(Photo: WWE)

Eric Bischoff Critical Of Reigns’ “Gray Area” Character

In a recent edition of his Bischoff On Wrestling podcast, Eric Bischoff made it clear that he’s not a fan of the “gray area” WWE has Roman Reigns occupying and says that the company needs to pick a direction for Roman and stick with it.

It’s hard to say because of the way he’s being booked and the way they are writing for him. Those are different things. I would agree that he is clearly not a heel or a babyface and I think that is a flaw, quite honestly. I think it’s a mistake. I think that this kind of on again, off again success that they have been having with Roman Reigns over the past couple of years is testimony to that. It’s just not really working to the potential that Roman Reigns has or I believe he has. I believe he could and should be the top, if not one of the top, stars in WWE. He has all of the tools and ingredients. What he may be lacking in certain regards like promo skills or finding that last ten percent of his character. Really connect with the audience and more importantly be able to manipulate the audience, that’s the final ten percent. That’s not his fault if they are writing him to be neither fish nor fowl because they don’t understand how to do it. So the creative team finds comfort in keeping him in that “gray zone” which really is a safe zone because you aren’t really making a commitment because you don’t want to fail.

As much as I dislike Bischoff for a myriad of reasons, he’s right on this. Roman will never really have a chance to truly succeed as a top heel or the next face of the company as long as WWE can’t figure out what he is supposed to be in the eyes of the fans.

Marty Scurll Talks Japan, The Villain, & What’s Next

On a recent episode of Sean Waltman’s podcast, The Villain Marty Scurll talked about getting over in front of the Japanese crowds in NJPW. If you missed him during the BOSJ, the fans took to him immediately.

“What I found really funny is that people assume that Japanese wrestling is nonsense, strong style but the crowd actually is more so into the gaga. They just have to come out to the ring with the big stuff. They love that stuff. And I am like ‘God, I am actually doing less stuff here in Japan than I would do in the states.’”

He also talked about how the Plague Doctor look came about.

“I used to organize kind of a big entrance… you know like at Wrestlemania, the guys would have different gimmicks for entrances. There was an album cover I saw one day with this plague doctor, and I thought it was cool. So I dressed up as a plague doctor. It was completely out of nowhere, it was a lot of stuff I risked. It was the doctors [who] were used back then as the black plague, they would wear these masks and a nose to cover up the smell. Dressing up as the plague doctor was only supposed to be a one-time thing.”

As for what’s next for him…

“I think in recent years to be successful in wrestling, and make tons of money. These days it’s a big part of me is to captivate and exhilarate an audience… just trying to make wrestling fun again.”

The post Marty Scurll Talks Japan & What’s Next; Eric Bischoff On Roman Reigns appeared first on TopRopePress.com – Wrestling News, WWE News, TNA News, Wrestling Results.

Photo: WWE

Eric Bischoff Thinks He Knows Angle’s Secret

On the latest installment of his podcast, former WCW President and RAW General Manager Eric Bischoff said that he thinks he knows what Kurt Angle’s big secret is. Angle is scheduled to do a big reveal on Monday’s show, and if Bischoff is even close to being right, we are all going to need some anti-nausea medication.

Bischoff gave his take on the angle to his co-host Nick Hausman.

Bischoff: Uhh, alright…I’m sure I’m going to be burning a bridge with this one, cause I’m not supposed to know about this. And hopefully, nobody gets into any trouble over this because leaks happen, right? But you remember the storyline with AJ and Claire?

Hausman: Oh my god, yeah. How could you forget?

Bischoff: WWE is ripping that off. Dixie is Claire and Kurt is AJ.

Hausman: Wow. So you’re saying Dixie and Kurt have been having an affair? He’s been cheating on his wife?

Bischoff: I’m saying the storyline, that everyone is alluding to, is shockingly familiar to AJ and Claire.

If WWE is actually going to try to recycle and revamp an old TNA storyline, then we know Vince McMahon has actually lost it.

Broken Hardys Update

As we reported earlier this week, Jeff Jarrett said on a conference call that Anthem and Global Force Wresting still own the Broken Hardys intellectual property and that there has been no agreement reached for Matt Hardy to bring the gimmick to WWE. We also reported in the same story that Reby Hardy, Matt’s wife, completely contradicted that story.

It’s being reported now that both sides were close to an agreement within the past month where the Hardys would have paid $10,000 – $15,000 for the rights to the trademark. It noted that the non-disparagement clause that Reby mentioned was a $1,000 fine for the first offense and $5,000 for each following violation. The Hardys also agreed to signing off on a press release stating that both sides settled on good terms.

However, Anthem also wanted 50% of all the Hardy’s revenue, including the revenue from Jeff’s art and music. The Hardys said nope to that.

Apparently, GFW is still looking to use the gimmick to profit off DVDs and even a digital series on the Broken Hardys. Since the Hardys wouldn’t promote or endorse those ventures, it would be difficult for Anthem to pull them off.

GFW gave the following statement about the whole ordeal:

“WWE has clearly stated via email that they do not want the ‘Broken Brilliance’ IP [intellectual property]. GFW has been and always will be open to a licensing agreement for the IP to all parties, which is customary in the music and entertainment business, but revolutionary in the professional wrestling business.”

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