Various: GCW Owner Brett Lauderdale on ROH Partnership, Saturday’s NJPW Strong Card, Indies

Jan 21, 2022

GCW Owner Brett Lauderdale Comments on GCW’s Partnership with ROH

A recent episode of the Pro Wrestling Illustrated podcast had Game Changer Wrestling owner Brett Lauderdale as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Lauderdale’s thoughts on the process that led to GCW’s current working partnership with Ring of Honor.

“So as far as Ring of Honor goes, obviously in the recent months before they went on this hiatus, we saw a lot of our regular talent start to go over and work with Ring of Honor. So, you know, we had people on the inside so to speak. Aside from that, obviously we’ve had relationships with people who have been there for years as well. People like PCO or Brody King or any one of the number of people and we had talked several times over the last couple of years about the possibility of getting to work with certain people, having certain people on our shows, them getting exceptions or whatever, and you know, just for whatever reason, it had never worked out up until the last — this most recent attempt. You know, we had been trying to get — The Briscoes in particular were somebody I wanted to have in GCW for a long time so, you know, some ideas came into place and I had a meeting with some of their people at one of their TV tapings and you know, we just threw ideas back and forth and the idea of how we can have a mutually beneficial relationship with using their talent and at the same time, being able to promote Ring of Honor and you know, kind of reminding fans who don’t follow Ring of Honor as much, reminding [them] what they are, who they are. You know, reminding people who The Briscoes are and whoever else might come over and you know, spark an interest from our fans to check in on Ring of Honor and at the same time, allowing these people who haven’t been seen out of the ROH world to kind of, you know, dip back into the regular indie universe so to speak and just kind of freshen things up and make things interesting and I mean, we got as far as to discussing The Briscoes and having an arrangement in place and obviously we know what happened, happened shortly thereafter. Ring of Honor, changing some things up so we didn’t get much further than that but that’s just — that’s honestly how it happened. There was no — but I’ve heard a lot of people’s speculation on how this or that happened. I mean, there was no other crazy stuff planned. It was just, ‘Let’s just start with this and see how this goes and see where this leads us,’ and yeah, that’s what happened. I mean as far as the ROH World Title, you know, I mean [Jonathan] Gresham is the champion. He wants to defend it so when it makes sense for him to defend it when he’s at GCW, that’s a thing and Ian Riccaboni, what better person to call an ROH World Title match on such a big stage than him? So, that’s how those pieces came into place.”

Transcript h/t: PostWrestling.com

Full Card for Saturday’s Episode of NJPW Strong

New Japan Pro Wrestling recently announced the full card for this Saturday’s Nemesis Night 3 themed episode of NJPW Strong, which airs on New Japan World starting at 8PM EST.

Lucas Riley vs. Royce Isaacs
Juice Robinson vs. Bad Dude Tito
Rocky Romero, Fred Rosser, & Tyler Rust vs. Team Filthy (“Filthy” Tom Lawlor, Black Tiger, & Jorel Nelson)

Misc. Wrestling News & Notes

Terminus recently announced that Shane “Swerve” Strickland will be making an appearance for the company at their Terminus II event on February 24th in Atlanta, Georgia.

Lucha Libre AAA reportedly recently postponed their scheduled event on January 30th in Merida, Mexico due to COVID-19 pandemic related issues, according to LuchaBlog.

Pro Wrestling NOAH announced that they have stripped Yoshinari Ogawa & HAYATA of their GHC Tag Team Championship due to Ogawa recently testing positive for COVID-19 and being unable to compete in his scheduled title defense at their event this Saturday in Osaka, Japan. (English translation PostWrestling.com)

Enjoy Wrestling announced that they have pulled Nyla Rose from the card of their Striking Distance event this Saturday in Millvale, Pennsylvania due to her being in recent close contact with someone who tested positive for COVID-19. The company also announced that Evil Uno will be replacing Rose for her scheduled match against Edith Surreal at the event.

Major League Wrestling announced that they have pulled The Von Erichs (Marshall & Ross Von Erich) from the card of their Blood & Thunder event this Saturday in Dallas, Texas due to both recently testing positive for COVID-19. The company also announced that a mystery team will be replacing the Von Erichs’ scheduled match against 5150 (Danny Rivera & Slice Boogie) for the MLW World Tag Team Championship match at the event.

MLW announced a new match for the card of their MLW SuperFight 2022 event on February 26th in Charlotte, North Carolina:

MLW World Heavyweight Championship – Davey Richards vs. Alexander Hammerstone (c)

New Japan Pro Wrestling recently announced four new matches for the card of their NJPW Strong themed Rivals event on February 17th in Los Angeles, California: