POST NEWS UPDATE: Lio Rush missed out on Power Rangers acting role due to injury

Lio Rush-Power Rangers gig, Claudio Castagnoli chats Eddie Kingston, Matt Hardy recounts program with MVP, Torrie Wilson's early WCW pay

Photo Courtesy: All Elite Wrestling

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 guest on ‘Say Less With Kaz, Lowkey and Rosy’ was Lio Rush. He shared that an injury he was dealing with caused him to miss out on being part of a Power Rangers film that he was cast for.

Well actually, that opportunity [Power Rangers acting gig] kind of got stripped away from me because of my second injury. So yeah, yeah. I had a lot going on.

I believe I was supposed to be one of the villains. I was gonna have a small fighting scene… I was probably fighting off one of the Power Rangers, which would have been dope. I was looking forward to that.

** Ahead of AEW Dynamite, Claudio Castagnoli appeared on the Stick to Wrestling Podcast. He was asked if he likes Eddie Kingston, as Kingston has said in multiple media appearances that he’s not big on Castagnoli. Claudio says Eddie always has a lot to say but thinks he’s a talented fighter. The former ROH World Champion thinks a match between them would be interesting.

Eddie Kingston always has a lot to say. I think Eddie Kingston is a very, very talented fighter and he’s also very authentic which is why he resonates so well with the audience. I’ll leave it at that.

I think a match between him and me would be most interesting for many different reasons so, let’s hope it happens.

[Castagnoli was told he seems like a balanced person] I feel like that’s what you need to have. If you have a lot of hate in your life, maybe you end up like Eddie Kingston and just, you know [Castagnoli laughed], I’ll just leave it at that. I like to just be kind of a little bit more balanced so I don’t rush head-first into things, you know? So yeah.

At AEW Full Gear, Castagnoli will be part of a four way for the ROH World Title. He commented on the forthcoming bout:

Full Gear is just around the corner and Full Gear is always, you know, when you, no pun intended, kick into full gear because it’s a big pay-per-view. It has a lot of matches that mean a lot including the Ring of Honor World Championship is on the line that I wanna win back and Bryan [Danielson] obviously wants to win it back. We just want to get it off Chris Jericho. So, to me, it’s a very exciting time for AEW, for Blackpool Combat Club and for wrestling fans in general.

** For episode #44 of The Extreme Life of Matt Hardy, the focus of the show was Matt’s on-screen rivalry and off-screen friendship with MVP. He recounted when he and MVP lost the tag titles to The Miz and John Morrison in November 2007. Hardy said Miz and Morrison got ‘chewed out’ backstage by JBL for celebrating in the ring when they were told to exit immediately so the post-match angle between Hardy and MVP could play out. Matt claims that Morrison was ready to fight JBL.

There was a deal where Miz and [John] Morrison, they got a little bit of heat. They got chewed out [at] the end because they wanted them as soon it was over to get out of the ring as opposed to staying there celebrating. So we [Matt & MVP] could get into our business or whatever, which is so funny because Miz was so excited. It was his first title and then I remember Morrison too, they both got read the riot act by J.B.L at the very end and Miz was like, ‘So sorry’ and then Morrison fired up and was ready to fight him, whatever, at the very end. He’s like, ‘What the hell is wrong with you two? Get the f*ck out of the ring. If they tell you to get out of the ring, get out of the ring. It’s not about you. It’s about them.’ I was fine. They apologized and they were sorry they did. I try [to be a rational person]. I try to be. 

During the Matt-MVP story, they played a game of basketball on television. Hardy recalled Vince McMahon telling him to dribble the ball ‘as white as possible’.

He [MVP] had like a sore shoulder or whatever so he was worried his shot was gonna be off [for the basketball game on SmackDown] and he said Vince [McMahon] thought he really couldn’t play basketball and he was a pretty decent basketball player and when I was in elementary school and the first couple years of high school, I played every sport. I was really good at baseball, that was my thing. I was pretty good at football and basketball was my weakest for sure. But I’ll never forget as we’re doing this, we talked about what we’re gonna do and Vince had the idea about throwing and hitting him with the ball and bouncing off whatever and he said, ‘Now look Matt, I need you to do me one thing.’ He said, ‘I don’t know if you’re f*cking good at basketball or not. I don’t give a sh*t.’ But he said, ‘Whenever you dribble that ball and you do that layup,’ he said, ‘I need you to be overly white. Be as white as possible’ which is so funny, which is so great. There’s that thing — the movie ‘White Men Can’t Jump’ and he said, ‘I think that’s just something in someone’s mind. I think it’s much more entertaining if you dribble it as white as possible’ and I was like, ‘Sure. I can do that. It won’t be a problem’ and I did. I exaggerated to a degree, but I’m not a great dribbler. I am not a Harlem Globetrotter. I exaggerate to a degree and did the stupid layup and that was the main thing. I couldn’t miss that layup. That was the deal. So that was the most pressure. I didn’t worry about the dribble. He just wanted me to dribble white… It was just so different and so out of the box and just so unique. It really stood out and people dug it.

Another party came into play for Matt and MVP’s feud and that was renowned boxer Evander Holyfield. He and Matt ‘boxed’ on an episode of Saturday Night’s Main Event in 2007. Matt stated that while he and Holyfield were mapping things out, Holyfield told Matt he could legit swing on him because his punches would not connect.

And we came in and we talked to him [Evander Holyfield] and we got off to a great start, really good. We had great interactions, it was so much fun and we’re sitting there and we’re talking… I threw a pretty good worked punch as far as that goes which means, you know, where I don’t really hit you. He’s like, ‘Yeah, I get all that’ and we were messing around, we’re doing that and I was sticking and jabbing and we were talking about how we would kind of do this dance so to say and then we got to a point where after 90 seconds of f*cking around with me, he said, ‘It’s all right. You can go ahead and try to swing.’ He said, ‘You won’t be able to hit me.’ He knew. I mean, he knew, which was so great. 90 seconds. We were like f*cking around, doing this sh*t. He said, ‘You can swing. Go ahead. You won’t be able to hit me.’ Amazing.

** While on The Mike O’Hearn Show, Torrie Wilson stated that she was making $5,000 per appearance when she started in WCW.

I was taking pictures [backstage] with like Bill Goldberg and some people and my boyfriend was freaking out and then I met Kevin Nash and he was like, ‘I saw you in a green bikini in a magazine and we have this storyline idea. Would you be interested in doing it?’ It’s working with Ric Flair and it was just acting segments and so, I said ‘yeah’ and it was like five grand a day. It was the easiest money. I’m broke, so broke by the way. Could barely get groceries and it just snowballed so fast. My popularity evolved so fast and it was kind of like, I never really wanted to be a wrestler but, this gig came to me and I need to roll with it.

** Renowned magician Criss Angel was interviewed by Chris Van Vliet. Early in his career, Angel took a gig working for the WWF/E at their restaurant/nightclub in Times Square in New York City. Angel was originally supposed to be there for six weeks but that turned into him being there for over a year. He added that his career evolved and escalated from WWE.

That’s true, it was the McMahons [that hired me]. We are still good friends to this day. They gave me an opportunity to take their banquet room in the basement in what was WWF [New York], then they got the F out and it was WWE. Eventually I was supposed to do a few weeks there, but I did over 14 months there. I did 600 performances on Broadway and 43rd, it was the real start of all these other things that followed, such as my first television special. It all kind of evolved and escalated from the WWE.

** The Young Bucks (Matt & Nick Jackson) filed a trademark for ‘The Wayward Sons’.

** On January 14th, 2023, Atsushi Onita is hosting an event that mixes pro wrestling and rock music. It is emanating from Club Citta in Kawasaki, Japan.

** Powerhouse Hobbs has been added to DEFY Wrestling’s 11/26 event. He’ll be facing Rocky Romero.

** There’s a feature story about Thunder Rosa on the Salvation Army site.

** GHC Heavyweight Champion Kaito Kiyomiya was interviewed by the Pro Wrestling NOAH website.

** Wheeler Yuta guest appeared on The Ringer’s MackMania show.

** Jado is off New Japan Pro-Wrestling’s 11/12 show in Anjō, Japan because he’ll be heading overseas.

** Prior to WWE Crown Jewel, AJ Styles appeared on The Halftime Show.

** IMPACT Wrestling ring announcer David Penzer is launching a podcast about XWF titled ‘The Lost Promotion’.

** November 8th birthdays: Kazuchika Okada, Julia Hart, Keith Lee.

** The written version of Matt Cardona’s chat with Comicbook.com is out.

** A story about Erick Redbeard being booked for the British Championship Wrestling promotion.

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 9442 Articles
A Washington D.C. native and graduate of Norfolk State University, Andrew Thompson has been covering wrestling since 2017.