Fightful Wrestling Weekly (1/12): NWA Follow Up, NJPW – AXS, Ronda Rousey

NWA Follow Up

– So sometimes in the months after a long-form I do drops, people that I'd reached out to see what it is and will say "well had I known it'd be that," or they end up reading it. Sometimes by pure chance I run into someone related to the story. The week the article about the NWA dropped, I was offered an interview with Sheik by PCW. Dave Marquez — who I wanted to talk to, followed me on Twitter. Raven — who had scheduling conflicts with me over and over, told me to contact him in January about talking. Jeff Jarrett returned to wrestling and put on a GFW private show. Hopefully the 7000 words I wrote can be expanded upon, or I can write a completely new follow up, sort of how I did with Muhammad Hassan for the launch of Fightful.

The Sheik was another name I was slated to talk to, but that was all by chance. He helps run PCW, and they contacted me about setting up an interview to promote an upcoming show featuring The Great Muta. Unfortunately, we couldn't make the times match up before the release, but I'm still looking to secure the interview to gain quotes for the aforementioned revised version.

NJPW – AXS

As I mentioned last week, both New Japan Pro Wrestling and AXS TV are hopeful that they can reach a deal for the Long Beach show in March, but as of then a deal wasn't official. When I looked into the matter more, I was told by one source that AXS was going to look at how NJPW Wrestle Kingdom delivered before completing a deal.

As of Wednesday of last week, Josh Barnett — who we interviewed for Fightful.com, wasn't exactly sure of when they'd call Wrestle Kingdom 12, and just knew when they needed to have it ready by. He still told me that he was hoping to call the Long Beach for for New Japan on AXS as well.

Stokely Hathaway

– I talked to Stokely Hathaway to promote this week's Major League Wrestling, EVOLVE and Style Battle shows. The interview appeared on The List & Ya Boy, and I tried to get through a number of topics in the time allotted, including his current relationship with Impact Wrestling's Moose. Hathaway and Moose were a fast-rising act in Ring of Honor, and when Moose headed to Impact, Hathaway left Ring of Honor. He told me that the two still keep in touch, and spoke as recently as a few weeks ago. Moose hasn't had quite the same buzz as he had in Ring of Honor, but that's hardly any fault of his own.

Matt Riddle

– Matt Riddle said the idea of me jobbing everyone out on his upcoming WrestleMania weekend show is "definitely a possibility."

I'll hold my breath for Impaler DDT's all around, my friends.

CWF Mid-Atlantic

The CWF Mid-Atlantic situation that saw Brad Stutts fired ruffled a ton of feathers this week. I know several people who work for the brand, and many assumed that the situation was in relation to virtually the only on-screen regular female character there, but I can confirm that's not the case. 

CWF was very adamant in making sure people knew they weren't connected with Modern Vintage Wrestling, which was also implicated in the form of Charlie Armstrong. Their show — just under two weeks before it was scheduled to happen — was canceled when several wrestlers pulled out of the event.

Initially no one will go on record to specify what exactly happened, but I do know that many wanted to. Finally, Bruce Mitchell revealed that the situation was related to an alleged Backpage prostitution proposal.

WWE Network and WCW content

As speculated by Jimmy Van on several episodes of The List & Ya Boy Podcast throughout 2017, I was told by a WWE source that a lot of WCW content was put on hold due to various lawsuits that the company faced from WCW talent. From concussion lawsuits to the one brought up by Raven and Buff Bagwell, WWE hasn't thought the juice was worth the squeeze in that regard. It is kind of funny that there's more demand for WCW Thunder now than when it actually aired. 

Speaking of Raven, I've been playing tag with him for months trying to secure him for an interview. It started in summer/fall of last year to promote his podcast and appear on List & Ya Boy. Later, it turned into me wanting quotes from him to contribute to the NWA article, as he's a former champion. I was pretty sure hope was lost in that regard, but he contacted me around Christmas, and I'll likely use it for List & Ya Boy, NWA Revisited, and a Wikipedia Fact Check.

Wikipedia Fact Check

I'll transition right into that as well. We're bringing back Wikipedia Fact Check, something I've teased for a while, but haven't had the man-hours to do. We have old ones from EC3, Muhammad Hassan, Vince Russo, Elijah Burke and Chael Sonnen, and I've spent about a year getting a lot of them in the can for a hopeful monthly release. I'd imagine I'll release them on weekends when there aren't MMA or pro wrestling events in order to leave Fightful viewers and readers with new, original content. 

Ronda Rousey/WWE

Ronda Rousey was seen in Los Angeles eating with Triple H on Tuesday night while Smackdown is going on in Alabama. While no public announcement has been made and Triple H often downplays it, he was in town to participate in a TCA panel. While no info on Rousey possibly being signed is available, I do know that Marina Shafir and Jessamyn Duke — Shayna Baszler and Ronda Rousey's Four Horsewomen partners — were without contracts at least as of December. There was heavy buzz coming out of the Mae Young Classic last year that all four women made a great impression backstage, and would end up being signed, if they wanted to take that career path. 

Check out Fightful's last Wrestling Weekly at this link.