Crazzy Steve returned to Impact Wresting at Rebellion. He was the mystery partner of Tommy Dreamer and Rhino as they went up against OVE. The former member of Decay has now been announced as having signed a new multi-year deal with the promotion.
The 36-year-old from Montreal was trained by Eric Young and made his professional debut in 2003. His first run with Impact lasted from 2014 to 2017. During that time, he was a member of the Menagerie and later Decay. He is a former TNA Tag Team champion along with Abyss.
Crazzy Steve and Abyss won the Impact tag belts in a “Valley of Shadows” match against Beer Money. The match took place at Sacrifice on March 19th, 2016. They would hold the belts until dropping them that October to the Broken Hardys at Bound for Glory.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oBqjRrnieYw
Impact announced the news today as having first been broken by Wrestling Inc:
Impact Wrestling is back on the air tonight. The #1 contenders tournament kicks off with two opening-round matches. Additionally, Kimber Lee is scheduled to take on Havok, and Moose will defend the TNA World Championship against Suicide.
Former WWE Cruiserweight Champion Lio Rush was one of many WWE talents to be released from the company last month. Recently, Lio Rush took part in an interview with Forbes and commented about how he found out he was released from the company.
According to Rush, he called the company to ask when he heard about the releases and they informed him he was one of those being let go.
“I was the first group of people that were announced. I actually made the call myself,” Rush said. He continued to talk about how he saw the releases on new sites and then called the company.
“I saw that there were a lot of news sites posting about it. It made mainstream news, so I was like ‘oh man, this might be a real thing.’ So I called the Head of Talent Relations and I just asked—like, straight up—’Am I one of these people who is going to be released today? Because I’m seeing it all over the internet and I don’t want to find out over the internet or through one of my fans.’”
“He said yes, unfortunately, you are.”
Lio Rush On His Time In WWE, Wrestling Future
Rush signed with WWE in the summer of 2017. He started off in NXT but was moved to the main roster in 2018. After spending some time as Bobby Lashley’s “hype man,” Rush was reported to have been involved in some conflict with management. He began appearing in NXT once against in September of 2019, wrestling in the cruiserweight division.
Rush continued to say he’s not in a hurry to wrestle again after his release.
“I had good times in WWE. I had bad times too. And some of those bad times were a little traumatizing to me. I just thought to myself: Why put myself back in a situation where I was going to be unhappy?”
WrestleMania 36 was the first time in close to a decade the event occurred without Jon Moxley on WWE’s talent roster. Moxley signed with the promotion in April of 2011. He recently took part in an interview with Fightful where he noted that not only did he watch both nights of WrestleMania 36 but he also enjoyed the show.
“I watched the whole thing,” Moxley said. “Both nights. I enjoyed it. I thought it flowed nicely and a lot of people really worked their ass off and put on great performances.”
Moxley specifically mentioned the Boneyard match between the Undertaker and AJ Styles as a match he enjoyed.
“I enjoyed the Boneyard Match, I thought that was cool. I thought that was really cool, too, because the Undertaker is a really beloved character. He’s like a comic book character. He’s a beloved character from our childhood. Same as John Wayne or John McClane or any action movie star you can think of, so it was really cool. I think everybody really enjoyed that.”
Moxley also recently took part in an exclusive interview with SEScoops. The current AEW World Champion spoke about the difficulty of performing in front of no fans.
“Everybody’s kind of finding different ways to work around that, whether that’s the way you shoot it on camera, or lot of people are doing different cinematic style matches and stuff. It’s definitely tough.”
The interview can be viewed below or found on our official YouTube page here.
Otis won the men’s Money in the Bank match this Sunday. Although he wasn’t able to climb the ladder, the briefcase escaped the grasp of both AJ Styles and King Corbin before falling into his’ hands. Heading into the match, Otis was not a heavy favorite. He spoke to SI.com recently about his reaction to finding out he was to win the match.
“I found out and was like, ‘What?’” Otis said. “When the briefcase got into my hands, that’s when it felt real. I remember watching the first ‘Money in the Bank’ match at WrestleMania, and it blows my mind that I woke up right next to it this morning.”
Otis On Being In The WWE Main Event Picture
Otis debuted on the WWE main roster in January of 2019 along with his Heavy Machinery partner, Tucker. He entered into a program along with Mandy Rose, Sonya Deville, and Dolph Ziggler in the build-up to WrestleMania 36. He then defeated Ziggler on the show and celebrated with Rose after. Otis also spoke to SI.com about moving up to the main event picture in WWE after his win at Money in the Bank.
“I’ve heard I’m just a big man comedy wrestler,” Otis continued. “I’ll admit it, I’m always the loud one in the room. But when it’s time for business, it’s time for business. Can I be in the main event? Let’s do it. If I sink, then that’s on me. I love wrestling, and I’m going to show people that I can do it.”
Real-name Nikola Bogojevi, Otis is a 28-year-old from Duluth, Minnesota. He was voted the 2017 Rookie of the Year by Pro Wrestling Illustrated. Otis is scheduled to appear in a MizTV segment this Friday night on Smackdown.
Asuka is the new RAW Women’s Champion after Becky Lynch vacated the title last night on RAW. The 38-year-old who has been with WWE since 2015 has now done something no other woman in WWE history has achieved.
Asuka is now the only woman in WWE history to have won a Money in the Bank briefcase, a Royal Rumble, the NXT Women’s Title, the Smackdown Women’s Title, the tag titles, and now the RAW Women’s title.
The 3 women’s Royal Rumble winners are Asuka, Becky Lynch, and Charlotte Flair. Lynch never won the NXT Women’s title or the tag titles. Flair has never won a Money in the Bank match or the tag titles.
Other wrestlers who are close include Bayley, who just needs to win a Royal Rumble to equal Asuka. Alexa Bliss needs to win a Royal Rumble and the NXT title to do the same.
Asuka WWE Championship Statistics
Asuka held the NXT Women’s title from April 1st, 2016 (NXT TakeOver: Dallas) until vacating the title in August of 2017. She would later win the Royal Rumble in January of 2018.
Asuka won the Smackdown women’s title at TLC on December 16th, 2018. She would then drop the title on March 26th, 2019 to Charlotte Flair.
The Kabuki Warriors won the Women’s Tag Team titles at Hell in a Cell 2019 from Alexa Bliss and Nikki Cross. They then dropped them back to “Bliss Cross” at WrestleMania 36.
Former Knockouts Champion Su Yung has re-signed with Impact Wrestling. PW Insider first reported that the 30-year-old from Seattle, Washington has signed a new multi-year commitment to the promotion.
Yung is a 13-year pro having been trained by Bill Dundee and Kevin White. Yung is also married to former X-Division Champion Rich Swann. Her current persona in Impact is “Susie” a less murderous version of her Su Yung alter-ego.
Yung defeated Allie to win the Knockouts Championship in a Last Rites match on April 24th, 2018 from the Impact Zone in Orlando. The match aired on May 31st, 2018. She held the title until dropping it to Tessa Blanchard in a 3-way match that also involved Allie. In total, Yung spent 110 days with the title. She’s ranked at #17 in total days spent with the Knockouts title. Yung defended the title successfully against Madison Rayne, Katarina, and Saraya Knight during her reign.
This week on Impact Wrestling, the #1 contenders tournament kicks off. Trey will face Rohit Raj and Hernandez will face Madman Fulton in opening round matches this week. Moose will also defend the TNA World Heavyweight Championship against Suicide. Also, Kimber Lee debuts for the promotion and goes up against Havok.
Aleister Black signed with WWE in 2016. Before he went to the main roster in 2019, Black won the NXT Championship in 2018 at NXT Takeover: New Orleans. Before signing with WWE, Black wrestled for 14 years for promotions such as Pro Wrestling Holland, WXW in Germany, ICW in Scotland, Progress, OTT and many other top European companies.
Black was known as Tommy End in his pre-WWE career. He recently told SI.com that when he was signed to NXT in 2016, Triple H told him he didn’t want to change anything about who he was as a performer.
“The good thing about what Hunter did, or as I call him, ‘Boss,’ he believed in me and he never tried to change me,” Black said to SI.com. “He told me, ‘I signed you for you. Don’t be something you’re not. Never forget that.’”
Black continued to say that despite the confidence Triple H expressed in him, he felt lost at first in NXT.
“When I started in NXT, I felt super insecure,” he continued. “For a very long time, I was completely lost. I lost my identity, I lost all sense of who I was.”
He said this feeling helped him create a new sense of identity in NXT.
“That’s part of this process,” said Black. “It’s a process that is not pretty, but it’s something every professional has to go through. That’s helped to understand myself a lot better, not just as a performer but as a human being.”
Aleister Black on Wrestlers Who Influenced Him
Also during the interview, Black spoke about wrestlers who influenced him growing up.
“I watched New Japan growing up, and later WCW,” said Black, who listed Hayabusa, Yuji Nagata, Jushin Liger, Tiger Mask, and Toshiaki Kawada as his early influences. “I loved the Japanese wrestlers.”
Black also noted that he enjoyed the Mexican-based wrestlers he saw in WCW and the European stars he saw on World of Sport.
Kazuchika Okada was sent on excursion to America by NJPW in 2010. They sent him to TNA Wrestling where he posted a 2-16 record in 18 matches from September 2010 to June 2011. NJPW was said to have not been pleased with how its future World Champion was used while in the promotion.
Okada himself commented on his time in TNA recently during an interview with NJPW1972.com. According to Okada, the language barrier he experienced in TNA was frustrating. He was also upset that there was little effort made to communicate with him.
“The other wrestlers would only be around if they had matches,” Okada said about his time with TNA. “Every day I would be going to the gym by myself, going shopping by myself, and then going home, and that was it.”
Okada on the Language Barrier in TNA
Okada continued to talk about how the language barrier was difficult at the time.
“I’d be going to the gym and just working out in silence and then coming home, putting the TV on and having no clue what anybody was saying. I’d be so bored sometimes I’d talk to myself in the mirror (laughs).”
Okada would continue to say his English isn’t too bad, however. He also noted that Finn Balor and Karl Anderson helped him earlier in his career with it.
“It really made me think, with no human contact people go absolutely nuts (laughs). But as far as English goes, it’s never been too bad. I studied in junior high, and then went to America on my excursion. Plus when I was in the Dojo, Prince Devitt and Karl Anderson were around, and I could have conversations with them OK.”
The new management of Impact Wrestling is reported to have apologized to NJPW for the way TNA used Okada during his time on excursion to the United States.
Major League Wrestling presented the final episode of its Super-Series with AAA this weekend on BeIN Sports and YouTube. Just one match was featured on the show. A trios match between Los Parks against Psycho Clown, Nino Hamberguesa, and Psychosis closed out the series between the two leagues.
This was the final episode before MLW begins to air its anthology series. It concluded with a hostile takeover from Contra Unit.
The full episode can be viewed in the player below:
MLW Fusion 5/9/20 Quick Results:
El Hijo de LA Park, LA Park & LA Park Jr. defeated Nino Hamburguesa, Psicosis & Psycho Clown
For weeks, vignettes featuring Contra Unit warning of a coming attack have been shown on MLW Fusion. They delivered on their promises tonight. At the conclusion of the episode, it was expected we would hear from Davey Boy Smith Jr. about a possible challenge to Jacob Fatu but when the camera cut to the back we saw a bloodied Smith wrapped in a Contra flag.
Josef Samael then delivered a message to MLW. He said that they have taken over the league and it was now under their rule. Samael was in the company’s head office in New York where MLW management had also been attacked and their offices overrun. Even MLW’s social media accounts have been taken over by Contra.
As MLW moves into showcasing its anthology series, Contra’s takeover of the company seems to provide an end to this particular chapter in the league’s history. When MLW is able to schedule events again, it appears things will be under Contra’s control.
After weeks of catching up with LA Park and his sons at home, Los Parks were in trios action this week on Fusion. They took on LA Park’s rival Psycho Clown and his team of Pychosis and Nino Hamberguesa.
After a violent and weapons-filled match, it appeared as though Los Parks had Psychosis pinned in the middle of the ring. The frequently suspect officiating continued in the Super Series here, however, as the referee made a slow count. As the ref did so, Pagano decided to make the match a party. Pagano hit all 3 members of Los Parks with a chair. LA Park would get in a shot on Pagano, however, after the referee pulled the chair from his hands. Directly after that, LA Park speared Psychosis and picked up the win for his team and MLW.
With the win this week, MLW clinched victory in the Super Series. AAA officials have expressed interest in holding a second Super Series with MLW that would take place in the United States.
MLW vs AAA Super Series Results:
Mortiz & Pagano defeated Mance Warner & Savio Vega [1:0]
Alexander Hammerstone (c) defeated Laredo Kid [1:1]
Averno defeats Douglas James [2:1]
Team Filthy (Dominic Garrini & Tom Lawlor) defeated Extreme Tiger & Puma King [2:2]
Richard Holliday (c) defeated Chessman [3:2]
Hart Foundation (Brian Pillman Jr. & Davey Boy Smith Jr.) defeated Los Mercenarios (El Texano Jr. & Rey Escorpion) [4:2]
Los Jinetes del Aire (El Hijo del Vikingo, Myzteziz Jr. & Octagon Jr.) (c) defeated Injustice (Jordan Oliver, Kotto Brazil & Myron Reed) [3:4]
El Hijo de LA Park, LA Park & LA Park Jr. defeated Nino Hamburguesa, Psicosis & Psycho Clown [5:3]
Another Lifestyles of the Rich and Dynastic episode aired this week. Previously, we’ve seen Richard Holliday and Alexander Hammerstone outside of Savio Vega’s home. Holliday purchased the title to the home, making him “Richie 2 Titles.”
This week, the Dynasty where in Mance Warner’s home town of Bucksnort, TN. Gino Medina pointed out that the trio should be concerned with “Meth Gators” that are local to the area. These are alligators who also do meth, making them a unique and terrifying predator.
Hammerstone got to wandering and was looking at a family of raccoons when Holliday decided they should leave the area. This would lead to Mance Warner issuing up a challenge to the faction later in the show.
Mance Warner Challenges Dynasty To Tower Of Doom Match
Mance Warner issued quite the challenge to the members of the Dynasty this week on Fusion. Warner suggested that a match could be made where all the gold is hanging from the ceiling. This would include Alexander Hammerstone’s National Openweight title and Richard Holliday’s Caribbean Championship he stole from Savio Vega. It would be the 3 members of the Dynasty against Warner, Savio Vega and a teammate to be named later. This would not be a ladder match, however. Rather a 3-tiered “Tower of Doom” cage would be built and the winning team would have to climb to the top cage to retrieve all the gold.
MLW updated its top-10 rankings this week. Davey Boy Smith Jr. moved into the top-contender spot, moving past Alexander Hammerstone. Richard Holliday also moved up two spots, moving past King Mo and Mance Warner.
MLW World Champion: Jacob Fatu(Contra Unit)
Davey Boy Smith Jr. (Opera Cup Winner) (Hart Foundation) (+1)
Alexander Hammerstone (National Openweight Champion) (Dynasty) (-1)
AEW’s anthology series begins airing next week. The show will focus on the top matches, angles, and segments from MLW’s history. This includes the league’s first run from 2002 to 2004. MLW is also stating that lost footage from 2002-04 will run on the anthology series as well.
Booker T recently spoke about working with Jim Ross on his Reality of Wrestling YouTube channel. The 5x WCW Champion noted that JR’s role as the head of Talent Relations put him in an unenviable spot.
“He had to hire guys, he had to fire guys, he was that guy,” Booker said on the show. “He was definitely not in an envious spot.”
Booker also noted that JR was the one who encouraged him to be open about his real backstory.
“JR was literally the first person who told me I need to tell my story and get it out there and let people see who Booker T really was,” he continued. “And I was reluctant to actually put it out there not knowing if there was some ulterior motive.”
Booker’s story was made into a documentary currently available on the WWE Network, “Booker T: Sentenced to Greatness.” He served 19 months in prison for armed robbery before being granted parole in 1992.
“I remember going to house shows after I did come out with my story, I remember going to house shows and people would have my mugshot on a poster, just to make fun of me,” Booker said. “But I won at the end of the day, and I’m still winning.”
Booker T Hopes His Story Gives Hope To Others
Booker then continued to say that he hopes his being open with his story is helpful to others.
“Hopefully a lesson was learned. Hopefully, some young kid, like I said for me telling my story, which was my primary objective was for some young kid not to fall in my footsteps or some young kid that are walking in my footsteps to know there is light at the end of the tunnel. If Booker T did it, I can do it too. There are so many people out there looking for hope.”
The result of the main event at Hell in a Cell 2019 left many fans upset. Seth Rollins defended the Universal Championship against “the Fiend” Bray Wyatt that night. Many fans expected Wyatt to win the match and title but it didn’t happen. Instead, the referee called a stop to the match after Rollins hit Wyatt with a sledgehammer. The result was not a disqualification but rather a referee’s stoppage due to concern over Wyatt’s health. Wyatt would then win the title the following month in Saudi Arabia.
Rollins recently spoke to Talk Sport and said that what happened at Hell in a Cell last year left him “dead in the water.” Rollins would eventually turn heel as the fans turned against him.
“At the end of the day, there’s no real nice way to put it, I was dead in the water after Hell in a Cell,” Rollins said. “And a lot of that was nothing that I could control. I was left out there as a bit of a scapegoat in that situation and there was nothing I could do about it, but I was the one that had to face the scrutiny.”
“And no one really cared about me at that point in time, or about how I was feeling or about what really went into that moment, that night and everything that went along with it.”
Rollins would continue to say that after HIAC, it was time to make some changes.
“So, the writing was on the wall at that point,” Rollins continued. “It was time to hunker down and make some changes, and some of those are tough lessons to learn.”
Now Rollins is known as the “Monday Night Messiah” on RAW. He lost to Kevin Owens at WrestleMania but finds himself with a chance to win the WWE title tonight. He faces Drew McIntyre with the belt on the line at Money in the Bank. Bray Wyatt also has a chance to win back the Universal title he took from Rollins tonight. He’ll face Braun Strowman at Money in the Bank.
“There’s no point lamenting the past, it’s time to move on, move into the future and figure out what you’re gonna do about it, ya know? What can you control.”
There was a time in Chris Jericho’s career when he didn’t look or dress like a rock star. He wore a suit and proclaimed to everyone that he was “the best in the world at what he does.”
According to comments Jericho over the weekend, he currently believes that for the first time since 2010, he is once again the best in the world. He tweeted on Saturday:
“Not being egotistical or arrogant, but right here and right now, for the first time since 2010, I honestly feel that I AM the best in the world in the pro wrestling biz. Not gonna discuss or debate. It’s just the way I feel…”
Pro-wrestling is entertainment which means being “the best” is always a matter of opinion. With that being said, there are many fans who agree with Jericho’s opinion on the matter.
Jericho will face “Pineapple Pete” Suge D on Dynamite this week. He teamed with Sammy Guevara in the main event of last week’s episode, defeating Matt Hardy and Kenny Omega in an epic street fight.
The first chapter of “Undertaker: The Last Ride” was released today on the WWE Network. Chapter 1 of the docuseries is titled, “The Greatest Fear” and focusses on Taker wrestling with the idea of his in-ring career coming to an end.
During the documentary, Taker revealed that after suffering a concussion in his match against Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania 30, he lost his confidence as a performer.
“What I think happened is between getting older and then not having all the reps and taking all the bumps through the course of the year, eventually, it caught up with me,” Taker said. “I think that explains what happened in New Orleans, I think that’s why the concussion.”
“I’m not sure when I got concussed… I don’t know how that match happened. I have no recollection of any of that.”
– The Undertaker
He continued to talk about how the concussion impacted his confidence moving forward.
“It’s one concussion in one match, destroyed my confidence,” he continued. “I don’t even think anybody even knew really.”
Footage from the documentary then moved backstage at WrestleMania 31 before Taker’s match against Bray Wyatt.
“It was Triple H that really spotted it and I’m waiting to go out just riddled with self-doubt. Triple H came to me, ‘hey, remember who the f**k you are.'”
Triple H then gave his thoughts on the same interaction the two shared at WM31.
“I remember that being mind-blowing to me,” Triple said. “Like, this is the f***king Undertaker. It was hard for me to contemplate that he had those doubts.”
Taker continued to say that Triple H’s comments were enough to restore his confidence and get him through his match against Wyatt. From that point on, Taker’s confidence began to come back but he also was subjecting his body to more wear and tear.
“What’s going on is I’m getting my confidence back,” Taker continued. “But what’s also happening is more wear and tear.”
Undertaker Experiences Self Doubt Leading To WrestleMania 33
As things moved to WrestleMania 33 and his match against Roman Reigns, Taker said he began to experience self-doubt again at that year’s Royal Rumble.
“When I got in the Rumble, I knew,” Taker continued. “I was like ‘what have I done?’ You’re about to put your whole legacy on the line and you know you have no business being in that match. That match should be somebody else’s.”
“One of my biggest fears is becoming a parody of myself,” Taker said.
The documentary is the most open look at the Undertaker and his storied career ever produced. It is streaming now on the WWE Network.
Owen Hart tragically fell to his death in Kemper Arena on May 23rd, 1999. On May 7th, 2000, WCW held Slamboree in the same arena. During the show, Mike Awesome tossed Kanyon off the Ready To Rumble cage to the ramp 20-feet below. Some fans have since expressed that doing such a stunt in the same building as the Owen Hart tragedy had taken place in less than a year earlier was in bad taste.
Eric Bischoff and Conrad Thompson recently discussed this on an episode of the 83 Weeks podcast.
“In hindsight, do you think that maybe this wasn’t the best idea to do in this arena given this is where the Owen Hart tragedy happened a year before?” Thompson asked Bischoff.
“No, I don’t feel that way,” Bischoff said. “I’ll try to explain why. In any other form of entertainment/sport, or sports-entertainment or sports. Let’s just take NASCAR. When someone is killed in a NASCAR event, do they stop turning left at 180 miles per hour? Do they quit racing? Do they stop for 6-months or a month or if someone is unfortunately killed at Talladega, do they not race at Talladega anymore?”
Bischoff continued to talk about wrestling being scripted violence before Thompson chimed back in.
“Well hang on now, this is a little different,” Thompson interjected. “This is the arena where he died, roughly a year later, on his actual birthday. So, there is a good chance that some of these fans in the crowd were at Over the Edge the year before and now they’re here and they see another guy flying down to the f***ing floor from up high.”
Bischoff rejected the comparison, however.
“I disagree,” Bischoff said. “You can’t draw a parallel between what happened to Owen and the stunt we created and rehearsed and felt was safe here. They’re not connected.”
Curtis Axel was one of the many WWE Superstars released from the company last month. Arn Anderson recently discussed how Axel was used in WWE and his release from the company on an edition of “the Arn Show.”
“Curtis Axel’s dad, for god’s sake, was ‘Mr. Perfect’ Curt Hennig who was as good a performer as ever graced/built this industry.”
Anderson then said he felt it hindered Axel not to play up his family’s lineage.
“For Joe to not be able to go out on TV his first time and say ‘hey, I’m not my dad. I’m Joe but my dad was Curt Hennig. (I’m) very proud of that fact and I’m going to try to do everything I can to make him proud of me and excel in this business.'”
“His lineage was huge in this industry. Why he wasn’t able to take advantage of that?”
Anderson continued to talk about how WWE is hesitant to let wrestlers play into their family’s lineage.
“Guys would come up and they wouldn’t get to be who they were. Or who their dad was or who their uncle was. Well, that just makes the business bigger that you have 2nd and 3rd generation wrestlers that are doing well.”
“For Curtis Axel to not be who he was and then try to name him 2 or 3 different times and the kid could perform, he could work,” Anderson continued.
Vice’s Dark Side of the Ring recently covered the infamous Brawl For All tournament WWF held in 1998. Vince Russo, the creative mind behind the shoot tough man competition, is featured throughout the episode.
Russo recently went into further detail about the tournament on an episode of Konnan’s Keepin it 100 podcast. During the discussion, Russo stated his belief at the time that Bart Gunn could have defeated Butterbean at WrestleMania. He also noted that Vince McMahon shared that view.
“I got so frustrated with Bart because he still believes he was fed to the wolves and that was a punishment for Dr. Death and he’s wrong, that’s not the truth!” Russo said.
Butterbean sends Bart Gunn into another dimension at WrestleMania 15 (1999)
Russo would continue to say that Vince McMahon believed Bart could possibly have defeated Butterbean.
“I’m telling you he did, bro, I did too!” Russo continued. “You got to understand when I was watching those Brawl for Alls, bro, I’ve never seen guys get hit that hard in my life.”
Russo then talked about how hard Bart was hitting his opponents in the tournament.
“When I saw Bart hitting these guys, I believed without a shadow of a doubt he could beat Butterbean, there wasn’t a doubt in my mind, bro,” Russo continued.
Jim Ross shared his opinion of The Ultimate Warrior on a recent episode of his Grilling JR podcast. Good o’l JR worked with Warrior during the late Hall of Famer’s 1996 return to the World Wrestling Federation.
“I think he was a giant pain in the a** from day one,” Ross said on the show.
JR and Conrad Thompson were discussing a lawsuit involving Warrior on the show, leading to JR’s comments.
“He had a massive ego, knowing that he was not highly skilled, knowing that his #1 selling point was his physique and his charisma that largely was created through music and lights and pyro and things of that nature.”
Ross continued to talk about why he didn’t feel Warrior was a good person.
“He wasn’t a good person in my view, that’s my opinion,” JR continued. “I thought that he used extremely coarse and abusive language in front of women of all ages. I thought that was ridiculous, I seen it with my own eyes.”
Ross continued to talk about Warrior’s Hall of Fame induction. Ross noted he’s glad his family and fans got to celebrate him before he died.
“I’m sad that he passed, I’m glad that he got his moment in the sun before he died, I really am, for his fans’ sake and for his family,” JR said.
Jim Ross’ comments about The Ultimate Warrior can be heard in the player below:
Lana recently published a video on her YouTube channel addressing Rusev’s release from WWE. She is in-character during the video and refers to Rusev as her ex-husband.
“Rusev is not exactly what you think he is,” Lana begins the video. “He has manipulated each and every single one of you fans.”
She then continued to talk about how she understands WWE fans are upset by the recent releases. “I cry when I watch Grey’s Anatomy whenever my favorite character is taken off the show, written off the show, or died on the show, I’m devastated,” Lana said.
Lana continued, “So, I get what the WWE Universe is feeling right now. They are devastated that so many of their favorite characters aren’t going to be on WWE programming anymore.”
Lana then addressed Rusev’s firing specifically.
“I can assure all of you guys – not that I’m talking to Rusev every day or something like that – but I can assure you that the man that I found in 2013 in NXT, discovered him, the man that climbed up the ladder in WWE is made up of a lot,” she continued.
“Anywho, what does the Ravishing Russian Lana have to think about her ex-husband Rusev being fired? Karma’s a b**ch.”
Otis will take part in the men’s Money in the Bank ladder match this Sunday from the WWE Performance Center. The 28-year-old from Duluth, Minnesota recently took part in an interview with CBS Sports. During the discussion, Otis addressed pitching the angle with Mandy Rose to WWE management.
“We decided to just kind of present this to the writers and the people behind the scenes,” Otis said. “They were like, ‘Well, what’s the main focus here?’ The main focus is the lonely loner in high school or some nerd kid trying to get the most beautiful girl in the classroom. That was basically my thought of it.”
He continued to say that at the time, they didn’t know Dolph Ziggler would be involved but that he fit naturally into the story.
“We were lucky enough to think about this and lucky enough to have the company get behind it. Luck plays a huge factor, man,” he continued.
Otis on Heavy Machinery’s Future
With Otis having a single’s match at WrestleMania and now in the MITB ladder match, some fans have wondered what the future is with his Heavy Machinery tag-team partner, Tucker. Otis confirmed that Heavy Machinery is still moving “full tilt” as a tag-team, however.
“Heavy Machinery is full tilt. Just because there’s a little bit of absence here and there, I’m sure everyone is stirring up conversation and putting their opinions out there. But that’s a part of it. That’s a part of the mystique of what’s going on right now in WWE. I talk to my brother every day; I call him every night.”
Otis trained at the Mercury Pro Wrestling Academy in Colorado. He was signed to WWE in 2016 only a year into his career. Otis and Tucker were paired up shortly. They competed in the second-ever Dusty Rhodes Classic later that year, losing in the 1st round to Austin Aries and Roderick Strong.
Otis was also named the Pro Wrestling Illustrated Rookie of the Year in 2017.
Heath Slater was released from WWE along with many others last month. He had been with the promotion since 2006. From the Nexus angle to 3MB to having kids, Slater’s career in the company lasted almost 14 years. He recently spoke to Chris Van Vliet about his release from the company.
“I was there for 14 years and a pandemic had to take me out,” Slater said. “14 years is a good run. 10 years on the main roster. I have no ill words to say. It’s just one of those things, hell, they gave me everything I’ve got.”
Slater was 22 when he was signed to the company and reported to Deep South Wrestling shortly after.
“The only thing I have to say is ‘thank you,'” he continued. “But now I’m 36, I still feel like I’m active, young and I can still go out there and do some things. I just want to do things that I never was able to. I’ve never been to another federation! I’ve been in WWE the whole time.”
“It gives me a chance to spread my wings and fly like I never have,” Slater continued. “Like a new baby bird leaving the nest.”
Did Heath Slater See His Release Coming?
Slater also addressed if he saw his release coming.
“I saw the writing on the wall for a couple of years,” he said. “The only reason I say that is I was never really into anything after me and Terry/Rhyno.”
Roman Reigns has been absent from WWE since before WrestleMania. Braun Strowman replaced Reigns in the Universal Championship match against Goldberg.
Reigns spoke with TMZ Sports about his decision not to take part in WWE tapings and shows during the ongoing pandemic.
Reigns told TMZ that the decision to take a hiatus from WWE was all about protecting his family, including his newborn twin boys. The boys are his second set of twins with wife Gavina. They have five children together in total.
Some fans speculated that his battle with leukemia was a factor, but Reigns denies that notion. “A lot of people … they think that it was based off of my heath and the history of my fight against leukemia. Talking to my doctors and stuff, I actually am fine and my immune system is good.”
He added that his immune system is not compromised by any medications he is taking. “The drugs that I take to fight the leukemia, they don’t attack your immune system.”
Reigns continued to talk about wanting to return to the ring but right now being safe for his family is his top priority.
“I wanna be out there, I wanna get back to work, I wanna get back to normal but I just feel like I have an obligation not only to my family and myself but to my community.”
The most recent edition of the Dark Side of the Ring focussed on the UWF and its charismatic and eccentric owner, Herb Abrams. Mick Foley wrestled in the short-lived promotion in the early 90s. Foley was interviewed in the documentary and talked about his time with the promotion.
The UWF had a television deal in the early 90s but after struggling, live events became more sporadic. Abrams would later die of a heart attack brought on by cocaine use in 1996, though accounts of the exact circumstances surrounding his death vary.
“I see him so clearly in my mind like it was yesterday and I cannot talk about Herb without smiling,” Foley said on the show. “Herb was the little guy with a big personality. His enthusiasm was contagious.”
Thanks everyone for tuning in last night. What did you think of “Cocaine & Cowboy Boots: The Herb Abrams Story”?
— Dark Side of the Ring (@DarkSideOfRing) May 6, 2020
Foley wrestled as Cactus Jack in the promotion. He wrestled “Superfly” Jimmy Snuka to a double-DQ on the last UWF event in 1996. The event drew a sparse crowd inside Las Vegas’ MGM Grand.
“He had the enthusiasm and I think the courage to try and live out his dream,” Foley said about Herb Abrams. “I have to believe this is the way Herb would want it. Maybe he got in death what he didn’t have in life and that is he became a legend.”
Foley was then asked what Abrams would be doing if he was still alive today.
“Time,” Foley responded with a laugh. “Yeah, there’s no way Herb is going to keep his taxes. I just think he’d be behind bars. He would have hurt no one except himself. I’d be visiting him and we’d be toasting with a glass of milk and Herbie cookies.”
Foley later posted more comments about the episode through social media:
“I was smiling the whole time and then at the end I really got very sentimental, a little teary-eyed,” Foley said about watching the episode. “Thank you to the Dark Side of the Ring for closing on my line. My wife adored Herb. I think the most surprising thing to me was how choked up people were. That he really didn’t just make people laugh and smile and tell crazy stories but he did touch people’s lives.”
Foley then began talking about how when he was reading his wife the details of Herb’s death, he couldn’t help but laugh.
“I started reading the details of his death and I couldn’t make it through without laughing. The cocaine, the call-girls, the baby oil and I don’t think it was disrespectful. I theorized in that book (Have A Nice Day), that’s the way he would have wanted it. He’s above us now, got to be, he was a good guy, he didn’t hurt anybody except himself.”
“I think he would be very happy to be immortalized on Dark Side of the Ring.”
Dax Harwood & Cash Wheeler, formerly known as Scott Dawson and Dash Wilder, were guests recently on Talk is Jericho. During the discussion, the team now known as the Revolt discussed asking WWE for their release from the company.
“It was somewhere around mid-January of 2019 that we initially had talked to some of the office and asked for our release,” Wheeler said. “At the time, we were under the impression, we were told we were going to get it, things obviously changed.”
Wheeler continued to say they asked for their release after defeating the Lucha House Party on RAW.
“Dax and I, we’d been debating for months if we wanted to stay or not,” he continued.
“We had said, after this loop, let’s wait until we’re on the upswing so it doesn’t look like we’re only upset because we’re losing. Let’s wait until it’s on the upswing and then ask. That way people know it’s not just about us, it’s about the tag-team division as a whole.”
He continued to say that there is not enough attention paid to the tag-team division in WWE.
“(Braun Strowman) had steamrolled the entire tag-team division and then a 10-year-old won the tag titles at WrestleMania and then no tag-teams were featured on SummerSlam until the last minute they added the women’s tag titles,” he continued.
“We wanted to make a point, the tag-team division doesn’t get respect, it doesn’t get the time that we think a lot of these teams deserve and we want to take chances on ourselves. So, that’s why we asked when we asked.”
Dax Harwood On When It Came Out They Had Asked For Their Release
Harwood continued to talk about how it seemed everyone knew they had asked for their release after they had done so.
“I’m not kidding you, as soon as we walked out of that talent relations office, everyone knew. I don’t know how but everyone knew that we had asked for it.”
“Right after that is whenever people started saying we were complaining. We were getting tagged a lot on Twitter that we were just complaining and being crybabies but I dare you to ask any of our coworkers if they ever heard us complain.”
Dr. Britt Baker DMD faced Hikaru Shida on the April 8th, 2020 edition of AEW Dynamite. During the match, Baker’s nose got busted open and poured blood for the remainder of the bout. Shida would go on to claim the victory and maintain her #1 ranking in the division. The image of Baker’s face covered in blood was later turned into a top-selling t-shirt.
Baker recently took part in an interview with the Asbury Park Press and discussed the match and nose injury. She was asked about the iconic imagery now associated with her blood-covered face.
“I didn’t know it (was iconic) at the time because my nose was just pouring blood,” Baker said. “I mean, my nose did not stop bleeding for hours. It was an all-day affair with me and Doc (Michael) Sampson (AEW physician) sticking cotton rolls up my nose because it literally would not stop bleeding.”
Baker continued to say that people approached her backstage about the match and imagery of her face. They told her it was a career-defining moment for her.
“(They) came by like, ‘Britt, oh my God. Wait until you see this, this is career-making for you,’ ” Baker said. “It’s hard to envision that until you actually see it because you want to get excited but you’re also like, ‘Oh, I don’t want to get my hopes up.’”
Britt Baker On Her Busted Open Nose From Match With Hikaru Shida
Baker also described what it was like to watch the match after. She noted it was enjoyable to hear Chris Jericho and her “good friend” Tony Schiavone on commentary calling the bout.
“When I actually got to watch the show back and hear Chris Jericho doing commentary along with my good friend Tony Schiavone, it kind of gave me goosebumps. I was like, ‘This is cool. This is one of my favorite wrestlers talking about me.’ “
On Dynamite this week, Baker was announced for a fatal 4-way to take place next week. She’ll face Hikaru Shida, Kris Statlander, and Penelope Ford in the match. Baker also got involved during the Lance Archer vs QT Marshall last night. She jumped the rail and attacked Brandi Rhodes leading to the post-match antics from Jake Roberts and Lance Archer.
When AEW started last year, many assumed Kenny Omega would be a staple in the main event picture. Then he lost a single’s match to Chris Jericho at last year’s Double or Nothing. Jericho moved on to defeat Hangman Page and won the inaugural AEW World Championship and Omega moved into storylines with the Young Bucks. He hasn’t been near the world title picture since.
Omega recently discussed his last year in AEW during an interview with SI.com. During the discussion, he mentioned that he currently prefers to help create new stars.
“To me, I would rather take more unknown names, guys that don’t have that big reputation yet, and show there is something special about them,” Omega said. “I want to be a force to help introduce new stars to the world and magnify the work of those around me.”
Omega also mentioned that many AEW fans might not be familiar with his work in Japan. He continued to say that he wants to become an all-round performer. This involves having matches in different styles with different opponents and teammates.
“I want to be a true, all-around, real ‘best in the world’ performer,” Omega continued. “That means singles matches, tag matches, mixed tags, battle royals, you have to be able to do it all. With AEW, I’ve been allowed the creative freedom to develop myself as more of an all-around performer.”
Kenny Omega Still Best In The World?
Fans hoping that Omega will eventually return to the world title picture should not lose hope, however. Omega continued to say that the time is nearing for him to remind everyone that he is the best in the world.
“When it’s time, which is sooner than people think, I’ll remind people why I’m the best in the world,” said Omega. “And it’s coming. It’s not a matter of if it’s going to happen, it’s just a matter of when.”
Omega is currently 1/2 of the AEW World Tag Team Champions along with Adam “Hangman” Page. The team won the titles aboard the Jericho cruise. They have since defended the belts successfully against SCU, the Lucha Bros, and the Young Bucks.
The full interview with Kenny Omega can be read here.
