Various: Cody Rhodes on His Nick Aldis Match at All In Being “We Were The Ones That Got To Steal The Show On A Show We Weren’t Supposed To Steal”, Josh Barnett on Criticisms Over Multiple WWE Talents Being Booked for GCW Bloodsport XIII, Indies/Misc.

May 29, 2025

Cody Rhodes Comments on His Match with Nick Aldis at All In Being “We Were The Ones That Got To Steal The Show On A Show We Weren’t Supposed To Steal”

The premiere episode of the What Do You Want To Talk About? with Cody Rhodes podcast featured former AEW talent Brandi Rhodes as the guest. One of the topics discussed included host Cody Rhodes’ thoughts about his match against Nick Aldis for the NWA Worlds Heavyweight Championship at the All In event in 2018.

“I thought Nick (Aldis) was such a fun experience because ALL IN, that was the loudest the arena got that night and I don’t think we were the match that was meant to get them that loud, and I remember having a sense of just competitive pride. Not ego, not mad at anybody — that we were the ones that got to steal the show on a show we weren’t supposed to steal.”

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com

Josh Barnett Comments on Online Criticisms Over Multiple WWE Talents Being Booked for GCW Bloodsport XIII at Expense of Other Indie Talents

A recent episode of the Good Karma Wrestling podcast featured Josh Barnett as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Barnett’s thoughts about the online criticisms over him booking multiple WWE talents for GCW’s Bloodsport XIII event at the expense of less spots for indie talents.

“This is a wrestlers show, which is so surprising when, you know, now I get a small amount of people pushing back, throwing a fit about WWE talent being on the show and this one having the most that we’ve had so far. For one, they were all upset that no one would cross-promote and the organizations wouldn’t work together which by the way, it wasn’t all due to just competitive, animus, or contrarian views. Everybody’s wrestler is a massive line item in the total value of a company and there’s a bunch of money put into every single person that goes under contract so to let me have someone that’s worth a million bucks or something come work on my show, uh, that’s a big ask, right? That’s a ton of trust. I never really faulted ‘em for not necessarily having wrestlers work Bloodsport. I’d actually been speaking to Hunter and (William) Regal for years, when Vince (McMahon) was still in, and you know, the answer would usually be, ‘You know, no. Not this time.’ It’s like, ‘No problem. But let me know if you change your mind.’ But, they also don’t get upset and they seem to forget there was cards that there was a ton of New Japan talent on it… It isn’t about it being indie or working with this group or that group. It’s about me trying to put the wrestlers in the ring that I think would flourish and make great matches and that I’d wanna work with and that’s that… It is pretty cool to be able to bring people from all over because then, like I said, it’s access to these wrestlers that I wanna put in the ring, that I feel are gonna give every bit of value to this show and more so for the fans that are gonna watch.”

Barnett also gave his thoughts about him wanting to do a one-night only tournament at a future Bloodsport event and have it be the start of an annual thing for the Bloodsport brand.

“The other thing is I’d like to eventually — well, I should say finally — start our once-a-year, one-night tournament series. It’s something that we were supposed to do — God, what was it? It was gonna be WrestleMania week. A Bloodsport during WrestleMania week but then COVID screwed everything up and we were putting all the efforts into it and then, it all went to waste and we haven’t been able to go back to it since and that’s something that is still one of the highest priorities to have created and to get moving…”

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com

Misc. Wrestling News & Notes

Former New Japan Pro Wrestling and freestyle wrestler Salman Hashimikov passed away on Thursday at the age of 73. Hashimikov’s professional wrestling career spanned from 1989 to 1994 and was most known for his time in NJPW. Hashimikov made wrestling history in May of 1989 when he defeated Big Van Vader for tje IWGP World Heavyweight Championship becoming the first European-born wrestler to win the title in NJPW history. Besides his pro wrestling career, Hashimikov was a four-time gold medalist in the Freestyle World Wrestling Championships, one-time gold medalist in the Wrestling World Cup, and a two-time gold medalist in the European Wrestling Championships.

Thursday’s NJPW Best of the Super Juniors 2025 event in Joetsu, Japan featured the Finals being set for this year’s Best of the Super Juniors tournament. YOH will be facing off against Kosei Fujita in the Finals following YOH winning B Block at Thursday’s show and Fujita winning A Block at this past Tuesday’s show.

DDT Pro Wrestling recently announced that MxM Collection (Mason Madden & Mansoor) will be making their official debut appearance for the company at their June 29th event in Tokyo, Japan.

Thursday’s TNA Impact! show featured an Elegance Brand Reveal party segment involving Maggie Lee being “rebranded” as M By Elegance going forward in TNA.

TNA Wrestling announced four new matches for the card of next week’s Impact! show on June 5th on AXS TV and Sportsnet 360:

TNA X-Division Championship – Eric Young vs. Moose (c)
Monsters Ball match – Xia Brookside vs. Rosemary
Six-Man Tag Team match – Matt Hardy, Leon Slater & Mike Santana vs. The Nemeths (Ryan & Nic Nemeth) & Frankie Kazarian
Harley Hudson & Myla Grace vs. Heather & M By Elegance
Joe Hendry to appear

Athena recently surpassed the milestone of 900 days as current ROH Women’s World Champion as of this past Wednesday.

Ring of Honor announced one new segment for the card for next week’s ROH TV show on June 5th on HonorClub:

ROH Women’s World Champion Athena to return

Maple Leaf Pro Wrestling recently announced one new match for the card of their Resurrection event on July 5th in Montreal, Quebec, Canada:

NWA Worlds Heavyweight Championship – Matt Cardona vs. Thom Latimer (c)

Major League Wrestling recently announced one new match for the card of their MLW Fusion taping on June 26th in New York City, New York:

Lightning match – Paul London vs. Neon

MLW also recently announced one new match for the card of their Summer of the Beasts 2025 event on June 26th in New York City:

Yuki Kamifuku vs. Wakana Uehara

House of Glory recently announced one new match for the card of their Mike Santana Presents Puerto Rican Weekend 2025 event on June 7th in Jamaica, New York: