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.
** An extensive interview with Bushiroad CEO Takaaki Kidani was conducted by Proresu-TODAY. As the conversation moved along, he was asked about Kazuchika Okada’s exit from New Japan Pro-Wrestling. He stated that Okada got to where he is via his own ability and Bushiroad just provided side support.
Well, I can only say that I had no choice. As I have said many times, if I were in the same position, I would have done the same thing. So I can only say, please do your best, and I may sound like a customer, but all I can say is, please spread the greatness of Japan to the world.
Yes (Bushiroad did nurture the Kazuchika Okada brand) … It’s a bit presumptuous to say that I raised him… I think that Okada has grown up on his own. So I think it was just a matter of providing a little bit of side support in the early days. After all, he became what he is because he worked hard, but I think it was also due to the cooperation of those around him and good rivalry. If I had to add one more thing, I would also like to mention his wife (Suzuko Mimori).
Speaking about the introduction of the Reiwa Three Musketeers (Shota Umino, Yota Tsuji & Ren Narita), Kidani wishes that emergence could have happened one or two years ago.
I wish it had happened a little earlier, maybe one or two years earlier (Kidani said about Reiwa Three Musketeers).
** Joining Chris Jericho’s Talk Is Jericho podcast was AEW Executive Producer and Senior Production Executive, Mike Mansury. He shared that he brought Chad Christopher (Senior Director of Production) and Phill Ada (Creative Director of post-production) with him to AEW. They were all personal assistants together at WWE and moved to ONE Championship together. Mansury considered the venture into AEW as a package deal.
So, I brought in two guys with me (to AEW) that we’d come up together since we were P.A.’s at WWE, Phill Ada and Chad Christopher. They came over to ONE Championship with me. We had a blast over there working with our team and elevating that game and when I had let them know that the opportunity for me to come to AEW was a realistic thing, I said, ‘Look, as far as I’m concerned, this is a package deal and if you guys are ready to undertake a new challenge, I’d love to have you with me.’ These are my guys and they were all in, all on board. I came over, sort of laid the groundwork. They joined in the spring of ‘23 and man, the impact that they’ve had on the work that we do, immeasurable, right? Like you said, you see the video packages and the stuff that we’re doing now. I’m a firm believer that high tides raise all ships and a lot of the leadership that these two have brought to the table has really paid dividends to everybody that we work with. We’ve got a phenomenal post-production team based out of Nashville and having these unbelievably skilled storytellers that approach what it is that we do from the perspective in which they do, has really just added so much value to our team and it’s been really cool and rewarding to see how that’s played out over the last, you know — even just the last year.
While in WWE, Mansury worked under Kevin Dunn. He said it bothers him to see negative remarks about Dunn on social media.
Kevin (Dunn), as much as people — and it just bothers me to read any negative criticism over him that you’ll see on the internet in terms of the effect that he had on the wrestling business…
** A new interview with Natalya was uploaded to Justin Dhillon’s TWC Show podcast feed. Natalya expressed that she wants to work with TNA’s Gail Kim and Jordynne Grace. She added that she’s interested in wrestling women in Japan.
And there’s just so many more women in the industry that I wanna work. Not just in WWE but, I wanna work with Gail Kim, I wanna work with Jordynne Grace. I see some of these Japanese girls that I admire so much, that I went — some of them come and train with me at my ring but, I’m like, one day, I wanna work with these girls. There’s girls from every corner of the industry that I’m like, ‘I wanna work with her, I wanna work with her.’ I wanna wrestle the best.
Continuing with the conversation of wrestling outside of WWE, Natalya said she loves what Billy Corgan is doing in NWA and she went to a show ‘a while back.’ Three wrestlers who train with herself and T.J. Wilson were on an NWA show.
Three guys that work with us (myself & T.J. Wilson), Jake Sterling, Cam Fox and Kai Price and they all just killed it at this NWA show with Billy Corgan in Tampa and again, I love supporting local and I love what Billy Corgan is doing with NWA. I think it’s great. It’s providing — I went to one of their shows a while back but, it’s just cool because, again, just because I work in WWE doesn’t mean that we can’t all show love for other places and to be able to see people grow and to see these guys that had started with us from the very beginning and then all of a sudden, they’re on an NWA show doing stuff that we taught them how to do in The Dungeon and all of sudden, they’re spreading their wings and it’s so cool. Again, I just love when I see people feel like they’re reaching their dreams but I also know that it takes a whole team of people to do that so, little shout out to NWA and my NWA family.
** Guest appearing on The Nikki & Brie Show was Carmella. Looking back on her SmackDown Women’s Title reign, Carmella feels it was the SummerSlam 2018 match with Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair that solidified her reign. She added that it was her best match as champion.
Oh my gosh, that was one of my favorite matches (Triple Threat with Becky Lynch & Charlotte Flair at SummerSlam 2018) … One of my favorite spots in that match was — Fit (Finlay) gave this to me — it was because Becky and Charlotte were best friends at the time and I was trying to come between them and remember I whacked Becky in the back of the head? And then played possum and pretended it was Charlotte. I just love that part.
That’s basically all I ever did (was character work). That was when I lost the title… That was my best match as champion I felt and so I feel it just kind of solidified my run as SmackDown Women’s Champion.
** Chris Van Vliet rolled out his sit-down interview with Liv Morgan. She was asked about the story CM Punk told from when he was on a flight with WWE talents in April 2023 and there was a Monday Night Raw in Rosemont, Illinois that day. Punk said on the flight, Liv Morgan helped him find his AirPods and she recounted that story:
Okay, so, I’m on a Tampa flight heading to Chicago for Monday Night Raw. A couple of us live in Tampa so it’s a couple of us on the flight and he’s (CM Punk) just right in front of me in first class and so I’m just like, ‘Hi, I’m Gionna’ and he’s like, ‘Hi, I’m Phil’ and we just introduced ourselves. I think I’d fallen asleep for most of the flight and I wake up to him kind of scrambling. He had lost his AirPods and everyone’s deboarding and I’m right behind him so I’m like, oh, maybe it’s in my seat, maybe it fell in my bag, so I kind of just stayed to help him find the AirPods but he actually found the AirPods. I think they were stuck in a seat.
I wanted to help him find his AirPods and like I said, I’m right behind him so I’m like, it’s very possible that it’s maybe somewhere in my stuff or in my seat and I like to give a helping hand when needed so I wanted to help out where I could.
Pre-pandemic, there was a romance-esque storyline involving Morgan, C.J. Perry, Miro and Bobby Lashley. She does not know what the endgame was for that.
The world may never know (what the endgame was for storyline involving myself, Miro, C.J. Perry & Bobby Lashley). Me either. I don’t know, I don’t know. But I was just down for the sickness and who knows? You know, I’ll never know, so you guys will never know.
** The next Sareee-ISM shows are scheduled for July 29th and September 2nd. Both events are taking place at Shinjuku FACE in Tokyo, Japan.
** A clip from Metro’s chat with Mustafa Ali was released.
** There’s a column centered around Hiroshi Tanahashi in Weekly SPA! magazine.
** Samuray Del Sol was interviewed by Grue Rume Show.
** Candace Cordelia of Pro Wrestling Illustrated spoke to Mickie James.
** To promote AEW Double or Nothing, Adrian Hernandez spoke to Brian Cage.
** An interview with D-Von Dudley via Screen Rant.
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.
