Select Portions: AEW Dynasty, Otis, More! (Patreon)

- Fightful has started work on a fourth Inside The Royal Rumble feature. You can see the previous editions at this link.

- We're told that the AEW Dynasty location was considered for a few other possibilities, as recently as within the last month or so, but St. Louis was obviously settled on. 

- Fightful will be in attendance at this weekend's Lexington Comic Con, where we're tentatively scheduled to do an interview with Swerve Strickland. We'll also be at Squared Circle Expo, WrestleCon, WrestleMania week, WaleMania, PawCade, and will have staff on the scene at AEW Dynasty.

- We still have interviews with Jade Cargill, Chad Gable, Shayna Baszler, Omos and others dropping in upcoming weeks. 

- Some sponsorship spots have opened up this spring and summer on Fightful Podcasts. Inquire with Kate, SRS, or here via messages. 

BRIAN XL INTERVIEW NOTES (Originally Aired on In The Weeds 3/6/24 - https://youtube.com/watch?v=ero22a9nYpY)

House of Glory's Brian XL chatted with Joel & Jeremy on In The Weeds to discuss the promotion and their upcoming WrestleMania Week show with HOG vs. Wrestling Revolver on April 5th on TrillerTV+.

- On working with Wrestling Revolver and Sami Callihan, Brian says HOG felt like this year was the right year to run outside of New York, where HOG typically runs. Brian puts over Sami and WR, saying their model is a goal that he has for HOG.

- On a rematch with Sami at HOG vs. WR, Brian says he's an old man and it was a long time ago but they spoke about doing it, adds that Sami is a great mind and he would love to wrestle him again if the right possibility presented itself.

- Brian says he jumps in and out between being a wrestler and a promoter, citing his work with Amazing Red and their tag team "The Bookers" and recent work in GCW and feud with The Mane Event.

- Brian talks about the struggle of moving from wrestler to promoter, but ultimately decided to put together a list of dream matches that he wanted to see and that fans also wanted to see, and they built HOG from that.

- House of Glory has plans to continue running outside of New York, including Boston in May and then Chicago and Florida.

- On working with Amazing Red and setting up HOG, Brian says that Red was still working in TNA but that they tried it out, Red loved it and walked away from TNA to keep building HOG together.

- Brian says he had originally planned Amazing Red vs. Vikingo for HOG but Vikingo's injury forced the change to Red vs. Mustafa Ali. He still wants to do Red vs. Vikingo.

- When asked about the Revolver vs. HOG Title match between Santana and Alex Shelley, Brian puts over Santana and says he will get signed anywhere soon and that he never cared about the money as much as he cared about continuing to work the indies.

- Brian mentions that he visited AEW shows and spoke with Santana, and that the two offer each other advice constantly

- On navigating booking signed talent from other companies, Brian says every company has been great and there have been no issues.

Fightful Select caught up with WWE Raw Superstar Otis recently

Fightful’s Sean Ross Sapp mentioned that one of his favorite Rumble moments was when Otis saved Mandy Rose at the 2020 Royal Rumble.

Otis would talk about some of the details regarding that moment. Otis said it was interesting because he had never been under the ring before that. Otis said a monitor was underneath the ring, and someone was underneath the ring with him. Otis said they were there to give him the heads up when he needed to roll out.

He said that night when she fell, and people realized what happened when he caught her, and they got that crowd reaction. Otis told Sean that he got pumped up afterward.

Sean mentioned the recent news about Raw moving to Netflix. Sean asked Otis what his favorite show was on Netflix. Otis said he was a big fan of Dexter.

Otis said his go-to when renting movies at a store back in the day was Night of the Living Dead. They would talk about the days when people would rent movies at video stores.

Sean mentioned that Alpha Academy has been doing more digital videos for WWE. Otis said the fans are into it and would add that he loves the mystique of adding to a story.

In closing, Sean asked Otis if there was a time when he was in the ring with someone who surprised him with their technique or maybe tried to “shoot” with him a little bit. Otis said it was when he was in the ring with Dolph Ziggler, who is an accomplished amateur wrestler. Otis told Sean that Dolph said, “Hey kid, I might go in for the leg, and I might not. We’ll see.” Otis said he shut Dolph down from doing it, and Dolph would roll out of the ring and said, “Christ kid! After it backfired on him.’’