Fightful Wrestling Weekly (3/30): Janela Spring Break, EC3-NXT-Impact, MMA Crossover, Glacier, Severn, Robbie E
Ethan Carter III finished up on Impact Wrestling television last week, just before he debuted as an on-screen character for WWE’s NXT brand. EC3 appeared at NXT Takeover in Philadelphia in the crowd, but didn’t debut for several months, until he was off of Impact TV. I inquired about the situation and was told there was no contractual obligation or release condition that prevented this, it just happened to go down that way.
I was told by those within Impact that they just decided to embrace the fact that almost everyone knew what was going to happen, particularly on social media. There was an EC3-produced backstage segment in which everyone from Tyrus to Bobby Lashley to Taiji Ishimori showed up and predicted that EC3 would end up fired. The idea for the segment was Tyrus’, and played out pretty well. I was told that many in Impact think highly of EC3 and Laurel Van Ness for continuing to promote their appearances, even after leaving the company.
Last week, I dropped the audio of an interview with former TNA/Global Force Wrestling/Impact Wrestling talent Robbie E. We were in contact after he and Matt Koon used some of the subject matter in my Muhammad Hassan articles for their new “Why it Ended” podcast, which is definitely worth a listen.
Robbie seemed to indicate that a Bro Mans reunion isn’t as likely as one would expect. Jessie Godderz doesn’t wrestle much these days and is based on a different coast than Robbie at the moment. We also speak about Robbie’s “frienemy” EC3. I gave Robbie an open forum to talk trash about EC3, since the latter is now unavailable to be interviewed by yours truly, since Fightful falls under the criteria of a “pro wrestling” site, which WWE doesn’t grant interviews to.
I may also use part of the Robbie E interview as part of the “Making A Finisher” series as a bonus, although there’s likely not enough content to run an episode of its own.
The Fabulous Moolah controversy has significantly died down since WWE made the move to change the name of the battle royal that was intended to honor her. I figured the situation was mostly behind us (outside of any developing coverage), until Moolah’s daughter Mary Austin contacted me on my non-business Facebook. I’d heard that she’d gained my information from at least one of the people on Youtube looking to exonerate Moolah.
Austin told me that she didn’t alert police when she was 15 years old and Moolah had made her wrestle without pay shortly following an appendectomy. There are multiple news articles that indicate that two doctors both recommend she not wrestle, but she says that due to her age, police were involved.
I told Austin I hoped she gets through it okay, and that nobody was targeting her. You could certainly understand why she’s taken this stance, as many (including myself based on the overwhelming claims) have reported on this news. Austin instead put the blame on Buddy Lee, who she says was the perpetrator following a split with Moolah.
I interviewed Joey Janela ahead of his WrestleMania week Spring Break show. I’ve talked to fewer wrestlers during my decade or so of covering the form of entertainment more blunt, honest, or candid. He told me that former WWF Light Heavyweight Champion Gillberg got drunk and no showed last year’s Spring Break Show, opting to party with this former tag team partner Barry Hardy instead. Janela feared that Earl Hebner would fall into the same category since he was also seen at that bar. He mentioned the fact that Adam Page was the agent for the now infamous Clusterfuck match, which went well over time and ended up causing the main event to start rather late.
That main event featured Dan Severn, who drove all the way down to Florida from Michigan because he wanted to “bring some sparring equipment.” Janela said that Severn was a good sport about the match, and the fact that the bout ended up getting a super late start.
Janela also took a shot at FloSlam, saying that after the success of last year’s show, that they tried to contact him and cut Game Changer Wrestling out of the equation. He thought that the situation was shady and didn’t want to promote the event without GCW, as they were really helpful in running the event. Eventually FloSlam would be dissolved and this year’s Spring Break show will run on WWNLive instead. The broadcast was the most-viewed FloSlam show ever, and the commentary teams — which I can attest was rough at times — got a lot of criticism from FloSlam producers.
Last year’s Spring Break show helped Glacier regain some steam (no pun intended), and in the year since, he’s been booked on AIW, Ring of Honor, and a highly publicized MLW Podcast episode. Janela mentioned that when they wrestled in AIW, that Glacier didn’t want to put him over.
As it relates to this year’s show, Janela said that he was sure on the night of last year’s show that there would be a follow up event. He threw out The Great Sasuke as a potential opponent, and it was a long time before they could get him set for the show. After months of trying to e-mail and direct message different wrestlers, promotions and promoters in an effort to make it happen, Kikutaro ended up making the booking happen within 15 minutes.
Also, Janela refused to punch Matt Riddle at my request.
Crossover
I’m unable to say much at the time, but WWE are close to signing two more names with MMA experience. WWE is keen on MMA fighters at the moments, and I was told by an employee that many of the fighters they’ve had try out have blown through the workouts and tryouts, and take to bumping and rolling much faster by-and-large than other athletes that try to make the attempt to cross over.
NJPW
New Japan Pro Wrestling confirmed to me that they’ll be working with Rev Pro on a series of UK events this summer.
