POST NEWS UPDATE: Shane Helms says door is still open to return to WWE, explains Billy Kidman’s role

Shane Helms, Lio Rush and Serena Deeb open up about their respective departures from WWE, Sonya Deville crashes Mandy Rose's interview, State Attorney in Florida chats WWE being allowed to run live shows, story about how Los Angeles is approaching COVID-19 and what that means for WrestleMania 37

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.

** Shane “Hurricane” Helms joined Bully Ray and David LaGreca on Busted Open Radio just one day after he was furloughed from WWE. Helms did clarify that the company told him there may be an opportunity to return once the pandemic slows down but he’s waiting until it actually happens. Helms also revealed that he was the one who pitched the idea of the ‘Winner Take All’ stipulation for the main event of WrestleMania 35 between Charlotte Flair, Becky Lynch and Ronda Rousey.

“I believe there is and they told me there was [a possibility] so, we’ll just have to see until it actually happens. That’s my hope and I did some good things with them while I was there. The whole ‘Winner Take All’ at WrestleMania when the women main-evented, that was my idea. So I had some good stuff that I was doing there, but we’ll see. I’m personally concerned that this whole thing lasts a lot longer than what we’re being led to believe, as far as the whole ticket-paying audience being allowed back in buildings, stuff like that.”

Another producer that was furloughed from the company was Billy Kidman. Helms revealed what exactly Kidman’s role was in the company and how important Billy was to the smoothness of the WWE product for their live TV shows.

“So we got a guy that times the shows. Now basically, segments are given a certain amount of times. Like segment one is gonna open the show. It’s gonna have a certain amount of time. You got a crossover segment which is gonna happen at the end of the first hour going into the second hour. So anyway, say you and I have a match. Me against Bubba Ray. It’s gonna be segment four or five. Maybe segment four is gonna be five minutes and segment five is gonna be seven minutes, and that’s what we know we’re gonna have to do. Billy Kidman is kinda one of the ones who helps assign those minutes along with creative. He has to factor in commercial breaks, but then what happens is, sometimes segment one goes long. We had that recently. I believe it was the Randy Orton and Edge segment when Edge first came back. Went super heavy, really good, so if you go heavy as long as it’s good, nobody really goes crazy. But now, what Billy Kidman would have to do is he would have to make up that time elsewhere. Another segment that went heavy recently — I can’t remember what it was but it went eight minutes in, and so now he’s got to find time to make up for that eight minute slot in the show so he’s constantly sitting there calculating what he can do. ‘This match in seg 12 might be seven minutes. Well now it’s gonna have six. We gotta make up some time.’ Stuff like that. He’s constantly over there figuring it out, and it’s a pressure cooker and Billy was fantastic at it. Brisco did it for years, Gerald Brisco and now the guy that Kidman was training, Jason Ayers, he’s really good at it too. But that’s one of the most difficult jobs there so I was super surprised that Kidman was on the list.”

As far as if he understands the business aspect of it, Helms said he completely understands why things turned out the way that they did. He added that he believes most of the producers that are still with the company are the ones who already reside in Florida.

“I completely understand. Like I just said, nobody’s buying tickets, no live events. So yeah, I understand definitely cutting costs. We have to, as people, prepare for life after we get over this. I think preparing for stuff like this is one thing but you also have to prepare for life after this, and I was basically being paid to sit at home and do little to nothing. That can only last for so long so, I completely understand what happened. Do I wish it was different? Of course. I mean it affects me. I really loved that job so yeah, I wish things could’ve been a little different. Everybody does but, that’s a huge corporation, WWE. That’s a huge, global corporation and there’s more cogs and wheels in that machine than people realize. Like I said, I was sitting at home, I would review scripts, give feedback but, other than that, it wasn’t really a lot that I was able to do. I think most of the producers that they kept were the Florida-based producers, the ones that live there and don’t have to travel. There’s other factors that went into it so, yes. To answer your question, yeah. I do understand.”

** After getting released from WWE as a part of the company’s recent cuts, Lio Rush took to Instagram Live to address his supporters and he reiterated that through this situation, he and his fellow former co-workers will make it through and will be alright.

“First off, I know you saw my very long message that I put out, but I just wanted to get on here and personally, face-to-face, address everybody who’s reached out to me and for those of you who don’t know, myself along with a good amount of other co-workers of mine got released from the WWE today and it’s a sad day in the wrestling world. Very sad day in the wrestling world. Still doesn’t even feel real to me. I’m sure it doesn’t feel real to a lot of people right now but, I just want to let everybody know that regardless of what you may think some of us feel or what we’re going through mentally, physically, financially, emotionally — I just wanna speak for myself and say that I’m gonna be good. I’m gonna be alright because I know that I have something in me that has pushed me to this point in my life and in my career. I know that I have heart, I know that I have drive, I know that I have determination, I know that I have the will to succeed and this is something that I’ve realized about myself at a very young age and thank God I have realized this. Again, I’m getting a lot of messages right now and I just wanna let everybody know, all of my fans, all of my supporters, everybody, that I’m gonna be okay and I’m gonna make it through this. I know that my co-workers… former co-workers are gonna make it through this, and yeah… we’re gonna be alright.”

** WWE Performance Center coach and trainer Serena Deeb confirmed her departure from WWE via Twitter. Serena posted a statement and thanked the WWE for her time there and all who she was able to work with. She closed her statement by noting that her heart is in pro wrestling and she’s looking forward to what the future holds.

** Muscle and Fitness released their sit-down interview with Roman Reigns that was conducted prior to WrestleMania 36. Reigns would reveal that he and his wife are going to be welcoming two new children into the world soon.

“Three kids with two in the oven. So I’m looking to be a papa bear of five. Breaking news. We haven’t really shared that.”

Roman Reigns spoke about his history at WrestleMania and shared that he was very nervous for the bout he was involved in at WrestleMania 30 which was himself, Seth Rollins and Jon Moxley taking on Kane and The New Age Outlaws (Billy Gunn & Brian “Road Dogg” James).

“Yeah, our first one was in New York. I believe it was 29. Oddly enough though, the most nervous I think I’ve ever been was the six-man we did. Was it the next year? We did New Orleans. We had a six-man in New Orleans against The New Age Outlaws and Kane. I don’t know how that idea — I’d have to go back and watch film [on] how they teamed up, but yeah. That was like a five, six minute match. The fastest match of all-time. I was so nervous for that. I don’t even know why. I have no clue why I was so nervous. I literally just had a comeback. Just get in there, clothesline some — three different variations of a clothesline and then just get back to my two moves but like, I was so nervous up in the concourse sweating up. We literally had a longer entrance than the match and I was terrified. I have no clue why. Then I think the next year, I was in the main event with Brock, smooth, nothing. I think the thing with that was, I knew it was just going to be real physical, and I was like, ‘I got physical. We can bang. If he wants to hit, we’ll hit. We’ll go in there and smash. I don’t care.’”

** The Los Angeles Times was able to obtain an internal email from the Los Angeles Fire Department and the city may hold off on allowing big gatherings until 2021. Mayor Eric Garcetti indicated during a conference call that large gatherings such as concerts and sporting events may not be approved for at least one year. Garcetti’s spokesman Alex Comisar said that the Mayor was basing his statements off of the studies and data that are available regarding the virus and how to stop the spread of it but does not have an exact timeline of when Los Angeles should/will allow large-scale events. WWE’s WrestleMania 37 event is set for March 28th, 2021.

** According to Showbuzz Daily, the 8 PM episode of WWE’s Ruthless Aggression series on FS1 did 224,000 overnight viewers, the 9 PM episode did 302,000 and the 10 PM episode did 226,000 viewers. Also, Jimmy Snuka’s Dark Side of the Ring episode drew in 209,000 viewers.

** Florida Governor Ron DeSantis shut down the notion that politics played a role in WWE being allowed to run live TV at their Performance Center in Orlando.

** After the series of WWE releases on April 15th, the former Sin Cara, now going by Cinta de Oro tweeted out the following:

And you still wonder why I left!”

** Braun Strowman posted a picture of himself and Drake Maverick from Drake’s wedding day, following the news that Drake was being let go from WWE.

** Following the news of the many names within WWE that were released from the company or furloughed, Seth Rollins gave his thoughts on the situation on Instagram Live and his response was not well received on social media when he shared his displeasure about the comments that were directed to WWE about their handling of yesterday’s events.

“It’s just a difficult day for all of us. My heart is broken for the guys and girls who I’m really close with that had it the worst today, and that goes for talent that you guys love on-screen but also everyone off-screen who may not get the social media fanfare that some of the talent is getting. But one thing I am seeing that is a little upsetting to me is all the negativity and hostility towards WWE. This is a difficult day for everyone, for all of us and I think if ever there was a moment for us to unify, for us to kind of band together and try to do the best we can to keep this business alive the best we know how, this is that moment, and I think pointing fingers or saying, ‘You should’ve done this, you should’ve done that’ is… I don’t know. It just doesn’t feel like the time or the place for it. I think this is a day for compassion and for empathy and for understanding and to try to support each other. You know, to pick each other up and that’s for everybody. That’s not just for the guys and girls that [were] let go but, for all of us who are fortunate enough at this moment to still be able to have a position where we can collect a paycheck and we can support those who love us and those around us. I think that we have to take it upon ourselves to work harder to make sure that there’s a place for all those who again, had it the worst today, to come back to. I think as a planet, we can rally around the idea that this is only temporary, and that those who have lost their positions and who are struggling to figure out what to do next.”

** While speaking with Bleacher Report, Jim Ross stated that he hopes the former Scott Dawson and Dash Wilder consider All Elite Wrestling as their next stop in their respective post-WWE journeys.

“They’re one of my favorite teams, and they’re certainly a combination I’ve enjoyed watching. They’re pro wrestling guys. I don’t know what The Revival’s plans are, I don’t know what their no-compete clause looks like, but if you’re going to get your release and you have a no-compete, now’s not a bad time with everything being so crazy. I hope that when we get back to normal and if those gentlemen are interested that they will give us consideration for their next stop.”

** Maria Kanellis took to Instagram and voiced her thoughts about herself and Mike Kanellis being let go from WWE. Kanellis expressed that she’s grateful for the opportunities that WWE has given her and her family over the past several years.

** ET Canada did a Skype video interview with Nikki and Brie Bella. The Bella Twins were asked if they were interested in possibly returning to in-ring competition and Nikki Bella stated that she’s interested. During the Summer of 2019, Nikki Bella shared during an interview with TMZ Sports that a cyst was found on her brain which put an end to her in-ring career.

“I mean, I would love to return [to] the ring, especially [due to] the fact that WrestleMania is gonna be in Hollywood next year. I have to make a comeback for my kid. I feel like I get what was empowering for [Brie] when she did it being a mom. Like, that’s totally kick-ass!”

** Pittsburgh Action News covered Kurt Angle’s departure from WWE.

** ESPN West Palm welcomed State Attorney Dave Aronberg onto the show and Dave addressed WWE being able to run live shows from the Performance Center in Orlando and how that’s connected to the McMahons relationship with Donald Trump.

** AEW Co-Executive Vice President Cody Rhodes wrote a detailed message about Zack Ryder on Instagram and shared how proud he is of Zack and that he believes in him.

“I’d like to take a moment to say how proud I am to be a friend of @zryder85 – In a world of weekend warriors and “play wrestlers”, this dude exudes passion and drive for pro-wrestling like no other. Through 14 years to see him CONSISTENTLY try to better himself (whether that be his in-ring work, or watching him physically mold himself and his body into such a specimen DRUG FREE with hard work and will). I have a little rule, and that’s that if you’ve ever “gotten over” in wrestling…you can always do so again. That rule being fully applicable to Matt now. At 34 years young, his best wrestling days are ahead of him. Cheers to a great start and 14 years of unrelenting blood, sweat, and tears. Future endeavors are limitless when you actually endeavor. I chose this picture because it was one of my last days at WWE, watching 80,000+ people applaud as Matt won gold was an eruption not only live in the arena but in the locker room as well. Hearing Dolph coordinate for his father to come over the rails(meanwhile I was ass deep into a broken ladder and stuck but had the best seat in the house) and seeing father/son embrace, I thought I’d be jealous or bitter, but I was truly happy and proud for one of my peers. Congratulations my friend, and good luck!”

** Taz and Excalibur recapped the April 15th episode of AEW Dynamite:

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Krrc3MciCY[/embedyt]

 

** Dolph Ziggler purchased over $200 in merchandise to support independent wrestler Christian Kobain.

** Former WWE writer Kazeem Famuyide welcomed Lio Rush onto his ‘Say Less With Kaz’ podcast prior to the announcement of Rush’s release from WWE. During their conversation, Lio recalled one of his strangest interactions with WWE Chairman Vince McMahon and it occurred when Bobby Lashley was starting to do the butt pose on WWE TV.

“Aw man, I think this was one of the first times where I had an actual long conversation with Vince, and it was by far the weirdest conversation I’ve ever had my life, and he described all of the poses, he described everything that he wanted from the biceps, to the chest curls, to just everything that I had no idea about. Me and Bobby [Lashley] had no idea what these poses were and then he said, ‘At the end of Bobby doing the side chest, the lat spread, I want him to bend over, face the crowd and you comment on his gluteus maximus,’ and I’m like, ‘Wha…’ My mind was gonna explode. I was like, ‘What is happening right now?’ And you hear about these stories about Vince on these podcasts, about these meetings and Vince reenacting what exactly he wants done. I will never forget me and Bobby just looking at each other being so confused and like, ‘What do you mean you want him to comment?’ And I’ll never forget — Vince stood up, got from behind his desk, stood in front of me and Bobby, bent over and tapped his ass and said, ‘That’s what I want you to do.’”

Later during the podcast, Rush reflected on the tweet he sent to Tenille Dashwood in 2017 about her being released from WWE. Hindsight being 20/20, Rush thinks it was a massive mistake but he clarified that he truly believed it was a part of storyline seeing as how Dashwood took on Asuka just several nights prior at the TLC pay-per-view. Rush also revealed that it was Paige who gave him words of advice about how to navigate through the negative waters that he was in at the time.

“I remember seeing that and I’ll never forget, I was in a Waffle House and I was looking at my phone and I was just scrolling, scrolling and I saw that and, I thought for whatever reason, because I remember Emma just coming off of that match with Asuka, big pay-per-view match, and I’m thinking that this was kind of like a work in a sense because I’ve never — being on the independent scene, being a part of Ring of Honor, all of the overseas stuff that I did, I didn’t have time to pay attention to WWE, because I was so focused on what I had going on. So I never saw WWE tweets. I didn’t follow what was going on in WWE. So I didn’t even know that was a thing that WWE tweeted out — when somebody gets released for shoot. So, when I saw that, I was like, ‘Oh wow, I guess this must be a part of the angle with Asuka.’ So, I remember I tweeted out, ‘I guess this is what happens when you’re not ready for Asuka,’ and I remember the first person who reached out to me was Patrick, Patrick Clark for those of you who don’t know, Velveteen Dream. A good friend of mine, basically like a brother to me. He texts me, he says, ‘Hey man, I’m hearing some stuff on Twitter about you, about a tweet. I think you should take it down,’ and I’m like, ‘Why? This is no big deal. We’re just messing around,’ and he said, ‘I don’t know man. I think this is for real. I think people are angry with you,’ and I’m like, ‘Really?’ And I’m like, ‘Okay, okay. I’ll take it down.’ Before I even get to Twitter, I get another call from… I think it was [Matt] Bloom if I’m not mistaken, and he said, ‘Hey man, you need to take this tweet down’ and I’m like, ‘I’m on it right now.’ So I take the tweet down, but at that time, way too late. People done screenshotted it, it’s already been retweeted literally thousands and thousands of times within the span of less than 30 minutes. I’m seeing people in the company tweet at me and I’m like, ‘Man, this is really crazy. What did I get myself into?’

I remember just talking to Paige before she came back to WWE and I remember seeing her at the Performance Center and she really helped me out through all of that. I was getting so many hateful messages and death threats and emails and stuff like that. It was really bad dude. I thought about just quitting wrestling and all. But Paige helped me. She helped me get through that time. Obviously because of the stuff that she went through and we kind of had that similar hatred for [trolls]. It was a really bad situation and I didn’t know what to do but she helped me out when she definitely didn’t have to.”

** Justin Barrasso of Sports Illustrated interviewed Jake Hager.

** The latest episode of the Gorilla Position podcast has audio from an international media call that Braun Strowman was the focus of.

** Dark Side of the Ring Executive Producer Evan Husney revealed that he played the role of Jimmy Hart in the Dino Bravo edition of Dark Side of the Ring.

** Former ROH World Champion Matt Taven joined The WrestlingINC Daily Podcast.

** Cris Cyborg appeared on The No-Sports Report with Jensen Karp podcast.

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_GX5Wu0CG8[/embedyt]

 

** AEW World Champion Jon Moxley joined Wrestling Observer Live and while discussing what his post in-ring career plans are, Moxley said that he could see himself as a producer, coach or trainer but that would never happen in the WWE.

“If I couldn’t wrestle right now, I think maybe I’d try to be a producer, a coach or a trainer, something like that. Be involved in some way, which I would never say — I would never be a producer in WWE. I would rather work at McDonald’s than be a producer at WWE. You talk about a thankless job? Dude, or be on the creative team at WWE? I would rather [do any job] in the Summer heat than be a member of the creative team at WWE. What a terrible job. Sitting around waiting for Vince and you write a show and then he crumples up the show and throws it out, you get yelled at, treated like an idiot. I can’t imagine how frustrating that job would be, but outside of WWE in the world, I would love to be a part of the creative process after I couldn’t wrestle anymore, because it’s a totally different situation.”

As far as what he’s done since departing WWE, Moxley thinks he’s in his prime right now in a professional and personal sense.

“I’m the luckiest guy in the world. The position I’m in with this company, the freedom that I have to do the thing that I like to do. I’m not in any kind of financial stress, I have the most beautiful, greatest best friend of a wife in the world. I’m just insanely blessed. I was saying on a podcast the other day, I think I’m entering my prime now, or close to it and I think this is — like 2019 was all highs and lows, like crazy lows and crazy highs, and kind of leveled off towards the end of the year. 2020 for me has just been nothing but highs. Tokyo Dome, Minoru Suzuki, Chris Jericho, and I was like, ‘2020 is gonna be the best year of my career’ and I was like, ‘I shouldn’t say it. I feel like I’m waiting for the other shoe to drop’ and all of sudden, weeks later, the world ends. Two weeks after you become world champion, the whole business goes to fast food hell. That’s not ideal but who could’ve predicted this. I’m the top one percent of fortunate people in this scenario right now. There’s people losing their jobs and don’t know where they’re gonna work and people are sick and stuff. It’s just — my heart goes out to all those people.”

** WWE announced the adjournment of their annual stockholders meeting and below is the official press release concerning the news:

STAMFORD, Conn.–(BUSINESS WIRE)– WWE today announced the adjournment of its annual meeting until May 14, 2020. Such date was chosen in order to conform with the Delaware General Corporation law relating to adjournments, however, as that date remains within the effective period of Governor Lamont’s stay at home/stay safe executive order for the State of Connecticut, it is extremely likely that the May meeting will again be adjourned to a later date. The Company will keep its stockholders apprised of all updates relating to the annual meeting as they become available.

WWE also declared their quarterly dividend.

STAMFORD, Conn.–(BUSINESS WIRE)– WWE (NYSE: WWE) announced that its Board of Directors today declared the Company’s regular quarterly dividend of $0.12 per share for all Class A and B shares of common stock. The record date for the dividend will be June 15, 2020 and the payment date will be June 25, 2020.

** NJPW1972.com published a fan Q&A session with Shingo Takagi. In regard to his favorite match in New Japan, Shingo thinks his best match was with Will Ospreay in the Best Of The Super Juniors 2019 finals. Elsewhere during the Q&A, Takagi was asked if he’s interested in challenging for the IWGP Intercontinental Championship which is currently in the possession of his Los Ingobernables stable-mate Tetsuya Natio, and here’s how Shingo responded:

“I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t, but I really don’t think there’s any need for disruption within Los Ingobernables de Japon at the moment. LIJ has seven belts right now; the IWGP Intercontinental and Heavyweight, the NEVER Openweight, IWGP Junior Heavy and three NEVER 6-Man Tag belts. I don’t recall another faction ever being able to pull that off. I wrestle for myself and for my team. I have a lot of personal pride, and I want what I want, but there’s no reason to wreck a good thing right now. But yeah, I’m not uninterested.”

** Tokyo Sports has a feature up on their site about Hiroshi Tanahashi. In the piece, Tanahashi stated that he’s trying not to show his anxiety because of the COVID-19 outbreak and he knows how stressful it is for wrestlers to not be able to do their job.

** During his appearance on WWE’s After The Bell podcast with Corey Graves, former WWE Cruiserweight Champion Drew Gulak shared some of the names in wrestling that he can go to for advice and that list included names such as Daniel Bryan and Mike Quackenbush.

“Let me think, that’s tough, because I don’t try to pry too hard. I’ll be pretty open with pretty much everyone in the locker room about situations and asking for opinions. All the way up and down the locker room. But like, [Daniel] Bryan in particular has been a huge help lately. Just getting to chat with him and getting to know him because like I said, [it was] only until recently we’ve gotten to really know each other. We were acquaintances before, and respectful colleagues but now we’re actually starting to kind of build a friendship so that’s kind of nice. So getting to pick his brain has been awesome. Cesaro, just because of our background and history. If I ever need to be like, ‘What should I do in this situation?’ I would go right to him. Same with Kassius Ohno. I [will] still go back to Mike Quackenbush and ask him what his opinions are if I need ’em. Any chance I’ve ever had to interact with John Cena, he’s the most generous guy in the world with his time, and he really does love this. He would sit and watch 205 Live every night after SmackDown, just because he wanted to. He’d be giving out advice all the time and it’s like, ‘Oh, why didn’t I think of that?’”

** Katarina and Heather Monroe noted on Twitter that Ring of Honor paid them for agreeing to be a part of the ROH World Women’s Championship tournament that was set to commence this month. The tournament and all forthcoming ROH events are postponed as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak.

** Fightful’s Sean Ross Sapp conducted an interview with PJ Black. The current Ring of Honor talent shared that ROH flew their talents out to their headquarters for a meeting to gauge their input on what was going on in the company and how they felt about being a part of the company at that current time.

“So, here’s another thing that made my choice very easy, signing with Ring of Honor. They actually care what talents think. I’m not saying other companies don’t, but for the most part they don’t. They flew us all, the whole roster, to the head office and asked us, ‘Yo, if you guys would run this, what would you change?’ We gave them a list, I think the list came out to 140 things, I think, and they’ve already implemented a hundred of those things, which gives me a lot of hope. In any other world, even outside of wrestling, that would never happen. I don’t know what business you’re in, but that usually never happens or that takes years for that transition to happen. Ring of Honor, it happened like that. So, I was like, ‘Oh, okay.’ So, I tried a few things. I was like, ‘Hey, what if I do this? Can I get this?’ And it happened instantly. So, I was like, ‘Okay, this is where I need to be.’ I forget when it was, but it was when we had a little bit of downtime. It was optional too. You could choose if you wanted to go and if you didn’t want to go. It was cool that everyone went because it just shows the camaraderie and the brotherhood. That for me is another thing. That’s why Lucha [Underground] was so successful, I think, because after every single show, the whole crew hung out every single day. You could tell the product was freakin’ amazing. The matches in Lucha was insane.”

** On April 10th, the former Dash Wilder applied to trademark “Fear The Revolt”.

** Below is a video of Ronda Rousey playing Mortal Kombat 11:

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q1lyG0kKk0M[/embedyt]

 

** To promote his match on next week’s NXT against Finn Balor, Velveteen Dream posted a ‘Top Five Things’ that Finn Balor wishes he had no memory of and the top of that list was a picture of Dream and Cathy Kelley, the second photo was an image of the Monday Night RAW logo, the third was a photo of the day Finn relinquished the Universal Championship, the fourth is the “Demon” character and Dream added that the fifth will be their match next week.

** Dustin Rhodes was the most recent guest on the AEW Unrestricted podcast. Rhodes shared his high praise for AEW’s women’s division and explained that he wants to elevate the division to a higher altitude than the men’s division.

“That takes time. It doesn’t happen overnight. I see big things out of Britt [Baker]. I really do. I want this heel run of her’s to be explosive and mean something. I want all of our ladies to actually really step up. I want them to succeed, probably more-so than most of the guys because I think they deserve it. We just gotta get them there.”

** Tommy Dreamer went live on the House Of Hardcore Twitch channel and voiced his thoughts about the cuts that were made to the WWE talent roster, employees who worked at the Performance Center and those alike. Dreamer believes that people should not be upset with WWE or Vince McMahon because it’s business and mentioned that the loss WWE took by not having WrestleMania in Tampa led to a plethora of people being let go from the company. (Video clip courtesy of the ‘TMFI’ YouTube channel)

“I feel, personally, that wrestling shows and all that stuff won’t happen until like October, November, so we could all get back on our feet. You can’t hate the WWE. You can’t hate Vince McMahon. That is business, and it’s big business. I saw it in my little, little ass company, and I see it from WWE, all the way down and I use this example for everyone that’s like, ‘Oh, they should stop doing live television. They should stop doing this, they should stop doing that.’ Think of the financial hit WWE took with the loss of WrestleMania. From merchandise, live gate, all that stuff. If you’re a business person and I use this on Busted Open: If you pay somebody to paint your house and you have a contract that says, ‘I need you to paint my house,’ and you pay that person, or you pay that person half their money and they only paint the front side of your house and they say, ‘Well I can’t get workers to come to your house.’ Would you wanna pay them the full amount of money to paint your house? They didn’t finish the job. So there’s… this is all coming down to this, money, and this is why stuff like this always happens and it sucks but it is a business and nobody has a job or guaranteed a job forever. I guess The Undertaker and Shawn Michaels and Triple H are the only [three]. Hell, even Shane McMahon didn’t have a job for a while, though he walked away, but that’s business.”

** Titus O’Neil joined Ronnie and TKras on iHeartRadio to chat about WrestleMania and some of the projects he’s been doing in the community of Tampa. While speaking about WrestleMania, Titus revealed that his truck was used for the Randy Orton/Edge match when Edge took a DDT on top of the pickup truck.

“Obviously Randy Orton and Edge, their match was just phenomenal and my truck made an appearance on WrestleMania because they used it during that match, so it was a double pay-day for me,” Titus laughed.

** Matt Cardona, the former Zack Ryder currently has the top selling shirt on Pro Wrestling Tees.

** Nikki and Brie Bella guest appeared on ‘Hot Ones’.

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQV8PjTgugY[/embedyt]

 

** The latest episode of Battle Of The Brands with Xavier Woods and Tyler Breeze is up on the UpUpDownDown YouTube channel.

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RsGv9OY3MTY[/embedyt]

 

** Dana Brooke shared her quarantine workout with The Wrap.

** Mia Yim turned 31 years old on April 16th.

** Karl Anderson tweeted out a teaser about him possibly returning to Japan and he also changed his Twitter handle to @MachineGunKA.

** Here’s the latest upload to Aleister Black and Zelina Vega’s YouTube channel:

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBAyebNnHX0[/embedyt]

 

** Bill Apter posted a video to his channel of “Mean” Gene Okerlund and Howard Finkel doing a skit with him.

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3piEjukZOg[/embedyt]

 

** Mandy Rose joined Maria Menounos on her ‘Better Together’ podcast. Sonya Deville called into the show twice and pretended she was someone else and during the second call, she revealed who she was and continued her on-screen storyline with Rose.

[embedyt] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-pMBCImbt8g[/embedyt]

 

** In her latest blog post for the Calgary Sun, Natalya wrote about the places around the world that she’s been able to travel to as a part of WWE.

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.

About Andrew Thompson 8246 Articles
A Washington D.C. native and graduate of Norfolk State University, Andrew Thompson has been covering wrestling since 2017.