Bruce Prichard On How TNA Officials Saw AJ Styles As Top Guy, Shelton Benjamin On Daniel Bryan, Zeda
- As noted, tonight's new episode of the WWE Network's "Something Else to Wrestle with Bruce Prichard" podcast will focus on the TNA reign of current WWE Champion AJ Styles, featuring footage from TNA that was apparently used after a recent deal was reached. Above is a clip from the show. Prichard talked about working behind-the-scenes for TNA while Styles was there.
"I had never worked with AJ beyond his tryout matches for WWE so immediately I'm hearing the negative," Prichard said when co-host Conrad Thompson asked what TNA officials thought about AJ as a top guy. "I hear that, 'AJ, he just wants to wrestle his matches and do all these high spots, he doesn't listen, doesn't want to change, doesn't want to grow. He's a pain in the ass. We're trying to build him into a bigger star and he's bucking us at every single opportunity.' The feeling was that AJ just wasn't willing to do what it took to become a star. For example... they wanted AJ to bleach his hair blonde like Ric Flair. AJ didn't want to do that. They wanted AJ to wear robes like Ric Flair but it looked like something that his daughter put together. It just wasn't a good look and AJ wasn't comfortable being Ric Flair. He didn't want to talk about being up all night with the women. AJ's happily married and a very religious guy. He didn't want that perception. Every time you suggest something new to AJ, he doesn't want to do it. Unless it's just wrestling a match with one of his buddies, he doesn't want to do it.
"I learned early on in my career that you try to judge people on how they treat you. And I tried talking to AJ and found that he was pretty receptive to things. He had good reasons why he didn't want to do some of the things suggested to him. So, now all of a sudden I'm trying to find a way to get into AJ, in a way to pitch him ideas and try to do some different things with him which he was open to, at least with me."
- Team Vision Dojo in Orlando sent word that former WWE NXT Superstar Zeda will be in action at Friday's Championship Wrestling Entertainment event in a Battle Royal and a singles match. It looks like she will be using the name Zeda Zhang on the indies.
We noted before that Zeda will be training at the Dojo and working for their I Believe In Wrestling promotion. She will co-assist the next Team Vision Dojo Open House for potential students and fans on July 10th with Amber Nova. Details on that event are here.
Zeda, who is still under a thirty-day non-compete clause with WWE after being released earlier this month, made her Major League Wrestling debut during an angle at last week's MLW Fusion TV tapings.
- Shelton Benjamin took to Twitter today and wrote the following on last night's SmackDown loss to Daniel Bryan:
@WWEDanielBryan We're gonna have to Run that again. That is IF there's anything left of you after @BigCassWWE is done with you at #MITB
— Shelton J. Benjamin (@Sheltyb803) June 13, 2018