POST NEWS UPDATE: Konnan explains AAA's thought process behind doing three Triplemanías in 2022, talks ticket sales

Originally published at Konnan explains AAA's thought process behind doing three Triplemanías in 2022, talks ticket sales

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.

** Konnan and Disco Inferno welcomed Jeff Jarrett onto their K100 w/ Konnan & Disco podcast. This year, AAA is presenting three Triplemanía events (4/30, 6/18, 10/15). Konnan, who is a booker for AAA, explained the company’s thought process behind doing three Triplemanías and said tickets for the shows are selling good.

Konnan: Bro, let me tell you how important branding is. So we noticed in Mexico that the Triplemanía name had like a certain cachet to it and every year, we would have it once a year and you could drive up prices and everybody wanted to be there because it was an event, right? So just on a whim, we said, ‘Let’s do — let’s go to a city’ like, let’s say Nashville and call it Nashville’s WrestleMania, okay? And we went to Monterrey which you know very well and we went to Monterrey and bro, we drew 16,000 people there and the next year, we drew 16,000 people there and we’re going back again so we said this year, f*ck it, let’s just do three Triplemanías. So we’re gonna do one in Monterrey, one in Tijuana and one in Mexico City and they are already selling good because they already know that the Triplemanía brand, you know…

Back in March, Jeff Jarrett appeared at a WWE house show in Springfield, Illinois and was involved in a Miz TV segment that led to Jarrett being in the corner of Dominik Mysterio for his singles match against Miz. He spoke about that appearance.

Jarrett: Did you know that in Springfield, Illinois, I was up there for the minor league baseball team and we had a St. Patty’s Day parade and all that and then, it started out that I was just gonna bring the Mayor to the and I was in Dom’s corner. Damn, that made me feel old but it was super, super cool that I’m in Dom’s corner. Yeah, it was kind of a bucket list deal. Yeah, it’s really cool.

As of this writing, Jarrett’s most recent match was at GCW’s Hammerstein Ballroom show in March. Jarrett said he and Effy built their match to be bigger than what it was and the crowd responded to the simplicity of what they did. He questioned why some talents do not try to follow that same formula.

Jarrett: That’s what we do . But the actual match was about as basic as old ‘Slap Nuts’ does.

But I watched almost every match that night , we connect with Brady, we connect with this superstar or this brand or any kind of movie that you get into, okay, I connect with that character. How do you connect with 50 moves in two minutes? And I’m not knocking anybody.

Elsewhere during their conversation, Jarrett expressed his opinion that in the modern-era, John Cena is the best promo that the wrestling business has produced in a long time.

Jarrett: I think in modern-era, I think Cena is the best promo that the industry’s created in a long time and I mean, he’s really good when he burns it down. But, he came up through that era but now look at him. He’s an actor. It’s the guys that can — that live their lines as if it’s real. It’s just — that’s the nature of the beast.

** Last week, Shinjiro Otani underwent successful surgery after suffering a cervical spinal cord injury in the main event of Pro Wrestling ZERO1’s April 10th event. He was not able to move his extremities after taking a German suplex into a turnbuckle pad. Tokyo Sports provided an update on Otani via comments from ZERO1 President Takahito Kami. He shared that Otani has not been able to see his family in-person due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic but has been in contact through video calls and other means. Otani is stable and aware of his surroundings but he’s dealing with mental stress and is receiving help on that front. Takahito Kami added the following:

Everyone is doing their best. They and the front office united, Zero One will get out of this predicament.

** K & S WrestleFest hosted a virtual signing with Matt Cardona. He was asked about his Intercontinental Title win from WrestleMania 32 and said it does not bother him that he lost the title one day after winning it. He explained why he wishes he and Brian Myers would’ve lost the Raw Tag Titles one day after winning the belts at WrestleMania 35.

No , because we were the champions for like what? Two-and-a-half months. We did f*cking nothing with them. I wish we would have lost them the next day. It would have been way more memorable.

Cardona defeated Trevor Murdoch at the ‘PowerrrTrip’ show to become NWA Worlds Heavyweight Champion. He said Murdoch is a good competitor and person but could not promote the NWA brand like he can. Cardona added that Murdoch does not get booked unless it’s the NWA and he’s not active on social media.

Okay, when I won this title from Trevor , it was like it was brand new. Not a scratch, not a dent on it. If you look at this up close, it’s all destroyed. I’ve had it for like two months because I’m bringing it everywhere. I’m actually defending it, I’m bringing it to conventions, signings, I’m bringing it everywhere I go. Trevor, great competitor, great guy. He doesn’t get booked unless it’s the NWA so like what’s the point of being the NWA Worlds Heavyweight Champion? You’re not active on social media, you’re not doing regular media, you’re not wrestling, you’re not promoting, you’re not promoting the brand. So whether you love me or hate me, I always have this title on me so… I mean that’s why I’m the champ.

** James Lascuola of PWPonderings conducted an interview with Maria Kanellis-Bennett to chat about her Women’s Wrestling Army promotion. Before getting into that, Maria further touched her experience with Ring of Honor and building up the Women’s Division Wednesday show. She said the long-term plan was to present two-to-three matches per week on the program and although it was not able to happen, it was approved by Ring of Honor.

I always wanted to do more . So when we were starting to run the tournament and then go into regular shows after that, one of the requirements that we asked Delirious and asked Ring of Honor was to at least have one women’s match every other week. Now when you only have an hour of television, that is a lot. You’re basically asking for one out of six and they gave it to us and so, we had that and then we also had one match a week on Women’s Division Wednesday and Women’s Division Wednesday was our show to continue putting out content every single week that were women’s matches and we were able to do that but, the struggle was how do we get more time? Where else can we put these women to spotlight how phenomenal they are and one of the goals was to turn Women’s Division Wednesday into a two or three match show per week and we didn’t get there but, we did have the blessing of Ring of Honor to move forward with that.

The Women’s Wrestling Army project came to fruition when talents continuously told Maria and ring announcer Bobby Cruise that they should start something together. She explained that the promotion will be streamed via a profit-sharing platform. She then spoke about the exclusive content that’ll come with subscribing to the Women’s Wrestling Army page.

So, it and myself and saying, ‘You guys should start something’ and honestly, I don’t know how to run a wrestling company. I loved my job at Ring of Honor. I loved being able to go in and focus on the women and just worry about them, be Talent Relations and focus on producing and booking but, you know, you look around and there’s not a whole lot of opportunity for that and so, we had to create something and I wanted to create something very… very wrestler-friendly and so, a lot of the details haven’t came out yet but I think by the time this article comes out, a few more may have came into light but where this is going to be streaming eventually is going to be a profit-sharing platform. So, yes, of course Women’s Wrestling Army will make up for whatever was spent in flights and booking and all of that kind of stuff. But, there will be a profit-sharing percentile and I don’t know what that’s going to look like and it’s never been done before so I don’t have any examples or good examples to be like, ‘Oh! Check this out’ to know what this is going to be. But for me, because we’re in this position of now running a wrestling company, I want it to feel like the wrestlers were a part of it and their voices were really being heard and this is one way to do so, so for example, I have a Brand Army and it’s under my website and there’s several other women that have Brand Armies. There’s The IInspiration (Jessica McKay & Cassie Lee) or you’ve seen Taya Valkyrie, she has one. There’s several of us that do and it’s an exclusive content page and where our show is going to live is going to be, first, an exclusive content page so you can be a super fan of a women’s wrestling show and that’s really cool and on top of that, there will be exclusive interviews that will only live on the Brand Army page and you will also be able to see some documentary-style footage. So, we are blending every single thing last year with Ring of Honor and adding it to this streaming site. It will be under womenswrestlingarmy.com so you just follow the link like I’ve been sending everybody to and once that page launches, you’ll be able to subscribe and we’ll be doing two-to-three episodes a month and then on top of that, we will also be shooting documentaries and other exclusive content like photoshoots so, it’s a big undertaking but this is the only way I felt comfortable in doing it. But there’s also going to be more streaming websites that we’re gonna be a part of and no matter where we go, there is going to be a piece that is profit-sharing and that’s to hold me and Bobby accountable for what we’re doing and also to give the women their own product. It’s their bumps, it’s their bodies, it’s their residual damage so hopefully, cross my fingers, knock on wood, spin a few times, throw salt over my shoulder, hopefully, this will be really good and will really be profitable for everybody.

Women’s Wrestling Army’s first show is taking place on May 1st in conjunction with Drew Cordeiro and WWR+ (Women’s Wrestling Revolution). She detailed how that partnership came to be and shared that the next location she’s eyeing is Chicago.

Because of how much they’ve already done for women’s wrestling probably heard me say it a million times, ‘It has to be Fete, it has be Fete, it has to be Fete.’ So yeah, and the next one we’re looking at doing is Chicago and you know, I think that there’s just a vibe. There’s a vibe that this thing has to have and I hope we’re able to capture it. But Drew had the right vibe with WWR+ and has the right vibe with Beyond Wrestling and they are our partners through all of this. They’ve been tremendous so far. Will they be our partners moving forward? I don’t know. We gotta see how this first one goes. But I think what Drew does is great and what he does for women’s wrestling is awesome.

** Coming off of wrestling three matches during the weekend of events in Dallas, Texas, Biff Busick sat down with MuscleManMalcolm and he discussed his match with Jon Moxley at Bloodsport 8. Biff said while he was wrestling in front of no fans in WWE, he felt his passion for wrestling start to fade but being in GCW and feeling the energy of the crowd at Bloodsport brought that flame back.

Man, it was crazy . I had heard a lot of talk about GCW and you know, being in WWE, you’re kind of — sometimes you’re in a bubble. You don’t really know what’s going on but still, even being in WWE, I heard rumblings about, ‘GCW, GCW’ and then when I finally got the opportunity to work there, especially at Bloodsport which is — I started — it’s challenging because there’s no ropes, it’s not a traditional pro wrestling match but I like challenges and Jon Moxley’s an amazing, amazing pro wrestler. He was a joy to work with. I think he’s a lot like me. He likes to be rugged and brawl, hit hard and get hit and I didn’t know how it was gonna go and it ended up, you know, the crowd really enjoyed it. After, I had a feeling of euphoria because wrestling is so amazing because the crowd, the fans are the most amazing part of it and when they can give you their energy and they’re going crazy for stuff, there’s no feeling like it in the world. That’s why I think wrestling fans are the greatest fans of anything in the world because they’re just so loyal and when they get excited about stuff, you feel like Superman, you feel you can take over the world so, after that match, I felt great. Being in WWE during the pandemic, we didn’t have fans and it was very difficult for me. I need the energy from the fans and for a couple years not having them there, I kind of felt my passion had dwindled a little bit for this so coming back to GCW, feeling that energy man, it definitely reignited my passion for wrestling.

Busick, formerly known as ‘Oney Lorcan’ had an NXT Tag Title run in WWE alongside Martin Stone (Danny Burch). He reflected on their match against reDRagon (Kyle O’Reilly & Bobby Fish) at TakeOver: Chicago and being able to win over the crowd. Their reign ended after Stone suffered a shoulder injury and as of the interview, the two talents are working on their singles careers, but Biff hopes to run into Stone in the future.

Yeah, that was a time when me and Danny put us together as a team and I thought we made it work and it was — me and Danny didn’t really know each other beforehand, we weren’t really best friends or anything. We were kind of just two bald guys that they threw together and it’s funny, we had one match in Chicago at NXT TakeOver and we weren’t really being used on TV a lot so when we came out, the fans kind of didn’t react to us. I don’t blame them at all. We were just two kind of bald guys coming out with mean, ugly faces. At the end of the match, we thought the crowd gave us a standing ovation, we earned their respect so that’s another moment in time that I’ll always remember very fondly and unfortunately, Danny had the injury with the shoulder and we got stripped of the titles and I think now, we’re kind of going our separate ways as single competitors. Danny’s still kind of healing from his shoulder injury and I think for now, we’re gonna stick to doing singles but you can never say ‘never’. We could reunite one day and bring the team back together but, I wish Danny nothing but success in his singles run and I don’t know, hopefully we can bump into each other again one of these days.

He further looked back on his time with WWE and said it was a dream come true for him to accomplish a goal that he set his sights on when he got into the pro wrestling business.

Man I loved it . I’ve watched wrestling since I was three years old. One of my first memories ever was Hulk Hogan versus Andre The Giant at WrestleMania III and I always wanted to wrestle for the WWE and it’s funny, when I first wanted to train to be a wrestler, I didn’t even know that independent wrestling even existed. I just thought it was WWF and WCW. Then when I discovered independent wrestling, it was cool but still, the goal was always to get to the WWE. When I got there man, it was, uh, I don’t wanna sound corny but it’s like my dream come true. This is my dream I wanted to do my entire life and then, you know, I achieved it and to be there, it was awesome. To train at the Performance Center with guys like Norman Smiley, Matt Bloom/Prince Albert, Terry Taylor, there was just so many great minds to learn from. It’s a time in my life that I’ll always hold very dear to my heart. I learned so much stuff and I got to wrestle around the world. I got to wrestle in Japan, Australia, all over Europe. It was amazing and it’s a time — like I said before, I’ll always cherish my time in WWE.

** In 2019, at Ring of Honor and New Japan Pro-Wrestling’s G1 Supercard show, Matt Taven became ROH World Champion. While speaking to Phil Strum on ‘Under The Ring’, Taven dove into the time period of his title win and it taking place after multiple members of the ROH roster departed to start and join All Elite Wrestling. Taven feels that people blamed him for that downtick period where event attendance was down. Taven shared that-that still sits on his mind from time to time.

Huh, that’s an interesting question proving a lot of people wrong and winning those tag titles and being able to go back and forth with Ring of Honor and New Japan and then coming back from injury and doing the Six-Man Title run. There’s so many things to proud of and you know, right now with things changing so much, I feel like I’m constantly thinking of how it ended more than how it went. So I’m sure maybe years down the line, I’ll be able to appreciate it more but right now when you ask that question, made me — I haven’t been asked that question so it made me feel all sorts of ways so that’s about as honest as I can get. You know, I think when I — down the line when I sit back and look at it, things probably — I’ll appreciate them more but, I think right now, I’m still fighting that battle of something to prove and especially with the last — the pandemic years, there’s so many good things that happened in Ring of Honor, not just for myself but for other people that were there as well, that I feel like just doesn’t get the credit that it deserves. So, it’s one of those things where… right now, I definitely feel there’s just like a thing, like a defensive-proving-ness, however I can say that when I think back on Ring of Honor. But at the same time, everything’s just so fresh.

Final Battle 2021 featured Taven and Mike Bennett defending the ROH World Tag Team Titles against The Briscoes. Taven said they all knew they’d be facing each other prior to the hiatus announcement in October.

They . So, we were all excited to kind of — you know, we had all these plans and then all of a sudden, it’s like it’ll be one and that’s it. It was kind of — the four of us all looked at each other like, we’re gonna go all out tonight and it’s one of my favorite matches of my career and I’m so unbelievably proud of it.

Taven is currently working with IMPACT Wrestling and is a part of the ‘Honor No More’ faction. He discussed his experience with IMPACT so far and being surrounded by familiar faces.

I mean it’s — this whole thing has been such a crazy experience for me be there together and to be kind of all be going through this new phase together.

** Jose and Wil Maximo of The S.A.T. (Spanish Announce Team) were guests on ‘Knights of The Gimmick Table’. Jose revealed that there was a working plan for he and Will to take on The Briscoes (Mark & Jay Briscoe) in Ring of Honor prior to the hiatus announcement in 2021. S.A.T. were present at GCW’s Hammerstein Ballroom show as well and they filmed content in the backstage area that was not used.

Jose: So I mean, before Ring of Honor announced that they were going under, it was kind of supposed to happen there , we were there. We showed up, we did some stuff in the back. It never really came out because I guess they didn’t wanna use it. They just kind of wanted to announce the match. But we did like a whole little run-in in the back and blah, blah, blah, cut a few promos to set up for it but it all worked out because it was even better that they just announced it. It was pretty dope.

The match against The Briscoes ended up happening at GCW ‘Believe Me’ this past February. Jose and Wil reflected on that experience and said it was a good time.

Jose: It was crazy .

Wil: It was fun.

Jose: You already know. It’s like one of those — it gives me the whole old CZW vibes, you know? A lot of familiar faces and a lot of new faces so, it’s interesting.

Wil: It was new and old at the same time, you know what I mean? It was like similar energies to like — or how they say it nowadays? Similar ‘vibes’ to the old school environment because we were playing Hip-Hop in the beginning. It was ill, it was different. But new.

The Spanish Announce Team competed for Ring of Honor in the early 2000s and Jose weighed in on the 2022 ROH Hall of Fame class. He questioned why the late ROH World Champion Xavier, Low Ki or Homicide were not included in that initial class.

Jose: You know, God bless all the Ring of Honor Hall of Famers, whatever, right? What guys — even you guys. You Red, Xavier. How is Xavier not in the Hall of Fame?

100 percent, 100 percent . How is Xavier — I don’t care about me. I don’t need to be in that sh*t. That sh*t — you know what I mean? It doesn’t do anything, it doesn’t pay mortgage. But, if you’re gonna honor Xavier or honor people, what’s up with Xavier? Or even Low Ki or even Homicide. Briscoes? Hands down, my dudes. Samoa Joe? Hands down, my dude. You know, CM Punk, that’s cool. Bryan Danielson, that’s cool, God bless, that’s what’s up. They did their thing, they did a lot, right? But I’m talking about the original guys, the guys who started that sh*t, the guys who were there from day one, you know what I mean? And yeah, we started that sh*t. Matter of fact, we kind of came up with that sh*t.

Later in the conversation, independent talent Papadon joined the show. He had a match on AEW Dark in the summer of 2021. Papadon would later contact ‘Captain’ Shawn Dean about being a part of AEW’s Arthur Ashe show. Dean called him but Papadon missed the phone call and did not receive one back.

Papadon: Went well, went very well . I got nothing but complemented from the guy who agented the match… you know, Taz put me over, the commentators put me over, Excalibur put me over, everyone loved it and then nothing. They came to New York. The, uh — the Ashley — what’s that called? The Arthur Ashe Stadium show. I hit ‘em up to get on that show. I called — what’s his name? Captain Shawn Dean… I called him, I left a message. He called me back, I missed the call, I was in a meeting at work. He didn’t leave a message. I call him back, no sold. You know, so I hit him up, I said, ‘Hey man, what’s the deal?’ It’s f*cking wrestling bro, nothing’s guaranteed.

** Ice Ribbon supervisor and former All Japan Women’s Champion Manami Toyota is going to be the focus of a sit-down interview during Ice Ribbon’s 4/24 show.

** After Theory defeated Finn Balor for the WWE United States Title on the 4/18 Raw, ‘Prince Devitt’ trended on Twitter.

** All Japan Pro Wrestling’s Jake Lee teamed with Hiroshi Tanahashi at the NJPW-AJPW joint-show on April 16th. Afterwards, Tanahashi extended an invite to Lee to come to New Japan. Lee considered it and said it would be interesting to wrestle for NJPW. Lee stated in the past that he hoped to wrestle for New Japan to seek out more competition.

** The Wrstling Podcast welcomed Mei Suruga onto their show. She’s hoping to return to the USA soon and if there’s one AEW talent she’s looking forward to facing, it’s Julia Hart.

** Xavier Woods was a guest on G4’s AustinShow.

** NJPW Golden Fight Series Results (4/19/22) Korakuen Hall
– Master Wato def. Akio Fujita
– Ryusuke Taguchi def. Ryohei Oiwa
– Toru Yano, YOSHI-HASHI & Hirooki Goto def. Tomoaki Honma, Togi Makabe & Tiger Mask
– DOUKI, Yoshinobu Kanemaru, Zack Sabre Jr. & El Desperado def. Gedo, Taiji Ishimori, Bad Luck Fale & Chase Owens
– EVIL, SHO, Yujiro Takahashi & Dick Togo def. Hiroshi Tanahashi, Tama Tonga, Tanga Loa & Jado
– Hiromu Takahashi & Shingo Takagi def. TAKA Michinoku & Taichi
– YOH & Kazuchika Okada def. BUSHI & Tetsuya Naito

** Tampa Bay Times ran a story about the location that was used for the taping of Shinsuke Nakamura and Rick Boogs’ vignettes going into WrestleMania 38.

** On April 20th, AEW will be releasing the theme song for the Owen Hart Cup tournament.

** Gerald Brisco and John Bradshaw Layfield recorded themselves watching the WWE Championship match at No Way Out 2004 between Brock Lesnar and Eddie Guerrero.

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.