Here is your fight size update for Sunday, October 3, 2021:
- Dan Lambert, in a recent interview with James Lynch of My MMA News, compared his current run in AEW to that of his run in IMPACT:
"It's different because the crowds, you know, most of the IMPACT shows were taped up at Universal Studios where it's more of people coming there just to get out of the hot in the sun and getting to some AC and they're not really wrestling fans, they're for the wrestling whereas you go to an AEW show and there are some rabid AEW fans in there. So they're more familiar with the storylines and who we are. So the reactions are a little different."
Should you use any portion of the quotes above, transcription credit should go to Fightful with a H/T linking back to this article.
- New Friday Night SmackDown draftee Top Dolla has taken to Twitter to respond to a critic that believes Hit Row may not make it on the main roster.
- Ahead of the upcoming Casino Ladder Match which is guaranteed to feature a joker, buddy Murphy has tweeted out an emoji of the Joker card.
- Alex Hammerstone spoke to the media shortly before his match against Jacob Fatu at MLW Fightland.
- Speaking on the Straight Shooters podcast, Hammerstone spoke about the weight on his shoulders now that he is at the top of the card in Major League Wrestling.
I feel like more eyes than ever are on me. I feel like there’s a lot of people expecting a lot from me. I feel like people are expecting a certain caliber to come out of this. I hold myself to very high standards. I feel the pressure. I’ve never felt pressure coming into a match like this. Not only to win the match but for it to be a classic, for this to be a match that people talk about, for people to go back and watch a year from now when it comes up. Being in that position, that high-profile, main-event position, it’s a lot, but I’m ready to take it on headfirst.
- Jarrett Diaz has been hired on the production side of NXT UK.
- Speaking with Chris Van Vliet, JONAH (Bronson Reed) recollected capturing the NXT North American Championship.
"Before winning the North American Championship I was doing well. Luckily for me, Hunter sort of had his eye on me, and then in his mind it was hey we want to make you one of our top guys on our show. He had that discussion with me that I was going to eventually become the North American Champion. Then they had more things planned for me towards the end of the year, which are not happening anymore. But in the wrestling business, things chop and change so much. Even though I was told things numerous times, I always thought well let's wait and see. Even winning the North American Championship, I was like I will wait until it actually happens. But Hunter saw something in me, which I appreciated. But when I became the North American Champion, I was a made man. Becoming that sort of champion, I think that people notice it."
- Watch the top 10 moments from The Hurt Business:
- Speaking with Cageside Seats' Shakiel Mahjouri, TJP opened up about the origins of the Manik character.
“I think it was the day of the Boston pay-per-view we had, Slammiversary. It was not long after the bombing in Boston. They had thought about changing the character, changing the name. At the time, TNA was doing arena shows and live TV every week. It was closer to what AEW is doing now. They were trying to get over that hump. They had network TV with Spike and everything. Maybe they thought the name should be changed. I was really kind of the one to break the silence and say, ‘Hey, maybe now is the time. We’re going to a city that needs a little bit of uplifting. I don’t know that Suicide is the best name for the correct. And you guys have been wanting to rebrand it a little bit for a while so.’ I don’t know who came up with Manik but I said, ‘Okay, we could do something with that. It’s better.’
“I had pitched a lot of different ideas for the character change. I had wanted to do something based on the Aswang, which is Filipino folklore. It’s like our vampire, ghoul, werewolf-type thing. I wanted to turn it into a Great Muta-type character. Sort of what Demon Balor is now. I don’t think he was doing that at the time yet, but that’s sort of what I wanted to do. They had taken the mask off and everything and I said, ‘What if we have a character that is me and this character at the same time. Sometimes it’s this character, sometimes it’s me.’ We had a lot of starts and stops and what we ended up getting was Manik with a new suit.”
- Here's the latest episode of ROW TV
- Here's the latest episode of OVW TV.
- Make sure you are subscribed to Fightful Select. A subscription grants you early access to interviews, Q&A opportunities, early looks at breaking news, and more. Also, make sure to check us out on YouTube and Twitch.
- Watch: Eric Bischoff shoots on AEW's SOLD OUT Arther Ashe show