Here is your fight size update for Thursday, April 8, 2021:
- Speaking to Renee Paquette on her podcast, Oral Sessions, Rhea Ripley explains how excited she is to share WrestleMania with Ash Costello of New Year's Day who will be playing her to the ring.
“So I think it was actually meant to happen last year. I didn't hear anything about it but she messaged me, saying, 'I'm sorry, this was supposed to be the moment.' She had already been contacted by WWE but I got canceled before I heard about it. So they just messaged her this year as well and she said that she was down. It's incredible because I’ve listened to New Year's Day, which is the band that she sings in, for years now. I've met Ash before and she's so lovely. I'm so glad that I get to share this WrestleMania moment with her and to know that they haven't been able to tour and do shows as well and this is one of the biggest things that they're going to be doing. It's just out of nowhere. It's super cool.”
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- Speaking on a special Q&A version of his podcast, Kurt Angle praised Chad Gable as the most underrated wrestler he's ever faced.
"I would say and I wrestled him late in my career, but I would say Chad Gable. I think that kid has so much potential and I know the company started pushing them and they laid off. I don't know if it has to do with his size, but the guy is amazing and in real life, he could whoop any of those wrestlers' asses. He's a real-life badass and to not have him go to the main event level where he deserves to be, just blows my mind because he is very talented. A great technical wrestler, former Olympian, you can't ask for anything more than that."
Kurt Angle would further say that while he wouldn't give Chad Gable this advice personally, he feels it wouldn't hurt him to leave WWE and find another element of his personality somewhere else.
(If you use the above quote in any future articles, make sure to credit Fightful and link back to this article.)
- Rhino recently spoke to WrestleZone about being slotted as the scrappy veteran for the Violent By Design faction.
“The thing is—Joe Doering, he’s a heater. You’ve got Cody, he’s a scrapper and sometimes I have to grab him, pull him back and say ‘let me get take this’. You mentioned Heath, and people loved Heath and I together. People loved the whole ‘Heath 4 IMPACT’ and all that stuff, but Heath has an open door with IMPACT,” Rhino stated. “Does he have an open door with Violent By Design? That’s not my call, that’s Eric’s call, so I’m not going to leave Violent By Design and if he has the opportunity with the holy waters of change, if that opportunity is given to him, great.”
- Speaking with The Grio, Sasha Banks joked that she is coming for Vince McMahon's position as the legit boss of WWE.
“Everybody knows who the legit boss is. That’s why I’m the greatest and number one in the WWE, [the] face of the company. There is no peaking season because I have not even peaked yet, here. Can you believe that? I’m still one of the youngest and, at 29, has built so much and accomplished almost everything a woman can do in the WWE. So now I’m trying to take over Vince McMahon’s [chairman and CEO of WWE] spot and become a CEO and a legit shareholder of the WWE because that’s the type of boss that I am.”
- During an interview with Revolver, Edge joked that his former partner, Christian Cage, has the worst music taste of anybody in wrestling.
“That would be my old partner Christian. He ... you name a boy band, he knows the lyrics. But he loves Stone Temple Pilots and Lenny Kravitz. But he can recite every Peabo Bryson song. He can sing you "Islands in the Stream" by Kenny Rogers and Dolly Parton. He has an eclectic, not great taste in music if I'm being brutally honest. When you can sing a New Kids on the Block album to me, then we probably have differing opinions on music taste. [Laughs]”
- Today on NXT UK, Walter once again successfully retained his championship and Aiofe Valkyrie set her sights on Meiko Satomura.
This just got VERY interesting!@Real_Valkyrie just sent a message to the #NXTUK Women's Division... but what's her next move? -- pic.twitter.com/G7Aw8RqIBe
— NXT UK (@NXTUK) April 8, 2021
WHAT. A. MATCH.@RampageBrown may have been @WalterAUT's toughest challenge yet, but the historic reign continues!#AndStill#NXTUKPrelude pic.twitter.com/p5iMldxJDu
— NXT UK (@NXTUK) April 8, 2021
- Keep up with all of the results from this weekend's independent events in our results section.
- Speaking on Women's Wrestling Talk, Leyla Hirsch opened up about how she plans to change the industry.
“Once I stepped into the ring, like and then once I've, you know, had like some experiences are it is, it is tough at times. When you do see how people treat all the people sometimes. But that's where I feel like I can always make a difference. Like not becoming like that, you know, even though like we've made it like even though I've made it to AEW I still have so much work to do. But again, the big thing is like not changing who I am I just remembering where I came from, who are the people that helped me get here, you don't get here alone, you know, and I did. So I'm always going to be thankful for the people that have helped me. And I'm also going to make sure that people that come into AEW to treat them right to make them comfortable.”
- Looks like there's an announcement about WWE 2K coming to WrestleMania weekend.
#WWE2K fans: You’re going to want to tune in to #WrestleMania -- pic.twitter.com/RnkOdgROsn
— #WWE2K20 (@WWEgames) April 8, 2021
- Speaking with ET Canada's Shakiel Mahjouri, Christian Cage named his Mount Rushmore of Canadian pro wrestlers.
"OK, so man... Bret Hart has to be up there, obviously, I would put Edge on that. I think we can put Trish Stratus on there. She's a Canadian icon as far as wrestling goes. Then last I'm going to put Owen Hart on there just because I love him... I think other people would expect me to put myself on there."
- Want more audio content this WrestleMania week? Fightful has you covered.
We have over FIVE HOURS of free Fightful Select audio up on all of our podcast feeds, as @FightTalk_ has dropped two free preview editions of The Weekender, previewing @GCWrestling_ Collective and @indiewrestling Showcase of the Independents!!https://t.co/COGGRSoW8M
— Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful.com (@SeanRossSapp) April 6, 2021
- Today, WWE stock closed at $56.09 per share.
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