Various: Indies Interest in Strowman & Murphy, Steve Maclin on Impact Signing, GCW Owner on Using AEW Talent

Level of Indies Interest for Braun Strowman & Murphy

As noted before, Braun Strowman and Murphy were among those released last week by WWE.

PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that several indie promoters recently reached out to Braun Strowman to gauge his interesting in working at their events. Johnson reported that he was told by some of those promoters that Strowman is currently asking for a booking fee in the five figures range for any indie appearance.

Johnson also reported that out of all the WWE talent who were released last week, Murphy has been getting the most interest out of the group. A lot of indie promoters reportedly want to use him due to the current feeling that he could have a lot of “dream match” type bouts with top indie stars.

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Steve Maclin Comments on His Signing with Impact Wrestling

This past Thursday’s episode of Impact Wrestling’s Impact! featured the debut vignette for Steve Maclin, former Steve Cutler in WWE.

A recent episode of the House of Hardcore podcast had Maclin as the guest and one of the topics discussed included his thoughts on signing with Impact.

“D’Lo [Brown] kept in contact with me and was like ‘when is your [90 days up]?’ It was May 5. He called me on May 4 and was like, ‘We want to offer you a contract.’ Technically, I didn’t sign it until after (the 90 days expired). It was a great process and I even got an email from D’Lo to say, ‘Welcome home.’ It was a refreshing feeling and it felt more accepting. I was always treated well, but [WWE] is so corporate and you’re in a pecking order. All I wanted to do it work. This past taping, I was putting more pressure on myself because I was thinking I was doing too much or doing too little. I want to do my best no matter what. Even working some Indies was cool because I haven’t worked in front of a crowd in two years so I was choked up and fired up all at the same time, and I was supposed to be a heel.”

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com

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GCW Owner Comments on Being Able to Use AEW Talent for GCW Shows

A recent episode of The Business of the Business podcast had Game Changer Wrestling owner Brett Lauderdale as the guest. One of the topics discussed included how GCW has been able to use AEW talent for their shows.

“Almost all of our work with AEW talent is through the talent itself. Not to say that there isn’t a relationship, I think we have an understanding and there’s a certain level of expectation from AEW as it relates to GCW and working with their talent, but I’m not calling the office and saying, ‘I’d like to do this with this person on this date. Is this okay?’ It doesn’t go down like that. It’s usually the talent itself spearheading this and if there are any issues, it comes back to me and it’s something we deal with then we do it. The people that work with us are here because they want to work with us, not because I’m throwing them dates and saying, ‘it’s this day for this amount of money, do you want to do it?’ It’s these people wanting to do this and wanting to stay busy beyond TV tapings. GCW is fortunate to be in that position.”

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com