Fightful Wrestling Weekly 7/5: Bischoff/Heyman, Kross, Injury Report, Maria, More

Jimmy Jacobs Enhancement Stories

Ahead of Slammiversary, we ran the Jimmy Jacobs Enhancement Story, where he discussed several of his matches in WWE. He was a part of a Cruiserweight Championship match on Velocity against Nunzio, after his beatdown at the hands of Eddie Guerrero was so well received by WWE. Jacobs told me that Heidenreich and Nova both told him that they wanted to work with him when he got to the show, which made him feel pretty good about the way things were going.

The match with Nunzio didn’t go so smooth. Jacobs remembers coming up short on a dropkick attempt, and another miscommunication when he was in a chinlock. An impromptu Codebreaker off the ropes from Nunzio was actually supposed to be a dropkick as well.

Beer City Bruiser

BCB also talked of Harley Race helping him out and watching film with him when he trained in Missouri in exchange for Bruiser doing chores around the wrestling school. Bruiser said that Race actually still had booking sheets from Wrestling At The Chase he would go over with him and break down. He said that Race brought him back as a guest coach later on down the road, something that he hopes to make more permanent in ROH. There have been preliminary discussions on making that a reality, and he said that he’ll gladly relocate to do so.

He opened up about his infamous frog splash on Jay Lethal through a table, and said that adrenaline left him not thinking or feeling anything. The spot was a collaborative creative effort, but ROH wanted a big, impactful move, and he mentioned doing something without the table before that was added in.

Killer Kross

Killer Kross was the subject of my latest longform, which was really just a series of well-timed interviews that led to it expanding. We didn’t approach the subject of Impact Slammiversary at all, as his match with Eddie Edwards hadn’t been announced by that time. Instead, we spoke of Future Stars of Wrestling’s Natural Born Killers.

Kross and I spoke extensively about his shoot background, and why he passed on a life as a pro fighter. We tackled his impressive performance at Bloodsport, which seems like it helped pave the way for the Natural Born Killers show he’s hosting. Kross called appearing for the event a dream come true, and he believes that Las Vegas could have an appetite for this type of show, considering they’re the fight capital of the world, and wants to help establish it in the area. We also learned that Kross was a direct Josh Barnett selection for Bloodsport, and he wasn’t considered for the first iteration.

Kross pointed to Simon Gotch as someone he thinks is going to shine in the role, and stated that he’d like to see Cain Velasquez and Conor McGregor both give pro wrestling a shot. He also made a few bold predictions — that Simon Gotch would turn a lot of heads, and that Frank Mir could end up growing tired of Austin Aries’ antics and throttle him. He also expanded on Frank Mir, saying he’s sure Mir would like to get Brock Lesnar in the ring in pro wrestling to settle and capitalize on their feud.

How he developed his style and what motivated him to develop it was a focal point of the piece, with both UWF-i and Taz both heavily credited. He had originally moved to Las Vegas to be a pro fighter, but didn’t like it, and couldn’t get his mind off pro wrestling, which is what led to his somewhat new career.

ROH

Best in the World ran into big timing issues towards the end of the show last week. The main event didn’t have a video package, and had to rush through the actual match, ending as one of two matches on the entire nine-match card under ten minutes.

AXS- Impact

We reached out to AXS TV on the reports that Impact Wrestling would be joining the fold, but haven’t heard back as of yet. We did, however, hear back from multiple names within New Japan Pro Wrestling that told us not to expect a crossover between NJPW and Impact unless AXS ends up owning the latter. However, it was also mentioned that Impact had extended a peace offering in the past, which was appreciated, but didn’t change much.

Bischoff- Heyman

To follow up on the Bischoff-Heyman talk, we were told that Bischoff didn’t even know as of the advertisement that was e-mailed out that he was supposed to be in San Antonio, and actually was set to film Afterbuzz Podcast content during that time.

We heard from another wrestler who said that Heyman’s familiarity with the roster already could prove to be a major positive point of his transition to Executive Director. The source said that Heyman has already proved helpful in his previous role, and has went out of his way to help talent beyond that.

When speaking about Bischoff, another wrestler mentioned he’s a fan of Bischoff’s Podcast, and is excited about the move in the sense that they grew up watching WWE, ECW and WCW. That being said, the wrestler also indicated that he thought the move was building up hope that won’t live up to the hype because they don’t expect anything to drastically change.

WWE Injury List

A while back when AJ Styles “debunked” Dave Meltzer’s report of an injury, Meltzer gained some grief after him mentioning an internal injury report within WWE. We can confirm it exists, and was at least at TV this week. The list features a rundown of injuries and expected returns to the ring, in addition to a “no contact list.” The “no contact list” features names ranging from current WWE performer Paige, all the way up to Scott Hall, who doesn’t really do anything for WWE these days.

Notes

– Maria Kanellis has told some backstage that she hopes to stay on the road throughout her pregnancy.

– Finn Balor was not at Smackdown Live this week.

– We have reached out to ROH for an update on Flip Gordon after his nasty bump outside the ring. We haven’t heard back.

– There was a WWE creative meeting last night that we were told went “to an obscene hour of the morning.”

– Naomi and Usos were listed as “on vacation” this week