Johnny Gargano Makes Big Return; ROH Star Debuts In NXT (PHOTO)
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Category: WWE NXT
Mauro Ranallo’s Contract Details Revealed
The word going around is that Mauro Ranallo has signed a deal for two years with WWE that will also allow him to appear and work for non-wrestling events. This means that he can still work with Bellator MMA under WWE clearance while simultaneously working for WWE.
It was announced earlier that Ranallo will be joining the colour commentating team on WWE’s NXT starting from this week. He will also be calling the iconic and hyped Mayweather vs McGregor fight in August of this year.
Top ROH Name Not Heading to WWE
PWInsider reports that Dalton Castle agreed to a new deal to stay with Ring of Honor and will not be heading to WWE. Castle’s previous deal was set to expire this month and they had not yet come to a new deal until the last few days.
It should be noted that he only “agreed” and has not officially signed anything. Some websites have got those two terms confused.
Another Name Done with Impact Wrestling
Jessie Godderz is no longer working for Impact Wrestling and his profile has been removed from the roster page on the company’s website. Godderz worked for the promotion dating back to 2011.
While speaking to Scott Fishman of TV Insider last month, Godderz was asked about why he hasn’t been appearing on television for Impact and he confirmed that he was still under contract with the company.
“I just had a handful of other projects that took precedent. They were understanding with it. I’m still under contract right now. Other than Sonia and my CBS family at Big Brother, obviously I owe the world to Impact Wrestling for giving wrestlers chances to branch out. Everything is as planned and on schedule as of right now.”
It is very possible that he contract could have ran out over the past couple of weeks. We will keep you updated if we receive more information.
Marty Scurll Wants Match Against Former WWE Superstar CM Punk
Marty Scurll appeared on the Sam Roberts Wrestling Podcast for a new interview. Here are some highlights:
Switching from his Party Marty to Villain gimmick: “What I’d like to suggest now is my previous character, a fun-loving, good guy, ‘Party’ Marty, was actually the whole plan all along because all good villains start off as a nice person, something happens, and they turn into that evil villain, so I’m actually a genius. My character is like a long thing, like 12 years. I tried to be a good guy. I tried to be the one everyone loved. They turned their backs on me. Society turned on me. And then, I turned out to be an absolute asshole. Are you surprised? These people made this happen.”
When he thought about changing his look: “There was a very famous quote, well, I’m not sure how famous it is, but a quote either way from Matt Groening who wrote The Simpsons. And he said that all great characters can be recognized from their silhouette. And I thought, ‘Well, that’s an interesting point.’ And I thought, ‘Well, okay, I need to get something to mix this up.’ So yeah, it was a gradual thing. It wasn’t like, ‘This is my character!’ It’s an evolving thing. It still is, even to this day.”
The importance of having a developed character: “I think originally I just assumed I’d be a really good wrestler and then someone would give me a character and I’d be good enough to play it off. Right, right, they’d be like, ‘You’re going to be Mantaur 2,’ and I’m like, ‘Yes, I love it!’ I could do that. No. But I think you quickly realize to get by and be successful in wrestling purely based on your in-ring ability is…you have to be really remarkable. Guys like ‘Dynamite Kid’ could do it, but I feel like to be a main event player and a character some people can get invested in, that’s the most thing, I think.”
Guys who are great in-ring talents needing good characters: “If you look at the guys who have broke out from Europe, you have Zack [Sabre, Jr.] and you have [Will] Ospreay, who are really, really exceptional in their fields. Zack is the best technical wrestler and Ospreay is the best high flyer, so they don’t have to rely as much on characters, but they will because they are the best in their field, but there will come a point when they’ll have to excel in that character. Wrestling on TV and wrestling on the indies are two different things, so they’ll have to.”
Heel/babyface dynamics: “What the hell is a heel? Who said I was a heel? I’m ‘The Villain’, I didn’t say I was [a heel]. I don’t play by these pro wrestling rules of faces and heels. I just don’t. I don’t care about that. You can live by those wrestling rules. I think outside the box. I’m a villain. I’m an antagonist. I do nasty things. If the people want to cheer or boo it, that’s down to them. It’s says more about them than it does about me.”
Wanting to face CM Punk: “CM Punk, I’d like to bring CM Punk out of retirement and wrestle him for sure. I don’t know if CM Punk listens to this show, but if he [does]…” Scurll added, “but CM Punk, if you’re watching, come out of retirement. We can cause quite a bother of a wrestling match. What do you say? And that’d be fun, right? Yeah, that’s one for the headlines!”
Mark Andrews’ CT Scan Results Revealed
As previously noted, UK Superstar Mark Andrews was hauled away in an ambulance after suffering an injury in the main event at today’s Download Festival event. WWE provided the following update on his condition:
“Mark Andrews suffered a neck injury on Sunday during WWE NXT’s time at Download Festival 2017 in Donington Park in Derby, England.
Andrews was quickly evaluated by WWE medical personnel. A statement passed along to WWE.com read, “A CT scan of Andrews came back negative, with just bruising evident. Mark would like to thank all his fans for their concern.””
The Taz Show Recap – Calling Live Matches Vs. Taped, Asuka Needs A Challenge, Does Lana Deserve A Title Shot? More!
Blocks 1 & 2:
A listener calls into the show and presents an idea he has for the Mae Young Classic. He says that Asuka has been complaining about a lack of competition in NXT as of late, so perhaps she should be entered into the upcoming women’s tournament where she’d have to defend her NXT Women’s Title in every match.
Taz says thats a cool, unique idea, but WWE wouldn’t really be able to explain giving out multiple Title opportunities to women who didn’t earn it. Taz admits that WWE just did this by giving Lana a Title opportunity against Naomi at Money in the Bank, so perhaps they don’t worry about those types of details as much as we’d think.
Another listener calls into the show and asks Taz what your main goal should be as a colour commentator for a wrestling company. Taz says that first and foremost, you should never worry about getting yourself over. Your talking points should always focus on the story that the talents are telling in the ring, and your goal is to do everything you can to get those talents over with the audience.
Taz points out that a lot of commentators seem interested in getting themselves over more than the talents in the ring, and that should never be the case. He adds that colour commentators such as JBL or Jerry ‘The King’ Lawler can get away with that to a degree because they both had lengthy, successful in-ring careers before transitioning to the announce booth.
Drew McIntyre Says He Can Be The Top Guy
Drew McIntyre recently spoke with The UK Mirror. Here are some highlights from the interview:
WWE Return: It’s been a crazy couple of months. I was basically the busiest independent wrestler in the world, travelling the world back and forth. I was under contract at the time [with IMPACT Wrestling] and I elected not to sign my new contract. I had to make the best decision for my future and my family’s future. I was very, very lucky after so many people believing in me and working my arse off that I was able to take a pick of where I was going to go. But my mind was made up, if I got the opportunity… William Regal is one of my mentors and I had been talking with him the whole time I have been away from WWE. He has been giving me advice, watching my matches, so that’s pretty much where it came up. I had a good conversation with Triple H on the phone and as I say, my mind was made up where I wanted to go. NXT is the top roster in the world as far as I’m concerned, the work ethic and fans. Once I had that conversation my mind was beyond made up. That day when I showed up at the show was one of the wildest days of my life. I had a very busy day! I started at 8am, I had a signing, then a show in the afternoon, then a radio appearance, I had an additional signing, then showed up at the Evolve show at 8pm it started, I was out in the first segment, I believe I left the building at 8.20pm, drove straight to the Amway Center in Orlando, my wife was waiting with a suit at the back door. We ran in the back, I put the suit on, this was about 9pm, Orlando traffic so it took a while to get there, and I was sitting in my seat in front of 15,000 fans, and at not one point did I think to myself ‘I wonder how they’re going to react?’ until I sat in that seat, got my head down and thought ‘oh my God, I hope they remember me and have been following what I’ve been doing!’ When I showed up on camera and I saw and heard that reaction it was one of the best feelings in my life and I knew I had made the right decision.
Competing For The WWE UK Title: Absolutely. An opportunity to wrestle those guys would be a privilege. They are so talented and so young, it’s amazing the difference in the scene now, that people have so much talent to work with and get so advanced, those guys like Tyler Bate and Pete Dunne are just so unbelievably advanced for their age. I just had a match we taped for television just before the TakeOver, I was getting my gear off and watching it on my phone on the Network, and I stopped in my tracks as I was watching the match, sat in my underpants! I could not get changed, I just had to watch the entire match. I was blown away, I tweeted right away, ‘NXT UK TakeOver’ because I was shaking my head like ‘wow, when we first came over, there was nobody, just Sheamus, myself and Wade Barrett, there was nothing like this going on’. To watch the level of talent and that show-stealing performance just made me very proud of the lads and the UK scene in general.
The Rise of Jinder Mahal: I made the loudest noise in the world backstage when he won that title! I think I almost punched the roof I jumped and punched the air so much. Just to watch his turnaround is the biggest thing for me. I remember about a year and a half ago having a conversation with him. The second I was gone from the WWE, as you know, I started to write my mission statement, I just kept going, there was nothing else I was going to do. I had a clear vision and thankfully it just came out. With Jinder he went out, he wasn’t too sure what he wanted to do, and he talked about this on Chris Jericho’s podcast so I’m not speaking out of turn. He got himself out of shape, not wrestling so much. He wasn’t really sure what to do and we had a conversation when he wasn’t too sure about his future and was talking about opening I think it was a Subway franchise he was leaning towards and he’s got a couple of houses and real estate. Wrestling was pretty much off the table. Then one day he made a decision, ‘no, I’m going to get back in shape’. He started taking it seriously again, got back in shape, got the call from WWE, continued his path, worked hard, gave up alcohol, made these positive changes in his life and just started working his arse off. To watch him go from that conversation when he was out of shape to where he is today, the most in-shape guy on the roster and one of the hardest working guys, I’m very proud of my brother for earning that. That was a big moment for him and I couldn’t be prouder of him.
Being The Top Guy: I always have, 100%, I’ve never changed my opinion since I said that. He didn’t say the things he said for his health, he has done a lot with this business because of his eye for it. I wasn’t necessarily the guy he was looking for back then in a few different ways, but he certainly saw that raw talent and potential. I’ve been lucky that I’ve got myself through various opportunities and platforms and people believing in me, my wife helping in a lot of different areas, and growing up a lot, I’ve shown I am ready now to be a top guy, to hold that position for the company and show what it is to represent a giant, publicly traded company like WWE. There is so much more than just what you do in the ring and what you do on the microphone. As a kid I didn’t quite comprehend that, but now that’s something 100% I’m ready for. I’ve represented many people as the face of the company, proudly and I do it with joy and I do it with respect and make sure I elevate everywhere I go. I came to NXT to elevate it and I came back to WWE to fulfill the prophecy.