Going Ringside With The Local Station

When you discuss the greatest professional wrestlers in history one name is almost always in the conversation: Shawn Michaels. The “Heartbreak Kid” joins us for an in-depth sit down interview at the WWE Performance Center in Orlando.

He was once the bad boy of WWE but now he’s the man in charge in a fashion. Michaels now oversees WWE’s popular NXT program which airs on CW Tuesday nights.

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This is not a story about a SmackDown main event in 2007 or a match at WrestleMania 23. This is about the presidential race in 2024 when the Undertaker and Dave Bautista are facing off once again over politics.

This hybrid wrestling-politics storyline started last week when former WWE Champion turned actor Dave Bautista went on Jimmy Kimmel Live with a video mocking former President Donald Trump. Bautista is an outspoken supporter of Vice President Kamala Harris.

Bautista has since put similar videos on his own social media platforms.

Then days later, word started to leak out that Trump had agreed to appear on the “Six Feet Under” Podcast hosted by the Undertaker, whose real name is Mark Calaway.

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The civil lawsuit against Vince McMahon has been put on hold while a Department of Justice investigation into the former WWE Owner is ongoing. (Going Ringside has covered this case extensively here, here and here). But the spokesperson for McMahon’s accuser Janel Grant is speaking out. Going Ringside Host Scott Johnson spoke with Kendra Barkoff Lamy, who’s also a former spokesperson for President Biden when he was Vice President and has joined Grant’s legal team.

We touch on many subject in this interview. They include Grant’s legal team pushing for WWE to release current and former employees from non-disclosure agreements (NDA’s), what type of high profile stars could be called to testify in this case and whether McMahon’s DOJ case could be dropped or he could be pardoned if Donald Trump is elected President. Trump has a close relationship with McMahon and his estranged wife, Linda that stretches back several decades. 

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Wrestlers come into the company with all sorts of athletic backgrounds. For Oba Femi, it was shotput. For others like Kelani Jordan, it was gymnastics. But for Lola Vice, it was fighting. Also on this episode, Victoria Crawford is back to discuss numerous topics, including the new Vince McMahon docuseries on Netflix, the return of The Rock this past week and the new media deal for AEW.

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On this episode of Going Ringside it’s an episode of champions as we’re joined by NXT Champ Roxanne Perez and NXT North American Champion Kelani Jordan.

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The champion is here and the challenger is too. When NXT debuts on CW Network on Oct. 1, all eyes will be on the main event between champion Ethan Page and his challenger Trick Williams. On this episode, host Scott Johnson sits down with the two men at the WWE Performance Center in Orlando.

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On this special episode of Going Ringside we’re joined by All Elite Wrestling owner Tony Khan. Khan was profiled just this week by NFL Films for a day in his life. It detailed what it’s like for the man who lives between two worlds: Pro Wrestling and Pro Football.

The documentary which was featured on FS1 highlighted why he went viral at this year’s NFL draft for wearing a neck brace because he had been attacked in the wrestling ring the night before.

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In sports and music it’s Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift. In music alone it’s Beyonce and Jay-Z. And in the world of pro wrestling, the biggest power couple is Bianca Belair and Montez Ford.

“What a time it was,” recalled Ford about when he arrived in NXT at their Orlando studio in 2015. A year later he met his future bride, Belair. “In that first year I was at NXT in developmental learning myself as a WWE Superstar.”

“NXT is not just close to our heart because of wrestling,” said Belair. “It’s close to our heart because we met each other. So our life started in wrestling in NXT and our life together in NXT.”

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Matt Riddle knew how to fight before ever setting foot in pro wrestling. A dominant fighter in the world of MMA and UFC the transition to WWE was natural. “Well wrestling was my first love,” said Riddle. “But growing up in the late 90′s early 2000′s, I didn’t think I was big enough. And I started amateur wrestling, then started wrestling in college and then the natural progression took me on the route of mixed martial arts.”

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On this episode of Going Ringside we’re joined by pro wrestling FSU football legend Ron Simmons. Simmons made history as the first black world champion with WCW in 1993 with his historic win over Big Van Vader. That cemented him in the industry as a major player.

Following that Simmons was on the radar of the World Wrestling Federation (today’s WWE) and quickly was brought over to that company. Simmons was immediately thrust into a controversial faction called the Nation of Domination. That faction help launch the careers of stars like Mark Henry, D-Lo Brown, The Godfather and most notably Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson who had just entered the company as a rookie.

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