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.
** The latest K & S WrestleFest virtual signing was centered around Billy Gunn. When Gunn was asked if there’s a chance Brian ‘Road Dogg’ James could come into AEW to reform The New Age Outlaws, Gunn said the in-ring portion of that won’t be happening but stated that “we’re trying” to get James to AEW.
No, not reform New Age Outlaws [in AEW] because if you’ve seen Brian [‘Road Dogg’ James] lately, he’s not — doesn’t wanna wrestle anymore. I don’t know. We’re trying to get him there. He’s got other things going; his podcast that I have to hear about every single day.
He spoke about the careers of his sons Austin and Colten. Billy said if they hit that next gear, he wants them to leave him behind and continue moving forward. When it comes to how much longer he plans to wrestle, he says it’s a play it by ear type of situation.
That’s a play it by ear kind of a thing [how much longer he wants to wrestle].
Please leave me behind [Billy directed to Austin and Colten if they hit the next gear in their careers]. Yeah, leave me behind. I’m okay with that. There comes a time when they’re gonna have to go on their own anyway. Not that they use me as a crutch but it’s, sometimes they’re gonna have to — and they do that a little bit now. They kind of just find their way and then come talk to me about it and go, ‘Hey, we just wanted to…’ I say, ‘No, it’s fine with me,’ you know? So I don’t have a switch, I don’t have a — it’s just when it’s time, I’ll know, you know what I mean?
Elsewhere during the signing, he reflected on getting to wrestle Hiroshi Tanahashi at the NJPW G1 Special in 2017. Gunn looks back fondly on that and cannot explain why he likes Tanahashi as much as he does.
I didn’t have one [a favorite wrestler growing up]. No, not at all [was not a fan growing up]. That’s the beauty of me. It just wasn’t a thing — I actually fell into wrestling by weird circumstances, never watched it. But when I started, Curt Hennig is probably — that and [Hiroshi] Tanahashi. Tanahashi, I love. I don’t know what it is [Gunn laughed]. I love him for some reason. Yes. He’s such a good guy. I got to work him in Long Beach at the big New Japan show and it was just amazing.
** During the most recent ‘Oh…You Didn’t Know’ with Brian ‘Road Dogg’ James podcast, he told the story of when Vince McMahon informed him that he would be splitting up The New Age Outlaws. James said he cried in front of McMahon when he found out he and Billy would be splitting up, but said McMahon convinced him that he’d be fine as a solo talent.
When they tried to split me and Billy [Gunn] up and this is a true story, I literally cried tears in Vince McMahon’s office and said, ‘I don’t think I can curry this on my own.’ I didn’t believe in myself and Vince talked me up and talked me out of there and I was like — walked out of there feeling great and went on to do the Intercontinental and the Hardcore Title, but I had already started really going down a dark path with my drug use and stuff by then.
Chris Jericho’s name became the topic of conversation at one point and Road Dogg admitted that he was jealous of Jericho when he first came into WWF/E.
I think he’s [Chris Jericho] done extremely well for himself. Have he and I had our differences? Yeah. Was I jealous of him also when he came into WWE back in the day and I was in active addiction? Yes, because he came in getting a push and beat me twice to do it [James laughed]. But you know, nobody’s remembering anything like that Chris. You son of a… But that’s the kind of stuff back then that bothered me and I think about it today and I’m like, oh my God. What a pathetic existent man I am, you know?
As Road Dogg and his co-host Ryan Katz were discussing his return to WWE in 2012, they spoke about the talents he was able to work with, one of which being Joe Hennig f.k.a. Curtis Axel. James recounted Hennig being the go-to guy for Brock Lesnar to train with when he came back to WWE.
You do make amenities or whatever for guys like him [Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson]. He probably had somebody and I don’t know who that somebody is. I know when Brock [Lesnar] did it, it was always Curtis Axel would go and have a ring set up somewhere and they’d go work out or whatever and so, I’m sure he was getting back into ring shape before he got in there [The Rock at Survivor Series 2011] and look, that’s what every great performer does.
Back in 2017, LaVar, LaMelo and Lonzo Ball appeared on Monday Night Raw on Miz TV. Road Dogg mentioned that he was the producer for that segment.
I also got kind of pinned early on with all the entertaining stuff, you know what I mean? Like, you know, Melo, whatever the basketball player’s names are that came on the show and did Miz TV, I was producing that. That’s it, [LaMelo] Ball.
Circling back around to Chris Jericho, James said Jericho brought creativity to the table in terms of collaborating with talent. He also spoke highly of Jimmy Jacobs who worked with Jericho and Kevin Owens in WWE. James described Jacobs as a ‘genius’.
So look, his [Chris Jericho] creativity. Him and Kevin Owens but also, Jimmy Jacobs, Chris Scoville. Same guy, Jimmy Jacobs, Chris Scoville. He was on the writing team for a minute. He wrestles as ‘The Zombie Princess’ Jimmy Jacobs. He is a genius and I think he’s the lead writer now for IMPACT. So he’s got a great mind and it’s outside the box mind, so a lot of — Chris worked with him closely the whole time they were there and I know Kevin Owens is a really funny and naturally gifted guy so he helped out a lot too.
When Paul ‘Triple H’ Levesque initially contacted Road Dogg about possibly returning a decade ago, Vince McMahon was not too big on the idea. Road Dogg stated that his past issues with drugs played a role in that indecisiveness about bringing him back.
Hunter called me and said, ‘Hey, what do you think about coming back and doing what we used to do? The backstage skits with DX and how we used to do that stuff. I think we can do that again together and be successful’ and I said, ‘Well heck yeah I will’ and he said, ‘Okay, okay, cool. Let me get to work on it.’ Well he worked on it and it took him several tries because Vince [McMahon] was not keen on the idea and look, totally understandable why he was not. I’m a known, active — at the time, active drug addict in active addiction and not making good life choices and so that was the last thing he remembered of me and so he was a hard sell to get me to try out there.
** As Paul Wight was talking to Sportskeeda, he gave his thoughts about Claudio Castagnoli’s arrival to AEW and their history together in WWE. He said he’d be honored to work with Claudio present day and thinks he’s one of the most amazing talents to ever be in the business.
I had a great run with Claudio [Castagnoli in WWE]. We had that amazing, great experience at the WrestleMania where Claudio won the Andre Battle Royal and also, we had a brief little run with Claudio and Sheamus and myself and The Bar, so I was in there for a little week until I — the last time we talked, I had turned on poor Claudio. So I haven’t had the chance to see Claudio so we’ll see how our plans are aligning now but I would be honored to partner with Claudio, I’d be honored to compete against Claudio. I think he is one of the most amazing talents ever in the wrestling industry. There’s really nothing that Claudio can’t do and I mean that sincerely from the bottom of my heart. He’s amazing.
Along with competing in the ring on occasion, Wight is a commentator on AEW Dark: Elevation. He discussed learning from Jim Ross, Tony Schiavone and Excalibur. Wight says he runs a lot of things by Excalibur and described him as a ‘savant’ and ‘brilliant’.
I’m learning, I’m still a rookie by any means [Wight said in reference to his commentary skills]. When you see J.R. do it and he’s so smooth and he’s got his catchphrases and he knows how to get his sound bites in and his clips just right. It’s amazing [to] watch him work, watch Tony Schiavone and even Excalibur. I always tease everybody on-air that I’m gonna get chewed out by Excalibur in the back because I run a lot of things by Excalibur because he’s very brilliant and very — he’s almost like a savant the way he understands everything.
** To promote her Combate Global commentary debut, Thunder Rosa was interviewed by Jim Varsallone. She shared that when Dan Lambert sees her, he talks about how when Rosa takes her next MMA fight, he’s going to train her at American Top Team’s facility.
I have met so many people thanks to MMA and wrestling. Like Dan Lambert, the owner of American Top Team, him and I, we’re pretty well acquainted with each other and he always tells me and I love the fact that he’ll always be talking to other fighters, be like, ‘Yeah, she fights too. She’s a badass. When she gets her next fight, I’m gonna train her at American Top Team.’ Well yeah, go ahead man. It will humble me and I went over there, trained over there, everybody’s really nice and very welcoming, because I’m always very humble. Just because I’m a champion in professional wrestling, I’m not gonna come and talk all this game. When you come to the arena, that’s a different story.
Rosa discussed her upcoming MMA commentary debut and said she’s going to be paying attention to commentators from various platforms to get the hang of it.
I’m a little nervous because I haven’t done MMA — as a commentator, I never worked as that. I’ve done commentating in AEW for wrestling so this is gonna be very interesting in the next couple of weeks. I’m gonna start watching and listening to the commentators on some of the matches on different, you know, platforms so just to make sure that I don’t look like a clown on this, you know? But I’m really excited honestly. I mean Combate Global gave me such a great platform for me to be considered one of the most fierce competitors and professional wrestling for allowing me to be in a fight professionally and on their card in San Antonio and now I’m a champion so it’s really, really awesome.
** On July 10th, Minoru Suzuki was in action for Ganbare Pro Wrestling. He spoke to the press afterwards and gave a comment about crowds being able to vocally make noise again in Japan.
It was simply fun. You all wanted to shout loudly from the bottom of your heart, didn’t you? That’s why you had fun, right? I had fun too. That’s how wrestling should be.
** Dating back to earlier this year, Tamina has been consistently involved in the 24/7 Title picture and working with Akira Tozawa. She told Ryan Satin on the ‘Out of Character’ podcast that she is enjoying what she’s been doing on WWE TV.
In this sense, this is that other side of me. I love that story that I’m in right now, you know? I love being [Akira] Tozawa’s wife, you know what I’m saying? [Tamina laughed] I love doing this 24/7 thing. It’s fun, it’s great. It just shows a different avenue of what we can do all the time. You just never know what you can do and what can come out of you as a character.
Tamina became emotional while speaking about Liv Morgan becoming SmackDown Women’s Champion. She remembers when Morgan first joined the main roster and said she’s always been the baby of the locker room. Tamina says Morgan worked for and earned that moment.
That’s my baby right there. That’s the baby of the locker room [Liv Morgan]. When she came in, she was. She was like the youngest one in the locker room, like by far the youngest one [Tamina laughed].
You know when you just want it for somebody so, so much, right? Like you get — yeah, there’s things that you want for yourself but man, when you want something for somebody else so bad, that was her and she got it [Morgan winning the SmackDown Women’s Title] and it was like everybody felt it because you see that hard work day in and day out, week after week, you know? House show after house show, pay-per-view after pay-per-view. I see all the girls work hard, I see all the girls push through. Not everybody gets to see what they go through in life and not everybody gets to see what happens on the other side of things. You know, but this is why we are all so close in the sense that we all try to sit there and uplift each other. That’s the only way you can do that because of everything you go through. Liv has been through that. Liv has done something that a lot of people dream about of, holy crap, I wish I could get to that level, I wish I could work hard and guess what? You can because she just proved that. You know, she just did that and again, I get just a little bit emotional… because you have that love for people in that sense and you want them to succeed and you want them to have that so when she finally got it and she won it, yeah, I felt that for her. Yeah, I was happy. Everybody was happy. She deserved it and she freaking got it.
** WWE’s two-night WrestleMania 38 events generated $206.5 million for the Dallas/Arlington, Texas region.
** In KUSHIDA’s IMPACT Wrestling debut at ‘Derby City Rumble’, he’ll be facing Rich Swann.
** Following his successful defense of the AEW All-Atlantic Championship on 7/10, PAC is returning to Revolution Pro Wrestling on July 23rd for their ‘Summer Sizzler’ show.
** The ‘JUST TAP OUT’ promotion which is ran by TAKA Michinoku is hosting a show in September titled ‘TAKA TAICHI DESPE MANIA’ in reference to Taichi and El Desperado who’ll be competing on the show.
** The Hardys (Matt & Jeff Hardy) vs. The OGK (Matt Taven & Mike Bennett) – MCW ‘Spring Fever’ (5/15/22):
** Crunchyroll conducted an interview with Ricochet.
** Mickie James, Lisa Marie Varon and SoCal Val welcomed Tasha Steelz onto GAW TV.
** From July 23rd to August 21st, New Japan Pro-Wrestling is hosting an exhibition in Hiroshima to commemorate 50 years of New Japan.
** Episode #314 of Being The Elite:
** July 11th birthdays: T.J. Wilson.
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.
