By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)
The Two Man Power Trip of Wrestling Podcast with Wesley Blake
Host: JP John Poz
Twitter: @TwoManPowerTrip
Website: www.tmptempire.com
Interview available at Tmptow.podomatic.com
Blake ran through the series of events that occurred on the lead-up to his release and he and Buddy Murphy pitching to reunite the day before Blake was released: I would say yes and no [the release was a shock], just for the simple fact, so we all know I was tagging with Steve Cutler, now known as Steve Maclin, and we were doing the Knights of the Lone Wolf, and we were working with [Baron] Corbin and stuff like that at the beginning of the year and towards the end of last year as well. And so we were very excited about it, we were happy to do it. We had known Corbin since NXT so we were happy to be working with him and we had a lot of promising stories coming our way and stuff like that so we were very excited about the future of that.
“But then, as fate would have it, [Cutler] caught COVID the beginning of this year and about two weeks later, he was released which was a huge shock, not only to him but myself as well and when he got released, they kind of told him that creative had nothing for him and so, with that being said, that’s when it kind of left me like, ‘Are we still just doing this Knights of the Lone Wolf with Baron Corbin?’ I know there was a halt on it but once he was told that, we — myself I should say, started thinking like, ‘Well, what’s the plan for me?’ And of course I reached out to the writers and stuff like that and of course they said, ‘Knights of the Lone Wolf will be no more.’
“So I started pitching ideas and stuff like that and the one idea that we came up with, which would be the fastest way to get me on TV was tagging with Buddy Murphy and I know at the time, Buddy was doing stuff with the Mysterios but that got dropped for [an] unexpected reason. I don’t know really why so me and him were just kind of left there and we started reaching out to each other and starting formulating, maybe we’ll pitch some ideas to get us back together. I think that would be — I always enjoyed wrestling with Buddy and we learned a lot from each other. That was one of the fun times in my career was wrestling with Buddy so we started doing that and I believe after Mania, I actually talked to him the day before I got released and he was going in to talk to the creative and some of the writers to see if we could make that happen but, unfortunately…”
Jaxson Ryker tweet sent out in support of Donald Trump: “We got a call in September as well. All three of us, we got a joint call saying that they’re gonna bring us back, you know, as Forgotten Sons, us three, we were gonna come back all together but they were gonna change our look a little bit. It wasn’t gonna be so military. They had an idea of bringing all three of us back together and then a month goes by, two months go by and we didn’t hear anything and then we find out in December that [Jaxson] Ryker went to Raw and we stayed on Smackdown and of course that’s when we were getting told we were gonna be with [Baron] Corbin.”
Blake holds no bitterness towards WWE: “No bitterness. I tell Steve [Maclin] and I tell my wife and anyone around me that everything happens for a reason and I believe that. I believe there’s no sense in being bitter when I can get up and try to make it better, you know? And so there is some good that came out of it. I mean obviously I was home for a while and luckily I was home because my wife is pregnant with our third so I was able to help the kids and stuff like that and just little things like that-that kind of, you know, little blessings that I see and that I like in my life that’s kind of helped me overall. My overall look and perception of things has left me better and left me not bitter. If anything, it’s probably made me better.”
Blake held tag team gold with Buddy Murphy in NXT: “I had to borrow someone’s boots and I had to borrow someone’s trunks so I could match his white [gear] so I was like completely borrowing other people’s stuff just so we could kind of look like a tag team and then that’s when me and him decided — it’s funny because we were told several times like, ‘Listen, we’re just trying to get you reps, we’re just trying to get you work. Don’t invest in this tag team. Do not get –’ but me and Buddy [Murphy] were just like, ‘You know what? I think this is our shot to try and get on TV.’ So we did. We went and got ourselves matching gear and stuff like that and that’s when we had a five-minute match. I wanna say it was against The Lucha Dragons where it was a ‘get over’ for them but when we showed up in matching gear, that’s when we kind of turned heads like, ‘Whoa, okay, maybe we should start doing something with these guys.’”
Other topics include his entire WWE run, more on his WWE release, his entire NXT run, Vince McMahon, Triple H, Mark Carrano, Steve Cutler, The Forgotten Sons, Baron Corbin, and more.
You can listen to other shows apart of the TMPT Empire including Shane Douglas’ Triple Threat Podcast, Taking You to School with Dr. Tom Prichard, Talking Tough with Rick Bassman, Taskmaster Talks with Kevin Sullivan, Pro Wrestling 101 with Justin Credible and the University of Dutch with Dutch Mantell. H/T to POST Wrestling/Andrew Thompson for the transcription.
This dude is gonna ruin Sara Lee