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.
** It has been four months since The HitMakerZ, formerly known as ‘Hit Row’ (AJ Francis, Briana Brandy, Shane ‘Swerve’ Strickland & Tehuti Miles) were released from WWE. Tehuti partook in a virtual signing for K & S WrestleFest and gave his thoughts about his departure from WWE and he views their decision as just business.
I mean… first thing I’m gonna say is it is what it is [ the WWE release], you know? It’s a business and business is business. You can’t be mad at all that and stuff. Being Hit Row has been great. It’s honestly the change that I guess I needed and stuff. I didn’t know where my career was going as a singles competitor even though like, I knew what I wanted to do but I’m glad we got this group together and everything.
I have no idea [if Hit Row’s release was in relation to Triple H’s standing in NXT]. From what I was told, the release was due to budget cuts and that’s all I know. I really have no clue. I know that we were doing very well, we were actually making them a lot of money. The revenue, I know Swerve [Strickland] put out like a tweet or something like that, how much money we made and I got the same paperwork and we really did make them a lot of money in the first three months that we were on NXT. So, you know, I really don’t have any answers to that. All I can do is move on and continue to grind, continue with what I gotta do for myself. Yeah, and that stuff is in the past and the door’s always open. They tell us the door’s always open so, you never know what can happen. We could be back but you know, right now, it is what it is and it’s just, you know… I just gotta keep moving, you know what I’m saying? So…
As far as what Tehuti has been up to since his departure, he’s been doing and lining up shows with The HitMakerZ and venturing into acting.
I’m still wrestling, I’m still getting in the ring and training, keeping up and everything. I’ve been diving into acting as well. I’ve been to Atlanta a bunch of times since November and other than that, that’s pretty much it. Getting into some business stuff as well so… keeping busy, absolutely. The grind never stops.
** The second night of STARDOM’s Sumo Hall show on 3/27 will feature KAIRI taking on Starlight Kid in what will be KAIRI’s first singles match since July of 2020. Tokyo Sports spoke to Starlight Kid about the bout and said she’s known for years how much KAIRI loves STARDOM. She saw a little bit of KAIRI’s run in WWE and feels that the heel persona did not suit her well.
I could tell from our old days together that KAIRI really loves Stardom. When she left this Stardom ring, she said she would definitely come back, so I had a feeling that she would eventually show up on this mat, but at this time? I felt like I was in the right place. She came back just in time for Stardom’s first two consecutive shows in Ryogoku, and I thought, ‘This is a girl who knows [when] to put herself out there.’
I guess I watched her a little bit [in WWE]. I saw her win a tournament right away and become a champion. She also worked as a tag team member, and was a heel for a while. But heel doesn’t suit KAIRI. Anyway, I felt that KAIRI became the ‘KAIRI of the world’ at once. That’s why I think this singles [match] is worthwhile. It can only be a plus for me.
** NBC Sports Boston has an interview on their YouTube channel with Wardlow. He weighed in on Cody and Brandi Rhodes’ exit from All Elite Wrestling. Wardlow credited Cody for being a big reason why he’s in the position he’s in today.
I was very surprised [by Cody and Brandi Rhodes’ AEW exit]. I was very taken back by it and I’m still slightly taken back by it. I don’t really know any of the details on anything, what really led to it, how this even came about. It really just seemed like one day, everything was great and the next day, they were gone. The only thing I can say about the situation is I’ve known Cody for three years and I’ve never once had a negative experience with him and I’ve never once seen somebody have a negative experience with him. Cody is a big reason, a big reason I’m sitting here talking to you today and I have nothing but love and respect for Cody and if his decision to leave AEW was the best decision for him and his family, I 100 percent support it.
On the topic of dream matches, Wardlow extended an invite to Brock Lesnar for a match in AEW. Within the company, Wardlow would like to face Kenny Omega, PAC and Andrade El Idolo.
I invite Brock Lesnar over to AEW anytime he wants. That’s up there on the dream list but, my dreams in AEW, Kenny Omega is at the top of that list, Andrade [El Idolo], PAC, I think those are the top three. In my opinion, those are three of the best wrestlers in the world and I live to be challenged. You know, I like to be challenged, I love to challenge myself. I love to see what I can accomplish, what I can overcome so I would like to step in the ring with those three to really test myself.
** ‘Jackass’ star Johnny Knoxville is taking on Sami Zayn in an Anything Goes match at WrestleMania 38. Knoxville is making the media rounds to promote the event and he informed ‘Metro’ that he would like to do more with WWE after WrestleMania.
I would love to come back and do something more in the future! It’s been a dream come true working with the WWE. It’s been so much fun, I didn’t realize I would become so completely obsessed with it like I have, it’s so fun!
** The latest guest on ‘Complex Unsanctioned’ is Liv Morgan. She reflected on her match against Becky Lynch at WWE Day 1 and recounted having anxiety multiple times throughout the day because of how much the opportunity meant to her.
I have to do a lot of positive self-talk. You know, a lot of times before my matches, I’ll be super nervous. Like, sometimes I’ll have anxiety and even for bigger matches like my pay-per-view match with Becky [Lynch] at Day 1, I was so nervous that day and I knew the opportunity I had in front of me, I knew I had to kind of knock it out of the park so, throughout that day, I would kind of feel myself flipping into anxiety and I would literally have to catch it before it started and just fill my brain with positive self-talk even if I didn’t necessarily believe it. Just saying it and putting it out there kind of just sets the tone for me.
At WrestleMania 38, Morgan and Rhea Ripley will be challenging for the WWE Women’s Tag Team Titles. Liv spoke about the on and off-screen chemistry that she and Rhea have established.
We [Morgan & Rhea Ripley] just get along, you know? I don’t even know that we necessarily bond over things. We just laugh all day when we’re together. We literally laugh all day, we’re both ridiculous, we both… I don’t know. It’s like I feel like we’re the tag team that you didn’t know you wanted or needed and as soon as we partnered up together, we just clicked right away, we had chemistry right away, and we just were excited for this new adventure however long it is. We wanna win the Tag Team Championships but yeah, we just get along great, we have a good thing going. I made her eat desert this past week, it was so funny. Rhea’s so — she’s so dedicated, she’s so disciplined. As soon as we’re done wrestling, she’s heating up a pre-made meal, you know, just to get that protein in and I’m like, ‘Jesus Rhea.’
** Signed By Superstars presented a virtual signing with Bret Hart as the featured guest. Hart talked about both TJ Wilson and Natalya. He does not think TJ will return to the ring but thinks he’s getting some mobility back in his neck. He said Natalya has made everyone proud and credited her for being an unselfish wrestler.
I heard that-that stem cell thing he [T.J. Wilson] did worked wonders for him and he’s — I don’t think he’ll ever come back. But I think he’s getting some mobility back in his neck.
And Nattie’s always made everybody proud. She’s still a workhorse and she’s got a good heart and she’s very easy to get along with all the time. Nattie’s not about her, she’s about everybody else.
Bret looked back on some of the loudest crowd reactions he’s had. He brought up the ‘In Your House’ show in Calgary and the reaction to him wearing the metal plate in preparation for Goldberg’s spear.
It’s hard to say [when my biggest crowd reaction happened]. I had so many great moments. Pops were… you got ‘em in certain places like that In Your House Calgary show you’re talking about. When we walked out and I walked out at the very end, end of the night when I walked out on the stage to go out to the ring, that was one of the loudest I’ve ever had and then when I took Goldberg out with a gold steel plate in Toronto was another one. Like nobody, nobody saw it coming. Germany, when I used to wrestle there. Every night in Germany and England, pops I used to get walking out to the ring, they were huge. I don’t know if I would say anybody ever topped those or any building was any louder than some of those.
** In late November, Scott Garland (Scotty 2 Hotty) requested his release from WWE and is now working independent dates and doing seminars. He told the Two Man Power Trip of Wrestling Podcast that he felt he’d be more valuable if he announced that he requested his release opposed to letting the company announce he had been let go.
Every time those cuts come, I’m waiting for that phone to ring with that 203 number to let me go and you know, maybe that was part of me going, okay, it’s time to go before that happens because in 2007 when I was released as a wrestler, I was ready to be done at that point and I stayed and I always wished that I had walked away on my own so again, you know, this is the time to go. ‘I feel like it could be coming anytime, you know? So why don’t I just do it on my own?’ And I think I’m more, again, I think I’m more valuable if I walk away on my own and outside of WWE, because if you’re a part of a cut from six to a dozen people, you’re just a lump sum cut. You might be a blur for a second but if I can go and walk away on my own, that’s pretty ballsy and it’s more [marketable], right? And I put my thing out on social media when I left, my little statement and I stopped, I left the Performance Center and asked for my release and they granted it to me and as I’m driving home, I think, I need to put this out there that I asked for my release before they put it out there because again, I’m more valuable if I look like I walked away on my own than if they go, ‘We fired him.’ Basically, you know, because everybody goes… everybody knows what the deal is if they go, ‘We’ve released them.’ You got fired, you know what I mean? So, it’s — ‘released’ is a pretty word [Garland laughed]. So I decided that’s what I needed. I pulled over to — it’s funny, I’m at a Panera [Bread] now, but I pulled over to Panera and in the parking lot, typed that thing up real quick, sent it to my girlfriend, go, ‘How does this sound?’ And then boom, send it out there, you know? And honestly man, the response was overwhelming. Like overwhelming from everybody throughout the company and outside of that company and just like, it was really — it made me feel like I did the right thing.
** Drew McIntyre was the focus of an international media call and the Hindustan Times has highlights posted from the call. McIntyre said he’s been watching Vince McMahon versus Bret Hart from WrestleMania 26 in preparation for his match with Happy Corbin at WrestleMania 38 because his match with Corbin could be a drawn out beating.
Since I returned to WWE, I wrestled Roman at my first WrestleMania, then I fought Lesnar, then Lashley and then Corbin. A lot of people will say one of these is not like the other. But Corbin is different, he tried to take me out at the start of the year and this is personal. I’m planning to either take him out quickly and embarrass him or beat him for such a long time and embarrass him.
This match I’ve been studying is not Bret Hart vs. Stone Cold, The Undertaker vs. Shawn Michaels. I’ve been studying Vince McMahon vs. Bret Hart from WrestleMania 26, which is a really long uncomfortable 40 minutes of beating.
** When asked about his vertical jump, Montez Ford told ‘Rasslin’s Brandon F. Walker that he has a 40-inch vertical.
[My vertical jump] is around about 40-plus inches. 100 percent, 100 percent, 40-plus. I’m dunking [basketballs] right now still.
** Mick Foley joined John Arezzi’s podcast to listen back and reflect on past interviews they recorded in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Foley dove into why he decided to leave the NWA in 1990 and explained that he felt he was worth more and he had the support of his wife to make the decision he wanted to make.
Every guy that leaves a company has to fight the urge to say something about them, especially when you leave out of frustration. But that [radio interview I did at the time] strikes me as bold for a 25-year-old who just had his first — I’m much more grateful now for that 1989, 1990 break that I got in WCW than I sound then. But I was really frustrated. To your words Johnny [Arezzi], I did work really hard, the character was being accepted and getting over to some extent in a bottom of the middle, top of the bottom type of way, mid-card, you know? There was some comedy. You brought up [Bruiser] Brody and Stan [Hansen] but I think when I left [the NWA], I wanted to be more like those guys and less like mid-card comedy figure, especially when I met my wife and she really believed in me. My favorite part of my current tour, ‘The Nice Day’ tour which you can check out at RealMickFoley.com/events, I’m coming around, I love doing the live shows and I love — maybe six weeks ago, I found a way to get my beginning days, kind of tie them together, try to use some good stories as a bridge to the next part of your career and I found that I really enjoy telling the story about meeting my wife and the ability that she afforded me that really believed I was capable of more but, I believed it by virtue of giving up that contract which would have been $1,500 which was a huge boost from the $300 I’d been making the last few years. I really believed that I was capable than more than I thought the company was willing to give me at the time. I’m not talking financially, although that did turn out to be the case but, I just thought that I had a better run in me than they saw me having.
** The commentary duo of Ian Riccaboni and Caprice Coleman have been together for multiple years. Caprice spoke to Jim Varsallone about he and Ian’s chemistry and how they like to present every talent as a star.
Aw man, Ian [Riccaboni] is the type of guy, I’m blessed to be his partner because I really believe he could work with anybody. But there is a chemistry with Riccaboni and I because there are people in this sport that love this sport and Ian Riccaboni and I’s thing is that we see anybody in this sport as a star. We just have to pull out the best in them, we pull out what people need to see, what people need to hear. People might not know about this person and the love that we have about making professional wrestling, making Ring of Honor the best wrestling is the same love but when you have people like that coming together on the same page that have the same mentality, you know, Riccaboni is a genius with wrestling moves and we know our part in this and it’s just a great chemistry. I respect him, he respects me and we’re definitely a great team.
** AEW’s HOOK gave a comment to GQ.com for a piece they published about fitness.
** The HitMakerZ (AJ Francis, Briana Brandy, Tehuti Miles & Shane ‘Swerve’ Strickland) were interviewed by MCW’s Tara at the ‘Spring Fever’ show.
** The Post and Courier ran a feature story about Austin Theory which includes comments from IMPACT Wrestling’s John Skyler.
** Vicente Beltran spoke to Sami Zayn about his upcoming match against Johnny Knoxville at WrestleMania 38.
** Prior to the semifinals of the 2022 New Japan Cup tournament, NJPW1972.com pushed out their interview with Zack Sabre Jr.
** ‘The Eagle’ has a story about Mark Henry speaking to elementary school children in Bryan, Texas.
** A wrestling event was held in Sanford, Florida and the income from it was donated to a Special Needs Advocacy program.
** Reality of Wrestling uploaded the following match to their YouTube channel featuring AEW’s A.Q.A.:
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.
