The list of names Barnett would like to have at Bloodsport.
Coming up on March 30th is Josh Barnett/GCW Bloodsport 9 in Los Angeles, California. The likes of Jon Moxley, Kota Ibushi, ‘Speedball’ Mike Bailey, Killer Kelly and Timothy Thatcher are scheduled for the show.
To promote the upcoming event, Barnett guest appeared on Comedy Store Wrestling. He was asked what talents he would like to have on Bloodsport and the first name he mentioned was Shayna Baszler. Barnett said WWE has a tight hold on talents’ outside appearances and even if he was to make it a point to spotlight said talent in the best way, it’d still be tasking to get them on the show.
Other names he’d like to have on are Malakai Black who he’s spoken to about it, Samoa Joe, Bryan Danielson and Kyle O’Reilly.
Yeah, I want Shayna Baszler (on a Bloodsport card). 100 percent (that’s a student of mine). If there was anywhere else that was really meant for her, it’s this.
As much as I have good relationships with the people in WWE, they’re very protective of their talent and so, even if I was proposing to do something where I was doing nothing but elevating that talent, they really have a big control on what they do and where they go and I understand it and I wish I could use WWE talent, some of them. There’s some very quality people there but, yeah, it’s a different kind of machine.
Malakai Black of course (is who I would want to use from AEW). I would love to have him on here and I’ve spoke to him about it as well as Samoa Joe. I would like him, Kyle O’Reilly and… Bryan Danielson. He’s a Washington boy like me although he’s from countryside out in Aberdeen whereas I’m from the city in Seattle but, I have family that live down in that area, down southwest but we’ve been on the road together, we’ve trained together some, or I should say I’ve actually coached him a little bit on some amount of submission and Catch stuff but he’s a phenomenal example of professional wrestling where he would do Jiu Jitsu and submission wrestling and all this kind of stuff on his own time to just become a better wrestler by and large, whether he’s gonna go out and work matches or really fight someone. It’s really, really, really commendable.
Bloodsport 9 is going to be Kota Ibushi’s first bout since departing New Japan Pro-Wrestling. Ibushi has not wrestled or competed in a sanctioned bout since the G1 Climax final in 2021.
If the quote in this article is used, please credit Comedy Store Wrestling with an H/T to POST Wrestling for the transcription.
