Fightful Wrestling Weekly (8/17): Riddle, Kiera Hogan, Raw & SD Producers, Notes, More
I talked to Thunder Rosa recently, who is also a part of the Ladies Night Out III show, which you can stream over at Title Match Wrestling Network this weekend. She said that Lucha Underground found her very early in her career and considers it very much a “right place, right time” situation. After years of having strict contracts, Lucha Underground has relaxed their rules, which opened up the possibility of Rosa (also known as Kobra Moon) working with Ring of Honor. She told me she wasn’t even able to be approached by ROH until recently, but that the experience working there was a positive one.
Rosa worked with AroLucha earlier this year as well, and talked about their business model of trying to bring lucha libre to an American crowd.
When asking about her unique look, Rosa cited Lady Gaga as a motivator, and prefers to work without the mask for the obvious hurdles physically that wearing a mask can cause.
Peyton Royce – Dave Meltzer
The comments about Peyton Royce from Dave Meltzer that drew the ire of WWE Superstars was a hot topic among wrestlers even to me on Wednesday. Some of the roster had the day off and several were in New York already for the weekend, and a few reached out to me about the news. The consensus that I got was that Meltzer often makes a living criticizing members of the roster, so many of them saw it as an opening and more than fair game to throw it back his way. I can tell you as someone who has experienced the same, it just goes with the territory of that kind of job and making a mistake. I get the feeling Dave Meltzer understands that as well as anyone, and handled it well.
To follow up on the interview I published with Kiera Hogan last week, she’s taking on Ivelisse in a cage match in the main event of Ladies Night Out III Saturday night, in what I consider one of the best under-the-radar matches in a while. It’s being promoted as the first ever women’s cage match in Texas history, and Hogan admitted to me that she’s not that experienced in hardcore wrestling. Anyone familiar with Ivelisse’s history knows that’s quite the opposite for her.
Hogan also had several of her vlogs resurface from when she was only 16-years old. While many have to be concerned about photo or video leaks, embarrassing tweets or audio bytes, Hogan had videos pop up of her singing the praises of the company that she’s actually working for now. She also heavily put over Gail Kim’s work with the Knockouts division.
We’re nearing the day that many suspect Fightful alumni Matt Riddle will be appearing for NXT. We’ve been airing several clips from our (likely final) Bro Spot/ Bro Cast filming on The List and Ya Boy weekly, and the irony is I thought it was the best we ever were on air together. We discussed things like Matt’s take on shaking hands in the locker room, to his feelings on Booker T and the Young Bucks and Kenny Omega.
Riddle heard the comments Kenny Omega made about him and was flattered by them, and seemed surprised that Omega even knew who he was, considering the level that Omega is on. One time earlier this year Riddle “promised” me that he’d end up facing Omega, which is seeming a lot less likely to happen any time soon.
Matt talked to me about MMA, which he truly seems to have very little interest in returning to. He’s gotten offers from overseas companies to fight in Asia and Russia, but sees the domestic MMA scene as not having a whole lot of money. He didn’t seem too intrigued about the possibility of even doing a big money UFC fight down the line if his profile were to rise.
Riddle would later discuss Brian Pillman Jr, saying “I hang out with Brian Pillman, we’re the Hollywood Bros. I like him. He’s a good guy, pretty hilarious, he’s a real bro. He’s been training MMA as well, he’s been doing jiu jitsu and kickboxing. I think he’s going to be something serious. When the kid can work and do something crazy, people are going to get behind him,” said Riddle.
Producers
As per usual, Dave “Fit” Finlay was given a women’s match to produce — which has been the case for several years — and helped with Alexa Bliss vs. Ember Moon, kicking off WWE Raw. The women’s tag team match between the Riott Squad and Sasha Banks & Bayley later in the night was produced by Sarah Stock.
The blink and you miss it six man tag match with Bobby Roode & Titus Worldwide vs. Authors of Pain & Mojo Rawley was produced by Dean Malenko. D-Von Dudley was in charge of the Raw Tag Team Championship triple threat match. Former NWA Champion Adam Pearce produced Constable Corbin vs. Tyler Breeze, and Jamie Noble was tasked with Braun Strowman & Finn Balor vs. Kevin Owens & Jinder Mahal.
I was able to learn some info on who produced a couple of promos on Monday night as well. The main event segment saw Seth Rollins bring back Dean Ambrose in a promo that also featured Kurt Angle, Dolph Ziggler & Drew McIntyre. This was produced by Shield 2.0 member himself, Jamie Noble again. The Roman Reigns, Paul Heyman, Brock Lesnar promo and happenings earlier in the night was produced by Michael Hayes.
Raw & SD Notes
The title of Smackdown Live this week was “Promise Ring,” which was about AJ Styles’ Summerslam Promise that headlined the show. WWE Monday Night Raw’s title was “A Friend In-deed” based on the main event segment that saw Dean Ambrose make his on screen return.
WWE Raw underwent re-writes and a shift in plans throughout Monday due to the passing of Jim “The Anvil” Neidhart. Both Natalya, who was scheduled to wrestle, and Tyson Kidd, who was scheduled to produce, were obviously not at the show.
The three jobbers, named “the Triple Threat,” were told to pretend that they wanted to fight the Bludgeon Brothers, until the time the tag team champions hit the ring.
