See Walter defend the Defiant Internet Championship against Matt Cross at Smash Wrestling in Toronto. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87nT0DONbgU
Sunday, October 21, 2018
Cody Rhodes vs. Nick Aldis | FIRST LOOK at #NWA70 Cold Open
Nashville, TN – October 16, 2018 – The momentum for the NWA 70th Anniversary keeps building strong as the National Wrestling Alliance carries the legacy of Ten Pounds of Gold forward in a mega showdown this Sunday 7:05 p.m. ET, Oct. 21 at the historic Asylum at the Nashville Fairgrounds.
NWA 70 honors the fighting spirit and upholds pro wrestling tradition since 1948 is exclusively on FITE in conjunction with Global Force Entertainment (GFE). WWE Hall of Famer and professional wrestling veteran Jeff Jarrett is the CEO of GFE.
The main event for NWA 70 features the rematch between NWA Champion Cody vs. Nick Aldis. Cody had won the championship belt that his late father, Dusty Rhodes had won at the height of his career from the former NWA Champion Nick Aldis at the historic, wrestler promoted, ALL IN event in September.
NWA 70th Anniversary will be marked by the return of Jim Cornette as color commentator who joins Joe Galli, the voice of Championship Wrestling from Hollywood on the broadcast team. The star-studded broadcast team also features Tony Schiavone calling the main event and Jenn Decker as Host. Cyrus Fees, will be the special ring announcer.
With the NWA70 card finalized, the event promises a throwback to pro wrestling classics with a new NWA National Heavyweight Champion Tournament. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kaOQksZSho
Eric Bischoff On Ric Flair Being The Middle Man To Bring Hulk Hogan To WCW, Not Handling Flair Well
During his second run with WCW Ric Flair, had a publicized feud with Eric Bischoff, who filed a lawsuit against him for no-showing a live episode of Thunder in 1998. On a recent episode of Bischoff's 83 Weeks podcast, the former WCW president discussed different topics regarding his experiences working with Flair.
Bischoff went into great detail about Flair's involvement in getting Hulk Hogan to sign with WCW in 1994. Bischoff said he was the first to make contact with Hogan, but it was Flair who was able to ease Hogan's concerns about the state of WCW at that time. WCW had been mismanaged for years, so it took some convincing to get Hogan to sign on.
"I didn't go to Ric Flair and reach out to Hulk Hogan. I did rely 100% on Ric Flair to get Hulk comfortable. Hulk was--and again, context is king, but he was not in WWF, so the urban narrative that I 'stole' Hulk Hogan from the WWF is a fabrication. It didn't happen that way. He had already left. Vince McMahon and Hulk Hogan had parted ways over the steroid trial and Hulk had made up his mind that he was done with professional wrestling," Bischoff said. "He was going to go and do television and movies. He was working on a television series called 'Thunder in Paradise,' which was being filmed at the MGM Studios, the same time we were filming there, and that was when I put the word out that I sure would love to talk with Hulk Hogan and Hulk had called me in the middle of the night. It was 1:30 in the morning on a weekday, which I knew who the voice on the other end was. He has a pretty recognizable voice and we started chatting. At that point I tagged Flair in because Hulk didn't trust anybody. He didn't trust anybody in WCW. He looked at WCW for what it was at the time, which was a cluster and completely mismanaged. It was a revolving door with senior management and a political nightmare, and Hulk knew that."
Bischoff said he sweetened the deal for Hogan by offering him more money for less work. Even though Hogan was intrigued by the cushy deal, he still needed assurance that he'd be working with Flair because Flair was the only wrestler in the WCW locker room that he trusted.
"He had liked the deal we presented him; look, Hulk's kids [Brooke and Nick] were really young so the idea to only work a handful of dates a year and a couple TV's to support those dates. His original deal was for four pay-per-views a year and then the television appearances that were required; I think three or four of them leading to pay-per-views, so I think you can do the math. It was like 16 dates total, or maybe 20," Bischoff said. "That meant that Hulk Hogan would be able to spend more time with his kids because at the time that was his main priority, but at the same time he didn't want to enter into the shark tank of WCW because it was everybody stabbing each other in the back at every opportunity, and Ric Flair was the one guy that Hulk knew he could work with and the one guy he could trust who would absolutely get in the ring for his comeback and can use Ric Flair, so I did use Ric Flair. Ric was down there during every meeting I had with Hulk, with the exception of when I was talking about money, which came at the very end, but in the beginning--if it weren't for Ric I don't think Hulk would have ever made the move".
Bischoff said he was surprised to hear accusations of mistreatment from Flair, but he understands where they came from. Bischoff admitted that he mishandled Flair during the rise of the nWo. As the company's focus shifted to the infamous faction, Flair felt that he was kicked by the wayside. Bischoff said it was just business and he didn't intend to make Flair feel like he was being disrespected.
"Nobody was more enthusiastic about bringing Hulk Hogan in than Ric. Nobody was more enthusiastic about doing a job for Hulk Hogan than Ric Flair. He wanted to be the heel to Hulk Hogan's babyface because that was a perfect role for Ric. There seems to be a lot of bitterness and anger and I was the target of that for guys that were in WWF at the time, it doesn't surprise me, but it doesn't reflect what was going on," Bischoff explained. "I loved Ric Flair. What he hasn't talked about in his book was that when he was part of the booking committee and he and his family--all of them, would come down to the MGM Studios and his family and my family were all staying down the yacht club together and we became really close friends. That is why when I hear about some of the stuff that supposedly happened during that period of time when I treated him like dirt, that just didn't happen.
"Granted, in 1996 when my attention shifted and when the nWo became the focus of the company, and by the way, rightfully so, because it was the first time within the company in its history that the company started making money," he continued. "It wasn't because I was a mark, or I was friends with Hulk Hogan or wanted to be, or Scott Hall or Kevin Nash. It was happening and the shift of focus and the energy that was being put in the nWo was being put in it because it was the first time we had made some money and it had to be that way. What happened with Ric was that he felt less important to the company. He felt less important to me, and this is where I f**ked up. Rather than communicating, which I could have done more effectively but I didn't. I am not making excuses, and I feel horrible about it, but it is what it is. It wasn't because I didn't respect Ric or that I didn't like him or that he didn't have any value, quite the opposite frankly, but all of the focus was going in a different direction away from Ric and it affected Ric. It made him angry and it caused a lot of problems."
Taz Details Why He "Knew He Was Screwed" When He Made His WWE Debut
Taz was a guest on a recent episode of The Apter Chat with Bill Apter and Josh Shernoff. The interview touched on many points of Taz's career and eventually got to his debut at Madison Square Garden. After Taz's debut in WWE, his push died down, and Taz said that he knew that would happen when he heard the crowd's reaction to his debut.
"When I debuted and that popped happened, and all that jazz, and I talk about this on my show many times, when I was walking down the aisle and I had that black towel on my head in [Madison Square] Garden, it was an amazing feeling," said Taz. "But before I even got to the ring, I knew I was screwed. I knew that I was in trouble. Because I heard the pop, I've been in the business long enough, I knew the business and I knew that the pop was not made or built by the WWE. That was made from myself and the guys that I was fortunate enough to put me over by ECW. That pop? That's what that pop was. It was not them from advertising a tribal 13 logo, which was cool because people didn't know it was me coming. That pop was because of the fortunate history that I have had, in the tri-state area especially. Being a New York guy that was also from ECW. I knew that I was doomed because that's how WWE was back then, it's a lot different now. Today, if I debuted like that, I'd be getting pushed to the moon."
Taz also revealed that he used to not be comfortable talking in front of a crowd. Eventually that would change and he would go on to have some good promos in ECW. He wanted the chance to work the mic when he joined WWE, but Vince McMahon wouldn't allow it until he got into an angle with Jerry Lawler, which led to him being at the announcers table.
"[Vince] didn't want me to talk," Taz revealed. "I didn't get on the mic and believe me, I had some pretty good promo work at ECW and I had my catchphrase 'beat me if you can, survive if I let you' and he didn't care. He kind of wanted to re-brand me. And they don't tell you that. You kind of have to figure that out on your own. So fast forward a little bit, maybe a year or so, year and a half, I got into an angle with JR [Jim Ross] and that was at the Garden where I got verbal with JR and cut a promo on JR. Then they had Jerry Lawler punch me and he knocks me on my ass. I get into a big pull apart with king and me and king get into this angle for a couple weeks. Well, that angle is what put me at the announce desk because they had me take out Lawler before SmackDown, or something like that, and I sat next to Michael Cole. I was supposed to sit there for a segment and then Jerry Lawler was supposed to attack me from behind through the audience. I sat there, and I had never done this, and Vince [McMahon], Kevin [Dunn] and these guys were like, 'just talk, rip Jerry Lawler, rip Michael Cole, just rip people, just be a rude, be a heel, be nasty.
"So I sat there and I didn't really know the timing or what to do. Michael Cole kind of held my hand through that one match. I knew right away, and I wasn't trying to be an announcer, I knew right away that the cadence with Michael Cole and I flowed pretty good in that one match. I don't even remember who the hell was wrestling. The match ends. Nobody attacks me from behind. There's no Jerry Lawler. Now it's SmackDown, so we're not live. We're in a break, that would be a commercial insert, and I'm sitting with Michael Cole and we've got headsets on, so you don't really want to say to much because all of the bosses are backstage. And I'm saying to myself 'where's Lawler? Why am I out here still? What am I doing?' They said nothing to me."
Taz received a call from Kevin Dunn several days later for an opportunity to announce a WWE UK PPV. Taz ended up taking the opportunity and impressed the two people that mattered most.
"We got done and it sounded pretty good. I was walking backstage, there was this big corner hall, and there was nobody around this one corner. I see Kevin Dunn coming out of the truck with just Vince [McMahon]. So at the time, that's the power right there. That's the WWE. It's just me walking at them and Vince smiled at me and Vince just said, 'you've got a future.' 'That was awesome.'
Soon after the PPV, Taz become a full-time commentator for WWE. He said that McMahon wanted him commentating for as long as he wanted. Eventually Taz wanted to move on from WWE.
"Real simple. I left WWE on my terms, which I'm proud of," Taz said. "I have no ill will at all towards WWE on iota. I had a contract sitting in front of me right before WrestleMania, my deal had ended it was the week before 'Mania... I needed to get out of there. I needed out. I needed out. I needed out. I did not want to be there anymore. I needed a break from everything. The company. I loved everybody there, I just needed out. I was burned out. It was a tough decision.
"I was there almost ten years. Almost a decade. It got to the point where it was just... Vince was a little bit micromanaging at that time on all the commentators. You felt like you had no creativity. I was just not having fun, at all. I knew that there was some interest and intrigue from TNA. It looked like they were having fun. They had some talent there, a lot of guys that I didn't know. I wanted to call some of their matches and I felt like that was a good way to give me an injection, a new injection of my career."
Taz left WWE in 2009 and while has been part of a few projects for WWE, he has never made a full return. He noted that he has no regrets for never making a full return to the WWE.
"A lot of wrestling fans have this preconceived notion, that once you are in the wrestling business, or in the WWE per-say, and you're doing well and you get fired or quit; that you want to go back. You're jonesing to go back. You need to go back. No. I'm grateful and I'm blessed that I don't need to go there. I have nothing against those people. I've done some business with them. They had me do some stuff on the WWE Network a while back. That ECW thing they did."
"I have no ill will. I hope they succeed and keep making millions. I mean that from the bottom of my heart. But I'm happy. I'm the happiest I've been in my whole career to be frank."
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