Originally published at https://www.postwrestling.com/2020/04/30/post-news-update-heath-slater-opens-up-about-the-fall-of-the-nexus-summerslam-2010/
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.
** On a recent edition of Busted Open Radio, Heath Slater chatted with Bully Ray and David LaGreca. Slater was asked about The Nexus group and how they seemingly fell apart after losing to Team Cena at the 2010 SummerSlam pay-per-view. Slater believes that the group should’ve won at that event and knew at the beginning of the night, they were supposed to win and within a matter of hours, they found out they were losing.
“And then, going through Nexus, my goodness I wish we just could’ve had our hands and a grip on it a little more because it died way too soon and we all know this. Everyone knows it. SummerSlam, we should’ve took over, period. We should’ve won. I mean, me, and Cena took us all out, and it was just one of those things where as soon as that happened, I mean we shifted from fourth to second gear in a matter of one night, and then it was like, ‘Damn. We worked all this way and this hard for us and the company for this to happen? We couldn’t wait a few more months until Mania so you could have a mega-group and surely just destroy us or whatever?’ But yeah, it surely should not have ended at SummerSlam.
I mean, I knew we were going over and next thing I knew . None of us knew. We were winning, and then a matter of, sh*t, a couple matches before, we were not. We were going over… and I still don’t know the whole story, and you’re never gonna know the whole story because they always tell you, ‘Oh I don’t know. Oh that’s what he came up with.’ You can never get the right answer. You can only get the ‘around the bush’ answers so… I don’t know man.”
Heath also opened up about his segment with Flo Rida at WrestleMania 28. Slater said that Flo Rida pushed him multiple times as hard as he could and it got to a point where Heath looked over to Brian “Road Dogg” James to let him know that he was not going to keep letting Flo Rida put his hands on him in that manner.
“It’s one of those things man. That moment — that’s when Flo Rida pushed me and I went against the wall, right? Alright, get this sh*t. So, literally they wanted Flo Rida to do an interview. Just a little 20 second whatever. So, they’re like, ‘Heath, you wanna do this interview with Flo Rida? He’s gonna push you down’ or whatever. I’m just like, ‘Sure, why not. It’s Flo Rida. He’s actually a big dude. He was very popular back then,’ so I literally said, ‘Yeah sure, why not’ because I’ve always did that. I didn’t know how to say ‘no’ type deal, you know? But what got me was when we were in there and he was pushing me, he legit pushed me about ten times against the damn cinder block wall to where I looked over at Road Dogg and I’m like, ‘Dogg, I’m not taking no more. This better be it.’ To where it was just like, ‘Yeah, I’m at WrestleMania for getting pushed down by Flo Rida but my goodness, this is the hardest back bumps that I’ve taken in years.’ So, it’s one of those things to where… yeah I’m on Mania for that and which it ain’t like, ‘Woo hoo! I got on WrestleMania and got beat up by Flo Rida.’ Nothing like that. It wasn’t one of those — I done forgot about it, being honest until you mentioned it. I don’t take shame in doing stuff like that. If Snoop Dogg wanted to clothesline me and throw me over the top rope, sure. I’ll make it look like Hulk Hogan did it back in the 80s, you know what I mean? But it’s just one of those things where I don’t take — I’m not opposed to doing it. So, I don’t know if that answers your question but I do know that my goodness, he has a hard push and my back hurt, like legit.”
** Per SEC filings made on April 29th, WWE Executive Producer Kevin Dunn sold 33,000 shares of his WWE stock which accumulates to almost $1,532,850 worth of Class A stock. WWE Executive Vice President Bradley Blum sold 16,358 shares at $45.32 per share which is almost $741,835 worth of stock.
** As announced by Pro Wrestling NOAH, the current GHC Heavyweight Champion Go Shiozaki underwent surgery for acute appendicitis. Shiozaki was discharged from the hospital following the surgery but to decrease the risk of him getting sick due to the current state of his immune system post-surgery, he’ll miss his TV matches on May 3rd, May 9th and May 10th.
** WWE has begun the process of opposing some of the trademarks that Fear The Revolt, formerly The Revival began to trademark while they were under contract with WWE. “No Flips, Just Fists”, “Say Yeah” and “FTRKO” are the trademarks being opposed. WWE requested a 90-day extension to oppose those trademarks.
** Patches Chance of Daily DDT spoke with David Starr for an exclusive interview. Coming off the heels of the many WWE talent releases and furloughs, Seth Rollins took to Instagram and shared his thoughts about the recent events which was not well received. Rollins also had a back and forth on social media with David Starr. During this interview, Starr gave his thoughts about Rollins and their interaction on Twitter.
“I think that Rollins, who I don’t know personally, I’ve never met him before, I think Rollins is genuinely sad. I think his sadness and all of that is sincere. I don’t think that’s just nonsense, but I also think he has the perspective of been personally taken care of. He’s in a great position. I don’t think he’s a bad guy. I don’t know him personally, but from all accounts he’s not a bad guy and he’s well liked amongst individuals and stuff. Obviously, it goes without saying that he’s a tremendous performer all around. The sentiment that Rollins was displaying of sadness and stuff, like I said I think was sincere, but it would be nice if there was some acknowledgement of who’s responsible for creating that sadness.”
While on the topic of All Elite Wrestling continuing to run shows, Starr shared that he does have a relationship with AEW President Tony Khan. Starr clarified that he can be straight up with Khan about his thoughts because he and Khan both know that Starr is not looking to or can not get a job with AEW.
“I do have a relationship with Tony that we communicate, not regularly but here and there in which I’m fairly certain he trusts my opinion because he knows that I can’t get a job with him. So it’s one of those things, that’s something that helps — the fact that I know I can be honest with him. Having spoken with Tony directly and then people around Tony and people that work for Tony, and speaking to people that work for IMPACT , it seems like they’re just doing it much better than WWE is doing it. They’re taking care of the wrestlers. I think that they have their interest more at heart, even though not entirely because they’re still running shows.”
** Aubrey Edwards was the focus of the latest AEW Unrestricted podcast with Tony Schiavone. Aubrey revealed that she is working on an AEW rule book and that rule book will be published on the company’s official website. Also, Aubrey voiced her thoughts about the criticism she receives on social media about “taking away from the wrestlers” during matches.
“There’s always going to be people who vocalize what they don’t like. There’s always that really vocal minority. The ones that are behind the keyboards that are like, ‘Oh, I don’t like this.’ It’s fine. You’re allowed to like or not like certain things. Everyone’s different. There’s enough wrestling out there for you, whatever. But the thing that’s really interesting is just how many — it’s a very common occurrence where people just say I take too much attention away from the wrestlers, I’m too distracting. My favorite comment online once was that someone couldn’t watch the match because my lipstick was too distracting. Yeah, I’m like, ‘You’re not paying attention to wrestling. Like what the hell are you doing buddy?’ I think the social media team gets at least one email a week about me and how I’m a distraction and people can’t watch All Elite Wrestling because I’m on the TV.”
** AEW Co-Executive Vice President Cody Rhodes joined the Dan Le Betard Show to promote AEW Dynamite. While on the topic of his father Dusty Rhodes, Cody said that WWE has been trying for quite some time to obtain some of the memorabilia that the Runnels family has by way of Dusty.
“We have everything. WWE has been trying to break into our little vault for years, trying to get some of the good stuff. We have a lot of really great stuff from Championship Wrestling from Florida, a lot of Gordon Solie, personal items and really good stuff from dad’s hay day.”
Cody also spoke about the Stardust gimmick and how in the early stages, he pieced the character together with Dusty Rhodes. Cody said he initially wanted a hairless cat to go along with the gimmick.
“When I was doing the Stardust character, I really wanted to have a hairless cat, so my poor dad, he’s trying to produce this promo and I’ve got this hairless cat in there and the makeup and the glitter and he’s watching his son. Just absurd pieces of business.”
** WWE Champion Drew McIntyre sat down with Noah Clarke for a chat via Instagram. Drew recalled when he first saw Edge backstage at the 2020 Royal Rumble pay-per-view and couldn’t believe it when he saw him. Drew added that he deliberately kept AJ Styles’ foot on his neck so he could enjoy the reaction to Edge’s return.
“I heard rumors. I didn’t know for sure, and then when he walked backstage and it was just a little room with a few guys that were maybe gonna be at the end of the Rumble, and he walked in that room. I jumped out the chair. He’s so ripped as well. The best shape of his life. So excited to see him and there was a point in the Rumble where AJ Styles had me in a corner and he was choking me and I was just like, ‘Screw this. I’m just gonna keep my arm around his foot so he has to keep choking me’ because I knew Edge was coming and I wanted to hear the reaction so I kept myself in the corner deliberately, so I could enjoy the reaction, and then when his music hit, I just laid there and looked around and I knew the camera wasn’t on me. It was on Edge. So I just took that moment to enjoy the Edge reaction, and then I realized towards the end, ‘Oh no, when he gets eliminated, they might boo and they might not stop booing,’ and I’m gonna win this thing so it got a bit scary towards the end but Roman eliminated Edge and they booed but thankfully when I put Roman out, they exploded again when I won and I went, ‘Alright, that’s pretty cool’ because they’ve turned on matches before. They’ve booed winners of the Royal Rumble before.”
** The first portion of a series of interviews with Hiroshi Tanahashi is up on NJPW1972.com.
** Lana chatted with ‘Haute Living’ and shared that the comic book that she and Rusev are working on is coming out soon.
** There’s a feature article in the Washington Post with Xavier Woods chatting ‘Animal Crossing’.
** Brian Myers, formerly known as “Curt Hawkins” was a guest on F4WOnline’s ‘Left My Wallet’ podcast.
** Darby Allin spoke with Jim Varsallone of the Miami Herald.
** UFC Women’s Featherweight and Bantamweight Champion Amanda Nunes told Sports Illustrated that after she retires from MMA, there could be a chance she’d be interested in pro wrestling.
** WrestleZone conducted an interview with AEW World Champion Jon Moxley. While on the topic of the Cagefighter: Worlds Collide film, Moxley said that Jay Reso (Christian) who was an Executive Producer for the film put it out there that Moxley should be able to adlib most of his lines in the film.
“One of the cool things was they didn’t… Christian kind of told them, ‘Maybe let this guy adlib some of his stuff as far as him cutting wrestling-style interviews and stuff like that in the movie.’ So it was like 90 percent of my lines were just adlibs, which was really cool that they gave me that opportunity to do. To kind of get on a roll verbally, just kinda say any ridiculous thing that came to my mind and every insult and every swear word and every possible thing I could think of to just really be an over the top jerk. That part was really fun.”
** On his birthday which was April 29th, Titus O’Neil donated $10,000 to the Florida Sheriff’s Youth Ranch.
** Comicbook.com ran their interview with Keith Lee. GameSpot also chatted with Lee.
** Newsweek has an interview up with former AEW World Champion Chris Jericho.
** IMPACT World Tag Team Champion Josh Alexander revealed that he played the role of “Droz” in the cinematic scenes of Dark Side of Ring.
** Part one of the ‘Roast Of Booker T’ is up on the Reality Of Wrestling YouTube channel.
** Jeff Hardy was the most recent guest on WWE’s After The Bell podcast with Corey Graves. Jeff opened up about the current DUI court case that’s hovering over him. He said that he wants to get a few more years out of pro wrestling and recalled when he called WWE for help in regard to his alcohol problem.
“I wanna get a good few years out of this body and do the best I possibly can but yeah, it was weird man. So now I still have the legal situation. The black cloud that’s hanging over me. I haven’t been convicted — when I got pulled over, October 3rd of 2019, the day before, I called WWE and said, ‘I need help. I need treatment. There’s something wrong with me with this alcohol thing.’”
Jeff Hardy shared his thoughts about the cinematic matches that WWE has done as of late. With Matt Hardy and himself being innovators of that style of match, Jeff finds it cool to see the match-type evolve because he knows what’s like to piece together something like that.
“Watching the Boneyard match, I was envious man because I know what it’s like behind the scenes when you’re filming stuff like that and it’s just so fun. When you’re filming through all hours of the night and then you get to watch the finished product back and that match was amazing and when AJ came out of that coffin, I was like, ‘Oh yeah, I know what minds this is coming from’ basically because it reminded me a lot of Final Deletion for sure and I think a lot of other people but, that cinematic stuff, now could be really useful if you could get to all these cool different places to film stuff like that. When you’re not in front of a crowd, I love that. I was on my motocross track and I had this vision. I was like, ‘What if there was some type of motocross match? Like a ring was set up in the middle of it and it was all lit up but there’s a race going on at the same time.’ So I had all kinds of crazy, nutty ideas. That’s the beauty of pro wrestling, anything is possible. To see that, it’s an honor because all that Deletion stuff that we did, I’m so proud of all that and it was so fun because that first one, it was like six people out there moving lights and doing our spots and the matches and it was a very good feeling when you do something like that and it takes off.”
** Episode 16 of Battle Of The Brands is up on the UpUpDownDown YouTube channel.
** Below is a video of the first-ever Ring of Honor main event:
** Excalibur, Taz and Jim Ross recapped the 4/29/20 episode of AEW Dynamite on the All Elite Wrestling YouTube channel. During their recap, Excalibur said that AEW will have on-site medical testing when they begin their live show next week.
** ‘The Feed’ published a story about the Australian pro wrestling scene.
** 70-year old Mike Jackson who recently competed on an episode of IMPACT Wrestling, guest appeared on the Sitting Ringside with David Penzer podcast.
** Darby Allin was the most recent guest on Vickie Guerrero’s podcast and during their chat, Darby said that he’ll be tattooing half of his body in the future to match the skeleton tattoo he has on his hand. Elsewhere during the interview, Allin said that one of the best days of his life was signing with AEW and he explained why:
“I’d say my other day was signing an AEW contract because… here we go. Validation for all this work and I get to show people what I like to do. Creative freedom and stuff like that so…”
** The University of Florida posted Titus O’Neil’s message to the graduating class of 2020.
** Cody Rhodes joined Bully Ray and David LaGreca on Busted Open Radio and shared his thoughts about the duo of Chris Jericho and Tony Schiavone who have been on commentary on Dynamite over the past several weeks. Cody believes that people are going to miss Jericho and Schiavone as a team.
“I think people are gonna miss the commentary team of Jericho and Schiavone and to see Tony Schiavone grow into this role even further, a role he didn’t have to grow into is really amazing. He’s been an MVP during this time period but I’m also real excited to get Jim , to get Excalibur and to get Taz back in the fold and get the full team together.”
** Below is a roundtable of WWE’s Scottish champions: Drew McIntyre, Nikki Cross, Kay Lee Ray, Mark Coffey and Wolfgang. Digital Spy has an interview up on their site with Cross and McIntyre to promote the roundtable.
** Inside The Ropes has an interview up with Jon Moxley.
** Adam Cole spoke with the Hindustan Times about his rise in pro wrestling.
** For the latest edition of the NJPW Official English Podcast, Kevin Kelly and Gino Gambino watched back Kazuchika Okada’s first win the G1 Climax tournament from 2012 over Karl Anderson.
** Former WWE writer Brian Gewirtz shared a photo of a pitched idea for the conclusion of the Vince McMahon/Hornswoggle angle that included McMahon “getting rid” of Swoggle by tossing him out of his limousine window and over a bridge railing.
** Shawn Spears noted on Twitter that Bret Hart granted him permission to use the Sharpshooter on the 4/29 episode of AEW Dynamite.
** John Cena is delivering a graduation commencement speech on May 1st to honor America’s class of 2020.
** Former WWE writer Kazeem Famuyide welcomed Booker T onto his ‘Say Less with Kaz’ podcast. Booker shared that his Reality of Wrestling student and former ROW Heavyweight Champion Rex Andrews received an opportunity from Booker to partake in a WWE tryout. Rex ultimately decided to turn it down because he wanted to remain with Reality of Wrestling and continue establishing his roots in pro wrestling.
“I got one kid in my school right now. His name is Rex Andrews, and he’s like a prodigy. He moved from Dothan, Alabama to be here at 18 years old. He’s 24, 25 years old. He’s been with me ever since those days and he’s so good. I got him a tryout with WWE and he didn’t wanna go do that. He said, ‘Man, I just wanna be here. I wanna make sure I got something in case WWE don’t work out for me’ and he got him a gym, he’s got a partner, he’s got his own spot and now if he wants to do wrestling, he could do it and knowing he’s got something to fall back on. That’s what I want to teach more than anything. If you got a scholarship over here waiting on you young man, you better go get that scholarship. Reality Of Wrestling will be here when you get back.”
** An MLW Anthology series will premiere on beIN SPORTS in May featuring some of the best matches and rivalries dating back to the organization’s start in 2002.
** In her latest blog post for the Calgary Sun, Natalya wrote about the forthcoming Money In The Bank pay-per-view and the Money In The Bank matches that will take place inside of WWE’s headquarters in Stamford, Connecticut. Natalya says that out of all the competitors in the women’s Money In The Bank match, she wants Dana Brooke to win.
“If I was being asked to choose which woman I’d want to win this year’s Money in the Bank ladder match, I’m going to have to go with Dana Brooke. Dana has shown so much heart, perseverance and such an amazing attitude for years climbing up the ranks in WWE. Dana hasn’t taken “no” for an answer in fighting for her dreams. To see her grab the briefcase amongst some of the toughest women in WWE and then cash in and win a WWE Women’s Championship, would be nothing short of amazing. The other unpredictable part of this match is that whoever wins can cash in on either championship. Imagine Dana Brooke winning and cashing in on Becky Lynch! The unpredictability of this match is what also makes it so exciting.”
** Jim Ross and Conrad Thompson reviewed the 2000 WWF Backlash pay-per-view for the newest episode of Grilling JR. While breaking down the events leading up to the pay-per-view, Jim Ross recalled a conversation he had with the late Joan Laurer, known as “Chyna”. Chyna wanted a contract worth $1 million a year and Ross explained why he was hesitant to meet Chyna at that number.
“Her contract was coming up for renewal and she wanted a million dollars a year, and at that time, that was the maximum number that any talent in the company was making on a downside guarantee. That’s $19,323 a week if I recall. That’s pretty good weekly pay, and of course you could make a lot more. .”
** Fight Network has an interview up on their YouTube channel with IMPACT World Tag Team Champion Josh Alexander. Alexander opened up about the night he received his IMPACT Wrestling contract from Scott D’Amore at a Destiny World Wrestling show in February of 2019 and what that meant to him.
“I was just trying to soak in that moment. I’ve been around long enough to know that this stuff isn’t gonna last forever and that was one of those moments. Like just when Scott and I did the same thing. I laid down and bowed in the ring and I put my headgear down in the middle of the ring but this time, it was like I was picking up a contract in the middle of the ring. It’s pretty symbolic and cool.”
** Rick Steiner and his son, Bronson Rechsteiner chatted with TMZ about Bronson signing with the Baltimore Ravens.
** Great Kojika, co-founder of Big Japan Pro Wrestling spoke with Tokyo Sports about the impact that the COVID-19 pandemic has had on Big Japan.
“What is the damage if I cancel the tournament? Well, depending on the scale, I think there are hundreds of thousands per competition. I don’t think it will fit in 300,000. In our case, we will go to the gymnasium four to six months in advance to hold the tournament, and then spend the expense to travel around the region and advertise. There are times when sales will be lost by cancelling the tournament, but since the transportation expenses and lodging fees to go to such business will be a pain.”
** Below is a video of Bobby Lashley getting Chiropractic work done.
** Game Changer Wrestling announced the cancellation of their ‘All Of The Lights’ event which was going to take place during Double Or Nothing weekend in Las Vegas.
** MuscleManMalcolm has an interview with David Starr.
** WWE Universal Champion Braun Strowman was able to collaborate with ‘Beefy King’ in Orlando and Jimmy Hula’s to provide 1000 meals for the local hospital workers in Florida.
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.