Various: Steve Blackman on Idea of Potential In-Ring Return Crosses His Mind Sometimes, Michael Oku on Him and Amira Are Not Under Contract & Would Be Open to Uprooting If Offered One, Indies/Misc.

Jul 9, 2025

Steve Blackman Comments on Idea of Potential In-Ring Return Crosses His Mind Sometimes

A recent episode of the Insight with Chris Van Vliet podcast featured former WWE wrestler Steve Blackman as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Blackman’s thoughts about the idea of him making a potential return to the ring has crossed his mind sometimes.

“Sometimes I feel good. Especially after my second neck operation. I don’t have those headaches all day, every day where I sit there and just do this (move my head around) because I had four bone spurs digging in nerves in my neck so every time I’d land or move, it was like pencil points digging in. So once I had those removed, I’d sit there all day just trying to find a spot where I could sit in where it wasn’t jagging me. So now that that’s been fixed, some days I feel good. I’m like, ‘Man, I could go out there and do a couple matches.’ It crosses my mind sometimes.
I haven’t (seen an opportunity to go back to WWE). I haven’t even really discussed anything with anyone. Don’t get me wrong, I mean, there’s times where I thought, oh man, it’d be fun to go back there and do a hardcore match or something like that and just flow with it and just to do it again because you know, it’s been 20 years. But, I don’t really bring it up. I haven’t talked to anybody about it.”

Blackman also gave his thoughts about his reputation from his peers about him being one of the toughest people in the locker room during his time in WWE.

“I appreciate that (wrestlers saying I was the toughest guy in the locker room). I will say this, there’s a lot of tough guys in WWF. When you look at the size and speed of most of the guys, most guys that played football, wrestled, have that athletic ability. Most of them have the ability to hold their own. It’s just how hard they wanna go. One thing with me I always had in my head, like, when they say that, I never cared who it was. If there’s a problem, I don’t care who you are, we’re gonna go, and that’s just the way I’ve always looked at it. It’s just go time. If you don’t like me and I have a problem with you, we’ll do it every single day. I just don’t care. So that’s just how it was. Throw down, yep. It happens. You know, it’s happened before but that’s one thing, no matter who it is, I don’t care if you got a problem, just walk up, lace your shoes up and let’s go.”

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com

Michael Oku Comments on Him & Amira Are Not Under Contract and Would Be Open to Uprooting If Offered One

Post Wrestling held a recent interview with British indies talent Michael Oku. One of the topics discussed included Oku’s thoughts about him and Amira are currently not under contract with any promotion and are still free agents.

“Yeah, no, that’s correct. We’re not, we’re not under contract. So which is why it’s very cool that again, we’ve been brought down, many times by AEW and we’ve worked with them, but yeah, not, not contracted, but we’ll have a visa.”

Oku also gave his thoughts about him and Amira would be open to moving to America if they were offered a contract.

“The Will Ospreay weekly flight, itinerary, it’s, I think that’s an aspect of Will Ospreay that no one can truly appreciate beyond wrestlers. The amount of time in the air this man is spending, on a weekly basis. That’s arguably the worst part of traveling abroad and going overseas. It’s just those flights. So for him to be doing that pretty much weekly is, is I don’t know how to do it. So when it comes to myself and Amira, I think we’ve spoken about it, that we’re open to, to uprooting if, if it needs be, we’re not like, stuck in our in our heads being like, we need to stay here, we need to stay in the UK. So yeah, we’re open to to even living in the US if if that’s what’s needed.”

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com

Misc. Wrestling News & Notes

Major League Wrestling recently announced that CMLL talent Templario will be making an appearance for the company at their Fightland 2025 event on September 13th in Dallas, Texas.

As noted before, this past June’s MLW Summer of the Beasts 2025 event in New York City, New York featured MJF making a surprise appearance. MLW recently released a video featuring MJF and Alex Hammerstone reuniting backstage for the first time since 2019. MJF and Hammerstone were members of The Dynasty alongside with Richard Holliday in MLW.

House of Glory recently announced that Carlito will be making an appearance for the company at their High Intensity 2025 event on August 1st in Jamaica, New York.

Starrcast recently announced that Mistico will be making an appearance for the company at their Starrcast Texas event on July 11-12 in Arlington, Texas.

PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that his sources stated that WWE Hall of Famer Bret “The Hitman” Hart will be releasing an audiobook version of his My Real Life in the Cartoon World of Wrestling autobiography that will be narrated by him. Johnson reported that the release of this upcoming audiobook has been delayed from its originally scheduled summer 2025 release to now a new date of November 18th.

Garage Beer recently released a new ad featuring Shotzi Blackheart, Matt Cardona, “Smart” Mark Sterling, and Brian Myers making an appearance.

This past Friday’s TAMASHII: Cold War event for New Japan Pro Wrestling in Auckland, New Zealand featured The Pretty Boys (Magic Mark & Pretty Richie) defeating Young Blood (Oskar Leube & Yuto Nakashima) in the Finals of the NJPW TAMASHII Tag Team Championship tournament to become the inaugural champions.

Revolution Pro Wrestling announced that they have recently made a change in venues for their Live In London events going forward. It was announced that their future Live In London events will no longer be taking place 229 venue in London following their August 3rd event. It was also announced that future events will be moved over to the Porchester Hall in London.

RevPro also recently announced one new match for the card of their Live in Coventry event on July 13th in Coventry, England: