The Tennessean newspaper is reporting that Impact Wrestling will be officially dead this coming Sunday as Anthem Sports and Entertainment will rebrand the company to Global Force Wrestling, the company that Jeff Jarrett founded after he left TNA.
Earlier this week, Anthem announced that it has acquired Global Force Wrestling from Jeff Jarrett, paving the way for the complete rebrand.
“We’re a global brand,” Jarrett said of the rebranding. “We have partnerships in Mexico, Japan, other places. Collectively coming together, we’ve combined forces and basically the rebrand final touches happen on Sunday at Slammiversary.”
The company will still be headquartered in Nashville, at the Skyway Studios building where all the pre and post production work is handled.
Ed Nordholm of Anthem said that there were two reasons behind the rebrand: the double meaning of the TNA acronym and the fact that their name was tainted by negative media coverage over the years.
“When Anthem got involved we saw a rare opportunity to get involved with an asset that already had global distribution,” Nordholm said. “It’s a 3,500-hour library, broadcast in 120 countries, existing distribution contracts in India, Africa and now the United Kingdom. The timeline to take a ground zero promotion to that kind of penetration was 15 years. The work now is to fix some things.”
Nordholm added, “One part of our international strategy is not just to take WWE-style ‘Impact’ and export it to other countries, but as well to more deeply penetrate those international markets in association with promotions that are centric to those markets. The international promotions want to tap into our expertise to boost those shows, but also to in turn boost the GFW content.”
Jeff Jarrett admitted that the name had two kinds of legacies. One for successfully developing future stars and one for negative headlines surrounding the business they ran.
“When you look back on history, 2005 to 2015, the stars of today were created right under our watch – A.J. Styles, Samoa Joe and Bobby Roode, arguably the top freshest stars in the world today. I’m excited for this roster now. I’m excited to show the next A.J. Styles to the world.”
The Slammiversary go-home edition of Impact drew 268,000 viewers, down 74,000 viewers from last week’s show. This was the least-viewed Impact since the May 4 episode. (Ratings credit: Showbuzzdaily.com)
Apart from Kairi Sane, a couple of more women were announced for the Mae Young Classic tournament.
These are Dakota Kai from New Zealand who was previously known as Evie, Piper Niven from Scotland who was known as Viper, Vanessa Bourne from the United States who was known as Danielle Kamela, and Bianca BelAir, the NXT talent from the U.S. previously known as Bianca Blair.
Joining these women are the previously announced Lacey Evans, Princesa Sugehit, Sarah Logan, Toni Storm, Abbey Laith, Kavita Devi, Taynara Conti, Jazzy Gabert, and Tessa Blanchard.
18 more participants are still yet to be announced. The tournament starts taping on July 13 and continues on July 14 with Jim Ross and Lita doing commentary for the tournament. The final will be live on September 12 from Las Vegas.
WWE Hall of Famer Kurt Angle is coming to the WWE 2K18 video game as the pre-order bonus character.
Angle made the reveal yesterday on Twitter and then the official Twitter account of WWE games confirmed the news. “We now know what it feels like to be hit with an Angle Slam. But it’s true! @RealKurtAngle is the #WWE2K18 pre-order Superstar,” the tweet read. The trailer unveiling Angle in the game will air on the July 10 episode of Monday Night Raw.
You will still be able to play as Kurt Angle if you don’t pre-order the game but the downloadable playable character will come at a price at a later date.
WWE 2K18 will be released nationwide on October 17 for Playstation 4 and Xbox One only.
Japanese female wrestling sensation Kairi Hojo announced in a video message played at the WWE live event in Tokyo today that she will be part of the Mae Young Classic tournament which starts filming next month.
In the video, Hojo also revealed her new name of Kairi Sane and said she will be representing Japan in the 32-women tournament. The 28-year-old has been living in Orlando for the past couple of weeks and has already started training at the WWE Performance Center.
Sane, along with Io Shirai, are the two latest Japanese superstars to be signed to a WWE deal. Shirai is considered to be one of the best women wrestlers on the planet.
WWE made history this week as their three shows – Raw, Smackdown, and NXT – all featured main events involving the women’s division.
The women of Raw kicked things off with a gauntlet match with the winner becoming the number one contender for the Raw Women’s title. Nia Jax had an impressive showing, defeating Bayley, Mickie James, Dana Brooke, and Emma but then lost to Sasha Banks.
The Smackdown ladies then kept the momentum going with the second-ever women’s Money In The Bank ladder match featuring Carmella, Natalya, Becky Lynch, Tamina, and Charlotte Flair. Carmella once again walked out of the match with the briefcase as the winner.
Then on Wednesday, the NXT Women’s title was defended in a last woman standing match featuring the champion Asuka and number one contender Nikki Cross. The Empress of Tomorrow retained the NXT title in a long and fantastic match.
“Historic week for @WWE #RAW #SmackdownLive and #NXT main events were women’s matches! And they ALL brought the houses down,” Stephanie McMahon wrote in a tweet.
Impact Wrestling today announced that Naomichi Marufuji and Taiji Ishimori will team up to be part of the fatal 4-way tag team match for the Impact Tag Team titles at Slammiversary. The Pro Wrestling NOAH stars will face LAX and El Hijo del Fantasma and Drago from Lucha Libre AAA in Mexico, and Laredo Kid & Garza Jr.
“It’s an honor to welcome Marufuji and Ishimori to The Impact Zone. I know the fans will be awestruck with what these two can do inside the six-sided ring,” said Jeff Jarrett, Impact’s Chief Creative Officer.
“Bringing Marufuji and Ishimori to Slammiversary is just the next step in this long-term relationship with unlimited potential between Impact Wrestling and Pro Wrestling NOAH,” said Scott D’Amore, Vice President of International Relations for IMPACT Wrestling. “I’m confident that the two companies will have a wide-ranging talent-exchange, and the ultimate goal is co-branded shows with Impact Wrestling and Pro Wrestling NOAH.”
The trailer for Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson’s upcoming movie Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle has been released online.
The movie is about four teenagers who find a vintage video game version of Jumanji while cleaning the school’s basement and when they start playing, they get sucked into its jungle setting. The four teenagers then morph into the four leading stars – Dwayne Johnson, Kevin Hart, Jack Black, and Karen Gillan.
Jumanji is directed by Jake Kasdan and written by Chris McKenna, Erik Sommers, Scott Rosenberg and Jeff Pinkner. It is scheduled to be released by Columbia Pictures on December 22, 2017.
Chris Jericho, who has been off WWE television since the Smackdown following the Payback pay-per-view, returned to the ring last night as he is currently on tour with the Raw brand in the Far East.
Jericho wrestled Hideo Itami last night at the Singapore Indoor Stadium in Singapore, the first leg of the tour. He will also be part of tomorrow’s and Saturday’s non-televised live events in Tokyo, Japan. Both shows will be held at the Ryogoku Kokugikan Hall.
Since WWE will be in Tokyo, the company took Itami and NXT Women’s champion Asuka on the tour as well. Japan favorites Finn Balor, Karl Anderson, and Luke Gallows are also part of the tour.
There’s no fixed date for Jericho’s return on WWE television. He had been advertised for this tour prior to his departure in early May.
Smackdown, headlined by the women’s Money In The Bank ladder match, drew 2,603,000 viewers, up 13,000 viewers from last week’s show. It was the third most watched show on cable on Tuesday and number #1 in the top 50 cable chart among the 18-49 demographic. (Ratings credit: Showbuzzdaily.com)
Carmella won her second Money In The Bank match in a row, though this time it was her who climbed the ladder and unhooked the briefcase.
The rematch on Smackdown was held after the first-ever women’s Money In The Bank ladder match ended with controversy when it was her sidekick James Ellsworth who actually climbed the ladder and got the briefcase. He then handed it over to Carmella for the questionable win.
For the second women’s MITB ladder match, Ellsworth was banned from the arena per the order of Daniel Bryan. However, as most banned Superstars do, Ellsworth found a way back in and tried to help Carmella once again. Becky Lynch stood in his way though and managed to push Ellsworth off the ladder.
Carmella then took advantage and attacked Becky while she was climbing the ladder and later hit her leg with a chair, leaving her an empty path to the briefcase as everyone else was down and out.
Ryan Satin of ProWrestlingSheet.com is reporting that Tyson Kidd will be returning to WWE although this time he will be in a role backstage rather than in the ring.
Pro Wrestling Sheet adds that it is still currently being decided on what exactly he will be doing for the company. He was very vocal about how WWE treated him while he was out injured and WWE decided to keep him off the last season of Total Divas because they were fearful that he would start speaking about what happened.
Kidd, the husband of WWE Superstar Natalya, has not wrestled since June 7, 2015 where he was on the receiving end of a Muscle Buster from Samoa Joe. The move, performed during a Raw dark match, resulted in Kidd sustaining a severe neck and spinal injury, an injury which only 5% of people survive from. He underwent surgery and received 16 staples, four screws, and a rod inserted in his neck.
Anthem Wrestling Exhibitions LLC, a subsidiary of Anthem Sports & Entertainment Corp. and parent company of Impact Wrestling, announced today that it has entered into an agreement to acquire Jeff Jarrett’s Global Force Wrestling.
Jeff Jarrett, the founder of both Impact Wrestling and Global Force Entertainment, will join Anthem Wrestling Exhibitions as a member of its board of managers, equity owner and Chief Creative Officer.
“We are thrilled to be joining forces with Anthem as a partner to build the business,” said Karen Jarrett. “This partnership will be complementary of our strengths and bolster our capabilities to grow the IMPACT Wrestling brand. Ed Nordholm as President and Jeff Jarrett as Chief Creative Officer make a great tag team.”
“We are excited by the progress we have made with Impact Wrestling since acquiring the business in January,” said Ed Nordholm, president of Anthem Wrestling Exhibitions. “Jeff and his team have been instrumental in this success and we are pleased that we have reached an agreement on the basis of which we can combine our businesses to continue to grow. Slammiversary XV will be a fitting occasion to bring the promotions together and merge the titles under the new IMPACT combined belts. By combining our resources and talent, we can produce the best product for our global audience.”
With an abundance of activity on social media and across various sporting events, the “super-fight” between a boxing great and one of the leading stars of mixed martial arts has been announced. On 26th August, Floyd Mayweather Jr will put his unblemished 49-0 professional boxing record on the line in Las Vegas, USA, against two-weight UFC champion Conor McGregor.
It’s a heavily anticipated crossover between two combat sports, to attempt to settle one of the classic “who would win” pub debates. With this boxing-MMA crossover so popular, we’re going to look into how the fight might pan out, and then consider a potential further crossover into wrestling.
The only way that Floyd Mayweather Jr was ever going to take part in this event was if it was boxing or the San Diego BJJ contest and if he got a lot of money for it, which it is, and he will. Conor McGregor knew that going in. What’s happening is a life-long boxer is taking on a mixed martial artist who will be without much of his fighting repertoire. So, there’s no wonder why the Irishman is the underdog at 9/2 in the odds for Mayweather v McGregor by freebets.uk, as Mayweather Jr has the experience in the sport that the MMA fighter simply doesn’t.
It’s not just for the eventual outcome of the fight either. In a somewhat surprising turn of events, the 40-year-old, two-years removed, no knockouts in his last seven fights, former champion is expected to end the fight within the distance, with odds around 2/5.
These odds presume that the 28-year-old Irishman, who has taken a huge amount of punishment in the octagon and has never been knocked out in an MMA fight, will succumb to Mayweather Jr’s defensive play and get caught out. At 6/1 to win by stoppage, McGregor may, in fact, be the superior option in this manner given his potentially aggressive nature and clinical striking.
What next after the super fight?
If Floyd Mayweather Jr wins as he’s expected to, they’ll both walk away with a huge payday, both clearing $75 million regardless of the result, and it won’t tarnish either stars’ persona in the sporting world. However, if McGregor pulls off a mega-underdog victory – which is on the cards – he’ll become a global mega-star overnight, with invites from sports all across the world inviting him to perform.
One such sport that he looks destined for is wrestling with the WWE. His persona and antics around fight nights would mould well with the storyline-centric wrestling scene, and he’d be following in the footsteps of his upcoming opponent. At WrestleMania XXIV in 2008 – following a fracas at No Way Out in which he assisted Rey Mysterio in defeating Big Show – Mayweather Jr overcame Big Show.
When McGregor claimed that he was retiring last year, WWE star Becky Lynch tweeted her compatriot telling him to join up, but, of course, he continued his MMA career. More recently, Triple H invited the ‘super-fight’ combatants to Monday Night Raw hoping to add to the hype of their bout, and possibly persuade a future deal in the wrestling ring – perhaps a rematch?
There’s no doubt that Conor McGregor has all the star qualities that would help him to draw in huge audiences to WWE events and further his inter-sport fame, which he’d undoubtedly be keen to do.
Liam Johnson attended the You’re Next: An Evening with Goldberg event in Manchester, England last night at the Comedy Store and wrote this report.
The show was presented by Kenny McIntosh and started with a video of Kenny backstage walking out of Goldberg’s dressing room only to be phoned by his mom (his phone played Brock Lesnar’s music). Kenny explained to his mom what he was up to and said something along the lines of, “Goldberg. The baldy guy from WCW”.
Kenny got on stage and introduced Goldberg (who again was shown backstage on the screens exiting his dressing room).
Goldberg was greeted by loud cheers, applause and Goldberg chants.
Part 1 – WCW
A video package was shown of Goldberg’s WCW career including highlights from the streak as well as his loss to Kevin Nash at Starrcade 1998. Bill said after the video package that the prod that Scott Hall used was Bill’s own idea but Bill wanted to use a much larger prod. WCW wouldn’t allow the use of a larger prod for safety reasons hence why the smaller one was used.
Goldberg made a point that he was grateful for the amount of respect and support like the fans in attendance at the Comedy Store showed. Goldberg said that unfortunately, a lot of fans in the US have forgotten manners and make up chants and songs to hijack shows and make it about themselves when it shouldn’t be like that. Goldberg’s point was that wrestling should be about the performers primarily followed by the fans joining in.
Goldberg said that it took a bit of time adjusting from American football to being a part of pro wrestling. A lot of people were used to seeing him as a football player rather than a wrestler.
Goldberg spoke about his title win over Hulk Hogan in the Georgia Dome and said it was his greatest night in the business at that point. Goldberg said he was intimidated by the occasion as it was Hogan but they did what was needed to be done at the time.
Steve Austin’s name was brought up as both Austin and Goldberg were huge stars at the same time in the late nineties. Goldberg said the fact that he shaved his head and wore black trunks was purely coincidental and that he ignored what Austin was doing at the time. Goldberg joked that he used to get offended when people confused him with Steve Austin as Austin was probably about 230lbs max as opposed to Goldberg who was around 275lbs at the time.
The finger poke of doom incident from the first WCW Nitro of 1999 was mentioned. Kenny implied that this was the catalyst for WCW’s downfall and that whilst it looked like Hogan should have faced Goldberg for the title again, it never happened. Goldberg agreed with Kenny as if he was stating the obvious.
Vince Russo was mentioned too. Bill said that he often thought Russo was a plant from WWE sent to kill off WCW (not the first time that’s been said either). They talked about his heel turn and how he hated it. Particularly because he had to attack Hacksaw Jim Duggan who’d come back from having cancer in his kidney. Bill said he went to meet a Make-A-Wish kid who had terminal cancer on the same night and felt terrible and emotional about the situation. It didn’t feel right and he was glad his heel run didn’t last very long as he didn’t want to give that his best shot at all.
Goldberg said he waited for Russo to put a helmet on before he speared him. Goldberg said that had Russo not have been wearing a helmet, he’d have probably killed him with the force of the spear and proceeded to say, “Vince, you’re welcome”. That pretty much summed up Goldberg’s opinion of Vince Russo.
Part 2 – WWE.
Goldberg said that WCW wasn’t as business-ike as WWE. WCW was more like a group of friends hanging together all the time doing what they enjoyed. Goldberg said that he felt that WWE never really wanted him. Goldberg mentioned the time when he was put in a backstage skit with Goldust where they put a wig on him (Goldberg had nothing bad to say about Dustin, his point was that WWE seemed to be doing whatever it took to diminish Bill’s character).
Goldberg also mentioned an incident from back in the early 2000s at a Toy Fair where Bill verbally confronted Triple H who was there with Stephanie at the time (WCW and WWE were still two separate companies). Triple H had been saying negative things about Goldberg so this was the result. Goldberg felt as if this incident went against him in WWE and that Vince McMahon didn’t really talk to him during his run between 2003 and 2004.
Goldberg really struggled to think of any highlights in his first WWE run and only really mentioned spearing Chris Jericho through the Elimination Chamber pod.
Bill mentioned working with the late Rosie when he was playing the Super Hero In Training character. He said whilst he liked Rosie, he was never comfortable being involved with offensive acronyms or any of the other edgy kind of stuff that WWE used to do at the time.
The match between Goldberg and Brock Lesnar at WrestleMania 20 was mentioned and how the crowd “Rosie’d” all over it. Bill said that Vince was livid that both Lesnar and himself were leaving and that Vince must have been less angry with him because he was put over.
Overall, it was obvious that Goldberg didn’t enjoy his WWE run but he said he came back for his young fans.
Part 3 – WWE Return.
A video package was shown of highlights of his latest WWE run including seeing his son on WWE TV. Goldberg welled up and said that even though he’s a tough guy, seeing his son watching him as a wrestler makes him emotional. Goldberg said he came back for his son this time.
Bill said that his training regime for coming back last time was strict. A lot of calories had to be consumed and a lot of weight lifting was done. Bill also said that he was also doing Muay Thai and the problem with cardio is that it melts away the weight. Bill said that whilst he wasn’t in the same shape as was in his 30s, he was still in great shape for a 50 year old.
The original plan was for Bill to come back in January but obviously that was brought forward to Survivor Series instead.
Goldberg said he wouldn’t beg anyone for a job. WWE would have to call him if they wanted to use him. When asked if he’d be back, he replied with “never say never”.
The show ended with Goldberg taking selfies with fans and shaking their hands. Overall, a really good show.
Mahal vs Orton III will happen at the next Smackdown pay-per-view Battleground, and this time it will be a rare gimmick match: The Punjabi Prison match.
This will be third ever Punjabi Prison match in WWE history. The first one involved The Big Show vs The Undertaker at Great American Bash 2006, a match which The Big Show was not even supposed to be a part of but ended up replacing The Great Khali who was not medically cleared to wrestle. The second match of this type took place at No Mercy 2007 and involved Batista vs The Great Khali.
The match was made official by Shane McMahon after first he granted Orton his rematch but then allowing Mahal to choose the stipulation. Mahal told the crowd that The Great Khali is one of his idols and that is one of the reasons why he chose this particular gimmick match.
Battleground takes place on July 23 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Monday Night Raw drew 2,976,000 viewers this week, down 125,000 viewers from the previous week.
Hour one drew 2,887,000 viewers, followed by an increase to 3,092,000 in the second hour, and then down to 2,951,000 for the final hour. Raw this week was headlined by a women’s match to determine the number one contender for the Raw Women’s title.
Raw was #2, #3, and #4 in the top 50 cable chart among the 18-49 demographic. (Ratings credit: Showbuzzdaily.com)
Giving a live microphone to someone who is not used to can be a dangerous move. WWE learned that the hard way last night on Raw when they hosted the Ball family.
During the show, LaMelo, the youngest son of LaVar Ball, had the mic and used a word that is not really welcomed on television. “Beat that” he said, adding the N-word as he laughed. The clip has been removed from all replays and is not part of the segment on the WWE YouTube account.
The Los Angeles Times newspaper reached out to WWE to discuss the segment and the language that was used on the live show. “The inappropriate language used by a guest during the ‘Miz TV’ segment was not scripted nor reflects WWE’s values,” a WWE spokesman told the LA Times.
WWE Chief Brand Officer Stephanie McMahon was recognized by Adweek as one of the 35 most powerful women in sports.
She joined the list along with the likes of Lisa Borders, WNBA President, Karen Brodkin, EVP of Content Strategy and Partnerships at WME IMG, Kenyatta Bynoe, VP of Global Brand Marketing and Partnerships at Spalding, Nancy Dubuc, President and CEO of A+E Networks, Virginia Halas McCaskey, owner of the Chicago Bears and others.
The piece written along with her entry reads, “‘Divas’ are dead, and ‘superstars’ are born, thanks to McMahon, who retired the old-school name for WWE’s women grapplers and replaced it with the same title superstars given to the sport’s male competitors. McMahon, daughter of CEO Vince McMahon, has spent two decades in nearly every facet of the WWE, both on-air and in its business operations, helping make WrestleMania 33 a $14.5 million-grossing, attendance-breaking event at the Orlando Citrus Bowl this spring (besting a 2015 concert by the Rolling Stones).”
Stephanie also appeared on the 2016 list, the first one published by Adweek. You can read the full list at Adweek.com.
WWE will be touring New Zealand and Australia in September with four shows and the Raw brand is scheduled to make this tour.
On Wednesday, September 13, WWE runs through Christchurch, New Zealand for the first time in nine years for a show held at the Horncastle Arena. The tour then moves to Australia with the first show on September 14 at the Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne, a second show on September 15 at the Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney, and the last one on September 16 at the Brisbane Entertainment Centre in Brisbane.
Tickets are available at ticketek.com.au and ticketmaster.co.nz.
