Bayley Comments on Wanting To Use Her Seminar To Help The Next Generation of Indie Wrestlers & Prep Them For a Contract
A recent episode of The Nikki & Brie Show podcast featured Bayley as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Bayley’s thoughts about her goal for her upcoming wrestling seminar being to help the next generation of indie wrestlers and get them as ready as they can be for a contract.
“The main roster I wanted to do this was one because there’s so many talented women out there that are unsigned right now. You’re seeing it more and more every week and it’s beautiful to see it grow but I don’t want there to be this huge gap of independent wrestlers and women that are signed or people that are signed, whether it’s TNA, WWE, AEW, whatever it is. Somebody with a contract and someone without a contract, I don’t want there to be this big gap because to me, maybe not everybody but I know there’s a big group of us that care about independent wrestlers. We need them because we’re not going to be here forever. We need them to be ready to go, as ready as they can when they get these contracts and I think this seminar can open doors and open opportunities. The more that they can learn — I have girls coming from England, Australia, from Malaysia, from Spain, from Canada, and from all over the US. I think it’ll be so special to be able to teach someone something or for them to catch onto something or hear a story and take that to where they’re from. It’s hard to get over here from Australia to be able to learn from people that have been doing this for however long in WWE. We’re so lucky to be just be around. We sitting at a monitor, we’re listening to Jamie Noble say one thing and it’s like, ‘Okay, I want to share that’ because I want to spread as much as we can.”
Bayley also gave her thoughts about her goal to continue holding seminars and potentially take them on the road.
“This is definitely something I want to continue to do and maybe go out and travel to do it so that not so many have to come all the way over here. It’s be nice if I can go to Australia. It’ll be nice because it’s in Orlando where a lot of the girls live.”
Transcript h/t: Fightful.com
Nancy Benoit’s Sister Sandra Toffoloni Dealing with Brain Condition & GoFundMe Launched to Help Assist Medical Costs
A GoFundMe fundraiser was recently launched for Sandra Toffoloni, sister of the late Nancy “Woman” Benoit.
It was stated that Toffoloni is currently suffering from a brain condition called aphasia that “recently caused her to have a grand mal seizure, resulting in a fall that caused broken ribs, a fractured back, and a compression skull fracture.”
It was announced that these injuries and other health setbacks over the past year have left Toffoloni in need of monetary support to help with medical bills and housing needs.
Sandra Toffoloni, the younger sister and only sibling of late wrestling personality, Nancy Benoit (known to ECW and WCW fans as ‘Woman’) is seeking much-needed financial assistance and relief after a series of serious health related set-backs that have left her and her parents struggling with medical bills and housing support.
Whilst not in the everyday spotlight of the squared circle, Sandra has been around and lived in the professional wrestling business for over 40 years, as far back as being in magazine photos with her sister and Kevin Sullivan in the 80s, to helping create the gimmick of ‘Robin Green’ that her sister used to seduce Rick Steiner in WCW, and later, being a plant in the crowd during the “Monday Night Wars” era in WCW, on which she gave cues to wrestling personalities to perform on the show.
Ms. Toffoloni is currently in the hospital after experiencing a grand mal seizure, related to her brain condition, aphasia, which resulted in a fall that caused two broken ribs, a fractured back, and a compression skull fracture. Her recovery will take some time, and she is unable to work as a result. She is facing mounting medical bills, along with her monthly mortgages. She is also the sole caretaker of her elderly parents, who are retired and struggle with COPD.
Since the well publicized tragedy of her family in 2007, she has privately struggled with depression, anxiety, PTSD, and alcoholism, on which she has been successfully sober for nearly 8 years now. Just two months after the murders, she and her parents started the non-profit, Nancy and Daniel Benoit Foundation, an organization which donates to several charities ranging from the Battered Women and Abused Children, to creating awareness about anabolic steroid abuse through education to young student athletes, their parents and all adults.
In 2016, she appeared on the podcast “Talk is Jericho” with host, Chris Jericho, where she spoke about her and her family’s life for the first time in heartfelt and honest detail. In 2020, she appeared on the VICE documentary television series, “Dark Side of the Ring” where she talked about her sister, former brother-in-law, and her first-hand experience living through the most tragic event in wrestling history.
In recent years, Sandra has developed a strong relationship with her sister’s fans, posting memories of Nancy and her family on Instagram and TikTok. She has been a strong advocate in keeping her sister’s legacy alive, more recently, with Nancy receiving the Stanley Weston Lifetime Achievement Award in Pro Wrestling Illustrated, 2023.
After nearly two decades of hard-fought perseverance, facing several health scares and battles over the years, all while carrying unimaginable grief, Sandra deserves all the help she can get in her time of need. I have faith in the wrestling community as a whole that today, we can finally support a woman and her family, who are often forgotten in a business that once loudly celebrated their name.
Any and all donations are much appreciated.
Thank you.
Misc. Wrestling News & Notes
Former WWE wrestlers The Headbangers (Headbanger Mosh & Headbanger Thrasher) recently announced on Instagram that they will be having their retirement match for their wrestling careers on July 23, 2026 for ISPW Legends of Wrestling.
This past Sunday’s MMA event for APFC 21 featured Olympic gold medalist and former WWE wrestler Gable Steveson defeating Kevin Hein in 24 seconds of the first round. Steveson is currently 2-0 in his MMA career.
While talent contracts in NJPW are typically for one year in length and typically expire every January, Fightful Select reported that several NJPW talents spoken to stated that their current contracts extend past January of 2026. It was reported that several free agents spoken to stated they never heard back from NJPW when they expressed interest in working there. One “prominent American wrestler” spoken to reportedly stated that they were willing to work in NJPW for a discount but never heard back from them for a potential deal.
Horror film Arachnid staring TNA and indies talent Killer Kelly was recently released for streaming on YouTube.
In a recent interview with the Johnny I Pro Show, WWE Hall of Famer Bret Hart gave his thoughts about why he has a hard time watching today’s era of wrestling because it looks too fake to him. Hart stated “I’ll be honest, I have a hard time watching today’s wrestling. I just can’t really watch it. It’s too fake for me. But I love watching the old ’90s wrestling. I really do. When I watch my matches back … even obscure Stampede wrestling matches, there’s something about the realism, the punches and the kicks, and even just the way the presentation is. It just seems to me to be more onus put on the workmanship [sic], that of learning the craft of being wrestlers. I think that today’s wrestlers are actors; most of them are actors, pretending to be wrestlers, and they don’t actually know how to wrestle. They don’t even know what a headlock is. Everything is high spots, like, I want to get my move in.’ I always thought wrestling needed to actually pretend to be wrestling.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)
Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling recently announced one new match for the card of their TJPW Live in Bangkok event on December 13th in Bangkok, Thailand:
- MLW World Women’s Featherweight Championship – Alexis Lee vs. Shoko Nakajima (c)
Pro Wrestling EVE recently announced one new match for the card of their Let’s Slam Santa event on December 15th in London, England:
- Session Moth Martinez & Jamie Hayter vs. Rhio & Alexxis Falcon
Jersey Championship Wrestling recently announced one new match for the card of their Roundball Rock event on December 14th in Ridgefield Park, New Jersey:
- JCW World Championship Triple Jeopardy I Quit match – Charles Mason vs. Billie Starkz (c)
Various: Current Card for 11/28 ROH TV “Black Friday” Show, Current Card for 12/4 TNA Impact! Show
WWE: Naomi Announces She & Jimmy Uso Are Expecting Baby Boy, WWE World Tag Titles Match Confirmed for 12/1 WWE RAW Show, New Updated WrestleMania 42 Ad Released, Original Plans for WrestleMania 42 Main Event Match
TNA Announces New TV Deal with AMC
