Wrestling Past And Present: 10/12/19

Saturday, October 12, 2019

MLW Fusion Episode 78: Austin Aries vs. Brian Pillman Jr.

The rogue rookie of the Hart Foundation Brian Pillman Jr. steps foot in the ring to avenge Teddy Hart as he takes on his attacker Austin Aries in the main event of FUSION. Will the undefeated #1 ranked middleweight continue to dominate? Or will Brian Pillman deny Aries and send the hopeful challenger for Hart’s Middleweight belt packing? In a Lucha de Parejas Match, Los Parks (presented by Salina de la Renta) clash with newcomers Magnus & Septimo Dragon. With the Destroyer readying for war against CONTRA’s Jacob Fatu at SuperFight this November, expect the brawling father and son duo to send a message in what promise to be a high-flying, hard-hitting tag team encounter. Following the children’s hospital kerfuffle with the Von Erichs, the Dynasty promise to play hardball with the league and the Von Erichs as the Ross & Marshall pursue a title shot against the elitists MJF and Richard Holliday. We can also confirm we will receive an update on Teddy Hart’s condition. Will the ace of the Hart Foundation be cleared for a showdown with Aries? Gold medalist Dominic Garrini makes his debut against decorated amateur wrestler Ariel Dominguez. Don’t miss the Saturday Night SuperFight control center as a new match has been signed for MLW’s historic first pay-per-view on November 2! What’s up with Tom Lawlor following the former champ no-showing a media event last week? Fusion will have the latest on Tom Lawlor's status. Jimmy Havoc’s savage attack on Mance Warner landed the Southern Psychopath in bad shape. How bad is Warner injured? You may be shocked to hear. Is Injustice in hot water after the altercation with referees following the controversial tag team bout last week? Tune in to Fusion to find out this and more! And... who is El Intocable? Join Rich Bocchini and Tony Schiavone from a sold out NYTEX Sports Centre in Dallas for a night of top ranked wrestling.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8pS1NEFCaw&t=17s

Championship Wrestling presented by Pro Shingle Episode #28

OCTOBER 12, 2019: Each week, Championship Wrestling is presented by Pro Shingle - a professional roofing company. It's a HUGE week here on Championship Wrestling presented by Pro Shingle! 2 of the very best to have ever stepped into a United Wrestling ring will battle it out in the Main Event, tag team action is hotter than every + you never know who may answer a challenge on the fastest hour in pro wrestling! Dustin & Maria Starr have all the action inside CW30 Studios - here's what to expect: ACTION INCLUDES | Ray Rosas.. and his new attitude will be in action. One day his big mouth is going to get him in trouble (hint, hint!) TAG TEAM ACTION INCLUDES | We will see the team of Pinx & Fidel battle against The Millennials! AND - Wasted Youth has the tough task of facing the most controversial team in Championship Wrestling - VERMIN. BATTLE OF THE BRAS MATCH OF THE WEEK | Royce Isaacs will defend his United TV Championship against former 5x Champion Scorpio Sky! It's ISAACS v SKY brought to you by Battle of the Bras 2019 at Horseshoe Casino on Nov. 1st and it is for the UNITED TV CHAMPIONSHIP! PLUS | We will hear from Ray Rosas.. unfortunately. He was very unpleasant to Kathy Campanelli. Jon Roberts will get a quick word with Scorpio Sky before his big match-up + BATEMAN has a few things to get off his chest. All this + MORE!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YlhhVEtKIk

Jim Cornette on NWA Power

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QB9lYGv4Mg4

Chris Jericho On How He Helped NJPW Become Hot In The U.S

Now a 29 year veteran in the pro wrestling business, Chris Jericho never thought he would ever wrestle past the age of 30.

"In 1990, I remember telling Lance Storm that I don't think I'll be wrestling past 30," Jericho said during a recent interview with Ariel Helwani on the MMA Show. "You realize that when you get close to 30, I'm just now figuring out what the hell is going on. In 2005, I left for a couple of years, and then very sporadically in 2010, since my band Fozzy took off. Fozzy is a priority.

"What really invigorated me was two things. One, was when I came back in 2016 and I met Kevin Owens. We had great chemistry. We could do something together. We became the hottest act in the WWE, and we had the greatest angle. It was so much fun. And then learning from the new generation of guys like Seth Rollins, Owens, Sami Zayn, and Roman Reigns.

"Then I left (the WWE) to start the Fozzy tour and our record "Judas" took off huge. But then, this idea came to work with Kenny Omega and New Japan, and we did the Tokyo Dome. We sold out the Tokyo Dome. We did huge business on the New Japan subscription site. When I got there I was like I can do anything I want. There's no restrictions, there's no Vince McMahon filter. Not that it's a bad thing, but when you work in the WWE, there's a lot of layers of government that you have to go through to get an idea passed. And in New Japan, there was only one, me. When I was finished with that, I enjoyed myself so much, I kind of reignited the fire of the artistic side of things. I decided to do a couple of matches in Japan and that was when I met The Young Bucks, Cody Rhodes, Kenny, and then the Tony Khan thing came up. When it came through (AEW), I really wanted to do this because of the artistic freedom that I would have away from Vince's system, which was such a new beginning for me. It made me excited to be in wrestling."

Jericho did mention in the podcast that he is considered to be an exclusive member of AEW for the next three years. He, however, is still allowed to work for New Japan Pro Wrestling in between.

"I can do New Japan shows, if it doesn't conflict with AEW. I did one earlier this year, where I had an IWGP Championship match against Kazuchika Okada. I might do some more with them. But it's pretty much exclusive."

New Japan Pro Wrestling has pioneered the way for many great wrestling talent past or present. Jericho mentioned that he believes that NJPW should be considered part of the wrestling renaissance of the modern era, because of all the great things they have done to draw in audiences from around the world. From creating groups like The Bullet Club, Chaos, Los Ingobernables de Japon, and The Elite, to putting on star-studded matches like Jericho versus Omega at Wrestle Kingdom 12, they have always found a way to draw in both traditional and non-traditional fans.

"It did start with New Japan," Jericho stated. "I'm not putting too much credit into my own credit box, but when I did the Tokyo Dome show with Omega, the New Japan World subscriptions went from 35,000 to 100,000. It was because people wanted to see that match. If you were a wrestling fan that paid attention to more than just WWE, you wanted to see that match. As a result, people started checking it out for the first time to see Jericho versus this guy, Kenny Omega. But they also saw The Young Bucks, Okada, Kota Ibushi, Rhodes, Juice Robinson, Hangman Page, Tetsuya Naito, and all these other guys.

"So, New Japan became very hot. It came to the States, they were selling out. They were (the fans) familiar with these cast of characters. Then when the Tony Khan thing came up, and AEW, you kind of knew those characters from New Japan."

Regardless of whether Jericho is wrestling in AEW, NJPW, or both, one thing is for sure, he doesn't plan on walking away from the squared circle anytime soon. In fact, Jericho noted that he is currently the happiest he has ever been in his career, and he has no plans on slowing down anytime soon.

"I always answer that (about when was he the happiest in his career), because they'll ask me 'What's your favorite era of Chris Jericho?' And I say now," Jericho declared. "Because if I say back then, then I'm not paying attention to right now."

The interview is here. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/chris-jericho-exclusive/id1131739506?i=1000452193716

Nick Aldis Talks Backstage Environment During His TNA Days, Wrestlers Putting Their Trust In WWE

NWA Worlds Heavyweight Champion Nick Aldis appeared on the This is the NWA podcast to talk about his time in TNA, the differences between wrestling and entertainment, and advice he has for younger wrestlers.

Aldis worked for TNA from 2000 until 2008 and was asked about what the backstage moral was like during his tenure there. Aldis felt like reports that come out of TNA were always blown up for no reason. He noted many WWE Superstars that came over felt like TNA was calmer backstage than in WWE.

"To give context to what I'm saying here, so I don't want anyone to think that what I'm saying is the case today," Aldis said. "But Ken [Anderson] and I were talking about when we were there people used to like to run it down, despite the fact that it was a number two promotion, a really good, viable alternative for people which is always healthy for business. Anything that would happen backstage, the sheets would just blow it up like 'Oh, it's chaos' because they wanted it to be like WCW.

"The atmosphere backstage was always great! Obviously we had a very WCW-esque approach in the sense of like 'Oh, this guy's leaving WWE? Cool! Let's give him a job.' There was some of that in the water supply, but all I would hear from all of those guys was about how much tension and how careful they had to be at WWE, how much politics there was backstage, but how here at TNA they loved it because everybody was just going about their business, everybody was just cool with each other and there were no rules, no heat or no bulls---. And I don't mean there were no rules as in everyone gets to do what they want, but I mean no silly locker room rules. There wasn't all this unnecessary etiquette bulls---."

That wasn't to say things were perfect in TNA when some of the talent wasn't being used effectively due to a bloated roster.

"Some of the dumb stuff that happened, we'd all be shaking our heads," Aldis responded. "And we would all get frustrated when you have a card that's like, 'Okay, let me get this straight. A live event that has Kurt Angle, AJ Styles, Jeff Hardy, Beer Money, Samoa Joe, the X-Division guys, all this young talent and like, we've got 200 people here? Someone's not doing their job, guys. Because Jeff Hardy could draw 3,000 people by himself."

When it comes to working in wrestling and other entertainment, Aldis feels like wrestler really have to protect their brand, especially if it's their own name. Actors can have a bad role on a show, and recover, but in wrestling that may not happen.

"Take any show, like Game of Thrones, if there's some character that just doesn't register with anyone they'll just say we won't give that a lot of attention next season," Aldis said. "That actor isn't marred for life. In wrestling it doesn't work like that. And it gets even more cloudy if your character is you. If you use your real name, you have a responsibility to protect your own product.

"I made this analogy to John Gaburick when we were having one of these discussions. If I work in construction and someone gives me blueprints that fundamentally won't work and I still build that house, then that house falls down. People aren't going to walk by and say, who designed that house? They're going to say, who built that house? You can't go 'Oh, well that's what they asked me to do.' Nobody cares."

For many wrestlers, WWE has always been the top of the mountain, but Aldis says that may not be worth the climb. With a company that's so big, the NWA Champion felt wrestlers are pretty much handing over what they've built for themselves and hoping WWE doesn't "break it."

"Your goal should be to be a star and draw money, not just to wrestle for the WWE," Aldis advised. "Because guess what? Every single person that goes there, or at least 99% of them all think they can headline WrestleMania. If your only goal is to go to the WWE, you're putting your destiny into someone else's hands. You're basically working all the way up to this point and then going like 'Here you go. Don't break it.'

"They don't care enough about any one person to go 'Oh, I better hope this is the vision he had for himself.' They can't do that. That's the nature of the beast. You can't say anything without it becoming an indictment and that's not what I'm saying. I just came to this epiphany that, God, I've been sort of chasing that dragon for a long time. If I catch it, what happens?

NWA Owner Billy Corgan On Parallels Between Pro Wrestling And UFC, Developing NWA In His Vision

It's no secret that pro wrestling influences many things from pop culture to even other sports. One of those sports is MMA and specifically the Ultimate Fighting Championship. There are aspects of UFC that are seemingly taken directly from pro wrestling and fans of both sports have noticed.

NWA President Billy Corgan pointed out the paraelles between wrestling and UFC in a recent interview with the Remotely Interested Wrestling podcast.

"You'll see it with UFC matchups - they don't work babyface-heel. Sometimes, they work heel-heel," said Corgan. "Some of the biggest matches are heel-heel. Just guys cutting the sh*t out of each other. Look at Khabib [Nurmagomedov] and [Conor] McGregor - I mean who is the baby face in that? To their fans they're baby faces but from a wrestling point they are both heels…"

Corgan is coming upon his two-year anniversary as NWA's owner and he admits the first two years have been more about developing NWA into his own vision. He talked about being patient in building out the company and stressed that how the company looks now isn't necessarily how it will look in the future.

"It's very hard for people to understand. And, I don't mean it in any condescending way… If you're gonna truly grow a business, there are things you are going to do that you are just gonna have to accept in Year 2, you are not going to do in Year 6," stated Corgan. "But, if you do it right in Year 2 you are going to get to Year 6…

"You know, we have had very good partnership relationships with Ring of Honor and stuff like that where we have been able to use their stage and to work within their world. So, this is a big thing. Now, we are stepping out on our own stage. It took a long time to get here. I could have blown this money right out the door. And, we could have done exactly what we are doing. But, it took this much time to actually build the relationships with talent even or talent to buy into the idea of like why would I sign with you as opposed to another company when I could be on national TV, even though I am making less money… to explain to talent this is a different vision here."

Under Corgan, NWA is embracing the old-school presentation of wrestling that many other promotions are shying away from.

"We think there's a balance point between what's called the traditional value of wrestling, which never gets old, and then an innovative position which I think only I would take on. And, we think in that balance point - and where we have shown flashes of it – we think we can not only exist as a standalone brand within the market… We are going back to the old school Saturday morning format… No ring entrances. No music. Old school," said Corgan.

"We want the rough and tumble atmosphere."

Here's the link to that interview.. https://remotely-interested.com/2019/10/02/remotely-interested-podcast-special-billy-corgan-david-marquez-and-nwa-powerrr-tv-studio-wresting/