Wrestling Past And Present: 12/09/21

Thursday, December 9, 2021

•Philly Street Fight for the World Tag Team Championship: Los Parks (C) vs. 5150 •World Heavyweight Champion Alex Hammerstone in action! •Winner gets Cesar Duran’s Briefcase Full of Cash: Arez vs. Aramis •nZo vs. Matt Cross The World Tag Team Championship is up for grabs in a Philly Street Fight on this edition of Fusion: ALPHA, presented by newlawoffice.com! 5150’s turf war with Los Parks reaches a new level as Rivera and Slice Boogie challenge Los Campeones for the World Tag Team Championship. Can Konnan’s crew walk into the 2300 Arena and end the near year-long title reign of Los Parks? By order of Cesar Duran, Alex Hammerstone will be in action! Who or WHAT does “El Jefe” have in store for the World Heavyweight Champ? nZo steps into the ring with Matt Cross! Can “The realest guy in the room” show out against a savvy ring technician in his MLW debut? Lucha Libre’s finest put it all on the line for Cesar Duran’s cold hard cash! Aramis and Arez battle for a briefcase filled with Cesar’s cash courtesy! Has CONTRA collapsed? Alicia Atout examines the fate of the “global dealers in violence.” Tabloid journalist Emilio Sparks gets the scoop from “The Young GOAT” Myron Reed, but a sinister presence lurks in the shadows. Join Rich Bocchini, Joe Debrowski, and broadcast journalist Alicia Atout as MLW presents Fusion: ALPHA!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qdg3wOMaq3I

Gail Kim On Her Two Runs With WWE

Impact Knockout’s legend and producer Gail Kim joined Oral Sessions with Renee Paquette to talk about her wrestling career. Paquette asked Kim if she had any regrets on missing out on some things regarding the women’s revolution in WWE. Having been outspoken about her time with WWE in the past, Gail Kim revealed she was okay with missing out on things like WWE Evolution, as she is very happy with the career she had in Impact Wrestling both in and out of the ring.

“I would love to talk about this right now because I feel people have a perception,” Gail Kim said. “Obviously I’ve been very vocal in the past in terms of my time in WWE, and that was all from a very honest place. I want people to understand now that I still feel the same way in terms of the way I was treated. Of course, I wasn’t very happy with the way I was booked there, because I don’t think I was there at the right time, to be honest. Although I did think the second time I was there, they could’ve utilized me better. But now at this point in my life, as I said, you’re younger and you think a certain way and you’re very involved in that moment.

“I’m still not happy with how I was treated, personally. In terms of booking and all that stuff, I can now say I know I was there at the wrong time. I know that if those things didn’t happen, I would’ve never left to go back to TNA/Impact, and I’d have never been able to have, the Awesome Kong stuff happened, but when I left WWE the second time, I came back and had those matches with Tarryn (Terrell), went on to now produce and have a great leadership role there.

“All those things wouldn’t have happened if those things didn’t happen at WWE. So I can see the good in that. I think I’ve cut emotionally, in terms of you saying ‘do I wish I could’ve been part of those things?’ I think I cut that part of my emotional system off. I don’t even consider it a possibility. In my mind, I never thought ‘okay, I don’t think of being invited to anything because I’ve cut those ties.’ And I’m okay with that. I did it back then and I knew what I was doing back then when I left.

“I experienced that company twice, so I was very sure and I still am very sure. It’s not like leadership has changed there in terms of how they perceive me or however it is. But I know the things I did wrong back then, and I think I’m a pretty realistic person and I can look back in hindsight and know the things that I probably thought in a wrong way. But I also am very firm in the way that I felt, in terms of certain ways that I was treated.”

Gail Kim had two runs in WWE, first from 2002 to 2004 (when she briefly won the WWE Women’s Championship) and again from 2008 to 2011. She has not held back her feelings on WWE since, criticizing them several times on Twitter, including earlier this year when she called attention to WWE’s practice of returning women’s belongings in trash bags following the release of Mickie James. Kim was also critical of WWE’s booking of Mia Yim in Retribution last year; Yim and Kim had previously worked together in Impact Wrestling.

JBL Talks about Blackjack Lanza Being A “Father Figure”

Following the passing of Blackjack Lanza, JBL joined Busted Open Radio to talk about Lanza’s career. He stated that Jack was an amazing person, discussing how important his role was backstage in WWE.

“Jack was an amazing guy, Bubba, as you know,” JBL said. “I’ve never seen anybody say anything bad about Jack. You look at the people who are putting out Tweets, from every different ideology and everything. They all say Jack was a mentor and a friend. There was nobody that said anything about Jack. You know, Jack was a real tough guy, he was a man’s man.

“But he had a way of dealing with every single person on the roster where literally he was everybody’s friend and mentor. He was an incredible person, he was the right person for Vince McMahon to have in that position,” he stated. “Probably the most important person in the company, other than Vince McMahon was Jack Lanza.”

JBL admitted that Jack was like a father figure to him. He revealed that he requested his permission when it came to doing the Blackjack gimmick.

“Jack was, like a lot of people, like a father figure to me and I was once a Blackjack,” he recalled. “Jack gave me his blessing and, in fact, I pulled him aside and I wouldn’t have done it if Jack hadn’t given me the blessing. He told me, he said, ‘I’m honored that you’re going to be the one carrying on the legacy,’ which meant the world to me. I’ve been really tight with Jack over all the years.”

JBL also revealed that he and Barry Windham actually tried to get Lanza to manage them. However, while he didn’t want to do that, he was always happy to help backstage.

“He really helped me a lot. When I first came in, I was a bit lost, especially when I became a Blackjack. Jack did our vignettes for us,” JBL said. “He did a bunch of them and kind of put them all together and made it into one vignette. Barry and I really tried to talk Jack, and Vince did too, to being our manager. But Jack just wanted no part of it. When he left the ring, I think it was 85, he never went back. He said, ‘I’m not getting back in the ring, I’m just not doing it. Once you do that, you’re back.’ Jack never would. But he would always help us with so much stuff.”

NEW YOUTUBE SERIES COMING FROM THE NWA

Over this past weekend, The National Wrestling Alliance taped the first episodes of a new weekly series titled NWA USA in Atlanta, GA. That series will commence on 1/8/22 and will air weekly on YouTube, bringing the promotion back on that platform after NWA Powerrr shifted to a subscription model on FITE.TV.

The first NWA PPV of 2022 will be the Crockett Cup.

There are no plans at this point to return to GPB Studios in Atlanta, GA, in part due to the restrictions on fans allowed in the venue.

Mike Bennett and Matt Taven coming into the NWA was planned in advance of the Ring of Honor shutdown with the idea of doing a program with Nick Aldis and Doug Williams that would potentially go back and forth between the NWA and ROH. With ROH's current incarnation shutting down this weekend, NWA President Billy Corgan made the decision to bring Bennett and Taven into the company.