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.
** K & S WrestleFest hosted a virtual signing with Private Party (Marq Quen & Isiah Kassidy). The duo listed several matches they’ve had in AEW that they thought could have been better. One of those bouts took place at Double Or Nothing 2020 against Chuck Taylor and Trent.
Kassidy: So it was Double Or Nothing. I forgot what year it was [2020]. But, we went against Best Friends [Chuck Taylor & Trent] and normally we had good matches with Best Friends but, for some reason it just didn’t click, you know? It didn’t click and I don’t know what to blame but it didn’t click but like I said, we faced Best Friends before and we have chemistry with them but for some reason, that night, it was just off man.
Quen: Also, if I had — Santana and Ortiz.
Kassidy: I wouldn’t say it was — which one? The first one?
Kassidy: Yes, yes. Looking back, we could have done a lot more things differently.
Quen and Kassidy had to follow CM Punk’s return to wrestling on Rampage. They spoke about how difficult of a spot that was in addition to Dark matches being taped prior to Rampage.
Kassidy: We had a match with Jurassic Express which was pretty cool.
Quen: We were in a hard spot.
Kassidy: Oh yeah. We had to follow CM Punk’s return.
Quen: And it was like 35 matches before us.
After their in-ring careers are behind them, Marq Quen wants to transition to a producer/agent role. Kassidy has his sights set on retiring at the age of 40.
Kassidy: Honestly, I wanna retire when I’m like 40.
Quen: I wanna switch and be an agent or a talent scout.
Prior to rebranding as Private Party, the duo’s tag team name was Dragons of Glory.
Quen: You gotta hear the name before it was Private Party.
Kassidy: That was probably the worst sh*t ever.
Quen: I don’t think it was bad. It was Dragons of Glory.
Kassidy: That sh*t was so wack.
Quen: At the time, we thought it was cool.
** 2point0 (Matt Lee & Jeff Parker) sat down with K & S WrestleFest for a virtual signing. The duo signed with WWE in 2019 and were released this past June. Lee stated that despite somewhat having the past two-and-a-half of their careers wasted, they do not regret joining WWE.
Parker: Definitely not [regret joining WWE].
Lee: I don’t know if we regret it because it brought us to where we are today. I don’t think we’d be at AEW if it wasn’t for — you know what I mean?
Parker: And the amount of stuff that you learn there like, it’s impossible to work for their company in that situation and not learn.
Lee: Did they waste two-and-a-half years of our lives? A little bit, you know what I mean? But I don’t regret it. Do we wish things had played out differently?…
Elsewhere during the conversation, Matt Lee recalled how they got the name Ever-Rise in WWE. It was sprung upon them by a writer 30 minutes before they were supposed to go to the ring.
Lee: Ever-Rise was [created] by one of the writers in NXT. 30 minutes before the show started, they wanted us to have a name. They said, ‘You guys are Ever-Rise.’ ‘Okay. Guess we’re Ever-Rise.’
They touched on their in-ring style being different from the fast-paced style that is common in AEW. They were aware of their strengths early in their careers and high-flying was not something that appealed to them. Parker and Lee wanted to be the best they could in another category.
Parker: So, even just starting out, even as young kids, we both started in our early teens to late 20s, it was just never a style that appealed to us [high-flying/fast paced]. We loved 80s wrestling.
Lee: It also comes down to, you wanna be — we could be some of that stuff, but we’re not gonna be the best at it so there’s always gonna be — you kind of pigeonhole yourself, right? And you gotta be the best at that and you got your Ricochets and you got your Young Bucks and those guys and they’re the best at that style so you got to be the best at something else.
Parker: You watch the stuff that [Rey] Fenix does for example. It just doesn’t make sense [how Fenix is able to do those moves] and if I ever wanted to attempt anything like it, it’d be awful in comparison so, you know, figure out what you’re good at. Being high-flying was not one of the things we’re good at.
Lee: We were just never gonna be the best at that. You find out real quickly.
** The latest guest on Insight with Chris Van Vliet was Jessica McKay of The IInspiration. McKay further opened up about how hard it was coming to grips with being released from WWE. She became emotional while speaking on the subject and shared that she did not leave her home or speak to her family after the release because she felt embarrassed.
It was such a shock, and there are still good days and bad days. But it was… yeah. I just felt like I didn’t know who I was at all because you’re right, my whole life I’d been trying to get to WWE and to have that ripped away from you, it was — I’m sorry I’m gonna swear but it was f*cking hard. People don’t realize the amount of — that was my whole life. Everything I did was to be a superstar, WWE superstar, and you’re in this bubble and you’re in this bubble traveling and training and being on shows and it’s amazing. But then when you’re out that bubble, it’s like real life just floods in. You know, just like what the hell? But it was tough. There was — I didn’t leave my house for like three weeks. I couldn’t talk to my family. I was so embarrassed and just ashamed and I really had to figure out who I was and ah, it’s the crazy thing because I had to figure out who I was without Billie Kay and that sounds so silly but it’s like you really have to leave her. I had to say goodbye to her because she wasn’t — she’ll always be a part of me but I had to let her go because I didn’t want to be defined by Billie Kay. That’s a part of me but that’s not who I am, so it was so hard trying to bring out Jessica, because I’d been Billie for so long and I love Billie so much. I think that’s what — the other thing that hurts so much is that the world won’t see her again and she was f*cking cool. She was amazing. So it took a long time to kind of get Jessica out again. My family really helped with that when I would talk to them.
Jessica competed at WrestleMania 37 several days before her release. A potential storyline idea had been brought to her attention for post-WrestleMania.
I never thought that I was in jeopardy [of getting released] so to speak. I mean I was on WrestleMania literally four nights before I got released and I had been told of a possible storyline that I would be going into so, that’s where the blindside came from, and then the first thing I did was call Cass [Cassie Lee] and she was in a massage and then she finally called me back and she told me and I was just like — I was shocked for both of us to be honest because like you said, I felt like I had so much more to give and I feel like Cass had so much more to give too. They didn’t even scratch the surface with us.
When she was moved to SmackDown as a part of the WWE Draft, McKay began to do a gimmick where she would hand over her resume to talent and staff alike. She pitched the idea to a group of writers and made herself available for any spot on the show.
So my first promo after being drafted to SmackDown, my first promo that I was in, it was given to me. It was in the end of the promo, and they said you’re gonna hand a headshot resume to [Adam] Pearce and I was like, ‘Okay, cool’ and then we shot it. I was like, ‘Mhm.’ I felt like there was something there and I went up to the writers and I was like — there was just a cluster of them there and I said, ‘I wanna keep doing this’ because no one knows who I am on my own and I said, ‘I would love to just keep doing this’ and they’re like, ‘Yeah, let’s run with it.’ It took a little bit of time to get caught up but I was emailing a list of people I could do it with. I was like, ‘This is so neutral. It could be a female, a male, a ring announcer, it could be anyone’ and then I would say, ‘If you — on the pre-show, if you have 30 seconds you need to fill, I’ll be there and I can just insert myself into any situation’ and I think that’s what really helped because I was at every pay-per-view. I did a couple of pre-shows and then you know, it was the [Royal] Rumble and everything so I thought — it was just a lot of fun, for me.
Jessica McKay and Cassie Lee were split after losing a tag match on Raw. McKay is glad they did not have to turn on each other to split. Both wanted to leave the door open for a reunion later down the line without the backstory of a heel turn.
Personally, I didn’t wanna feud [with Cassie Lee]. I didn’t want one of us to turn heel on each other. That’s just me being selfish. I wanted to leave it open-ended. I wanted there to be a reason for it but I didn’t want one of us to blatantly turn on each other, only because I wanted — we thought we would get back together in the future and also, I feel like every tag team does that. Every tag team does that and I was like, ‘I wanna be different.’ What’s different? Breaking up but not hating each other. You know, it’s been done so many times and we were always trying to think of what’s different? What hasn’t been done? So when that stipulation, when we found out the stipulation with the loser no longer [being] a tag team, I was like, ‘Oh, perfect.’ Kind of fits what we were going for hopefully, because they could’ve booked anything but I’m glad the creative kind of stayed in that direction. But that was always — I personally always wanted to end it mutually so we could always come back to each other easier.
** Danny Limelight was a recent guest on Lucha Central Weekly. As the conversation progressed, Limelight spoke about his decision to sign with MLW. Other than fresh matchups being available, the main reason was the pitch of being a part of what was initially called The New L.A.X. with Slice Boogie, Julius Smokes and Konnan.
I think it was the revamp that they [MLW] were doing. I like a lot of the people that they were bringing in. A lot of great guys. You think of, you know, you got Hammerstone [as] one of the main players there, [Jacob] Fatu is one of the main players there but then you have guys like TJP, Davey Richards, K.C. Navarro, Gino Medina. There’s so many talented people at that company. The Judge [EJ Nduka] just went straight there from NXT. There’s just guys like Myron Reed and so many talented people that I hadn’t had the chance to wrestle yet. You know, and so it was that and of course it was the fact that they wanted to do the L.A.X. thing, the 5150. That was the guarantee right there. When I heard that part, I was like, ‘Okay, I’m coming in as LAX. I’m gonna be running with my boy Slice Boogie who’s already a part of The Bodega with me so we already have the chemistry and you’re putting Konnan by my side?’ Yeah, I can’t lose. I can’t lose.
He dove into how being a part of the group came to be. Limelight was contacted by Konnan who brought the idea to his attention. Limelight also gave props to Homicide and Hernandez along with Santana and Ortiz, who he credited because they looked out for him in AEW.
So, I’ve had a good working relationship with Konnan. Shoutout to Konnan, the O.G. For many years, he was actually one of the first guys that brought me to — he was the first guy that brought me to Mexico. He brought me to The Crash when I was like one year in the business and he gave me my first chance and I wrestled in front of 5,000 people there. It was a huge moment in my career. I loved it and then he brought me back out for AAA so we always had that kind of relationship, and then so when my time with AEW was up, it was literally like the next day or two days after that, Konnan called me. He’s like, ‘Yo, I got a deal I wanna run by you.’ I was like, ‘What’s up?’ And he told me, he’s like, ‘Bringing you in. You, Slice Boogie, the new L.A.X. What do you think?’ And I was like, ‘Sh*t, let’s do it.’ Sh*t, you ain’t gotta ask me. You ask me, I think of the Latin American Xchange, I think of Homicide and Hernandez, I think of Santana and Ortiz, people that I respect, people that I consider homies, especially Santana and Ortiz. I never met Hernandez and I’ve spoke to Homicide briefly but Santana and Ortiz were two of the guys that kind of looked out for me when I first got to AEW. They made sure that I was good and they kind of like took me under their wing a little bit, you know? So, they showed me love.
As Limelight was getting started in the business, he was kicked out of a wrestling school. He said the school told him he was too arrogant and cocky.
I don’t consider myself professionally trained. I did like a couple months at a wrestling school. I won’t say their name, because they kicked me out and told me I’ll never wrestle. They said I’d never make it. They said I was too arrogant, I was too cocky, whatever other excuses they used. They said I’ll never make it and now I’m pretty sure that I proved them wrong and I proved a lot of people wrong. So, I started training and it sucked because it was something I wanted to do and then I had a bad taste in my mouth because the people that was running the school, they, you know — it’s just they didn’t want me there. They made sure that I wasn’t there and for a while, I thought I wasn’t gonna be able to wrestle because I didn’t have a place to train, you know?
It was David Marquez that gave Limelight his start on a TV program which was Championship Wrestling from Hollywood. Limelight says the school he attended was not happy that he took a booking for another promotion. He relayed that message to Marquez, who decided he was going to bring Danny in.
I think what really helped me to progress into the world of wrestling was David Marquez and he’s the man. I call him Theo Marquez. He’s been around the wrestling world for 30-plus years and he kind of took me under his wing. When the school kicked me out, they said I’d never wrestle again. They kind of contacted and made these posts on social media to try to make me look like a bad guy. So nobody wanted to book me so for a while, I wasn’t getting any bookings and then, you know, David Marquez called me and he asked me for my side of the story. He was the first person that said, ‘I wanna hear why they kicked you out,’ and I told him. I took a booking in L.A. They got mad that I took a booking from another company and won a match up there and they were all salty about it and he’s like, ‘That’s f*cking dumb and I’m bringing you in to work on my television show.’ That’s how I made my television debut. I was nine months in the business, green as hell and I’m wrestling for Championship Wrestling from Hollywood as Los Primos Rivera with Gino Rivera.
** The current NXT Champion Tommaso Ciampa spoke to GiveMeSport and said the locker room and backstage morale in NXT 2.0 is high.
Right now, we’re all excited there man [NXT 2.0] and the atmosphere and the backstage morale and everything, it’s just high. It’s a lot of people who are really excited. Guys and girls who have been training in empty warehouses and wrestling in front of nobody for the last two years now and now they’re out there in front of a live audience and they’re on USA [Network] and it’s every Tuesday and we’re watching them sink or swim and it’s freaking exciting. For me it’s exciting and I’m happy I get to be a part of it.
** Ring of Honor’s Joe Hendry guest appeared on the ROHStrong Podcast. Hendry shared that he pitched the idea of a three-man team with himself, David Arquette and Dalton Castle. That idea never went any further because Hendry is overseas.
Believe it or not, believe it not, I pitched that [three-man team with David Arquette & Dalton Castle]. I did. I pitched it. I pitched that in lockdown. I want that.
Well, I think with the whole me being across an ocean probably put a pin in that but, yeah. I think that would be phenomenal. I think that’d be phenomenal and I would insist that David Arquette comes to the ring with a replica WCW Title. If you’re not doing that, you’re just throwing away an opportunity for a reaction.
During the quarantine lockdown, Hendry suffered an injury and it was to the point where he was unable to lift items that are usually light to him. He believes he tore something in his arm, but as of the podcast recording, he is fine and fully recovered.
I had some problems with injuries during lockdown with some of my training. I don’t know if I tore something or whatever it was, but I think it might be microtears but it was to the point where about three quarters of the way through, I was so weak that I couldn’t hold a bag in front of me. I couldn’t take my shopping bag and hold it in front of me. It was too heavy and I think that was my body telling me something, that my muscles were starting to — I think what I’d done is I basically ripped a bicep curl with a stupidly heavy weight and potentially tore something but I went to physio and all that, got fixed up and I was like, ‘Right, okay. I don’t think I need to be 275 here. I think if I can come back at 260 and then cut down to 250, that’s still going to make me one of the bigger guys on the roster.’
When Hendry does return to Ring of Honor, he is not sure if he’ll be using signature sing-along theme. He is of the mindset that he is not as over as he once was to Ring of Honor viewers because he has been gone for quite some time. Hendry wants to present something fresh.
I haven’t decided yet. I doubt — if you do hear it [Joe Hendry theme song], it won’t be the same. There will be changes. I think there just comes a point where to be honest with you, it’s — there’s come a point when you have to say, ‘I’m not over anymore.’ I’ve not been seen for 18 months, I’m not over anymore and I need to come back with a bang and I need to do something different and I have to steer into what I believe is the right thing to do and that requires change. So if we do have that theme song, it will be reflective of what I’m doing. I may do something brand new; I may do a custom song for every single show that I do from now on. I’m just, right now, it’s total creative freedom.
** It’s My Wrestling Podcast released their interview with former WWE referee Mike Chioda. After spending several decades with WWE, Chioda was released from the company in April of 2020. Following his release, Shane McMahon reached out to him and Chioda appreciates Shane doing that.
Shane McMahon reached out to me, it was nice of him to reach out and we go way back. From the days where we were training Shane with the ring crew and stuff. Tony Chimel and I used to run the roads with him for several, several months after college and between college and stuff when he was going to college. It was nice to hear from him. I told Shane, the family, especially Vince, Linda, Hunter, Stephanie and himself, thank you for all the years and the support and I appreciate it.
Chioda once wrestled in a six-man tag match on SmackDown in 2001. He teamed with Chris Jericho and Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson. Chioda was not aware he was going to be in the match until he arrived at the venue.
I just walked in the building that day, I remember we were doing ring crew, and I was doing stuff and the writers came up to me and said, ‘Hey, you have a match tonight.’ I’m thinking I’m going to referee. They’re like, ‘You’re going to be wrestling with Chris Jericho and The Rock, and it’ll be a six-man tag with the Dudley’s and Nick Patrick.’ I’m like, ‘What?’ I’m like, ‘I don’t have any wrestling gear’ and they’re like, ‘Oh no, you’re gonna do it in your referee outfit.’ ‘Oh sh*t, this ought to be interesting!’ But it was great to be a part of that man. I mean I was wrestling there with two icons in the business. Tim White had the match and it was fun. If you look at Chris Jericho, from 2001 to his main event in the SkyDome with Triple H to where he’s at now [in] AEW, you see where The Rock was back then, all the way to here now and I mean, I got to do that tag match. I don’t think any other referee has ever done that in the business. Y2J Chris Jericho and The Rock Dwayne Johnson… so it was just awesome to be a part of that match. I didn’t wanna screw the People’s Elbow up, I knew I wasn’t gonna make it look great which I didn’t but I had to try and do my best and I didn’t wanna screw it and look stupid, you know?
** NXT Tag Team Champions MSK (Nash Carter & Wes Lee) spoke to Fightful and addressed the crowd boos they’ve been receiving from those in attendance at NXT shows.
Carter: We don’t want to control what people do. If they want to boo us…my favorite wrestler, or sports entertainer, of all time is John Cena. How many boos did he get?
Wes: All of them!
Carter: It doesn’t really matter. If they want to boo, go ahead. You can do whatever you want.
Wes: You can boo, we’re still gonna smile and have our fun. We’ve done it in the midst of negativity for the majority of our career. So, you looking at our face and booing us is not going to make any difference. We still have people who support us and we’re still going to do what we do. We love what we do. We’re going to continue to do what we do.
Carter: Kill them with kindness.
** Comicbook.com published their interview with Rhea Ripley. She told the site that she prefers to stay on Monday Night Raw because there is more time for talents to showcase their abilities and time is limited on SmackDown. Either way, Ripley will be on both shows as long as she is a Women’s Tag Team Champion.
I think I look better in Red, to be completely honest. I love SmackDown and one day I do want to go to SmackDown because I want to be a Grand Slam Champion, but right now I think my placement is on Raw. And also, with this draft, there are so many girls on SmackDown that I haven’t worked yet, but I know that it’s all going to be jumbled anyway, so if I go to SmackDown they might not be there anyway. And also, I feel like on Raw we get more time to showcase our abilities, which is something that I’m always there for, where on SmackDown I feel like there’s limited time because it’s only two hours where Raw is three.
Yeah, exactly. I’m going to be going to both anyways, so at the moment I don’t really mind which one I’m on.
** New AEW signee Satnam Singh was interviewed by the Hindustan Times. He said he is looking forward to sharing the ring with Paul Wight.
I don’t know that many wrestlers, but I would really like to have a fight with Paul. He is a big guy, he is like me. So I am really excited to wrestle him as we are of the same size. I have seen wrestlers like Great Khali, Paul, The Undertaker, Jinder Mahal – so I would like to try and do what they have done in [this] career as well.
** Ryan Satin welcomed Dominik Mysterio onto his Out of Character show. On WWE TV as of late, Dominik has grown frustrated with Rey Mysterio at points and Dominik said that when he was training, he would often get frustrated with his father. Dominik explained why he never acted that way when he was training with either Lance Storm or Jay Lethal.
I think he [Rey Mysterio] got that idea of kind of sending me all over the place after he trained with me because see that — it’s different as a dad, him being my dad because not that I’m rude or anything but I get frustrated with him. There’s times when I’m trying to grab the ropes and get up. I’ll literally fall back if I don’t grab the ropes. Like come on dad. Chill out for a second but I know for a fact if Lance [Storm], when I trained with Lance or with Jay Lethal, I didn’t do any of that. I wasn’t like, ‘Hey, come on now pops.’ I think it’s just knowing that because he’s my dad, I can get away with more things, he realized right then and there. He was like, ‘You know what? We did our part of the training. I’m gonna let you kind of explore over here and over here’ and then at the end of the day, once everything is put and pieced together, he was the one that got the final say.
Looking back on the Rey Mysterio-Eddie Guerrero custody storyline, although Dominik was in the know, he was curious if he would have to legitimately move in with Eddie had Eddie won.
I don’t know if I thought it [Eddie Guerrero was his real dad], but I think I thought I would eventually go home with Eddie if he won. I think that was a real — I genuinely thought that I’d probably end up going home with him, because I don’t — I remember them telling me that like, they wanted to do this storyline and my dad pitched it to me and I was all on board with it but I remember asking afterwards like, ‘Am I gonna — what’s gonna happen afterwards? When this match does happen, what if you don’t –’ I remember thinking as a kid like, ‘What if my dad doesn’t win and I have to go home with Eddie?’ I never actually asked that but I thought about it. Like me personally, I’d sit there, think about it, then I’d be like, ‘You know what? Eddie’s cool. I don’t mind.’
** While discussing the 2021 G1 Climax on his Tama’s Island podcast, Tama Tonga reflected on he and SANADA’s match in the opening stages of the tournament. He feels he is one of the people that can take SANADA to his next gear in singles matches.
To be honest, after having that match with him at the G1, I feel like I’m the guy that can bring that out of SANADA. I feel like I’m the guy that can press that button and know how to unlock that vault and bring out the SANADA that needs to be brought out. I truly, truly feel that and after this match, I know that. I know that now and man, I won’t be surprised — actually I want it. I want a main event with SANADA on a big stage and I know we can f*cking kill it.
** AEW’s The Bunny was the focus of an East Coast Autograph Auctions virtual signing. She reflected on her time with IMPACT Wrestling and shared some of her fondest memories from working with the company.
I mean so many [fond memories of working in IMPACT Wrestling]. Obviously, working with Rosemary was amazing. Working with my husband [The Blade] was amazing. The wedding is probably my favorite moment ever in wrestling that I ever did. Honestly, I love — the best part of IMPACT was working with my friends. I had so many friends there and I made a lot of friends there so yeah, so I’ve got lots of happy memories. Going to India was a lot of fun, the Vegas shows were fun and yeah, it was a good time.
** Wrestling Inc. pushed out their interview with Matt Cross and he was asked if people will see his ‘Son of Havoc’ character in MLW Azteca Underground. Here was his response:
The future is unwritten. We’ll see. Obviously, I carry the spirit of that company with me strongly. I think Pentagon Jr. was one of the names that just absolutely exploded from that universe, but he was a guy that had cool vignettes, and cool promos, and won every match and was the man, whereas I was sort of this organic build.
And it was just people connecting with me and my hard work, and ‘what’s your favorite Son of Havoc vignette?’ There wasn’t really any. So it’s just pure workhorse, bust ass stuff that people identified with, and that resonates within me and I carry that forward. That spirit’s undying. It’s within me, so we’ll see where it goes in a new temple, or a new place, or a new company, or Azteca Underground or whatever it may be. That fire still burns within me, and we’ll see how that plays out in MLW.
** Jonathan Gresham is moving into the ROH World Championship division. He lost the Pure Title to Josh Woods at Death Before Dishonor. Gresham last challenged for the world title in 2018.
** Marina Shafir did a signing with East Coast Autograph Auctions. Breezango did a signing as well.
** Part three of Brian Cage’s appearance on Don Frye and Dan Severn’s ‘Toxic Masculinity’ podcast.
** CM Punk went shoe shopping with Complex.
** The latest Being The Elite episode:
** IMPACT Wrestling’s Turning Point event is airing on the IMPACT Plus app on November 20th.
** Big E talked to Asbury Park Press about Netflix’s ‘Escape The Undertaker’ film.
** Stu Grayson and Evil Uno have reopened their wrestling school.
** FOX Baltimore has a story about night one of the 2021 WWE Draft.
** Emi Sakura is celebrating a birthday today.
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.
