Various: Natalya on Her Excitement for Upcoming GCW Bloodsport Debut, Queen of the Ring Director on Kamille & Toni Storm Replacing Charlotte Flair & Liv Morgan in the Film, Christy Hemme Confirms TNA Departure

Natalya Comments on Her Excitement for Her Upcoming GCW Bloodsport Debut

As noted before, Natalya will be making her official debut appearance for Game Changer Wrestling at their Josh Barnett’s Bloodsport XIII this April in Las Vegas, Nevada.

In a recent column for the Toronto Sun, Natalya gave her thoughts about her upcoming debut appearance for GCW and getting to compete in a Bloodsport show.

“In personal news, I was able to make two incredible announcements this week — an invitation to Josh Barnett’s Bloodsport and The NWA.

Upon the announcement of me competing in Bloodsport, Josh Barnett said “The Queen of Harts. A member of the legacy filled Hart family. She spent time in the Hart Dungeon learning how to crank, rip, and tear wrestlers apart. You could say that she was BORN for this. What will Bloodsport bring out of this veteran wrestler?”

Bloodsport is in Las Vegas, two days before WrestleMania 41. This will be my first match outside of WWE in 18 years, which is so special for me.

I am so excited to see what I can do in this space! Bloodsport is everything training in my grandfather Stu Hart’s Dungeon has prepared me for. It’s an amazing new challenge for me and I’m looking forward to proving myself once again on the mat and in an environment outside of WWE. Now the question remains, who will my opponent be? Stay tuned!”

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Queen of the Ring Director Ash Avildsen Comments on Kamille & Toni Storm Replacing Charlotte Flair & Liv Morgan in the Film

A recent episode of the Wrestling In Film podcast featured the Queen of the Ring director Ash Avildsen as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Avildsen’s thoughts about Kamille and Toni Storm replacing Charlotte Flair and Liv Morgan for the film’s production.

“[Kamille], this is her first acting gig. She came in through an audition when Charlotte fell out because of the WWE stuff. I’m really happy it worked out the way it did just because seeing how it went and being so happy with it — It’s not that Charlotte and Liv wouldn’t have been terrific as well, but just knows that it worked out and i love it how it is, I’m like, if it’s not broken, don’t fix it. Wrestling gods, film gods, thank you.”

Avildsen also gave his thoughts about casting Kamille and Storm for the film.

“Yeah, you know, they both have — Some people have period faces. The faces that are just more friendly to a period, right, and some people just look more modern. It’s kind of this intangible when making period [pieces], you need your actors to look like they match the time. So, Toni, and this was before the Timeless character came out, she just nailed it. The same thing with [Kamille] having the physique of June Byers to be able to eclipse Emily’s physique and to really be dominant as a very dangerous opponent. They were both so great, it’s hard to imagine anyone else playing them. Just from a production standpoint because they were both shoot — Two of the shoot matches are Tony and [Kamille], there’s a lot of wrestling involved in their characters and scenes. It was going to be very hard to do that without real wrestlers, to switch out stunt people, we have to shoot for hours and hours, they’re taking bumps longer than they’d ever taken in a normal match because there’s all these different camera setups and angles. So, they were just very resilient and very fearless with what they put their bodies through for the sake of independent film and I’m forever grateful for them doing that.”

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com 1 & 2

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Christy Hemme Confirms TNA Departure

As noted before, Christy Hemme was released from TNA Wrestling this past February as part of several changes made to TNA’s management.

In a recent virtual fan signing event with Rich Degregorio, Hemme confirmed that she is no longer with TNA.

“I just recently left TNA from doing behind the scenes stuff there and in this time right now, I’m not thinking (about my future). So, whenever I leave a big thing and I’m getting ready for whatever is next, I give myself time and space…

I usually give myself a time period to not think about what’s next, and interestingly enough, I was thinking, oh! This is a great trip to sit and think about what’s next for me, my goals, where I’m gonna put my time and all that kind of stuff and on this trip, I’m like, I really don’t feel like thinking yet. I think I just need a little bit of a mental break, especially just because my head has been in wrestling for so many years and not saying it won’t still be in wrestling. Just needs a little bit of a breather.”

Transcript h/t: PostWrestling.com