Fightful Wrestling Weekly 11/13: WWE Talent Meeting, Kevin Owens, AEW, MLW, More
Anthony Henry
Jeremy Lambert spoke to Anthony Henry about his friendly competition with JD Drake. Henry says they’re very similar and cut from the same cloth, and he knows that he’s in for a good match with Drake. Henry noted that they hit each other harder than anyone else they’re in the ring with because of that level of comfortability between the two. He also put over wXw and their crowds, and the company’s professionalism. From catering, to the audience, to the atmosphere, Henry seems keen on working for them.
Henry says he found out a couple of weeks before EVOLVE’s special aired that it would end up on the network, and said he didn’t have the opportunity to process everything. Henry thinks that he could end up in or working with WWE soon, and admitted if you sign with EVOLVE, usually you want to go to WWE. He mentioned that the fact that he’s on WWE Network really didn’t hit him until he already had his match and he realized what he did. At that point, he was emotional and was congratulated accordingly.
Henry says that he would like to compete at the next Bloodsport show, and revealed he got on the last edition by sending stuff to Brett Lauderdale, who passed it along to Josh Barnett, who is heavily in control of the show. He wants to take on Sakuraba on a future show. He talked about learning the connections of pro wrestling and MMA, and the changes in perception of how shoot moves and work moves work so they’re not so foreign now.
You may have noticed that Kevin Owens wasn’t on WWE Raw Monday night, but he also wasn’t at the show or the talent meeting ahead of the episode. WWE had no creative plans for him last Monday, and he wasn’t brought in to the site of Raw accordingly. He is on the UK tour.
WWE Talent Meeting
Seth Rollins clarified to Fightful on the record that he didn’t say anything at the WWE talent meeting last Monday, which was about the Saudi Arabia travel issues.
All that we spoke to confirmed the nature of the talent meeting, but shot down the initial reports that Randy Orton made a light hearted joke in order to soften the mood. According to one talent ” No one said anything dumb. Opposite actually. Weird meeting but no one acted up.”
The Dave Meltzer report of AJ Styles and Rusev speaking up when questions were fielded was accurate. In addition, Karl Anderson spoke out too, which Meltzer later clarified.
“AJ, Rusev and Karl spoke up. Seth didn’t say anything, neither did Randy. Joke, or otherwise. Nothing TO say lol. We were told everything out there was rumors,” said one source.
We should clarify, the only information we received from Seth Rollins was the on-the-record quote we published, and he’s not been used as an anonymous source in this piece.
Tough Enough was tackled at length by Mandy Rose, as well as her friendship and partnership with Sonya Deville. She called Tough Enough training and the tryout way tougher than anything she ever experienced in the fitness and bodybuilding world. She was grateful for it because she knew that she could get through anything after getting through that.
She and current partner Sonya Deville remained friends after Tough Enough and all through NXT. When Paige was forced to retire, the two didn’t need to go to anyone in an effort to keep the team together, as it was already in the cards. Mandy said that Sonya was the most important person to her transition from NXT to WWE and adapting. While she didn’t have a ton of matches in NXT, she said the training is where her experience picked up. They’ve since found success both in the ring, and as a part of their donut review web series, which she also spoke about.
Fire & Desire weren’t sure that the WWE Women’s Tag Team Titles would actually happen, but as it got closer started to believe, and didn’t see a reason it wouldn’t. Rose closed by saying the duo was very excited with the announcement.
Sonya Deville
MMA could be in the fold for Sonya Deville, at least if the situation that presents itself is right. She’s clearly all-in on pro wrestling, but told Fightful that youth is on her side and knows she could compete in both MMA and pro wrestling. She doesn’t train in MMA much these days as she’s more focused on pro wrestling training. That’s paid off, as she says she’s not had anyone complain about her vicious looking worked knee strikes so far.
A fan of entertaining and competing, Sonya stumbled onto wrestling by accident and didn’t know it existed. After doing some acting and MMA fighting, she found pro wrestling and saw the connection between the two and fell in love with it. She heavily put over how appearing on Afterbuzz TV helped her get comfortable on screen, and mentioned that she wouldn’t be opposed to doing more on-camera work. She’s been getting help from an acting coach in Los Angeles, and hopes to act after her wrestling career is over.
Richard Holliday
It dropped last week ahead of MLW’s show, but Jeremy Lambert spoke to the arrogant son of a bitch that is Richard Holiday. He spoke of his love for Starbucks, Keurigs, spending time on his yacht and the like. He encouraged people to find who they are, unless who they are sucks, then in that case they should just quit. He noted that there are a lot of people who should quit.
He wants a Dynasty-produced episode of MLW TV, and claims that it’s the most requested episode. Court Bauer is hesitant to do it, but Holliday thinks it’s help out viewership to have a “negative amount of Teddy Hart’s cats” that Dynasty would help provide.
Among the other insults and shit-talking that Holliday uncorked, was him saying he had to have the Von Erich match in the states, and called them a band of misfits. He put over Salina’s production, and MJF’s ability to juggle both AEW and MLW.
AEW Notes
– In regards to the Jimmy Havoc vs. Excalibur fight, Tony Khan told Fightful’s Jeremy Lambert that he’s seen much worse in his football days both American and UK. He said everything was fine later.
– AEW Dark was delayed last week due to a last minute edit of the commentary provided.
