Originally published at Shelton Benjamin looks back on The Hurt Business' split, calls it "heartbreaking"
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.
** At the 2022 Royal Rumble media junket, Vicente Beltran sat down with Shelton Benjamin and asked him about The Hurt Business’ split. Benjamin said it was heartbreaking, but he’s not going to get anywhere complaining about the past.
Yeah, it was heartbreaking . It was hard, yeah, very. I feel like we had so much more. We hadn’t even scratched the surface in my opinion of where we could’ve gone, what we could’ve done. You know, the potential wars we could’ve had with guys like The New Day and The Bloodline, pretty much any other faction but, yeah, it was hard but, again, it’s a business. You have to accept it and move on and the sooner you accept it and move on from it, you know, the happier you’ll be — well, you’re never gonna be happy about it but it’s like, ‘Okay, what’s next?’ Because I’m not going to get anywhere crying about what was. Okay, let’s deal with what is, what are we doing now and what are we doing going forward. So that’s where the quicker you can get on — the quicker you can get to that, the better.
** This past Friday on SmackDown, Naomi and Charlotte went one-on-one for the SmackDown Women’s Title. Ronda Rousey took to her Facebook stream to praise Flair and Naomi for their match.
Oh my God, so good . Yeah, they were there for it. It was awesome. They did such a great job.
Rousey further talked about the mixed reactions she received from fans towards the conclusion of her 2018 to 2019 run with the company. Ronda said she did not forget that when she made her return to WWE at the 2022 Royal Rumble.
Thank you . I feel like they all forgot that and I didn’t. They’re like, ‘Why is Ronda mad at us?’ I’m like, ‘Um, I was there. I remember.’ But yeah, I mean everyone’s been cool this time around. We’ll see how long it lasts but, people like you that makes it feel like everything’s worth it.
** While doing a virtual signing with K & S WrestleFest, former 5-time WWF World Tag Team Champion Tony Garea was asked why he’s not in the Hall of Fame. Garea is not sure and said it’s never been mentioned to him. He added that he was contacted by WWE at one point, but he got back to them late.
I don’t know . It’s never been mentioned to me, you know? So, I don’t know. Haven’t a clue.
No . I care a little bit but not enough. They did try to get in touch with me one time and I was in New Zealand. I got back to them kind of late and I told them I was, you know, in New Zealand. But whether that messaged got passed on or not, I don’t know, you know? Maybe it was like, well they never got back to me so, ‘He snubbed us’ so I guess — you know, who knows?
** Santos Escobar chatted with DAZN ahead of his NXT Title match at Vengeance Day. He was asked about William Regal’s departure from WWE and Santos discussed Regal’s importance to him personally and professionally.
Regal, to me, is a very important person. Personally, when I first did my first tryout, my first and only tryout, which was probably 2009-ish? Yeah. He’s the one that spotted me from the moment he saw me. He said, ‘You got it. You got what we need. You got what we want.’ Of course, it was not his job to hire people. His job was just to spot people. Nothing came out of that. But then, as the time progressed, and as I evolved as an athlete, and I kept doing the right moves and checking all the boxes you mentioned before, we always kept in touch. Then eventually, I was able to come. Once I got here, of course, it was that feedback. It was that opportunity to be one on one with the people that can teach you, like Triple H, for example, or Terry Taylor, or The Heartbreak Kid, which to me is just sometimes, it’s unreal. Because you have the Heartbreak Kid here, face to face telling you, ‘You did good kid. Do this, do that.’ Or when you screw up, they give you the business. Your face is not that of a person that’s being given the business, but you’re more just in awe looking at them. That is just a whole lot of emotions that keep coming. They just keep coming. I think the best thing that I can do is just absorb it and then put it out there with my work.
A goal that Escobar is aiming for is to be the next breakout Hispanic star in pro wrestling. He wants to be the best Latino wrestler in WWE and feels that the way to accomplish that is to check all the proverbial boxes.
First and foremost, because that’s exactly what I’m aiming for . That’s exactly what I want. I want my people to see that in me. If you can see it, then maybe everyone else can see it. And to your question, yes, that’s my aim. That’s what I want to do. That’s what I want to be. That’s who I want to be in this company. I want to be the best Latino in the company. The way to do it is just like you said, check the boxes. If there are some boxes that you don’t completely check, then work on it. Work on it, so you can check it, and that’s what I’ve been doing for the past two years. I think you have to be ready for the show. Sometimes, the show will call you whether you’re ready or not. But when it doesn’t happen, just keep working, keep grinding, keep getting there and be ready. I realized now that we, as a whole and individually, we’re ready for that.
** The current TBS Champion Jade Cargill was the latest guest on Vickie Guerrero’s podcast. Jade looked back on her AEW debut and expressed how proud she is of how she handled herself in that situation. She feels that she was baptized by fire and was up for the challenge.
I was lost had to pull me off to the side and tell me like, ‘Calm down. It’s okay’ because I’m just being thrown with people who are on TV who know what to do, who’ve had years of experience and here I am, ‘Hello. Hi everybody.’ You know, even with my first promo that I cut, I didn’t rehearse that in front of anybody. Nobody… nothing. I got on stage one time, that was to make sure my heels didn’t puncture the mat. That’s it, that’s it. I never once held the mic, I never once — legit, when I held the mic for the first time when I said, ‘Cody’, in my mind, I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, I sound so awful’ when I said that because I had never held a mic, I had never — I’ve done press conferences before in college, I’ve taken a class. I’ve done that but, national TV is something you should prepare for and national TV is a whole other monster, you know? This is live, you know? I think — honestly, I was just proud of myself that, one, I didn’t stop. Two, I didn’t just pause and stare into the camera and like lose myself. I was proud of myself because of that more than anything because I think anybody else would have probably stopped, paused, got nervous, start stuttering, everything and I didn’t stutter, I didn’t stumble over my words. Regardless of how slow I was going, I was just happy I completed it but yes, I felt like I was very much baptized by fire, but, I’m always up for a challenge and I think it’s making me become the person who I am and in wrestling, as we know, things are always thrown at you last minute. Anything can happen so it’s prepared me for the uncertainty of what wrestling is.
Cargill spoke highly of the AEW women’s locker room and how welcomed her colleagues were when she arrived to the company.
I felt like the locker room was very inviting . Nobody had to be inviting because who am I? You know? Who was I? Where did I come from? I didn’t know not one single person from the locker room at all and the majority of girls, even the extras that come in, they at least know somebody from the indie circuit and I didn’t know anybody but again, everybody in the locker room was so inviting. If I didn’t do anything, they sat there and they spoke to me about it because I was very naïve to a lot of things coming into wrestling. I didn’t even know the lingo of wrestling at all and I’m still learning the lingo.
** Nathan Orton, brother of Randy Orton, joined Renee Paquette and Angela Hill on the ‘Throwing Down with Renee & Miesha’ show on SiriusXM. Nathan is a comedian and explained that he never had the urge to pursue pro wrestling like his brother and father. He added that he did amateur wrestling to prove to his family that he could do it.
So honestly, I never really had the urge to do it and cauliflower ear.
** At WWE Elimination Chamber, Lita is scheduled to challenge Becky Lynch for the Raw Women’s Title. Lita told Sports Illustrated that as of their interview, she was just asked to do the match with Becky Lynch and there are no current plans past that.
Currently, I was just asked to do this match. I know everything can change in WWE at the drop of a hat. There is a lot of opportunity here, and just because there are no current plans doesn’t mean there won’t be. This is also allowing me to focus on the task at hand, which is to put on a killer match and not focus on anything else except Elimination Chamber.
She talked about Ivory’s moment in the 2022 women’s Royal Rumble match. Before the match took place, Lita spoke with Trish Stratus and told her that Ivory is going to have the best moment of the women’s Rumble.
I would have been beaming . That was pro wrestling, right there.
I was talking with Trish and she wanted to know some spoilers. And I said, ‘This is what I’m going to tell you: Ivory’s going to have the best moment in the Rumble.’
** Doc Gallows and Karl Anderson welcomed Ricky Morton onto their Talk’n Shop podcast. Morton recounted his biggest year financially in the wrestling business being $125,000. He brought up the schedule that he and Robert Gibson took on during their heyday and hearing from Jimmy Crockett that if they took a day off, he’d lose $30 to $40 thousand.
You never stopped. Robert . It wasn’t about anything else, you know? When he’s trying to tell me he doesn’t have control of it, bullsh*t.
** Following The WRLD On GCW, Joey Janela sat down with Brandon F. Walker of Barstool Sports and gave his thoughts on the event. Janela described it as “hectic” because of the time constraints and does not think the show was timed correctly.
It was a little crazy, a little hectic, first time on pay-per-view for GCW, actual pay-per-view and it’s so different when you do actual pay-per-view opposed to like the FITE TVs. It’s just like, time constraints and it just wasn’t — I don’t think the show was timed correctly. I don’t think they added in time for the video packages and stuff which they’re all very good. Five-minute video packages.
I just think we didn’t add everything in and then, we had to be off at 11. But that’s been a problem with people when they first start doing the pay-per-view thing; Barely Legal, ALL IN, it’s just a part of history. Now we’re just in that realm of rushing to the finish line.
** This past September, Montez Ford headlined an episode of SmackDown in a singles match against Roman Reigns. Ford was the most recent guest on the Out of Character podcast and said that match with Reigns gave him the itch to do more singles matches.
Oh of course man, of course . 100 percent. Like I said, I’ve been watching this for over 20 years now and my mom still sends me photos all the time of me holding up the WWE Championship and that’s one of the things, like every kid, that’s your dream man, that’s what you wanna do so like just the fact of getting the opportunity with arguably the greatest superstar in our modern-day era, Roman Reigns, it’s a blessing man. Testament to time too and just to — like for itch, 100 percent because I mean… kid doesn’t go away. You know, the dream’s always there and me and Dawks always talk all the time whether it’s him or me, the support always stays there. I’m never gonna try to cloud him from achieving success, you know?
But 100 percent man, that’s been a dream way before anything and like, gosh man, I was very motivated and inspired by that match up and just go back time to time and just look at the things that I feel like what I could do better, what I could sharpen up on just to be on — just to be on that same stage and that level is a blessing itself but also wanting to not only succeed if and when if the title’s on the line but just to do better, you know?
** Wai Ting and John Pollock were joined by Brandon Thurston for the 2/15 Daily News Update:
** At Maryland Championship Wrestling’s March 19th event, Hit Row (Shane ‘Swerve’ Strickland, A.J. Francis, Briana Brandy & Tehuti Miles) is reuniting.
The 2022 #MCWSpringFever Tour kicks off on Saturday night March 19th in Parkville, MD with special guests & former #WWE / #NXT Stars formerly known as Hit Row🔥🔥
Tickets Are On Sale Now & Going FAST💨
🎟🎟 https://t.co/drM7hFHdor pic.twitter.com/6Bjf3YAYd6
— MCW Pro Wrestling (@MCWWrestling) February 14, 2022
** Nick Aldis guest appeared on ‘This Is The NWA Weekly’ to chat about his match with Matt Cardona for the Worlds Heavyweight Title at Crockett Cup.
** Ahead of WWE Elimination Chamber, Sportskeeda caught up with Austin Theory.
** STARDOM’s Starlight Kid was interviewed by Tokyo Sports (part one and part two).
** IMPACT Wrestling’s John Skyler has been added to NJPW Strong Style Evolved on March 20th.
** Vicente Beltran spoke with AJ Styles at the Royal Rumble media junket.
** Former WWE talent M.J. Jenkins was interviewed by Jim Varsallone.
** The Wrestle Buddy podcast spoke to IMPACT Wrestling’s Moose.
** NJPW Golden Series Results (2/15/22) Korakuen Hall
– Great-O-Khan def. Kosei Fujita
– Robbie Eagles, Tiger Mask & Satoshi Kojima def. El Phantasmo, Jado & Taiji Ishimori
– Los Ingobernables de Japon (BUSHI, Hiromu Takahashi & SANADA) def. Hiroshi Tanahashi, Ryohei Oiwa & Tomoaki Honma
– YOH & YOSHI-HASHI def. House Of Torture (SHO & Yujiro Takahashi) by DQ
– Hirooki Goto & Tomohiro Ishii (w/ YOH & YOSHI-HASHI) def. House Of Torture (Dick Togo & EVIL) (w/ SHO & Yujiro Takahashi)
– Los Ingobernables de Japon (Shingo Takagi & Tetsuya Naito) def. Kazuchika Okada & Togi Makabe
– Eight Man Tag Team Elimination: Suzuki-gun (El Desperado, Minoru Suzuki, Taichi & Yoshinobu Kanemaru) def. Master Wato, Ryusuke Taguchi, Toru Yano & Yuji Nagata
** Fightful pushed out quotes from their interview with Gabriel Kidd.
** WrestleTalk conducted an interview with The Street Profits (Montez Ford & Angelo Dawkins).
** NWA World Women’s Champion Kamille was a guest on ‘FaceTurn with Candace Cordelia’.
** Chris Jericho spoke to PopCulture.com’s Brian Jones.
** Issue #17 of Inside The Ropes magazine includes an interview with AEW President Tony Khan. ITRWrestling.com released an excerpt from that conversation.
** ‘Metro’ published the written version of their conversation with Lita.
** Independent talent Jordan Clearwater is celebrating his birthday today.
** NWA’s Thom Latimer was interviewed by ‘Web Is Jericho’.
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.