Originally published at https://www.postwrestling.com/2020/04/01/wwe-pc-coach-johnny-moss-details-surgery-from-2019-close-to-40-staples-in-his-stomach/
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.
** WWE Performance Center coach/trainer Johnny Moss did an interview with ‘News & Star’ and he opened up about the breathing problems he had in 2019. Moss was told by doctors that his diaphragm had a rupture and his stomach and bowel were sitting in his chest cavity. Moss had the following to say about how the surgeons approached his surgery he has approximately 40 staples on his stomach.
“The surgeon thinks I could have had this for 10 years or more. They did a hell of a job, I couldn’t praise them enough.”
** ‘Entertainment Tonight’ wrote a story about Chris Benoit’s ‘Dark Side of the Ring documentary.
** Muscle & Fitness conducted an interview with John Morrison.
**IMPACT made the announcement that Kylie Rae has signed with the company. PWInsider first reported the news that Kylie signed a contract with IMPACT Wrestling and the signing took place a few weeks ago.
** Tampa Bay Times has a detailed feature story up about Chris Jericho that also includes quotes from Jim Ross. Jericho spoke about a plethora of topics from his wrestling career to his music and podcasting careers. Specifically on the wrestling front, he thinks that WWE will never mention him again and he doesn’t blame them for it because he’s working with the competition in AEW.
“They’ll probably never mention me again. I don’t blame them. Why would they promote me in any way, shape or form, when I’m the head of this opposing army, in their opinion, that’s stealing money out of their pockets?”
It’s also noted in the piece that Chris Jericho did ask for stake in All Elite Wrestling before officially signing with the company but he did not receive that incentive. In regard to possibly going into the WWE Hall Of Fame, Jericho feels that if he continues to work for All Elite Wrestling, he’ll never receive that honor but it does not bother him.
“If I continue to work for the Khan family for the rest of my life, I’ll never go into the WWE Hall of Fame. Does that bother me? No. I mean, the Sex Pistols didn’t show up for theirs. I always kind of liked that. I’m a Hall Of Famer in the minds of the people who want me to be in the Hall Of Fame. I’m a Hall Of Famer in my mind. That’s all that matters.”
** A new edition of ‘Superstar Home Workouts’ premiered on WWE’s YouTube channel featuring Cedric Alexander and Sarath Ton, who’s a former wrestler, current WWE costume designer and husband to Sasha Banks.
** Tichina Arnold spoke to TMZ about her role in the WWE studios film, ‘The Main Event’.
** While chatting with Hollywood Life, Seth Rollins said the COVID-19 outbreak has made him appreciate the profession and life he has. He stated that when he saw how many people around the world were professionally and personally affected by the outbreak, it made him realize that although at times he may be worn out from his job and can feel underappreciated, he should be grateful for the stability he has.
“There is a lot of gratitude that goes into the last few weeks. A lot of times our job runs us ragged, and we complain, as all of us do, about our workplaces. are still able to have employment — not only that, but it’s a job that I love, and I still get to take part in that job during this time, even if it is in a abbreviated fashion. There is something very humbling and a lot of gratitude that goes along with all of that so, hopefully, when we come out of this crisis, it will be something we can take with us moving forward in our day-to-day lives.”
** Yahoo! Sports pushed out their interview with Drew McIntyre.
** Florida Governor, Ron DeSantis has issued a stay-at-home order for the state of Florida. It will kick in on Thursday at midnight EST. DeSantis said the order will shift for necessary movements only, such as obtaining or providing essential services or conducting essential activities.
“This is another 30 day period at this point, even though there are a lot of places in Florida with low infection rates, it makes sense to make this move now,” DeSantis said.
** AAA Mega Champion and AEW World Tag Team Champion Kenny Omega is taking on Trent on the 4/1/20 episode of AEW Dynamite. Cody and Darby Allin are teaming up against Shawn Spears and Sammy Guevara on Dynamite as well. Jim Ross, Excalibur and Taz will be recapping the show after it goes off the air on TNT.
** Sports Illustrated spoke with Seth Rollins to promote WrestleMania 36. While talking about the empty building shows at the Performance Center that WWE has been doing, Rollins was asked is it harder to cut promos without a crowd or wrestle without a crowd and here’s Rollins’ response:
“I would say cut a promo. You don’t have crowd reaction to play off of. A promo, when you’re having a conversation with the crowd, it really feels like you are talking to somebody. It feels as though they are part of the conversation. If you don’t have that, there’s a lot of pressure, and also not having the ability to do multiple takes. Monday Night RAW is live, so that’s a one-take promo. That’s a one-take monologue. I don’t get the opportunity to cut-and-paste that thing together. It’s not like a movie. Wrestling, on the other hand, is fluid. It’s in the ring and it’s moving around. There’s a lot you can do. There are a lot of changes you can make. A promo is nerve-wracking. You can hear everything. There’s no audience to drown anything out. You can hear cameramen shuffling. You hear everybody whispering in the back. It’s really eerie in a way.”
Rollins was also asked for his thoughts about WWE continuing to run shows when there have been multiple leagues and major businesses around the world that have ceased operation for the time being. Rollins stated that he doesn’t know what to think about it but he’s taking the proper precautions to make sure that he stays safe throughout this time.
“I don’t know. I’m not a medical expert. Obviously the airports are still open. Should they close? I don’t know. I wish I had answers. I’m sure a lot of people do. Right now, I’m just trying to stay as hygienic as possible, keep my distance from as many people as I can. As of now, I feel great. Knock on wood, I’ve been able to avoid this thing. I know a lot of families and people who have been affected by it. It’s extremely contagious and it’s very dangerous. I wish I had more answers. I wish I knew what was the right thing to do. After WrestleMania, we’re gonna recollect and see where we’re gonna go from here. Right now, I’m very humble and grateful that I have a job that still needs me. A lot of Americans are not in that boat and their futures are uncertain. So if providing them with some entertainment can help them out, then I feel like, we’re being productive in doing something right.”
Seth Rollins owns a coffee shop in his hometown of Iowa. Rollins is still taking care of his employees and they are being paid their full salaries although small businesses are taking a hit right now.
“That’s the biggest hurdle for me. These small businesses are really struggling and my coffee shop is a small business. We’re taking all the measures we can to make sure our employees are getting paid during this uncertain time. They’re getting a full salary and we’re open, but it’s to-go only. We’re trying to make sure it’s business as usual as much as it can be, but our No. 1 priority is making sure our employees are paid so they can support their families and we’re kinda doing that by any means necessary. We started a program on our website, you know, if you have a dollar, give a dollar. I’m donating a large chunk to make sure they’re paid and taken care of as well, for the time being. It’s a big struggle, but we’re still there and still churning out coffee for the community.”
** Ethan Page announced that his ‘Body Guy Extravaganza’ show that was scheduled for this week in Tampa, Florida will take place on April 3rd and will stream on his YouTube channel for free.
** Brian Fritz of Sporting News chatted with RAW Women’s Champion Becky Lynch to promote WrestleMania and her match against Shayna Baszler on the show. Becky said she can see the comparisons between herself and Shayna in regard to being in the shadow of someone else and not having the most spectacular move-set but being tough.
“Yeah, I can see the comparison. She’s not the most spectacular in her move set but she’s gritty and I can relate to that. I can also relate to maybe being in somebody else’s shadow, you know, and maybe not always being the one who got the spotlight and wanting to prove something. I think we can see that through Shayna and we saw that for me. It worked out pretty well for me so it can work out pretty well for Shayna. But I’m not the person she’s going to make a name off of.”
** Aleister Black and Zelina Vega have launched their own YouTube channel.
** WWE’s live event in Tupelo, Mississippi has been rescheduled from March 20th to September 12th.
** The Usos, Big E and Kofi Kingston are set to appear on MizTV with John Morrison and The Miz on this Friday’s episode of SmackDown on FOX.
** The Scottish Sun interviewed Drew McIntyre’s former trainer, Justin Richards who trained Drew at the Frontier Wrestling Alliance Academy. Richards spoke about when he first met Drew and admitted that he didn’t see the upside in Drew when he first came into the academy.
“As much as I’d like to say the first time I met Drew I knew he’d be star, in his very early sessions I didn’t see it. He looked really shy and quite awkward in his movements. Here was this good looking kid that came through the door and put his bag in the corner and didn’t talk much. But after traveling so far down from Ayrshire to Portsmouth, any trainer will tell you that someone willing to do that kind of travel gets the biggest tick in the commitment box. No one worked harder considering the training drills we put him through. He was so resilient and willing to learn. What stood out, other than him being a foot taller than everyone else, was that he was very tough on himself. Whenever he made a mistake you’d see him chastise himself, even if was just a tiny thing. Good enough was never good enough for Drew, even as a teenager. It had to look and feel perfect. Other students would let things go, he didn’t.”
** ‘New York Post’ spoke with Jim Ross to promote his new book, “Under the Black Hat: My Life in the WWE and Beyond.” Ross said that during his time in WWE, he began to emulate Vince McMahon so much because of their respective hunger for the business. Ross said hindsight being 20/20, he wishes he wouldn’t have immersed himself so much in what was going on in WWE because he could’ve had more moments with his wife Jan who unfortunately passed away following a tragic accident.
“I emulated Vince in many ways, where I worked more and I spent more of my passionate time, more of my feelings, more of my emotional investment in WWE than I did anything else, and I regret that now my little angel is gone and there are all kinds of times I could have done more with her that I did not because I put the job in front of it.”
** Colt Cabana answered ‘Would You Rather’ questions that were submitted to him by fans.
** Kalisto uploaded a new video to his YouTube channel.
** Below is a video of Adam Cole and Tyler Breeze playing ‘Halo: Combat Evolved’:
** WWE’s digital show ‘The Bump’ is converting into a podcast format along with the live version of the show. The new version of the show premiered on April 1st as a part of WWE’s podcast network with Endeavor Audio. ‘The Bump’ will join New Day’s podcast and WWE ‘After The Bell with Corey Graves’ on the podcast network. The live version of the show premiered on WWE’s YouTube channel and it included a taped interview with Humberto Carrillo. AJ Styles appeared on the program to chat about his match with The Undertaker at WrestleMania. AJ had a replica of the IWGP Heavyweight Championship propped up in the background and he briefly talked about his time in New Japan Pro-Wrestling. AJ went back and reflected on his WrestleMania 33 match with Shane McMahon and said he knew the expectations of that match were low going in but gained a lot of respect for Shane when it was all said and done. Ariel Helwani joined The Bump and he chatted about the run in between Brock Lesnar and The Undertaker at UFC 121 and said he doesn’t know if it was planned or not. Shotzi Blackheart also appeared on The Bump and throughout the week during The Bump’s live shows on April 4th and 5th, Zelina Vega, Kevin Owens, Charlotte Flair, Lacey Evans, Mojo Rawley and Drew McIntyre are set to appear on the shows.
** Aleister Black cut a promo for WWE’s digital platforms about the pairing of himself and Bobby Lashley for a match at WrestleMania.
** Justin Barrasso of Sports Illustrated interviewed IMPACT Wrestling Co-Executive Vice President Scott D’Amore. Scott said that IMPACT has three weeks of new content left to put out on AXS TV which was to build to their Rebellion pay-per-view on April 19th. Due to the COVID-19 outbreak, that pay-per-view has been postponed to a later date. Scott said the company is brainstorming ideas of what to do in place of the event that they will not be able to hold another set of television tapings after April 19th.
“We’ve got a hell of a group that is hardworking, love what they do, and will give you everything they’ve got. There are three more weeks of new content, and we’re examining all aspects of possible ways to continue doing what we love to do. We’ll keep monitoring it, and we’ll do what’s best and safest for everyone involved.”
D’Amore also spoke about the day that Scott Steiner collapsed at IMPACT’s television taping in Atlanta. D’Amore was excited to have Steiner at the taping and couldn’t believe it when he heard that Steiner had collapsed.
“That day in Atlanta, we’d spoken for almost an hour. I was happy to have him there, so to have someone grab me and say, ‘Scott collapsed,’ my heart sank. I thank God that he is fine. His doctors were so happy he was at a place where he could receive quick medical attention.”
** The National Wrestling Alliance streamed an empty arena match between Tim Storm and Jocephus that took place in 2018.
** Mirror Sport published their interview with Drew McIntyre.
** Part two of Tiger Hattori and Kazuchika Okada’s sit-down chat is up on NJPW1972.com. Okada and Tiger both spoke about how stern Okada can be with the younger wrestlers. Okada admitted to it and stated that it’s only because he knows there’s more to the job than just training and that includes representing New Japan Pro-Wrestling outside of the ring.
** Kazuchika Okada also did a solo interview with NJPW1972.com. He spoke about New Japan’s ‘Wrestle Dynasty’ show that’s set for August 22nd at Madison Square Garden. Okada is aware of the circumstances surrounding last year’s MSG show with it being during WrestleMania weekend and Ring of Honor being involved. Okada said he’s looking forward to this year’s show and it being solely on the merits of New Japan Pro-Wrestling.
“Just the sensation, the happiness of being in that building is awesome. Last year, just making my entrance was emotional. But then, last time was the first time, and a lot of people were in town for wrestling. If you wanted to put asterisks on that, then you could. This time, it’s on our own power. It’s a different set of circumstances, a different challenge. But I plan on us rising to that, showing everyone home in Japan just how much we can do in Madison Square Garden.”
** Jim Varsallone of the Miami Herald spoke with NXT Women’s Champion Rhea Ripley about her match at WrestleMania 36 against Charlotte Flair. Rhea was asked was her match with Charlotte similar to some of the independent shows she worked in Australia and Rhea said that her match with Charlotte was more like a training match because no fans were in attendance.
“To be honest, it reminds me more of a training match, but, with a lot more on the line, because even in Australia and the indies, there was still at least like a few people in the crowd where here, there’s legitimately zero fans in the crowd. There’s only the essential people there that make sure that it’s filmed and put out but that’s it, that’s all we have so to be able to go out there and not have anyone cheer for me and make any noise, it’s gonna be super weird, but I just gotta remember that there’s people at home that are making noise and making raucous and that’s definitely gonna be going through my mind.”
** Fightful’s Sean Ross Sapp conducted an interview with oVe’s Madman Fulton:
** All Elite Wrestling applied to trademark “Death Triangle” and “All Elite Wrestling AEW Best Summer Ever”.
** IMPACT Wrestling’s Rhino joined The Wrestling INC Daily Podcast and he compared Madman Fulton to IMPACT Wrestling Hall Of Famer and current WWE producer Abyss.
“I see a lot of Abyss in Madman Fulton. He’s always moving forward. That forward momentum. Even if you think you’ve stopped him, the guy just keeps on coming back and I think that’s one of the reasons why the wrestling fans like him. They like to hate him, but they like the fact that he’s a guy of action and forward momentum.”
** Ricochet appeared on the ‘Say Less With Kaz’ podcast with former WWE writer Kazeem Famuyide. Ricochet shared that it was last year at WrestleMania 35 where he had a conversation with Edge and Edge told him before he goes out to the ring, to take a few minutes and soak everything in and that advice has stuck with Ricochet since he first received it.
“It was exactly what you just said. It was a whirlwind of experience just going on at once. The whole weekend because they kind of just threw me in. I had Axxess and then we had signings and then we had to get ready for the match and stuff. It was a task, that’s for sure. But I had a talk with Edge in the locker room and Edge told me, ‘Although it is busy this quick, you gotta stop and you gotta take the time to kind of remember everything that’s happening because a couple months from now, you’re gonna be like, oh yeah, WrestleMania went and passed.’ So he goes, ‘You gotta stop. Just remember to kind of take it in because it’s your first one, it’s gonna be amazing so when you get out there, just stop, take a minute and let it all sink in’ and I tried to do that as much as possible and it really did it. It’s always gonna be something that I’m gonna remember forever. I can remember my first one for sure.”
Ricochet teamed with Cedric Alexander on RAW last week to take on Angel Garza and Andrade. Ricochet said that once the Coronavirus pandemic transitions out and things get back on track in WWE, he wants to see where his on-screen partnership with Cedric Alexander goes.
“I’m very interested to see what’s gonna happen with everything that’s going on after Mania, but if things start to kinda go back to normal and we start doing stuff again, I’m really interested to see where me and Cedric can take this thing. We had our first match together. Maybe once we’ve been in the ring together, ever. So, I’d like to see where that goes because I think we could really kick it up a notch. I think we could be something different, we could be new, we could be dynamic, we could be something cool. I’m excited to see where that goes.
Ceddy is my homeboy. When I first was up here, me, Cedric and Lince indies and stuff so, Cedric’s my homeboy.”
** Rob Gronkowski did an interview with Newshub to promote WrestleMania 36. Sporting News also pushed out their interview with Gronk. Rob Gronkowski is also serving as the Grand Marshal for NASCAR’s virtual race on Sunday.
** Inside The Ropes released the following clip of their sit-down interview with Jim Ross:
** This weekend’s two-part WrestleMania 36 shows will begin at 6 PM EST with the pre-show and the main shows will begin at 7 PM EST.
** New Japan Pro-Wrestling announced that they’ve had to postpone more events due to the Coronavirus outbreak. It was already announced that the New Japan Cup tournament has had to be postponed and New Japan is nearing closer to the Best Of The Super Juniors tourney and their Madison Square Garden show on August 22nd. Rocky Romero appeared on the NJPW Official English Podcast with Chris Charlton and shared his thoughts about how NJPW has handled the pandemic.
“I think the way that New Japan has been handling it has been great, first off. I really do think that them deciding to cancel these shows was smart in the fact that getting the opportunity to let this thing kind of pass, and hopefully as soon as possible really, and it just kind of sucks because I was getting geared up to watch the New Japan Cup like everybody else and I was extremely excited for it. The match-ups looked really, really great. The possibilities looked really, really great and it kinda sucked that it was like, ‘Oh, okay. This is not gonna happen so maybe we’re gonna get it later’ and now we just don’t know, right? But I hope that it’ll still come — the Cup itself, just whenever the time maybe. I know we’re getting pretty close to the Super Juniors so I hope that-that doesn’t get moved at all and I hope that-that stays exactly how it is and maybe I hope that we’ll be back by then and maybe the Cup will follow after, something like that. That would be great because I think the Cup is so important in the beginning of the year to set the stage of what’s going on in the heavyweight title position and then also there’s MSG in August so I feel like last year, that was kind of the setup so maybe that’ll be a similar situation this year. We’ll see. I don’t really know.”
** Here’s the full episode of the 3/31 edition of WWE Backstage on FS1. Renee Young, Mark Henry, Booker T and Paige called in from their respective locations. Renee, Mark and Booker watched Stone Cold Steve Austin vs. The Rock from WrestleMania 19 and Charlotte Flair also joined the show.
** All Japan Pro Wrestling decided to cancel their shows from May 8th through May 10th.
** Louis Dangoor of WrestleTalk chatted with the current RevPro British Cruiserweight Champion The OJMO, also known as Michael Oku. With the Coronavirus pandemic at the forefront of the world at the moment and in regard to its affect on pro wrestling, the conversation about independent wrestlers turning down exclusive contracts and/or wrestlers that are exclusively signed wanting out of their contracts has picked up. The OJMO was asked if this situation has made him reconsider signing an exclusive deal and he had the following to say in response:
“I haven’t thought about it like that to be honest with you. In terms of like, yeah, if I was signed to any contract, there would be at least some form of income coming in, but then again there’s that thing where you’d have to look at what’s going on currently as a one-off. The craziest of crazy one-offs and I wouldn’t wanna think that what aspirations I’d have would be affected by that because at the end of all this, this is like a dream that I’ve had and I don’t want it to look at it solely as a job. You do have to look at it as a business obviously but I still wanna make sure that I’m enjoying myself, and the key is also that I do want to become one of the best. I feel like every wrestler does, and I feel like to do that, I still need the experience. I’m a high believer in reps so I’d love for it to be a thing where if there was a company that came along and I was to sign a contract, it wouldn’t stop me from wrestling a large number of places. I’d still love to wrestle indies as much as possible, just because it’s an opportunity to wrestle and it’s an opportunity to get better and again, I’m really in my infancy in terms of wrestling. This is my third year in wrestling so, I’m fully aware that-that makes me under the definition ‘green’, so I wanna make sure that I get better and better and better and become this fine-tuned athlete.”
** Pat McAfee appeared on Busted Open Radio with David LaGreca and Bully Ray.
** Alicia Atout of ‘A Music Blog, Yea?’ interviewed AEW Women’s World Champion Nyla Rose.
** WWE posted a tweet to their official Twitter account to gauge who fans think has the version of their respective finishing moves. Michelle McCool with the “Faith Breaker” or AJ Styles with the “Styles Clash”.
** Part two of Yota Tsuji and Yuya Uemura’s joint-interview with NJPW1972.com was posted to the site.
** Per Fightful’s ‘Fightful Wrestling Weekly’, Conrad Thompson helped the producers of Dark Side of the Ring get in touch with several people involved with the show and Jim Cornette had a “meltdown” during the ‘Brawl For All’ episode that will air next week.
** Tyson Dux joined Spencer Love on the ‘Conversations With Love’ podcast and he spoke about playing the role of Chris Benoit in the Dark Side of the Ring series. Dux also recalled his stint in WWE in 2004 during-which he was possibly inching closer to signing with the sports-entertainment company. He said he had a match with Mark Jindrak and blew out his knee and it was shortly after that match that he was informed by John Laurinaitis that WWE could not sign him under his current health condition.
“On the day that I got hurt, so I wrestled Jindrak in March of 2004 where I blew out my knee. I tore my ACL in half in my right knee and that match there was — I talked to Stephanie McMahon before. We were in catering, we were eating together. We were discussing moving and all this stuff because there was no NXT, there was no Orlando. It was like you just go to work or you go to OVW and then they bring you up right away. So I talked to Stephanie in the afternoon and then I talked to Johnny Ace just before I went out and the word was from Johnny Ace is like, ‘Finish up, get yourself done and we’ll talk after your match — me and Stephanie will sit and we’ll talk about what the plans are’, and sure enough, I blew out my knee that night and then as I — actually, Dean Malenko helped me to the back. He knew I was really badly hurt. He pulled me to the back and then when I was sitting with the trainer, Johnny Ace came and put his hand on my shoulder and said, ‘Hey man, we don’t know if you’ll be well. We honestly can’t hire you in this condition, so we’ll have to wait and see’ and then that was just the window. The window was gone when I came back when I was healed up.”
** New York Post conducted an interview with NXT Women’s Champion Rhea Ripley.
** Below is a Q&A session that Ronda Rousey did on her YouTube channel:
** John Cena will be on the 4/2 episode of WWE After The Bell.
** Below is a video of Booker T making tacos:
** Fightful has an interview up with Erick Stevens who was planning on retiring during this year’s WrestleMania weekend. Stevens is no longer getting to complete his story the way he saw it happening due to the Coronavirus outbreak. He talked about what he’ll miss in wrestling and what he won’t miss in the sport.
“The closer the end comes, the more I think about it, the more melon collie I become about it. Because there’s so much that I’m not going to miss—the travel, being away from my family, all that stuff. That’s the hard part. The physicality? Getting beat up? That’s easy for me. I love that part. That’s the part, the cheers, that’s the part that makes me happy. But, I’m gonna miss a lot of aspects. But, the part that I don’t like, I’m not gonna miss one bit, especially the travel.”
** Michelle McCool took to Instagram to reflect on the passing of her nephew who passed away after a car accident over the weekend.
** Highlights of Natalya, Alexa Bliss and Paige on ‘A Little Late Night With Lilly Singh’ are up on the show’s YouTube channel.
** While speaking to Sportskeeda, Mandy Rose shared her thoughts about her role in Dolph Ziggler and Otis Dozovic’s match at WrestleMania 36 and how having no fans in attendance is going to play a role in that. She also talked about how she wants to have a match with the current SmackDown Women’s Champion Bayley.
** Asbury Park Press chatted with Drew McIntyre. McIntyre shared his thoughts about The British Bulldog, Davey Boy Smith Sr. going into the WWE Hall Of Fame. That ceremony was scheduled for WrestleMania weekend this year but the Hall Of Fame will be taking place on another date. McIntyre expressed that it was only a matter of time before Davey Boy went into WWE’s Hall Of Fame.
“I think it’s really cool timing, if I’m able to pull off the big victory, and worst case scenario, if I don’t hopefully we can figure it out before he’s officially inducted. But it was just a matter of time before British Bulldog went into the Hall of Fame. It is pretty cool a lot’s happening because it’s crazy to think that someone from the U.K. has never won the WWE Title, especially someone like the British Bulldog who was so legendary. The fact that I’m the first guy from the U.K. and Britain to win the Royal Rumble was crazy enough but not if, but when I finally pull off becoming WWE Champion… hopefully a lot of people back home, in the U.K., it’ll inspire them that sometimes the biggest dreams are possible. But it’s good to see Bulldog finally get his recognition because that’s way overdue. It’s just a matter of time for some guys, and it was just a matter of time for him.”
** DraftKings are hosting a WrestleMania 36 challenge and a grand total of $5,000 and prizes will be up for grabs.
** GoodHumor’s WWE cookie sandwiches are available to be purchased.
** WWE is hosting ‘Dream Match Mania’ on their digital platforms on Thursday at 1 PM EST. There will be matches streamed from WWE 2K20 and here are the following matches that will be streamed and the announce teams for those matches:
* Roman Reigns vs. The Rock
Announce Team: The Usos
* Sasha Banks vs. Trish Stratus
Announce Team: Sasha Banks and Bayley
* John Cena vs. Hulk Hogan
Announce Team: Drake Maverick and R-Truth
* Seth Rollins vs. Ric Flair
Announce Team: Johnny Gargano and Adam Cole
* Charlotte Flair vs. Beth Phoenix
Announce Team: Charlotte Flair and Beth Phoenix
* Big E vs. Goldberg
Announce Team: Big E and Kofi Kingston
** NXT North American Champion Keith Lee did an interview with Pro Wrestling Sheet ahead of his title defense against Dominik Dijakovic and Damian Priest on tonight’s episode of NXT. Lee spoke about performing in front of no fans and opened up if that aspect of wrestling at this current time has impacted him.
“I think that when you have a passion for this, you do it whether there’s an audience or not an audience. There’s a certain level of competition, particularly when you’re in a Triple-Threat match with your championship on the line with two hyper athletes, that you just kinda have to focus on the battle at hand. But for me, specifically, I am happy that we have those things because it’s something that I feel is necessary for the sake of everyone’s safety. Ya know, it’s a big product, and if any of us goes down with that, then that means a lot of us go down with that. If a lot of us go down with that, then that puts the product in danger and I prefer to keep this ship running. Because for me right now I feel like this is a nice… I don’t want to say escape, but I feel like it’s something else for people to focus on rather than the chaos that’s in the world currently.”
** The latest edition of Stone Cold Steve Austin’s podcast was a Q&A based show. Austin was asked about a rumor that he turned down a series of matches of with Hulk Hogan in the early 2000s and Austin confirmed that and said it came down to him thinking that a match between himself and Hogan at that time, would not deliver the way most thought/think it would’ve.
“Yeah I believe I did turn ‘em all down that time, because I just never figured it was gonna be that great of a match-up. I thought our styles were so contrasting. I could’ve done it for the money and that would’ve been fine. I could’ve put the money in the bank and paid Uncle Sam his percentage, but my head wasn’t in the space that I thought we could execute what I thought we needed to execute so, I’d rather not do something that I’m not 100% about and I wasn’t 100% about that match-up. No disrespect to Hulk Hogan, one of the greatest superstars that ever got in the squared circle. No ifs, ands, buts about it.”
** Ryback spoke about The Revival’s reported contract situation with WWE and he explained how downside guarantees work in the sports-entertainment company.
** WRESTLE-1 Results (4/1/20) Korakuen Hall
– Yusuke Kodama def. Takuro Niki
– Kenichiro Arai, MAZADA & Tsugutaka Sato def. Ganseki Tanaka, Ryuji Hijikata & Ryuki Honda
– Alejandro def. Kai Fujimura
– Andy Wu, El Hijo del Pantera & Jun Tonsho def. Strong Hearts (CIMA, Issei Onizuka & Seiki Yoshioka)
– Strong Hearts (El Lindaman & T-Hawk) def. Manabu Soya & Seigo Tachibana
– Takanori Ito def. Pegaso Iluminar
– Kuma Arashi, Shotaro Ashino, Daiki Inaba & Koji Doi def. Kaz Hayashi, Keiji Muto, Masayuki Kono & Shuji Kondo
– 30-Man Battle Royal – Winner: Manabu Soya
** Drew McIntyre joined Busted Open Radio to chat about WrestleMania.
** Below is a video of Adam Cole, Cesaro, Tyler Breeze and Xavier Woods playing UNO:
** An unreleased clip from Nikki Cross’ appearance on the Swerve City Podcast was uploaded to the podcast’s YouTube channel.
** There is a video up on the National Wrestling Alliance’s YouTube channel of Eli Drake watching the debut episode of NWA Powerrr.
** RAW Women’s Champion Becky Lynch joined Sam Roberts on the ‘Notsam Wrestling Podcast’. Sam asked Becky about some of her highlight matches since winning the RAW and SmackDown Women’s Championships at WrestleMania 35 and she narrowed her answers down to her match with Sasha Banks at Hell In A Cell, her match with Natalya at SummerSlam and her match with Asuka on an episode of RAW.
“I think there . It gets better and we were able to put on a better match and have a hell of a fight by the end of it.”
** Chuck Carroll of CBS Local Sports chatted with NXT North American Champion Keith Lee.
** Robert Karpeles, who is a former WWE creative team writer and the individual behind the ‘WWE Creative Humor’ Twitter account was interviewed by Sports Illustrated. Karpeles spoke about his time in WWE and his experience with Vince McMahon.
“I was on the creative team, and I was also a producer for WWE 24/7, which was the precursor to the WWE Network. Working for WWE, you have ideas and thoughts and opinions about what you see being presented, how characters are being used, how story lines are playing out, how matches are being perceived. Sometimes you can feel voiceless. I was young when I started at WWE, and it can be intimidating to speak up. It’s Vince McMahon’s sandbox. No matter who you are — going all the way up to some of the most creative names in the history of the business, like Paul Heyman, Dusty Rhodes, Jim Cornette, or Bruce Prichard—it’s Vince’s decision and it’s Vince’s show. That even seems to be an undercurrent now with Triple H too.”
He also talked about how his first two Twitter accounts got shut down by WWE and there was a bit of a legal research that Karpeles did to ensure the protection of his new accounts.
“I started this completely anonymously. I didn’t put it out there that it was being done by someone who had worked for WWE, and I didn’t leverage any of my relationships to build a following. When I started, my handle was @WWE_Creative, which I couldn’t believe was available, but WWE didn’t have the full social media presence that it does now. One day, I went to log in but my account had been shut down. My account, along with the ‘Cranky Vince’ account, which was a little more crass, was shut down. WWE said people were mistaking the accounts as a real account. If you read more than two or three of my texts and think this is a WWE account, then something is not processing. It’s a humor account. So I put on my lawyer hat and contacted Twitter. That is why it is now WWECreative_ish on the handle and why it is WWE Creative Humor, which clearly indicates that I am not a group of people sitting in an office in Stamford, Connecticut, taking valuable time away from reformatting the show to make snide comments on Twitter.”
** A new episode of ‘WWE: Untold’ will premiere on the WWE Network on Friday and it will be focused on Shawn Michaels and Kurt Angle’s match from WrestleMania 21.
** To check out the newest upgrades to Ring of Honor’s ‘HonorClub’ streaming service, head over to this link.
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.