Originally published at Elix Skipper discusses his cage walk at TNA Turning Point 2004
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.
** Allan ‘Kwee Wee’ Funk welcomed Elix Skipper onto his Get Funk’d show. Elix reflected on his cage walk from TNA Turning Point 2004 where he and Christopher Daniels took on America’s Most Wanted (James Storm & Chris Harris).
The night we did it , the first time we did a cage match, I wanted to do that move but we didn’t do it because the A.C. went out on the first pay-per-view so we didn’t do it. You know when the A.C. goes out, everything’s slick and slippery so you couldn’t even stand on the cage so that’s the only reason I didn’t do it like three years prior. Otherwise, I would have done it the first cage match.
It was me, Triple X (Skipper & Christopher Daniels) and it was — not The Naturals — America’s Most Wanted (James Storm & Chris Harris) and we had that match and it was me, Triple X, we did it against them and basically, we wrestled them so many times, you know when you wrestle somebody two or three times, it’s not even work. It really isn’t. You don’t even have to talk basically. You really don’t have to talk, but it was one of them type of matches. It wasn’t even work. It was just, ‘Let’s go in there and do what we do.’
Yup and I don’t know what I was thinking to be honest because when I got up there, the difference of a six foot cage and a 20-foot cage is it’s gonna shake when you get to the top. So that’s why when you see me walking across it, I got my arms out like I’m trying to balance on top because the cage is moving so that was the only thing I didn’t think of when I was doing it but like, you know how it is. We gotta do it.
I didn’t even have the chance to get scared because when you first see me, I go to stand up. I got both my feet together. I never stand on a cage with both my feet together, but that was the only way I could get balance with the cage shaking back and forth. As soon as I stood up, I took off because I couldn’t — I didn’t wanna fall so I just took off.
When asked if there are any matches that he looks back on and is not happy with, Skipper said there was an Ultimate X tag match he was involved in that he does not remember fondly. He suffered a broken wrist several weeks before. Skipper did not say who was in the match, but he did compete in an Ultimate X tag match against Hernandez and Homicide at Bound For Glory 2007.
I think the only ever bad match I really criticize myself about was in TNA but it was a tag team match. It was X matches and hanging off the cable, jumping off stuff and I had a broken wrist and I just broke it like three weeks before the match so to me, that was my worst match because I was in so much pain, I didn’t even wanna be in the ring but in wrestling, you gotta do it. It’s not really optional. To me, that was my worst match.
** While speaking to Jim Varsallone of the Miami Herald, Bryan Danielson talked about the crowd reaction to Hangman Adam Page‘s return on the 10/6 Dynamite. Danielson said AEW has done a good job of building up their original stars and that is evident by Hangman getting a bigger reaction than both he and CM Punk on that night.
I feel like that’s what’s happening with AEW is that AEW and Tony Khan specifically and the wrestlers know, understand what the fanbase wants very well and they give it to them, you know? And so when you come to an AEW show, you have certain expectations and usually the show exceeds those expectations and people just have a great time so I think that’s why you see those reactions like that. I also think AEW’s done a great job of creating new stars people are super into. Like Hangman Adam Page just came back in Philadelphia and you think like, ‘Oh, Bryan Danielson main evented a couple WrestleManias. CM Punk, he’s like a huge superstar. Certainly, one of those guys is gonna get the biggest reaction of the night.’ No, Hangman Adam Page got the best reaction, you know what I mean? So it’s like they’ve created these new stars that people are super into and super behind so I think that’s what makes the crowd so rabid.
** Men’s Health has a feature column on their site about Dave Bautista. Bautista dove into the “toxic atmosphere” that he felt he was surrounded by early on in WWE career. He said he could not get comfortable and did not know where he’d fit in.
I couldn’t get comfortable, people didn’t like me, I was doing something wrong, the company wasn’t going to do anything with me, they didn’t know what to do with me, they didn’t know where I fit in. It was just a very toxic atmosphere. Wrestling is very competitive. It’s very cutthroat. You’re put in a position where you have to posture up all the time, and it’s exhausting. It’s just exhausting.
Bautista added that when he ventured into acting, he was not trying to separate himself from pro wrestling. He just did not want to get boxed into a specific role while trying to find who he was in the acting field.
I’m not trying to separate myself from professional wrestling because I’m embarrassed or anything like that. It’s just, I needed to make a name for myself and start all over and kind of just get people to see me in a different light. Because if people always see me as a pro wrestler turned actor, then they’re going to put me in a box for roles. I found out in wrestling that I like being the bad guy. And I don’t know why this happens, but there’s something about me that people like as a bad guy.
** AEW President Tony Khan made the media rounds and guest appeared on Barstool Sports’ ‘Rasslin show. Khan talked about the possibility of an AEW streaming deal. He said AEW is building up their content library and mentioned that he is saving ‘The House Always Wins’ house show that was taped in April.
I’m talking to great people about WarnerMedia and AEW partnering. I think there’s great opportunities. I work with one of the biggest media companies in the world and they have a lot of great ideas so hopefully we can make a solution for the fans because you’re — believe me, I get asked that question every day and it’s a great opportunity for us.
I’m trying to build the library up now that we’ve done over 100 episodes of Dynamite, two years, we’ve been on every week. We’ve done like 104 episodes of Dynamite. Ten pay-per-views, plus the streaming specials. I have something nobody’s ever seen before; The House Always Wins which is a pay-per-view level card with all top stars of AEW in action and it was done in Jacksonville in front of the fans in the pandemic with open air, totally spaced out. But it was something I’ve been saving. It’s a great show nobody’s seen. It’s gonna be available and all pay-per-views. We’ve done 104 Dynamites and now we have Rampage library building up so, thank you for asking that because it’s gonna be soon.
Adam Cole’s arrival to AEW and what he brings to the company was discussed. Khan feels that Cole has the potential to be the number one breakthrough star in wrestling.
I think Adam Cole’s got as much potential and has as much of a chance to be the breakthrough number one star as anyone in all of wrestling right now. You talk about Hangman Page who’s got that same potential and a lot of other people; MJF and Darby Allin and a bunch of other people. Sammy Guevara, the TNT Champion, so many people.
** IMPACT Wrestling’s Petey Williams chatted with Matt Rehwoldt on the Straight Shooting podcast. Petey talked about some of his future goals in wrestling and he hopes to be in a similar position like Scott D’Amore as a high-level official in IMPACT.
A lot of people in our positions and stuff like that, we wanna do everything we can and if we ask anybody, any wrestler that — you’d be like, ‘What are your goals in wrestling?’ They’re gonna say stuff like, ‘Well, I’d like to be world champion’ if they haven’t been world champion before, right? ‘I wanna main event this’ or, ‘I wanna have this’ or whatever. I feel like I don’t have wrestling goals anymore. A lot of my stuff is producing and stuff and you know, to me, being like — running IMPACT one day, being Scott D’Amore’s job, I’m like that is a long-term goal, for me. So something like that. You know obviously, producing, I had little goals like when I started doing the producing stuff, I’m like working — the producers sit right at the Gorilla now. Before, they used to be in the truck when I started doing it and I would sit right behind the main producer who right now is Josh Matthews that kind of runs the show, replays, all that kind of stuff and then the director who’s Dave Sahadi, where he’s calling all the camera shots and whatever the case may be so watching them, I’m like, ‘Man, that’d be a good goal.’
In April, IMPACT presented their Rebellion pay-per-view which featured Kenny Omega and Rich Swann clashing for the IMPACT and AEW World Titles. Petey Williams was the agent for that match.
The big Kenny Omega-Rich Swann match that happened and Mauro Ranallo was calling it, Scott put me in charge as being the producer for that match and I’m like, ‘Oh, this is an honor. This is like the biggest match in the company’s history probably’ and just to be able to be like, ‘Yeah, what if you guys did this?’ And just having my part in it and even working with Mauro, it was awesome because he’s like, ‘Hey Petey, what do you think of this?’ I don’t do commentary. I’m like, ‘I should be asking you this sh*t’, you know what I mean? But he’s like, ‘What about this for the outline? What’s the story?’ And we’re all sitting down and it’s just — that stuff is awesome for me because I’m not the most athletic guy, I’ll tell you that right now. But a Rich Swann, I can be like, ‘Hey Rich, I like that. That spot you called, the combination but what if you did this?’ Because if I had his ability, that’s the sh*t I’d be doing right now, you know what I mean? And he’s like, ‘Oh! That’s great.’
Petey detailed how he started his agent role in IMPACT and it was by way of Scott D’Amore asking him to fill in last minute.
When I came back Sahadi was doing the production at the time, the director and he was yelling at me like, ‘Did you know about this dive?’ And I’m like, ‘Yes. Sorry, I missed it’ but I made it, I did it and they gave me the ball ever since and I kind of polished myself off. Now you see me, I do both. I run around all day and I agent in my wrestling gear and then I put down my headset, do a run-in and then come back and then call the break spot, whatever.
** Big Damo (Killian Dain) joined Busted Open Radio and during the conversation, he was asked about the wrestling promotions that he’s been in contact with. Damo said without giving away everything, he has been in touch with almost everybody. He is returning to the ring this month for OTT in Ireland.
Well I can’t give the game away completely but, I’ve been in contact with almost everybody. That’s probably the best way I can kind of put it and honestly, my goal for the next year minimum is to try and get everywhere, wrestle everybody that I possibly can because I’m fit, I’m healthy and I’m revving to go. I’m at that position in my life, I’m 36-years-old. I’ve been blessed with how my career’s went so far but now I want to get out there and do everything I possibly can before I can’t. Honestly, the best way I can answer it is at first, I’m gonna get back to Europe, as I said about seeing my family and I wanna try and pay it forward to the guys who are back there right now because a lot of people helped me get to this level and I wanna be able to try and give it back a little bit first and then I’m gonna do my very best to get all across the nation here as best as I can.
** Justin Barrasso of Sports Illustrated pushed out his interview with Jeff Cobb. Cobb is currently undefeated in the NJPW G1 Climax. He explained why he decided to head to New Japan Pro-Wrestling over the other options that were on the table. He added that right now, his sights are set on winning the IWGP World Heavyweight Title.
New Japan is the right decision for me. I have a lot of unfinished business here in New Japan—tons of guys I have yet to suplex and tons of championships to win. I also respect what Tony Khan is doing, especially the level of excitement he has brought into the pro wrestling community and all the amazing crossovers going on.
Having said that, will I show up in AEW? Right now, I have my sights set on the G1 and the IWGP world heavyweight championship. But if there’s something that interests me or the United Empire, you never know.
** Edition #77 of Hiroshi Tanahashi’s Ace’s HIGH series covered Tanahashi’s in-ring run-ins with Kazuchika Okada and Tetsuya Naito early in their New Japan runs. Tanahashi recounted teasing Naito in 2009 about the future belonging to Okada.
Heheh, just a little bit of psychology on Naito when he was dead drunk. But at that point I thought it was weird that Naito was so wary of Okada. I guess it’s because he wrestled him more than I ever did, so he knew firsthand just how far he would progress.
He went on to share his thoughts about Okada as a Young Lion:
He was someone that the older guys really liked from day one. Very outgoing, personable. Back then Taichi was still in Hontai, and he and Okada got on well. The three of us would play Nintendo DS together, having a little Dragon Quest group (laughs).
** Eric Bischoff and Conrad Thompson covered the TNA Wrestling Bound For Glory 2011 event for the latest 83 Weeks podcast. Bischoff touched on how at the time, Samoa Joe and Vince Russo were not fans of one another. Russo would speak about Joe as if he didn’t want him on the roster.
Joe was a victim of Vince Russo. Russo absolutely — he wanted Dixie Carter to cut — I don’t know what the personal beef was or if there was one, I don’t know if there was but the way Russo talked about Joe whether it was in the writer’s room or whatever, he just didn’t want Joe anywhere near the roster. That’s what he was a victim of.
He didn’t like his look, flat-out and I’m not gonna sling mud for the sake of slinging mud. Everybody knows what I’m talking about. Just — and also, Joe wasn’t buying Russo’s sh*t. Russo hit a brick wall every time he tried to have a conversation with Samoa Joe because Samoa Joe would see through his sh*t and didn’t really care. Other people went along with Russo and some people liked Vince, fine with Vince. That would not be Joe, at least what I saw. There may be — previously, maybe they got along at one point and something happened and they didn’t or whatever but I only know what I heard when it came to Russo whenever Joe’s name came up. It was not positive in any way, shape or form. It was not even remotely open-minded. It was just like, ‘Why is he even here?’ Ridiculous. Whatever.
Robert Roode headlined Bound For Glory 2011 with Kurt Angle and Roode failed to capture the TNA World Title. Bischoff said that is not reflective of what the powers that be thought of Roode. He added that everyone thought Roode had what it took to be champion.
No, I don’t think there was anybody that didn’t feel that Bobby Roode had the chops to carry the world title. Bobby had so much respect from so many people, including me and certainly Kurt , which meant a lot more than me. No, we were all very, very high on Bobby Roode. I’ve said this before, I still to this day can’t understand why Bobby Roode — because Bobby isn’t at a much higher level than he is. He can work, he’s got a great — in terms of his performance in the ring, athletically, the storytelling ability in the ring is there. He knows how to sell, he’s got a great look. He’s a professional in every way you could hope someone on your roster is a professional and he’s great on the mic. He’s not just good, he’s great, but we all said that back then in 2010. So no, I think everybody was supportive.
While Eric was in IMPACT/TNA, he said he always stayed away from contract talk and whenever he’d hear it, he’d remove himself from the area.
Not at all. I made a point of staying as far away from — I didn’t even wanna hear. If somebody happened to be — if I was eating lunch with somebody or backstage and all of a sudden I hear chatter about that stuff, I would literally leave just because I didn’t even wanna be of earshot of it. I didn’t want anything to do with it, I didn’t want to get caught in the middle of it. I didn’t want anybody to engage me in a question or conversation about what I thought about anything related to talent pay. So no, if somebody tried to talk to me about it, I would have turned around and walked away or changed the subject.
** DDT Pro-Wrestling ‘Get Alive’ Results (10/12/21) Korakuen Hall
– Antonio Honda, Baliyan Akki & Masahiro Takanashi def. Gota Ihashi, Yukio Naya & Yuya Koroku
– Yoshihiko def. Kazuki Hirata
– Saki Akai def. Riko Kawahata
– Kazusada Higuchi def. Yuki Ishida
– KO-D 8-Man Tag Team Championships: Akito, Hiroshi Yamato, Keigo Nakamura & Yoshiaki Yatsu (c) def. Hideki Okatani, Jun Akiyama, Mizuki Watase & Yusuke Okada
– DDT Extreme Championship: Shinya Aoki (c) def. Yumiko Hotta by DQ
– DDT Extreme Championship – No DQ Match: Shinya Aoki (c) def. Yumiko Hotta
– Three-On-Two Handicap Match: Danshoku Dino, Yuki Ino & Yumehito Imanari vs. Soma Takao & Toru Owashi (w/ Sanshiro Takagi) – No Contest
– Chris Brookes, Kazusada Higuchi & Tetsuya Endo def. MAO, Yuki Ueno & Yuji Hino
– DDT Universal Championship: Daisuke Sasaki (c) def. Isami Kodaka
– KO-D Tag Team Championships: DISASTER BOX (HARASHIMA & Naomi Yoshimura) def. Konosuke Takeshita & Shunma Katsumata (c)
** ABC 7 News has a story about a young wrestling fan named Tony who has beat cancer twice. Tony attended this past Monday’s Raw in San Francisco, California. Sasha Banks gave Tony ringside tickets and she often sent him gifts while he was in the hospital.
** SiriusXM’s Stitcher is adding The Bellas Podcast to their network of shows.
** Tom Lawlor versus Alex Coughlin has been added to Josh Barnett’s Bloodsport on 10/22.
** Shane Douglas talked to The Hannibal TV about his experience backstage at AEW Rampage in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
** Don Callis is celebrating his 58th birthday today.
** Both Renee Paquette and Lilian Garcia appeared on Busted Open Radio.
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.