RingBellesOnline interview with Mike Quackenbush
Audio available at Ringbellesonline.com.


Quackenbush on original negotiations with Manami Toyota: "Once the door was open, the very first thing she said was 'I'm going to be able to wrestle the men, right?'... you can't help but admire that."

Quackenbush on how Toyota said that Chikara re-ignited her passion for wrestling: "To read her own words as she said things to the effect that she had begun to lose her passion for wrestling but appearing with Chikara gave her the passion to compete back, to me is very rewarding because together with my then-tag team partner, Tom 'Reckless Youth' Carter we founded Chikara Wrestle Factory back in 2002 that it was hard to imagine that ultimately something we had played a role in could impact someone like a Manami Toyota in such a powerful way."

Quackenbush on how a former WWF Women's Champion was also in talks to be part of the festivities: "If circumstances would have worked out differently – unfortunately, they just didn't come together – the was at one point I understand a very marginal possibility that Bull Nakano could have been involved in JoshiMania, but there were a variety of circumstances which arose that prevented that from happening, unfortunately. That to me was a very thrilling notion for the brief period of time that it seemed viable before it withered on the vine, which is a shame."