Major League Wrestling (MLW) star Simon Gotch was recently interviewed by WSVN-TV Entertainment‘s Chris Van Vliet at a Blueprint Pro Wrestling event in Deerfield Beach, Florida. Gotch was had this to say about whether or not he’d be interested in a potential WWE return down the road:

“Under different circumstances, yes. It’s hard to predict it. I will say this, unlike some other people that got released recently, I did get wished well in my future endeavors, so there’s always the door open for me to return. My whole thing is I wouldn’t want to go back to do the same thing and to be unhappy.

“My logic is I can work in an office and be miserable, I don’t need to get beat up and be miserable. I wrestle because it makes me happy, I enjoy doing it. It’s fun for me. So in my mind if were going to go back I’d want to work with the guys I’d want to work with. I’d want to be able to have the matches I want to have.”

Should Gotch make the decision to return to WWE, he’d like to feud with his old tag team partner Aiden English:

“I would actually want to feud with [Aiden] English. I think that would be a hell of a way to push him as a babyface to be honest. Let him vanquish the ghosts of his past. And having worked with him so much I’m actually aware of what he’s capable of. People don’t know how good he is.

“He’s super athletic and he can do some really insane stuff but often times he has a more restricted opinion on how he should work. He doesn’t want to do all that much because he doesn’t want to put himself in a position where he has to and he’s going to injure himself because he looks at his career as a long term investment.”

Finally, Gotch offered his thoughts on former WWE Champion CM Punk’s mixed martial arts (MMA) career in the UFC. Punk has lost two fights in a row now under the promotion’s banner after signing with them in 2014:

“I think he got to do something he wanted to do and he got to do it on the biggest stage that he could do it on. That’s great for him. At the end of the day if he’s proud of his work and he’s proud of what he’s done he has no one to explain it to or apologize to. I could see why people have their opinions on it because he’s in an awkward position. The guy’s been a main eventer at WrestleMania, the guy’s been all over the world, it’s hard to tell him ‘Ok, we’re going to need you to fight in this King of the Cage Tournament in Altoona, PA.

“And you need to do these for the next 6 years before we decide to give you a fight.’ That’s what a lot of guys in UFC have to do. So it’s hard to do that. It’s hard to get a guy who’s been at that level of notoriety and ask him to step that far back. And they also know as a company that the longer CM Punk’s out of wrestling, the less name value he might have so for the money they’re paying him, you can see why UFC wants to get him on those Pay Per Views and want to get him out there.

“Even if it’s just to watch him get killed, people will pay attention to it. The reality is Jose Canseco did an MMA bout in Japan and I tracked it down the second I heard about it.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PbMd9uNmSqM&feature=youtu.be

One former WWE NXT star has reflected on Finn Balor dealing with Enzo Amore.

That star is former NXT Tag Team Champion Simon Gotch, who is now known as Simon Grimm. He talked about a wide range of topics during a recent appearance on Robbie E’s Why It Ended podcast.

During this interview, he brought up how although Amore was fine with his promos and never got any heat as a result of them, it was a bit of a different story when it came to the rest of the superstars.

Gotch stated that Amore tried to give the former Universal Champion some advice about women.

“I noticed he would try to buddy up with people when he thought he could get something from them, and that didn’t sit well with people,” said Grimm. “When Fergal, Finn Balor, got there, [Enzo] immediately was just d–k riding him to high heaven. Right away. ‘Oh, bro. you wanna get chicks, you know what you gotta do? You gotta get an apartment downtown, bro. Cuz then you can walk to all the bars and walk right home.'”

Gotch would go onto say that Balor laughed at Amore because he was funny at first but then “lost his patience with him eventually.”

Gotch noted that Amore wanting to get close to Balor was due to the fact that he knew he would be a star in the sports entertainment company.

The former WWE star added that at the end of the day, Balor did not need Amore’s help due to the fact that he has “nine million abs” and could get any girl he wanted.

Balor most notably worked with Amore in NXT during the quarterfinals of the Dusty Rhodes Classic that saw Balor and Samoa Joe take on Amore and Big Cass.

H/T to Wrestling Inc for the transcribed quotes.

Former WWE Superstar Simon Gotch recently made an appearance on the Two Man Power Trip Of Wrestling podcast to talk about several professional wrestling topics. Gotch discussed making his debut for Ring Of Honor, his run with the Vaudevillians gimmick, NXT evolving into WWE’s third brand, and his backstage incident with Sin Cara. You can check out the highlights below:

Debuting for ROH:

“I was very glad to make my debut for Ring of Honor and if I could be totally honest about the video package, I was actually the one that shot and edited that. The music that I had used initially was copyrighted and I was waiting on a piece my older brother was composing for it and he couldn’t get it done so I passed it off to Ring of Honor and the whole video was about three minuets and it was edited down to about 90 seconds and the whole thing was it was supposed to be like a kind of dark and weird self destructive shall we say portion of the segment until it becomes almost like an 80s training montage and when the music got changed I felt that it was almost too heavy.

“On the front end it is still good but on the second half I feel like it lost that feeling because the second half was almost supposed to be ridiculous. It was almost like when you see the finished product it is good but it is not how I thought it would come off but it did resonate with the people so I guess that is good.”

His run with the Vaudevillians:

“We got along for the most part because in NXT it is more you travel with the people you are like your close friends so I traveled mostly with most of the amateur wrestlers like Sami Callahan and Chad Gable initially where English traveled with the FCW guys like Scott Dawson, Juice Robinson and Sami Zayn because those are the guys he was close with. For the sake of work we worked together as best we could but we got along fine. Sometimes we got along well and sometimes we were kind of like an old married couple and it was not so well but it was more because we both had this idea we were trying to get across and it didn’t always mesh with the other persons vision.”

“The joke I used to tell was me and English had to hate each other a little bit or we were going to get broken up. If you like each other you are broken up immediately. Jason Jordan and Chad Gable were genuinely friends and Gable was part of Jason Jordan’s wedding and they split the team up.”

“A lot of people assume that if you are a tag team you must be friends and for whatever reason if you say you are not than it becomes a whole thing. Most tag teams (even successful ones) hate each other because in the end no one gets into wrestling to be in a tag team. That is kind of the weird thing about it that when you are a kid very few people if any dream of being tag team wrestlers, they dream of main eventing WrestleMania and winning the World Title and going to the Superdome and wrestling in front of 70,000 people or going to the Tokyo Dome and wrestling in front of 120,000 people and nobody goes I hope that I am tagging in a match in Largo, Florida in front of 500 people.”

NXT evolving into WWE’s third brand:

“Not really. I don’t think they would ever officially make that change. Part of the reason that NXT is as profitable a brand that it is (and it is very profitable) and don’t let them tell you it is not is because of the amount they have to pay those guys is much less. A friend of mine who was in the video game and still in NXT and I guess the NXT guys because of the number of guys on the roster this year were paid I think $3,000 and no residuals for the video game and their choices were basically accept the $3,000 and accept the no residuals or don’t be in the video game.

“I was in developmental for 2k16 and on the main roster for 2k17 and in 2k17 I got paid a very nice sum for it and even just recently got a check for it for the second quarter and to put it bluntly it was significantly more than three-grand. But that is sort of why they are able to profit with NXT because they can always (and I hate to say this) screw those guys on money. They do the outside shows and they don’t get any extra for them regardless of what the house is.”

His backstage incident with Sin Cara:

“He threw a coke can at me. That was it. Basically he and I would go back and fourth and throw sort of little digs at each other and I didn’t realize how sensitive he was and I found that out later that with the stories about him they all have the same basic set up. He goes back and fourth with someone and they get the upper hand verbally and he goes and takes cheap shots at them when he gets angry. The famous one about him beating up Sheamus, what actually happened was Sheamus was on the trainers table getting his ankle taped and Jorge ran up and punched him.”

“With me and him, we were sort of trading little digs and I got one in that was stiff and I found out later after the fact that I apparently hit a nerve with some stuff that had happened to him personally that I didn’t know about and looked back down at my plate and all of a sudden I look back up and yell what the f*ck because my face started hurting and I couldn’t see anything and completely didn’t know what was going on and as I’m piecing it together I smell Diet Coke, why is my shirt wet? And as my vision started to clear I see Jorge running from around the table and he tried to do almost a double leg and out of instinct I reached around his neck and shoot head locked him.”

“We were struggling for maybe 10-15 seconds until people got involved and pulled us apart and I was still wondering what was going on and I obviously have a concussion having been hit in the face and he’s just yelling. We talked about it after the fact and I complimented him on his throw because he hit me dead in the eye. Someone on Twitter said when I guess he threw a chair at (Baron) Corbin in a match that if you believe Simon Gotch, Sin Cara has really good aim with that chair.”

You can listen to Gotch’s interview on the Two Man Power Trip Of Wrestling podcast here.

WWE UK Talent Wolfgang has apparently suffered an injury while working against UK Champion Pete Dunne on a WWE Live Event from Aberdeen, Scotland on November 3rd, according to WrestlingInc.

He was scheduled to appear on Progress Wrestling’s Chapter 57 event but has been pulled from the show due to the injury. No further details are known about his condition at this point but we’ll keep you posted if any details come to light.

– Former WWE Star Simon Gotch, who now uses the ring name Simon Grimm, will be making his ROH debut at their Live Event from Florida this weekend. Below is a video posted by ROH hyping the arrival the Grimm:

https://www.facebook.com/ringofhonor/videos/simon-grimm-preview/10155618394731328/

XWA, the UK promotion that brought you Kota Ibushi shooting himself with fireworks, will be hosting a five round ‘live improv’ concept called ‘Whose Clothesline Is It Anyway?’ at the Resistance Gallery in London on October 7th, obviously inspired by the extremely successful ‘Whose Line Is It Anyway’ television show.

XWA has been a company that continually strives to innovate ever since their inception, realising that the UK wrestling scene has been booming for the couple of years and therefore being more crowded than ever, XWA (as well as sister promotion Pro Wrestling EVE) has been looking to present their shows in a different way, this concept shows just one aspect of how they’re ‘different’ and in many ways weird and wonderful.

Do you like wrestling? Do you like Whose Line Is It Anyway? Do you like wrestlers playing Whose Line Is It Anyway? If yes then we gots you! pic.twitter.com/UnnTnWmSeH

— XWA (@XWAUK) September 15, 2017

Former WWE Superstar Simon Gotch (who now goes by Simon Grimm on the independent scene) recently did a shoot interview with RF Video to talk about his time in the WWE. Among other things, Gotch talked in depth about Enzo Amore and the reported heat he has backstage within the WWE locker room. You can check out the highlights from Gotch’s shoot interview below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GMXdAHQ087A

Amore being a detriment to himself and those around him:

“I will say, to his credit, he believes his own bulls–t. He is 100% confident in himself to his detriment and the detriment of others around him. He’s an example of someone who has no excuse to not know wrestling, but he doesn’t know wrestling.”

“The Realest Guy In The Room’s” lackluster in-ring skills that caused him to break his own leg:

“He broke his own leg trying to counter a wristlock. Yeah, when he was in the wheelchair on NXT TV, that’s how it happened. He broke his own leg trying to counter a wristlock. He blamed it on the canvas being loose.”

Amore suffering a shoot concussion at Payback and Gotch never receiving any heat for it backstage:

“He’s almost touching the ropes, maybe a quarter of the way off because, obviously, I don’t want him to be too close or Cass will tag him. I go, I start running with him, I’m ghosting him the whole way, my hands are here and here, just holding him. He’s running, running, running, he hits the slide, boom, hits. I follow through, [and taunt] ‘yeah, motherf–ker! Yeah.’ I go out of the ring. I look at him. I’m like, ‘man, he’s selling the s–t out of this, cool.’ I go to grab him.

“I’m a light touch with stuff like grabbing because I know how bad that sucks when someone just grabs you and just f–king… so literally, fingers on temples, side of the head. He comes with me. I’m like, ‘okay, he’s good.’ Charles [Robinson], the referee, says we’re in replays, so I let go of [Enzo], turn around, start jaw-jacking with the crowd, I turn back around I see this, I see the ‘X’. I go, ‘oh f–k. He’s out.'” Gotch added, “I never knew if there was any [heat]. I think most people know that Enzo was kind of a clod in the ring.”

WWE failing to capitalize on Amore’s concussion:

“I’m like, ‘well, they wanted us to be heels and we weren’t getting enough heat. We’re going to get heat for this.’ And the immediate thing we do, the next night, we job out to Big Cass on RAW. I think we did it three times in a row. We did like RAW, Main Event, and SmackDown. I may be mistaken, but it was three times within a couple of weeks.”

H/T Wrestling Inc. for the transcribed quotes

SEScoops correspondent Jake Jeremy recently had the chance to interview former WWE Superstar Simon Gotch at the recent XWA – Charter Hall event from Colchester England.

Now known as Simon Grimm, he talked about a wide variety of topics, including his time in WWE, working with Aiden English as part of the Vaudevillains, how he would have booked the team in WWE, the WWE locker room, who he’d like to work with on the independent scene, the possibility of shaving his famous mustache and more.

A big thanks goes out out to Simon Grimm for taking the time to chat with us. Here are the highlights:

SEScoops: Thank you for joining me Simon, I’d likely to briefly discuss your time in WWE. In recent interviews, you’ve mentioned that the Vaudevillains had run its course and that you were unhappy. Where did you see the trajectory of the characters when you first teamed up with Aiden English? Did you have a set idea or was it more of a ‘suck it and see’ approach?

Simon: I think it was a very fan friendly character, if you want to say it this way it was a babyface gimmick and I think people liked it, and for whatever reason the company wanted us to be heels. So right off the bat we’re talking about swimming up stream. We continually had the feeling of ‘you aren’t doing anything right’ because they aren’t booing you. When you’re naturally a babyface and they try to make you a heel the audience just becomes indifferent, they don’t get angry and they don’t boo you because they don’t hate you, they have no reason to.

SEScoops: I think that everything about the Vaudevillians team was amplified, because you were using your mannerisms and movement to define your characters, you were both extremely animated…

Simon: …and entertaining, if you’re having fun with us you aren’t going to boo us. A lot of what happened was…I had hoped that because we were mishandled initially that when Brooklyn happened with Leva Bates (NXT Takeover) it was “ok this is leading somewhere positive, they finally get the deal with us,” they then almost immediately took the titles off of us on a TV taping…I think that we are still the only NXT Tag Champs to drop the titles (since the advent of the live specials) NOT on a live special. Everyone else has dropped them on live specials and I think they had the one in London a month later.

SEScoops: NXT is an interesting concept because when you move up to the main roster it is a case of ‘leaving the territory,’ so how do you drop the belts on the ‘smaller’ show and then move up to the main roster convincingly?

Simon: We didn’t even do that, we dropped the belts and disappeared…the common talk is that we were going to get fired. So we dropped the titles and then Wrestlemania was coming up. Normally after Wrestlemania because the financial year restarts for WWE a lot of people were saying ‘oh they’re getting fired they’ve dropped the belts real quick.’ And then we got called up instead. It was often the idea that no matter how bad the game is you can’t win a championship if you aren’t on the team. You give them ideas and you can suggest stuff and it will eventually go through, but it never seemed to. And ultimately we were just used and thrown away.

SEScoops: When you in the WWE locker room, was there a sense that there were opportunities outside of the company? Performers like yourself and Cody have proved that you can leave and have a viable career elsewhere.

Simon: I think there is a feeling of that. Guys like say Apollo Crews or Kalisto who were successful on the indies, they were making a full time living as wrestlers before they got signed, they are well aware that if they were to get released or if they were to ask for their release they could go to Mexico or Japan or to the indies in the US or Europe and they could make a living. Whereas in the past it was basically if you weren’t in WWE you weren’t making money unless you were the 1% of independent wrestlers like a Daniel Bryan, or a Low-Ki or a Christopher Daniels, those guys were making livings. But most guys on the indies were 50 dollars US a night if you were lucky. I think that there is a lot more opportunity to make a living now.

SEScoops: Are you looking to establish yourself as a singles star on the independent circuit?

Simon: Re-establish…I was actually not a tag team wrestler when I got signed

SEScoops: Of course you were Ryan Drago on the indies from 2002-2013 if I’m correct?

Simon: I trained for a year before that as well. I wasn’t a tag team wrestler by trade, the initial team they actually put me in was me and Bull (Dempsey), there were two ‘proto’ versions of the Vaudevillains, one was myself and Aiden English and one was with a guy named Nicky Keegan.

SEScoops: I haven’t heard that name come up before…

Simon: Unfortunately he wound up injuring his neck and had to retire. Bull had been brought on to TV so English and me started tagging after that.

SEScoops: If you could form a team on the indies who would it be with and what would you name it?

Simon: That’s a hard one because I would never actually want to go back to a team again but if were an option someone like…there’s so many options I think a guy like Keith Lee, Ricochet, Zack Sabre Jr…

SEScoops: I was thinking maybe Marty Scurll?

Simon: Marty Scurll would be a good one. I absolutely adore Marty Scurll, to be perfectly honest I originally saw Marty back when he and Zack Sabre were the Leaders of the New School, like 2010-2011 maybe. I remember seeing them and I liked Zack’s style and I remember Marty wasn’t bad but he was just kind of ‘playing?’ And then, when I saw him doing the stuff with the plague mask I thought “that’s different” and then I actually saw him at a Ring of Honor show and I was like “wow, this guy gets it. This guy is REALLY good” I would love to work with Marty, either wrestling against him or teaming with him he’s genuinely a very charismatic and talented guy, he has come a long way from just trying to be the hot new indie kid on the British scene to being a really talented wrestler.

SEScoops: I wanted to ask you how you feel the independent scene has changed pre and post your WWE career?

Simon: Well just beyond the money there’s also the amount of talent. It used to be that you had the top dozen or so guys that would work everywhere. And now it’s more like there’s 100 guys on the indies. You’ve got guys like ACH, Lio Rush, Moustache Mountain (Trent Seven & Tyler Bate)…all these guys are top names now, whereas in the past it would’ve been “who’s main eventing the show?” It’s probably Chris Daniels, Daniel Bryan, Low-Ki, Doug Williams, AJ Styles or some mixture of these guys, whereas now it could be anyone.

SEScoops: You have more visibility on the independent scene now than at any other time in history. If I wanted to watch a promotion across the globe tomorrow there’s a good chance they have an on-demand service…

Simon: On demand, or YouTube, Direct download there are so many options. That’s the other thing, media and production value. I started wresting in 2001, back when having pipe and drape for an entrance and an actual sound system was groundbreaking. You’d also have one person with a single hard cam shot of the ring and that was your production value for a video. And to see even if you look back at early Ring of Honor, CZW or the Smart Mark video releases they’re so barbaric (laughs) compared to production value today. It’s great to see that independent groups are investing in themselves and they understand that yes, the wrestling matters but to a certain extent the fans are so used to seeing all of the pomp and all the bells and whistles that it’s nice to have those on a smaller scale and feel like you’re having a ‘real’ show.

SEScoops: It’s like if a company produced a show today with the same visual quality of ECW from the mid nineties people would refuse to watch it…HD is so readily available that everyone needs it.

Simon: Exactly, and to me that is a good thing. High standards make everyone better. I know that when I get in the ring with a guy like Daisuke Sekimoto I know I have to bring my A game. Last night I had a match with Matt Riddle, that guy is a former UFC fighter, he could mess you up! You get in the ring and you’re like “he’s gonna hit me hard” and I have to bring it back because if I don’t…I’m dead.

SEScoops: So….Japan, have you had contact with any of the promotions over there and has it been a goal of yours to perform over there?

Simon: That is definitely my goal, I would absolutely love to work for New Japan Pro Wrestling. Obviously beyond the high level of talent…guys like Marty, Zack, Will Ospreay, Ricochet, Juice Robinson…you also have the native talent such as Tanahashi, Hiromu Takahashi, Okada…

SEScoops: You mentioned Juice Robinson…

Simon: There’s a guy that, a lot of people don’t know this….he quit at Wrestlemania.

SEScoops: Really?

Simon: Yea in San Francisco. It was a very gutsy move. He went up to Triple H and his words were “look I don’t want to work for someone who doesn’t believe in me.” Triple H said “I can respect that,” he asked him to hang around for a while so that they could work out his stuff, he stayed for one more month and then he was done. It was on his terms and he went and he said “I’m going to prove you wrong. You think I’m a guy that is here to put people over and that’s all I can do. I’m very talented.” I mean he just beat Kojima in the G1. That’s a hell of a win, that’s a very big honour to have.

SEScoops: I haven’t seen it yet. “Spoilers” ..

Simon: I heard it was a great match! That’s the thing there are so many guys like that where you just have to have the guts to believe in yourself. When you’re in the system (WWE) it’s hard because there is so much money…

SEScoops: Of course it is, it’s so easy for fans to ask people why they just don’t leave but you have to make a business decision…

Simon: Yea, it’s the difference between making three, four hundred thousand dollars a year and not knowing if you’re going to pay the bills…it’s a very scary feeling. In WWE there’s always that feeling of no matter what happens you’re going to get paid. When you’re outside if you’re not working then you’re not getting paid. It can be very scary. I even had a couple moments of my August looks light, and then I thought I have some big matches when I get back to the US, I’m coming back to the UK in September for King of Trios, I’m back in XWA in October…In all those cases they are high profile matches…but a lot of misinformation was put out on the internet about my time in WWE. To that end I know that I’m kind of fighting uphill, but with these matches and the more people get to know me then the more they realize that stuff is false.

SEScoops: What sort of stories? Anything specific spring to mind?

Simon: My favourite is..right after I was released someone ‘reskinned’ a story from the Wrestling Observer about Juventud Guerrera, they just pulled his name out and put mine in…there’s still people to this day that quote this story as fact.

SEScoops: Don’t believe everything you read on the internet (apart from this site of course)…

Simon: A retraction will never get as much attention as a statement

SEScoops: Of course it won’t

Simon: They’ll do a front-page story about something and then the retraction will be seen the next day in small print on the last page…no one knows

SEScoops: I love the Misfits parody logo that you’ve got on your new gear…

Simon: Thank you that was done by a guy named Juan of the Dead 209 on Twitter and Instagram, very talented guy he’s done some shirts for other guys, he’s a wonderful artist and a great human being. Hell of a beard on him…

SEScoops: You seem like a man who appreciates good facial hair…

Simon: I do! The funny thing was I swore up and down that I was going to shave this off as soon as I got released.

SEScoops: You can’t do that.

Simon: I can’t do it, too many people want to see it. If a promoter is bringing me in they want the moustache I’ve gotta keep it for a least a while. Maybe in a year I’ll do a moustache vs hair match and lose…

SEScoops: Finally, did you have a list in your mind of who you wanted to face on the independent scene when you left?

Simon: Not really, honestly I’ve been away for so long that five is too few! Honestly anyone who wants to go out there and give their all. As I said there’s a lot of talent who can do it, there are a lot of options. When I was on the indies before it was basically “who is in Ring of Honor” (laughs), that’s what it was. I really like Cara Noir, he has a presentation that you don’t usually see on the independent scene. The main thing is I get bored very easily, anyone I wrestle I don’t want to be bored by them.

SEScoops: For a while the indie scene was guilty of black trunks, black kickpads….

Simon: Same five moves as well, it was the Shining Wizard, the Double Stomp, the Brainbuster…it was like five moves.

SEScoops: Are there any companies that you are specially looking at working for?

Simon: Obviously New Japan as I mentioned. The British scene has blown up so much and there are so many companies to work for. I’ll be back here in October and there are obviously options in Scotland and Ireland as well.

SEScoops: ICW and OTT…

Simon: I remember back in the day when Ireland was Irish Whip and that was it. The only school was Hammerlock. Those were your only options but now there’s a lot more. Even like France has a scene, Italy has wrestling, Spain has some stuff, Norway, Sweden…there are promotions all over Europe now.

SEScoops: wXw in Germany is another massive promotion…

Simon: Yes wXw there’s another one…I would really love to go to New Japan like I said.

SEScoops: Well they are opening up an American territory, so that might be worth a look

Simon: Absolutely, trust me I’d love to move back to California I’ll work as a trainer! Like I said there’s just so many places to work now. It’s just a question of who’s next?

SEScoops: Thanks again for the talk.

Simon: Thank you.

Thanks again to Simon Grimm for his time. He’s back in XWA October 8th and will be be appearing at King of Trios for Chikara on September 1, 2 and 3. Follow him on Twitter @GotchStyleWWE.

Former WWE Superstar Simon Gotch captured the XWA Frontier Sports Championship during the main event of XWA’s Charter Hall event in Colchester, England last night.

The Frontier title has been held by the likes of former TNA/Impact star Doug Williams, UK up and comer Danny Blaze and UK scene legend Jody Fleisch.

Gotch is the first non-British wrestler to hold the title, he will defending against Doug Williams this October and tickets will be available to purchase via xwatickets.com in the coming days.

The event also featured the likes of EVOLVE star Keith Lee, former NXT performer Bull James/Dempsey, Session Moth Martina and PROGRESS’ Pastor William Eaver.

Breaking news … New Frontier sports champion @GotchStyleWWE pic.twitter.com/ol4OSZrXNj

— XWA (@XWAUK) July 23, 2017

https://twitter.com/XWAUK/status/889243593130594304

Former WWE Superstar Simon Gotch recently spoke to Wrestle:List and went into detail about leaving WWE. Gotch claimed that he had been unhappy in WWE for some time before his release. Here are some highlights from the interview:

On leaving WWE:

“I was really unhappy. I’d actually been pretty unhappy there for a while. It’s kind of an odd little side story – the previous year, right after the takeover they did in Dallas, which myself and my former tag team partner Aiden English weren’t even on the live special from Dallas. And I’d always been really close with Biff Busick or Oney Lorcan as he’s now known, and he walked by and said “Hey man, how are you doing,” and I just looked at him and said “I fucking hate this place. I want to quit,” and he got this huge grin on his face. If you’ve ever seen Biff smile you know he’s got this very unique sort of half smile does, but it was that thing of really, frustration building up and being really depressed about how we were being used. And you always want to be doing more and when you’re feeling like you’re not being allowed to you’re literally being barred from doing more, it can wear on you a lot.”

Working in the WWE environment:

“The one plus of NXT versus the main roster was in NXT they did the tapings every month or every couple of months. It was kind of like you knew where you were going or weren’t going. If you’re not used on a taping you know you’re not going to do anything for the next six weeks or month. So then you have time to work on stuff on house shows or put together ideas, new pitches – you know whether or not you need to do that. But, on the main roster, because everything’s so day-to-day and week-to-week, there’s very much that feeling of, am I doing anything on TV this week? No? Okay – let me pitch an angle. And next week comes and they tell me they like the angle but they don’t have time to start it yet. And another week goes by and they don’t do anything.”

If he would ever return to WWE:

“I wouldn’t say the door is closed obviously because in wrestling if it’s going to make them money, they’re not going to care about anything else. Serena Deeb was actually just back in the Mae Young Classic and I’m pretty sure everyone thought she was blackballed after she got released and I must have heard she’d retired a couple of years ago. So she’s an example of someone who a lot of people would’ve thought would never be back. Mickie James, Alundra Blayze, Drew McIntyre is probably one that people thought would never come back or Jinder Mahal. For me personally, I think it’s a matter of – I would need to come back under the right circumstances. I wasn’t happy with how I was used when I was there. I wouldn’t want to come back to basically fall into that same trap again.”

Rising UK Independent promotion XWA has announced two big international matches for their upcoming Charter Hall event in Colchester, England on July 23rd.

Former WWE Superstar Simon Gotch will be taking on Big Japan wrestler Daisuke Sekimoto and Former NXT star Bull James faces EVOLVE standout Keith Lee.

Tickets for the event are still available to purchase through the company’s Facebook page.

XWA has also recently unveiled their brand new on demand service, the first event uploaded featured the DDT style war between Kota Ibushi and Goto Ihashi, you can check out the XWA/Pro Wrestling EVE On Demand Service here for $9.99 a month.

https://twitter.com/MrLARIATO/status/877985600791564288

Colchester is in for some wars come July 23rd, tickets on sale at https://t.co/55NGsv8095 pic.twitter.com/xp8Vxjbv2k

— XWA (@XWAUK) June 27, 2017

Recently released WWE Superstar Simon Gotch was a guest on the latest episode of Journey Of A Frontman to talk about his time in the WWE prior to his release. During the interview, Gotch spoke on he and the WWE locker room’s reaction to “The Final Deletion” which Chris Jericho obtained a copy of from Matt Hardy after he did his podcast.

You can check out what Gotch had to say about he and the locker room’s (including John Cena) reaction to the segment here (quotes via WrestleZone):

“Chris Jericho had actually been given an advanced copy of it because Matt had done his podcast and he gave him a copy of it. So when we were over in Japan for a couple days, he was showing it to us. He was telling us that this video’s insane, it’s insane, it’s insane, it’s insane. So we had a viewing and Cena sees everybody laughing and asks what’s going on. And we were like, “Oh, we’re watching this Matt Hardy video.”

“And he asked how it was. I said, “Try and imagine the worst thing you’ve ever seen WWE do. Then imagine if somehow it was good.” And he looks at me for a second and he goes, “I don’t want to come in halfway. Please tell me when it is over. I would like to watch it.” So it finishes and we’re all dying laughing because it’s just the most insane thing anyone’s ever seen. I actually brought it up to Chris and found out he ended up bringing it up to Matt at Mania. If you watch the video when he lights the fire, Matt actually gets engulfed in a ball of flame for a second.

“If you watch it closely when he throws the fire down, pay attention to Matt. Don’t look at Jeff, don’t look at the fire. Look at Matt. The fire comes up and engulfs him. And he was like, “Yeah! No one noticed that! We were doing it, it took all day and we were losing the gasoline. They were like you just gotta go, just do it. And we just went and did it. It got all over me!” And so it was just one of those where it was just a complete accident, but apparently not a lot of people noticed it. I came back in later, Cena was watching the video, he looked at me and said, “You are absolutely right.””

WWE announced on Wednesday that Simon Gotch of The Vaudvillains had been released.

Gotch wrestled in NXT from 2013-2016. The Vaudvillains joined the SmackDown brand last year but were never serious contenders for tag team gold.

BREAKING: WWE has come to terms on a mutually agreed upon release with Simon Gotch as of today, April 5, 2017. https://t.co/zYX4XsZL53

— WWE (@WWE) April 5, 2017

– Paul Heyman will be appearing on ESPN SportsCenter on Wednesday night for the “Off The Top Rope” segment with Jonathan Coachman.

– SmackDown Superstar Simon Gotch turns 34 years old today.

– James Ellsworth now has his own t-shirt at WWE Shop.

– In recognition of Sasha Banks and Charlotte headlining WWE Hell in a Cell later this month, the official event poster is currently on display in the lobby of WWE headquarters in Stamford, CT:

#TheBoss @SashaBanksWWE and the #GeneticallySuperior @MsCharlotteWWE never looked so good! https://t.co/UsVchvNEki #HIAC #WWEHQ pic.twitter.com/PxxLA8ohiA

— WWE (@WWE) October 18, 2016

– A fight broke out at Tuesday’s WWE SmackDown from Worcester, MA involving Sin Cara and Simon Gotch of The Vaudevillains. The two got physical near the catering area, but we are awaiting further details on what what precipitated the altercation. Neither man wrestled on the show. Fortunately, the two will not have to work together any time soon, as Sin Cara was drafted to RAW while The Vaudevillains will be on SmackDown.

• Complete WWE Draft Results

– Nikki Bella will be undergoing an MRI this week to determine if she’s medically cleared to get back in the ring after undergoing major neck surgery back in January.

✈️ En route to my destiny….💋💪🏽N #stayfearless pic.twitter.com/TuTDgh1wbx

— Nikki & Brie (@NikkiAndBrie) July 19, 2016

– Triple H tweeted the following about the NXT stars who got Drafted to RAW and SmackDown:

They'll be on #Raw and #SmackdownLive now…

…but they'll ALWAYS be @WWENXT. #WeAreNXT #NXTProud pic.twitter.com/fff4bPMNVM

— Triple H (@TripleH) July 20, 2016

Stone Cold Steve Austin was among those who called Enzo Amore after he suffered a concussion at Sunday’s Payback PPV. Austin recently said he had a good talk with Amore, and discussed the spot with Simon Gotch that went wrong on his podcast The Steve Austin Show.

Austin used his podcast to offer some advice to Gotch of the Vaudevillains, who threw Amore into the ropes which caused the concussion. “When you’re throwing a man through the ropes at that short of a distance,” Austin advised, “you back off the horsepower.” Austin says Gotch threw Amore into the ropes with “way too much force,” and instead he should just be guiding him towards the ropes with “a little bit of momentum.”

Austin also criticized Gotch for trying to pick up Amore by his head when he was in a bad position. His second piece of advice to the Vaudevillians member was not to pick his opponent up by their head if he has an “inkling that something went wrong.”

The WWE Hall of Famer said he thinks Gotch got excited in the moment and didn’t want to come down too hard on him, but that it was a “really scary bump.”

“Gotch, check on a man before you grab someone by the head if you suspect anything,” Austin stated. “And that’s just words of wisdom. I’m not eating your ass out. I’m just saying, ‘hey, ease up on the horsepower’.”

You can listen to Austin’s podcast here.

Referee stops the match. Medical personnel attend to the injured @WWEAaLLday21. #WWEPayback pic.twitter.com/3D8nlWtnL3

— WWE (@WWE) May 2, 2016

As seen on this week’s NXT on the WWE Network, The Mechanics (Scott Dawson and Dash Wilder) defeated The Vaudevillains (Simon Gotch and Aiden English) to become the new NXT Tag-Team Champions.

Dawson and Wilder were congratulated on social media by Triple H, as well as their good friend, WWE Hall Of Famer Adam “Edge” Copeland. Below you can see their comments, as well as what appears to be a challenge to the main roster from Dawson. Additionally, you can check out a video of The Mechanics’ backstage interview after winning the titles below.

https://twitter.com/ScottDawsonWWE/status/664621922756526080

Congrats to my boys @DashWilderWWE & @ScottDawsonWWE on becoming new @WWENXT tag team champs #NoFlipsJustFists #SawboneSquad

— Adam Copeland (@RatedRCope) November 12, 2015

https://instagram.com/p/995XSZvwMI/

• Ronda Rousey Getting Heat For Controversial Sex Comments, Rousey Responds

– Jushin Thunder Liger won his NXT debut, defeating Tyler Breeze in the opening match of the NXT Takeover: Brooklyn event on Saturday night at the Barclays Center. Liger picked up the win via pinfall after hitting Breeze with his “Liger Bomb” finisher.

– The Vaudevillains — Simon Gotch and Aiden English defeated Blake and Murphy, with the help of Blue Pants, to become the new NXT Tag-Team Champions at the NXT Takeover: Brooklyn special.

– Apollo Crews, the former Uhaa Nation, made his “Takeover” debut on Saturday night, defeating Tye Dillinger in a quick match at the NXT Takeover: Brooklyn event.

– Below is the cool intro that Triple H did at the NXT Takeover: Brooklyn live special from the Barclays Center on Saturday night.

• VIDEO: UFC Star JUMPS THE RAIL At GFW Taping, Goes After Chael Sonnen!

As announced recently, The Vaudevillians (Aiden English and Simon Gotch) will be taking on Blake and Murphy for the NXT Tag-Team Championships at the NXT Takeover: Brooklyn event on Saturday, August 22, 2015, live on the WWE Network.

The last time the duo earned a title shot, their victory was spoiled by NXT Diva Alexa Bliss, and as a result, there is speculation that one of the new NXT Divas will make their TV debut at NXT Takeover: Brooklyn event to even the odds between the two teams and make things more fair.

WWE.com wrote the following teaser for the aforementioned tag-team match:

“NXT General Manager William Regal granted the old school duo a championship rematch at the Barclays Center on Aug. 22, but suggested that English & Gotch find a way to counteract Alexa Bliss this time around. Can The Vaudevillians neutralize the ever-present threat of Alexa Bliss, or will Blake & Murphy manage to walk out of Brooklyn with the NXT Tag Team Championship? Find out at NXT TakeOver: Brooklyn, live on WWE Network Saturday, Aug. 22 at 9 p.m. ET/6 p.m. PT!”

• STEVE AUSTIN Defends “FAKE” Comments, UFC Champion DOES NOT! [READ >>]

Following this week’s edition of NXT on the WWE Network, below is the latest official lineup for the NXT Takeover: R Evolution live WWE Network special, which takes place on December 11th:

NXT Championship vs. Career Match
– Adrian Neville (c) vs. Sami Zayn

NXT Tag Team Championship
– Kalisto & Sin Cara (c) vs. Simon Gotch & Aiden English

NXT Women’s Championship
Charlotte (c) vs. Sasha Banks

– Finn Balor and Hideo Itami vs. The Ascension

– Kevin Owens debuts

Make sure to visit the website on December 11th for the best NXT Takeover: R Evolution live results coverage on the web!

The following matches were taped on May 29th at Full Sail University in Winter Park, Florida for tonight’s edition of NXT television:

– Alexa Bliss vs. Sasha Banks

– Garrett Dylan vs. Mojo Rawley

– The Vaudevillians (Aiden English & Simon Gotch) vs. Angelo Dawkins & Travis Tyler

– Tyler Breeze vs. Kalisto

– Ryan Katz, Becky Lynch, Simon Gotch and Braun Stowman from NXT were scheduled to be at RAW tonight to be part of Adam Rose’s “Rosebuds” entourage.

– WWE Hall Of Famer “Nature Boy” Ric Flair is scheduled to attend the SmackDown television taping on Tuesday night in Atlanta, Georgia. As noted, WWE has been in talks with Flair about bringing him back as a regular TV character.

– Former WCW wrestler turned NXT trainer Norman Smiley was one of the people in Adam Rose’s “Rosebuds” group on WWE television this past week. Also in the group were NXT talents Braun Stowman and Simon Gotch, as well as Becky Lynch and NXT producer Ryan Katz.

– The following is a trailer for Batista’s new DVD:

http://youtu.be/gL2-f8gXS_k