Originally published at POST NEWS UPDATE: Nick Comoroto was out of action with bicep injury
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.
** K & S WrestleFest hosted a signing with Nick Comoroto. Nick had been out of action since June and he shared that it was due to a bicep injury.
Yes, . I’m feeling good.
Comoroto did spend time with the NXT brand. While he was with NXT, he was called ‘Nick Ogarelli’ and at one point, they wanted to name him ‘Ogre’. Nick went on to praise the coaches of the Performance Center such as Norman Smiley and Ryan Katz, who was known as ‘GQ Money’ during his in-ring days.
I did the house show loops . Eventually — it was Nick Comoroto for the first bit and then it became Nick Ogarelli. They wanted to call me ‘Ogre’ from Revenge of the Nerds. If you saw, I had the cutoff sleeves and there’s a lot of things that it was just — I will never — it was not a waste going there. I learned a lot. Norman Smiley is one of the best coaches I’ve — in wrestling there is, if not the best, and there was this guy there Ryan Katz who helped me bring out my character. I’m very shy, I’m very stuttery and I’m very socially awkward so he turned that into a character with the Ogarelli thing and one of my first speeches — one of my first promos, like live promos was written a certain way that whenever they debut a new character, they always cut this one promo about how, ‘I’m the best, I’m gonna go destroy everybody and I’m gonna be –’ and it’s always awkward, the crowd’s dead. So we turned my social awkwardness to ten and we made that promo as awkward as possible on purpose and then the crowd loved it because they were all into what was going on.
The Factory group in AEW consists of QT Marshall, Anthony Ogogo, Nick Comoroto and Aaron Solo. Comoroto said that QT is to credit for him being with AEW.
QT , I take out Cody.
Comoroto was asked about TV time with the reported arrivals of CM Punk and Bryan Danielson to AEW. He feels that he will continue to stand out from the rest of the roster because of his unique look and wrestling style.
One thing I’m excited about — well one thing I’m not too worried about is just I have a very unique look and there’s not many people there like me, that wrestle like me, that look like me and you know, luckily CM Punk and Bryan Danielson, they’re superstars but, I am very different than them. So like I fit a very specific role and there’s not many people like me. So, that’s very lucky on my part and for the whole TV time, I just have to bring it, each time I’m out there if I wanna keep getting back to TV.
On several occasions, Comoroto has been told that he should’ve been paired with Jurassic Express as the caveman of the group. He commented on the idea and had a ‘never say never’ type of response to the comment.
You don’t know how many times I’ve heard that the whole reason why I’m here, QT trained me and he needed help.
** Jim Ross sat down with Brandon Marcello to discuss college football. The two dove into wrestling as well and Ross discussed his future with All Elite Wrestling. He said he does want to make it past the age of 70 as a commentator and reassess from there. Tony Khan has indicated to J.R. that he wants him around AEW for a long time.
Tony is micromanaging everything that was said or heard or whatever, the inflections, the whole nine yards. So if I can do — I’d kind of like to get past 70 and say, ‘You know, I made it to that milestone’ and then kind of look at it and see what’s happening. I think Tony Khan would want me — he’s indicated he wants me to be a part of AEW for a long time to come but we’ll see how that works out.
Ross opened up about some of the mistakes he has made on commentary. He said he enjoys what he does and sometimes it is just a human error. He mentioned that he’s been watching the Olympics and has heard commentators mispronounce names and misidentify people.
I’m enjoying what I’m doing to be honest with you and I hope my works holds up. You know sometimes I screw up. You’re doing it live without a net, I get that. So, and it’s just human error. It’s funny, I’ve been watching a lot of the Olympics, I’ve heard guys mispronounce names, misidentify people and that’s what you get sometimes. So, but I’m happy. That’s the great thing about it, I’m happy and I’m doing what I love to do.
He then went to speak about his “WWE Dynamite” comment at the close of AEW’s show at Daily’s Place before they got back on the road. Ross stated that he did not know he said it until he got back to his dressing trailer and it was mentioned to him.
Sometimes you don’t even know why you said something. I had said something the other night about WWE on AEW TV, caused a big hysteria and I didn’t even — and this is honest to God truth; I didn’t even know I said it until I got to my little trailer, dressing trailer and of course I had a welcoming party. ‘Why did you say that?’ ‘Say what?’ So and of course the internet went crazy, so, whatever. It’s just human error man. I’m out there having fun and busting my ass and I’m hopeful that I say the right things occasionally so, we’ll see how it works out.
** Tyler Breeze joined Matt Rehwoldt on his ‘Straight Shooting’ show. Breeze looked back on his early days in WWE and spoke about an on-the-fly match he was asked to have. He had that match with Pepper Parks, who is known as ‘The Blade’ in AEW. Breeze feels that if Blade had not guided him through that match, he would not have been hired by WWE.
A massive reason why I got hired because he’s the reason I got hired. He led me through that match like a baby. He held my hand, he let me look like a guy who should be hired and I got hired and he did not and every time I see him I go, ‘Hey, you got me my job dude’ and I actually, the other day was fantastic. I had a student who he wrestled for AEW in a enhancement match and he wrestled Pepper and I went, ‘I love him.’ I said, ‘Tell him hi and tell him that you’re a student of mine’ and he went, ‘Ah! Cool man.’ We’ve always been cool, but if it wasn’t for him, I would almost say 100 percent I would not have gotten hired. He led me through like a true pro. He is the best.
At the first NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn in 2015, Breeze went one-on-one with former 11-time IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion Jushin Thunder Liger. Breeze detailed how that opportunity came about and piecing the match together with Liger.
No, so Regal’s gonna come out, he’s gonna announce who you’re against, we’re gonna put the graphic on the screen, it’s gonna be Liger’ and I’m like, ‘Cool man.’ So then they did the thing, they flashed the Liger thing, I went, ‘Oh that was cool’ and that was it. It was kind of very last minute of like, ‘Hey, you’re working this guy.’ I’m like, ‘Cool man.’
I never met him until Brooklyn when I met him in catering randomly. I saw some guy who’s not normally there and I went, ‘Hey man, is it me and you tonight?’ And he goes, ‘Oh yes, yes, yes.’ He goes, ‘Please put the match together. I don’t know the style’ and I went, ‘Okay.’ So I like put the whole match together, I think we ran over one thing and that was a tilt-a-whirl. He went, ‘Ah, tilt-a-whirl?’ I said, ‘Yeah.’ He said, ‘Just do a cartwheel in front of me’ and I said, ‘Okay’ and so I just kind of ran and jumped into the cartwheel and he literally just went like this and he went, ‘Yep, that’s good. Cool.’ Said, ‘Anything else?’ I said, ‘We’re cool, thanks.’
Breeze dove into the struggles he faced during his time in WWE with not being able to find his footing. He was given advice Norman Smiley, who told Breeze that he cared too much. It wasn’t until years later that Breeze understood what Norman was trying to tell him.
My least favorite time and this is different where it was — FCW was very much a detached entity. Like we were very much on an island. It wasn’t — you weren’t in WWE. You were but, you know what I mean? And I remember at the time just, I could not get going. No matter what I did, I just could not figure this out and I’m trying to figure out the system and I just can’t and I remember Norman telling me, ‘Hey man –’ I said, ‘What am I doing wrong? Like what’s the deal?’ And he goes, ‘You care too much’ and I said, ‘How could I not care!? This is all I ever wanted to do, now I’m here. I’m gonna get fired if I don’t figure this out. Like what is happening?’ And he goes, ‘You’ll understand what I mean eventually’ and I went, ‘Okay’ and years later I understand what he meant. You have to care enough so that when your number gets called and you have an opportunity, you look good, you’re in-shape, your gear looks good, your wrestling’s on point and you can do everything that you need to do. But until that point, you better detach and unplug because you’re just gonna sit here and you’re gonna stew and you’re gonna stew and you’re gonna stew and you’re gonna get miserable and miserable and miserable and miserable and miserable and miserable and then when you’re opportunity does come, you’re gonna be so bitter and mad, you’re gonna mess up your opportunity and then you’re gonna blame everybody else, it’s their fault, not yours when in reality, you’re putting all your eggs in the wrestling basket to make you happy in life and if you do that, you will get made miserable every single time because wrestling’s job is not to make you happy. It is to give you an opportunity and give you freedom to do whatever you want in this world, you know what I mean?
Throughout Breeze’s decade-long run with WWE, he only captured the NXT Tag Team Titles. To him, he was more satisfied by being acknowledged by his colleagues as someone they wanted to be in the ring with and also help fellow talents find their footing.
So I’ve always liked teaching people. I’ve always liked the actual process of like I said, watching the actual lightbulb go off. I feel like not all people who are good wrestlers are also good teachers. I feel like I can kind of translate it, especially at the time I was teaching certain people like Bayley, Sasha losing in two seconds today,’ I’d go, ‘Cool.’ Like I don’t care. But to me, that respect from my peers is the whole reason why like if I walk in somewhere and I see my opponent look at the card and go, ‘Oh yeah nice! I got Breeze today.’ I go, ‘Cool man.’ That to me is like they wanna work me and they like working me and they have fun and I have fun and they’re safe and I’m safe, hell yeah. That to me means so much more than like hey, I was the champion for a week or whatever. Like who cares, you know what I mean? So that to me is huge.
** Rewind, Recap, Relive spoke to Levi Cooper, formerly known as ‘Tucker’ during his time in WWE. Cooper is looking forward to getting back in the ring and is primarily focused on the independents right now. He stated that he does not want to wrestle on TV until he figures out who he is in the ring post-Heavy Machinery.
I really wanna check out the indie scene for a little while. I’m not like — I need to figure out exactly who I am, who Levi Cooper is inside of the wrestling ring with no foil as Otis. I don’t wanna jump right back onto television without really having a solid idea as to who that is and kind of, you know, the foundational piece I know is going to be very heavily centered around amateur wrestling. That’s not just kind of — what should I say – physically but also mentally, that’s a big part of who I am and the reason why I am where I am in my life is that and so, kind of get back to that and remember the lessons that I learned as an amateur athlete and really center that as the foundation for my wrestling character is what I’m looking to do and then sort of the next layer on top of that. I said this in a couple interviews is kind of like a force of nature, essentially. Somebody who kind of understands the extreme dichotomy that exists between the super calm and peaceful nature exhibits majority of the time but, when necessary, the sheer force in violence that it’s capable of exhibiting is kind of what I’m gonna be looking to be the center, the kind of ethos of the main part of the tree if you will.
Cooper joined WWE in 2013 and he recalled the period when he was learning wrestling terminology. While in a skull session, he was not aware of what ‘heat’ was and said although there were some laughs, most of the responses were helpful as far as explanations go.
I think it was my first week and I was in what they call a ‘skull session’ which is just like a video, you’re watching matches on the screen. It’s just we’re around a conference table, there’s a TV in the front of it and everyone’s watching the match. It might be a historical match, it might be a match from a live event. We’re all gonna watch it and kind of, you know, just talk about it, jam ideas about it essentially. So like I said, it’s my first week and everyone’s talking about ‘heat’. They’re like, ‘Heat, heat, heat,’ and I’m just sitting there like, ‘Damn dude.’ It’s clearly obvious and they’re talking about it in the context of a match, you know? About the heel is up on the babyface. So yeah man, they must have said it like ten times, 15 times, everyone’s just talking about it. It’s like . ‘Hey, this is probably a stupid question guys but like, y’all keep saying heat, heat, heat. Please explain to me what you mean when you say that word because I don’t know what you’re talking about,’ and so obviously there was some chuckles and whatever but there was also some good explanation I guess you’d say.
Heavy Machinery split in the Fall of 2020. Levi believes that he and Otis will reunite at some point.
I still talk to this man every week, no doubt and I mean, there’s no — I shouldn’t say ‘no doubt’ because life is what it is, it’s unpredictable and you can’t ever make solid plans on really anything but, I would venture to guess that the two of us will be back together at the wrestling ring at some point in time. I’d be pretty surprised if that didn’t happen eventually.
** While speaking to Those Wrestling Girls, IMPACT Knockouts Champion Deonna Purrazzo listed Jordynne Grace and Rosemary as two of her favorite opponents in IMPACT. Purrazzo feels that the match she and Grace had at Slammiversary 2020 is number one when it comes to her favorite matches that she’s had.
Okay, well I’ll try to keep it different than Chelsea are the two.
** NJPW1972.com released part two of their conversation with Fred Rosser. Rosser was asked for his thoughts about being the first openly gay wrestler to be contracted to New Japan Pro-Wrestling and what that means to him:
Yeah. You know, all I want in the end is for people to see me in the ring, on TV, social media or wherever and say ‘if he can do it, then so can I’. Being who you are is important, and that means being all kinds of sizes and shapes.
And identify with me as me. There are all sorts of people in the (LGBTQ+) community, feminine to masculine to everything in between. I don’t need to deepen my voice to pass myself off as more masculine, even if I was a big fan of Shane Douglas growing up. Do Japanese fans get that reference? (laughs).
The point is I don’t need to be someone I’m not. I just have to be me. The fans didn’t vote me and Tom Lawlor as STRONG match of the year because I’m gay, I got it because I’m good and so is he.
Elsewhere during the discussion, Rosser shared that he was asked by a promoter to participate in a deathmatch. Rosser is only open to it if his opponent is Jon Moxley.
Nobody would expect that from me, just like they didn’t expect me and Filthy Tom. A while back a promoter called me and asked if I was willing to do a deathmatch, but I said I would only do it, only cross that line if it was with Moxley. So take that and put it out there.
** To promote WWE’s upcoming live event in Estero, Florida, News-Press spoke to Big E and got his thoughts about being the first Black male wrestler to win Money In The Bank.
It’s something that I can take pride in. To me, seeing representation in the media, I think it really does matter. You know, I look around and we have so much talent in our locker room — and not just Black men and women. But Japanese talent. Hispanic talent. We have talent from all over. And I think when our locker room looks like the rest of the world and reflects the world around us, I think that’s all we can hope for. And again, I take a lot of pride in being one of the Black wrestlers who are doing cool things right now.
** Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful conducted an interview with Roderick Strong. The two parties dove into the formation of Diamond Mine but prior to that group arriving to NXT, there was a storyline in place where Roderick Strong ‘quit’ NXT. Strong said he made himself believe that he truly quit to immerse himself in the story.
I did (quit). To me, I did, and I was done. Honestly, there’s a huge influence from Shawn Michaels, but Jamie Noble was one of the first people to tell me, ‘If it’s real to you, it’s real to everybody else.’ In my head, I had (just quit). It’s one of those situations where the highlight was on Kyle and Adam, but the competitor in me wants to be a part of that, but there wasn’t an opportunity at that time. For me, this gave me a chance to distance myself, decompress and really think about what I wanted to do. I’ve been in a wrestling ring for 25 years. Thankfully, I was gone for awhile and this opportunity that was coming about was with the right people and obviously, I could get the spotlight for myself, which I feel I deserve and worked very hard for, along with that, I can bring some other guys in to that spotlight and get that on them and pass it on and transfer a lot of this stuff. It gives more value to my career than just my matches. I told my mom I quit, my dad, my family. I was like, ‘We’ll see what happens down the road.’
Diamond Mine consists of Strong, Tyler Rust, Hideki Suzuki and Malcolm Bivens. Strong explained what each individual adds to the group:
Back to Diamond Mine, that was the thing that attracted me to this opportunity. I’m now able to bring what is a big part of my life into who I am as a pro wrestler. Rust is a guy who needs opportunities and that’s how we grow. Being aligned with me creates opportunities. He’s gonna have that chance to grow at a faster than he would have by himself. Bivens is unbelievably talented and he needed a chance to have the spotlight on him too. That’s what this brings. From all my time in wrestling, one of the things I love to do is give back. It’s an opportunity to do that, for people that have a ton of potential and needed an opportunity like people helped me get. Hideki, Hachiman, he’s a Japanese God of War. He’s a beast and a huge influence on me now, just being able to train together. He gives me a ton of insight. It’s turned into a team, which is exactly what we want to be. We communicate constantly and we’re training together, training in catch wrestling, jiu-jitsu, boxing, kickboxing, working on pro wrestling; we’re trying to do it all to make ourselves the baddest men that we can.
** Isaiah ‘Swerve’ Scott spoke to Inside The Ropes. He shared his thoughts about Hit Row’s progression in NXT and heaped praise onto Briana Brandy a.k.a. B-Fab. He described her as the “heart” of Hit Row.
But B-Fab’s always killing her outfits man. She’s born to be a star. She’s born to be up front. We try to put her up front as much as possible because she just steals everybody’s attention as soon as she walks in that CWC, so B-Fab is like definitely our core and heart. She’s our heartbeat of the group, you know? So, and that’s what we do. Hit Row is like a culture that we’re trying to push forward and we’re trying to change the game in sports-entertainment for sure.
Scott expressed that he would not change his journey in NXT. He has enjoyed the ride and would not want to switch this Hit Row run to when he first started in NXT. He feels that viewers want to see the growth of a character along with sometimes coming out of the gate hot.
No, no. I am happy with how everything went. I wouldn’t push Hit Row back to like my first six months of NXT at all, because now you see growth. People wanna see growth. As much as they wanna see someone come in and make a huge statement immediately, that’s cool and all but there’s been so many times we’ve seen that. Like Karrion Kross came in and made a huge impact immediately, you know? And now you’re gonna see where he grows with that. I like the slow burn, I like the going through the pitfalls. I like taking people on the turns and the turmoil, seeing the character crack and fall to pieces and then build himself back up to get — and then he’s something new, something better than what he was when he first entered in, because people have to understand we’re storytellers.
** Inside The Ropes published their chat with Chris Jericho. He spoke to the publication about Vince McMahon’s recent comments about WWE not viewing AEW as competition. Jericho thinks that mindset will change once AEW starts beating WWE’s main shows in the demos.
The WWE is the WWE and they have billions of dollars locked in TV deals and we are working towards that. Now when our demo ends up beating theirs and TV deals start coming in for us at the billions, then I truly think there will be a lot of competition because now you’re fighting for money, you’re not just fighting for bragging rights – and bragging rights don’t mean anything. It’s the money that you make from it that counts. So we’ll see what happens.
** SportsMattersTV hosted an interview with Bronwyne Billington, daughter of Dynamite Kid. She gave her take on why her father hasn’t been inducted into the WWE Hall Of Fame yet. She feels that since the door has been opened for Davey Boy Smith Sr., that could lead to her father being inducted as well.
I sure hope so in now so maybe that’s just the next step into it happening, and I know that some people have a bad taste in their mouth about my dad or he has a bad reputation, so I’m sure that has something to do with it but Davey, why did it take so long? But now that-that door is open, I’m hoping The Bulldogs will go in together and that’s just the next step.
Bronwyne pursued a career in wrestling years ago but fell out of it because she was reminded about how the sport and business impacted her father. She later came back around to getting involved and stated that it is in her blood.
I never really did — a little bit when I graduated high school, I was kind of at a stage like, ‘Okay, what am I gonna do with my life now?’ And I was hanging out with my cousin Teddy Hart a lot and he had a wrestling school for kids so, he had this wild dream how great it would be to have Dynamite Kid’s daughter to start wrestling and I started being like, ‘Yeah, that would cool’ so I started working out and eating right and watching wrestling and I never did get in there and start training because something switched and I got turned off from wrestling for a while. With my dad’s health and everything like that, him being in a wheelchair, it was always kind of like up and down with me. I’m like, ‘No, look what it did to my dad’s health. I don’t like wrestling’ and I pushed it away. So I was always kind of back and forth with it until more recent years. I’m like, ‘You know what? Yeah, it’s in my blood, I can’t ignore it anymore.’ It’s always around me, I love it so…
Dark Side of the Ring profiled Dynamite Kid in season three. Bronwyne reflected on the experience and what she thought of the episode:
Filming it was pretty nerve wracking. I think I did okay, I just got through it but it was like, just their style of filming, it was really close up so it felt like the camera was right here in my face and I was just answering the questions. I just wanted to get through it and then after I was so nervous that I didn’t say enough. It ended up being what? A 45-minute episode so they couldn’t use a lot of what we said anyway so, it really didn’t matter that I didn’t say enough because they only put so much in there. But, it was a really good experience, they’re really nice guys – the producers, really professional and I got to film with my sister that day so it was like a bonding experience, that was really nice and my mom, she filmed the next day but, overall, we were really happy with it. All the positive feedback was really amazing to see and so that made us feel good about it.
** Dwyane ‘The Rock’ Johnson and Emily Blunt promoted ‘Jungle Cruise’ by being a part of WIRED’s ‘most searched questions’ segment. One of the most searched questions about The Rock was about the way his abs look which led to him explaining that he suffered three tears in a match and ended up having triple hernia emergency surgery.
No, I got like a five-and-a-half pack. Sometimes a four-and-half pack but the problem was which a lot of people don’t know, I tore in a wrestling match, I tore the top of my quad off of my pelvis, went bang in a wrestling match and what that did, that caused a chain reaction and it tore my abdomen wall, so then I had three — I had to do a triple hernia emergency surgery of a tear, a tear and a tear. So they’re not like perfect abs.
** STARDOM’s Giulia and Syuri chatted with Bell To Belles about their experience wrestling inside the Tokyo Dome in a dark match prior to NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 15.
Syuri: I was really happy to be able to wrestle at the New Japan Pro Wrestling Tokyo Dome show. I thought it was an opportunity to show the excitement and greatness of STARDOM to those who have only seen New Japan Pro Wrestling and men’s wrestling. However, I’m hoping that a Stardom Tokyo Dome show will become a reality, not just a dream that was born out of performing on NJPW’s stage at the Tokyo Dome.
Giulia: I think that female wrestlers are highly evaluated in professional wrestling in America, but Japanese female wrestlers are still not highly evaluated. Wrestle Kingdom is an event that pro wrestling fans around the world pay attention to, so I felt a sense of pride in introducing myself to pro wrestling fans all over the world on behalf of all Japanese female wrestlers. It was also the day when I fulfilled a big dream of wanting to be in the same ring as New Japan Pro-Wrestling.
** ‘The New Paper’ has a story about WWE signee Sean Tan, who was formally announced to be joining WWE in July.
** ‘Extra’ talked to John Cena about Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson possibly returning to WWE.
** Austin and Colten Gunn did signings on stream for The Asylum Wrestling Store.
** The video for Hiroshi Tanahashi’s theme song:
** Wrestling With Friends welcomed Ryan Nemeth onto the show.
** Brian Myers and Matt Cardona recapped their time at Slammiversary via their latest Vlog:
** Dolph Ziggler was the latest guest on Steven’s Wrestling Journey.
** Nick Aldis appeared on the Keepin It 100 with Konnan podcast.
** IMPACT Wrestling’s Jessika Havok joined Vickie Guerrero’s podcast.
** AEW’s Nyla Rose turned 39 on 8/3.
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.