Backstage News On GCW/WWE Relationship

Wrestling fans received a bit of a shock over the weekend as it was announced that WWE’s Shayna Baszler would be working at Josh Barnett’s Bloodsport X event, hosted by GCW. A report indicated that Baszler would not be the only wrestler from WWE working the show, and a further report from Fightful Select has revealed more about the details of how this came about.

It states that Josh Barnett reached out to Triple H personally to request talents for the April 4 event - something he has been requesting for some time. The report states that in the past, Barnett was rejected by WWE when requesting Jessamyn Duke for Bloodsport. Duke was apparently open to it, but the decision was made by WWE to turn it down. It is said that Barnett is friends with Triple H, so it likely helped to have a personal connection and that the call was made directly.

On Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer also stated that WWE is now a different environment than what it was under Vince McMahon, and Triple H is far more open to instances like this with allowing talent to work outside of the company, something which has been seen over the last year with Shinsuke Nakamura in NOAH, Karl Anderson in NJPW, and Charlie Dempsey in AJPW.