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 Wrestle Buddy podcast has an extensive interview with Erick Redbeard. He reflected on being paired with Bryan Danielson while they were together in WWE. Redbeard shared that before he got involved in Bryan’s match at the 2019 Royal Rumble, Vince McMahon wanted him to cut his beard down so he could look like a taller Danielson.
I had to talk Vince [McMahon] out of — the day of the [2019 Royal] Rumble, they wanted to cut my beard down to make it the same size as Bryan [Danielson’s] so I look like a taller Daniel Bryan and I shot that down because I said, ‘We have to be different.’ So luckily at that point, I had no problems going to Vince and saying no… for certain things and explaining why I didn’t think it was a good idea, which to my benefit, I’m glad I did.
WWE’s 2015 Survivor Series event was built around The Undertaker’s 25th anniversary since the character’s debut. Undertaker and Glenn ‘Kane’ Jacobs took on Bray Wyatt and Jon Huber (Brodie Lee/Luke Harper) at the event. Redbeard said originally, it was supposed to be him and Brodie versus Undertaker and Kane but that was changed the week of.
The only regret I had when I was up there was I was told that when we did the match with The Wyatts versus Brothers of Destruction, originally, it was supposed to be me and Brodie [Lee] versus Taker and Glenn [‘Kane’ Jacobs] and the week of the show, it all changed to Windham [Bray Wyatt] and Brodie. So obviously I was upset. I never got the proper chance to have a match with him but, things happen for a reason. You can’t dwell on it too much but I do wish I would have had a chance to do that match, especially with Brodie.
He went on to briefly recap a story about how Brodie was upset when he got to backstage area following his elimination from the Andre The Giant Memorial Battle Royal at WrestleMania 35. Brodie had Mustafa Ali lifted for a suplex and he was kicked off the apron by Adam Scherr. Redbeard said Brodie was nudged a little more than he should’ve been and was upset afterwards.
Yes I do [remember Brodie Lee protecting Mustafa Ali’s neck at WrestleMania 35] and Brodie was really mad coming backstage after that. I just know it involved — if you go back and watch it, you’ll see what happened to cause him to save his neck and he maybe got a little bit of a nudge more than he should have and he was not happy about it. But you know, wrestling, things happen. I’m not pointing fingers or anything but yeah, Brodie was hot.
Following that answer, Erick weighed in on Mustafa Ali publicly announcing that he requested his release from WWE. Redbeard does not think he should have put that information out there, but hopes Ali gets what he wants.
You know, this is what I don’t understand and this is where I think — I know I talked to Brodie [Lee] about this when he requested his release. I don’t know what’s going on behind the scenes, I don’t know if he [Mustafa Ali] requested it but, don’t air your laundry. You don’t need to be airing your laundry in front of everybody on Twitter. If you have personal grievances and wanna get out, go straight to the source and if you and him aren’t seeing eye-to-eye, you did sign a contract and unfortunately those contracts protect one side and that’s the business.
That’s the way it is. I hope he gets what he wants. I’m not saying that what he did is bad, but to me it’s leave your business to the business side. Don’t try to — if you try to use the internet to get your way; storylines or real life or just — it’s gonna backfire on you because nobody likes to be told or called out for what they’re doing wrong and their business. But, you know, I don’t know the whole story. I hope he gets what he wants, I hope he gets out and I hope he gets to do the things that he wants to do.
Redbeard has shared in the past that he and Brodie Lee had been told they were not going to be called up to WWE’s main roster along with Bray Wyatt. Had he not been called up, Redbeard said he would’ve had to quit pro wrestling because he was not making enough money being at the Performance Center.
Meh, it [The Wyatt Family] evolved over time. It wasn’t until we actually got called up to the main road because I didn’t think we were gonna get called up to the road. We were told to our face that it was just gonna be Bray. That us, me and Luke [Jon Huber] wouldn’t get called up with him. Like that was just unfathomable and you know, we were — I was like close to quitting. I had been in developmental for a few years, I wasn’t making money at all. It’s kind of hard to support people when you’re making less than $750 a week. It was bad. It was a struggle. I started having to take out Amscot loans to try to survive and I basically said if I don’t get this call-up, I’m gonna have to quit because I can’t afford to — I left a steady job where I’m making money and it’s like what am I supposed to do? But luckily everything worked out the way it did and we got called up when we did and I think it was after we shot those vignettes, we started seeing the reactions and when we first came out, we were like oh sh*t, this is gonna be a big deal.
Towards the conclusion of his time in WWE, Redbeard carried a cage to the ring with an ‘animal’ in it. It was ultimately ‘crushed’ by Drew McIntyre, but Redbeard said the original idea was for it to lead to a feud with Seth Rollins.
Originally, it [caged beast story] was supposed to lead to a feud with Seth [Rollins], involving the death of a rat accidentally which intrigued me as a character because you get the big guy who has to deal with this grief and then come to terms with this grief and then –
Yeah [Seth was supposed to ‘kill it’] and why would you not wanna feud with Seth in something that could have meant something? But then obviously, he went from babyface to heel maybe like two weeks after the fact so then that whole thing got dropped and then they just didn’t know what was in the cage. They kept giving me TV time which you can’t get mad with TV time. You know, but how many people can you squash and not continue to tell the story. So, you know, to me it just got old and repetitive and you thought it’d make every squash match a little different and tell a little bit more story of the cage but you know, sometimes I wasn’t allowed to.
** Dark Order’s Alex Reynolds and John Silver sat down with Captain’s Corner for a virtual signing and the duo shared that initially, they did not like Alan ‘5’ Angels and Preston ’10’ Vance joining the group. Reynolds admitted that they were nervous about their position in AEW because they were not wrestling much at the time.
Reynolds: We [Alex & John Silver] hated them [Preston Vance & Alan Angels when they joined Dark Order]. I’m not even kidding.
Silver: At first.
Reynolds: At first. At first. We were nervous because we weren’t wrestling at all. We were just the epitome of background people and then Alan and Vance came and they were getting matches and being featured more so we thought we were getting fired.
Silver: And we were also — when they joined, they weren’t letting anyone from New York go to the shows.
Reynolds: Yeah, this was at the start of the pandemic. So they did all those Atlanta tapings so that’s where they picked up Alan and Vance… we had no idea [what was going on in the world] and I remember there was — I think it was maybe Alan’s — when Alan got recruited or Alan’s first match in Dark Order, afterwards, it was only supposed to be Vance that came out and beat the guy up but Brodie [Lee] made sure that me and John came out too. He went right up to whoever and was like, ‘Hey, if one of those guys is beating up the guy that Alan beats, all of us are.’ So Brodie stuck up for us there. But then over time man, we’re all super close now.
Silver: Preston’s definitely one of my best friends.
Reynolds: They’re both super cool. Again, we’ve all been through so much this whole ride that we definitely have grown closer.
This past Wednesday on AEW Dynamite, Silver and Reynolds took on Chris Jericho and Daniel Garcia in the main event. Reynolds recalled being told by his wife that he’d be sharing the ring with Jericho and he told her to “f*ck off” because he did not believe it.
Reynolds: We [Reynolds & John Silver] didn’t know about it [facing Chris Jericho & Daniel Garcia on Dynamite]. I fell asleep before Rampage got on because I’m old and have a baby at home. So my wife woke me up at around 1:30. She’s like, ‘Hey, you’re wrestling Chris Jericho and Daniel Garcia on Dynamite on Wednesday’ and I looked at her and I told her to f*ck off, because I didn’t believe her, and then I realized that it was true and it’s like holy sh*t, I’m — we’re gonna wrestle Chris Jericho on national television which was definitely one of our goals when it became a possibility when we started with AEW. So it was — I mean, you can’t really say much more than hey, we main evented against Chris Jericho. That’s something that will stay with us for the whole, you know, for our whole careers, whole lives.
** Former WWE writer Kazeem Famuyide was a guest on ‘Casual Conversations with The Classic’. He looked back on Kofi Kingston’s rise to becoming WWE Champion and Kazeem said before ‘KofiMania’ came into play, Xavier Woods would always advocate for Kofi being world champion. Famuyide added that during his early days in the company, Brian ‘Road Dogg’ James expressed to him that WWE would have a Black world champion soon and they needed to start building so that could happen.
Well, we — I’ve said this many, many times: My first week as a writer at WWE, I spent a lot of time with the Road Dogg Jesse James who is definitely somebody I adore so much and you know, gave me — took my training wheels off as somebody who knows what’s going on back there and he made no bones about it. He was like, ‘Listen, we’re gonna have a Black world champion very soon. We need to build ourselves to a point where that’s something that happens.’ I don’t know if they thought Kofi [Kingston] was gonna be the one to be that person, but you know, I was definitely aware of that; we’re gonna be making stories for Black talent and you know, when you’re making stories with Black talent, you need to have somebody Black in there, that speaks the language and knows it. So in ways that it was pitched, it was definitely something that I wanna say Xavier Woods, Austin Creed was always, always going hard to bat for. Like no matter what, even when it didn’t seem super tangible or feasible at the point, he was always like, ‘Kofi, we’re gonna make you world champ, we’re gonna figure it out.’ Even when we’d have promos written about stuff and it would be good to go, Woods would always add in his own little ad-libs about making sure Kofi gets a world title shot or Kofi’s never hurt and Kofi’s gonna win the [Royal] Rumble and we’re gonna win the Rumble, make sure Kofi main events [WrestleMania]. Like he always slipped it in no matter what the hell was planned for that night. He always made sure to throw those little nuggets in people’s ears like, ‘Kofi, it’s gonna be your time, Kofi, it’s gonna be your time’ and man, it just… my time had kind of passed by the time KofiMania was full blown in full force but, it was definitely something that I wanna say the fans made happen. I definitely believe that.
** At WrestleMania 38, Stone Cold Steve Austin is returning to WWE to confront Kevin Owens. Bret Hart was asked about Austin’s return during an interview with Sports Illustrated. He said he’s happy for Austin and he’ll be there to cheer him on.
I’m looking forward to it. I’m proud of him. It takes a lot of courage to come back and do what he’s trying to do. I’ll be there to cheer him on.
** A new arrival to New Japan Pro-Wrestling’s United Empire faction was teased. The company uploaded a video to their digital platforms of Will Ospreay saying that his new protégé is going to be joining the junior heavyweight division.
** On April 1st, The Undertaker will be inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame by Vince McMahon. Undertaker has been making the media rounds to discuss his induction and he spoke to CBS Sports’ Shakiel Mahjouri. He shared that he’s feeling the nerves going into it and thinks there’s a chance he’ll become emotional at points during his speech.
I’m going to be as honest as I can, I’m going to be a nervous wreck out there because I can share stories of things that have happened from Mark Calaway’s perspective, but actually, to share the things that I’m feeling, that’s going to be a first for me. That’s really going to be new. I can tell stories of things that me and Godfather did years ago and laugh about it.
There are a few stories, some that we could actually say in public. But when you pull the curtain back and you start unravelling the emotions that come with it, it’s going to be a very interesting night for sure. I don’t know how well I’m going to do. When I first started doing this media over the last year or so, I got all the hate from like, ‘Well, there goes my childhood. There goes my childhood.’ Well, what happens when The Undertaker is a babbling, blubbering mess on stage and can’t get a sentence out? You know, that’ll put the nail in the casket, for sure.
** Ahead of his NXT Title defense at Stand & Deliver, The Dallas Morning News caught up with Dolph Ziggler. While speaking about his comedy show during WrestleMania weekend, Ziggler touched on the upcoming match against Bron Breakker and said if it does not steal the show, it’s on him.
I want everybody to be able to experience every possible show that they want to before they even get to WrestleMania. So, I’m excited for that [his comedy show]. That’s fun for me, and still makes me nervous before I go out there – it’ll be similar to those nerves walking out at ‘Stand & Deliver’ on Saturday going, ‘If this match doesn’t steal the show, it’s on me.’
** Rick Bassman welcomed Al Snow and Mike Bucci onto his ‘Talking Tough’ show. Snow reflected on being a part of the ‘Kennel from Hell’ match with Big Boss Man. He remembers PETA coming after him and WWF/E on the lead-up to that match.
They did, they actually did [PETA was all over the Kennel from Hell build]. During the actual televised part of the story, PETA did actually come after WWE and come after me for the story and for the, ‘Oh, you’re teaching people to be cruel to animals.’ You know, like literally, come on, let’s be honest. You honestly think that somebody who has never done anything to an animal watched what I did on TV and went, you know what? I’ve had a bad day and walked outside and kicked a cat or kicked a dog? I mean it’s ridiculous, just absurd.
** Rob Van Dam guest appeared on Sunday Night’s Main Event and was asked what the main takeaway would be from his 30-plus year career. If it were to come to an end, Van Dam fondly remembers the love he receives from the public.
I get a lot of love everywhere I go, you know? And that’s every day. I’m probably recognized a lot more than people even think if they’re not with me, even if they see it but, I’ve wrestled so long that even if people stopped watching wrestling 20 years ago, they still are gonna remember me and I probably impacted their lives in such a way that they’re never gonna forget and grown men become little kids, you know? They get all excited and I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard, ‘I’d never do this.’ Like Robert De Niro came in here, this guy and I’ve never — there’s a lot of — but it’s all love, it’s all positive energy and if that makes it real then I must be seen on a celebrity level to them but, outside of that, when I’m home hanging out with my dogs, there’s no part of me that thinks that I’m above anybody else. It just feels like — it’s just a fact, you know? It’s just people recognize me, they’re usually happy to see me. In general, they usually think I’m really cool, you know? So I like that. I like to be seen that way and I agree and I try to be as cool as I can, you know? And I probably am the coolest person that I know [he laughed]. It’s all just love, you know?
** Episode 300 of Being The Elite:
** Independent talent Lindsay Earnshaw spoke to the Daily Star for an interview and expressed that she’d still like to pursue pro wrestling as a full-time job, but feels she does not have as many years in the ring as everyone else does. Lindsay says she’ll have to make a decision about her future because she wants to start a family.
2020 was going to be my year. Genuinely, even now looking back, I think that it could have been my year, but that was taken away from me and because I am 32, I don’t have as many years as everyone else. You know, at some point, I’m going to need to make a decision, like, do I want a family – I’ve got a mortgage and stuff – so I need to think about that. I am content with what I’m doing now though. I definitely at one point would have liked to do this as a full-time job – and I still would if the offer was there, but now, I could quite happily do a Progress Wrestling show, quit and be happy with my life!
** ‘Detroit News’ published an article about Michigan’s own Steiner Brothers (Rick & Scott Steiner) being inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame.
** WWE and Fanatics have come to terms on a new long-term sports and entertainment deal. Fanatics will be relaunching WWE Shop this summer.
** NJPW commentator Kevin Kelly is returning to North America after calling matches in-person for the company. He noted that he’ll be back in Japan in May for Best of the Super Juniors. Chris Charlton is going back to the United Kingdom and he’ll be back in Japan for the April 9th ‘Hyper Battle’ show.
** At the AAA TV taping on 3/26, AEW’s Sammy Guevara and Tay Conti were interviewed by Lucha Libre Online.
** At GCW ‘Astronaut’, Matt Cardona wrestled 72-year-old ‘Action’ Mike Jackson. Cardona Vlogged about the match.
** March 28th birthdays: Curt ‘Mr. Perfect’ Hennig, The Warlord.
** WWE Deutschland went live on Instagram with NXT 2.0’s Cora Jade.
** SmackDown Women’s Champion Charlotte Flair appeared on Barstool’s ‘Rasslin show.
** Sports Illustrated’s Justin Barrasso caught up with Booker T to chat Reality of Wrestling and Sharmell’s WWE Hall of Fame induction. Booker spoke to WrestleZone as well.
** Brantley Gilbert and Jessie James Decker are going to sing ‘America the Beautiful’ at WrestleMania 38.
** WWE’s Montez Ford was interviewed by Denise Salcedo.
** NXT 2.0’s Nikkita Lyons is the subject of the latest ‘Canvas 2 Canvas’ episode.
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.
