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.
** As Perry Saturn was doing a virtual signing for Signed By Superstars, he opened up about his fond memories of the late Chris Kanyon. Saturn feels he let his friend down because Kanyon felt he could not tell his truth to him.
He (Chris Kanyon) was one of my best friends. It’s very sad that he didn’t think he could tell me his deal, because I wouldn’t have gave a f*ck one way or the other, and he did a lot of sh*t at the (WCW) Power Plant, so he was in Atlanta a lot and we were on the road all the time, never home and if he would go out to the movies or something, he’d call my wife and ask her if she wanted to go so she wasn’t stuck home doing nothing. It’s so sad that somehow, I let him down where he didn’t think that he could tell me because I didn’t give a f*ck, and just that’s horrible, right? I’m sure we all called each other (expletive) or something. Not meaning anything hurtful by it and unfortunately, it did, you know?… Me and Raven, we were good, good, good friends with him. We wouldn’t have gave a f*ck.
He spent two years of his career with ECW and held the company’s World Tag Team Titles on three occasions as a member of The Eliminators with the late John Kronus. When ECW held their last show in 2001, Saturn was with WWF/E at the time, but he told Paul Heyman he would work the show for free. He added that Heyman would’ve needed to reach out to Kronus if he wanted to reunite The Eliminators. Saturn claims Vince McMahon would have let him appear on the show.
When Paul E. had that last show, I called and left him a message and told him that I’d team with John (Kronus) on it and I’d work for free… I said, ‘John, I don’t know. You’ll have to deal with him’ and he wasn’t interested. I knew that it (ECW) was over, that’s why I said, f*ck, you know… I was working for Vince (McMahon) at the time. But Vince would have let us.
** At the Day 1 edition of Monday Night Raw, Ivy Nile got a shot at the WWE Women’s World Championship and also reunited with Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson. She recounted that day on the latest episode of WWE – Die Woche. Nile was noticed by WWE from her time on Johnson’s Titan Games show on NBC. On the show, Nile became the first female titan champion.
That was a very overwhelming day for sure (she said about WWE ‘Day 1’ Raw) because I did see The Rock that night, and we did talk for a minute. Yeah, so that was really cool to see, and it’s funny because that show (NBC Titan Games) was like five or six years ago and then now I’m having a title match and he was there and that was pretty special… Yeah (we talked about Titan Games), a little bit. Of course, he was super busy but I just talked to him for a little bit and I’m like, ‘Look how far we’ve come,’ you know? From being something that I was trying to make a name for myself back in Tennessee to San Diego, California that day so it was pretty full circle.
When asked what current NXT talent she could see making a splash on the main roster, she immediately said Lash Legend. Nile feels Lash has given her the best fights of her career and hopes to see her land on Raw or SmackDown.
Lash Legend (is who I hope to see on WWE’s main roster) … We’ve had the most intense fights. She’s given me probably the best fights in my career. She doesn’t hold back. I mean, she is WNBA. She is tough, and she can go. She has the full ability to do a three seg match. She’s insane, and she is — I think I’ve been with her since she started, so to watch her grow and become this monster is just amazing and I cannot wait to see her on Raw or SmackDown.
Two years into Nile’s time in WWE, she got the opportunity to head over to NXT U.K. and challenge Meiko Satomura for the NXT U.K. Women’s Championship. Nile admires Meiko and is proud of herself for going toe-to-toe with the 28-year veteran.
And I was only a year or two into NXT at the time that I had that fight with her (Meiko Satomura) and part of me was like, so (inaudible) that I was okay. So I’m assessing myself. I’m like, ‘I’m okay.’ I’m such a huge admirer of her and the fact that I was going toe-to-toe with her, it validates yourself because sometimes you just need to remind yourself who you are like I said before so, that was just another time that I was super proud of myself.
** Guest appearing on Talk Is Jericho was Deonna Purrazzo. She reflected on her time in Ring of Honor as a part of Women of Honor and recalled sending emails to former ROH C.O.O. Joe Koff about the attention Women of Honor was getting and the interest they were generating statistically. Purrazzo feels there were higher-ups that did not believe in women’s wrestling.
No (I don’t think Women of Honor helped ROH reach its peak when I was there). I think, for many different reasons, we were held back and I think that there were just people in higher positions that didn’t believe in women’s wrestling and I couldn’t tell you the emails that I sent to Joe Koff and I would get the statistics from the YouTube pages and the Instagram numbers and be like, ‘Look at the interaction we’re getting. Look at the numbers we’re bringing to the company. We deserve better.’ Yeah. I don’t feel it ever happened.
** Kicking off the official rebrand of TNA Wrestling was the company’s Hard To Kill pay-per-view and the first match of the night was Steve Maclin versus Rich Swann. Maclin talked to the Generation Of Wrestling podcast about what it meant to be in that spot.
It was awesome (to be the first match at TNA Hard To Kill). Just to set the tone for the night, especially at Hard To Kill at the Palms. The energy was there in the back and even once I got out there with the crowd, the energy was just so up. Hearing the ‘TNA’ chants and it was a cool moment and even for when it was announced I was on the pre-show, a lot of fans were just like, ‘Why is this on the pre-show? Why is this on the pre-show?’ I embrace that more just because, again, I got to set the tone for the night. I was the first person that you got to see and the first victor in the new era of TNA and it’s just going to show where TNA is going-going forward and that’s front toward enemy, with anybody, with how my merch says it or how I just said it. It’s just one of those things where I just embrace that moment, I enjoyed it and smiled a little bit more while I was out there than normally.
He then touched on Nic Nemeth’s arrival to the company. He’s excited to have him there and it’ll only push Maclin. He said Nemeth is a star and he’s looking forward to wrestling him.
That just lights a fire under my ass (Nic Nemeth joining TNA). You have somebody like Nic Nemeth who’s been doing this for so long and it’s so funny, everybody says he’s underrated, but he’s not. He’s a star and for a star like him to come in and to come into TNA and with the experience that he has and the name that he has because it brings another aura and it brings a lot more eyes to the product which is a good thing, because we’re trying to move in that direction where we’re building TNA to be bigger and better than it ever was and I think I’ve done that and I’ve been a part of that since my time being there since 2021 and now for this to be the start of this new era in TNA, it’s really cool to have something like that happen and I’m very much looking forward to one day getting in the ring with him.
** Joining Stories with Brisco and Bradshaw was former UFC Heavyweight Champion Josh Barnett. He looked back on the advice he gave to Shayna Baszler as she began her venture into pro wrestling. Barnett remembers teaching her how to go about blending her MMA background with learning how to work.
It’s the same conversation I had to have with Shayna Baszler early on because I’ve got her working these indies early in her career and hell, that just came from a conversation. I knew she was kind of winding down with the shooting and I said, ‘Well, look, I know you’re really, really into pro wrestling and you’ve really been getting more involved and you like watching it and this is a thing that’s really passionate to you. You want to start working?’ And she’s like, ‘Yeah. Yeah, I’d like to do that.’ I go, ‘Okay. Well then, we’re gonna keep training generally as normal but now I’m gonna start adding all these workouts around working and we’re gonna start developing you as a worker as well as a shooter and we’re gonna blend these two things together.’ But, when she gets into the market, she starts having these promoters tell her to wear MMA gloves to the ring and do all this stuff and I’m like, ‘Well, okay, but everybody already knows you’re a shooter. You don’t have to wear gloves or you don’t have to do this. They already know that. If you’re wearing those gloves and you’re not punching people in the face and knocking them out, which look, if you’re gonna do that out there in your matches, you can. That takes a lot more effort to learn how to do that. It’s a little trickier and let alone, man, I don’t know if these girls are gonna want you socking them in the face but, if you’re hitting them and they ain’t going down, well it just makes you look bad and you don’t have to try and get people to believe in what you do. You grab that girl’s wrist, it has way more impact when you do it than when a lot of these other girls do because these other gals, who aren’t known as shooters, who they don’t already have that background that people know about to believe, they’re trying to get you to believe that practically the main thing that these wrestlers when they’re starting out trying to do is get you in the audience that what they do matters. You don’t have that problem’ and it took her a little bit and eventually she’s like, ‘I get it. I get it’ and I was like, ‘No, it’s tough because you’re gonna feel like you’re the one heretic everywhere around all these people in this locker room right now and they’re all telling you and everybody’s wrestling the same way and doing all this. It’s like, no, I’m telling you Shayna, it’s just not even their fault. It’s who’s training a lot of these people these days. It’s just things have been lost along the way and it’s okay, but it’s part of our job to try and bring that back. It’s not against them, it’s not to try and be diminishing. It’s just that if they don’t understand how they can get a lot more out of a lot less, then, you know, it’s not their fault but, let’s try and do our best to lead by example.’
** To promote Monday Night Raw from New Orleans, Louisiana on 1/22, Ricochet was interviewed by Shan Bailey of NOLA Now. He looked back on his WWE debut at NXT TakeOver: New Orleans in 2018 as a part of the Ladder match for the North American Championship. Ricochet said it’s one of his favorite career highlights.
To be honest, absolutely, yeah (NXT TakeOver: New Orleans is one of my favorite career moments). That Ladder match, for me, it’s still, to this day, I tell everybody, it’s one of my favorite matches that I’ve had in my whole career. The debut and what it meant and it was the debut of the North American Championship and it was like the first match of WrestleMania weekend. We started on Saturday I think, but we were the first match to kick off the whole weekend and yeah, so, absolutely. That time was awesome. It was amazing, in Smoothie King (Center) too.
** For a period of time in NXT, Ash by Elegance (Dana Brooke) and Tenille Dashwood were aligned. While speaking to D.S. Shin of Ring The Belle, Ash said when Dashwood returned to WWE, they were thinking of teaming up again. She said she’d love to share the ring with Dashwood again and maybe go after a set of tag titles.
I still talk to Tenille (Dashwood) quite often. I talked to her actually when she was back with IMPACT and then when she had returned back to WWE, we were trying to, you know, our minds race and wonder and think about trying to get back together but obviously that wasn’t in the plans. I always say never say never. I know she’s very, very busy with exploring other options and doing other things which more power to her if she wants to take that. But I would love definitely to get back in the ring with her, and maybe capture those Tag Team Titles one day with her. It would be amazing.
** NJPW President Hiroshi Tanahashi is going to appear at the Tokyo Great Bears men’s volleyball game on February 7th.
** The latest write-up from an interview series that NJPW conducted with SANADA.
** Masha Slamovich is scheduled to be at TJPW Grand Princess on March 31st.
** January 18th birthdays: Dave Bautista and Mark Briscoe.
** Unagi Sayaka versus Janai Kai is headlining Kitsune Women’s Wrestling’s March 24th show in Glendale, California.
** As Nic Nemeth continues to make the media rounds, he spoke to Jim Varsallone.
** David LaGreca and Bully Ray welcomed Adam Copeland back onto Busted Open Radio.
** TNA Wrestling producer and co-Head of Talent Relations, Gail Kim, spoke to Wrestlezone’s Bill Pritchard.
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.
