Originally published at https://www.postwrestling.com/2020/01/23/post-news-update-cain-velasquez-says-he-signed-a-3-year-deal-with-wwe/
** Following his WWE debut on the premiere of Friday Night SmackDown on FOX in October, it was confirmed by WWE that Cain Velasquez signed a multi-year deal with the company. While speaking on the Gorilla Position podcast, Velasquez said his deal is a full-time one for three years.
“Yeah, full-time thing for three years.”
** During IMPACT X Division Champion Ace Austin’s post-Hard To Kill media scrum, he stated that he likes to constantly change his environment and doesn’t like staying anywhere for more than a year. He was then asked how long does he see himself with IMPACT Wrestling and here’s how he responded (Footage courtesy of WrestlingINC):
“I don’t like to stay anywhere for more than like a year-and-a-half so, I like to just change my environment, change the people I’m learning from, just change it up always because you could never learn enough.” Austin continued, “Well, I’m signed for at least three years and I’m only nine months into that now, so, we’ve got time. I’m gonna be here for a long time.”
** PWInsider first reported that that PJ Black signed a new multi-year deal with Ring of Honor. His existing deal was set to expire but he decided to re-up with the company. Black tweeted out in February of 2019 that he officially signed with Ring of Honor.
** The 1/21/20 episode of WWE Backstage on FS1 drew 121,000 viewers and it was up from last week’s show, per Showbuzz Daily. Appearing on this week’s show was CM Punk and RAW Women’s Champion Becky Lynch.
** A video made the rounds recently of Konnan being slapped in the face by Psicosis II outside of the building where the IMPACT Wrestling TV tapings in Mexico were taking place. On a recent edition of his podcast, Konnan spoke about the incident and said that he and Psicosis II’s issues date back a decade ago and things recently escalated when they had back and forth’s on social media. From that point on, Konnan addressed what happened from his point of view:
“The thing is that, I show up to the f*cking show, I’m alone. I’m getting out of a f*cking van, and the next thing I see, he’s coming with a whole bunch of guys and a guy’s filming. I’m thinking… for a split second, I’m thinking this guy’s probably trying to tape something for his website and trying to get a buzz because that’s what I’m thinking. So he comes up and immediately, it escalates into, ‘F*ck you man. You need to respect me. I’m the original Psicosis. You need to respect me like you respect him.’ I go, ‘Bro, what’s your problem? What’s going on here?’ Now I see he’s with other guys so I’m kinda looking around. I’m thinking, ‘Bro, is this guy gonna actually jump me here with these guys?’ While I’m kinda looking out of my peripherals and I’m trying to defuse the situation, he slaps me. I’m thinking real quick for that split second, ‘Bro if I hit him, I know I’m gonna get jumped. I just know I am. I just feel it.’
But anyways, so my first reaction, we would’ve been one-on-one, I would’ve f*cking punched the sh*t out of him. Even with a bad heart attack because I would’ve been with a bad heart because that would’ve been my first reaction. Bro if you notice in the thing, I don’t know if you can notice in the video, there’s like guys around him making sure nobody comes. There was two guys on the outside, and I heard him when he told the guy, when the guy was filming he goes, ‘Okay, that’s enough’ and he puts the camera down. So I’m thinking at that moment, ‘Let me get out of here so I can get into the dressing room and I can get everybody out’, and so he smacked me and I’m just thinking, ‘F*ck. Let me just try to get…’ now he’s got some of his tension out. ‘Let me try to get out of here and get into the dressing room.’ That’s what I did. I went into the dressing room. When I was going into the dressing room, a whole bunch of wrestlers were coming out and they’re like, ‘What happened?’ I’m like, ‘Bro, this f*cking b*tch…’ By the time they went out, he was already gone, and if you notice, nobody got in. There were people there. Nobody got in because they were afraid these thugs were gonna f*ck them up.”
** Mark Haskins is taking on Alex Shelley at Ring of Honor’s ‘Free Enterprise’ event next month.
** All Elite Wrestling posted Joey Janela and Rey Fenix’s match that was taped after AEW Dynamite: Bash At The Beach went off the air on TNT.
** The theme song for WWE Worlds Collide on January 25th is Wage War’s “Fury”.
** NJPW commentator Kevin Kelly is hosting a class/seminar at the Monster Factory wrestling school this weekend in Paulsboro, New Jersey.
** Ruby Riott and Nia Jax are scheduled to be in Houston, Texas for the Royal Rumble according to PWInsider. Nia Jax has been out of action since April of 2019 after undergoing double knee surgery. Ruby Riott underwent double shoulder surgery and last wrestled on an overseas house show in May of 2019.
** During an interview with Mirror Sport, NXT U.K. Champion WALTER stated that he wouldn’t mind being the #2 entrant in the Royal Rumble and squaring off with Brock Lesnar. WALTER praised Lesnar and thinks he’s the smartest wrestler for being able to secure a top spot while working less dates than anybody else.
“I will go in second, I don’t care. I respect the guy because I think Brock Lesnar is the smartest professional wrestler on the planet right now. The number one, work the least amount of time for everybody else, do your own thing… perfect. I like how everybody else hates him for that because they’re just jealous that they are not as smart as him, right? So yeah, of course. I would love to wrestle Brock Lesnar. He is one of my favorite wrestlers too. I think he is very skilled, very athletic, and yeah, that’s a good mind for wrestling, and yeah, obviously, I focus on definitely him being one of the matches I really want to do.”
** Schadenfreude & Friends 6: ‘Wet Cardboard Sandwich’ Results (1/22/20) Manchester, England
– Four Way Match: Luke Jacobs def. Big Guns Joe, Callum Newman and Ethan Allen
– Aleah James def. Mad Kurt
– Joe Nelson def. Dean Allmark
– Inflatable Mark Davis & Kid Lykos vs. Inflatable Kid Lykos & Mark Davis goes to a no-contest.
– Konosuke Takeshita, Chris Brookes & Kyle Fletcher def. Gene Munny & The Anti-Fun Police (Chief Deputy Dunne & Los Federales Santos Jr.)
** Lilian Garcia told Chris Van Vliet during a sit-down interview that the only time she would need to know what was going to happen during a match was if a Money In The Bank cash-in was going to occur.
“The only time, that maybe I would need to know an ending was if something was gonna get worded differently or, for example: Seth Rollins coming in — just one example, but anybody would be coming in to cash their Money In The Bank, I would have to know that, because I would need to know that yes, it’s legit. When the referee comes and says, ‘Come over!’ Like, it’s legit, come over, and then there’s times they’re like, ‘I’m gonna wave you over but take your time because he’s really not gonna cash his Money In The Bank’, so that’s why I would need to know those things. So if I knew he was gonna cash-in Money In The Bank — obviously I still don’t know the ending, but those little things I would need to know.”
** Carmella chatted with TheWrap.
** Former 7-time WWE Women’s Champion Trish Stratus is receiving the Lou Thesz Award at the George Tragos/Lou Thesz Professional Wrestling Hall of Fame ceremony in July.
** MySanAntonio conducted an interview with Seth Rollins and Rollins revealed that he broke his finger a number of weeks ago and he wears the glove on his hand to keep the splint in place.
“It’s a happy accident. I will say that I broke my finger about six weeks ago and I have to wear a splint when I wrestle, and so I have to wear a glove over the top of the splint to keep it from moving when I’m wrestling. Obviously, I could have taken six weeks off and not wrestled at all, but that’s not really what I do. So, the alternative was trying to tape it, but tape didn’t seem to keep it on very well. So, I just put a glove over top of it to keep it down, and it’s weird and so it is one of the things that people, they say, ‘Why is he wearing one glove?’ The fact that you’re asking me this question means that it’s doing its job. I think we will stick with it and see what the glove becomes over time.”
With the Royal Rumble coming up, Rollins reflected on his 2019 Royal Rumble win. He said it was a two-sided feeling as earlier in the night, Becky Lynch won the women’s Royal Rumble and got a massive reaction so it was difficult to come back at the end of the night and try to generate that same reaction from the crowd for his win.
“It was cool. It is one of those things that when you are a kid grow up wanting to win the Royal Rumble and main event WrestleMania, all that stuff, and the funny thing for me was like, I kind of did it backwards, right? Like, it’s usually the moment that makes you that pushes you to the next level. I had already won a couple of world titles at that point. So, I already kind of had that nice finish at WrestleMania with the title over my head back in 2015. I kind of had already done that and so the Rumble was something that I didn’t think I would ever do and may not ever be in my wheelhouse, but it came around last year, and it was a really cool moment. The only thing that’s difficult about it was, for me, was that on the same show, Becky won the Rumble earlier in the night and that was a huge moment, and then four hours later, you gotta ask that crowd of 40,000 people to sit there for another Royal Rumble and it was not quite as good as it was earlier in the night, but it was a really cool moment, looking back on it and I watch it played back in packages or whatever. It’s a really cool thing to be a part of, and to know that when you win, that’s the company’s kind of stamp of approval. They send you to WrestleMania and you know that you’re going to be in some sort of marquee match-up. It never, never ceases to amaze me that I’ve got an opportunity to perform in multiple Royal Rumbles and now win one.”
** Ken Shamrock has been announced as the ‘Head Of Security’ for the Bullet Club Beach party in Tampa, Florida in April.
** The first Beyond Wrestling Champion will be crowned during the promotion’s network pilot on March 1st. There is a on-screen general manager that is going to be introduced who’ll announce the participants that will be competing for the title.
** IMPACT Wrestling confirmed that their Rebellion pay-per-view is taking place on April 19th at Terminal 5 in New York City. Just a few weeks before Rebellion, the company is hosting their TNA Wrestling-branded show in Tampa, Florida during WrestleMania 36 weekend.
** Rusev chatted with Reel Talker and further opened up about the on-going storyline involving himself, Lana, Bobby Lashley and Liv Morgan. When it comes to his real-life wife kissing another man, Rusev said he has no issues with it and always wonders why people ask him how he feels about it when they should be asking Lana how she feels since she’s performing the act.
“It’s no different than what any of the other actors in Hollywood you asking me? Why don’t you go ask her? She’s the one who’s supposed to kiss him, every now and again. I’m not kissing a guy’ so for me — so kudos to her for being professional and if she didn’t agree to that then, we would’ve done something completely different, right? But here we are, a few months in, it’s the hottest angle in WWE.”
In regard to Bobby Lashley, Rusev had nothing but positive things to say about the former Intercontinental Champion. He said Bobby is very respectful and although he is a veteran, he’s willing to learn.
“The deal is with Bobby and never spoken much, but I’m glad because you know, he’s very respectful. He’s a great guy. I can’t say anything bad about him and he’s all game for everything, and he’s also willing to learn. He’s not like a stubborn veteran that thinks that he knows everything. He’s always willing to learn, and it’s cool to see. It’s very, very cool to see and now I get to know him better.”
** The latest EVOLVE mini documentary focused in on the promotion’s best moments in 2019.
** Cultaholic interviewed Paige, Nikki Cross and Sheamus at the same time on the BT Sport bus.
** While appearing on TVA Sports, ROH World Champion PCO shot a segment with the show host in-which PCO choked him out.
** Zenshi is scheduled for GCW ‘For The Culture’.
** IMPACT X Division Champion Ace Austin has been added to the talent lineup for AAW’s ‘A New Dawn’ show.
** IMPACT Wrestling announced that they’ve regained their Twitch channel after it was banned.
** DDT Pro Wrestling’s President did a Q&A on the organization’s YouTube channel.
** Sam Roberts appeared on a recent edition of Busted Open Radio with David LaGreca and Mark Henry.
** Following his NXT North American Title victory, Keith Lee got his custom side plates inserted onto the belt.
** Dave Meltzer and Bryan Alvarez conducted an interview with Darby Allin on the Chris Jericho Cruise.
** BT Sport confirmed that the 2020 Royal Rumble pay-per-view will be shown live on BT Sport Box Office for the price of £19.95.
** SunSport released another portion of their interview with WWE Hall Of Famer Kurt Angle. Angle spoke about the Attitude Era and the Monday Night Wars and how those days differ from what’s going on between NXT and AEW. Angle credited some of his success to the writers WWE had on staff at the time and feels they had more room to stretch as far as creating content for the weekly TV show.
“No, the Attitude Era was the place to be. That was the most successful era in the wrestling business. It had the highest ratings, more sell-outs than ever and to be a part of that, even if it was at the tail end, was a huge honor and I wouldn’t trade it for anything. Back then I had a very good writer who I connected with and that’s why the Attitude Era was so special. We had various writers that were able to go beyond the point of comfort and we were allowed to do and say things we aren’t allowed to do today. We had more freedom back then and the writers were exceptional. Some of the writers today get penned in the corner because they cannot go behind their limit as far as the PG rating is concerned. Back then we were allowed to, and do as we wanted. There was more freedom.”
** Hannibal TV released a video on their YouTube channel about there being “unusual behavior” from Vince McMahon and Pat Patterson at Rocky Johnson’s funeral. “Superstar” Billy Graham kick-started those rumors via a Facebook post that has since been deleted. Devon Nicholson of Hannibal TV claims that Davey Boy Smith Jr. confirmed the story about Vince McMahon and Pat Patterson’s unusual behavior.
** Chris Van Vliet conducted an interview with Alex Riley.
** Frank The Clown shared on Twitter that Noelle Foley, the daughter of Mick Foley has been dealing with concussion symptoms for the past five months and the symptoms have not lessened.
** According to a report from PWInsider, the NXT Women’s Championship is now simply being referred to as the “NXT Championship” and the gender-specific name of the title is no longer a part of the name.
** News 4 in Jacksonville has a story up about “Da Pope” Elijah Burke’s charity, ‘Love-Alive’. Burke hosted two events over the weekend in Jacksonville and volunteers handed out food, hygiene products and bags filled with school essentials.
** The Major Wrestling Figure Podcast YouTube channel has the 2019 Holiday Toy Drive wrestling show uploaded. Kris Statlander, Hornswoggle and Anthony Greene among others competed on the show. To get into this show, show-goers had to bring two wrestling toys.
** Here’s episode three of Magic City Live with EC3, Braun Strowman and Drake Maverick:
** ‘Metro’ released their interview with former WWE Women’s Tag Team Champion Nikki Cross. Nikki discussed her on-screen and off-screen friendship with Alexa Bliss and possibly wrestling some of her fellow friends in NXT UK.
** While speaking with Fightful, former WWE Tag Team Champion Fred Rosser further expressed his thoughts about being released from WWE and the following WrestleMania, Finn Balor representing the LGBTQ community during his entrance.
“I scratch my head. Every damn day man. You just never know man. Back in the day it was just Vince McMahon and Pat Patterson running the show. Now it’s Vince McMahon, Pat Patterson and a plethora of guys that… You know, it is what it is. That’s all I can say. I can only control my future now. I can say and talk badly about WWE, but I can’t be a hypocrite. Block the Hate. It’s easier to love than it is to hate. I had a great career for WWE, I’m making moves into other projects. Like I said, what me hurt the most is when I got released from WWE and four months after my release they put the LGBT movement on Finn Balor, who’s a good friend of mine, but he’s a straight guy. I just wanted to get that brought up, be able to represent the community. For me, WWE is entertainment, AEW is entertainment. I just love wrestling in general.”
** Jake Crist vs. Daga is official for IMPACT Wrestling’s ‘Sacrifice’ house show in Louisville, Kentucky.
** AAA’s Arez is challenging Myron Reed for the MLW Middleweight Championship at FIGHTLAND.
** Dolph Ziggler and R-Truth joined Corey Graves on the newest episode of WWE After The Bell. During the Ziggler portion of the show, he reflected on his WWE Intercontinental Championship match against The Miz at the 2016 No Mercy pay-per-view. Ziggler put his career on the line against Miz’s title and Ziggler shared that he wanted to lose that match because he wanted some time off to get his character out of the fans’ view for a while.
“I assumed going into that match that I was losing and leaving — loser leaves town, and we got there and I end up winning the match, to very much my dismay. I go, ‘The one damn time I win a match is the time I don’t want to’, and so I went, ‘Okay, what the hell are we doing now?’ And we went right back to doing almost nothing and just kind of hanging out and being there and I go, ‘Damn it. This is why I was supposed to leave’ and they kept going on and on. Anyways, that was so fun. We got to bring the Spirit Squad back, we had Maryse involved, and that match was a really special match because one, I’m pretty sure two-thirds of that arena or anybody watching at home, assumed that was my last match and I was going out fighting my friend, and trust me, anybody who looks back and watches that, I promise you I wanted it to be my last match. At least for a year or something like that because I’m very lucky also to have some other side projects and things to work on, so I said, ‘This is will be great. I’m actually gonna sit at home or just do a couple autograph signings. I can stay busy doing stand-up comedy and doing some political stuff on FOX News’, and I wanted to get out of there. I just really needed them to not see me for a little bit so they could remember that maybe I’m good at wrestling or maybe I could win sometimes but, I won that match and it was a pretty awesome reaction and a pretty fun time, but the next day, we went right back to me being Dolph Ziggler and sadly, we didn’t really capitalize on it so I needed to get out of there and that probably didn’t happen for another two years for me to get out of there for three months.”
Later in the show, Corey Graves talked about Matt Hardy’s teases that his days in WWE could be coming to an end. Graves said that he wants Matt Hardy to stay with the company and hope both sides come up with something productive for Matt to do in any capacity.
“If you follow his social media, he is a master at it. Matt is a master of being creative and creating doubt and raising questions amongst the internet wrestling community. Let’s be honest, Matt can play us all like fiddles when it comes to his videos, and look, it’s no secret, Matt has been sort of hinting at the fact that maybe his days in WWE are numbered. I certainly hope that’s not the case on a personal level because I consider him a friend and a really great guy. I also wanna know why someone as creatively gifted as Matt Hardy, isn’t asked or invited to contribute in a creative role. I don’t know that he’s been vocal about that anywhere but the television locker room where we sit and complain about life, but I think Matt Hardy would be a great addition to the creative end of things here in WWE. We’ve seen what he’s capable of on his own, outside of WWE and within, and the guy’s resume speaks for itself. It’s not like you’re hiring some guy off the street who went to theater school. This is Matt freaking Hardy. One-half of one of the greatest tag teams of all-time. The guy is awesome, he’s of great value and important in my opinion. Let’s do right by Matt, and again, I haven’t talked to him recently. I don’t even know if that’s what he wants but, I’m going out in public and saying, Matt Hardy, find your role in WWE and embrace it and WWE, find a better role for Matt Hardy because we want him.”
** Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn’s Ladder War match from Final Battle 2012 was voted Ring of Honor’s match of the decade.
** NWA World Women’s Champion Allysin Kay joined Cultaholic’s ‘Desert Island Graps’ podcast and when asked if there was any interest in her from WWE following her Mae Young Classic appearance, she said that it definitely felt like a one time deal.
“I would say now, it definitely feels like it was one and done. I’ve been around for so long, I feel like I have friends everywhere so I’m always talking to people about stuff but right now, I’m very happy with NWA.”
** While speaking with Inside The Ropes, former NXT U.K. Women’s Champion Toni Storm said she hopes to wrestle more talents on the RAW and SmackDown brands such as Becky Lynch, Sasha Banks and Natalya.
“I’ve always said Becky Lynch. I don’t know. I just feel like there’s this chemistry already before we’ve even stepped into the ring together. I just feel like it’ll be really good but I really do want to have a little wrestle with all of them. I wanna be in there with Sasha could be wrestling them next week. You never know. Anything could happen.”
** TV Insider interviewed RAW’s Drew McIntyre. The Scotsman told the publication that there is this misconception that wrestlers in WWE are handed a script and they have to read lines word by word. Drew said that is not the case as they are given guidelines and are asked to follow those guidelines when delivering their respective promos.
“I think the biggest one is that you’re given a script and are told to read every single line exactly how it is written. That’s not true at all for anybody. You’re given a guideline. It’s up to you to know who you are and put that into your own words and present the message how your character would convey it. The reason you wouldn’t know to do that is because you don’t understand the character or the situation. The ones who start publicly blasting it are mostly the ones who can’t quite figure it out. You do have that freedom. It’s obviously within the confines of the story. You can’t go crazy and say whatever and it makes no sense with the story you’re trying to tell. You can get your message out there. It’s a lot more loose environment out there. Now go out there and get yourself over. That’s the thing. If you can, you’re going to do really well right now.”
Drew also talked about the possibility of a match between himself and The Undertaker. Drew feels that he can bring the best out of The Undertaker and give him and the fans a match they’d enjoy.
“If it was possible to have that singles match with The Undertaker, it would be a huge moment for me. I know we can give them an incredible match. I know just based on that face off we had and the response we got, I know visually it would be impressive. I know in-ring wise I can help he deserves and the fans deserve.”
** Former two-time WWE Women’s Champion Jazz is being awarded the 2020 Women’s Wrestling award by way of the Cauliflower Alley Club.
** AJ Gray is defending the BLP Midwest Championship against Kylie Rae at BLP’s ‘Quantum Leap’ show on February 29th.
** New York Post released their interview with Drew McIntyre.
** The Miz and Maryse appeared on E! News’ ‘Daily Pop’ show to promote the next season of Miz & Mrs.
** Brody King vs. Rey Horus is official for Ring of Honor’s ‘Free Enterprise’ show.
** The ‘This Is NWA’ podcast welcomed Allysin Kay onto the show. The current NWA World Women’s Champion reflected on her match at Josh Barnett’s Bloodsport II show with Nicole Savoy. Allysin said it was one of the most enjoyable wrestling events she’s ever been a part of and she’s open to doing it again.
“That was amazing. Honestly, it is easily like one of my top three shows of the year. I wish all my matches could be like that. It was so much fun. Working with Savoy was great, because she knows what she’s doing. Honestly, I’ve never experienced anything like that and I love it so much. I will totally do it again.”
** On the 1/23/20 episode of NXT U.K. on the WWE Network, Jordan Devlin and Travis Banks won their respective matches to add their names to the NXT Cruiserweight Title match at Worlds Collide with Isaiah “Swerve” Scott and the champion Angel Garza. On next week’s NXT UK, Fabian Aichner, Marcel Barthel and Alexander Wolfe will take on Mark Andrews, Flash Morgan Webster and a partner of their choosing. An Eddie Dennis segment is also set for next week.
** During Jim Varsallone’s interview with Drew McIntyre, McIntyre revealed that he didn’t know about his special WrestleMania 35 entrance until the day of.
** Sporting News put of their interview with former SmackDown Women’s Champion Carmella. The former Ms. Money In The Bank does not know if she’s going to be in the women’s Royal Rumble match but is hoping she’ll be added. Also during the interview, Carmella talked about her friendship with R-Truth being a highlight of her career in WWE but it also being a good thing to separate so she can possibly step back into a marquee position on the card.
“I was definitely bummed and felt like there was a lot more that we could have done but, at the same time, it’s good for me I think because I actually get the opportunity to be in a story and just be Carmella again because it’s been a while. Basically, since I lost the championship at SummerSlam to Charlotte a year-and-a-half ago, I haven’t really been a major part of the women’s division because I’ve been so involved in the stuff with Truth, which has been great. It’s been a great opportunity to show a different side of my character. But I do think it’s important now to step out on my own and remind everyone what I can do and what I’m capable of outside of that comedy role.”
** For her latest column for the Calgary Sun, Natalya wrote about the passing of Rocky Johnson.
** Zack Gibson and James Drake did an interview with BT Sport and Gibson shared his thoughts about wrestling fans who think they know the business.
** Roman Reigns, Becky Lynch, Seth Rollins, The Miz and Maryse are included in the trailer for season three of “Carpool Karaoke”.
** Here’s the newest episode of ‘Driving Lessons With D-Von Dudley and Ronda Rousey’: