August 6: SmackDown – Amalie Arena in Tampa, Fla.
– Saturday, August 7: Supershow – Hertz Arena in Fort Myers, Fla.
– Monday, August 9: Raw – Amway Center in Orlando, Fla.
– Friday, August 13: SmackDown – BOK Center in Tulsa, Okla.
– Saturday, August 14: Supershow – Spectrum Center in Charlotte, N.C.
– Sunday, August 15: Supershow – Colonial Life Arena in Columbia, S.C.
– Friday, August 20: SmackDown – Footprint Center in Phoenix
– Saturday, August 21: SummerSlam – Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas
** myKhel spoke to Big E for an interview. Big E told the publication that he hopes he gets an “all-time great pop” when he cashes in his Money In The Bank contract.
I want to be myself. I want to have fun with it. I also want it to be about purpose and determination. I’m here for a reason. I’m here to be a Champion and I’m here to solidify my legacy. I don’t just do this for myself. I do this for Kofi and Woods because I know I didn’t get here without them. I hope the reaction for that cash-in when I finally do it, when I finally become Champion, I hope that’s one of those all-time great pops too.
** Sports Illustrated caught up with Paul ‘Triple H’ Levesque to grab his thoughts on WWE’s SmackDown, Money In The Bank and Raw events with fans in attendance.
** John Brody, former WWE Executive Vice Presiden is now working as the Chief Revenue Officer for Learfield IMG College.
** At AAW’s ‘Savages & Kings’ show on 8/7, Allysin Kay is defending the AAW Women’s Championship against Melanie Cruise.
** W. Morrissey and Charlie Haas called into The Rob Breaux Show.
** Orange Cassidy, Chuck Taylor and Wheeler YUTA joined Doc Gallows and Karl Anderson on Talk’n Shop.
** The most recent episode of ‘Endless Hustle’ featured Britt Baker.
** The International Business Times were a part of a media call with NXT UK Tag Team Champions Pretty Deadly (Sam Stoker & Lewis Howley).
** Sports Illustrated has a feature story up about Mattel’s new line of WWE figures. Kevin Nash was interviewed for the piece.
** AEW’s Evil Uno turned 34-years-old on 7/20.
** PWInsider spoke to Raquel Gonzalez.
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.
