There have been reports of Global Force Wrestling “hemorrhaging funds” recently. A fan asked Bischoff if he was interested in purchasing Global Force Wrestling and Eric said that he was “not in the market for a clown car at the moment”. Bischoff worked with TNA from 2010 until 2014.
Bobby Roode spoke to The Peter Borough Examiner recently and below are some of the highlights from the interview:
Losing his drive in TNA:
“To be honest, when I was with TNA, I just didn’t have the drive any more, I didn’t have the passion. It was unfamiliar territory to me, because I’ve always loved the business and I’ve always been passionate about it. It was the first thing that I thought of when I woke up, last thing I thought about when I went to bed. I just didn’t have that any more.”
Seeing other performers from TNA go to WWE and do well:
“It was very intriguing to me. Honestly, I didn’t want to do anything else with my life. I knew that I still had a lot of really good years left in this business. I really wanted to get the opportunity to come to WWE. NXT was presented to me and I was very excited about the opportunity that was given.”
His entrance at NXT TakeOver: Toronto with a backup choir:
“It was fun. That was one of my favorite ones actually, the one with the choir. I think it was 80, 84 people in the choir and just coming up from underneath the stage. Being in my hometown, of course, at the Air Canada Centre, that was probably my most memorable entrance by far.”
You can check out the entire interview by clicking here.
Nia Jax walked the runaway at theCurvyCon fashion show yesterday in New York City.
Earlier this week, Nia sent out an Instagram photo announcing that she will be part of the event. In the caption, Nia said “I am beyond pumped, stoked, excited and HONORED to share that I will be participating in this amazingly empowering event….Being a proud & confident Curvy woman, I cannot wait to strut my stuff in their fashion show and mingle with some incredibly influential #BodyPositive People! I will be sharing my whole journey, stay tuned!”
Nia Jax sent out several photos and videos of her experience at the fashion show yesterday.
What Culture Pro Wrestling has announced the WCPW Title match for their upcoming ‘Refuse to Lose’ PPV.
WCPW Champion and Prestige stable member Joe Hendry will be taking on NJPW star Will Ospreay. Ospreay has been making appearances for WCPW more and more over the last couple of months even while he looks to establish himself in Japan and more recently Australia.
You can watch the October 2nd PPV via WhatCulture Extra and tickets are still available to purchase via Eventbrite.
UK TV Channel FreeSports has announced that controversial promotion 5 Star Wrestling will be broadcasting live on the platform throughout 2018.
You may remember 5* being in the news earlier this year when owner Daniel Hinkles offered CM Punk $1 Million dollars to compete in their 128-man tournament which has since been postponed.
To further add to the confusion and controversy, highly rated UK promotion Preston City Wrestling (PCW) were reportedly in talks with FreeSports before this was announced.
Unfortunately after months of #FreeSports pursuing PCW for the channel & many assurances we regret to inform all the Freesports deal is off
Several big names in UK wrestling have slated the move, going so far as to say that it is hugely detrimental to the progress that the UK scene has enjoyed over the past few years.
Tomorrow night sees PROGRESS host the biggest event in company history from Alexandra Palace, London. Chapter 55 sees the very best in British wrestling clash in a 2,000 seat arena for the rabid PROGRESS ‘Ultras’.
The WWE UK and PROGRESS Champion Pete Dunne will be in action against Travis Banks, a man that has been grinding on the UK scene for years and has recently started to branch out on the World scene following his showing at PWG’s Battle of Los Angeles.
Are you going to the event? Let us know in the comments…
Here is the full card for the historic event:
PROGRESS Championship Match – Pete Dunne (c) vs Travis Banks
PROGRESS Women’s Championship Match – Toni Storm (c) vs Dahlia Black
PROGRESS Tag Team Championship Match – Trent Seven & Tyler Bate (British Strong Style) (c) vs Chris Brookes & Kids Lykos (#CCK)
PROGRESS ATLAS Championship Match – Matt Riddle (c) vs WALTER vs Timothy Thatcher
Deathmatch – Jimmy Havoc vs Mark Haskins
Zack Sabre Jr issues an Open Challenge
8 Man Scramble Match – Mark Andrews vs Eddie Dennis vs Zack Gibson vs James Drake vs ‘Flash’ Morgan Webster vs ‘Strangler’ Davis vs Damien Dunne vs Jack Sexsmith
– If you’re a big fan of The New Day member Xavier Wood’s YouTube Channel, Up Up Down Down, you may have seen Seth Rollins obliterate AJ Styles in the finals of their Madden Playstation 4 Tournament. After the match, Styles called for a rematch on Xbox which Rollins said he would happily oblige. Below are videos of Styles and Rollins each hyping up the rematch:
– WWE Superstar Chris Jericho took to Instagram to use his old “It” catchphrase to play into the equally-named film which hits theaters today (Fri. September 8, 2017). “Y2J” said he has heard the film is terrifying and he can’t wait to check it out:
Hemme was the winner of WWE’s inaugural Diva Search in 2004, with a prize of a one-year WWE talent contract worth $250,000. She stayed with WWE until December 2005 and would join Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA, now known as Global Force Wrestling) in April 2006. She worked as a wrestler for a few years and stayed as a ring announcer until last year. In January 2015, she gave birth to her first child, a girl, named Charlie Rose.
This week’s episode of GFW Impact Wrestling averaged just 227,000 viewers, making it the least-watched episode of 2017. The show featured Global Champion Eli Drake retaining against Matt Sydal in the main event and the debut of Taya Valkyrie.
By comparison, Impact averaged 268,000 viewers last week and 320,000 viewers just a month ago. Impact faced stiff competition on Thursday night from the NFL season opener between the Kansas City Chiefs and New England and coverage of Hurricane Irma.
Ironically, GFW has newcomer Ava Storie doing weekly football picks as part of a new #KnockoutsPredictions series. Storie said she was “definitely going with the Patriots,” who lost to the Chiefs 42-27.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEyd-HCXskM
This week’s show ranked #148 on cable for the night after not even cracking the Top 150 last week.
– Samoa Joe is currently out of action recovering from a knee injury that took place at a recent WWE live event in a match against John Cena. Joe last wrestled on the post-SummerSlam edition of RAW on August 21st, when he Joe teamed with the Miz in the main event against John Cena and Roman Reigns.
While initial estimates had Joe on the sidelines until early October, the latest on Joe is that he’ll be probably won’t be back in the ring until late October – after the RAW brand’s Tables, Ladders, Chairs pay-per-view on 10/22.
– In the latest Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Dave Meltzer provided additional information regarding the issues surrounding Mauro Ranallo’s hiatus from WWE earlier this year, the bullying culture in WWE and JBL’s recent announcement that he’s leaving his role as a broadcaster on SmackDown Live.
According to the report, Mauro Ranallo leaving the company back in April was not entirely due to JBL’s bulling, but more so about the culture of the company going back several years. JBL certainly played a role, but the belief is that JBL’s on-air comments towards him were coming from “somebody else.”
Prior to returning to WWE, Mauro Ranallo spoke to the Associated Press about his decision to walk away from his “dream job” on SmackDown. “I was willing to walk away from my dream job, let’s leave it at that,” he said. “In order for me to do that, I had to be true to my convictions and what makes you a human being.”
When Ranallo returned to the company in June as one of the lead announcers for NXT, the terms of his new agreement included that he’d be reporting to Michael Cole and Triple H, not Vince McMahon. With the Mauro Ranallo situation resolved, JBL made his own decision to leave WWE television and it was unrelated to their previous disputes.
Ring of Honor has announced the “Soaring Eagle Cup,” a one-night 8-man tournament that will take place on Saturday, October 28th from the Soaring Eagle Casino in Mt. Pleasant, Michigan.
Talent confirmed for the Soaring Eagle cup include Jay Lethal, Dalton Castle and Christopher Daniels.
Also signed to appear on the card are Cody, Bully Ray, The Briscoes, Nick Jackson, the Motor City Machine Guns and Silas Young
Diamond Dallas Page recently spoke with The Mirror to promote his Q&As and DDP Yoga Workshops this weekend. DDP also spoke about several wrestling related topics and below are some highlights from the interview:
There was so much excitement when you were preparing to face The Undertaker. But it fizzled out as quickly as it began. Was that because injuries were starting to affect you?
“No, more than anything, it was designed like that, like beat down the WCW guys. There was a lot of heat that was before us when we first came in there. But bear in mind this was 15 years ago. It is was it is and it lasted a long time. But now when I’m there, forget about it. Ever since I did The Very Best of WCW Monday Nitro Volume 1, after that I was back in, because they loved what I did. Then they kept bringing me back to do it and we kept selling DVDs. They don’t even do DVDs any more, but I see I’ve got one, Scott Hall’s got one, Eric Bischoff’s got one… I was so happy just to have it and see it on the shelf. I really can’t wait until it gets to the WWE Network, so people can really see it.”
When you look back now at your initial and short-lived WWE run, as part of the Invasion storyline in 2001, what are your thoughts on it?
“You know I learned a lot of lessons from it. I learned my biggest lesson that you can’t be afraid to walk away from the table. I shouldn’t have done it, but it was a great lesson learned. That’s what I took away from it. You guys have Dragons Den, which became Shark Tank over here. If I hadn’t have gone through that, going into WWE at the wrong time, I never would have got up and walked away from the table when I went on Shark Tank. We went through a lot of s*** to get to the end of Shark Tank, but they wanted me to sign everything away to them. Basically, not my company, but all my rights, my PR, everything. At the end of it I said to my business partner, ‘tell Shark Tank we really appreciate the opportunity, we love the show, but we’re going to pass’. My partner was like ‘what are you talking about bro? We’ve worked so hard on this’. I said ‘I can’t let anybody control me man, I learned that when I went to WWE. I have to be in control of my own destiny. We’ll see if they call back’. Ninety minutes later they called back and said ‘how do we fix this?’
Vince McMahon made me a much better businessman and I’m super thankful to him. The second run they have given me, if I was going to pick between that run in 2001, 2002, or doing what I’ve done in the last five or six years with WWE, I would take that every time. They had me design Topps card. One of them is me wearing my DDP Yoga shirt, going into the ring at the Royal Rumble [in 2015]. Who do they let do that? You know! Ha ha. Guys don’t even own their own names. I own everything. WWE treats me with such respect and this is the cherry on the top of the ice cream sundae at the end of it all. My business wouldn’t be doing as strong as it is without the support of WWE.
They allow me to do a lot of stuff. I just do it and they let me do it, because they know every time I’m a great example for the ‘wrestling afterlife’ ha ha. And I help the boys. The thing I’m the most excited for is Mick Foley, being able to help him. I was there when he put his body through those brutal assaults, in the early years. I’m actually writing a book now called ‘Positively Unstoppable – The Art of Owning It.’ Mick Foley wrote the foreword and it’s awesome.”
You can check out the entire interview by clicking here.
– WWE Superstar Samoa Joe offered some valuable advice on Twitter regarding what social media can be used for these days. “The Destroyer” noted that the platform could be used for good or could be used to jeopardize your future employment options:
Social Media is a lot like a superpower. You can use it for good or your can use it to potentially jeopardize your future employment options
WWE’s Mae Young Classic tournament has been a huge success on the WWE Network. According to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, the eight episodes of the MYC were the Top 8 most-watched shows on the Network this past week.
Since the first four episodes were released the previous week, that means the first four episodes of the tournament had more views than this week’s 205 Live and NXT shows.
WWE has announced a ‘red carpet’ special for the Mae Young Classic finale will stream on Facebook this coming Tuesday, September 12th at 6pm (Eastern) live from Las Vegas.
Hosted by Cathy Kelley, the red carpet event will feature appearances by former UFC Women’s Bantamweight Champion Ronda Rousey, cast members from the Netlix hit show GLOW, U.S. Olympian soccer star Hope Solo, Charlotte Flair, Stephanie McMahon, the Bella Twins, Bayley, Triple H and other Mae Young Classic competitors.
The finals of the Mae Young Classic will air live on the WWE Network this coming Tuesday at 10pm (Eastern) right after SmackDown Live goes off the air. The finals will feature Shayna Baszler vs. Kairi Sane to crown the first-ever Mae Young Classic winner.
In the latest Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Dave Meltzer noted that Rousey is rumored to be competing at WWE Survivor Series in a Horsewomen vs. Horsewomen match. This would set up a big singles match at WrestleMania 34 with Rousey wrestling either Stephanie McMahon or Charlotte.
WWE wished actor and former WCW World Champion David Arquette happy birthday today. Arquette turned 46 years old today. Arquette won the WCW World Championship on the April 26th, 2000 edition of WCW Thunder.
Nikki Bella posted her first vlog for Dancing with the Stars. In the video, Nikki discussed how busy her schedule is going to be going forward as she prepares for the show.
7 things you didn’t know about the World Heavyweight Championship
WWE uploaded a new video today discussing the history of the World Heavyweight Championship. In the video, Edge holding the title 7 times, Vickie Guerrero stripping him of the championship because he used the Spear and more is discussed. You can check it out below.
WWE Hall of Famer Ric Flair has announced that he is now being represented by Get Engaged Media, an agency specializing in promoting the online presence of individuals and brands.
Flair has been working with Get Engaged for some time and has helped the Nature Boy garner several high-profile spots, including his work with rapper Waka Flocka Flame, Complex and TMZ.
On Wednesday, Flair formally parted ways with Melinda Morris Zanoni and Legacy Talent and Entertainment, which had represented Flair for many years. Legacy Talent had been handling Flair’s PR and public appearances.
Zanoni had been providing health updates on Flair during his recent medical emergency. She initially announced (8/12) that Flair was in the hospital for “routine monitoring” and said there was “no reason to panic,” but the situation was much more serious than the first tweet implied.
– WWE has announced that this weekend’s NXT live events in Florida have been postponed due to Hurricane Irma.
“NXT Live Events on Friday, Sept. 8, in Daytona Beach; Saturday, Sept. 9, in Crystal River; Thursday, Sept. 14, in Lakeland; and Friday, Sept. 15, in Dade City, have been postponed.
The Sept. 15 Live Event in Dade City has been rescheduled for Thursday, Oct. 5, and tickets that have been previously purchased for the show will be honored that night.”
– The Season Two premiere of WWE’s Total Bellas on E! drew 681,000 viewers and was the 29th most watch show on cable in the 18-49 demographic. This is an increase from the Season One finale, which drew 663,000 viewers back in November 106. Season One, which had six episodes, averaged 640,000 viewers per episode.
Matt Hardy appears to be “broken” again. The RAW Superstar posted a YouTube video on Thursday night showing that his delightfully disturbed alter ego is alive and well.
Matt is urging fans to, “Shower me with your adoration. Engulf me with your distain. Feed me your emotion. Feed me your energy. Watch me metabolize it and turn it into power. Feed me your energy.”
In response to a fan on Twitter who said the “7 Deities are waiting,” Matt replied:
Yes, they are. They shall guide my SOUL into the LIGHT.
Speaking of Matt Hardy, he and the Young Bucks have been joking on Twitter about the uncertainty surrounding the future of Global Force Wrestling. Matt Jackson of the Young Bucks said, “Maybe Nick & I will buy TNA.” Matt is interested, offering to go “halfsies” on the purchase and claiming the company owes him around $100,000, which he’ll gladly take “off the top” of a hypothetical sale price.
You & @NickJacksonYB wanna go HALFSIES? They owe #HouseHardy about 100 grand anyway–we'll take that off the top.
WWE announced earlier this week that Vince McMahon will make a rare television appearance next week on SmackDown Live. Mr. McMahon will address the situation between Kevin Owens and Shane McMahon, including Shane’s suspension.
During the latest episode of Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer speculated that Vince will announce the long-rumored match between Owens and Shane for the upcoming Hell in a Cell pay-per-view.
While it’s still uncertain if Shane and Kevin Owens’ match will have a stipulation, Jinder Mahal’s WWE Championship defense against Shinsuke Nakamura is not expected to take place inside the Hell in a Cell structure. As a result, expect the clash between Owens and the ‘indefinitely suspended’ SmackDown commissioner to take place inside the demonic structure.
WWE Hell in a Cell takes place on Sunday, October 8th from Detroit, Michigan.
Earlier this week, Justin Barrasso of Sports Illustrated’s Extra Mustard blog published a report about Global Force Wrestling being in major trouble.
“GFW is hemorrhaging funds, and sources close to the situation have confirmed that Anthem is ready to withdraw itself from the wrestling industry and sell GFW. Anthem even needed to gut the Fight Network in order to finance GFW.”
In the following days, GFW announced the upcoming launch of their Global Wrestling Network streaming service and several new content distribution deals.
GFW Vice President of Production Kevin Sullivan has since responded to Barrasso’s report, calling it “bs” and questioning Barrasso’s integrity as a journalist
@SInow when did it become ok to print bs? As a journalism major, I find your fact checking to be less than diligent.
When James Ellsworth made his WWE television debut last July as an ‘enhancement talent’ for Braun Strowman, the lovable loser became somewhat of a cult hero to the WWE Universe. To the surprise of many, Ellsworth’s popularity garnered him a spot on the main roster and even he can’t believe what’s transpired since.
On Thursday, Ellsworth posted the following on Facebook, reflecting on what undeniably been the biggest year of his pro wrestling career. Say what you want about Ellsworth as a wrestler or television character, but he’s living the dream and has accomplished things most people in the business never will.
“In less then a years time, I’ve pinned AJ Styles who was WWE champion at the time, won a match at MSG, entered in the royal rumble, had a WM moment, grabbed the MITB briefcase, and kissed Carmella, follow your dreams people.”
Yes, Ellsworth technically did get a pinfall victory on SmackDown Live over then-WWE Champion AJ Styles. He had help, but it’s in the record books.
John Cena got the best of Roman Reigns two weeks ago on RAW when he delivered a blistering promo on his No Mercy opponent. Cena continued his trash talk on Twitter on Thursday night.
Earlier this week, Reigns wrote:
RESPECT isn't earned with words. It's earned by action. He does the talking and I'll do the walking. #WWENoMercy
Reigns told Cena he’s too old to be talking smack online and challenged him to say what he has to say in person on RAW. Cena said it’s a date and took another shot at Reigns lashing out on social media.
You must be asking people on twitter for insults ?? and aren't you a bit old to smack talk online??? See me at #Raw . https://t.co/7H96E8s9Sl
The ‘Perfect Ten’ Tye Dillinger made his surprise return to NXT last night during a Live Event from Rochester, New York as noted by WrestlingInc. Below is the video of his entrance on the show:
The SmackDown Star reportedly worked in the opening match of the night where he faced and defeated Kona Reeves. It was noted that Dillinger received huge pop upon his entrance and he was very over with the crowd.
Currently, it’s not known whether Tye’s appearance was a one-off deal or if the SmackDown Live star will be making more appearances for the Development Territory of WWE in upcoming time.
What’s interesting to note here is that prior to SummerSlam, Dave Meltzer had stated that the company may send some Main Roster talents back to NXT which are not being used after the PPV.
If the company does plan to send some talents back to the Yellow brand then Tye Dillinger looks to be a perfect candidate for it as he hasn’t done much on Main Roster since being called up back in April this year.
Though on the other hand, AJ Styles has announced that the Perfect Ten will receive a shot at his US title next week on SmackDown Live, so we should wait and watch what the company has in store for him.
Former NXT Champion Bobby Roode recently spoke with Justin Barrasso of Sports Illustrated about various topics. Here are the highlights:
His time in NXT:
“NXT brought my passion back. I got the chance to work with all the coaches down at the Performance Center and I was able to pick Triple H’s brain too. Also, working with Shawn Michaels was amazing. He’s been very supportive of me and extremely helpful. This past year was really gratifying on many different levels. To come here with the experiences I’ve had and to have the year I’ve had and be looked upon in the locker room as a leader with people coming to me for advice, it’s still surreal to me. There are so many great minds within this company and I’m learning every day. I truly believe that in this business, you can never learn enough, I’ve been in this business for two decades, but the fun is just about to begin.” Feeling that he is the future of WWE and his main roster debut:
“This is what I love to do,” said Roode. “I have passion for this, and I’m in the best shape of my life. I’ve been doing this for two decades, but believe me, we’re just getting started.”
WWE Hall of Famer Diamond Dallas Page recently spoke with The Mirror about various topics. Here are the highlights:
Being inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame:
“It was super powerful. When I gave the phone back to the producer he said ‘what do you think?’ I said ‘what do I think?’ I wish you were f*****g filming him man. What he was saying was amazing’ and he was like ‘oh yeah, we got it’. I said ‘you got what he was saying?’ and he said ‘this is the end of your biopic’. I go ‘oh dude, that’s awesome’, because I had no idea that’s why they put me on the phone with him. I had rung him beforehand. Most people don’t know it was October when he called me and I’d never heard of anybody in the business finding out about going in the Hall of Fame before January. I thought Paul was calling me back. I couldn’t remember what the hell I had wanted to call him about, that’s what I was focusing on. I was like ‘wait a minute, he’s really putting me over’, then the producer said ‘we’ve been trying to find a way to do this, to get the real emotion of the boys when they find out. To do that, we have to stick a camera in their face and then they would know’. He said Paul told him: ‘we’re making the phone call to Dally today’. That was a last minute call by Paul Levesque because he said it just felt right. I’m so happy that can be the ending because it was amazing. Eric Bischoff’s introduction was amazing too.”
Becoming a top star in WCW:
“It’s crazy man. To be in that spot… the best thing that ever happened to me was Sting was going up in the rafters. Now Sting could come down and be the guy, the only guy who really ever saved me. For the guys who have gone in from WCW, of course there is the Four Horsemen, the entire group and of course Naitch going in again by himself. That’s WCW through and through. Of course there is Dusty Rhodes, but he also wrestled in WWE and was already a Hall of Famer. He was at the same level Superstar Billy Graham was, but then The Fabulous Freebirds and Sting, Booker T, even though he was part of us, he had a hell of a run in WWE. But if you really look at it, those and me, to be a part of that group of guys, that means so much. Lex [Luger] deserves to be in there, he deserves his shot and I really hope he gets to be a Hall of Famer and you know of course there are a few other guys too, but that WCW group, is a small group man.” You can read the entire interview here.
