Category: Impact

Impact Knockouts Champion Laurel Van Ness (Chelsea Green) Confronts Fan At Indie Show Over Derogatory Comments (Video)

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Current Impact Wrestling Knockouts Champion Laurel Van Ness, known on the independent circuit by her real name Chelsea Green, was recently involved in an altercation at an indie show with a fan. Green was competing at a PWA Canada event when spectators reported that a fan shouted at her to “take it off,” basically calling her a stripper.

Green later confronted the fan at a concession stand. The person then got in her face and threatened her, stating that he will call the Hells Angels biker club, and also said that he was going to punch her. After having the confrontation, Green walked away from the fan and turned around to quickly give a few more expressions, as seen in the video below.

According to a fan account, the man walked out of the building after getting embarrassed by Green. Green went to Twitter and commented on the incident:

Fellow indy wrestler Ethan Page, known in Impact Wrestling as Joseph Park’s brother Chandler, also chimed in on the incident, stating that is was “the most Un-Canadian thing to happen in Canada.” Despite this incident, Green still thanked PWA for having her, and stated that he “can’t wait to come back.”

On television, Green, as Lauren Van Ness, is currently feuding with Allie over the Knockouts Championship. She is scheduled to defend the title against Allie at the upcoming Impact Wrestling episode. This match was taped in January, as Green is no longer with the company.

Brian Cage On Turning Down WWE After Recent Talks & Who Released Him During His First WWE Run

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Brian Cage recently appeared on the Pancakes and Powerslams Show, here are the highlights…

On His WWE Run & Who Released Him: “I had a groin injury, and was put into this squash match that lasted about 3 minutes. During the match, I was supposed to get spot where I was going to get a boot, but I couldn’t race to the boot because my groin was torn and so he threw the boot like 12 feet away, and you were wondering what he was doing,” said Cage. “Despite having awesome matches with TJ Wilson, none of that mattered, it was only that spot where they felt that I didn’t want to do that spot, so I was really upset about it. I ended up on Tough Enough, and when we ended up in a town in Fresno, I met with John Laurinaitis and asked him how the match went, he said it went great. He said that let’s just get through WrestleMania because there was a month left until WrestleMania, and I was okay with that. I thought to myself why he would lie to me. Why would he bring me down, so I was confident about it. WrestleMania came and went but I never heard back from them. I called him and he said to me, ‘Nevermind, we are going to release you.’ I asked what he meant by that and he said that they are no longer interested in me. I was so pissed; I said that it was okay, thank you for responding and doing business with him. Through all the ups and downs from being signed, to being released, to Tough Enough, I said, enough of this. I don’t care about that anymore. I don’t care if I don’t go back now. My life is substantially better, both personally and professionally after my release.”

On Recent Talks With WWE: “I had been recently in talks with WWE and they said that there were these trials coming up and whether I was available, then they changed their minds saying that they couldn’t bring me in for those upcoming tryouts, they would try again for the next one, and so on and so forth,” said Cage. “That was the way it went through, about a year and change. Finally, when they were going to bring me in for a tryout I said okay. After I booked my flight and everything, I thought about it and the next day I said, nevermind, I don’t want to do it anymore. They said, what do I mean I don’t want to do it? I responded by saying that I had signed with Impact Wrestling, Lucha Underground, AAA. I just didn’t want to go on that weekend that they were offering so I said that I am not interested at this time. It just felt really good to say that. They asked if I wanted to come through for the next tryouts and I said that we will see what would happen. Since then, I haven’t been to a tryout since. Am I willing to go back? I’m not begging to go back, but it would have to be where the opportunity would be perfect for me to go back. Right now, my life is great, my life is awesome, and there is no need for me to go back. I wouldn’t say that I would never go back, but if it doesn’t ever end up happening, I am okay with that.”

Source: 411Mania

State Of Louisiana Bans Blood & Piledrivers, What Could This Mean For WrestleMania 34 Weekend

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It is being reported that the boxing and wrestling commission of the State of Louisiana is going to put restrictions on pro wrestling matches including blood and piledrivers.

John Pollock of Post Wrestling tweeted the following:

John Pollock of Post Wrestling interviewed Russell Naquin of the Louisiana Boxing & Wrestling Commission to discuss certain statewide guidelines that professional wrestlers and promoters must follow. WrestleMania 34 will be taking place at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans, and there are a host of other wrestling events scheduled in the state ahead of the big event. Naquin noted that both blood and piledrivers are prohibited on pro wrestling events statewide, due to an incident which injured a competitor several years ago.

In addition, Louisiana requires any promoter who is holding an event to have a license. The state does allow existing promoters with licenses to loan them out to others.

Performers are also required to have blood work completed that cannot be more than six months old, to prove that they are HIV negative, and Hepatitis B and C negative. Pro wrestlers are not allowed to compete unless this information is submitted prior to them competing. In addition, wrestlers are subject to completing a ringside physical at the day of the show.

These restrictions bring up an interesting dilemma. The Undertaker is rumored to compete against John Cena at WrestleMania, and has been training to prepare for the match. With these restrictions, Undertaker might not be able to perform his Tombstone at the event since it’s considered a piledriver. Taker did hit a Tombstone on Brock Lesnar during their match at WrestleMania 30, which also took place at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome, however that may have been before the move was outlawed.

Since blood and piledrivers have been banned for years, this should not be a major issue for WWE. However, although Vince McMahon has promoted WWE as a sports entertainment company to prevent having licenses for every state, Pollock did note that a license for a wrestler within the state costs $25.

This ban on blood and piledrivers will have more of an impact on the other wrestling promotions running shows in the New Orleans area during WrestleMania weekend such as Impact Wrestling and ROH.

Check out the video below from Pro Wrestling Unlimited

Sources: WrestlingINC, Post Wrestling and Pro Wrestling Unlimited

Impact Wrestling Preview 2/22/18

* Lashley & Edie Edwards vs. oVe

* Impact Grand Championship: (C) Matt Sydal vs. Petey Williams

* #1 Contender’s Match: EC3 vs. Johnny Impact

* LAX vs. The Cult of Lee

* Moose vs. Alberto El Patron

* Jimmy Jacobs & Kongo Kong to call out Abyss

* Brian Cage in action

 

Impact Wrestling To Air Live Special From New Orleans During The 2018 WWE Hall Of Fame Ceremony

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Impact Wrestling will broadcast their upcoming WrestleCon event live on their new Twitch channel, according to PWInsider. The WrestleCon website notes that the event will take place on Friday, April 6th from the Sugar Mill in New Orleans during WWE’s WrestleMania 34 Week.

Impact stars announced for the event as of this writing are World Heavyweight Champion Austin Aries, Impact Tag Team Champions The LAX, Grand Champion Matt Sydal, Alberto El Patron, Eli Drake, Moose, Rosemary, Sami Callihan, Eddie Edwards, Trevor Lee, Caleb Konley, Allie, Taya Valkyrie and Teddy Hart.

The Impact – WrestleCon show is scheduled to start at 9pm, which means it will run head-to-head with the 2018 WWE Hall of Fame induction ceremony. The Impact website notes that the show will end at 11pm.

Source: WrestlingINC

Former Impact Wrestling Star Amanpreet Singh (Mahabali Shera) Reports To WWE Performance Center

Amanpreet Singh

WWE announced Indian wrestler, Amanpreet Singh, has reported to the WWE Performance Center. Singh was also known as Mahabali Shera for Impact Wrestling where he worked from 2014 until 2017. Singh had quietly left Impact in late 2017. Training under the likes of Savio Vega and Al Snow, Singh commented on signing with the WWE.

“I came to the U.S. with the dream that someday, I am going to make my country proud,” said Singh. “I would consider myself fortunate if I am able to become a positive role model for the youngsters of my country and impact lives. I don’t think I can find a better platform than WWE to empower myself to empower others, especially those back at home.”

Source: WrestlingINC

EC3 Says Impact Wrestling Departure Wasn’t Over Company Financial Issues

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Ethan Carter III in a recent interview with Newsweek talked about what led to his decision to leave Impact Wrestling and join WWE. While Impact has a track record of financial problems, that wasn’t a factor in his move, he told Newsweek.

“My decision to leave Impact had nothing to with their business or finances and everything with me wanting to challenge myself to something new,” he said on January 23. “Leaving Impact was a very difficult decision as I had six months left on a very lucrative and talent-friendly contract. Anthem lived up to that contract and always treated me with the utmost respect as a businessman and a person.”

EC3 was shown on camera at NXT Takeover: Philadelphia on January 27.

Don Callis and Scott D’Amore are new executive vice presidents working with Impact. Callis said the recent changes to Impact’s talent roster are good for the company.

“Change is good,” Callis said. “Yes, EC3 left, but Brian Cage came in, Johnny Impact was signed, Austin Aries came in.”

Talents like EC3, the Hardys, James Storm, Laurel Van Ness, Drew Galloway, Rockstar Spud, Mike Bennett, Maria Kanellis and announcer and producer Jeremy Borash have all left the company as of late. D’Amore, who’s had previous roles in the company, said new talent coming in are eager to fill the void left by others.

“This company has been a launching pad for people to come in and prove they’re stars and deserve the notoriety,” D’Amore said. “The Brian Cages, the Su Yungs, all these people coming in are going to be the next Bobby Roodes and Angelina Loves of the next generation.”

D’Amore acknowledged Impact needs to rebuild a buzz and following with its audience to get the company where it wants to be.

“In 2018, we’re re-establishing trust with the talent, with business partners, with fans,” he said. “You can’t fix it overnight. We’ve seen, historically, I call it the dangling carrot: ‘When we have this, everything’s going to be great.’ We’re going to roll up our sleeves and work hard. Slowly but surely we’re going to make progress. When we look back at the end of 2018, I think we’re going to be happy with the progress we’ve made.”

You can read the full story here.

Source: WrestlingINC

Impact Wrestling Licenses ‘Broken’ Content To WWE

According to PWInsider, Impact Wrestling has licensed content from Matt and Jeff Hardy’s “Broken Universe” to the WWE. The amount given and the purpose are not known at this time, but according to the report WWE is looking to devote a WWE 24 episode to the Hardys and eventually release a DVD featuring the tag team. WWE has done similar deals with ROH for CM Punk and Daniel Bryan. As we reported earlier this month, Matt Hardy reached a deal with Anthem Sports and now officially owns the rights to his “Broken Universe.”

Source: WrestlingINC

Impact Wrestling Preview 2/9/18

* Austin Aeries comments on his return

* The Cult of Lee in action

* Hania vs. Amber Nova

* Knockouts Championship: (C) Laurel Van Ness vs. Keira Hogan

* #1 Contender’s Match: Moose vs. EC3 vs. Alberto El Patron vs. Johnny Impact