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.
** The ‘Knights Of The Gimmick Table’ show welcomed Homicide on as a guest. He is currently working with the National Wrestling Alliance as an agent and talent. Homicide detailed how the agent position came about and stated that he does not want to perform as often as he used to and is more focused on his agent role.
One day I went to a show and Dave Lagana was working for NWA. He was telling me that, ‘We want you to be a producer, like an agent for the NWA’ and I felt some kind of way. Like damn, they don’t want me to wrestle? Because that’s my sh*t man. I grew up watching that so I’m really a big fan of the company of tradition and history so, when he told me about, ‘Yo, get this agent job,’ [Earl] Hebner, his son [Brian Hebner] told me like, ‘Hey, if I was you, concentrate on the future because you’re getting older and nobody’s gonna book you’ and I was like, ‘True, true, okay.’ I’m gonna try it out so I tried it, bro I loved it. It’s like my new thing going on right now in wrestling, and I’m studying everything, like the TV, the way it works, promoter, creator, just everything and my goal was to wrestle [at] Madison Square Garden. One of my goals now is to bring the NWA in Northeast, somewhere in New Jersey because you know how the athletic commission is in New York so you can’t do it but, I like to have my own brand of NWA and bring back the territories like it used to be. So right now, yeah I’m an agent and the fun thing about the running, they told me, ‘Alright, we want you to produce this match.’ It was a four-way, a pay-per-view and I was like, ‘Man, a four-way tag? I don’t know if that’s gonna work. How about we make it a scramble match like Ring of Honor style back in the days? Like a lucha libre match.’ He was like, ‘Okay, [what] are we gonna call it?’ ‘Call it NWA Lucha.’ They loved the idea and I was just joking. I thought it was lame, so I was like, ‘Alright, just do it’ so they did it, they tore it up and they told me, ‘Yo, you’re wrestling tomorrow and you’re doing a lucha libre match’ and mind you, I’m not into lucha libre, I love grappling, you know what I mean? And they made me do this lucha libre match. I mean it came out good but it’s just funny that now, I’m back performing. I’m still an agent, but right now in my head, I really don’t want to perform like I used to. I wanna be in the back right now behind the scenes.
At Ring of Honor’s Best in the World pay-per-view, Homicide and Chris Dickinson became ROH World Tag Team Champions. They are a part of the Violence Unlimited group with Brody King and Tony Deppen. Homicide said his return to ROH came as a surprise.
By surprise man. They [Ring of Honor] called me, Brody King told me, ‘I got a project.’ He wants me, [Chris] Dickinson and Tony Deppen to come to Ring of Honor and Hunter/Delirious told me, ‘Yo, I got a show in Baltimore but you gotta be in the bubble with this COVID thing going on.’ Went back to Ring of Honor and right away, got the tag team titles. I’m feuding with these Mexicans out there; RUSH, Dragon Lee, Kenny King, their father [Bestia del Ring] and it’s been cool, you know? It’s not like the old days but it’s been cool.
Elsewhere during the conversation, Homicide told the story of when Samoa Joe introduced him to medical marijuana and he ordered a variety of different foods prior to a match he had. Homicide blew up quickly during the match and threw up.
The most embarrassing thing in wrestling is [to] blow up in a ring. I always remember I went to L.A. for the first time and I was hanging out with Samoa Joe and he introduced me to Banana Kush, medical marijuana, it’s phenomenal, then I smoked it then he told me, ‘Yo, I’m gonna take you to a restaurant,’ alright. I ordered like about 20 wings, a milkshake, a soda, some coffee, I don’t know why and a cheesecake. I ate it all [in] less than one hour. Then I was supposed to wrestle at PWG. I always remember, it was a tournament. It was me and B-Boy versus Claudio — I don’t know what’s his name in WWE — [Cesaro] and Chris Hero and man, we had a match and I felt funny and I went to the bathroom and I threw up my food. That was in 2001 and I don’t know if you remember, I used to smoke a lot of cigarettes too so I was so embarrassed that-that happened so imagine in the ring throwing up. I quit smoking.
Going back to the topic of the NWA, Homicide recalled when he got into a back and forth with two talents at a taping for hitting him in the head with a chair. This happened when Dave Lagana was still with the organization. Ricky Morton of The Rock ‘n’ Roll Express gave Homicide props for how he handled the situation.
Well I’m a producer for NWA. What happened was I was teaming up with Eddie Kingston — there’s a little funny inside joke about that, because what happened was that I wrestled these two cats and he hit me with a chair in the head and these cats are cool but man, for some reason, I don’t want to get hit in the head with a chair and that chair was hard and I flipped out and when I was yelling at these guys, I turned my back and it was the whole locker room and one of them was The Rock ‘n’ Roll Express and The Rock ‘n’ Roll Express man, those guys are unbelievable. I mark out for The Rock ‘n’ Roll Express. I don’t care what nobody says. I’m a mark for Ricky Morton so, I see that and Ricky Morton came up to me like, ‘That’s how [professionals] do.’ I say, ‘What you mean? Like I just threatened this guy.’ I said, ‘If you do it again, I’m gonna f*cking kill you in front of everybody’ and Dave [Lagana] and Billy Corgan, the president was there. He was trying to calm me down and I was like, ‘Nah, I don’t wanna hear nobody sh*t. This is wrong.’ I think it was a spot that he wasn’t supposed to hit me with a chair in the head and he did.
** 80’s Wrestling hosted a virtual signing with Dean Malenko. He recounted pitching an idea towards the end of his in-ring career and his character would exhibit signs of Alzheimer’s by Dean forgetting all his holds and his career ending in that manner.
I actually pitched an idea years ago that I had Alzheimer’s and I kept forgetting my holds. I’m like Man of 1,000, Man of 618, Man of 320 and I got down to like one hold and I couldn’t remember it and I lost the match and my career was over.
When asked what AEW talent he sees himself in, he mentioned Serena Deeb.
Serena Deeb. Actually, she just took over my moniker. She’s now Woman of 1,000 Holds. She’s very good, very talented.
One talent outside of AEW that Malenko wishes he could have shared the ring with is current Raw Tag Team Champion AJ Styles.
This little guy Rey Mysterio. Nah, [I’m joking]. I’m a big fan of AJ Styles. I love AJ’s work. I’d love to have a match with him.
** NXT Champion Karrion Kross took to his Instagram page to reflect on his recent Raw appearances. His Raw debut was a loss to Jeff Hardy and this week, he scored a win over Keith Lee. Here’s what Kross had to say about the past two weeks of his career:
Scarlett asked me in private many months ago what would be my ideal scenario for going up to main roster. I told her in a perfect world, I’d love to work both shows; NXT & WWE #WWERAW and possibly even #WWESmackdown. I wanted as much as what was available to do. Birthday rolls around months later, And on that very day of July 19th, I got what I wanted. Never discussed it with anyone, never talked about it. I just put it out there in the universe and did my best to privately work towards it. Getting in front of a packed arena, full house and having the opportunity to do what I love in front of the #WWEUniverse; to hear, see and feel them after over a year of being here without a full attendance and chasing this for long before I arrived… This month has been pretty awesome. Looking forward to the future… And more. #TickTock
** During a sit-down conversation with Chris Van Vliet, former WWE talent Maven said prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, he was in conversations with WWE about doing some announcing.
We didn’t go into it but right before the pandemic, I actually went down and I interviewed with WWE about maybe getting back in for announcing. Stuff like this can only help.
At WrestleMania 18, Maven defended the Hardcore Championship. Prior to his match, he was dealing with the nerves of performing at WrestleMania and it was Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson who gave him some advice that calmed him down. Johnson told Maven to not be nervous because no one was expecting much out of him and winked at Maven before he left.
Best advice I ever got and it calmed me down so, WrestleMania 18, Toronto, I’m backstage, again, scared to death. I mean there’s 70-something thousand people out there. [The] Rock sees this, ‘Mave! Come here’ so I’m like yeah, sure. Go up to him. I’m thinking I’m gonna get words of advice from the best. He goes, ‘Hey, no one’s really expecting much out of you so just do the best you can’ and he turns around and walks away and I’m like, ‘What the f*ck was that?’ And he turns and winks at me and that calmed me down. That one little joke. Like ah, f*ck it. Just go out there and have fun. If I see somebody to this day that is nervous or they, you know, ‘What can you tell me?’ I’ll say the exact same thing. ‘Just do the best you can. No one’s expecting much out of you.’ Just calm them down, try to calm them down a little bit. It worked for me.
Maven’s WWE run is linked to his time on Tough Enough. He feels that out of his entire class, current IMPACT Wrestling senior producer Josh Matthews was the best in-ring talent.
Of course I thought they’re [WWE] gonna want someone like [Chris] Nowinski who’s got experience, not going to make them look stupid and he was technically good enough and had a decent look. Josh [Matthews] was by far the best wrestler. Josh was doing everything in the ring and those two, I knew were my competition.
** Edge was the most recent guest on Stevens Wrestling Journey. He was asked for his thoughts about Christian Cage being with All Elite Wrestling. Edge stated that he would have liked if he and Christian could’ve had their return runs together but he just wants him to be happy.
Personally, as the talent, we don’t look at it as a feud [between WWE & AEW]. We’re happy that there’s multiple places to go and be able to do this. So, for me personally, I just want him [Christian Cage] to be happy wherever that is.
I’m happy for him. I think it’s great. Wherever he can go and get the respect that he deserves for being as good as he is and I know he is gonna teach people so much when [they] get inside a wrestling ring and that’s all he really wants to do. That’s all I wanna do too. If we can spread any of the knowledge that we’ve learned for doing this for 30 years, that’s what we wanted to do. Now, would I love to do it side-by-side with him? Absolutely. But I’m just happy that we’re actually both back doing this which is crazy.
** KENTA partook in an online meet-and-greet for New Japan Pro-Wrestling. Below are several highlights from the near hour-long session:
– KENTA wants to wrestle CM Punk, jokes that he’ll make Punk go to sleep.
– He doesn’t care that wrestlers used/are using his moves. He wants to know why he wasn’t able to use the ‘Go To Sleep’ in WWE because he created it.
** During his appearance on ‘Straight Shooting’, Tony Nese stated that he was worried he was going to lose the Cruiserweight Title match at WrestleMania 35 in New Jersey because he is from the area.
Yeah and I think that was another reason — that was like one of my main reasons is like, ‘Man, they’re gonna realize that I’m from here’ and guys don’t win where they’re from, you know? Especially WrestleMania titles.
Nese was a part of the 2016 Cruiserweight Classic tournament. According to Nese, he was supposed to make it to the third round of the tourney and lose to Kota Ibushi. That spot was given to Brian Kendrick because William Regal and those putting the tournament together felt that Kendrick had the better story to tell as the tournament progressed.
So, I would say [Kota] Ibushi would be the one there [that I wanted to face], and believe it or not, I was actually supposed to wrestle him. Yeah, so I — the funny thing is remember they were like, ‘Oh, you don’t mind being eliminated the first round?’ And yeah, of course, whatever but when I got there, they were like, ‘You’re gonna go three rounds’ and I was like, ‘Oh, hell yeah. This is awesome’ and it was me and Anthony Bennett and then it was me and Brian Kendrick and then it was supposed to be me and Ibushi and then I don’t know if you remember, they did that show leading up to the Cruiserweight Classic where you kind of got to know everybody. Do you remember that? I think it was done with — I think [Corey] Graves did it and stuff. But anyway, so in that show, Kendrick had like a story on there and he has a crazy story of being there and getting released a number of times and this was kind of like — his story was like, ‘This is my last chance,’ this whole thing and then it ended up being the best story out of all of ‘em that were aired on that episode and so the next — we show up for the next tapings and it’s me and Kendrick and they originally told me that earlier that day, again, they were like, ‘Hey, just so you know, it’s you over,’ blah, blah, blah. Alright cool. Then me and Kendrick were just kind of hanging out at the P.C. talking because they would fill us in a day early and then we just have a day to hang out with everyone and stuff and just to do photos and interviews, all that stuff. [William] Regal pulled me aside and he’s like, ‘Hey, I just want to let you know I’m sorry but the story that Brian came out with, it was very — a lot of people had a good response to it so they wanna push him forward instead’ or whatever. I was like, ‘Whatever man, I don’t care.’ I’m already one round ahead of what I thought I was gonna be. So then they ended up changing the finish of that match so Brian went ahead to face Ibushi. So that was one where I was like, the only thing — it wasn’t like, ‘Aw man, I have to lose.’ I don’t care about that but I was like, ‘Ah man. I had my chance to wrestle him’ and I feel like just being able to — because I think Cedric [Alexander] ended up wrestling him after he went past Kendrick or maybe it was before. Cedric might have wrestled him before that. When you’re in there with a guy that good, that sometimes becomes career-defining moments for certain people where it’s like, ‘Oh wow. This person stood toe-to-toe with so and so’ and all that stuff so like, for me, it was kind of like, ‘Alright, I’ve been studying and watching this guy for so long and I feel that I can show that I could hang with him’ and all that stuff and then unfortunately it didn’t happen but that’s fine. That’s just how it is. So I would say out of all of them, that would be the guy.
At the 2019 Money In The Bank pay-per-view, Tony Nese defended the Cruiserweight Title against Ariya Daivari. Nese told the story of Daivari pitching a special entrance to the writing team and they shot it down with the thought in mind that Vince McMahon wouldn’t entertain it. Daivari then went to McMahon himself and got the special entrance approved.
A good story of that and it’s not my story so I’ll just give a brief version of it because it’s [Ariya] Daivari’s story but I was involved obviously. We had our match at Money In The Bank and you know, and it was we were being told, ‘You guys are on the main show. You’re not the kickoff’ and everything so, Daivari’s like, ‘Oh man, I wanna get like a big Del Rio-style entrance and all that,’ so he pitched to the writers like, ‘Hey man. I’ve been calling myself Daivari Dinero. My character has all this money and stuff. I think I should roll up, it’s my first pay-per-view match, it’s for a title. I should roll up in a car’ and then his whole reasons, ‘I think this would look good for 205. I think it’ll look like the company actually cares about it,’ you know? All these things that will be perceived that way to certain fans, and yeah, the answer was like, ‘Oh no, no, no. Vince, don’t even bother asking Vince that. He wouldn’t even,’ you know? That was the type of response like, ‘I’m not even gonna go to Vince with that idea’ and Daivari, good for him, he was like, ‘You know what? Screw you. I’m gonna ask him myself’ so he just went, knocked on the door, went in Vince’s office and he was like, ‘Hey Vince. This is my character and this is what he does, we’re gonna be on the show.’ Vince was like — where is it? I think it was like what? Hartford [Connecticut] or whatever and he’s like, ‘I think we can fit a car in that building.’ He’s like, ‘You know what? As long as we can fit a car, you got it.’ That was it.
Going back to the topic of Buddy Murphy and Nese’s WrestleMania match/build-up, Nese felt that more could have been put into it. He added that he pitched a number of ideas but he was told by the writing team that they can’t switch things around.
Definitely [we could have gotten more story out of the Murphy/Nese WrestleMania build] and I remember pitching a bunch of stuff but it just kind of kept getting shot down. Unfortunately, you know, writing team isn’t always on board to change things. ‘Oh sorry, we already have this idea written out for the next couple of months.’ Like what do you mean? You guys change the script the day of. I’m telling you weeks in advance and you’re like, ‘Nah, it’s too late.’ It was just a, ‘Hey, I don’t really wanna do that right now so…’
Elsewhere during the conversation, Tony brought up that he heard from Pete Dunne that 205 Live was well known and watched heavily by international viewers. That information came about when Dunne was doing a media tour in a country and the only questions he received were about 205 Live, despite him never appearing on the show.
I think everyone on that roster [205 Live] worked so hard and yes, it’s unfortunate that the platform we were on wasn’t as large when it comes to — but we were still on a platform and it was still accessible and believe it or not, we had a lot of — we had a ton of international viewers. That’s a big thing people don’t understand is 205 was a regular show in countries that — I believe — what I heard is that there were a couple countries where we were the only wrestling show on television. So believe it or not, it was actually Pete Dunne who told me. He did like a media tour and I can’t remember the country he went to and he’s never done 205 and when he went to that country, the only questions they had for him were 205 questions because that’s the only wrestling they know.
** Sam Roberts brought WWE host and correspondent Kayla Braxton onto the Notsam Wrestling podcast. Braxton reflected on the forklift/Roman Reigns segment from SmackDown in 2019. Braxton mentioned that the scream she forced out during the segment was one of the most embarrassing moments of her career.
It was [fun]. That was something else that was really nerve wracking.
I let horror fans down. I wasn’t planning on screaming, but, we were kind of going through it and I was just like, ‘I have to scream. You better scream’ and I’m like, ‘I don’t know what my scream sounds like.’ Don’t know the last time I’ve screamed like that and so we took — that was first take, only scream, only practice scream and I watched it back like, ‘Oh my gosh Kayla, come on.’ So embarrassing. One of my most embarrassing moments in the WWE, yeah. It was a very cool moment but man I wish had done better. Next time I’ll practice my scream.
This October, Braxton will have been with WWE for five years. She does plan on staying with the company while further branching out into the entertainment field.
People have asked me this. My ideal situation is to always work here, you know, as long as they want me to have a job.
I think it’d be really cool to be tied to this company because it’s just so wide spread, so mainstream and I feel like it’s just getting more and more mainstream and in addition to here, it’d be cool to kind of crossover, maybe do some entertainment-style news because I do love Extra and E! News and all that kind of thing so, yeah. Yeah.
** Sports Illustrated caught up with the new GCW World Champion Matt Cardona. At GCW’s Homecoming show, Cardona defeated Nick Gage for the title. He opened up about how much the GCW World Title means to him and how he plans to hold the title in the highest regard.
All my life, I wanted to be a pro wrestler. Ever since I was 18, that’s what I’ve done with my life. But I didn’t just want to be someone on the card. I wanted to be a superstar, a champion.
This title is a big deal. I was fortunate in WWE to win the tag team title twice, the intercontinental title and the United States title, but the GCW title is my first world title. So people are absolutely crazy if they don’t think I’m going to treat this as the biggest thing in the world. I took the title to Disneyland and posed in front of the castle.
The bout with Gage was Cardona’s first deathmatch. He admitted that he did not want to get involved with the glass, light tubes or the pizza cutter but he knew when it came to Nick Gage, anything could happen.
Going into this match, I knew I was out of my element. I’d never done a deathmatch before. I’d never even seen a Nick Gage match from start to finish. I tried to watch the Dark Side of the Ring [episode on Gage], but it was just too gory and too gross. But I give Nick Gage all the credit in the world. I respected him before the match, and I respect him even more now after the match.
I knew I was going to get cut up. I knew there were going to be light tubes, I knew I was going to bleed. That’s why I wore all white. I wore pants, I taped myself all the way up. I tried to be as safe as possible. I didn’t want to get involved with glass or pizza cutters, but when you’re in there with Nick f—ing Gage, things happen. I went through two panes of glass. I took the pizza cutter. When you’re in there with Nick, anything goes.
** Straight Talk Wrestling welcomed Petey Williams onto the podcast and with several stints with IMPACT Wrestling under his belt, Williams explained why he continues comes back to the company.
Money, yeah. I’m just joking. It’s the vibe man. I feel like I got my start with IMPACT, they were always good to me. Even in the bad times, even when they released me and stuff like that, they were still really good to me. I just really like the product to how they present the product, the freedom that you get, the style of matches. Maybe since that’s where I made my start, that’s kind of how I broke in and was just able to be me and that’s why I like coming back to it. It’s just — and it might be like my fourth time. I remember I was like ‘04-’09 and then they brought me back in like 2013 for a summer when they were doing a bunch of Ultimate X three-way matches — not Ultimate X, X Division three-way matches and then in 2017 I was back and then I took the COVID year off and now I’m back again. I don’t know, I’ve been back and forth man. It’s like I come and go. But yeah, it’s like it’s meant to be, you know? I wouldn’t feel comfortable anywhere else in the professional wrestling world. I’ve tried it and it’s not the same man.
** The latest episode of Stories with Brisco and Bradshaw featured Ted DiBiase Sr. He went over the creation of the ‘Million Dollar Man’ character and the lengths that Vince McMahon and WWE/F wanted to go to present Ted as a rich man off-screen as well as on-screen. DiBiase Sr. had limousine service every night, was told to often pay for drinks for everyone at the bar and to always pay with a $100 bill.
So I said, ‘Well, I’m gonna go home and talk to my wife about it and I’ll get back to you’ and he said okay. So, you know, I go home and talk to Melanie [DiBiase] and then I call Terry and he said, ‘Teddy, if the man says he’s got something, an idea that’s tailor-made he thinks for you,’ he says, ‘Pack your bag, go and don’t look back.’ He says, ‘That’s what you need to do’ and so I called Vince [McMahon] and I said, ‘Okay, I’m your guy. I’m your guy, I’m in and so tell me what it is.’ So he said, ‘I’m not gonna tell you on the phone’ so he flies me and Melanie, my wife up the next time and we get the red carpet treatment; first class, the limousine picks us up, takes us to the office and so he kind of laid it out there. He said, ‘You know, the one thing everybody hates is someone by virtue of their wealth who thinks they’re better than everybody, you know? They bully people with their wealth’ and I said, ‘I kind of hate guys like that myself.’ So, and he said, ‘What we’re gonna do is we’re gonna try and make the public really believe you’re the guy’ and I said, ‘How you gonna do that?’ He said, ‘Well we’re gonna fly you everywhere first class, you’re gonna have limousine service every night in every town’ and then this guy comes walking in and counts out two thousand dollars, brand new hundred dollar bills and says, ‘This is your flash cash.’ He says, ‘I don’t care if you buy like a stick of gum. Pay for it with a hundred dollar bill, and they’ll really hate you because you gotta make change for that,’ so — but now he says, ‘Go into a restaurant, get up and announce yourself. Tell everybody who you are and that it’s their lucky day because you’re picking up the tab, and we’ll have somebody that’s always there with you’ because Virgil wasn’t on the scene yet and, ‘He’ll go around, pick up all the checks. You go around, slap down hundred dollar bills, bring us the receipt and we’ll replenish the money.’ He says, ‘Now, if you abuse it, obviously you lose it’ so he says, ‘Pick your spots.’
But imagine that, right? And so, when I went back and got in the — and then he said, ‘Okay, we’ve got your room at The Helmsley Palace in Manhattan’ and says, ‘The limousine is yours and you’re free to go anywhere you want and wherever you wanna have dinner tonight, it’s on us,’ and when I got in the car with my wife I said, ‘You’re not going to believe this. You are not going to believe this’ and fast forward to — some of those times when I would do that, there were a few times it was in a bar, you know, ‘A round or buy a round for the house. It’s on The Million Dollar Man’ and so when Ric [Flair] came along on board, I said, ‘Ric, you know there’s a big difference between you and me’ and he says, ‘What’s that?’ And I said, ‘You’re spending all your money, I’m spending Vince’s.’ That is called marketing.
Ted DiBiase Jr.’s name was brought up. DiBiase Sr. recalled being told that during a stockholders meeting, Stephanie McMahon described DiBiase Jr. as possibly having the potential to be the next John Cena.
Well somebody, I don’t know who told me this but somebody said that [on] one of the stockholder meetings or something, Stephanie [McMahon] had made a comment. [She] said, ‘Ted DiBiase Jr. may very well be our next John Cena.’ You know, that’s wow. Big compliment so, anyway.
** East Coast Autograph Auctions brought in AEW’s Anna Jay for a signing. Anna stated that she and Tay Conti would be up for challenging for the Knockouts Tag Titles and as far as singles matches go, Anna would like to share the ring with Deonna Purrazzo.
I’d like to work anyone but that’s a good question. I mean I would say… me and Taynara [Conti], if we’re tagging, I think that we would both like to go after the tag championships, maybe for IMPACT but, I’m open to do whatever. I’ll wrestle whoever, I’d like to wrestle everyone. Deonna [Purrazzo] is someone I’d also like to wrestle. Not sure if that will happen but anything is possible, so maybe that.
** ESPN NBA analyst Jalen Rose welcomed Titus O’Neil onto his ‘Renaissance Man’ podcast. When asked what has the proudest moment of his wrestling career thus far, O’Neil responded with his WWE Hall Of Fame induction via the Warrior Award.
Proudest moment of my career so far would definitely be being inducted into the WWE Hall Of Fame as a Warrior Award recipient. I won the tag titles in 2015 and I was the first-ever 24/7 champion but being able to be in the WWE Hall Of Fame as a Warrior Award recipient is definitely my proudest moment.
** ROH Women’s World Title tournament competitor Miranda Alize chatted with Jim Varsallone of the Miami Herald for an interview. Miranda detailed how her being in the ROH women’s tournament came to be and mentioned that she was supposed to be in the first installment of the tournament in 2020 prior to the pandemic.
I think it goes back to all the way last year because I was already booked for the tournament last year and then the COVID stuff happened and then I think everything got like [scrapped]. So I think it’s just like me re-getting my opportunity and coming back. I obviously reached out to Maria [Kanellis-Bennett] and whoever I needed to reach out about and then after I reached out, they were like, ‘Yep, let’s get you in’ but yeah, I was previously booked and I was supposed to do it in April of last year before everything got all out of control.
One of the many bookings that was cancelled for Miranda at the beginning of the pandemic was her scheduled appearances on AAA TV.
Oh my God, it was like in April that everything shut down so like April, I was supposed to go to the U.K. for 20 days. I had a 20-day tour and I had like 12 bookings and 12 matches down there so I was gonna be there from the 1st to the 20th and then I was gonna fly back to T.J. and I was gonna debut for AAA TV in Tijuana and then in Mexicali and then after that, I was gonna fly out to do the tournament so like, I had my U.K. tour, my Ring of Honor and my AAA TV stuff just scrapped from me like that, so at the time I was like — that was my biggest month out of the whole year so it was just like, ‘Eh’ but everything happens for reason. I think as much as people — as much as it took away from people’s stuff, I think it also gave us more back. Everything happens for reason.
** Stuart Halberg has been named CEO of Logitix. Halberg was formerly an employee of WWE where he oversaw the live events, marketing, international and pay-per-view businesses.
** EFFY was profiled by K2 Radio coming off of Game Changer Wrestling’s show in Wyoming. EFFY praised the adaptability of GCW as a promotion and them allowing him the space to freely express his ideas that he wants to present at shows.
GCW is a very adaptable company. I think when you talk to people who are behind the scenes and booking – if you have ideas and you can make them work, they’re accepted as ideas. Whereas a lot of the [major] companies right now, it’s older white guys who have a lot of experience but aren’t willing to admit where it has shifted, or where it has changed, or new things that will work. So, when we have these wrestlers coming in who have a more unique perspective or a different background, and they can tell stories from their perspective; when you’re adaptable as a company and can say, ‘Hey, if it’s over and it’s good, you should run with it…’ When that happens, you run into stuff that you wouldn’t ever think would be successful, and you find the gold there.
** Sports Illustrated caught up with independent talent Davienne and she discussed how the #SpeakingOut movement almost made her leave wrestling last summer:
I was ready to walk away last June. The ‘Speaking Out’ movement was very hard on everyone, and I questioned whether I wanted to be in an industry that was so toxic. I texted my trainers and let them know I wasn’t going to do this anymore.
I really love wrestling. Right around that time, we had a taping of The Road for Limitless Wrestling. I had the most fun I ever had in my entire wrestling career. It changed my whole outlook, and it’s helped me fall back in love with wrestling.
** To promote ‘Peacemaker’, John Cena spoke to ‘What’s On’ for an interview.
** The Briscoes vs. Shingo Takagi & Susumu Yokosuka from ROH Live in Osaka (2007):
** University of Georgia football player Jordan Davis expressed interest in a run with WWE after he wraps up his football career.
** Jim Ross appeared on hour two of The Paul Finebaum Show.
** The newest episode of Battle of the Brands on the UpUpDownDown YouTube channel:
** Sportsnet is hosting a contest for an opportunity to meet Rhea Ripley.
** Jim Varsallone recorded an interview with Paige VanZant. Carmella also did an interview with Varsallone.
** A feature story from ‘Tap into Camden’ about an independent show in Camden, New Jersey.
** Bianca Belair chatted with Cari Champion on Tokyo Tonight and they discussed the Olympics.
.@WWE Smackdown Women's Champion @BiancaBelairWWE stopped by Tokyo Tonight to chat with @CariChampion and flex her track and field knowledge. pic.twitter.com/IEwxzu4ch9
— Peacock (@peacockTV) July 29, 2021
** Scott Steiner turned 59 on 7/29.
** WWE Intercontinental Champion Apollo Crews appeared on ABC Columbia to chat WWE’s house show in South Carolina on August 15th.
** Wrestling Inc. ran their interview with The Bollywood Boyz.
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.
