GFW's decision to put Jeff Jarrett on leave was made shortly after Triplemania. Jarrett was in an argument with Vampiro at one point during the night, and had a confrontation with Sexy Star's husband after the Rosemary incident. Jarrett was criticized for his performance in his match that night, as well as the shape he was in. That night's events followed the Bob Ryder incident sometime back and the heat with Reby Hardy.
Regarding Anthem looking to sell GFW, it's possible they would keep the rights to the video library in order to have content for Fight Network. So, someone else could finance the company while
Anthem continues to feature Impact. It's worth noting GFW sources are denying the company will be sold, although that could be because all of the moves are being made at Anthem's level.
- Billy Corgan has reportedly not been contacted regarding making an offer for GFW. Corgan, WWE, and Sinclair were all interested in some way in getting the company's assets before Anthem stepped in, but things could well have changed now with Corgan making plans for NWA and WWE looking to cut back on expenses.
While Jeff Jarrett retains ownership of the GFW trademarks, the company will likely continue going by that name given the big rebranding months back unless Jarrett makes any moves on the legal front.
GFW plans to continue its international associations in Jarrett's absence through Scott D'Amore and Jeremy Borash.
GFW was going to set up Jarrett vs. Alberto El Patron during Triplemania, but Alberto was not at the show due to issues with AAA. It's good in hindsight that wasn't teased, as plans are off for it to happen at BFG. It would have been a good match if both men were able to give 100%. Alberto is still expected to return that night.
Rey Mysterio's talks with GFW have stalled due to disputes between GFW and The Crash. Rey was being planned for a role at BFG against Jarrett or Alberto but that's been pushed aside. It's notable he would have been allowed to work the show despite his LU contract.
- GFW and The Crash are at odds due to The Crash being blindsided by GFW working with rival promotion AAA, as well as a last-minute replacement of Lashley with James Storm for a Crash appearance. A planned mask vs. hair match between Mysterio and Jarrett in The Crash was thrown off by the AAA announcement. With Jarrett now out of the picture, maybe things will improve between the two companies.
AAA now has a U.S. TV deal with Univision Deportes. The AAA show will generally feature older footage, similarly to NJPW's U.S. show but there's no English commentary for this project. It's still a good start for the company to try to build an audience.
NJPW has blocked The Crash from booking multiple top Western names due to NJPW's relationship with CMLL. Many of those names work ROH regularly, but aren't being booked by CMLL, so they're missing out on getting work in Mexico. That's a bad political situation that's out of the hands of the people actually doing the wrestling.
Kenny Omega's recent knee surgery was a wear-and-tear situation rather than getting injured. He'll be back in action later this month.
A new UK free-TV station will be featuring Five Star Wrestling regularly starting in 2018, so WWE's UK talents won't be able to take bookings there. It will be interesting to see how successful that endeavor will be.
El Rey is interested in a fourth season of Lucha Underground, but the venture currently lacks funding. Season Three is coming to a close, which will start the clock on the talents becoming free agents if no fourth season is upcoming. There could be a lot of workers on the market in 2018 if LU and GFW aren't viable options for talent.
Bullet Club merchandise could be coming to more chains of U.S. stores in 2018. That's really impressive for a stable primarily featured in Japan.
NXT still plans on running a Full Sail taping on September 13, but there are backup plans should they be unable to do so as a result of weather. I assume they'd push the taping back a week or so and do some clip shows in the meantime. They could easily have a Best of Asuka episode to bridge the gap.
While Darren Young is back from injury, Bob Backlund is not currently part of his act. I assume they'll quietly drop that in order to focus on other talents. Darren's a valuable hand, but it doesn't look like he'll be able to get momentum going anytime soon. I'd like to see him get a fresh start in NXT, but I don't see that happening unless he pushes for it.
Paul Heyman is actively involved on the creative end of Brock Lesnar segments, which can cause headaches for the regular creative team due to him pitching changes. Brock often has great segments, so The Advocate is doing what he's often done well.
WWE has wanted to have a regular weekly UK-brand TV show, but has been unable to get a deal to air one there. As such, it's likely not cost-effective to do tapings just for the Network. They've put a lot of money into grand ventures, and they're not seeing big returns on them.
205 Live will follow the Mae Young Classic final after Smackdown Tuesday night. There was concern of how the cruiserweight show would fit into things that night. The MYC special is expected to just feature one match and should only last about thirty minutes total.
Chris Jericho went to bat for AJ Styles to get the Styles Clash unbanned, promoting the move to Vince McMahon. Y2J's clever; hopefully other veterans are looking out for the new wave of WWE superstars as well.
The January 1 Raw will be in Miami. The January 2 Smackdown could be from the same building.
Bobby Roode talked about coming to Smackdown, and Alberto El Patron confirmed plans to return to GFW in November.
Eddie Kingston's GFW deal expires in October. He has a chance of being saved with John Gaburick back in the company. We'll see what changes are made to the company's direction at BFG and the following TV tapings.
Matt Hardy released a new video. It looks like they're going with the "Woken" Hardys thing. I'm split on bringing that back; they might have gotten all they can out of the concept.
The "Miss Elizabeth" during Dolph Ziggler's Smackdown segment Tuesday was Stephanie Dinsmore, the wife of Eugene. I wonder how that came about.
Mountain Dew is doing a WWE-related contest for No Mercy. Who wouldn't want to see The Miz???
Ric Flair has changed business representatives. Hasn't he had enough trouble getting engaged?
Natalya had a column featuring assorted facts about her. I hear she's related to Bret Hart.
The Mae Young Classic is getting a red carpet special on Facebook Tuesday. Ronda Rousey, Triple H, Stephanie McMahon, Hope Solo, cast members of Netflix's GLOW (!), Charlotte Flair, the Bella Twins, and Bayley have all been announced. Good to see people outside the WWE bubble attending.
ROH is doing a tournament in Michigan on October 28 for the "Soaring Eagle Cup," as the event will be in the Soaring Eagle Casino. Jay Lethal, Christopher Daniels, and Dalton Castle are all confirmed for the eight-man tournament.
Booker T. is doing a live show in California to benefit Hurricane Harvey victims in Texas. That's really great.
Brutus Beefcake is close to finishing his autobiography. There's no word on a release date yet. The former WWF/WCW star has a long body of work to discuss.
Impact drew 227,000 viewers Thursday night as the NFL season began. The only other times they have drawn such a low audience on Pop were holiday/recap episodes. Notably, there were some episodes that did lower numbers in one timeslot only to pass that mark with a replay later in the night. Either way, that's a really low mark for the series in its 13-year history. They're very lucky Pop has already committed to airing them through the end of 2018.
Ed Nordholm recently gave an interview on a number of GFW topics:
- The Global Wrestling Network will be feature around 900 hours of GFW content on a pay tier of $7.99 a month, and another 2,000 or so hours of GFW content on a free tier. The free tier will also feature Impact episodes ten days after they air on Pop TV. Why they're giving away that much content for free and expecting fans to pay for the rest of it is odd.
- The Global Wrestling Network will be feature around 900 hours of GFW content on a pay tier of $7.99 a month, and another 2,000 or so hours of GFW content on a free tier. The free tier will also feature Impact episodes ten days after they air on Pop TV. Why they're giving away that much content for free and expecting fans to pay for the rest of it is odd.
- The GWN has been pitched as a place for content for other promotions, too, from AAA and NOAH to potentially other non-WWE companies. They're definitely ambitious on that front, particularly the suggestion of NJPW being part of it given the launch of their own network.
- Nordholm thinks he can make more from the GFW (Impact) library than WWE would pay him for it. Interesting.
- Nordholm indicated the Jarrett leave of absence is temporary. The GFW website has him in the alumni section, so take that for what you will.
- GFW is looking to do multiple monthly live events in 2018. We'll see how things work out there.
Tye Dillinger has continued to work NXT's live event loop, as it included a show in his hometown in Ontario. I still assume he remains part of Smackdown going forward.
For my take on yesterday's PWInsider.com questions:
1. The story of GFW HQ moving to Ontario with the rest of Anthem offices has been going around for a while now. It could be the company is continuing to look at moving GFW HQ, but plans aren't set yet and they don't want to jump the gun by announcing the move without having all the details together.
1. The story of GFW HQ moving to Ontario with the rest of Anthem offices has been going around for a while now. It could be the company is continuing to look at moving GFW HQ, but plans aren't set yet and they don't want to jump the gun by announcing the move without having all the details together.
2. He's seeking bookings, so he's going to continue to work in the business. We'll see how things look when BFG comes around. If he's not part of GFW come November, it will be interesting to see what his next plans are. Naturally there's the speculation of him trying to relaunch his version of GFW, but I'd be surprised if he tried that route again.
3. WWE is more than happy for them to scout talent as long as they still make their WWE dates.
4. There's a special place in my heart for the crude WWF ring toy from the Attitude Era. It was junk by today's standards, but I had a lot of fun with it.
5. PWG is seemingly content to stay at the size it is now, which is a little odd considering how many more people would pay to see that event each year.
More wrestling tomorrow.
No comments:
Post a Comment