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Bischoff on Wrestling Recap – Ed Nordholm Playing ‘Small Ball’, Opinion on Mahal’s Victory, Music Rights in WCW, More!

Bischoff is joined on today’s show by his co-host Nick Hausman.

Bischoff opens today’s show by discussing Ed Nordholm’s decision to divulge personal messages between himself and Matt Hardy to the wrestling media. This is a whole new level of small ball in Bischoff’s opinion, and it stinks of desperation. It’s a very amateur move, and by sending out this information Bischoff suggests that Nordholm is basically wearing a sign around his neck that says ‘mark’.

Bischoff believes that the harder IMPACT pushes back against The Hardys in this battle over the ‘Broken Universe, in the court of public opinion they will be found guilty. They’re bringing a lot of bad publicity to their brand by fighting this war, and they’d be much better served to just let it go.

He believes that this whole thing is probably one big running joke within WWE at the moment, because it’s incredibly stupid. The fact that Ed Nordholm and IMPACT tried to ‘sell’ WWE a gimmick is hilarious in Bischoff’s opinion, and there’s no way anyone at WWE’s head offices are taking this serious at all.

WWE Nixes Plans for Rusev’s Return

Plans for Rusev to return to WWE programming and go after the WWE Title have changed.

As seen on SmackDown Live a couple weeks back, WWE aired footage of Rusev saying he wanted a shot at the WWE Title at the Money in the Bank event. Rusev said he would be returning to SmackDown Live to confront Shane, which never happened and WWE hasn’t played up to that storyline at all on any of their programming.

With WWE announcing Randy Orton’s rematch for the WWE Title at the Money in the Bank event on SmackDown Live this week, it is now evident that plans have changed for Rusev and he will not be going after the Title on that show. We will keep you updated if we hear anything new regarding his return.

Backstage Update on Emma’s WWE Return

The Wrestling Observer Newsletter reports that Emma is expected to be cleared to return to action in June.

As previously noted, Emma suffered a shoulder injury at a WWE Live Event on May 7th in Liverpool, England while she was teaming with Alexa Bliss and Nia Jax to take on the team of Sasha Banks, Bayley, and Mickie James. Emma took a bad landing on her right shoulder after a double knee drop from Sasha on the turnbuckle. The match was stopped early as a result to the injury.

205 Live Continues to Perform Poorly

205 Live continues to perform poorly on the WWE Network.

According to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, the show failed to rank in the top 20 shows on the Network this week. The show actually ranked behind a three-month old episode of Ride Along. Halloween Havoc back in 1998 got more views than 205 Live did.

This isn’t a first time occurrence either, as the show rarely ranks in the top 10 despite airing live on the WWE Network and being built up on RAW the previous night.

X-Pac 1, 2, 360 Recap – Backlash Analysis, Dunne & Bate Steal Takeover, Nakamura’s In-ring Debut, More!

X-Pac discusses his comments from this past week, when he informed that Val Venis almost became a member of DX at one point. He also informs that Test was very close to becoming a member of the group as well, but that didn’t happen either.

He says that when you have a successful group such as nWo, DX or the Bullet Club, you have to be very careful as to who you add to the group so as to not interfere with the chemistry of the other members. However, if the creative team suggests a new member and the other members don’t agree, they have to be able to articulate a good reason as to why the other talent shouldn’t be brought into the group.

X-Pac comments on the ongoing issues between The Hardys and IMPACT wrestling. He says that WWE might be interested in the ‘Broken Universe’, but there’s no reason for them to get involved legally if The Hardys are already pursuing legal action against IMPACT. X-Pac admits that if Vince McMahon really wants to use that gimmick, he might just get fed up and pay IMPACT for it, especially if it’s cheap.

Jinder Mahal Claims He’s Been Tested Multiple Times & Never Had an Issue

While speaking to The Times of India, Jinder Mahal made the following remarks about fans being critical of his recent physique transformation.

“I don’t know what kind of criticism that was. I worked hard in the gym a lot. All the WWE talents are drug tested by a third-party agency and I have been tested multiple times and never had an issue, so you know my transformation is all diet, all hard work. I am a tested athlete like every other WWE wrestler. I have no special privilege; nothing like that. I look like an athlete, I perform like an athlete, I carry myself like an athlete and WWE was not hesitant to put me in a WWE title match.”

Click here for the full interview.

Asuka Surpasses Goldberg’s Undefeated Streak

Asuka has surpassed Goldberg’s WCW undefeated streak of 173 wins. She made the following remarks about the accomplishment on Twitter:

Goldberg responded with the following:

Adam Cole’s WWE Status

While Adam Cole may possibly be joining WWE, he is currently a free agent and hasn’t signed a deal yet with the company. The feeling is that he will eventually end up in NXT as one of the top stars for the brand unless something changes.

It’s also worth noting that Impact Wrestling is also interested in trying to sign Cole. We will keep you updated on his status when we find more information out.