Various: Bobby Fish on Impact Crowd Taunting Him at BFG 2022, EC3 on NWA, WOW TV Ratings, Indies

Oct 15, 2022

Bobby Fish Comments on Crowd’s Lackluster Reaction to His In-Ring Debut for Impact Wrestling

Impact Wrestling held their Bound For Glory 2022 event earlier this month in Albany, New York. One notable moment included the crowd taunting Bobby Fish during his in-ring debut for the company despite him being the hometown star.

A recent episode of The Undisputed Podcast had host Fish give his thoughts on the negative reception he received from his hometown crowd during the Call Your Shot Gauntlet match at the event.

“You know, it’s become a thing I guess [Fish said in response to how the crowd reacted to him at Bound For Glory] and I don’t know. If you hate me, you hate me. I’m okay with it. If I come home and my wife’s still here, the rest of it, it’s all bullsh*t.
Totally different and they were [Fish compared the Bound For Glory crowd to the TV taping crowd]. You’re 100 percent right. Somebody tried to give me their child the second night. Like please, take my infant.”

Transcript h/t: PostWrestling.com

EC3 Comments on Reason for Wanting to Work in NWA

WrestleZone held a recent interview with EC3. One of the topics discussed included EC3’s thoughts about his recent debut in the National Wrestling Alliance and his reason for wanting to work in the company.

“Yeah, this definitely intrigues me, and I think Thom Latimer’s… if it’s real, people feel it. If it’s real, we as the talents feel it. I think Thom Latimer’s real story is so intriguing because I’ve known him such a long time, from FCW days and just him pegged as being a top guy in any company. He is a superstar, he low-key has moves, he has work ethic, he has the ability to, like a natural charisma about him. The guy is a first-round draft pick star, and the only thing that ever defeated him were his own demons. So he had a hard time, from WWE to IMPACT, where he battled himself, and that’s been his toughest point [until] me. But I still feel like, now that he’s on this path, he’s happy in life, he’s happy in marriage, he’s happy in his career, happiness can breed complacency, and I think for a guy like Thom Latimer to truly reach his top potential, he has to finally quell every demon he has, and if that takes me to bring them out of them, then that will be the case.
At this point, I’ve become more of an idea than just a wrestler, in my mind. I want to bring people to their best. I want them to control their narrative, to be able to tell their story. The real stories of some these talents I choose are so much intriguing than can be written and produced. Their realities are what make feel emotions and feel something within themselves. To bring their stories to the forefront in a realistic manner, that is the storytelling I’m looking to do. At the same time, I’m going through hell personally, professionally, like maybe I’m projecting my own demons onto a guy like that and using him as an escape from myself. So I think it’s very layered and go a multitude of directions. NWA allows that freedom to kind of let the talent explore their own stories because [NWA President Billy] Corgan as a leader knows we know our own selves better than anybody knows us.
The storytelling I’m trying to sink my teeth into is taking things to a level where, like the first time competitors lock up, people are excited to see it because nothing’s been given away and everything’s been protected and we’re on a fully even slate, and may the best man win. There’s no unnecessary fights backstage or unnecessary hitting him with a chair or things like that, attacking him from behind or having my goons beat him up. I mean I did do that once, but I had to [send] a message. But for us to go to Hard Times 3, completely at even levels, I love that, and I wish wrestling would do that more. It makes people anticipate something.”

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com

WOW TV Ratings for Oct. 2, 2022

WOW: Women of Wrestling reportedly drew 251,000 viewers and a 0.04 18-49 rating for their October 2nd episode, according to Wrestlenomics.

This was down from the prior week’s 273,000 viewers and 0.06 rating.

In an interesting note, Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that WOW TV is currently available in more homes than WWE’s SmackDown on FOX nationwide. Meltzer reported that the main reason for WOW TV’s sluggish ratings is due to it airing on very bad time slots for most, if not all, of its syndicated markets from CBS.

For some comparisons, Meltzer reported that during their time with Sinclair, Ring of Honor managed to average around 400,000 viewers for its weekly ROH TV shows on syndication. Meltzer reported that while ROH typically aired in a much better time slot than WOW TV, it had nowhere close to the same level of nationwide syndication reach at around 40-50% at most.

Misc. Wrestling News & Notes

Former New Japan Pro Wrestling talent Katsuya Kitamura passed away on Friday at the age of 36. Kitamura’s passing was first announced by Tokyo Sports. The cause of death for Kitamura reportedly is currently not known. Kitamua’s career in wrestling spanned from 2015 to 2019 and was most known for being a member of NJPW’s Young Lion’s dojo system. Kitamura’s career suffered a serious setback following a cerebral concussion injury at an event for NJPW in February of 2018 and did not wrestle again for the remainder of his career. During his brief career, Kitamura won the 2017 Young Lions Cup tournament.

This past Friday’s Battle Autumn 2022 event for NJPW in Tokyo, Japan featured David Finlay defeating Yoshinobu Kanemaru and Zack Sabre Jr. defeating Alex Zayne in First Round matches for NJPW’s World TV Championship tournament.

NJPW’s Battle Autumn 2022 event earlier today in Tokyo featured YOSHI-HASHI defeating Jeff Cobb and EVIL defeating Aaron Henare in First Round matches for NJPW’s World TV Championship tournament.

As noted before, former WWE talent Velveteen Dream, real name Patrick Clark, was arrested twice this past August in Florida over various charges. PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that Clark had recently pleaded guilty to the violating his probation and was sentenced to the 25 days served in jail based on recent court records. Johnson reported that Clark’s guilty plea resolved that criminal charge against him while the assault charge against in a separate arrest is not being pursued by prosecutors. Clark reportedly still remains on probation over the drug charges from his arrest in November of 2021.

WWE talent Liv Morgan was recently announced to be making an appearance on the October 26th episode of USA Network’s Chucky series.

Major League Wrestling recently announced that Matt Striker will be making his official return to the company at their Fightland 2022 event on October 30th in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was also announced that Striker will be returning to his former role as a member of the company’s commentary team.

Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling recently announced that Willow Nightingale will be making her official debut for the company at their October 29th event in Osaka and November 6th event in Tokyo, Japan.