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.
** Guest appearing on ‘Whatnot’ for a live signing was Mercedes Moné. She looked back on defeating KAIRI for the IWGP Women’s Championship at NJPW Battle in the Valley.
I felt amazing (wrestling KAIRI at NJPW Battle in the Valley) besides that little gremlin’s fingers trying to snatch my wig off every second. B*tch, my braids were slipping, I felt my cornrows waving. I’ve never felt such breeze in my hair before. It felt crazy, it almost felt amazing. I was like, girl (she smiled). It felt so insane. I mean that was my first match back after being gone for nine months. That’s the longest I’ve ever been away from wrestling and it was just so nerve-wracking because I was just like, am I still good? I still got it? I had all these different feelings and I was just like, you know what? I can only do what I know what to do, and I’m like, you’re still the best, you’re the greatest of all time and I couldn’t forget that and once I had that match and it was over, I was just like, wow, I remembered who I am, what I want and everything just came together and I won my IWGP Women’s Championship. KAIRI was absolutely amazing. What an amazing opponent to be in the ring with for my first match back…
Moné talked about her theme that she’s been using post-WWE and stated that it took her two months to find the right beat.
I got my own theme song but it took me like two months to try to find the right beat because I’m like, this is what people are gonna hear for the first time and it needs to connect. So I finally found the right beat, made my Wrestle Kingdom entrance…
** Episode #148 of The It List Podcast was a two-hour conversation with Chris Hero. Looking over his in-ring career, Hero shared that initially, Ring of Honor did not want him. What he heard at the time was they already had too many guys who ‘wore t-shirts’. Hero eventually got his opportunity and secured his first contract which was a two-year deal. Hero was with ROH from 2006-2012 and had a run from 2013-2014.
I eventually started working for this group named Ring of Honor, which (CM) Punk and (Colt) Cabana went to Ring of Honor and Ring of Honor did not want me… I remember the quote that I heard at the time was, ‘We already have enough guys that wear t-shirts.’ So, I had a small chip on my shoulder for that for a little while and I was like, ‘I can wrestle. I’m a good f*cking wrestler. I’ll just be the best wrestler I can be’ and then some things happened and I ended up getting booked for Ring of Honor and I turned that into getting a contract with Ring of Honor. That was the first time I had-had an actual contract… Two years (was the length of the deal).
** There’s an interview that New York Post conducted with Eddie Kingston. He told the outlet he does not want to settle anything in the ring with Jon Moxley, but if Tony Khan wants it to happen and Jon is for it then so is Kingston, though he won’t be happy about it.
I don’t want to settle it in the ring with Jon (Moxley). I don’t. I really don’t. But if it comes to that, let’s do it. This is what I get paid to do. If Jon wants to go that route and Tony Khan who books the matches wants to do it then I have to do it. If the boss says, you and Jon have something going on here. I want it in the ring, let’s do it. I’ll go, yeah, all right. I won’t be happy about it, but I’ll do what I have to do.
Later in the conversation, Kingston stated that he told Tony Khan he’s open to being on Dynamite, Rampage and Collision.
I wasn’t told anything. I was asked and I told Tony Khan I’ll do all three (shows). I don’t care.
** As Victoria Crawford a.k.a. Alicia Fox was taking part in a Highspots Sign-it-Live session, she expressed that she’s interested in working behind the scenes in wrestling. She isn’t sure if she sees herself on-screen going forward and said she’d like to be a ‘Kevin Dunn Jr’.
I think it’d be really cool to produce. Help in the TV truck. Do production or something. I don’t really know if I see myself in front of a camera going forward. I mean, I don’t know.
I kind of wanna be in the TV truck (Alicia said when asked if she’d be interested in working behind the scenes for WWE). Being like little Kevin Dunn. I wanna be like little Kevin Dunn Jr. and produce it. I wanna be able to send the shots to the satellite truck, I wanna be able to talk to FOX and NBC and make sure that they’re keeping their standards, you know, appropriate to cater our craft because our craft doesn’t fit in every market so I think somebody has taken a bump can help just keep evolving the way wrestling should be televised.
** Both Matt Cardona and Steph De Lander were guests on Notsam Wrestling. In 2021 while Cardona was GCW World Champion, he showed up for an event dressed as ‘durag Vince’. Cardona said he sent that picture to Vince McMahon and McMahon ‘popped’.
Cardona: I sent that to him (image of himself dressed as ‘Durag Vince’ was sent to Vince McMahon). I legit sent it to him. He popped… He didn’t reach out to me, I reached out to him. He responded… That wasn’t about coming back (Cardona laughed) … I since tried to text him but it went green so he must have changed his number. But I check every day; is it blue again? Is it blue again?
De Lander’s time in WWE came to an end in April 2022 when she was released. She shared that when she was let go, she reached out to Drew McIntyre for advice about what to do next. De Lander figured she should follow a similar path post-WWE.
De Lander: Literally, I got fired (from WWE) and I texted Drew (McIntyre) and I said, ‘Hey, what did you do?’ He goes, ‘I did this, this, this, this, this, this and this. You should do it.’ I always go back and read the messages and everything he told me to do, I applied to every single show and if you want the role of someone else, why would you not look at what they’ve done and follow that and as Matt (Cardona) said, add to it.
In late 2022, Matt filed to trademark ‘The Agent’. He explained his reasoning for that and said he spent $1,000 to secure that trademark.
Cardona: So, I thought it’d get over if I started calling myself ‘The Agent’. Like there’s free agents but I’m The Agent. I even trademarked it. Wasted $1,000 on it. So it’s still mine (he laughed).
** Katsuyori Shibata became a topic of conversation during Tony Khan’s appearance on the Pacific Rim Pro Wrestling Podcast. He stated that wrestlers train with Shibata when he’s at AEW/ROH shows but Shibata is mainly there as a talent.
Yes, yes (Khan responded when asked if Katsuyori Shibata does training for AEW like he does for NJPW). When he’s here, everybody is very fortunate to be able to train with Shibata but his appearances here and his time here, he’s not always with us so we don’t have the benefit of everybody learning in the dojo under Shibata-san because people are scattered throughout the continent. We have people all over and really all over the world.
He’s not here actively to coach as much. He’s really a star wrestler for us. He’s one of our top wrestling stars. So, when he’s here, we’re all very fortunate. We can learn a lot from him but when he is here, he’s here as a champion to wrestle. He is primarily talent. He’s not with us in the office every week and when he is here, he’s usually here to defend the championship and beat people up.
** Joining René Duprée on Café De René was IMPACT Wrestling’s Eddie Edwards. He weighed in on the aftermath of John Morrison and Austin Aries’ World Title match at Bound For Glory 2018 when Aries immediately got up and left after losing. Edwards said he saw them both afterwards and they seemed okay.
You know, that was one of those things where I don’t know enough about it (aftermath of Aries versus John Morrison at IMPACT Bound For Glory 2018). I watched the match, the match was great. Supposedly, Aries got up after the finish which I don’t know what went into it. I saw them both after and they both seemed okay so, I don’t know enough of the history. I try not to get involved in the politics and whatever else is going on. As long as guys go out there and do their job, that’s fine but, I don’t know the real story behind it.
Edwards is a former GHC Heavyweight Champion in Pro Wrestling NOAH. He spoke about fellow former Heavyweight Champion Kenoh and how hard Kenoh’s kicks are. Edwards said there was one occasion when he was kicked by him and heard something pop in his torso area.
Kenoh broke my sternum with a kick — or my rib and my chest. He would do this thing where he put you in an ankle lock and he’d lift you up so you do like a handstand and he kicked me right in my chest and something just popped in there. He can kick pretty hard (Edwards laughed).
** Episode #77 of The Extreme Life of Matt Hardy featured Adam Cole as a guest. Matt looked back on working with Cole in Ring of Honor and shared that going into their match at Final Battle 2012, he lacked confidence. Hardy said Cole was the perfect opponent and made him feel comfortable with his in-ring style.
I was very nervous about going there (Ring of Honor) and something that I had told you (podcast co-host) and I don’t think I’d expressed this openly to Adam (Cole) but that was a point in time where after my body kind of broke down towards the end of my WWE run and I realized I had to change my style. When you’re doing indies, it’s different because there’s not the pressure of TV wrestling or pay-per-view wrestling or you’re not wrestling on a huge platform where you have to deliver a certain standard of product. I was very nervous about that Final Battle match because I lacked confidence because I was like, I have to change kind of how I work and my work style but you were the perfect guy to work with because you made me feel confident during that match and that match at Final Battle was really what kind of set me on the path to be okay and understand that I can work differently. I don’t have to be ‘Hardy Boys extreme style’ all the time and be okay to continue working in pro wrestling.
** Coming up on July 15th, IMPACT World Champion Alex Shelley is scheduled to defend his title against Nick Aldis at Slammiversary. Shelley spoke to Sports Guys Talking Wrestling about the match.
I think more so, it’s the matter of nobody wants to lose their belt on their first defense (Shelley said about his Slammiversary title match against Nick Aldis). Nobody wants to be that champion, right? And that does happen. Any wrestler can beat any other wrestler anytime there’s a match. We all know that. But Nick’s been a world champion many, many times over and I think he exhibits a lot of qualities that people would typically associate with a world champion. Well I don’t. I’m a working-class hero. I came up on the independents. There was a company that called me ‘The Fighting Artist’. Very, very contrarian to what Nick represents. But, I think a lot of people of my generation would say, well yeah, he’s what a world champion should be so it’s almost these two contrasting viewpoints colliding. Not just me and Nick on a personal level and a physical level and I take being a representative of my generation and the style that I created in pro wrestling that has led so many other people to fall in love with it very seriously and I wanna prove that-that style’s the best. I wanna prove that I’m a good representative of a generation that again, if we’re gonna go back to punk rock, grinding, they enjoyed the process and they drove hours for no money. I’m not saying that Nick didn’t do that but I’m saying that we had to. We didn’t have a choice.
** JAF Mate Online caught up with Kazuchika Okada and chatted with him about cars. Okada thinks that since his family has grown, his Ferrari is something he could do without and to swap it with a car that would be easier for everyone to drive. He feels the Ferrari has helped shape his image as a wrestler and if he doesn’t have it, a part of ‘The Rainmaker’ would be lost.
To be honest, I think it is something I could do without (his Ferrari). Now that my family has grown, it would be nice to have a car that is easier for everyone to drive. However, the Ferrari has created the image of ‘pro-wrestler’ Okada Kazuchika. That’s why I can’t let go of it anymore. The Ferrari is what Okada Kazuchika is because of it, and the Ferrari is indispensable because of Okada Kazuchika. When children saw me enter the match venue in my Ferrari, they said, ‘That’s so cool! I want to be a pro-wrestler too!’ I want them to think, I want to be a pro wrestler too! So I have no intention of giving it up, and I will always keep my Ferrari.
Yes, it is (a part of me). Without the Ferrari, I feel that the image of the ‘Rainmaker’ would be lost. If I had driven a different car, I might have had a different image. The sports car Ferrari is the reason why I am a Rainmaker. On the other hand, it is hard to imagine a rainmaker in a Sedan, isn’t it (laughs)?
** The Miz is playing in MLB’s All Star Celebrity Softball game in July. Earlier this year, Miz played in the Celebrity basketball game during the NBA All Star weekend.
** Going into AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door, Andreas Hale of Sporting News spoke to ‘Jungle Boy’ Jack Perry.
** Daily Star spoke to L.A. Knight.
** Comicbook.com pushed out their written conversation with Shawn Spears.
** DDT Pro-Wrestling ‘What Are You Doing’ Results (6/25/23) Korakuen Hall in Tokyo, Japan
– Pre-Show: Akito, Kazuma Sumi, Rukiya & Soma Takao vs. Danshoku Dino, Yuki Ino, Toru Owashi & Yuni – No Contest (5:44)
– Naruki Doi def. Takeshi Masada
– Ryota Nakatsu, Yuki Ishida, Yusuke Okada & Yuya Koroku def. Hideki Okatani, Saki Akai, Yukio Sakaguchi & Sanshiro Takagi
– HARASHIMA def. Minoru Fujita by DQ
– Tetsuya Endo def. Nick Wayne
– Makoto Oishi, Yuji Hino & Jun Akiyama def. Antonio Honda, Kazusada Higuchi & Masahiro Takanashi
– Vacant KO-D Tag Team Championships: DAMNATION T.A (Daisuke Sasaki & MJ Paul) def. The 37KAMIINA (Toi Kojima & Yuki Ueno)
– Vacant DDT Extreme Championship — Three Way Elimination Match: Kazuki Hirata def. MAO and Yoshihiko
** There’s an interview with former GHC Heavyweight Champion Kaito Kiyomiya on the Wrestle Inn site.
** Guest appearing on First Up with Korolnek & Colaiacovo was Ethan Page.
** Michinoku Pro Wrestling Jinsei Shinzaki 30th Anniversary Results (6/25/23) Sendai Sun Plaza in Sendai, Miyagi, Japan
– Rasse def. Ringo Yamaya
– Ayumu Gunji def. Aisawa NO. 1
– Yapper Man 1 & Yapper Man 2 def. Ken45 & Manjimaru
– Shisaou def. OSO11
– ASUKA def. Yurika Oka
– Shinobu Kandori def. Brahman Kei
– Mika Iwata & Miyuki Takase def. Chihiro Hashimoto & Manami
– Kagetora, Masaaki Mochizuki & Yoshitsune def. Fujita Hayato, Rui Hiugaji & Taro Nohashi
– Jinsei Shinzaki def. MUSASHI
** Dragongate Japan Pro-Wrestling Results (6/25/23) Espoir Isanuma in Saitama, Japan
– Yuki Yoshioka & Madoka Kikuta def. Jason Lee & JACKY ‘FUNKY’ KAMEI
– KAI def. Ryoya Tanaka
– U-T & Kzy def. Genki Horiguchi & Problem Dragon
– B×B Hulk & Kota Minoura def. Susumu Mochizuki & Yasushi Kanda
– BIGBOSS Shimizu & YAMATO def. Ben-K & Minorita
– Dragon Kid, Strong Machine J & Último Dragón def. Shun Skywalker, Diamante & H.Y.O
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.
