Originally published at https://www.postwrestling.com/2022/12/08/post-news-update-ricky-starks-reflects-on-promo-segment-with-mjf-says-he-winged-it/
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.
** After winning the Dynamite Diamond Ring Battle Royale on the 12/7 AEW Dynamite, Ricky Starks came face-to-face with AEW World Champion MJF who he’ll be facing at Winter Is Coming. They had a promo segment that was capped off with Starks spearing MJF. Ricky spoke to Liam Crowley of Comicbook.com about his promo. Initially, Starks mapped it out entirely but after hearing what MJF had to say, he decided to scrap what he planned and winged it.
I think you’ll hear a lot of wrestlers say, oh, I didn’t think of it. I didn’t plan it out, I didn’t write it out. And Cody [Rhodes] makes the same joke, but that’s bull. Even the best promos had to have some type of structure to them. And I am somewhat in the same way, admittedly. I’m not one to really pull back the curtain on anything here, but yesterday, earlier in the day, I had wrote out this whole thing, and in my head memorized it and did all this, and stressed myself out, and then had a match to do. Anything could have gone wrong where I just forget it in the match.
I remember Max cutting that promo and saying these comments, and in that moment I was like, I’ll just wing it. I’ll just wing it. I know where I want to go and what I want to get to, and I’ll just fill in the blanks. So what you saw out there was me winging it. That’s how I operate. Yes, I can come up with some lines and think about it, but for the most part, whatever I feel, I just say, and it comes off in that moment.
I’m not a stranger to this type of reception to a promo I’ve done. Earlier in the year, after I lost the title to HOOK, I had a similar promo. The common theme between all that is it’s just me really speaking from the heart in every single instance.
** According to a report from PWInsider, NJPW is bringing Mercedes Varnado (Sasha Banks) to Japan for Wrestle Kingdom 17. The site notes that what she’ll be doing at the event is not known but she is being brought in. The first night of Wrestle Kingdom is at the Tokyo Dome on January 4th and the second night is January 21st at Yokohama Arena. Varnado last wrestled back in May. She and Trinity Fatu (Naomi) walked out of WWE on 5/16. The two have appeared together at movie premieres and runway shows in the months coming out of that situation.
** On the 12/7 edition of Busted Open Radio, as Tommy Dreamer and Mickie James were discussing her ‘Last Rodeo’, Dreamer shared that IMPACT Wrestling attendance numbers have gone up because of the promotion of James’ ‘Last Rodeo’.
Dreamer: She’s [Mickie James] like, ‘I’m willing to put my career up. If I lose another match, I’ll leave. I’ll leave the business. I have other outside projects. I have a son, I’m a mom. I don’t know what I wanna do’ and I mean, think about this, you’re at a crossroads of your life but… here’s the athlete and the competitor. ‘I want to be the best,’ hence where we’re at today and I was also like, it’s a great tool for marketing as well and our houses in IMPACT Wrestling have gone up from it and it’s, hey, you don’t know when Mickie James’ last match is gonna be. So, these are real, real things and I’m just giving you the backstory and Mickie can tell you more of what was going on or what’s going on in her head and now we’re at this pinnacle where she is going to be facing someone younger, someone much stronger [Jordynne Grace]. No offense Mickie James. I know you got some guns but… very stiff, very hard-hitting and another person who’s very, very focused on — I don’t wanna say this as a knock to her — but to have the career that Mickie James has had and that’s the history of this industry.
As the conversation went on, Dreamer recalled his return to WWE TV in November of 2015 when he assisted Bully Ray and D-Von Dudley in taking on The Wyatt Family (Bray Wyatt, Brodie Lee, Braun Strowman & Erick Redbeard). Dreamer stated that he shed tears before he appeared in front of the crowd because he became overwhelmed with the thought of the crowd not remembering him.
Dreamer: When I went back to the WWE with The Wyatts [in 2015] and they bring me to this place in Pittsburgh, I think it’s the Mellon Arena and all of a sudden, I start saying, ‘What if the fans don’t remember me?’ And I’m in a legit dark curtain room and you’re alone with your thoughts and I start working myself off and I start to cry and I’m like, ‘Please God, let them remember me. If I don’t get a reaction, I’m gonna feel like the lowest’ and all this stuff starts going through my head and all of a sudden, my music hit and I heard the roar and I literally, it was almost like an out-of-body experience. I was like, dude, you’re Tommy Dreamer. You’re in Pittsburgh. Are you kidding me? And when I walked out, I saw the smile and I got a garbage can, I’m swinging but like, these are real, genuine emotions that happen to you, moments but that was because it was in a different setting as opposed to if it was anywhere else.
Later in the show, Nikki Bella sat down for an interview. She mentioned that she exchanged text messages with Mandy Rose after it was pointed out on social media that Rose wore gear on NXT TV that looked like Nikki’s in-ring attire. Nikki added that she always misses being involved in wrestling.
Bella: Oh yeah [I miss being involved in wrestling]. I miss it all the time. The times that I do tune in, I’ll miss it a lot. I think you never — you’ll always miss that competition side. To get in the ring, especially as women, it’s not like we can go anywhere else to really get that feeling of empowerment or being a badass, that adrenaline rush. Especially, I loved being a villain and I miss being booed. I miss getting to have that evil side and just bringing that character to life and then it’s just fun things like Mandy Rose recently when everything with her went viral and it was like, we were texting and I’m like — then your wheels start spinning. I’m like, stop Nicole. It’s like you can’t help it. You watch still as a fan and you’re creating storylines in your head. I feel like I cut more promos when I do cardio and I’m like, am I really still cutting promos in my head? Oh my gosh, give it up girl. But yeah, it’ll always just be in you.
** Joining the Wrestling With Johners Podcast for a live Q&A session was Zak Zodiac, brother of AEW’s Saraya. In 2011, Zak competed on an episode of SmackDown in an enhancement match for Paul Wight. It had been relayed to Zak by his agent that he was basically ‘in’ with WWE in terms of signing. That did not happen but the two other enhancement talents in the aforementioned match were signed. Zodiac said that crushed him because he did everything WWE asked him to do to get to that point.
This is a true story. It [tag team with Roy Knight] actually started in 2011, ‘The Hooligans’ did and the reason being is I had just done my three-on-one Handicap match with The Big Show and prior to that match, I was pretty much told, ‘You’re signed.’ I give myself a really good account in the tryout stages, the matches that they were doing. I’d done a really good promo. My agent basically said, ‘You’re in. You’re in’ type thing. Done that match and Tom LaRuffa and Andy Baker I think it was, both of them got signed after that match and I didn’t and that really was the straw that broke the camel’s back. That destroyed me. I was 20 years old, I’d been touring with TNA for two or three years. This was like my third or fourth tryout for WWE, I had done everything that they had asked of me. Got in shape, trimmed down, put weight on, work on your promo, do this, do that. I’d done everything that was asked of me and that really destroyed me. So Roy said to me, I remember it was around Christmas time, he said to me, ‘Bro, I’ve had my single career. I’ve done this for the last 17 years. Let’s tag together, let’s show people what you’re really about, let’s put our names out there’ and we really didn’t put a time scale on it. Roy just wanted to help me get over this horrible stage of my life and remember why I fell in love with wrestling in the first place and not put so much pressure on myself.
In 2019, the film ‘Fighting with My Family’ about the Knight family premiered. Zak admitted that there were parts of the film that he was not too pleased with, specifically his portrayal at points. He feels that him being presented as somewhat of a drinker and violent hindered him in real life. He added that he loved the way the film ended.
The movie itself [Fighting with My Family], it’s done fantastic. There’s parts of it that I’m not happy with, truthfully. Obviously, this was in an era, a timeframe where my brother was meant to be on holiday in a certain place but the time frame was all messed up in places and they showcased me as someone that would — was a fighter and a drinker and that’s never really been the case. I’ve never really been a huge social person if I’m honest. Drinking, with the problems that my brother and my dad have openly admitted and had, it’s never been something that I’ve been overly keen on. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve lived. From an early teenager through to maybe my 20s, I was a drinker, that’s something I would do. But with drink comes trouble and nine times out of ten, that leads to drugs and the other flip side to me was gambling. As soon as I had a drink, I felt like I was the luckiest man in the world and so for me, I put all that to the side and when they were showcasing the violence and the drinking, I felt like that maybe hindered me for a long time. People are then like, ‘Well, is he a drinker? Is he a thug? Is he violent? Does he go to pubs and start fights?’ And the answer to all that is no. I’d never get in the ring and beat the crap out of my sister and it’s a couple of bits where you’re sitting there thinking, ah, I don’t like the way I’m being portrayed here but as a full circle story, I loved the way that it finished. I love the way that they had me with my children, looking at my sister, showing how proud I was. It was kind of then duplicated in AEW all these years later, ten years later or whatever. Me stood there watching her, going, now this is the real Zak. I would do anything for her, I’m proud of her, I wish her nothing but success, you know?
In October, Zodiac made his debut for New Japan Pro-Wrestling at Royal Quest II. The opportunity came about due to JONAH being stuck in Florida because of weather. It was Revolution Pro Wrestling owner Andy Quildan who contacted Zak about the opportunity.
Obviously, JONAH got stuck in what I believe was maybe Hurricane Ian I think. Don’t quote me on the name but, you know, the guy was stranded. He couldn’t get across from Florida [to compete at NJPW Royal Quest II]. So I actually got a phone call from Andy Quildan, owner of RevPro about 8:30 at night. Sorry, it wasn’t even a phone call, it was a message. It was a message on Messenger saying, ‘What are you doing tomorrow? Can you wrestle for New Japan Royal Quest?’ And I actually went giddy. I was kind of like, wow, this is huge. I’ve wrestled maybe three or four times for RevPro at the moment. There’s so many guys that Andy could put in right now and he’s messaged me. So I must’ve made a good account of myself. I think I wrestled Shota Umino a couple of weeks before that and we had a fantastic match, really, really good. Again, probably up there in my top three matches of 2022. So he calls me up, ‘Can you get there?’ And I’m like, ‘Yes, I can. What do you need?’ He said, ‘I need you to fill in for JONAH in a tag match’ and I’m like, ‘Okay. I haven’t actually seen the card. Who am I working?’ He was like, ‘Um, you’re gonna be working Tomohiro Ishii and Okada.’ Man, my mind was blown. Blown… Incredible, right? A debut’s a debut. I would have gone in there with one of their young boys and we would have torn it up and I would have enjoyed it just as much. But just to say that on my debut, I wrestled Okada and Ishii, not many people can brag about that and what a phenomenal moment. Both those guys and my tag partner, Bad Boy Tito, Bad Man Tito, he was brilliant. He welcomed me with open arms. If you actually watch the footage, we got in the ring and I know that Tito’s been around for a while but I actually said to him, ‘Suck it in bro. Let’s enjoy this’ type of thing and he’s like, ‘Yeah, I’m good. I’m ready’ type thing. They made their entrances and I’m gonna be honest, as soon as they were in the ring, all my nerves and everything went. I was like, okay, I know I can do this, I know I’m good at this. I’m in there with two of the very best, a good platform to showcase myself and they were so accommodating. Ishii let me do the buckle bomb with the sleeper, which is my finisher and won me a lot of matches this year and Okada came and broke it up and they were just so gracious and loving and humble. It was a real honor to step in there with two professionals that love this industry as much as I do and have the fans at the root of their heart and thought process of this match. It was a real honor and I hope I get to do it again.
Following the match, Zak was told to come to night two by NJPW President Takami Ohbari. He thought he was going to have another match but that was not in the cards. He shared that one of the reasons it did not happen is because he found out his uncle passed away. Zak credited NJPW for taking care of him after he was made aware of his family’s loss.
To be honest with you, after my match [at NJPW Royal Quest II], I sort of got the nod from both the wrestlers [Kazuchika Okada & Tomohiro Ishii]. The President, [Takami] Ohbari, he came up to me and was like, ‘Great job. Come again tomorrow’ which I honestly thought I was going to get another match on the second day. But that wasn’t meant to be for a number of reasons. Number one being, I got a phone call at like five to three in the afternoon telling me that my uncle had just passed away. So they put me in the V.I.P. section, they brought me Chinese… And some drinks and basically just said, ‘Look, if there’s anything that we can do Zak, don’t hesitate to ask.’ To be honest, I was treated like a celebrity, as was everyone there.
As for his 2023, Zak is conversing with promotions in Japan about coming in. He said he wants to be smart about it because he’s linked to RevPro who has a relationship with New Japan. He does not want to ‘shoot himself in the foot.’
Nothing’s promised yet but I am talks with a couple companies in Japan that are asking me to go out there in 2023. But I also have to use my brain on this one because I am linked now to RevPro, I know they’ve got ties to New Japan. I don’t wanna shoot myself in the foot with that company but I certainly wanna take it off the bucket list to make sure that I wrestle in Japan.
Earlier in the Q&A, Zodiac shared that in October 2021, he was going to compete in a white-collar boxing match. There was a knee injury that prevented him from doing so but said he fell in love with the process of preparing for the fight.
When we came out the pandemic, I was actually gonna do a white-collar boxing match and that was scheduled to happen in October of ‘21 I believe it was. But we’d done some holiday camps throughout the summer and I had a horrific injury where I split my kneecap and I had to have stitches inside and outside so, the fight got pushed back but I fell in love with the training, the boxing camp so to speak.
** William Regal became a topic of conversation during Denise Salcedo’s chat with Carmelo Hayes. The former NXT North American Champion detailed how big of a role Regal played in getting him signed to WWE. Hayes commented on Regal’s pending return to WWE and said it will be a huge asset for the newer talents.
I don’t know if a lot of people know this, but he was a big part of me getting signed by WWE. He was one of the people that has an eye on indie talent and he was somebody that saw me early on that kinda co-signed for me, when it came down to, hey, is this kid worth our time? Type of thing and he vouched for me. And coming to the Performance Center, he’s a guy where if you want to talk to him, he will take the time to really help you. If he sees that there is something in you, and he sees that you want to learn, he will help you. So, I think he’s going to be a huge asset to wherever he goes. There are rumors that he might be coming back, and if he does, that would be a huge asset for the newer talent coming in. I’m so fortunate that I got to work with him for as long as I did before he left.
Hayes had two runs as North American Champion. He wanted to treat the belt like it was his world championship, adding that-that was the energy he wanted to bring forward.
I’m really proud of what I did with that title. I have mentioned that I was going to make it the ‘A’ championship and I said it very lightly, not realizing, you know, what was next to come. But then it became an energy that I had about… At that time, people don’t remember that it was Tommaso who was champion, and I have said that to Tommaso’s face. You know people were like ‘him and Bron’. No, I was saying it to Tommaso. But it was more of an energy that I wanted to bring, like even if you know people want to say that it wasn’t or was, whatever, but to me it is. To me, this is my world championship, I’m going to treat it as the world championship every time I wrestle. This is the world championship. This is the most important title because I have it. So, yeah, I am very, very proud of everything that I did with that North American Title and it has helped me grow as a performer and as a champion.
** It is official that NXT is going to be hosting a Premium Live Event outside of Florida for the first time since 2020. Vengeance Day is scheduled for February 4th in Charlotte, North Carolina. Apollo Crews told the ‘Ten Count’ podcast about his excitement to be back on the road with the NXT brand.
It’s great [NXT Vengeance Day being outside of Florida] because a lot of the people who have joined NXT after the pandemic haven’t even gotten to experience that type of travel so for them, it’s gonna be great, right? And for us too who have gotten to experience it, it’s gonna be great as well because I remember my debut was at NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn. The first time we went out there and got to wrestle in Brooklyn so it’s kind of one of those things that comes back full circle. Hopefully — I won’t say hopefully but definitely, I’ll be walking into that Premium Live Event as well in Charlotte as the NXT Champion so, again, I’m excited, not just for myself but for everybody to get to experience that. The fans that get to see us again on the road, live. It’s gonna be great for everybody. I can’t wait. I’m excited.
** Heading into ROH Final Battle, Athena promoted the pay-per-view by doing an interview with Mike Johnson of PWInsider. She further touched on her change in attitude on-screen and being more physical in the ring. Athena shared that after she gained traction on social media after the match with Jody Threat, her husband encouraged her to lean into the new presentation and she credited Tony Khan for trusting that.
Yeah, I remember just kind of seeing this all blow up and I was just like, oh, oh, crap. You know… I was like, ‘Well, all right, it’ll go away,’ and then day two happened and I’m like, ‘Eh, it’ll go away tomorrow’ and then day three happened and I was like, ‘I don’t think this is going away.’ And then just seeing a lot of the peers that I had comment on it, and like, it was weird because I was perfectly fine. She [Jody Threat] was perfectly fine after the match. You know, it was just really weird because nothing really happened at all. It was just we went out there. We had a match. And then we came to the back and getting home and seeing this massive reaction for everything. It was like, okay, there’s something to this and I remember sitting down with my husband, and he’s like, ‘You know what we do? We’re pro wrestlers,’ you know? And I go, ‘Yeah, you’re right, we’re pro wrestlers.’ And so it just became the idea of my husband Mike was like, ‘Lean into it. Just lean into it. Don’t say anything. Just lean into it,’ you know? And I’m so happy that Tony [Khan] trusted that. Trusted that, trusted me to be able to pull that off safely. And continue going with this forward momentum. And that’s been the world of a difference is to have that trust and be like, you know what? Yeah, let’s do it. Let’s lean into it. Let’s go and every week it’s gone viral, on some level it’s been talked about, and so, it’s just the right decision. I guess for me personally, because I prefer being the bad guy. And I think it’s because it’s very familiar to me because I did it for ten years.
Continuing that topic, Athena talked about Tony having faith in her and capitalizing on the momentum. She added that producers and coaches have been helpful as well throughout this character shift.
It’s weird [Tony Khan showing trust in her]. It’s very weird, very unexpected, you know, because I feel like — how do I say this without saying it poorly? You know, I kinda was conditioned to tell stories and ask for an inch, don’t ask for a mile and for me to go and say, ‘Hey, let me do this. I can do this.’ And to be given that mile, and then inches on top of that, it’s so relieving to have that trust put in me and know that like, my boss believes that I can do the right job. You know, it’s not saying that they didn’t on the other side, if that makes sense. But Tony having faith and capitalizing on this viral moment, that happened on Dark, they got all the ratings for Dark, and then moving forward and making these baby steps more and more and more and more and finally, it led to me doing the match with Madison [Rayne] on Rampage. That means the world to me and like, it’s just, I’m constantly in that mindset now of, it’s not hurry up and wait. It’s like, what can we do next? What’s the next big thing we can do? And that’s where my brain is… AEW’s been awesome because there’s a whole team of people that are like, ‘Alright, what’s next?’ And it’s not just me in the kitchen. It’s all the producers, all the coaches, you know, T.K. has ideas… now it feels like it’s something special and it’s going to be something special.
** The newest edition of AEW Unrestricted featured Josh Woods. He looked back on his ROH Pure Title win at Death Before Dishonor 2021. Woods’ father was supposed to be at the event, but he passed away shortly before. Woods dove into how emotional of a time and moment it was for him.
Woods: So, this is a hard one for me [talking about ROH Pure Title win in 2021 because of his father’s passing]. So, prior to that which was in September, my father had never seen me wrestle before. He saw me in college and MMA stuff and he was there when I won nationals and all that good stuff. So prior to that, we were gonna wrestle in Lakeland and that’s maybe two hours from my dad and he had passed maybe a month before that show. Yeah, and he was gonna be there… Obviously, we talk about wrestling so any trip I had, whether it was an independent show or for Ring of Honor, I would call my dad after and we would talk about it so that was kind of my travel ritual. That would have been the first show I had since that happened and he was gonna be there and I wasn’t gonna tell him what was gonna happen just because it would be more fun if he just saw. So, we had the match and I was jazzed to have him there and when he passed, it was just like, ah man, it was a rough moment for me. Me and my dad are really close and so, I do my entrance and Jon [Gresham] does his and I get out of the ring and there’s this guy, he looks just like my dad… And I was like, ‘Oh sh*t’ and I just start crying [Woods laughed] and I’m like, ‘Oh my God.’ I really just start crying in Jon’s entrance. So I’m like, ‘Oh my God. What is going on with me right now?’ And then I’m like, well, I’m about to wrestle. Good thing I don’t remember any of that so… and winning it, kind of hard to — it was probably one of my biggest accomplishments in pro wrestling for sure. Not just because of, oh, you won a belt or a title. It’s just what it means to do something like that. That you’ve hit X amount of credit or you’re good at whatever you do. It’s more of just winning something. It’s like, the company trusts you and that’s insane that this company trusts you to be the face of this division or to lead it and that’s awesome to me. So I know my dad would have been really proud of that and so after I won, they tried to interview me, I’m crying. I’m like, ‘Can you guys stop?’ I think it meant more to me and the fact that my dad would have been really proud so, yeah, so it was more so of for that than the accomplishment of doing it and regardless of Jon’s standing with this company, he’s probably one of the best wrestlers in the world and just to have another match with him — we’ve had eight or nine — it’s just constantly always good from top to bottom.
And it sucks it was so sudden. It wasn’t like, oh, there’s a timeline of things. It was like, gone… And yeah, it gets me. Gets me a lot sometimes but, right foot, left foot, you know?
As Woods was conversing with referee Aubrey Edwards about the Pure wrestling style, Edwards said whenever there is a Pure match in AEW, it often gets assigned to referee Mike Posey. Edwards joked that she cannot remember the rules of the match to officiate it.
Edwards: Just a little inside baseball, we always have Mike Posey do the Pure wrestling matches because I can never remember the rules so we just sort of made him the Pure wrestling expert. So it’s like, oh, Pure Title, Posey’s doing that one. He’s the Pure ref… I love technical wrestling but there’s a difference between technical wrestling and Pure wrestling and it’s like, there’s a lot of little nuances and I don’t know, I’ll do it eventually, it’s on my bucket list but I’m like, eh! I’ll go do this match instead [Edwards laughed]. One day.
** Renée Paquette welcomed Sonjay Dutt onto The Sessions podcast and he discussed his growing relationship with AEW President Tony Khan. Dutt joked that Khan is his ‘favorite billionaire’ that he’s worked for and recounted getting to chat with Tony’s father, Shahid Khan.
I probably had this conversation with my wife when I said, ‘Hey, I wanna quit WWE and go to another place’ — was, ‘Hey, let me get here and organically, everything will fall into place.’ I’m not going to push anything nor am I going to insert myself into where I don’t need to be inserted. It will organically happen and it did organically happen where, ‘Sonjay, you have formatted time to written television. Take a look at this’ but just stuff like that so kind of evolved to working side by side with Tony [Khan] and I love it man. I always tell people, I’ve worked with a bunch of billionaires at this point… Tony, 100 percent [he’s my favorite billionaire]. He’s my favorite billionaire of all-time. But I worked with all of these powerful people in wrestling, these billionaires and he is like the — and maybe it helps that we’re the same age. We’re six months apart, we have a similar background. His dad’s a Pakistani immigrant that came here, my parents are Indian immigrants. There’s a relationship there. It’s funny, when I first met Shad [Khan], I would just speak Punjabi with him all the time. I feel like those things brought us a little closer. I don’t know, it just blossomed man and I love it, I love it. I love working with Tony just because he’s just so approachable and he’s just like a dude. He’s just a cold day.
** While guest appearing on Counted Out With Mike & Tyler, IMPACT Wrestling commentator Tom Hannifan spoke highly of Mauro Ranallo and the way Ranallo is able to retain information about pro wrestling.
There’s people like Mauro Ranallo who have this unbelievable mind, unbelievable rolodex of every last move ever. He can do that stuff. He’s one of one in the pro wrestling commentary world. There’s not a lot of people that can do that…
** At NJPW ‘The New Beginning’ in 2013, Hiroshi Tanahashi put the IWGP Heavyweight Title on the line against Karl Anderson. Tanahashi looked back on that during #103 of his Ace’s HIGH series on NJPW1972.com. He feels it was a great match, Anderson deserved the spot and he learned a lot from him.
It was a great match [against Karl Anderson at ‘The New Beginning’ 2013]. Anderson definitely deserved the spot, and he nearly had the title on a few occasions. Anderson was still a babyface at this point in time, so it was more a match about him showing what he can do. I learned a lot wrestling him, he was really good at building the match and getting the people involved.
** Shane Douglas welcomed Tully Blanchard onto his ‘Appalachian Expose’ show.
** NJPW’s SANADA and BUSHI are heading to GLEAT Pro Wrestling on December 30th. They’ll be facing T-Hawk and Kaz Hayashi in a tag match.
** NOSAWA Rongai and Kendo Kashin are going to be challenging Takao Omori and Masao Inoue for the All Asia Tag Team Championships at AJPW’s January 3rd show.
** Episode #29 of Xavier Woods and Tyler Breeze’s Battle of the Brands series.
** Season 14 of Pro Wrestling NOAH ‘The Home’ is airing on the company’s YouTube channel beginning December 9th. It is a show to highlight their younger wrestlers, their experiences in the dojo and fans are invited to watch them perform at the dojo in person.
** To promote ‘Barmageddon’ on USA Network, Nikki Bella was interviewed by FOX News Digital.
** IMPACT Wrestling World Champion Josh Alexander chatted with Chris Van Vliet.
** December 8th birthdays: Toshiaki Kawada, Jimmy Rave.
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.