POST NEWS UPDATE: Gangrel needs total knee replacement surgery

Gangrel on how much longer he plans to wrestle, Anthony Henry worked hurt his entire NXT run, Mick Foley/Johnny Ace story, Daniel Garcia

Photo Courtesy: 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.

** Cultaholic welcomed Gangrel onto their ‘STRAIGHT TO HELL’ show and he said that doctors have told him he needs total knee replacement surgery. He is considering undergoing the surgery in December.

More likely won’t see me on the road so much. I have Gangrel’s Ghost Stories coming out in [the] next year. It’s already in production, they’re shopping it out to like — they’re looking at Netflix, Syfy, I don’t know so that’s coming out. I got another deal I can’t talk about which is very good. I got another deal that I don’t wanna mention and jinx that’s very good and plus, I’m also thinking about a knee surgery in December. They said [I] need a total knee replacement so, you may not see a whole lot of me wrestling now so if you’re in the areas, you better catch these shows with me through December because there’s a chance I’m gonna be so busy with other things, still wrestling-related, a lot of ‘em, but I might not be in the rings as much so, you know. But maybe, I don’t know, things change. I might be [the] same as I was next year, taking bookings because I’m heading to Romania in March. I know I took some bookings already so I may ride it all out, you know?

Gangrel previously shared that he was scheduled to make his AEW debut in Milwaukee but plans changed after Edge’s ‘Brood’ entrance at SummerSlam. Gangrel was told by AEW to not speak of the cancelled plans but he had already released the podcast episode by then.

Well it was kept a secret from me too so I don’t know which way they [AEW] were going. So, yeah, I don’t think I was supposed to really talk about it on my podcast but [by] the time they told me, ‘Hey, please don’t talk about it,’ I had already — the podcast was already up so, it’s a bit left the gate already so, not much I could do about that so I try not to say anything now but to be honest, I don’t know. I don’t know if it would’ve been with Kenny Omega or coming out with Christian [Cage] or — all I do know is they were putting together the whole entrance and everything so it was kind of anti-climatic, one, so it looked like they were following up on WWE I suppose. I get it, I understand. I was bummed but I was super, super happy for Edge, super proud of him and he’s such a good dude. He’s such, such a good dad. He’s a tremendous individual.

Gangrel is still active in the ring on a consistent basis at the age of 52. He admitted that he doesn’t know when to stop wrestling, but he does know that day is closing in and he does not want to be the guy hanging around when his body is telling him differently.

The problem is I don’t know when to stop but I gotta start thinking rationally so, you’re telling me I need a whole knee replacement so titanium — I mean I wrestle the same. It doesn’t seem to bother me but, they’re convinced that it’s just going to be gone one day. They’re like, you know, ‘You should think about doing it while you’re younger’ but they suggest you can’t wrestle after that so, I go and I’ll see the MRI results tomorrow on it and make a better decision but right now, the decision I told them was just to shoot it up with some gels and throw a different type of brace on and I’ve never worn a brace so I’ll start wearing a brace and I mean I did this past couple months, a temporary one but they’re gonna put a proper custom one on and I might just ride it out for a couple more years but realistically, I’m 52. This is September now, this is 34 years of me bumping and jumping around wrestling rings so, I don’t wanna be the guy that they say, ‘Oh man, he should have quit years ago’ or the other guy is saying, ‘Look at this lazy tart stealing money,’ you know? Even [with] all these young guys coming in, I don’t wanna become that guy. I have a couple close people that I have always watch my stuff and tell them to be brutally honest and but, that day is closing in just because I don’t wanna be that guy and you know, so…

** Anthony Henry was the most recent guest on ‘Ringside Rant’. In Henry’s first match under contract to WWE, he suffered an injury and worked hurt throughout the duration of his run in the company.

So within that span of time, I went from retiring to being signed, moving my family to being released [from WWE] and it was just crazy and so at this point, man I’m just — maybe I’m just too dumb to quit or too hard headed but, because I was hurt, because I was injured, even when I was on TV which I was on TV almost every week which is great. They gave me exposure, you know, so I can’t thank them enough for that and I can’t complain about my time there in terms of what I learned and what they did for me and how professional the whole process was but I can be upset that I didn’t get to share what I could actually do because I mean the truth about it is my very first match I had just gotten hurt and I was hurt the entire time I was on TV. In matches that were applauded and people like Shawn Michaels put over so it’s like, if you thought I was good at 30 percent which is probably where I was at, imagine if I would’ve been 100 percent and I was never given that chance and that’s kind of something that’s gonna — has eaten away at me and again, that’s probably why I’ve refused to quit and so we have some exciting things coming up and that’s really all I’m concentrating on now is getting through this whole hurdle, getting through the move, getting back to where I’m from, getting back to my hometown and then going from there and just killing this independent wrestling thing until the next journey shows up and we go on that ride.

During the initial conversations about Henry joining WWE, an idea was floated out there of him possibly transitioning to a coaching role at the Performance Center but that never came to fruition. When he was let go, there was not an option to make that transition.

So when I first signed, there was some initial talk of like, you know, because I am 37 so there’s only so much time that we have, especially doing what we do, so I get that and so, when I first signed, there was some initial talks of possibly at some point transitioning into coaching or helping the younger talent that’s coming in, because I have the experience. But that never led to anything. I was pretty much brought on TV a month in and then it was just a ride from there and so when the release happened, there wasn’t an option. There was, ‘Hey, peace out. You’re done.’ It was almost like matter-of-factly the case and it’s almost one of those things where for me it was like, ‘Oh, it’s been a great ride up until now but this is how you do me?’ Not that just you release me, I get that but there was no remorse or anything. It was kind of just like, ‘Hey, peace’ and it just came out of no where but it was just — so…

Henry has told the story of how following his first tryout with WWE pre-pandemic, he did not get a job because the medical staff said he had undiagnosed concussions. That also led to him no longer being able to work with EVOLVE because of their relationship with WWE. By the time the offer came around that led to him being signed, Anthony was candid in saying that he hated wrestling.

So it was about a year since the initial deal with NXT fell through and I was basically told, ‘We’re not interested anymore’ so a year later, I get a call and it’s like, ‘Hey, do you still wanna retire?’ And I’m like, ‘Well, I don’t know. It depends’ and initially, I didn’t even really care to do it [WWE tryout] because again, I kinda hated wrestling. You know, it’s a weird thing to say but like, when you go through something like that and you’re at that point, 16, 17, 18 years in, whatever it was and you worked this hard and it’s just all taken away from you for really no reason and even though they’re offering it to me now, it’s like yeah, but screw you because you’ve caused all this stress on my life. But, after talking with friends, family, my wife was really the one who was like, ‘Hey, let’s consider this. Let’s see what it’s about’ so I was trying to kind of like come around and find the love, the passion, whatever you call it again and it also came down to like, hey, I’ve been doing this for so long and I should get something out of this and I should see it to the end at least. I owe that to myself, I owe that to my family, I owe it to my daughter, be an example for her like, ‘Hey, you can do –’ I’ve said it before on other podcasts like, it’s an example of whatever crazy thing that she ends up wanting to do in her life, whatever it may be, maybe she’s into art. Maybe she wants to animate movies or something. Something that some people would say, ‘Man, there’s like one in a million chance you would do that.’ I owe it to her to be that example. How many people wanna be in WWE NXT, right? And how many people have tried and failed and there’s nothing wrong with failing but how many people have tried and failed? So if I can do it, I should do it. So, I reluctantly agreed and we did the thing and yeah. That was that.

** Monthly Puroreso released the written portion of their conversation with Mick Foley. He recalled accidentally injuring John Laurinaitis during an All Japan Pro Wrestling tour and Foley noted that he had to “walk on eggshells” for the remainder of that tour.

Yeah, well, unfortunately there was a low light for me injuring Johnny Ace. And after roughing up Ace, I was kind of walking on eggshells for the last half of that tour in All Japan back in 1991.

I think I dislocated his elbow doing a move off the second rope. I went for a back suplex – I think Johnny Ace was going for a moonsault, and I knocked him down, then went for a back suplex off-the-second rope. But he reversed into a cross body, and I had my chin so tightly clamped in preparation for the bump that he couldn’t get his arm out of there. And so, the last half of the AJPW tour, my main concern was not hurting anybody.

Back in 2004, Mick Foley traveled back to Japan and had a match against Toshiaki Kawada for the ‘HUSTLE’ organization. Bill Goldberg was originally supposed to be Kawada’s opponent but he got hurt. Foley went into the match with a completely torn ligament in his knee.

So, in ’91 in the Champion Carnival, it was a house show. I don’t think I spoke to him or saw him before the match. I think it was a solid match, but probably nothing to write home about. The second time around, I had just finished my Backlash match with Randy Orton in May of 2004. And a day or two later I was with my youngest back at home, he had been hospitalized with dehydration when I wrestled Randy. So, it was probably three days later and I was watching him play, went to stand up and I just couldn’t – something snapped that had been holding on by a thread, in my knee. One of my ligaments just, you know, completely tore. And I could not stand.

I told my manager about it. And, he called me back a few days later and he said, how’s that knee man? I said, look it’s pretty bad. He said, ‘Can you stand?’ I said, ‘No.’ And he said… ‘Look, Bill Goldberg got hurt and he can’t make his show for HUSTLE in Japan and I think I can get you Bill Goldberg money.’ My ears perked up and I said, ‘Barry, I might not be able to walk – but I’ll get in that ring and wrestle.’ And that’s essentially what I did, I had some kind of numbing agent or shot that no doubt wasn’t good for me. And yeah, I wasn’t able to, I still wasn’t able to walk when I got to Japan.

Bill and I were both represented by Barry Bloom, and he said to the booker, ‘What about Cactus Jack, Mick Foley?’ And, I guess they thought highly enough of me to give me the same money. I just had to figure out a way that I could stand up and you know, not embarrass myself. You’re not shooting for the moon when that’s your goal. I just wanted to be able to stand up and not embarrass myself, that was my goal when I got to Japan in ’04.

** That Hashtag Show pushed out their chat with Melina. The interview was conducted after NWA EmPowerrr where she went one-on-one with Deonna Purrazzo. Melina became emotional while speaking about the reaction she and Deonna received backstage after the match. Melina added that she could have happily retired from wrestling after that.

Again, overwhelming because you know, I’ve been a bad guy my entire career so, I never, ever had a reaction like that. Never experienced a reaction like that so, and then people can be tough and it felt like no matter how much I put myself into my matches in the past, not everybody’s gonna like it and people are gonna hate it and I’m never gonna be good enough. It always felt that way, so when we got to the back and got that reaction, I could retire now. It was such a beautiful thing to see and I wanna thank everybody for being so sweet, so supportive and for watching. This is what we do it for, for you guys every single time and so if I can do something that where you can enjoy it, you can get strength from it or you could hate me, whatever the case may be, that’s what wrestling is. We do it for you and thank you for making my career. It gave me purpose. You guys gave me purpose so thank you.

** Ivelisse appeared on the ‘Insight with Chris Van Vliet’ podcast and as the conversation rolled on, Ivelisse further spoke on her past issues with Thunder Rosa. She went over their incident in Lucha Underground and discussed the in-ring miscommunications they had on AEW Dynamite in September 2020.

It’s a culmination of a lot of things from her part. In the past — it all started in the past in Lucha Underground. This is literally the exact same thing that happened in the match [for AEW that] happened in Lucha Underground. I thought that was learned because we encountered again in the indies because in Lucha Underground it was Kobra Moon. In the indies, it was herself. In that match, she didn’t do any of that so I was like, ‘Okay.’ So I thought in my mind, ‘Okay, well, there were a lot of other things outside…’

Outside of that, because I’m the type that when it comes to anything personal outside, you just let it go because once you’re in the ring, you’re in the ring. All of that needs to completely and utterly disappear and you just focus and do what works for the match, period. No ifs and buts. But, outside of that, after the Lucha Underground incident in the ring, outside of that throughout the years, I heard a lot of things and that’s the thing. People think that because I stay quiet, I don’t care about drama, I don’t care about negativity. I’m just working, working, working. People think that I don’t hear things and nothing comes to me, but I heard a lot of things but in my mind it’s like, ‘Welp, we’re not working so I don’t need to worry about it.’ Ignore. I ignore negativity. But then that match happened outside and I didn’t feel like it happened again like the same thing in Lucha Underground in the match. I was like, ‘Okay, maybe she did learn’ and it’s just like an outside the ring thing. I was like, ‘Okay cool, whatever’ but then AEW comes and never in my wildest dreams, never in my wildest dreams would I think that would happen and it did. But I think that — I don’t know why it didn’t occur to me that maybe because she was champ, maybe that gave her a little more courage as you would say, for her to go back to that but, I know I don’t like to — at the end of the day, it’s still pro wrestling, you’re still wrestling a veteran, number three and you still — that’s the only difference — that doesn’t mean you get to be unprofessional because you have a championship. I don’t know.

** Prior to AEW All Out, Dave LaGreca of Busted Open Radio conducted interviews with Big Swole and QT Marshall. During the Big Swole portion of the show, she said she is inching closer to feeling 100 percent healthy. Swole had been out of action for a period of time earlier this year because her Crohn’s began to flare up.

Yes, most definitely [I think it’s my time to shine] and I feel that 100 percent because now I feel healthy. Beforehand, when I was doing after the match, the tooth and nail match, I was already having complications with my Crohn’s disease so now I’m like borderline, I’m at that 90 percent healthy. Once I get to 100, I’m gonna show people exactly what I can do because right now, you’re just seeing a baseline.

QT Marshall joined the show and spoke about the growth of AEW and when he realized that the company was legit. He mentioned that he quickly realized that it was not going to “be like a Ring of Honor”.

It’s incredible [the growth of AEW]. When I started, day one, I was in Jacksonville at the rally and Cody [Rhodes] explained what was going on and then I saw Chris Jericho walk in because Cody and Jericho had rooms near each other and I thought, ‘Man, this isn’t going to be like a Ring of Honor.’ Not knocking Ring of Honor at all. I just said, ‘This is the real deal’ and then I saw the pyro go off in the Jaguars stadium and I’m thinking like, ‘And there’s money,’ you know what I mean? Which is always the biggest problem in wrestling and then they told me there’s probably gonna be a deal on TNT so that’s why I was so adamant about taking that couple hundred dollars a week job as an assistant, writing emails and getting coffee because I knew and I knew as a startup company, I’ve been in restaurants when we started them up. There’s so many things you don’t think about. There’s so many jobs that people aren’t gonna think to do or that we need and instead of hiring people to do those jobs, I took it upon myself to just do them. I didn’t ask for anything, I just did them and then when the time came, well then I asked for a big amount of money, plus the titles and all this other stuff that comes with it and I never thought I was gonna wrestle either. I always had my gear, but I never thought I would wrestle.

** 2point0 (Matt Lee & Jeff Parker) hosted a Q&A on their YouTube channel and Daniel Garcia joined them for the recording. Garcia is scheduled to go one-on-one with Minoru Suzuki on October 8th for West Coast Pro Wrestling. Garcia said he would’ve believed someone telling him he’d be sharing the ring with Jon Moxley in the United Center before he ever believed he’d be wrestling Minoru Suzuki.

That’s one of those matches that I feel like it’s not real yet. I don’t think I’ll realize it’s happening until I’m actually in the ring with him.

I feel like that’s the craziest thing I’ve done so far. If you would’ve told me I was main eventing the United Center with Jon Moxley, I would have believed that before you told me I was wrestling Minoru Suzuki.

Jeff Parker went on to speak about the atmosphere in All Elite Wrestling. He said being there has restored his love for wrestling.

Yes [AEW is as fun as everyone says it is]. Since we’ve been here, it’s restored my love for professional wrestling and I know CM Punk said something similar like, ‘I’m back in professional wrestling’ and there’s a lot of truth to that because it’s just a great environment, great company. Everyone’s striving to put out the best product possible and it’s just a lot of absolute great people. Just great people. Great wrestlers, great people, great fans.

For several years, 2point0 had not wrestled outside the state of Florida while with WWE. Parker said becoming a traveling wrestler again did take a bit of getting used to.

We’d kind of forgotten what it feels like to be traveling professional wrestlers again. We hadn’t wrestled outside of Florida in what? Three years? So, yeah. It’s been really nice to travel around and I can’t wait to go and see some of these old spots we used to go to, go get an authentic cheesesteak [from] Tony Luke’s, good ‘ole Tony Luke’s. Really looking forward to going to these places again and actually getting out and about in the world.

** IMPACT X Division Champion Josh Alexander appeared on Jade Chung’s Twitch channel. Alexander clarified a recent tweet he sent out about becoming a full-time wrestler and here’s what he had to say:

So can I just clarify something. The tweet like exploded. It’s the biggest tweet I’ve ever done. I barely looked at it but I looked at it and I was like, ‘Oh my God. This got real big, real fast.’ So I’m super thankful for people all supporting me. I did not tweet that because all of a sudden I’m making this monumental amount of money on this crazy contract or anything like that. I tweeted it because I got laid off and I was like you know what? I’m doing well with wrestling now, especially with all the indies and stuff and IMPACT so, I think if there’s any time to try and do this, it’s now. So this is the leap that I need to do to see if this can be sustainable moving forward.

** During his appearance on the ‘Chair Shots to the Cranium’ podcast, Erick Redbeard recalled the first couple of times he wore the sheep mask while paired with The Wyatt Family. Redbeard remembered Dusty Rhodes jokingly telling him that he didn’t need a mask because he was ugly enough.

So everyday I’d try — I’d come out with pajamas and wearing a mask and it would be a promo with like those two [Bray Wyatt & Brodie Lee] or like Rick Victor [Viktor] or just different people or with Brodie [Lee] and we would just do different things that I’d be a different character every week using either one of the masks or whatever. To me, it was always a play-off of like Tiny or Leatherface, you know, from Devil’s Rejects or Texas Chainsaw [Massacre] and just that weird outsider and because I always found those characters interesting to me and I’ll never forget, I remember wearing these masks and Dusty [Rhodes] told me to take off the mask because my face was ugly enough because you know, he was basically portraying that I have a unique look in professional wrestling. I look scary. I don’t need the mask to look anymore scary. Fast forward, I debuted it with the Wyatt Family on NXT and we got called up to the main roster. Well in the trunk of my car, I still had those masks and I don’t know why but the sheep mask stood out to me and I brought it with during the day of shooting just because on a whim like if they wanted to use it and ever since, it became part of the character.

** WWE 24/7 Champion Reggie was the most recent guest on ‘Out of Character with Ryan Satin’. After his initial WWE tryout, Reggie did not hear from the company despite being well received. He was told by WWE that if he had another offer on the table from Cirque du Soleil, he should take that because they weren’t sure what their plans were at the time.

So that’s a whole interesting story even before COVID happened. So they [WWE] told me they wanted me after the tryout, but the trail, it went cold. I didn’t hear anything. I told them, ‘Hey, I’m in the midst of re-signing with Cirque du Soleil for another year, but I’m interested in you guys if you guys want me.’ [I] was told, ‘Hey, if you have another offer, go with that because we don’t know what our plans are right now’ and that broke my heart because I went to train at all these different schools around the world because I was traveling with Cirque du Soleil so I just couldn’t go to a certain school. I have to, ‘My show is in New York. Okay, let me Google what wrestling schools are in New York. We’re in Connecticut. Let me see what wrestling schools are in Connecticut.’ Calgary, Montreal, Vancouver and so I just, in my off time, I just went to train. Train, train, train, train, train on top of doing shows and so they were just saying, ‘Don’t do it. We don’t know what’s gonna happen,’ all of these things. But, I stayed persistent. I was in Calgary, I told — I had recorded a video of me training and I sent it to Matt Bloom. I said, ‘Hey, just to let you know, I’m very much still dedicated to this. Can you give me some feedback on this video?’ And that was like 9:30 in the morning I sent that message. At 9:36, I get an email from Canyon Ceman saying, ‘Hey, Matt Bloom showed me your video. We are very much interested. How about a start date?’ And this time, I said that’s amazing. They said July or whatever. I said, ‘That’s amazing, I would love that’ and then next thing you know, everything started to happen. Two weeks later, they said the contract’s in the mail. A week later, the contract was in my hand, I signed the contract, sent it to them. Next thing you know, they said, ‘Cool. We’ve received your contract. Your background check has passed, all of these things are clear. You’re starting in January.’ I said, ‘Oh.’ This [is in] July [2019]. He told me July and I’ve already signed my contract with Cirque du Soleil until July and they said, ‘Well you can start either January, April or July’ and I said, ‘Okay, let me double check.’ I said, ‘You know what?’ Something told me Cirque du Soleil is great, but this is an opportunity. Get there as soon as possible.

So I went to the office [of] Cirque du Soleil [and] said, ‘Hey, this opportunity is much better. I’m gonna be closer to my daughter. Can I break my contract and finish in December?’ December 29th. They were totally fine about it because we had a great relationship. Broke that contract, got to Orlando in January. January 3rd is when I flew down, started January 15th I believe and that was the best moment of my life then obviously, March comes, March 14th, the day after my birthday, the world shuts down. That’s crazy because if I would’ve said, ‘Let me hold up my end performing Soleil,’ I would have — I was supposed to come in July, but I wouldn’t have came here for sure. There’s no telling that they would’ve brought me in or not.

When Reggie felt he was becoming stagnant as a part of the circus, he started to get into real estate and that was going to be his exit plan and it was around that time that his coach informed him that WWE was looking into doing some exchanges with Cirque du Soleil.

So, now this — I told you in the beginning, I’m so blessed. So everything happens for a reason. I’m a very firm believer of that. So, we are 2019 and at this point, I’m very stagnant. I am stagnant in Cirque du Soleil. I’m already thinking what’s my next step. So I started doing some real estate investing, thinking, ‘Okay, this is my exit strategy’ and it’s 2019, April of 2019 and our show goes to Orlando, home of the Performance Center and so first day we get there, our head coach goes, ‘Hey guys, just got word that the WWE wants to do an exchange with us.’ Immediately, my eyes [got big]. ‘Wait, what? They wanna  — with us?’ And so they did that and he said, ‘Yeah. They wanna do an exchange with us.’ I said, ‘Count me in. Let me know when it’s gonna be.’

He spoke about how helpful former NXT and current MLW talent E.J. Nduka was in his progression in-ring wise and physique-wise.

During that time [in the middle of the pandemic], it was crucial. It was a crucial moment in my career because I could have just sat on my butt and wait until the world open[s] back up or, I hit the bricks running and it was me and my good brother EJ. EJ Nduka, another guy at the Performance Center as well and when I say this man helped me change so much of my physique and we just shared a brotherhood, a camaraderie throughout that pandemic, just motivating each other and just being there for one another. Talking wrestling, watching wrestling, working out, just staying at it and staying ready so when the world does open back up, that we’re ready and so just like we thought it was gonna be, we spoke everything into existence and when the world opened back up, I was ready.

** While chatting with John Layfield and Gerald Brisco, Lex Luger spoke about his time in the WWF Title picture during his run in the company. He said Vince McMahon never promised him that he would win the title, nor did McMahon promise Lex that he would be ‘the guy’.

It was a great experience. A lot of people felt that if you got that big of a buildup and you don’t come through, it’s kind of letting the air out of the tires on the bus, you know? When you win by DQ [versus Yokozuna at WrestleMania X]. A lot of people said they wanted Taker — and Vince [McMahon’s] real plan, people think I was promised the belt. Vince never promised me the world title and he told me flat out, ‘If I put the belt on you and that’s the direction we go, I’d like to see that at WrestleMania 10 next Spring.’ So Vince got Yoko and Taker in an angle, we did the DQ and Vince said, ‘If we can rev this thing back up for WrestleMania, then that’s the direction we go’ but Vince never promised me the title, never said, ‘You’re gonna be my guy.’ People all say that and think that but [that] was never the case behind the scenes with that whole thing. A lot of people thought maybe, he should’ve let me win in Detroit [at] SummerSlam [1993] and beat me even a week later on Raw or something for the title and so I had, as a babyface, kind of had the win after the big build up but other than that, Vince never made any promises to that thing, contrary to what a lot of people think. People ask me that all the time.

** Shingo Takagi returned to the ring on 9/5 at NJPW’s Wrestle Grand Slam show at MetLife Dome. He had been out of action after testing positive for COVID-19. While speaking to the press ahead of the 2021 G1 Climax tournament beginning, Takagi said he lost eight pounds in four days. He ended up putting five pounds back on.

Anyway, I didn’t wrestle for three weeks, and dropped four kilos in ten days. That had me sweating for a while, and then I put five kilos back on. Man, I’ve been in combat sports since I started judo around sixth grade, 25 years plus, and I don’t think my body’s been through anything like a fortnight span like I just had. It just goes to show what the human body is capable of dealing with even though I’m sure mine is complaining about it. It surprised even me, what a wrestler can do. Anyway, there’s two more weeks to go until the G1, so I’ll be working to be in absolutely perfect shape for the opening matches.

** Vickie Guerrero welcomed NWA World Women’s Tag Team Champion Marti Belle onto her podcast. Marti spoke about the idea of signing with another wrestling organization after her departure from NWA in 2020. She said AEW has an appeal to it because their schedule allows talents to take on other projects and ventures.

That is one thing that’s always appealed, that AEW’s always had that big appeal, freedom. I don’t know that I would be ready to give up my acting career because yeah, once you’re with WWE, you’re kind of married to whatever they want you to do. So it definitely would be, you know, I would definitely get the opinion of a lot of people that I value and that I trust and it would definitely be an ‘in the moment’ kind of decision. But, I’m just a firm believer of never saying never because you don’t know. When I left NWA, I didn’t know if I’d be back and it’s been almost a year and here I am so and there’s no door that’s ever fully closed. Any time I leave anywhere, my mother always says, ‘If you’re leaving, you’re gonna go out the big door so that when you wanna come back, that door’s not slammed in your face’ and knock on wood, I feel like I’ve been good about doing that everywhere that I’ve been so, who knows? Maybe one day I’ll be back at IMPACT, maybe you’ll see me on AEW next week. You just never know. I’m not married to one place. I’m not married to one place so, I’m always open to check out new horizons.

** There was a segment at the latest Reality Of Wrestling show involving Booker T and new WWE signee and now-Reality Of Wrestling alum, Blake Cortez.

** Jon Moxley appeared on Cincy 360 with Tony Pike.

** Drew McIntyre’s WWE Championship belt is being showcased in the Great Tapestry of Scotland exhibit, which opened up to the public on August 26th.

** While speaking to ‘Metro’, Damian Priest said that he often jokes with Triple H about the idea of him getting back in the ring.

** The latest ‘Off Her Chops’ podcast with Jessica McKay and Cassie Lee discussing the announcement of their return to wrestling.

** Savannah Evans appeared on Highspots Wrestling Network’s ‘Virtual Gimmick Table’.

** Ring of Honor dojo member Eric Martin is celebrating a birthday today.

** Rok-C did an interview with Miami Herald’s Jim Varsallone.

** WWE Hall Of Famer Molly Holly turned 44 on 9/7.

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 8005 Articles
A Washington D.C. native and graduate of Norfolk State University, Andrew Thompson has been covering wrestling since 2017.