All things GCW discussed by the promotion owner Brett Lauderdale.
Episode #175 of Lavie Margolin and John Poz’s Business of the Business podcast featured Game Changer Wrestling’s owner and promoter, Brett Lauderdale.
Next up on the docket for GCW is their Collective weekend from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Among the events they’re presenting that week is Josh Barnett’s Bloodsport X which is going to feature Masha Slamovich versus WWE’s Shayna Baszler.
Lauderdale said discussions between Barnett, Bloodsport and WWE have been happening for years. He added that when it comes to the powers that be who were previously in charge at WWE, possibilities such as what is occurring at Bloodsport X were a lot less likely to happen.
There’s much more to it (than Josh Barnett simply asking Shayna Baszler to compete at Bloodsport). Of course he’s wanted to have her as a part of it for years because of their connection but, there’s been discussions between Josh and Bloodsport and WWE for years actually. WWE’s been aware of it and they follow it and for those who have followed Bloodsport and GCW closely, you’ll remember back at the Bloodsport in 2019 in Jersey City, famously, Dean Ambrose and Canyon Ceman and William Regal sat up in the balcony right over the ring for the entire show watching so, they’ve been aware since and following Bloodsport, publicly at least, since all the way back then and I think there’s always been ideas of what could be done and what couldn’t be done and what they’d like to do and what we’d like to do. But, with the powers that be in charge of WWE at the time, those possibilities were a lot less likely but now that we’ve seen some changes at WWE, I think the company as a whole may possibly be more open-minded going forward and this is the start of that so… I mean, yes, it makes sense to think that it was that simple but there’s way more to it and there’s other people involved… There was other people involved and almost more people involved. I’ll just say it like that and I’m excited to see what the future could hold.
Elsewhere in the conversation, Lauderdale revealed that GCW is returning to Japan in the summer. He said they’ll be working with ‘new people’ this go-round and feels like it’s a level up from what they’ve done in their previous trips to the country.
Yes, we’ll (GCW) be back in Japan this summer. I can’t announce the dates yet but I’m actually very excited for it because we’ll be working with some new people this time and yeah, I think this will be a level up of sorts with all due respect to everything we’ve done previously. I think it was time to kind of try to take things to the next level so, unfortunately I can’t make any announcements, at least nothing with any detail than to say we’ll be back this summer and call it an announcement of an announcement but, we’ll be back and hopefully I’ll get to release some details soon.
GCW’s events air live on TrillerTV+. Lauderdale spoke about that partnership and said he’s satisfied with it.
I am satisfied with our arrangement (with TrillerTV). I was satisfied when I signed it and I think that it’s gone pretty well for both sides. It’s so interesting. It’s exciting and interesting at the same time just to kind of watch how this TrillerTV, FITE+ thing evolves almost on a weekly basis… It really is more than just a wrestling platform… They’re definitely onto something, you know, in terms of creating a bigger, I mean of course subscriber base but keeping things interesting and growing aside from what we’ve seen from other platforms and I think they’re on to it and that’s to make one of these things successful, you have to be more than just independent wrestling probably and I think that they’re smart in that respect and it’s definitely been beneficial for GCW, and it’s definitely led to new fans…
GCW The Collective will feature DDT, Tokyo Joshi Pro, PROGRESS, For The Culture, Joey Janela’s Spring Break 8 and the Indie Wrestling Hall of Fame among other events.
If the quotes in this article are used, please credit Business of the Business with an H/T to POST Wrestling for the transcriptions.
