WWE: Carlito Reportedly Signed Contract, Gunther on Imperium Adding New Members, More News

Carlito Reportedly Signs Contract with WWE

As noted before, Carlito made a surprise appearance for WWE at this past May’s Backlash 2023 event in San Juan, Puerto Rico.

Dave Meltzer reported in a recent episode of the Wrestling Observer Radio that Carlito is currently believed to have recently signed a contract with WWE.

Meltzer reported that his sources stated that Carlito had recently pulled out of a scheduled booking for an indie event for Great North Wrestling on July 15th in Canada. Carlito reportedly told the promoter that the reason he had to pull out of his scheduled booking was due to him recently signing a contract with WWE.

Fightful’s Sean Ross Sapp reported that his sources confirmed Meltzer’s report and also stated that Carlito had also recently dropped multiple other upcoming scheduled bookings he had with other indie promotions.

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Gunther Comments on Possibility of Imperium Adding New Members in the Future

A recent episode of the Ten Count podcast featured Gunther as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Gunther’s thoughts on the possibility of Imperium adding new members to the group in the future.

“No, I think it’s perfect how it is. I’m a big believer in ‘never change a running system.’ I think too much in and out can water a group down a little bit. We’re all together for a reason, nothing’s random. We are all tightly connected in our private lives too, especially with Kaiser. Our careers went the same way since we started. There’s a history of that group a long time before WWE, so it’s something that was just authentically there. As of right now, I feel like it’s good how it is.”

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com

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WWE News & Notes

As noted before, WWE has recently debuted several new championship belts in the company as part of their current on-going efforts to streamline their championships. Sports Illustrated reported that their sources stated that the reason for WWE’s decision to streamline their titles was due to WWE CCO Paul “Triple H” Levesque had “wanted to freshen up all the titles and present a new look.”

WWE recently sent the Denver Nuggets a custom WWE Championship belt in celebration of their recent NBA Finals Championship victory. WWE also recently sent a custom WWE Championship belt to the Las Vegas Golden Knights in celebration of their recent NHL Stanley Cup Championship.

2K Games recently released the Race to NXT DLC pack for their WWE 2K23 game featuring NXT talents Tony D’Angelo, Wendy Choo, Ivy Nile, and Trick Williams and WWE Hall of Famer Harley Race as newly playable characters for the game’s roster.

PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that his sources stated that longtime wrestling promoter Rick Bassman visited WWE’s headquarters in Stamford, Connecticut on Thursday. Johnson reported that Bassman had meeting with WWE Executive Chairman Vince McMahon as part of his visit.

In a recent interview with Adam’s Apple, MMA fighter Conor McGregor stated that he is currently not interested in the idea of working for WWE in the future. McGregor stated “No, not really.” TMZ reported that McGregor is currently facing allegations of committing sexual assault to a woman inside of a Men’s bathroom at the Kaseya Center during Game 4 of the 2023 NBA Finals this past Friday.

In a recent interview with The Ringer’s The Masked Man Show podcast, Angelo Dawkins gave his thoughts on if WWE will be introducing a new Tag Team Championship as part of their on-going efforts to streamline their championships in the company. Dawkins stated “Your guess is as good as me. If there is, I hope. One can only hope. The titles that we have still look good, red and blue, we might merge them together. Make it purple. We’re going to introduce the purple gang. If they decide to change it, I’m all for it.” Dawkins also gave his thoughts on WWE recently introducing new WWE Universal and World Heavyweight Championships in the company. Dawkins stated “I like them. They look good. They would look good around my waist. They would look good around Montez’ waist. You never know.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)

In a recent interview with the Kick Rocks podcast, Gunther gave his thoughts about how his presentation in WWE under his current ring of Gunther had brought him more success than he ever had under his former WALTER ring name. Gunther stated “Looking back at it, I think GUNTHER made me more credit — more success for me than WALTER ever did even though I spent most of my career as WALTER. There was the fundamental work I had to do and now, I’m in the bright lights more or less.” (Transcript h/t: PostWrestling.com)

In a recent interview with the Under The Ring podcast, New Japan Pro Wrestling’s Rocky Romero stated that WWE had wanted him to be part of their Cruiserweight Classic Tournament in 2016 and even offered him a job as a coach in the company to try to make it happen. Romero stated “So they really wanted me for the Cruiserweight Classic, and I was in between, or about to be, in between contracts. I think I was in between contracts [with New Japan], and we were renegotiating mine, and WWE was very interested. They wanted to offer me the Cruiserweight Classic, and then they wanted to offer me a coaching position, so I think if they didn’t offer me the coaching position and they just offered me the Cruiserweight Classic, then I probably, maybe would have waited a little bit longer to re-sign with New Japan, and I would have done that but them offering me the coaching position made me feel like they didn’t want me to wrestle so that it wasn’t maybe gonna go very far in the Cruiserweight so I decided to not take it and re-sign with New Japan. I feel like the last two years have been some of my best years in the business, so I’m glad I did not take the coaching deal.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)