Various: GCW Cuts Ties with Zilla Fatu Over Undisclosed Issues, Donovan Dijak on Joining MLW & His Current Vision for His Character in MLW, Indies

Sep 21, 2024

GCW Cuts Ties with Zilla Fatu Over Undisclosed Issues

Game Changer Wrestling announced on Friday that they have cut all ties with indies wrestler Zilla Fatu due to unresolvable undisclosed issues

It was announced that they had reached an impasse with Fatu over the issues and as a result will no longer be working with him for the foreseeable future.

Zilla Fatu will not be appearing on tonite's GCW event in Philadelphia, or any GCW shows for the forseeable future.

We tried our best to avoid this situation, but we have reached an impasse.

We wish him the best.

Matt Tremont will now face SLADE tonight at #GCWAura in Philly.
— GameChangerWrestling (@GCWrestling_) September 21, 2024

Fatu last wrestled for GCW at their Tha G-Code event on September 15th and had been working for the company since this past January. Fatu is the son of the late Umaga, real name Edward Fatu.

Donovan Dijak Comments on Him Joining MLW & Current Vision for His Character in MLW

As noted before, Donovan Dijak, former Dijak in WWE, made his official debut for Major League Wrestling at this past August’s Summer of the Beats event in New York City, New York.

WrestleRant held a recent interview with Dijak. One of the topics discussed included Dijak’s thoughts about him recently joining MLW and his vision for his character in the company.

“A lot of it has to do with timing and vision. Both of those things are extremely important to me at this point in my career. I haven’t been shy about letting everyone know I’m 37 years old… For me and my style and the way I like to present [myself], I’m aware I’m probably closer to the end, maybe not the end of my career but maybe the end of my high-octane in-ring style… I’m in the prime of my career in the ring and as a character and as a performer just as a total package. I’m very confident in myself from that aspect.
My current vision started [in NXT]. The things that I’m saying and the way that I’m acting and talking, now the whole vision is coming to presentation and MLW wanted to dive head-first into that. That’s speaking my language at this point in my career. Those two pieces really presented themselves to me in a really appealing light to me at the correct time in my career and life, so I’m 100 percent diving head-first into everything with MLW and it’s a very exciting time.
I was talking to my buddy Anthony Greene and said, ‘Man, there’s a big piece of this from the WWE puzzle that I miss and it’s the thrill of being on live television.’ That’s hard to replicate. I know a lot of this stuff is streamed online and there’s similarities there, but it’s hard to replicate that, ‘All right, three, two, one, your music hits, you’re live in front of 1.2 million people.’ That’s a thrill you can’t replicate anywhere else. Double-edged sword, pros and cons. I liked the positives, but there’s also different aspects of it you have to acknowledge. We’ll get on live TV at some point. I’ve got time. I’m 37, I’m not 87. I’ll be okay, but right now, I like to focus on the positives as much as I can.”

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com

Misc. Wrestling News & Notes

Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that Chris Jericho became the first wrestler in wrestling history to main event a CMLL Anniversary Show and a WWE WrestleMania event. Jericho faced off against Triple H for the Undisputed WWE Championship in the main event of WWE’s WrestleMania X8 event in 2002 and faced off against Mistico in the main event of CMLL’s 91st Anniversary Show on September 13th. Meltzer reported that Jericho also became the first wrestler to compete in a WrestleMania event, Anniversary Show event, and a WCW Starrcade event.

AEW and Ring of Honor talent Leila Grey announced on Twitter that she recently joined New Japan Pro Wrestling’s LA Dojo to help improve her in-ring wrestling career.

Tampa Bay Times reported that the National Wrestling Alliance will be exclusively filming episodes for the NWA Powerrr series at the WEDU-PBS Studio in Tampa, Florida going forward.

Major League Wrestling recently announced one change to the card of their Slaughterhouse 2024 event on October 4th in St. Petersburg, Florida. It was announced that the previously scheduled singles match of Donovan Dijak vs. TJP will now be a singles match of Dijak vs. Trevor Lee.

MLW also recently announced that CMLL talent Lluvia will be making an appearance for the company at their co-promoted Lucha Apocalyto event with Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre on November 9th in Cicero, Illinois.

In a recent episode of The Extreme Life of Matt Hardy podcast, co-host Matt Hardy revealed that The Hardys have been in recent talks with TNA Wrestling officials for Jeff Hardy’s Willow character to make a return in the company. Hardy stated “Willow is something that I think we will see sooner rather than later in TNA because we have had some discussions about that. That’s something that Jeff is very passionate about. Much like his music, he’s very passionate about his creation of Willow The Whisp. That’s something that he really wish he could’ve done with Bray Wyatt, especially The Fiend.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)

Revolution Pro Wrestling recently announced two new matches for the card of their British J-Cup 2024 event on September 28th in Stevenage, England: