The following interview highlights with Impact Wreslting’s Taya Valkyrie were provided to PWTorch.com by the host of Interactive Wrestling Radio…

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Show: Interactive Wrestling Radio
Guest: Taya Valkyrie
Date: 05/03/19
Your Host: James Walsh

Current reigning and defending Impact Wrestling Knockouts Champion Taya Valkyrie joins the Wrestling Epicenter live from South Philadelphia, Pa. at the 230 Arena (formerly the ECW Arena) for a brand new interview. “Wera Loca” discusses the state of women’s wrestling in Impact Wrestling and beyond as well as talks about the ways that the ECW Arena reminds her of Lucha Underground’s original Temple, her match with Jordynne Grace at Rebellion, her fantastic street fight with Tessa Blanchard from Mexico on Impact a few months back, and more.

To listen to this episode in MP3 format or stream it off YouTube, visit Wrestling Epicenter. Check out the whole catalog of interviews while you are at it!

•Taya Valkyrie on handing Jordynne Grace her first loss in Impact at Rebellion: “I’m just proud of my performance. I mean, I’m proud of the whole show start to finish. But, I felt that I really tried to bring different aspects of my wrestling game. (laughs) I’m sure Jordynne was studying me so I really wanted to surprise her with some different things and really bring something special. I feel like we did that.”

•On wrestling in front of her home country’s fans in Canada again: “It’s been very interesting. (laughs) I really wish we would wrestle on the West Coast because it was my first time in Toronto since I was a child on a chior trip. People don’t realize how large Canada is. It is very expensive to travel from the west to the east. It was my first time in Toronto since I was literally 11. It was cool to get back there and really get a feel for the city which I had never really done before. It was cool!”

•On her critically acclaimed Street Fight with Tessa Blanchard on Impact in February: “I think we really pushed each other. I’ve had experience in street fights and things like that before in AAA. I was very prepared and I think I really pushed her to her limits. She did as well. I do think that was one of my best matches of the year so far. I hope everyone takes a look at it. I feel that every time I’m in the ring taping Impact or at any indy show, I’m always pushing myself to be better. I don’t want to say it is a Match of the Year (candidate) because it is only May. There is so much left to do! But, I definitely recommend people check it out. The Lucha Libre fans are hard to impress and I feel like we left them extremely impressed! (laughs) It was a great time for me. I’m looking forward to seeing what else we can do this year.”

•On enjoying being a heel: “Most of my career, I’ve been a heel. The Taya you are seeing now is just a developped version of my years in AAA and Lucha Underground. She’s just a version of that. Being a baby face was fun because it challenged me to do things that I really hadn’t done in years or wrestle in a certain way. But, it has been very fun revisiting this version of Taya and trying to push the envelope and show how awful I can truly be. (laughs) Come on! Who doesn’t love a good villain? Expect more awfulness coming your way!”

•On recently suffering head trauma when a moonsault went wrong: “I’m fine. I went to the hospital just because of pressure on the eye itself. I was worried that I could have fractured my orbital bone. I didn’t know what it could have been. I had an MRI and everything is fine. I just had severe swelling for like 5 days. By the time I got to WrestleCon (United We Stand), the swelling had gone down. Obviously, you can cover bruising with make-up! The glorious part of being a woman is you can put make-up on and you can hide everything! Obviously, everything is fine now. I’m in the ring every day. But, I haven’t moonsaulted yet. (laughs) Everyone has accidents. Everyone has things go wrong. I’ve moonsaulted like 7 zillion times. That is the most frustrating thing about it – Sometimes you just don’t even know why. But, with that said, I’m going to be hitting the gymnastics center when we’re back from this loop and doing stuff in the ring to try and get this (the moonsault) dialed in. I’m sure it was just a fluke accident. I still don’t know what it was. But, I’ll get back on the horse. My husband keeps asking me, “So, when are we going to go and backflip into the foam pit?” (laughs) I’m like, “All right, lets go!” It will happen, no worries!”

•On the state of the women’s wrestling revolution in 2019: “I’m very proud of how far we’ve come. I’ve been wrestling for like 8 years. When I think back to 4 years ago, it is completely different. It has been an incredible thing to live and see first hand how things have changed. I still think we have a LONG way to go, like, a very long way to go. But, everything in its time. I’m really proud to be a part of a company like Impact Wrestling which allows every woman on its roster to have a storyline, to have something going on, to be important, to be featured. For example, Rebellion had 3 different opportunities for women to be featured in matches. That is a really cool thing. I feel like if we keep moving in this directon, we really will feel equal. I think there are still things that need to change especially on the indies. I feel like the (big) companies are giving us.. Like, if you look at AEW, if you look at Impact Wrestling, if you look at WWE…. If you look at the major companies, women are given the opportunity to be featured but on the indies, I feel women are not given that opportunity. There is companies like RISE and SHIMMER which have done an amazing job. There’s Lucha Libre which always have multiple women’s matches. But then, you have some companies that don’t have more than 1 women’s match if that because they don’t think women’s wrestling is… interesting? I don’t even know. (laughs) It is like, come on guys! We’re proving we can wrestle just as well as the men can. We’re doing all types of street fights and tables matches. We’re giving 15, 20, 30 minute matches. I don’t know why some people still have such a closed minded opinion about it. Give these women a chance! We still have so many girls in the indy’s that have yet to be discovered and it is in the indy’s that they will be discovered. Give these ladies a chance!”

•On working in the legendary ECW Arena AKA 2300 Arena: ”I’m pretty excited because the last time I wrestled here would have been just after I moved to the (United) States working for House of Hardcore for Mr. Tommy Dreamer against Jessika Havok. That was like 2 years ago. I just thought the crowd was crazy, the place was electric, it is fun! The best comparison to that would be the Temple of Lucha Underground. I’m very excited to be back to bring heel Taya in all her mysery and disdain to the people of Philadelphia. (laughs) I’m excited for the next few days!”

•On the positive culture change of Impact Wrestling: “I really hope so. I really don’t understand why people, all of a sudden, decided they weren’t going to take it seriously. Negativity and gossip… THey did this, she did that. I don’t even know! If you like what you’re seeing, if you like the wrestlers that we have on the show – Guess what? We have some of the most amazing and talented wrestlers on our show from top to bottom, from the first match to the last one. What’s the problem? I just want people to open their hearts and their eyes and realize the negativity isn’t doing anything but hurting the business. If you love wrestling, why would you want to do that? If you’re a real fan, why would you want to talk bad about a place that really has been pushing the limits of professional wrestling, it has given people jobs, and it has been making people happy? Our pay per views are different than every other pay per view you will ever see… Our TV show is as well. Support us! Support what Impact Wrestling is doing for this industry! Lets continue to grow!”

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RECOMMENDED: Interview Highlights: Johnny Impact discusses Impact Wrestling, Lucha Underground, smart mark, RVD joining Impact

If there were any thoughts Eric Bischoff was hired as Executive Director of Smackdown Live to work behind the scenes and not play an on-air role, those thoughts were wiped out with today’s advertisement for tickets for his first Smackdown in San Antonio, Tex. next week.

The ad features Bischoff front and center, surrounded by Bayley, Finn Balor, Dolph Ziggler, Randy Orton, Charlotte Flair, and Kofi Kingston. The ad reads: “See what Eric Bischoff has in store for Smackdown Live!”

They are also advertising Kofi vs. Dolph for the WWE Title and Becky vs. Charlotte for the Smackdown Title.

Yesterday, WWE announced Bischoff will be the new executive director of Raw, a new position within the creative hierarchy. This ad suggests if Bischoff has actual power behind the scenes to enact real change in the presentation of the show, he will also be utilized as an on-air character.

Here is a 90 second snippet of Bischoff telling me in 2009 what he felt was wrong (and fixable) about Vince McMahon’s approach to presenting his product… (NOTE: This interview is currently being edited and prepped to be posted on the VIP Podcast Feed this weekend in two installments over two hours each.)

https://www.pwtorch.com/site/wp-content/uploads/post/2019/06/BischoffSnippet1-2009.mp3
99 CENT VIP SALE…
Listen to Keller’s entire 4.5 hour interview w/Bischoff from 2009

You can hear a 4.5 hour interview I conducted with Eric Bischoff ten years ago in the summer of 2009 where he marched through his entire career, with a focus on the highs and lows of his time running WCW and also his transition to WWE as a character. He spoke openly about his thoughts on Vince McMahon after getting to work with him behind the scenes in WWE after years competing with him. We are offering a special VIP membership price this week for those who want to dive into our in-depth analysis of the Bischoff and Heyman hires with over two hours of podcast analysis focused on that topic yesterday, plus our exclusive coverage of ROH Best in the World and AEW Fyter Fest this weekend along with all other VIP features. Check us out for 99 cents for a full month of access. For details, CLICK HERE.

[Thanks to PWTorch reader Jason Embry for sending us the ad]

Ongoing coverage, reviews, and analysis of this weekend’s Starrcast 3 shows and events from Chicago, IL.

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GCW’S SECRETS OF SPRING BREAK & TURNER MEMORIES WITH JIM ROSS AND TONY SCHIAVONE
AUGUST 30, 2019
PRO WRESTLING TEES THEATRE
LIVE FROM CHICAGO, IL

It was a tale of two eras at 6pm during Starrcast’s Friday evening sessions. In one room, Joey Janela, Ethan Page, and others broke down the secrets behind GCW’s Spring Break. The other room featured Jim Ross and Tony Schiavone telling stories and sharing memories of their time in the wrestling business.

Joey Janela immediately took over in the GCW room and demanded the water bottles onstage be replaced with White Claw. From there, the format of the panel was revealed and would include live watch-a-longs of Spring Break matches of the past with Janela, Page, and others providing live commentary as they played. The commentary didn’t feature artistic breakdowns of the matches, but rather a lively and comedic discussion around various happenings within them instead.

Janela vs. Marty Jannetty from 2017 was up first. Janela cracked jokes about Jannetty to the live audience who popped for them throughout the “analysis.” Panelists laughed at the match commentary and feverishly attempted to figure out who was the referee for the bout. PCO vs. WALTER from 2018 was featured second. Janela complimented WALTER as a performer, but also proudly stated that both he and PCO had since sold out.

Click Here: Cheap Golf Golf Clubs

Conceptually, the format of the panel was an interesting idea. That said, hearing Janela, Page, and others break down the matches in a serious and informative way without the comedy would have been a more effective approach and one that would have filled their 90-minute slot more efficiently. Janela and the other panelists were funny, but the shine of the jokes wore off once the second match breakdown began.

Joey Janela was a hit with an open microphone in his hand and his witty banter and charisma shined throughout the program. That alone is worth a watch for those who have subscribed for the weekend.

In the JR and Schiavone room, Ross and Tony sat back in their chairs and reminisced about their days in the wrestling business. Their time wasn’t only for stories as both men talked up AEW as a viable national promotion and sold their upcoming TNT show to a captivated audience. Ross went so far as to put the hard sell on folks telling them to set their DVR’s to make sure they catch the show from episode one and beyond. Ross and Schiavone both appeared supremely proud to be where they were and sounded passionate as they discussed the energy behind AEW.

DDP made a special appearance near the end of the program. Page sat down and relished his moment alongside two of his friends. The three men plugged DDPY before Page told a story about Cody from when he was in high school as a very successful amateur wrestler. After hearing the story and how Page taught Cody to learn from losing, it’s easy to see how Cody has been able to persevere through a tumultuous run in the wrestling business. Page also revealed to Schiavone and Ross that he used to call Cody by a special nickname. Young Buck. Ironic? Page certainly thought so.

Both Jim Ross and Tony Schiavone are important voices and ambassadors of the professional wrestling business. The comfort with which they talked about the business was remarkable and the understanding of the business of the business was also clearly defined.

If you’re looking for a fun stroll down memory lane and to get some historical perspective around the current happenings in wrestling, this panel is for you.

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NOW CHECK OUT OTHER STARRCAST 3 COVERAGE: STARRCAST 3 SPOTLIGHT: From undesirable to undeniable

WWE MONDAY NIGHT RAW PRIMER
UNIONDALE, N.Y. AT THE NYCB LIVE: HOME OF THE NASSAU VETERANS MEMORIAL COLISEUM
NOVEMBER 4, 2019
AIRS ON USA NETWORK, 8:00 p.m. EST
BY FRANK PETEANI (@FrankPeteani), PWTORCH CONTRIBUTOR

Announcers: Vic Joseph, Jerry “The King” Lawler, Dio Maddin

Arena, Crown Jewel Results Pertinent to Raw, and Top 10 Moments from Last Week

WWE returns to another frequent destination in the Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, N.Y. for tonight’s edition of Raw. It’s always somewhat bittersweet when Raw is here as the building is less than 30 minutes from where my family and I live. I feel compelled to go, but realistically can’t make it happen every time. Nonetheless, WWE events have been emanating from here as far back as 1985 including the first taping of Saturday Night’s Main Event. How many of you used to check TV Guide back in the day to see if that show was airing in place of Saturday Night Live? You could argue that show was the original quarterly PPV. The first portion of WrestleMania 2 came from here, as that event was split between three locations. The building opened in 1972 and was home to the NHL’s New York Islanders until 2015. The building closed for two years for major renovations and was rebranded NYCB Live: Home of the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum.

Here are the Crown Jewel results pertinent to Raw:

Humberto Carrillo won a battle royal to earn the right to challenge A.J. Styles of the O.C. for the U.S. Championship. Later in the show, A.J. retained the title.
Luke Gallows & Karl Anderson of the O.C. won the World Cup Tag Team Turmoil match. They entered eighth and defeated New Day and the Viking Raiders.
“The Fiend” Bray Wyatt (of Smackdown) defeated Seth Rollins to win the Universal Championship.

Here are the top 10 moments of last week’s show:

As of this moment, WWE does not have their preview of tonight’s show up. This is likely due to the travel issues the talent faced coming out of Saudi Arabia. I’m going to talk about that here. As far as the show tonight, we’ll review the top stories coming out of last week’s Raw.

Saudi Arabia Travel Issues

For PWTorch VIP members, Wade Keller has covered this in his VIP Hotline podcast the last couple of days. I have been in touch with Wade giving my perspective as an airline pilot, hoping at best to shed some light on what could be really happening. There are numerous stories as to why the flight was delayed, from a fueling issue to a mechanical problem, to the pilots timing out and not being able to fly back. I will say with aircraft delays, any issue can open Pandora’s box. I want to credit Jake Barnett from ProWrestling.net who shared a tweet from A.J. Styles who apparently does some gaming channel. He posted this:

Plausible…………but the complete picture is still doesn't add up. pic.twitter.com/a29aCs9Uyi

— Jake Barnett (@barnettjake) November 4, 2019

Take that whatever way you want. Whatever the issue may truly be, if it led to the pilots timing out, there’s nothing that can be done. Basically, you have a limit to how long you can be on duty which starts from the time you report, which is usually an hour before the flight, and adding the flight time to your destination. You have to be off by what’s called your Mandatory Off Time (MOT) before you “time out.” I’m not familiar with the limits when it comes to charter flights, but with scheduled flying as I do, it’s usually between 12-14 hours depending on a few factors. Once the pilots “time out” they need to get their necessary rest and try again when they’re legal to go back on duty.

I have faced this issue numerous times where a mechanical issue, weather, late aircraft, and other various issues led to not being able to do a flight. It’s terrible for the passengers who are just trying to get wherever they have to go. This can lead to negative emotions and, in this day and age with social media, everybody’s feelings are out there in the open rational or not. I’m not saying the talent didn’t have reason to be frustrated. Come on now, you’re in a foreign country that – let’s not be naïve – isn’t everybody’s favorite. They’re away from their families and the nature of the WWE travel schedule is crazy to begin with. I understand all of that, believe me! I’m just saying it’s hard to really judge the situation without knowing all the facts, especially when it comes to airline delays.

When you crack the nut on these things, most of the frustration comes down to communication and not the issue itself. I don’t know how the crew or the airline reps communicated with the talent and crew, but if they were getting half information and the runaround, I could see the frustration. Most rational people understand that air travel is not a perfect science. The ones that don’t, you can’t worry about them.

If it was a mechanical problem, it could be a nightmare. Atlas Air does strictly charter flights, and nothing scheduled according to my knowledge. Provisions have to be made for maintenance should an issue arise downline, meaning outside of your base of operations. Atlas Air has a base of operations in JFK, so the mechanics are there to work on the aircraft. I flew corporate jets before the airlines and, if we had a maintenance issue outside of base, we had to call our maintenance director who then had to call the head of maintenance in whatever city we were in. That could be a whole issue itself just getting a hold of someone. They then had to go through numerous logistics before a mechanic could even turn a screwdriver. That could and has led to extensive delays. I don’t know if that happened here, but it’s possible that a mechanical could lead to a delay which could lead to the crew being unable to do the flight until they get their proper rest.

Throw in the issue with Vince McMahon leaving. Now it’s possible he left before the issues arose. Who knows and I’m not going to get into that one way or another. I don’t get the impression, though, that at least someone from management stayed back to make sure the talent got home. If that didn’t happen, it’s unacceptable. Someone needs to be accountable.

Now I can go on and on. I don’t know the real story, but I just wanted to share my perspective having dealt with delays on different levels. Numerous wrestlers put up tweets while they were in Saudi Arabia and did the same when they came home. I love including social media clips in my reports, but there’s way too many to post. If you’re reading this article, you likely follow a bunch of wrestlers, so you can see what they posted. Kofi Kingston, Rusev, Buddy Murphy, Andrade, Curt Hawkins, and Zack Ryder were amongst the most pronounced unless I’m missing someone. WWE acknowledged the situation on their website and put out this tweet:

TRAVEL UPDATE: The @WWE roster returned to the United States on Saturday following travel delays after #WWECrownJewel. https://t.co/fHzxnohZvJ

— WWE (@WWE) November 2, 2019

Top Developments

Brock Lesnar Quits Smackdown

This past Friday on Smackdown, Paul Heyman announced that WWE Champion Brock Lesnar officially quit Smackdown. This is due to the fact that Rey Mysterio could not go to Smackdown to face Lesnar on the heels of Rey attacking Lesnar after he retained his title over Cain Velasquez at Crown Jewel. Rey is exclusive property of Raw and the USA Network. Therefore, Lesnar will be coming to Raw to go after Rey. Nassau Coliseum’s Twitter account acknowledged this:

JUST ANNOUNCED: @WWE Champion @BrockLesnar & @HeymanHustle will be live on #RAW this Monday hunting for @reymysterio #WWELongIsland 🔥

🔓| https://t.co/8EvrMPrHhY pic.twitter.com/Nv7brCuizl

— NYCB LIVE (@NYCBLive) November 2, 2019

Frank’s Analysis: If Lesnar could just quit Smackdown and go to Raw, why can’t Rey quit Raw and go to Smackdown? Why can’t Heyman negotiate to have this happen? How can the NXT wrestlers, property of the USA Network on Wednesday nights, just show up on Smackdown? Why not just draft Lesnar to Raw in the first place or draft Rey to Smackdown? Rey would have made a ton of sense on Friday nights. Ah please you know what I got a headache thinking about all of this. I don’t worry about this nonsense watching AEW or New Japan or even NXT for that matter. How did those NXT wrestlers feel on Friday night? They felt like stars, right? They felt important.

Rusev Loves Sex and Babies

Last week on the King’s Court, Lana and Rusev were guests of Jerry “The King” Lawler. Lana revealed that she’s been wanting to leave Rusev because all he wants is sex, and for her to have their babies. She claimed her modeling career is important and she doesn’t want to ruin her body by having a baby and having stretch marks. When Lawler asked if she was with Bobby Lashley because Rusev wanted a baby, she then revealed that Lashley claimed Rusev cheated on her and she believed him.

Lashley came out and they brawled. Lana then hit Rusev with a kendo stick. When he questioned her why she was doing this and claiming he loved her, Lashley hit Rusev with a low blow. He then kicked him down and made out with Lana to close out the show.

Lana accompanied Lashley as part of team Flair at Crown Jewel. Rusev was part of team Hogan, who defeated team Flair.

Frank’s Analysis: Rusev can’t desire sex from his attractive wife. Women are bad if they don’t want to have babies. Attractive women shouldn’t be with someone like Rusev. When you don’t want to be with someone anymore, just believe that they cheated on you because someone you’re attracted to told you so. Wrestling fans want to see husbands and wives break up on TV even though they know they’re still together in real life. Got it.

Seth Rollins No Longer Universal Champion

Last week on Raw heading into Crown Jewel, then-Universal Champion Seth Rollins defeated Erick Rowan in a Falls Count Anywhere match. He had a forklift lower a pallet onto Rowan and then stood on top of it for the pin. Here he was in a WWE exclusive prior to Crown Jewel:

Rollins unfortunately couldn’t figure it out as he lost a Falls Count Anywhere to the “Fiend” Bray Wyatt at Crown Jewel, losing the Universal Championship for the second time this year. Wyatt is on Smackdown and apparently Brock Lesnar is heading to Monday Night Raw with the WWE Championship. By the looks of things, the titles are being flipped for the first time since the roster split returned in 2016. WWE periodically flipped the World Championship and WWE Championship between Raw and Smackdown during the first roster split era from 2002-2011. At any rate, it looks like Rollins will address his future tonight on Raw looking at this tweet:

So much swirling in my head after #CrownJewel. Thank you @dubaitourism & @RingsideC #RingsideFest & all of our incredible fans for the weekend. Will address my future tonight on #Raw. pic.twitter.com/e0i7idhkdO

— Seth Rollins (@WWERollins) November 4, 2019

Frank’s Analysis: Seth Rollins is a mess right now and I don’t know what you do outside of keeping him off TV for a few months to figure it out. It’s kind of wrong place wrong time as the Fiend is popular, even as a heel, and thus Rollins could just be a victim of circumstance. You wonder though if the negativity towards Rollins had been building for a while with the constant “Burn it down” at the end of every promo, his social media wars with people, and looking more like a corporate choice rather than the guy fans were organically behind a year ago. I don’t think it’s Roman Reigns Part II, but sometimes it’s hard not to think that way.

Other Match Results from Last Week

Raw Women’s Champion Becky Lynch defeated Kairi Sane in a non-title match. Prior to this, Paige came out and brought out Kairi and Asuka and talked about their success, but got mist sprayed in her eyes by Asuka. After the match Becky had some thoughts in a WWE.com exclusive. It’s good to see her address her history with Asuka (losing match at Royal Rumble):

Buddy Murphy defeated R-Truth.
The Street Profits told everyone “We Want the Smoke” in the ring.
Ricochet defeated Drew McIntyre via DQ when Randy Orton got involved giving Ricochet an RKO.
Raw Tag Team Champions the Viking Raiders won a squash match.
Andrade defeated Sin Cara. Sin Cara brought Carolina, who got involved with Zelina Vega. Here’s Vega and Andrade in a WWE exclusive:

Natalya & Charlotte Flair defeated the IIconics (Peyton Royce & Billie Kay)
Aleister Black still wants someone to pick a fight with him.
U.S. Champion A.J. Styles defeated Humberto Carillo in a non-title match.

Summary & Closing Thoughts

Having Brock just quit Smackdown and come to Raw while everyone else is contractually obligated to their shows is just silly. In the big picture it makes me lose more respect for WWE on a weekly basis when they just continue to do things that make no sense and disrespect my knowledge of the product and just wanting it to be logical and make sense. When I watch AEW, it has issues, but the issues are ones that I don’t mind discussing. I’m not worried about it. They treat me with respect as a fan who follows the product and comes in with reasonable expectations.

At any rate, Smackdown ending up being a good show but that was because of the NXT guys being there. I don’t know if that happens again tonight. Of course, we can expect the whole Raw vs. Smackdown narrative to start and who knows how NXT will integrate into that. Nobody cares about show vs. show and if you do, that’s your business. I watch wrestling for the characters in which I choose to invest. In other news WWE sure has a lot of bad will with fans, rational or not, as a result of hearing what happened with the travel issues in Saudi Arabia. It will be interesting to see the fallout which could take months to learn, especially with wrestlers seemingly wanting to leave WWE upon the expiration of their contracts.

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Follow Frank on Twitter @FrankPeteani. Questions and discussion are welcome! Thank you for reading.