Josh Barnett Reacts To “People Throwing A Fit” About WWE Talents On Recent Bloodsport Show
The latest edition of GCW/Josh Barnett’s Bloodsport took place on April 17th in Las Vegas, Nevada, featuring a ten-match card headlined by Barnett vs. Gabe Kidd.
Ahead of the event, Barnett appeared on Good Karma Wrestling and addressed online criticism surrounding the involvement of WWE talent. A total of eight WWE-affiliated wrestlers were part of the show, which led to some fan pushback. Barnett responded:
“This is a wrestlers show, which is so surprising when, you know, now I get a small amount of people pushing back, throwing a fit about WWE talent being on the show and this one having the most that we’ve had so far,” Barnett said. “For one, they were all upset that no one would cross-promote and the organizations wouldn’t work together which by the way, it wasn’t all due to just competitive, animus, or contrarian views. Everybody’s wrestler is a massive line item in the total value of a company and there’s a bunch of money put into every single person that goes under contract so to let me have someone that’s worth a million bucks or something come work on my show, uh, that’s a big ask, right? That’s a ton of trust. I never really faulted ‘em for not necessarily having wrestlers work Bloodsport. I’d actually been speaking to Hunter and (William) Regal for years, when Vince (McMahon) was still in, and you know, the answer would usually be, ‘You know, no. Not this time.’ It’s like, ‘No problem. But let me know if you change your mind.’ But, they also don’t get upset and they seem to forget there was cards that there was a ton of New Japan talent on it… It isn’t about it being indie or working with this group or that group. It’s about me trying to put the wrestlers in the ring that I think would flourish and make great matches and that I’d wanna work with and that’s that… It is pretty cool to be able to bring people from all over because then, like I said, it’s access to these wrestlers that I wanna put in the ring, that I feel are gonna give every bit of value to this show and more so for the fans that are gonna watch.”
Looking ahead, Barnett also shared plans for the future of Bloodsport. A one-night tournament remains a top priority—an idea originally intended for WrestleMania 36 weekend before the pandemic derailed those plans.
“The other thing is I’d like to eventually — well, I should say finally — start our once-a-year, one-night tournament series,” he said. “It’s something that we were supposed to do — God, what was it? It was gonna be WrestleMania week. A Bloodsport during WrestleMania week but then COVID screwed everything up and we were putting all the efforts into it and then, it all went to waste and we haven’t been able to go back to it since and that’s something that is still one of the highest priorities to have created and to get moving.”
The next Bloodsport event is set to take place this September at the Electric Ballroom in London, England.
(H/T to Fightful.com for transcribing the above quotes.)
