Originally published at POST NEWS UPDATE: Henry Cejudo in talks with All Elite Wrestling - POST Wrestling | WWE AEW NXT NJPW Podcasts, News, Reviews
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.
** Former TMZ reporter Adam Glyn caught up with former UFC Flyweight and Bantamweight Champion Henry Cejudo. Cejudo was asked about the possibility of him appearing on All Elite Wrestling programming again, following his appearance at Double Or Nothing in May and Cejudo said there have been more conversations held between his team and AEW.
“Probably the wrestling, probably the Boxing. But I meant it when I said I’m retired. There’s a boatload of money that could bring me back, but I think more importantly than money for me is legacy.
Yeah we’ve been in contact with AEW. There’s a potential big pay-per-view event that they may want to hold but, there’s a lot. Even amateur wrestling man. I mean there’s so many options that I don’t really know which one to pick because they all seem a little appetizing to me, you know?”
Henry spoke about the main event of UFC 251 between Jorge Masvidal and Kamaru Usman. Cejudo says the night prior, he spoke to Usman and talked to him about Masvidal’s fighting style.
“I thought the fights were okay. I was expecting a little more pizzazz a little bit but I knew the main event with Kamaru Usman was gonna be a boring fight and I had even talked to Usman the night prior. I’m just like, ‘Listen man, the dude’s explosive so you’re gonna have to tie him up, you know? Make it boring. That’s exactly what he did.”
** In an interview with SunSport, AJ Styles spoke highly about Roman Reigns and discussed Roman’s absence from WWE during the COVID-19 pandemic. AJ added that to have Roman come back would be a big help.
“You can’t deny the fact that Roman Reigns is one of the biggest stars in WWE. He’s WWE. I mean, he’s the guy. So to get him back could be a big help.”
Several months into Styles’ run in WWE, he engaged in a feud with Roman Reigns for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship. Styles stated that he would not be where he is in WWE had it not been for those string of matches with Reigns.
“You have this indie guy in 2016. This guy from Japan just walked right in there and step in the ring with Roman Reigns. Now the perfect scenario was in place because not everybody loved Roman. Now he is definitely one of the biggest stars but not everyone loved Roman then and so you have this indie darling, right? And it was like, ‘Oh, they made it easy for me to be in there with Roman, because Roman is such a huge star.’
It only got better from there when I had the opportunity to get in the ring with Roman, one of the pay per views, actually a couple of pay per views I think. When I’ve got a title opportunity, it was against Roman Reigns. Unbelievable match. I’ve watched it back. Wow. I can’t believe we did all this stuff that was really good. So, yeah, Roman Reigns is a big part of the reason why my career’s where it’s at.”
** According to Law360, shareholders (Firefighters Pension System of the City of Kansas City Missouri Trust) told a New York federal judge that WWE’s request to do away with the stock-drop lawsuit should be denied.
** Milwaukee, Wisconsin’s ABC affiliate ‘WISN 12’ ran a story about the ‘Brew City Wrestling’ promotion running a show that drew a crowd of 300 people. The event was held at the Waukesha Elks Lodge last month and another show is scheduled to take place again this weekend. A video on the ‘Brew City Wrestling’s’ Facebook page (which is now deleted) showed the crowd of 300 people. Promoter Frankie DeFalco contacted the publication and noted that nobody has contacted him about contracting the virus at the event.
“A lot of people had fun, they were very into it. It was a nice crowd and as of today, nobody has contacted me or emailed me saying they contracted the virus at all.”
He added that there were about 25 people who wore masks at the show. He also shared that he asked everyone to sit separately but people suggested they sit together.
“I offer face masks, I offer hand sanitizer, rubber gloves and we also take temperatures at the front door. If anyone has a temperature of 100.1 or higher, I’m sorry, but you don’t get into the building. When the people come in, I tell them, ‘Do you have your mask?’ If not, I offer them a mask. Half of the people do take them and they do wear them. Do they wear them during the show? Sometimes they will, sometimes they won’t.”
In a statement issued to the site, a spokesperson for the Waukesha Health Department recommended that during the pandemic, events as such should be limited to 100 people, social distancing should be practiced and C.D.C. guidelines should be followed.
Waukesha Mayor Shawn Reilly said that he does not have the authority to tell people not to attend said events but he does not think the events should be held.
“I’m not happy with it. Obviously, if you have crowds of people, if you have 300 people in a large room together, the chance of transmitting COVID is pretty high. I’m worried about three, four weeks from now because those people, if they get COVID and they bring it home, then we have a totally different situation.”
The capacity for the Waukesha Elks Lodge is 500 and DeFalco said he may not cap the attendance at 100 people for the next show, but also may not push that 500 mark. The venue was reached out to for a comment but they have not responded.
** Josh Matthews joined Jason Powell of ProWrestling.net on the Pro Wrestling Boom podcast. Matthews talked about the changes that have had to be made to IMPACT’s weekly programming on the lead-up to Slammiversary after the exits of Tessa Blanchard, Michael Elgin and Joey Ryan from IMPACT Wrestling.
“Yeah, I would say everybody. Everybody involved. The guys in Nashville had to do more work. We had to do more V.O.’s, graphics had to be changed. All the little things that we try to do. The go-home week for a pay-per-view to me has always been a very easy week. It’s interviews like this for me. Everything’s done and that really wasn’t the case with this particular show. There was a lot of last minute scrambling and changing of things but it was one of those — we want to put the best product that we can out there publicly and we want to make sure that everyone’s happy with the faces that they’re seeing. So while the work needed to be done, it was done with a smile on our faces because we knew that we were doing everything that we could to give the best content that we possibly could provide.”
Matthews also shared that IMPACT did consider taping Slammiversary but instead they’ll be live. He added that one of the main concerns was being able to make sure everything could be sanitized in a timely manner during brief breaks and video packages.
“Yeah obviously, everything is talked about and that was discussed but, there was enough time obviously — I think the big concern was making sure everything is clean and sanitized between matches and the packages and things like that. There is enough time to make sure that gets done and I think that was one of the major concerns and then after that, it’s why not do it if everything can be taken care of and cleaned up and even timing how long it would take to switch out a canvas if something were to get spilled on the canvas and making sure that, ‘Okay, we can do that in X amount of time, so let’s go ahead and make sure we could put the best show on that we can.’”
** Animoca Brands’ subsidiary, ‘nWAY’ obtained a global licensing agreement with WWE. The two are partnering to develop a new mobile game. I reached out to Animoca Brands about more information about the game and here’s the response that was sent back to POST Wrestling:
“Thank you for writing to us, and yes our subsidiary nWay has obtained a global licensing agreement with WWE to develop and publish a new mobile game: https://www.animocabrands.com/nway-partners-with-wwe.
Unfortunately, at this stage, we can’t release more information regarding this partnership.
Best wishes,
Animoca Brands”
** Bleacher Report Live conducted an interview with Tony Khan to promote Fight For The Fallen. Khan spoke about the six-man tag team match between Jurassic Express (Marko Stunt, Luchasaurus & Jungle Boy) and The Elite (Kenny Omega & The Young Bucks). Khan stated that with all the trios in AEW, there may be a trios tournament in the company some day.
“These are two of the top trios units in our company . Six-man tags have been a huge part of AEW. Since the beginning, we featured S.C.U. against Strong Hearts at Double Or Nothing and we’ve done so many six-man tags. The aforementioned Orange Cassidy and the Best Friends, the Jurassic Express obviously and The Elite are two of the top units and we’ve got a bunch of dream units and I think we could some day have a great trios tournament of some kind. I also think that this could be one of the biggest matches in that tournament and we’re seeing it right now. If it were to happen, I think The Elite and the Jurassic Express could be the odds on favorites and they’re two of the most popular teams in AEW so I think it’s gonna be a really fun match and I’m really excited about it.”
** Charlotte Flair was a guest on Nikki and Brie Bella’s podcast and before Charlotte joined, Brie Bella provided an update on Alicia Fox and stated that Fox wants to appear on The Bellas Podcast and she’s also currently busy with school.
“I was talking to Alicia Fox this past week and for a lot of you who don’t know who Alicia Fox is, she is a WWE superstar. She was a part of Team Bella. She’s been wrestling for over a decade and she said she wants to come on the podcast soon. We thought it’d be fun to get her on this week just with everything but she’s in school. But Foxy wanted us to say hi to the whole Bella Army and that she misses all of you guys and Team Bella for life,” Brie said.
During Charlotte’s segment of the podcast, she said that she hoped that while she was in NXT, a storyline involving herself, Paul “Triple H” Levesque and Stephanie McMahon came about.
“Because I spent some time in NXT recently, I was really hoping that I could get into that with Triple H, being like the brat and then him being like, ‘I made you’ because of the whole NXT, but, maybe later down the road.”
** Will Cooling of PWTorch was joined by Roy Johnson to discuss racism in wrestling, Michael Oku leaving his role in PROGRESS Wrestling and Roy shared his own experiences as a black man in the sport of pro wrestling dating back to his days as a fan.
** WWE United States Champion Apollo Crews spoke with Newsweek ahead of Extreme Rules. Crews talked about how helpful Paul Heyman was during his time as one of the leading individuals behind-the-scenes in WWE. Now that Heyman is gone, Crews doesn’t think he’ll be affected too much by his absence and is looking forward to continue working with Bruce Prichard.
“Since I’ve shown that I’m reliable, and trustworthy it doesn’t necessarily matter too much so that helps me in that sense. I don’t feel like it’s going to work against me. Working with Heyman was fantastic. He was so hands-on with me and he helped me a lot. He was one of the main reasons for me getting this opportunity and I’m very thankful for everything he’s done for me and helped me with. All I could do is look toward the future and I’m looking forward to working with Bruce as well. We’re going to make magic together and I’m excited for what’s to come and where I’m at right now. The company is seeing what I’m capable of after these past few months taking this opportunity and running with it.
Every now and then I think about those moments and it keeps me humble and hungry, knowing where I could have been and where I could have still been. And that’s what drives me. Once you get complacent, that’s where things shift and go in the wrong direction.”
Crews spoke about being called up to Monday Night RAW quickly from NXT. Hindsight being 20/20, Crews wouldn’t have minded staying in NXT for a little bit longer to hone in on his character.
“At the time you don’t think about that. You get that news and in that moment you’re not thinking, ‘No I need to stay longer and develop this character more’ or anything like that.
When you’re told that you’re going to debut on Monday Night RAW or SmackDown…a lot of stuff goes through your head, but for me one thing that didn’t go through my head was maybe I need to stay a little longer. And when I look back at it I would have loved to stay in NXT a little longer so I could do those things like develop my character, figure out who Apollo Crews is and learn how to react in certain situations. Allow the people to see me be angry, sad, happy, to see those different emotions so they can know that I have these different layers. It’s not just a guy who comes out smiling and does flips and other cool stuff.
It’s also hard making that transition from the indies to NXT. Just to be able to learn that style takes some time especially when you come out there and get thrown on TV quickly or asked to debut. I got to debut in the first NXT Takeover: Brooklyn so it’s not one of those things where you tell them, ‘I’m glad you want to do that with me, but I want to wait a little longer’ you know what I mean? It’s just not real. Some people might think like that, but it’s not what I think of. When I look back, it would have been nice to have more time for all of that to come together.”
** Jim Varsallone of the Miami Herald spoke with Eva Marie.
** Newsweek chatted with Tegan Nox ahead of her NXT Women’s Title match on 7/15. Tegan was asked to speak about coming out as a lesbian. Nox said the reception was mostly positive and she received many messages from colleagues and friends of hers.
“My life has always been a ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ situation, but I felt like it was the right time, especially when you’ve found the right one you’re in love with. It was the right time to do that.
The reaction has been great. There are a few people who obviously don’t agree with that, but 99 percent of the reactions have been positive. I’ve got texts coming through from so many colleagues and friends. It was nice. It’s great to see that there are so many nice people in the world.”
One individual who Tegan Nox spoke with was Sonya Deville. Tegan shared that she spoke with Sonya before the picture went up and added that Deville has been a massive help.
“I actually talked to Sonya before I even did this. She was a big, big help. She gave me her phone number and told me to text her if I needed anything. So we keep in contact quite a lot about it. She’s a massive help with the fans, because my family knew but my fans didn’t. So she helped me bring it out to the public.”
** Independent wrestler Chico Adams was spotlighted by ‘The Ledger’ for an article on their site. Chico talked about doing extra work for All Elite Wrestling and WWE multiple times this year within a short period of time between those respective appearances. Adams said he has spoken to someone about it, seeing as how WWE and AEW are going head-to-head and he said that it hasn’t been a problem thus far.
“I did speak with someone about it. The WWE wants people to get as much exposure as you can. It makes the transition easier. It has not affected anything, if anything its enhanced it. You can’t buy experience, especially now with everything that’s going on. I feel like I’ve proven to them I’m dependable and loyal. To me it’s like a snowball effect, the more you show, the more likely you are to get called back. I’m enjoying the experience, and doing everything in my power that I can be an asset to them.”
** William Colosimo spoke with Minoru Suzuki for an exclusive interview. The translation was done by Taiki Yamamoto. One story that Suzuki shared was when he was 15-years old, he went to the New Japan Pro-Wrestling offices and submitted an application to inform them that he wanted to train.
It is well known that Karl Gotch was a mentor to Minoru Suzuki. Suzuki stated that he and Gotch were friends and shared why those who trained him never referred to themselves as Suzuki’s “sensei”.
“I can say that we were friends. That is the best way to describe it. I asked him to teach me and he taught me, so you could also call him my sensei. Yoshiaki Fujiwara told me something that has always stuck in my heart. He told me that he is not my sensei. I asked him what he meant. He told me that I can call him ‘sensei’, but that he is not a sensei. I did not understand this for a long time. What he actually meant is that there is no one who is above someone else and so can call himself a sensei. There are people who ask someone to teach them and they can call that person sensei, but it is only from their side. So, his position was that he would teach me if I wanted to learn, but he does not consider himself a sensei. This is the same principle Gotch had. Gotch called me a friend. Or sometimes he would call me his son. He would say that I was his youngest son. There were Fujiwara and others before me such as Osamu Kido. So I was considered to be the last one. So, we were friends.”
When asked about his training sessions with and lessons learned from Yoshiaki Fujiwara, Suzuki gave an answer that explained why he wrestles the style he does in the ring and that mindset and style was instilled in him early in his career in a physical manner.
“Yes, that is right. There was a senpai who taught me the basics in pro-wrestling like the lock up and headlock, what to do when your opponent grabs a leg, the body slam and dropkick, but Fujiwara got angry when I tried to do those things in my debut. I felt great with my performance in my debut and was thinking I have a talent for this. I thought I did quite well and went to thank Fujiwara-san in his dressing room. I was told to go to the back area and he punched me. He said, ‘What the hell were you doing? You have techniques that no one else has.’ As I was training with Fujiwara every day, he was pushing me, saying, ‘You have techniques that no one else can do; why aren’t you using them? Use them or you’re going to lose out quickly. Why are you doing things the same as everyone else? A little guy like you is going to fall out of the limelight as soon as possible.’ That is why I stopped doing what I learned in the ring from my second pro-wrestling match. But people were getting mad at me left and right. Everyone would come at me like, ‘What the hell are you doing?’ But I was fine with that. This is when I was around twenty years old. The funny thing was that the more the guys around me questioned what I was doing and told me I was no good, the more fans started cheering for me. That was funny. Everything was out of whack. I was told to even punch from behind if I get a chance. This, I was taught by Fujiwara and Inoki. When I would get submitted in sparring, I’d be on all fours in pain and they would punch me from behind when I was looking down. They would ask me what I was doing facing away from them. They endlessly took my neck and arm. I had no choice but to face them. They kept questioning why I would show my back to an opponent. They would say I only tapped out, and that it was only training. They all told me to protect myself. So, I punched Inoki from behind when he was trying to wipe sweat with a towel and facing away from me. Of course, they would return the punishment, but both Inoki and Fujiwara took good care of me. They thought I was stupid.”
** Bobby Fulton took to his Facebook page to announce that he’s officially retired from professional wrestling.
“Today is the anniversary of my friend Bruiser Brody’s death. The other day my son’s pastor announced he was gonna retire. The other day, I looked at a photo of my son and I last year at Tecumseh when I was healthy. Today, I announce I am retired from professional wrestling. I’m no longer going to do independent events. There’s been a lot of contributing factors, but I no longer have the same love for this business I started with in 1977. Thank you to all for the support over the years, who knows I may drop in to see some old friends one day. I appreciate you all for the support over the years. Thank you!”
** Big Gold Belt Media did an interview with Stu Bennett, and writer and director Ross Boyask to promote the ‘I Am Vengeance: Retaliation’ film. Ross did state that there is a script that has been written for a third version of the film but the current movie would have to do well numbers-wise for filming of the third to begin.
** Prior to taking on Cody for the TNT Championship at Fight For The Fallen, Sonny Kiss guest appeared on Busted Open Radio. Bully Ray asked Sonny if getting over is more important to him than going over and here was Sonny’s response:
“Definitely getting over. I couldn’t care less about going over. I mean I guess I do but…” Sonny laughed. “But overall, I would say getting over is more important because I feel like even if, whether I win or lose tomorrow , I definitely have this super awesome, high profile, hard hitting match with Cody and if Cody gets the best of me, he does but as long as I prove that I got some fight in me, they’ll always wanna put me in that position so…”
** Darren Paltrowitz of The Paltrocast spoke with Tasha Steelz ahead of Slammiversary.
** O’Shay Edwards wrote an article for ‘Outsports’ about coming out about his sexuality.
** In the next part of Hiroshi Tanahashi’s interview series on NJPW1972.com, Tanahashi talked about rooming with Katsuyori Shibata and Togi Makabe in the New Japan dojo.
Both Ric Flair and Eddie Edwards were guests on Busted Open Radio on 7/15. While Ric Flair was on the show, he stated that he would like to challenge R-Truth for the WWE 24/7 Championship.
Switching over to the Eddie Edwards portion of the show, Edwards discussed the concerns he would have if he left IMPACT Wrestling and went elsewhere and wasn’t used the way IMPACT has spotlighted him.
“Like I said, I am very confident in my ability right now so I feel that if I was given the chance, I’d just need to be given the chance. Much like E.Y. and EC3, if they’re given the chance, they will succeed, we will succeed. But, if you’re only given so much, there’s not much you can do with it so, I mean it would be a concern but you gotta take the risk if you want the reward, you know?”
** Natalya wrote about the growth of WWE’s women’s division for her latest article for the Calgary Sun.
** Dustin Rhodes was a guest on the ‘Sports Guys Talking Wrestling’ podcast. Dustin revealed more details about his ‘Rhodes Wrestling Academy’ school that he’s planning to open in 2021.
“I am opening a wrestling school. I’m gonna wait until after the holidays for the grand opening I guess. It’s gonna be in January so probably November, I’m gonna lock down a building, we’re gonna go from there and I’m gonna build this brand of Rhodes Wrestling Academy and a place for kids to come, to really learn the art of telling stories and pro wrestling done the right way. There’s a lot of schools out in America today and all over the world, you know? But I think people will come get the knowledge I have because of my name and that’s a blessing that I’ve been in the business so long and that I do have something to teach and that I know so much and have so much knowledge about our sport, that they’re gonna come learn from me. They’re gonna come from all over and I can’t wait to do it man. It’s gonna be fun. I’m probably gonna take no more than 20 students every three months. I’m gonna do it like that so we’re gonna have camps. I’m very excited about it. It’s kind of on the back-burner right now because it’s not nut cutting time, and I can’t wait, so stay tuned for January for Rhodes Wrestling Academy.”
Dustin also has his eyes on one name to possibly be a coach at his school and that’s Ricky Starks. Dustin praised Starks as an in-ring performer and as an individual and said he’d like to have Ricky as a part of the school if Ricky is willing to participate.
“He went out there with Cody and blew it out of the park man and it was really impressive to watch him with Cody and he felt like he belonged there and they signed him immediately which was very, very cool for them to do that because he’s a hard worker and he’s respectful, he’s got a great attitude and he knows what he’s doing pretty much. I would actually be, probably wanting to look at him as one of my coaches for my wrestling school if he was available and wanting to do that, because he’s pretty good. He’s a good kid and he’s young, he’s fresh and he’s got a lot in the future coming for him. I know that and especially here with AEW, he’s gonna get more than one chance.”
** The career of Bobby Lashley in WWE, prior to his return to the company in 2018 was the focus of the latest Grilling J.R. podcast.
** Digital Spy has an interview with Brandi Rhodes. While on the topic of intergender wrestling, Brandi spoke to if she believes it’ll happen on AEW’s weekly Dynamite show:
“I understand both sides of the coin with intergender wrestling. I’ve done intergender wrestling and I’ve had fun with it and enjoyed it but I do see the purpose of having the separate divisions. I do see where there is on national television sometimes a little bit of a different blurring of the line, you know, if you’re having a casual audience watching wrestling that may not understand the nuances of intergender sports. So I think it’s something that a lot of people within our community are in to but it’s probably something that would take a long time to actually see come to fruition if it ever does.”
** Inside The Ropes has footage of the international media call that was held with RAW Women’s Champion Asuka:
** According to PWInsider, a bench warrant has been issued by the state of Pennsylvania for the arrest of Tammy “Sunny” Sytch. On 7/14, a motion was filed in Carbon County Court to revoke Sytch’s 2020 parole in February. Sytch was arrested on 7/13 and remains incarcerated at the Monmouth County Correctional Institution on the following charges:
– Operating a Motor Vehicle during a second license suspension
– Eluding a Police Officer
– Contempt/Violation of a Domestic Violence Restraining Order
** PWInsider provided an update on Jeff Hardy’s scheduled court date and it has been pushed back until September. Hardy was arrested in October of 2019 for driving while impaired.
** Jonathan Snowden of Bleacher Report wrote an in-depth feature about Brian Cage and Taz and how their on-screen partnership came to be. Taz and Cage both spoke to the publication for the piece and Cage revealed that initially, there were some speed bumps in he and Taz’s partnership because Taz thought Cage should be presenting himself in a certain way.
“He sees me as a big unique monster with a full presence on my own. He thought that there was no reason for me to be in anything but black trunks and black boots because can I stand out alone without it. I don’t need it all, the glitz and glamour. And that makes a statement. And though he may not be wrong in that, I like a bit of flash and flair. I want all the pyro. I want my gear to look cool and different, stand out and be real busy. But I want my stuff to be cool. I always feel like I want to do more than I probably should. As does this whole generation of wrestlers. It wasn’t like any big real heated battle. After my first couple of outings, he was like, ‘All right, nah, you know what you’re doing. It’s good, man.’ And it is good. We’ve clicked really well now. Now I rib him and always act like I really want to do some more and more elaborate stuff. Whether I do or don’t, I always just act like I want to pour extra sauce on everything. Just to agitate him, just to rib him.”
** The Irish Times profiled 16-year old ‘Fight Factory trainee and OTT wrestler, Justin Anene.
** Dolph Ziggler chatted with Comicbook.com about his WWE Championship match against Drew McIntyre at Extreme Rules.
** PWInsider uploaded part one of their interview with EC3. EC3 was asked about his on-screen feud with Jon Moxley in WWE, what he thought of it and how both he and Moxley approached their time together on-screen.
“I wish I knew, to be honest. I don’t know. I was at the point where I thought I was brought up with an intention and a purpose. So I made the mistake of trusting the process instead of being the squeaky wheel that gets the grease. I remember I think, ‘Hey, I think we’re turning you heel.’ I’m like, ‘Oh, thank God I’m such a better heel and I don’t do flashy things, and I can really talk… Man, yeah, turn me heel and get me on the microphone right away. Let’s go.’ But that didn’t ever happen. So I found myself by trusting others would be one thing. I think they were mad at Dean for choosing to free himself as well. Whether that’s right or wrong, that’s their business. But we were working live events, having good matches, but obviously he was being cheered, because he’s a notable name and everyone loves him, and I was being booed, because I was going against the guy who just told the company, ‘Hey, see you,’ and was a hero to them. Also, he has a stellar body of work with the company. They’ve been watching him for years. He killed himself countless times for their entertainment. Of course they’re going to cheer heel, and he went on to finish, and I went into obscurity.”
** Gorilla Position re-uploaded an interview that was recorded with Sasha Banks in 2016 to their podcast feed.
** WrestleZone spoke with Dax Harwood and Cash Wheeler of FTR. While speaking about if heels and babyfaces still exist in pro wrestling, Harwood shared his thoughts about how to get people emotionally invested in pro wrestling and he doesn’t think “great matches every week” is the key to drawing money in the sport.
“I don’t know if I believe in ‘babyfaces and heels’. I don’t know. Before anybody is a babyface and before anybody is a heel—at least for myself and Cash—we’re men. We’re men and you’re either going to like us or you’re not going to like us and I think that attributes to your personality and your traits. You’ve got to build on those character traits. Ultimately I think getting emotionally invested is the way you make the most money, the way you draw the most fans, the most viewers. To have someone, one set of guys or one individual fighting another set of guys or an individual, and there’s a conflict of interest and the fans choose what side they believe in, what side they want to be on, I think that’s where we’re at in the world right now. I don’t think ‘great matches’ every week are the answer to pro wrestling and how to make money. There’s a conflict of interest and the fans are going to decide in their mind who is the good guy and who is the ‘bad guy.’”
** Shane “Hurricane” Helms joined Chris Featherstone for a Facebook Live Q&A and the full video is up on the Sportskeeda YouTube channel. Helms was asked why he believes WWE’s television ratings have continued to drop for RAW and SmackDown and Helms accredited it to the lack of star power and fans.
“Why are they falling? Because less people are watching. I just think, without an audience, you’re losing a big part of the magic of pro wrestling.
I mean it’s hard to watch for me and I love it as much as anybody has ever loved pro wrestling in the history of the world, and it’s hard for me to watch, and they lost a lot of star power. It’s really an odd time. Not like I have my finger on the pulse by saying it’s an odd time. Obviously, everybody knows that but, it’s an odd time.”
Helms also touched on the storyline that involves his close friend Jeff Hardy. Helms is not a fan of Jeff’s past alcohol issues being brought back to the limelight and doesn’t think it helps the situation when new fans are made aware of Jeff’s past.
“I’m not a fan of it. I don’t know if you can really hurt Jeff at this point. Jeff’s kind of untouchable. Jeff’s always gonna be Jeff Hardy and I think fans are always gonna love him. This storyline don’t really do a lot for me though. I don’t think it’s gonna bring in new fans and if you don’t know about any of the problems Jeff’s had in the past, like if you’re a new fan and you don’t know about it, a storyline like this just kind of shines a flashlight on it, and I don’t really see the purpose of that. So, not crazy about it but I love Jeff Hardy so I gotta support it.”
** EC3 did an ‘Ask Me Anything’ on Reddit.
** All Japan Pro Wrestling has an animated wrestling series that’ll debut on 7/20.
** Ruby Riott interviewed Ryan Nemeth, brother of Dolph Ziggler.
** Steel Chair Magazine ran their interview with AEW Chief Brand Officer Brandi Rhodes. Rhodes was asked for her thoughts about the #SpeakingOut movement and here’s what Brandi thought of everything that unfolded:
“What has definitely come to light here in the past few weeks is that we still have a long way to go, as far as women’s rights and equality, and especially in workplaces in general. I think that this has been a wake-up call for a lot of people that it may seem like there’s been all of this great change, but there’s still a really long way to go.
I think that people’s minds and eyes and ears and hearts are open now to the possibility of real change, so not just change that you just talked about, but change that you actually create from within and the standard that you create. This is really great for AEW because we’re a company in such infancy and these are the types of goals that we have, as a company, to build our brand around.
It’s just a good consistent reminder that this is what we all want, this is the goal, and you’ve got to get there, but you’ve got to start from scratch. It’s easier to start from scratch than to have been doing something incorrectly for 20-30 years, and then try to start over. We are definitely at an advantage that starting from square one, so we can be the right kind of company.”
** Here’s the newest episode of Battle Of The Brands on the UpUpDownDown YouTube channel:
** AL.com published a feature story about the “coolest wrestling masks” of all-time.
** The Kabuki Warriors (Asuka & Kairi Sane) and Angel Garza’s respective theme songs are up on WWE’s music YouTube channel.
** Kayla Braxton welcomed Drew McIntyre onto ‘The Braxton Beat’ to promote Extreme Rules.
** Sonny Kiss will be appearing at the ‘Black Wrestlers Matter’ event on August 22nd in Des Moines, Iowa.
** ‘Distractify’ spoke with The Miz about season three of Miz & Mrs.
** Times Of India chatted with Nikki Cross.
** WrestleZone’s Bill Pritchard conducted an interview with Eddie Edwards ahead of Slammiversary on July 18th. Edwards spoke about the numerous talents that are being teased for Slammiversary and he shared that he would like to see EC3 return to IMPACT Wrestling at the pay-per-view.
“I think there’s a lot of guys out there that were released from other companies that could definitely add their own flavor to IMPACT. I think it just shows the positive way that IMPACT is going right now where IMPACT is a destination and it can be and should be.
As far as speaking personally, it’s a great place to work and I love being part of IMPACT Wrestling, and I look forward to seeing who is coming in. EC3 is a friend of mine and I would love to see him back; not only because I’m selfish and want my friend back but also because of how much he did before when he was part of IMPACT, the character he was. I think he can add a lot. You see these clips, the vignettes, and you think of Gallows and Anderson who haven’t been a tag team here before, and we have people coming in whether they’re past or present, I think it’s just a good sign. I’m glad it’s getting people talking again. That’s a good thing that no one is overly confident about who they think is going to show up because there’s a lot of possibilities.”
** Chris Bey was a guest on the ‘Wrestling with Sports’ podcast.
** Dragon Gate ‘Hopeful Gate’ Results (7/15/20) Korakuen Hall
– Dark match: Genki Horiguchi def. Punch Tominaga
– Team Dragon Gate (Jason Lee, Kota Minoura & Kzy) def. Gamma, Gamma & Masaaki Mochizuki
– Big R Shimizu def. Yosuke Santa Maria
– R.E.D. (Diamante, KAZMA SAKAMOTO & Takashi Yoshida) def. Don Fujii, Kagetora & Ultimo Dragon
– Team Dragon Gate (Dragon Dia & Keisuke Okuda) def. R.E.D. (H.Y.O & Kaito Ishida)
– Naruki Doi & Ryo Saito def. R.E.D. (BxB Hulk & Eita)
– Team Dragon Gate (Ben-K, KAI, Strong Machine J & YAMATO) def. Dragon Kid, Masato Yoshino, Shuji Kondo & Susumu Yokosuka
** Big E was a guest on D-Von Dudley’s ‘Table Talk’ podcast. During their chat, Big E was asked does he still keep in contact with AJ Lee (April Mendez) and he said that they touch base every few months or so and he’s proud of all of AJ’s accomplishments.
“Yeah, well AJ, she’ll randomly text me like every three months or so. She’s a great human being. I think we had the Book of Booty, whatever book we came out with that they wrote for us. She had her book at the same time and she wrote me some texts. I think her book was doing better than ours at the time. So she wrote something to tease me but she’s very clever and she always texts me on my birthday too and it’s usually very demeaning and underhanded but there’s some love slid in there too, but yeah, it’s cool to see her success. She’s doing stuff in comics. I think she’s working on a TV pilot right now, but I’m really not the most communicative person, so there’s a lot of people that I just really enjoy that I just kind of… you get older and you don’t text everyday or every week, but its been a little while…”
** Fightful has a longform feature up with Kevin Fertig, formerly known as “Mordecai” and “Kevin Thorne” in WWE. Fertig dove into the creative process behind coming up with the “Mordecai” character and pitching it to Vince McMahon.
“At the time, ‘Okay, I have this character named Malachi,’ which was Mordecai and basically I just went right into it. Vince is sitting there, he’ll look down and then look up over his glasses and like literally—I was told a long time ago not to not stare the bull down and I’m trying as hard looking in the devil’s eyes in a way. Like, ‘I’m not gonna look away. I’m gonna stare this motherf*cker down.’ So, it was back and forth, back and forth and literally it was insane ‘cause then that transpired into Mordecai right there.
He loved it,” Fertig said of Vince. “The next day I was in Boston, I think, and I got put in the pre-tape room with Brooklyn Brawler for a while. He’s like, ‘They just want you to do promos of how you think this will be done.’ I come from a Southern Baptist background, my dad was a deacon and all this stuff, but he was also a devout Catholic before then. He became Baptist, don’t ask. But anyway, the religion thing I did some good Baptist fire and brimstone messages, and that’s what it is, but it needs some of that Catholic weirdo… All the little ritual stuff goes along with it. That’s what I envisioned Mordecai, but I’m still to this day even as large as I am, I don’t like going to cornfields because Children of the Corn and Malachi.”
Fertig also recalled receiving a bit of approval from The Undertaker for the “Mordecai” character after Taker saw a promo of Fertig’s while chatting with Vince McMahon.
“To me it was Malachi, this really religious weirdo-ness to it, kinda of séance-y in a way. That’s how I envisioned the Mordecai thing. So, I ended up going and doing, the promo was, ‘Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil ‘cause my rod and staff,’ and got into a little bit of wrestling instead of straight Bible verse, but I did it highs and lows, and I still remember they went and got Vince. Vince comes in, ‘Play it back.’ All of a sudden he walks, he leaves. Then the next thing I know, the next day the video, I forget where we were at. But, it was SmackDown the next day. ‘Taker was there. They had come out of, basically, production meeting, catering was right next door. So all of a sudden I’m looking up, seeing Taker walk out. He’s talking to Vince and almost like lasers me. You can just tell , ‘You did good, kid.’ Whatever this was good. ‘Cause I pitched that idea of white and black, but really in this case the white was the evil and Taker’s the good guy. It would’ve done something.”
** On July 28th, FS1 will broadcast the 1992 SummerSlam pay-per-view which was headlined by The British Bulldog versus Bret Hart for the WWF Intercontinental Championship.
** Stephanie Chase of Digital Spy interviewed SmackDown Women’s and WWE Women’s Tag Team Champion Bayley.
** Marc Copani, formerly known as “Muhammad Hassan” was a guest on F4WOnline’s ‘Left My Wallet’ show.
** Tegan Nox spoke with Comicbook.com. Daily DDT also has an interview up with Nox.
** Justin Barrasso of Sports Illustrated interviewed Sonny Kiss.
** AEW’s Q.T. Marshall turned 36-years old on 7/16. He shares a birthday with Excalibur who turned 40-years old. Bobby Lashley is 44-years old today.
** Below is the newest episode of G.A.W. TV with Mickie James, Lisa Marie Varon and SoCal Val:
** There is an article up on NJPW1972.com about Dick Togo’s history in pro wrestling.
** Ariel Helwani joined Booker T’s ‘Hall Of Fame’ podcast.
** Abilene, Texas outlet KTXS sent a survey out to local high school football coaches about what their professions would be if they weren’t coaches. One of the coaches noted that he’d be a pro wrestler.
** A clip from Rusev’s Twitch stream was uploaded to his YouTube channel in-which Rusev talked about how much he enjoyed the 205 Live shows.
** Sonny Kiss guest appeared on Vickie Guerrero’s podcast.
** Ilja Dragunov and Nina Samuels went live on the official NXT Instagram page with NXT U.K. ring announcer Andy Shepard.
** Colt Cabana joined Aubrey Edwards and Tony Schiavone on the AEW Unrestricted podcast.
** The WWE on FOX YouTube channel has a video up of “The Fiend” Bray Wyatt visiting Rachel Bonnetta’s office.
** Ring of Honor uploaded a match to their YouTube channel featuring Shingo Takagi and Matt Sydal taking on Austin Aries and Roderick Strong.
** Sportskeeda has an interview up with Nikki Cross.
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.