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.
** Trish Stratus took questions from people in attendance for her Q&A session at ‘For the Love of Wrestling’ in the UK. ‘Monopoly Events’ posted the full Q&A on their YouTube channel and during it, Stratus said she would gladly accept a WWE on-screen GM role.
Do I want to be GM? I would gladly accept that role. I always think — like I said, to go back, it has to be something challenging, something different, something different for you guys. You know, you just don’t wanna see me being a babyface, kicking butt, winning championships, boring, right guys? Do we or would you — I don’t know. I can’t read the crowd. I’m not sure what they want. What do you guys want? What do you want? What should I do next?
While speaking about her heel turn in 2004, Stratus feels that if she were to return, it would be fun for her to come back as a heel.
For me personally, that move [turning heel and aligning with Christian Cage] in my career at that point was really good, really pivotal for what the rest of my career turned into so, best time of my career to be honest, loved it. I always say if I go back, the one thing I’m missing is a heel run so that would be kind of fun, you know? Yeah.
Going into WrestleMania 38, WWE ran two house shows in Canada and Trish Stratus was a part of both events. She said the feeling of wanting to perform never goes away and getting to see Lita wrestle Becky Lynch at ‘Elimination Chamber’ in February added on to that already existing feeling.
Um, yeah, to be honest, it did [watching Becky Lynch vs. Lita made Trish get the buzz to return]. I was lucky, a couple weeks later… the live event was so much fun because it was just after that and I got a chance to go back and it was in Toronto and in another town near me at home so I just drove in, took my kids and yeah, you get in there, you feel the energy of the crowd, you do some promos, you do some slapping and it’s just like, oh, it’s such — it’s good. So I love it, it’ll always be in my blood, you know? I did a post and it said, ‘I’ll never not feel at home between these ropes’, right? So it’s in me forever. The cool thing is sometimes we go back and you’re like, ‘Oh my God, can I do this? Like it’s been a while’ and the last time — the first time I went back after many years was to fight Charlotte [Flair] for a singles match. It had been like 11 years and two children later so I was like, ‘I don’t know’ and you don’t know until you actually have the match. You can practice and you can roll around in the ring but you don’t know until you actually get in there. I mean, ‘nailed it’ would be something I would use to describe that. I’m being sarcastic guys. I don’t think — I did though [Stratus joked]. But it was like, it’s just kind of cool that wrestling is like riding a bike for us wrestlers. That’s what I’ve discovered. It’s kind of cool. I mean maybe you move slower but, some of us don’t.
Going back to the topic of Trish’s heel run in the early 2000s, she recalled Vince McMahon saying that he did not believe she had it in her to be a heel, seeing as how Trish had been a babyface for a lengthy period.
Okay, so ‘heel Trish’ was one of the best times of my career. Did you guys like ‘heel Trish’? I loved it. For me, it was a lot of fun. I remember I heard Vince [McMahon] had said he wasn’t sure. I had been a babyface for so long and he said, ‘I don’t know if she has it in her.’ Like certainly the T&A [Test & Albert] days, I had that in me but as a wrestler now, as a competitor, it was a little different so, but unpleasantly, he was pleasantly surprised and it was interesting because to be honest, it wasn’t supposed to be a heel turn.
Before Stratus returned to WWE in 2008, she had her ‘retirement match’ against Lita at Unforgiven 2006. She did not know she would be exiting the company as Women’s Champion and said that was a surprise to her.
The top matches for me was Mickie James-WrestleMania 22 and then my retirement match with Lita. For me, that was a bittersweet moment because it was like, I was, you know, leaving the next day. This was the end of my run. Had no idea I was gonna leave as the Women’s Champion, that was a surprise. Being in front of my hometown crowd, my friends and family watching against the rival that I’ve had for I think my entire career, it was just really a storybook ending so I’d say those are the two epic moments in my life.
** For the first time in five years, Black and Brave Wrestling Academy co-head trainer Marek Brave competed in a singles match. Marek had been sidelined with a neck injury and eventually underwent spinal fusion surgery. He returned to the ring for his SCWPro promotion in Iowa and detailed his come back and what it felt like to wrestle again while on the Pro Wrestling Illustrated podcast.
Yeah, I did [return to the ring]. This was my first singles match in five years. I did do a six-man tag about two-and-a-half years ago but it was heavily gimmicked and I didn’t do as much as the other men in that match, thankful to them by the way. But yeah, first singles match in five years, just a couple weekends ago, not too long ago and it was fantastic, it was great. The fans were very receptive to my return, so I’m very thankful for that. I didn’t get injured so that’s a big win as far as I’m concerned and I think we’ll do a few more and see where it goes from there but yeah, as of right now, I am no longer a retired pro wrestler. I’m an active competitor so that’s kind of fun.
I would say that leading up to it, there would be moments of nervousness. But not as much as I expected to be quite honest and there were times where I would go back and watch matches of people’s big returns. Like I watched Shawn Michaels versus Triple H from SummerSlam ‘02 and that kind of put me at ease a little bit and then I was in attendance for WrestleMania night one when Stone Cold came back after 19 years and wrestled Kevin Owens so I figured in that moment — it was really that moment where any sort of nervousness completely left me and I was like, if he can do it after 19 years, I can do it after five, you know? It’s the same, right? It’s a very similar experience and I really liked the way that match went.
[I’m not able to do crazy moves anymore], especially after spinal fusion surgery which I did have four years ago and I’m just starting to feel healthy again which is great which obviously coincides with my return to the ring but, all the nerves left in that moment and then day of the show, I just felt ready and I put my gear on for the first time in a number of years and I was in the locker room with the boys and instead of being the promoter putting on the show. I had my wrestler hat back on and when the music hit, like you said, it felt like riding a bike. I went down the stairs, hit the entrance, the fans went crazy and it was almost like an out-of-body experience where I knew what I was doing but it felt like I was on autopilot, like in the best way possible, right? Like still obviously, you know, paying attention to the details and the in between moments and making sure that the things that we had planned out went as planned. But it felt like I hadn’t missed a beat. It felt like I hadn’t taken five years off from singles competition so, it was a fantastic experience, I’m excited to continue to do it, it went really well. The fans gave me tremendous feedback which is always great to hear. As a performer, I think there’s — you know, a performer who stops performing always has a hole that needs to be filled whether that’s, you know, being cheered by the fans, booed by the fans, whatever it may be. You just want that reaction and I realized that I missed it a lot more than I thought I did and to get that reaction, the desired reaction and to make people feel how I wanted them to feel, it was pretty special man. It was pretty special.
Fellow co-head trainer at the Black and Brave Wrestling Academy is Seth Rollins. Marek shared that Rollins’ on-screen laugh that he does comes from their trainer, AAW promoter Danny Daniels.
So like, Seth [Rollins] gets this — he gets the memes and videos made with his voice and his laugh and [he’s] like, ‘Hehehehehe!’ He didn’t used to talk like that and he didn’t used to laugh like that. When we started training with Danny [Daniels] and when we finished training with Danny, that’s when he adopted that tone of voice and that laugh because that’s how Danny talks as a Greek man from Chicago. That’s how he speaks and that’s how he laughs and suddenly, Rollins, we’ll just call him Colby, he kind of morphed into Danny at the time and it never left and now it’s become this monster. It’s taken on a life of its own.
** Ahead of WrestleMania Backlash, Drew McIntyre appeared on BT Sports’ ‘The Run-In’ show and shared his thoughts about Cody Rhodes’ return to WWE and how things have turned out for Rhodes so far.
I knew he [Cody Rhodes] was coming and I knew this was the perfect way to bring him back in. They were setting him up for success. He’s worked so hard outside of the company, built such a great reputation for himself, was so instrumental in forming the other company and showing the world what he’s truly made of, very much like myself and that time away. I showed everyone the real Drew, he showed the world the real Cody. He was coming back and he was given the opportunity to present the real Cody to the world at WrestleMania. Pretty much guaranteed to get that positive reaction but it’s up to him to keep carrying the ball every week afterwards and he’s been smashing it every time and I look forward to seeing where he’s gonna go next.
** Prior to the 5/6 edition of Friday Night SmackDown, Peter Rosenberg of HOT 97 recorded an interview with Naomi. She looked back on her feud with Sonya Deville and said she did think there was a chance of it being longer and ending at WrestleMania 38.
I did think that was a possibility [her feud with Sonya Deville making it to WrestleMania 38]. It could’ve been. It definitely could’ve been. I would have enjoyed that as well, especially just when we saw how far the story was going and how long. I think that would have been an awesome cap to put on it. However, at the end of the day, there’s only so much control and say so we can have and I think things happen — no matter what, you can always make something more or come from that, you know what I mean? I think the directions we’re going in, it’ll work out. Sonya, she’s dope.
Continuing on that topic, Naomi shared that she and others were surprised that Deville was not part of WrestleMania 38. She heaped praise onto Deville for her versatility.
I know, which is crazy [that Sonya Deville was not part of WrestleMania 38]. That blew my mind. That blew all of our minds.
And that’s the great thing about her. You can shift and move her in so many places and she’s so adaptable. She can stay in charge, she can — you can throw her in the ring. She’s so incredibly talented and she understands as well. That’s what I love most about it her so she’ll be good.
Naomi discussed her signature Royal Rumble spots and how tasking those can be. Those spots are up to her if she wants to do it or not and said the moment she feels any doubt, she will not attempt to do it.
Ouuu! And that’s the scary part about it [possibility of not completing Royal Rumble stunt] and I also just — I’m at the point now where I’m like, I’m not putting that pressure on myself and I’m not — if it’s there, it’s there. If it’s not, that’s okay. But all the spots just… exactly [the Royal Rumble spots are up to me if I want to do it]. Yeah, and each year, it gets harder and harder to not recycle and get more creative. So, I don’t know.
I’m telling you right now, I’m not doing it. If it don’t feel right and I’m that shook about it, uh-uh, just throw me over the top.
Earlier in the interview, Naomi spoke about Big E’s injury and how important he is to those in WWE. She said wrestlers are aware of the risks of what they do, but they get into such a groove that it does not cross the mind until situations like Big E’s come about.
That was like, oh my God. That was heartbreaking [seeing Big E get injured].
It was… first of all, it was scary. I think we do what we do so much, we wrestle so much and we always know in the back of our mind that these things could happen and that’s a risk you take every time you go out there but you get into such a groove and you’re so fortunate to make it out of that ring safe week in, week out, night in and night out so, to see that happen to someone that’s so close to us, someone who is so strong and it’s just a reminder of how it could be here one day and gone tomorrow so that was pretty surreal and scary for everyone and we all love E and worried about him but, yeah, it comes with the job.
** Both Adam Scherr and Erick Redbeard were present at the ‘For the Love of Wrestling’ event in the UK. They were the focus of a Q&A session and ‘Monopoly Events’ uploaded footage of that session to their YouTube channel. Redbeard and Scherr both feel there is a lack of courtesy in pro wrestling. Redbeard mentioned that there were tenured talents in WWE that did not make it a priority to introduce themselves to the production crew.
Redbeard: It’s different [the wrestling business]. There’s a lot of stuff behind the scenes, backstage, just etiquette and being a good human being, it’s lacking sometimes and it has nothing to do with old school respect, anything like that. It’s just being respectful to people period and I think that’s changed for the worse. You don’t go to a new job and not try to meet everybody you work with from the lighting crew to the tech people. You go and you introduce yourself because that’s what the good, humane thing to do is and this business is changing for the worst and in that way. There’s people that work for WWE that do all the lights and they rig up everything from town to town and the guys that have worked up there for ten years don’t even know what the guy’s name is and that’s a disrespect thing and that’s the only thing that I think has changed for the worse.
Scherr: I’ll definitely touch on that. That’s what I said. It’s — with WWE and especially with our time with Wyatt Family and everything, we’re on the road and we’re around each other so much, it’s a family and it’s — you’re just uncourteous. It’s like going home and not saying hi to your mom after you’ve been gone for a week and it’s just we’re around each other and we lean on each other, we’re all going through the same stuff, we miss our families, we miss our loved ones, we miss day-to-day life and it’s just, yeah, respect is a big thing and what he said that I’ve seen slowly diminishing and it’s not even just wrestling. I think it’s as a whole thing. I think there’s a lot of negativity in the world and that’s what the cool thing about professional wrestling and a lot of the people that take it serious, it’s an opportunity to shine a positive light on the world. There’s so much negativity and negativity feeds off negativity. It takes one ray of positive light to burn through that stuff and it’s just more people need to realize that, like I said, that whole living your life, like controlling your narrative. You get one shot at life? Why not be happy?
Along with Windham Rotunda (Bray Wyatt) and Jon Huber (Brodie Lee), Scherr and Redbeard collectively made up The Wyatt Family in WWE. They shared memories of Jon and Redbeard told the story of how he surprised Huber by slapping him back at a house show.
Scherr: Man, probably just Jon [Huber] yelling at me. He was such a blessing. To have him around, like I said, the man was so talented and just an unbelievable wealth of knowledge and that poor son of gun had the job of teaching me how to wrestle so, it was funny, a lot of times I was doing stuff and I didn’t know what I was doing and I was just trying to figure it out on the way and Brodie would be standing on the apron just screaming at me, ‘What are you doing you big idiot? That does not work here. Figure it out’ so it was just the love-hate relationship and he was hard on me because he cared and the whole group of us, you know? That’s why I said The Wyatt Family, it’s something special and it’s something I doubt will ever be seen in a squared circle ever again so you know, just having that opportunity and things like that, it’s crazy to think back now how much we took that for granted.
Redbeard: And then I had one story I’d like to share. It involves… Jon would always slap me in the ring and I would always ask him, ‘Hey, slap me in the face. This will be good.’ The crowd always seemed to like it when he’d slap me in the face. Well sometimes he’d get carried away and for the longest time, I could handle it, I can deal with getting slapped in the face and this is what I call the long-haul joke on him. I never slapped him back, until one time at a live event and he was not expecting it so the look on his face was priceless because he knew I got him and just kind of opened his mouth, dropped down to the ground and went out of the ring. He had nothing left to say about that one. So I got one up on him.
Scherr did not have a run on NXT TV and said that is not something he feels he missed out on. He was of the mindset that if he did not have to spend time in the ‘minor leagues’ and could go straight to the ‘pros’, then he was all for it.
Scherr: No, not really [disappointed I didn’t get an NXT TV run] because I ended up working with everybody that I was in developmental with eventually. They got called up to the main roster and it’s like, you know, if I don’t have to do the minor leagues and I can go straight to the pros, let’s go.
Throughout his WWE main roster run, Scherr popularized catchphrases such as ‘get these hands’ and ‘I’m not finished with you’. He said those were spur of the moment sayings that happened to resonate with the audience.
Scherr: It was just — it happened. That [signature catchphrases such as ‘I’m not finished with you’] wasn’t planned. It just randomly came out of my mouth. The same thing with ‘get these hands’. It was crazy when they just let me be me, what happened instead of handing me a script with a bunch of sh*t on it [Scherr laughed].
** The Jobber Tears Podcast has an extensive interview with Kaun and he shared that prior to Ring of Honor’s hiatus in 2021, he and Moses’ contracts were scheduled to expire in March 2022. They had conversations about what their next move could be. He also went into detail concerning his thoughts about ROH bringing talents on a Zoom call to announce the aforementioned hiatus.
Moses and I were talking, our [ROH] contracts were kind of coming up in March and I was like, ‘All right man, what do you wanna do?’ Cool, we have the Six-Man Title run but at the same time, I feel like we’re really building momentum, but I feel like we’re not doing — I thought we were gonna win the tag belts when we wrestled L.F.I. [La Faccion Ingobernables]. Like that would have been f*cking great, like why the hell not? Double champs. I felt something in the air that day when we went to the venue and then that didn’t happen. I was like, ‘All right man, I’m kind of cool leaving if nothing happens. We’ve been here for three years. Also, but if they wanna re-sign us and you know, throw some more money my way, I could look at that situation. I don’t wanna move to Florida’ and then that day cames [ROH informing talents of the hiatus]. It’s just funny, like I feel really bad for the people who all they did was wrestle. Like this is their livelihood and they just lost their job on this f*cking Zoom call and then they ask you to come back to work which is crazy to me.
While with ROH, Kaun was a part of Shane Taylor Promotions and they captured the World Six-Man Tag Team Titles together. He recalled there being a plan for them to feud with The Briscoes (Mark & Jay Briscoe) and said he would often express on-screen that Shane Taylor Promotions were getting big reactions from the crowd and management should see that.
I think for my experience, myself, I know Shane [Taylor] would have a lot of conversations with people [about the future of Shane Taylor Promotions in ROH pre-Tony Khan owning it] and he would tell us things. But at the same time, Moses and I were kind of like — unfortunately, we’re not in control of this situation because I don’t know, booker, creative’s gonna make the decisions of what they want to do. You have to do the best of what you get and all right, I’m just gonna keep f*cking showing up and showing y’all, especially when we did our live shows and they were chanting ‘S.T.P.’ before we even went out. I’d be screaming at the camera like, ‘Do you f*cking hear this? Do you f*cking hear this?’ I’d be screaming dead at the camera like, ‘How do y’all not hear that and see that we’re making money for y’all?’ What is happening here? I’m happy that we got the Six-Man Title run. If anything, we’re gonna be in the history books for the rest of my life. My name’s gonna be cemented in that. I wish Moses and I could’ve had a program with The Briscoes. That was like the plan. I’m like, new guard, old guard, this would have been a f*cking awesome ass feud to have, especially because we were super cool with these dudes and we could cut promos back and forth with one another where we’re like the same savage style of talking and fighting. But I know Shane dealt with a lot more stuff than we did and then that day came…
He discussed the beginning stages of he and Moses’ time in ROH and credited Joey Mercury for being a voice on their behalf behind the scenes.
The first few months of 2020, end of 2019, Moses and I were kind of doing squash matches so we were kind of getting some experience being thrown in these multi-tag matches and then Joey Mercury left Ring of Honor and I was like, ‘Ah sh*t. What’s gonna happen for us?’ Now because honestly, he was kind of like the driving force behind us, like, ‘Hey, these guys are gonna be stars but they need to get experience and maybe put them on the show. They need to get that experience of wrestling in front of a live crowd.’
** At Pro Wrestling NOAH’s ‘Majestic’ show, Satoshi Kojima made his return to the promotion. He spoke to the press in Japan about his return and the pressure that came with being billed as a mystery surprise. He wants to prove he’s worthy of a gesture as such.
It may have been controversial, but I’m glad it became a topic of conversation. I’m going to go into the match [against Go Shiozaki] thinking, ‘Don’t be silly about being told, the biggest [surprise] in Noah’s history is Kojima?’ I don’t want to blame Noah, but I want to be the one who is worthy of the grand gesture from now on.
Kojima is 51 years of age and shared that seeing Keiji Muto having his run in NOAH was a big motivation for him. Kojima was shocked to see someone eight years older than him as world champion.
When I saw him shining (in Noah), I remembered my time in All Japan. I was shocked to see someone eight years older than me as champion. Having Muto in Noah is a big motivation for me. A match-up? I am aware that I will fight him someday.
** To promote his match at WrestleMania Backlash, Riddle joined WPRI-TV’s ‘The Rhode Show’ and dove into his working relationship with Randy Orton. Riddle feels that he’s boosted Orton’s love of pro wrestling and has taught him how to make it fun again.
You know, I feel like I am [teaching Randy Orton some things]. I feel like I’ve taught Randy how to enjoy wrestling again. Not that he wasn’t enjoying it and he always has fun but I think I’ve been able to allow him to show a lighter side, you know? A more sensitive side to the WWE universe that they might not have seen over the years even though he’s had a long career, 20 years but a lot of people haven’t seen Randy like they’re seeing him right now and I think he’s enjoying it because I don’t think he ever thought he’d be able to do this kind work like this, you know? Because he’s such a serious character. He’s ‘The Legend Killer’, he’s ‘The Viper’, ‘The Apex Predator’ and to be tag teaming with me who’s kind of a lovable goofball, you know, it’s a big contrast, a big change for Randy and I feel like I’ve taught him to have fun.
** Renee Paquette and Miesha Tate welcomed Mickie James onto their ‘Throwing Down’ show on SiriusXM. Mickie expressed that she thinks it would be beneficial for pro wrestling companies to offer childcare in the backstage area.
That would be incredible [wrestling companies offering childcare backstage] and we joked about it because obviously, when I was at TNA, Dixie [Carter] would have her kids back there and so I was like, ‘Oh, Dixie, we just need a child care back here’ and we would joke about it but it never was a thing. I remember being — it should be. It really should be a thing if you think about it. It would really make — I mean obviously, I feel like it would make a lot of the women’s lives a lot easier especially because childcare, when you’re at home, you kind of juggle other things and when you’re on the road and you have to kind of pick and choose which trips they go on with you. It’s a lot, where I feel like it would be more hands-on because there’s a lot of stuff that they do and will learn culturally on the road, you know, with you and those same experiences of doing it together as a family in a sense.
** The Black Wrestlers Matter promotion is running a show in September in Chicago, Illinois.
We know its late (we're on CP time remember), but we promised you a HUGE announcement. Well here it is. We make our debut in the Windy City. Tickets are now available at https://t.co/yAoN5IhszE #BWM #BlackOut pic.twitter.com/IKWXRbR5CX
— Black Wrestlers Matter (@BWMdsm) May 7, 2022
** ‘Wrestling Entertainment Series’ was trademark by Gzim Selmani (Rezar of the Authors of Pain).
** Angelo Dawkins, Shawn Michaels, Alexa Bliss, Liv Morgan and Bobby Lashley were present at Dick Vitale’s ESPN gala.
** Tokyo Sports released their interview with Starlight Kid that was conducted in April.
** Ariane Andrew appeared on WFLA-TV to co-host the Bloom Women’s Health Special.
** May 7th birthdays: Will Ospreay, Kevin Owens, Owen Hart & Angelico.
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.
