WWE: Cody Rhodes on Pat McAfee Storyline Being “Most Ill-Received Thing” In Wrestling History, Several UK & European Indies Talents Invited for Upcoming New Tryouts, Finn Balor Explains Why He Can Only Invoke His Demon Balor Persona on Occasion

Cody Rhodes Comments on Pat McAfee Storyline Being “Most Ill-Received Thing” In Wrestling History

A recent episode of the SI Media with Jimmy Traina podcast featured Undisputed WWE Champion Cody Rhodes as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Rhodes’ thoughts about the negative fan reaction to Pat McAfee’s involvement in his storyline feud with Randy Orton for his title for WrestleMania 42 and his belief that it is the “most ill-received thing” in pro wrestling history.

“This is the most ill-received thing in the history of wrestling. Gobbledygooker was one. Shockmaster was up there, but that was kind of funny. This is the entire fandom. Your fandom, my fandom, independent wrestling fans, casual fans, cinema fans. Every single fan who’s ever seen wrestling has received this with, ‘Huh? What?’

Okay, so worst received thing in the history of wrestling, but I want to say something on the bright side because I have to be an optimist in general. On the bright side of this, Pat McAfee is a huge star and Pat McAfee is part of, he’s one of the faces, if not the face of ESPN. His College GameDay stuff is legendary. He’s a great athlete and he loves wrestling. He’s just trying to help our party out. So I respect him and I respect that. On the other side of it, I am attuned to the online audience, but it’s not just the online audience, every bit of the audience.

Why I’m not worried about it at all is because Randy Orton is the guy I’m wrestling. Randy Orton is arguably the best he’s ever been.

Pat, where that fits in, I am like you and I’m excited to stand at the plate and you know we’re talking about these guys, if you want that spot that’s it. There’s others who run from that and oh no, that John Cena dealt with this for years and years and years and I’m dealing with it, too.”

Transcript h/t: F4WOnline.com

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Several UK & European Indies Talents Invited for Upcoming New Tryouts

WWE is currently scheduled to be holding a new set of talent tryouts as part of this week’s WrestleMania 42 festivities in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Several indies talent from the United Kingdom and Europe confirmed on social media that they have been invited by WWE for the upcoming tryouts.

Those confirmed to be attending the tryouts were:

• Mathias (indies wrestler from California)
• Kuro (French wrestler)
• Leon Cage (Welish wrestler)
• Renzo Rose (Italian wrestler)
• Madison Marley (Danish wrestler)
• Angel Hayze (Scottish wrestler)
• Maddy Morgan (English wrestler)
• Peter Tihanyi (Hungarian wrestler)
• Brandon Bandz (Dutch wrestler)
• Tommy Vril (Welish wrestler)
• Daz Black (English wrestler)
• Cian Noonan (Irish wrestler)
• Zoltan (Hungarian wrestler)

Source: F4WOnline.com, Fightful.com

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Finn Balor Explains Why He Can Only Invoke His Demon Balor Persona on Occasion

A recent episode of ESPN’s SportsCenter show featured Finn Balor as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Balor’s thoughts about his Demon Balor persona and why he can only tap into it on rare occasions.

“It’s not something I can really describe in words. It’s a feeling. It’s an emotion. It’s an energy. It’s something that I can only tap into very occasionally. It can be very draining. Trust me, it’s going to be very painful for Dominik Mysterio.”

Demon Balor is currently scheduled to face off against Dominik Mysterio at WWE’s WrestleMania 42 Night 2 event.

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com