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Impact Wrestling Acquires GFW

Impact Wrestling sent out the following press release today announcing their acquisition of Global Force Wrestling :

NASHVILLE | TORONTO – Anthem Wrestling Exhibitions LLC, a subsidiary of Anthem Sports & Entertainment Corp. and parent company of IMPACT Wrestling, announced today that it has entered into an agreement to acquire Global Force Entertainment, LLC d/b/a Global Force Wrestling.

Jeff Jarrett, the founder of both IMPACT Wrestling and Global Force Entertainment, will join Anthem Wrestling Exhibitions as a member of its board of managers, equity owner and Chief Creative Officer.

“We are thrilled to be joining forces with Anthem as a partner to build the business,” said Karen Jarrett. “This partnership will be complementary of our strengths and bolster our capabilities to grow the IMPACT Wrestling brand. Ed Nordholm as President and Jeff Jarrett as Chief Creative Officer make a great tag team”

“We are excited by the progress we have made with IMPACT Wrestling since acquiring the business in January,” said Ed Nordholm, president of Anthem Wrestling Exhibitions. “Jeff and his team have been instrumental in this success and we are pleased that we have reached an agreement on the basis of which we can combine our businesses to continue to grow. Slammiversary XV will be a fitting occasion to bring the promotions together and merge the titles under the new IMPACT combined belts. By combining our resources and talent, we can produce the best product for our global audience.”

Bischoff on Wrestling Recap – Working as a Guest Referee, Bret Hart in WCW, Why Was Bischoff Hired in TNA? More!

Bischoff is joined on today’s show by his co-host Nick Hausman. Today’s show will be a question and answer session with Bischoff.

One listener writes into the show and asks Bischoff what he considers to be the new key performance indicator for professional wrestling, since television ratings are starting to become out of date. Bischoff thinks that’s a great question and he’s not really sure if the answer. There’s no denying that television ratings were his main consideration in WCW in the late 90s, but today’s promotions don’t seem to be nearly as motivated by ratings alone.

Another listener asks Bischoff if he thinks finishing moves are beginning to become obsolete. Bischoff says that the style of professional wrestling that we see today requires different things from the performers, and finishing moves aren’t nearly as ‘effective’ as they have been in years prior. Fans seem to enjoy multiple false finishes in matches, and this devalues finishing moves. He believes the devaluation of finishing moves is a result of the change in the in-ring product over the last two decades.

The next listener asks Bischoff what it was like to be a guest referee. Bischoff says that he hated it, and he always felt very uncomfortable. Being a professional wrestling referee is an art within itself, and it takes a lot of time and practice in order to master. He points out that a good referee does more than count to 3, they direct the match and are as important to the match’s execution as the two talents involved.

The Taz Show Recap – LaVar Ball Invades RAW, Enzo & Big Cass Swerve, How to Hold A Title, More!

Block 1:

Taz opens today’s show speaking about the MizTV segment from last night’s RAW, which featured guest stars LaVar Ball and his two sons. LaVar Ball is a lightning rod in the sporting world right now, and WWE knew that they’d garner the attention of the mainstream sporting media if they had him make a guest appearance on RAW.

Taz says he’s sure that Vince McMahon knew this was going to be horrible, but he was definitely laughing his ass off in the Gorilla position. The positives outweighed the negatives in this situation, and that’s why McMahon loves to do these things from time to time. Regardless of all this, Taz was incredibly annoyed by Ball’s antics and wanted to jump through his television to beat him up.

He adds that he feels very sorry for Lonzo Ball, son of LaVar, who was recently drafted by the Los Angeles Lakers. His father’s heat resulted in him actually getting booed by the WWE audience in his hometown of Los Angeles, and he now has a huge target on his back as he enters his rookie season in the NBA.

WWE Reacts to Racial Slurs Used on Monday’s RAW

As seen on Monday’s episode of RAW during the Miz TV segment, Lavar’s son LaMelo Ball dropped the phrase “”beat that n*ggas ass” during a confrontation between Lavar & The Miz. Houston Mitchell of The Los Angeles Times reached out to WWE, who released the following statement regarding the incident:

“The inappropriate language used by a guest during the ‘Miz TV’ segment was not scripted nor reflects WWE’s values “.

You can hear the slurs used in the video embedded below:

Bellator Fighter Appearing at Sunday’s Slammiversary Event

It was revealed in a 30-minute preview video for Sunday’s Slammiversary event that Bellator’s Muhammed “King Mo” Lawal will be in Lashley’s corner at the event. As noted, Lashley will take on Alberto El Patron for the unified World Championship on the show.

Vince Russo’s The Brand Recap – Ranallo Returns, Snow vs. Meltzer, Ellsworth’s Heat Leads to Rise in Smackdown Viewership, More!

Russo is joined on today’s show by his co-host Jeff Lane, Glenn Gilbertti (Disco Inferno), and Konnan.

Russo opens today’s show by discussing the rise in viewership for Smackdown Live this past week. The blue brand’s viewership increased by 500,000 last week and he believes that was a direct result of the booking from Sunday’s Money in the Bank PPV, specifically the Women’s Money in the Bank ladder match.

Konnan agrees and although he thinks the finish could have been done better, it accomplished its goal of drawing attention to the brand. Russo points out that when you tell stories and leave viewers wondering, they will tune into the next show to see what happens.

Gilbertti says that the fan backlash over that finish was silly to begin with. He says the problem with the wrestling industry right now is that there are too few experts, and the actual experts are criticized and ridiculed by people who consider themselves experts simply because they’ve watched a lot of wrestling.

Eva Marie Not Done with WWE?

It was reported back in March via PWInsider that Eva Marie would not be returning to WWE, however those reports appear to be false.

Eva Marie appeared on today’s installment of Wrestling Observer Live and indicated that she could still pop up on RAW or SmackDown Live at anytime. She mentioned that her return may not be in the near future as she is still working on two filming projects, but the door is still open for her return.

When asked about reports that Lana has received her gimmick on SmackDown, she said that she couldn’t confirm that but hopes that’s not the case.

New Match Added to WWE Great Balls of Fire

WWE announced that Seth Rollins will face Bray Wyatt at the upcoming WWE Great Balls of Fire event. Here is the updated card:

WWE Universal Title Match
Samoa Joe vs. Brock Lesnar

Ambulance Match
Roman Reigns vs. Braun Strowman

Cruiserweight Title Match
Akira Tozawa vs. Neville

Bray Wyatt vs. Seth Rollins

Great Balls of Fire takes place on July 9th from the American Airlines Center in Dallas. As always, we will have live play-by-play coverage of the event.

WWE Monday Night Raw Results – June 26, 2017

Welcome to Monday Night Raw for June 26 2017!

Last week’s Raw was a pretty stacked episode and ended with a shocking reveal: Big Cass was the one who attacked Enzo Amore! Weirdly enough, it was Corey Graves who revealed the information – because he has access to security footage where no one else did – and Cass admitted to it before explaining exactly why he did it. It was hard to disagree with anything Cass said before he planted his big boot in Enzo’s face and walked off to the boo’s of the WWE Universe. The break-up received mixed reactions as some thought the duo had run their course, where others wanted them to get at least one tag title run. Regardless, tonight’s Raw will be interesting to see how Enzo responds to his former brother.

A huge return also bolstered last week’s Raw, as Braun Strowman came back from injury to cost Roman Reigns the match against Samoa Joe. Strowman then walked down to the ring and reverse chokeslammed Roman. The two are set to meet again, at Great Balls of Fire, in an Ambulance Match! The winner of this bout will go on to face Broc….I mean, the winner of the Universal Championship match at Great Balls. Strowman’s return was awesome and the fans exploded for him. Expect more brawling tonight between the two giants.

Speaking of Brock Lesnar, the Champion is scheduled to appear on tonight’s Raw and once again cross paths with Samoa Joe. Maybe they will be kept apart, rather than trying to kill each other again, but one thing is for sure, when Brock is in town, everyone watches. Joe has been fantastic since becoming number one contender and, even if he doesn’t win the strap, at least we get a few more weeks of him being the destroyer that he is billed as!

Bray Wyatt and Seth Rollins have given a lot of lengthy promo’s against one and other recently, which often go around in circles and do little to help either man. Which is why tonight I’d like to see them actually put some actions behind their words and go toe-to-toe! Elsewhere, Finn Balor will be looking for revenge on Elias Samson, and The Miz will put his new entourage to good use against Dean Ambrose, but is Maryse gone for good?

All that and loads more to look forward to on tonight’s show! Let us know what you’re excited to see in the comments and be sure to check out the Ringside News app, and enjoy the show!

Cody Rhodes Needed Stitches After his ROH Title Match

Cody Rhodes is the new ROH Champion after last night’s Best in The World pay-per-view event. However, the Grandson of A Plumber was busted open early on into the match by his opponent, Christopher Daniels.

According to Wrestling Observer, the American Nightmare needed six stitches on his busted upper lip. A headbutt by Daniels is the cause of this minor injury.