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 Jobber Tears Podcast invited House of Glory owner Brian XL onto their show. Brian co-runs the New York-based promotion with three-time TNA X Division Champion Amazing Red. Brian recalled the likes of Mercedes Moné, Ronda Rousey and Charlotte Flair coming to train with Amazing Red at House of Glory’s wrestling school.
He shared that Red helped Rousey and Moné put together a good portion of a match they were going to have. He did not pinpoint when the match took place, but the only singles bout Moné and Rousey had was at Royal Rumble 2019. WWE has a video on their YouTube channel of Mercedes working out at House of Glory’s school going into that year’s Rumble.
Through the grace of God, we had big names come and train with (Amazing) Red. Obviously, everybody knows Sasha Banks came… Ronda Rousey came to learn from Red. Charlotte (Flair). I remember Ronda — first of all, because me and Red, we watch UFC. Especially Red, he loves UFC. We was at the old school. I go in the back, I’m coming in and Red’s in the back, he goes, ‘Yo, Ronda’s here.’ I said, ‘What?’ At that time, I didn’t know what he — ‘Ronda?’ He said, ‘Ronda Rousey is outside in the car.’ I just marked out on the inside. I’m like, ‘What!?’ He’s like, ‘Yeah, she’s about to come in with Sasha. I’m about to go over their match.’ I don’t know what match they had but they had a match. So then she walks in and it’s crazy. You know how she walks in-in the ring. She walked into the school like that. She had a bubble jacket, it was snowing outside and she walks in, she’s mad little and on TV watching, you’re like, damn, Ronda Rousey. For me, she’s a giant. So she’s short and she’s walking into the school like this and I’m like, ‘Oooo’ and then Red put that whole match together. He sat both of them — and Charlotte. I’m not gonna say the whole match, but most of it, he put it together and Charlotte — he had Charlotte and Sasha sitting together and they three put it together and they had some great matches.
Back in August 2015, H.O.G. hosted a match between Rey Mysterio and Amazing Red. Brian shared that he sold his Range Rover to bring Mysterio in so the match with Red could happen.
Even (Amazing) Red and people don’t know this… For a lot of years, even Eddie Guerrero, he wrote in his book, a lot of people wanted to see Rey Mysterio versus Amazing Red and I made that match. I sold my car to get Rey Mysterio to wrestle Red, you know what I’m saying? My Range Rover… For me it’s like, that’s what I do it for.
There was a point in the conversation when Brian discussed GCW-related topics. He expressed how much he respects GCW owner Brett Lauderdale for how he looked out for/took care of Nick Gage after he got out of prison. Brian admitted that after Nick got out, Brett reached out about getting him on a House of Glory show, but Brian turned it down. He explained that he declined because Nick is a death match wrestler and that was not a style that is consistent with what H.O.G. presents. Brian said he’ll always regret that.
Brett (Lauderdale), let me tell you something, the promoter, I tip my hat to him. He’s dope and I knew him for a lot of years too because when I used to wrestle in CZW, he was the ref.
The story in itself, it’s to show you, he’s a hustler. I have a lot of respect for that man. Even outside of that, I have a lot of respect for him because I know Nick Gage did 10 years in prison, and Brett Lauderdale held him down the whole 10 years. That right there, I look at him like a different person. You know what? Because it’s people in your family that won’t support you when you do time. You do a year, you won’t see your cousins ever again. You do a year, they won’t show up. I did time and my brother did 17 years and I got another brother that did like five years and my uncles, so for me, it’s just like when somebody holds you down like that, those are special individuals… My other brother, he came home, he did 17 years and it’s hard because people forget about you… Brett used to reach out to me and I remember when Nick Gage was coming home, Brett reached out to me. He was like, ‘Yo, I wanna bring him to House of Glory,’ and I turned it down and that’s something I will always regret. I knew Nick Gage from CZW and he was like a hardcore and House of Glory wasn’t hardcore, and it stood with me. But look what Brett did, he built an empire. GCW for me is an empire. I feel like it goes WWE, AEW, GCW. Shout out to the people at IMPACT but GCW, I’m just a fan of that brand, and I’m not a fan of no brand, but, I like what Brett’s doing there because he came from the bottom. Brett himself came from the bottom.
In that same vein, Brian XL stated that he was wrong about Joey Janela. He initially did not want to book him but the first time he did, the crowd loved Joey. Brian said since then, Janela has been welcome in House of Glory.
I’ma be honest with you bro, there was times that I was like, ‘No. He’s not the guy’ and then he became the guy… I learned being a promoter or whoever or just a fan of wrestling, you can’t just look at somebody and be like, well, he will never make it. CM Punk was one of them. Joey Janela was one of them. I remember Joey Janela when he first started, he used to hit me up to be in House of Glory and I denied him. I was like, ‘Nah, nah, nah’ for a long time and then Danny Demanto, I don’t know if you know who Danny Demanto is. Well he hit me up and he was like, ‘Yo look, that’s my boy.’ He was like, ‘Yo look, I’m gonna wrestle on the show but I wanna wrestle against Joey Janela.’ I’m like, ‘Ite.’ Yo, he wrestled Joey Janela man. Joey Janela came and did a backflip from some stand right there. The crowd just went crazy, and since then I was booking him and look at him now. For me, I feel like at one point, Joey Janela was indie wrestling. That dude right there, I’m a fan of his, and he’s doing his thing with GCW and GCW’s killing it.
** While speaking with Chris Van Vliet, Natalya followed up on T.J. Wilson’s comments about the late Windham Rotunda a.k.a. Bray Wyatt coming to train at their ‘dungeon’ ahead of his return in 2022. She remembers Rotunda being so giving to everyone who was at the training session and wanting to buy something for her and Wilson’s training location.
Bray Wyatt, before he made his return back to WWE, last year he approached us (Natalya & T.J. Wilson) about training and coming to work in the dungeon. And so we kept it all extremely private because if somebody doesn’t want to be filmed, or they don’t want to, we don’t post about it. So it can, you know, can be very private, but he was so excited to get in the ring and he was giving everybody promo advice and he was in there, like, you could just feel him get excited about it. And it’s funny because he said to me, when he was in at the dungeon, he’s like, ‘Nattie, I want to do something for you guys. Like what can I buy for you?’ He was so giving, you know, and he was like, ‘I want to do something, I want to buy something for the school.’ And I said, ‘Windham, you don’t have to buy anything.’ I was like, ‘You just coming here and you giving advice is just everything.’ Because he would go around after he would be in the ring. He would go around every single person that was there. And again, it’s usually, you know, between 10 and 15 people. And he embodied what T.J. and I want our dungeon to be. It’s just where you give back. It’s just all about giving back. It’s about helping people. It’s about helping people from every walk of life and Windham was giving everybody advice and saying, ‘You know, what if you said it like this, or what if you did that like this?’ Or, ‘What if you did –’ so he was just so giving. That’s what the dungeon is. The dungeon is about us giving back.
In January 2022, Natalya when one-on-one with now-former WWE talent Aliyah on SmackDown. Natalya beat Aliyah down before the bell rang but when the match started, Aliyah defeated the former SmackDown Women’s Champion in three seconds. Natalya reflected on that and said when it was presented to her, she was thinking about what they can do to make a great story and help get Aliyah over.
I think about my match or the (match with) Aliyah. You know, when that was presented to me where she was gonna beat me in three seconds, I was like, ‘What can we do to make a great story out of this so we can really help get Aliyah over?’ Because then if we get Aliyah over, we have another girl for our division. It’s about making the division strong. (Well) you can’t have a strong division with just one girl that’s strong. So I always saw myself as the kind of person that helped bridge the gap with that.
** There’s a piece on SPORF that is centered around Claudio Castagnoli. He spoke highly of Orange Cassidy and the match Cassidy had with Jon Moxley in the main event of AEW All Out.
I think he’s (Orange Cassidy) come a really long way and I think people kind of see it for what he is now. He’s just a modern version of a classic good guy, you know? And he is, obviously really, really good at what he does. And to see that match with him and Jon (Moxley) after, you know, he defended that International Title for so long and put it onto a level that the fans would accept it to main event the pay-per-view, no questions asked. Then of course, you know, Jon was Jon. He’s just awesome. And it was a really fun match to watch. I watched it together with Bryan (Danielson) and (Wheeler) Yuta. So we were all just yelling and screaming. It was great.
** Guest appearing on Hitting The Turnbuckle was Mark Andrews. The former IMPACT World Tag Team Champion stated that he would like for him and Flash Morgan Webster to share the ring with The Hardys (Matt & Jeff Hardy), Adam Copeland and Christian Cage and The Young Bucks (Matt & Nick Jackson). Andrews joked that he’ll sign with AEW if that means Subculture gets the match against Matt and Nick.
So the big one for us was Motor City Machine Guns and luckily, earlier this year, we got to do that, we got to tick that off the list (Andrews said about teams that him & Flash Morgan Webster have wanted to face). I mean, there’s a real obvious one and with them working for AEW right now, I really hope at some point it gets to happen; is The Hardy Boys, you know? That’s the ultimate one. The first match I ever saw was The Hardys versus The Dudleys at Royal Rumble 2000 in the Tables match, and both of them have been a huge inspiration for me my whole career, so I really hope we get to see Subculture versus The Hardy Boys at some point… That’s another one (Subculture versus Adam Copeland & Christian Cage). Exactly. I’d love to do that.
The (Young) Bucks!… Flash (Morgan Webster) has wrestled them in a tag match with Mark Haskins at PWG and I’ve wrestled Nick (Jackson) back at CHIKARA years ago in 2011 so if we can get The Bucks versus Subculture, that’s a dream match right there… If that’s what I gotta do (sign with AEW to get the match), I’ll just have to, you know?
** At NWA 75, Colby Corino defeated Kerry Morton to become the organization’s World Junior Heavyweight Champion. He spoke to WU Online and reflected on the title win:
Man, it was like an explosion of great feeling (Corino said about winning NWA World Junior Heavyweight Title). I’ve been chasing that belt. The first time I challenged for that belt, I was 14 years old. I wrestled (Craig Classic) when he was the champion. But I’m 27 years old and I finally get it. I felt like a 13-year journey is like… a 13-year chapter… Not a journey because the journey is not over. But, a 13-year chapter has finally come to an end and we were able to close and start the new chapter that is my reign where I’m trying my best to set records like, I’ve only held the title for just over a month now and I have 12 defenses of the title. I have four more lined up for the month of October and who knows what November’s holding right now?
Starting with Exodus Pro, the NWA is planning to establish territories. Corino thinks that is great for NWA.
I started thinking about how this is such a great thing for the NWA (Corino said about NWA having territories) and how I was just saying I’m a traveling champion trying to set records with my defenses. This will help directly with that. Be able to reach new markets and you know, I feel like this is the perfect way for the NWA to expand a little bit, by going back to the roots…
** Episode #185 of Cultaholic’s Desert Island Graps podcast featured a conversation with Subculture (Mark Andrews, Flash Morgan Webster & Dani Luna). Luna told the story of when her and another wrestler were in a chip shop while a man was attempting to rob it. They had their food already but were still in the shop because the man shut the door. Luna asked the man could her and the fellow wrestler leave and he let them out.
So I was in Preston. It’s the only time I’ve ever wrestled in Preston. I might never go back, and it was me and Nadia Sapphire I believe. We just finished with PCW and obviously from Wales, it’s like an eight-hour drive or something ridiculous. I remember it taking ages to get there, and we were leaving and we were driving home and there was a chip shop right outside the venue and anyone who has been around that area, it’s not the best place to be, and it looked a bit rough. I was like, ‘Eh, it’s a chip shop. It’ll be fine.’ We go into this chip shop, we place an order and a man walks in behind us and just shuts the door and we’re kind of like, ‘Uh, okay, don’t say anything. Don’t mess with him’ and then he like… (she laughs) I think he’s asking for money from the till. They’re not buying it. They’re like, ‘What do you want?’ And they start trying to pay him in chips (she laughed). Wrap ‘em up like battered sausage and chips going, ‘This is what you want?’ And he’s like, ‘No. Give me all your money’ and eventually it gets to a point, we’ve already got our food. We’re just stuck in here with this man, shouting at this poor lady who works in the chip shop and there was a point, I think maybe I was 16 and it got to the point where I also just have to go, ‘Hey, can you just let us out of the chip shop please? I just want to go home’ and then he was like, ‘Yeah.’ He said, ‘Okay,’ opened the door and let us out and then closed it and carried on trying to rob them and we just left.
** Headlining the debut of Darius Lockhart’s ASÉ show on 12/1 is a singles match between Trish Adora and Aja Kong.
** Keke Palmer welcomed Bianca Belair onto her podcast:
** To promote his Peacock documentary, Kurt Angle appeared on Beyond The Fame with Jason Fraley.
** Six-time AJPW Triple Crown Heavyweight Champion Kento Miyahara launched his own YouTube channel.
** Justin Barrasso of Sports Illustrated’s FanNation section spoke to Claudio Castagnoli.
** As Rey Mysterio was making the media rounds, he appeared on The Michael Kay Show.
** Chicago Sports Podcast welcomed Goldberg onto the show.
** Tenryu Project Still Revolution Vol. 7 Results (10/17/23) Shin-Kiba 1st RING in Tokyo, Japan
– Kenichiro Arai def. Kazumasa Yoshida
– Hideyoshi Kamitani def. Rey Paloma
– Fuminori Abe vs. Naoki Tanizaki – Time Limit Draw (15:00)
– Three Way Tag Team Match: Hikaru Sato & Mizuki Watase def. Koji Iwamoto & Takuro Niki and Keita Yano & Yuya Susumu
– Tenryu Project United National Tag Team Championships: Evolution (Dan Tamura & Suwama) (c) def. Kohei Sato & SUSHI
– Tenryu Project Six Man Tag Team Championships — Best 2-out-of-3 Falls Match: Kuma Arashi, Masayuki Kono & Yusuke Kodama def. GAINA, Kengo & Kouki Iwasaki (c)
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.
