fightful

MJF update

The latest on MJF.

Fightful Select reported in November that MJF was set to return in the coming weeks, and was being planned for creative for December in All Elite Wrestling. Thus far that hasn't happened, but we have nailed down more specifics.

Wrestlevotes confirmed on Wrestlevotes Live on Fightful Select that MJF was factored into AEW Worlds End plans as of Thanksgiving week. To what extent, we aren't sure, but there have been working plans for his involvement.

When aggregating this news, please credit Wrestlevotes Live on Fightful Select, and link to Fightful Select.

Select Answers: Cena 200 dates? Continental Title, WBD/Netflix/AEW

Welcome to Select Answers, a feature that provides some of the answers to questions that were posed to Sean Ross Sapp in the most recent Fightful Weekly Q&A Podcast. The show drops every week on Fightful Select for subscribers.

When aggregating these posts please refer to it as "Fightful Select Answers Q&A" and tag Fightful, noting that it was in the Q&A format to avoid confusion.

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With cena saying he wanted to do the 200+ dates, did wwe not do it due to money issues?

All due respect to John Cena, WWE doesn't have 220 dates to do. There are about 100 Raw and Smackdown dates, and 12-16 PLE and SNME shows. Unless he considers traveling in an additional date -- which is possible -- there aren't that many to do. But the fact that WWE didn't ask him to be around weekly is insane.

WWE's general usage of John Cena and his time since 2020 has been weird. When everything shut down for COVID, they barely used him after Mania. They brought him back for two return tours and put him in a bunch of dark matches. I dunno, man.

So, I think I didn't ask my question properly, but since Okada relinquished(as AEW put it) the Continental title, I wanna confirm if this is how it goes. The International & Continental titles make up the Unified title, which is its own lineage, but the 2 belts are also still continuing as their own titles. Should Okada lose either of those belts, the Unified title is technically vacated as the Unified title only can be a thing if someone holds both the International title & the Continental titles at the same time. Am I getting this right? Cause my brain feels like it's learning how toast is made. Jokes aside, thank you again for doing what you do, especially with the debunkathon and Facebook.

It is pointless and convoluted.

If Okada loses the Continental Championship, the Unified Title just ceases to exist because nothing is unified.

He still will have the International title.

TOO MANY TITLE BELTS.

What does the Netflix acquisition of Warner Bros mean for AEW Tv/streaming?

Right now, nothing. At minimum, AEW has a TV and streaming deal through 2027, and then WBD has option years. It's going to take almost all of 2026 at least for this to even go through, despite Netflix acting as if it is guaranteed. By the time that happens, AEW will be in their last guaranteed year. Despite what people pretend, there will be options out there for AEW if for some reason WBD/Netflix doesn't renew. Amazon Prime, Paramount, Fox are all possibilities. I'm not sure of Netflix's exclusivity with WWE.

Wrestlevotes LIVE 12/8

Hey guys! TC and Joey Votes are LIVE for Wrestlevotes Live at 3 PM ET

Get all of your questions in below, or on the live youtube chat!!

VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NbDEbzzpXOI

Alex's SOUR GRAPS: AEW Collision & C2 Math Check 12/7 | Welcome To The Jungle, Jack Perry

AEW Collision was excellent last night. Let's talk about it.

But let's also talk about how the C2 is halfway over for a bunch of guys, and Darby Allin got removed from the field, and replaced by Jack Perry.

We know who's getting to the semi-finals. But how are they gonna get there?

LET'S DO MATH.

Everything sucks. Let's talk about it.

YOUTUBE LINK: https://youtu.be/jrZLGk6SZTU

Details on contract of one of WWE's 2025 signings

Jeff Cobb is firmly planted on the Smackdown brand, and we’ve gained more details about his signing. 

Fightful Select’s Sean Ross Sapp reported earlier this year that Jeff Cobb was leaving New Japan Pro Wrestling and had signed with WWE. Despite that, Cobb won a championship in the company, then eventually left and joined WWE. We’ve been able to learn more details about his current contract with the company.

WWE sources claimed to Fightful that Cobb signed a three-year deal upon coming to WWE, which will take his contract into the Spring of 2028. Cobb has been a part of Solo Sikoa’s MFT faction ever since he showed up in WWE.

Select Answers: Pin break ups, defending titles from other companies, what we want more in wrestling

Welcome to Select Answers, a feature that provides some of the answers to questions that were posed to Sean Ross Sapp in the most recent Fightful Weekly Q&A Podcast. The show drops every week on Fightful Select for subscribers.

When aggregating these posts please refer to it as "Fightful Select Answers Q&A" and tag Fightful, noting that it was in the Q&A format to avoid confusion.

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One of my pet peeves is when a pin is “broken up” by someone making contact with the pinner, but the person being pinned still has both shoulders down with the person doing the pinning still on top of them. How is that not still a pin? Is this an unreasonable take? I’m willing to suspend disbelief (I’m watching pro wrestling after all!) but the pinfall feels like something a little more sacrosanct.

It should still be a pin, but the rule has adjusted over the years. Anymore, a physical interruption of the pin whatsoever seems enough. Quite frankly, I think this is a necessity, because wrestlers far too often wait until the very last milisecond to break it up. Unfortunately, that results in the very specific situation of which you are referring to. It sucks.

How does the booking work for cmll and NJPW titles being defended on aew shows

It is a collaborative effort. No titles are put on the line without the permission of each company involved. That actually led to a major issue with NJPW and TNA over 15 years ago when TNA did a tag title switch of the IWGP belts without permission. I've heard of no issues regarding that with AEW, NJPW and CMLL, and they seem to work with pretty good synergy. Sometimes when things are around G1, I'll hear of people trying to "save themselves" for that instead of going all out.

What do you want to see more of in wrestling?

My base line of enjoyment is simple.

Make sense. Make winning matter. Have entertaining matches and segments. If things make sense and winning matters, a lot of other things come into focus. Everything matters more if winning matters, titles matter, and the motivation is based on success. I find that to be the most fundamental ways of making a show good. If winning is important, there are stakes to everything.

TNA contract updates

We've confirmed the status of a couple more contracts in TNA.

Fightful Select has reported a number of TNA deals are set to expire this month, with TNA planning to speak with a number of them.

Fightful Select's Sean Ross Sapp was able to confirm that heading into the El Paso tapings, Killer Kelly's TNA contract was set to expire in December. However, we also learned that the two sides have already been in discussions regarding an extension.

In addition, we were able to confirm that Kelly's fiance Myron Reed is actually working in TNA without a contract. However, he has also been in discussions about a possible deal. His Rascalz stable mates Zach Wentz and Trey Miguel see their deals expire in December, and Dezmond Xavier is without a contract.

SRS Q&A 12/6: John Cena, Royal Rumble, MJF/WWE, ROH TV, Much more

Sean Ross Sapp answers all of your questions!

• WWE's use of John Cena

• NXT knee injuries

• TNA talent additions

• 1997 Papa Shango

• Santos Escobar

• WBD/Netflix/AEW

• ROH TV deal

• Subculture

• Royal Rumble surprises

• Damian Priest on Main Event

• Darby Allin injury

• Why wrestlers wear certain boots

• MJF to WWE?

• Logan Paul's contract

• Rey Mysterio retirement

• Oba Femi, Trick Williams, Je'Von Evans

• NXT Royal Rumble entrants

• Much more

Select Answers: Indie companies, green shirt guy, in ring promos

Welcome to Select Answers, a feature that provides some of the answers to questions that were posed to Sean Ross Sapp in the most recent Fightful Weekly Q&A Podcast. The show drops every week on Fightful Select for subscribers.

When aggregating these posts please refer to it as "Fightful Select Answers Q&A" and tag Fightful, noting that it was in the Q&A format to avoid confusion.

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Is running an indie promotion profitable? It seems like a lot of the notable ones are shutting down and I'm curious about financial decisions that go into running them

There's a lot of decisions. Can you sell tickets? Are you able with local talent or do you need to bring in a big name? Can you sell sponsors? What is the best avenue for video distribution?

If you're GCW, yes you're profitable. They have a very specific streaming deal and sell tickets well. There are some that got creative as a write off. Then there's some that just flat out lost money.

There's some that I've seen where they have the talent they bring in sign a bunch of items, then sell the items for a return.

How rehearsed are in-ring promos? Are they memorizing lines word for word off a script? How much ad libbing goes on?

In WWE, by and large it is scripted word for word and put on paper. There can be some ad libbing here and there, as well. There are some that are given bullet points, but that is pretty rare. There are a lot of promos people thought were off the cuff and were heavily scripted. AEW also generally scripts their promos as well, but there is some more wiggle room. Still, I've had wrestlers in AEW and WWE both recite their promos word for word to me, then seen them go word for word on TV.

Any idea how green shirt guy gets front row tickets and have you ever met him?

I've never met him, but we have mutual friends. I won't provide too much information on him because it's not much of anyone's business, but from what I understand he does well with real estate. He gets his tickets through the On Location program.

Debunkathon: News Updates on Bayley's camp, Becky Lynch, TNA, More

Welcome to the Fightful Friday tradition: The Debunkathon. In addition to debunking progressively stupid things, we've got a huge news update including:

• WWE comps
  
• Bayley's camp
  
• Gotham wrestling tapings
  
• Becky Lynch interview
  
• TNA tapings
  
• Darby Allin
  
• Trump/Cena
  
• More
  
• What Lana noted to TMZ about wrestlers and relatives having to pay for tickets to attend WWE shows is accurate, and has been a big point of frustration over the last year with talent. A number of veterans have advised wrestlers to work it into their contracts moving forward.

• This won't come as a surprise, but we're told Nattie had been pushing for the "Nattie" character for quite some time. We have a full report on Select.
  
• Fightful has asked over two dozen wrestlers about who Becky Lynch was referencing about blacklisting women's talent that wouldn't sleep with them. None of the talent we spoke with claimed they knew. It was intimated to us that WWE planned to look into it upon hearing it, but we've had no further updates. We have continued asking.
  
• There were some people surprised to see Chris Dickinson worked the recent Gotham Wrestling tapings. However, he worked the October tapings as well.
  
• Charlotte Flair, Lyra Valkyria and Ivy Nile helped out with Bayley's Lodestone camp with independent wrestlers. The talent that we heard from spoke glowingly of the camp.
  
• We spoke to sources in AEW who predicted last night that things would unfold with Netflix and WBD as they did over the next day. Thus far, there are no details on the future of AEW on WBD and most people that we spoke to don't expect anything significant to happen for quite some time.
  
• TNA has a number of new talent coming in to El Paso for the tapings this weekend.
  
• Darby Allin was hospitalized after his match with Kevin Knight, but was released already.
  
• We asked a number of WWE sources if Donald Trump would be at John Cena's last match. One said "I would be surprised, but who fuckin knows."
  
• Nick Khan confirmed Fightful's super big scoop that Green Shirt Guy actually buys his own tickets through On Location.
  
• A reminder, the Fightful Award voting is out, and subscribers will have higher weighted votes, and the option of open ended entries. Please check it out at this link.
  
• Wrestlevotes Radio held their first Fightful Select episode. Check it out here.
  

Elsewhere

• Wrestling Observer reports that there's talk of Nikki Bella becoming a manager down the line. We can confirm she is not done with WWE.
  
• A WWE source indicated to Wrestling Observer that TNA would like AJ Styles to wrestle on the first show on AMC. In related news, we would love Will Washington or Shane Helms to return to Fightful for our WWE Raw reviews.
  
• Observer estimates AEW Full Gear at 140,000 PPV buys.
  

The Infantry

Sean Ross Sapp spoke with The Infantry ahead of ROH Final Battle.

Shawn Dean books extra talent for AEW and did before he was even full time there as a wrestler. He said it makes him proud to see people he's booked land anywhere -- TNA, NXT, WWE, AEW, but obviously especially AEW. Carlie Bravo said every day he has people trying to go through him in order to get booked and it doesn't work.

They got introduced because Carlie Bravo went to the Nightmare Factory, and Cody Rhodes and QT Marshall were close with Shawn Dean and suggested they meet. Carlie said they connected and hit it off immediately.

They said if they had to add names to the Infantry, Steve Maclin, Swerve Strickland and someone like Tehuti Miles (Ashante Thee Adonis) would all be considered.

The full interview is at this link.

DEBUNKATHON

• A lot of people are sharing something out of context claiming that Roman Reigns said Ric Flair was the only wrestler better than him. It was a "stop when you hear a better wrestler than you" game.
  
• Nobody has reported that Rhea Ripley is starring in Terrifier 4.
  
• Rush posted a video of him signing an AEW contract from 2023, making people think he'd signed a new deal. We have no idea why this happened. It was his official account.
  
• Sportskeeda clickbait -- Rhea Ripley "collapsing" was just a spot gone wrong. She's fine.
  
• This is like a weekly thing. No, Jon Moxley is not rejoining WWE any time soon. No, he wasn't under the mask.
  
• One Stop Wrestling sucks. There are no credible rumors to Paige/Saraya being in the Royal Rumble at this point.
  
• Roman Reigns did not pledge $3 million to build 60 homes. There's pages that engagement bait off of these claims.
  
• Sportskeeda sucks. I'm not event going to link to it, but no, their claims that Zoey Stark is the masked attacker are not true. She's very much still recovering from an ACL injury.
  
• No, Roman Reigns did not "refuse to wear WWE's proposed LGBTQ gloves." The rage bait is insane. Report those pages, too.
  
• John Cena isn't advertised for the Raw after Mania. A bunch of pages are using the event listing from this past year's Raw after Mania. If you're going to grift, learn how to use a calendar.
  
• Undertaker's mom is still alive. Have some shame.

Select Answers: What makes great selling, Triple H booking, TKO PLE

Welcome to Select Answers, a feature that provides some of the answers to questions that were posed to Sean Ross Sapp in the most recent Fightful Weekly Q&A Podcast. The show drops every week on Fightful Select for subscribers.

When aggregating these posts please refer to it as "Fightful Select Answers Q&A" and tag Fightful, noting that it was in the Q&A format to avoid confusion.

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Watching Dolph Ziggler again reminds us how good he is at selling an opponent’s moves. But what are the particular skills that make someone good at selling? It seems something very difficult to master.

Selling is such a subjective element of pro wrestling, too. I've seen people who legitimately believe he's an overseller and making everything about him. There's nothing that is universally loved. My view of selling is does it look like a natural, or at least humorous motion from the move? Does it look effective? Does it make the move look better? All of those are very important. The ability to cleanly bump is important, but the willingness to unconventionally bump is also important. Above anything, you have to be willing to look ridiculous in doing so. Nic Nemeth checks all the boxes.

Why do you think triple h’s booking style and philosophy changed from him booking nxt to him booking raw and smackdown? There’s clearly a difference when you look at the way he booked the women on nxt vs how he books them now and how wrestling was a focal point on nxt and now it ain’t as much

There are a number of reasons. WWE was not a creatively satisfying product to consume when Triple H was running NXT. So it made sense to do the exact opposite on NXT of what Raw and Smackdown were doing. If there was an audience that wanted something different, it was a good idea for him to serve that audience. Now, he gets to use whoever he wants, and do truly whatever he wants. There are almost no restrictions. He has a huge budget, and every talent at his disposal. That changes things.

With the introduction of Wrestlepalooza and TKO trying to make more “big event” PLE’s and Vince’s disdain for WCW now gone; do you think TKO tries to bring back some of the big WCW PLE/PPV names like Starrcade/SuperBrawl/Clash of Champions as big marquee PLE’s?

I'm gonna go on a big hunch here and say that Nick Khan probably was the driving force behind WWE using WrestlePalooza and making sure the rights were acquired. He was a big ECW fan. However, I think that TKO wants to create their own events. It was reiterated to me that the major events will continue to be promoted. I think they will make attempts to establish their own. I think taking the biggest, like Starrcade, would be ideal.

Details on Nattie Neidhart's return to TV

Nattie Neidhart has returned to TV, but not as the Natalya character we know.

Wresltevotes Radio on Fightful Select reported that the “Low Key Legend” character across multiple promotions caught the attention of upper management. The live and social media reaction was said to have been a big factor in Nattie bringing the character to WWE TV with the hope that she will be a more vital part of the show.

Sean Ross Sapp spoke directly with Nattie recently, who was very open about her pushing to portray the character. She took it upon herself to get booked outside of WWE to perform and try to prove what she could do.

Sources that Sapp spoke with said that initially, WWE wanted to continue with the Natayla presentation, but Nattie had pushed to change her character and to do it permanently. The decision was made to give Nattie time off TV to promote her book, and while Maxxine ascended to the IC Title. WWE also had been protective of her matches airing as Nattie, not allowing her NWA appearance to air.

SRS Q&A Questions

Hey guys! SRS here. Get your questions in. I'm going to tinker around with when to drop my Q&A show with WrestleVotes coming on board!

WWE in talks for sports crossover with Superstar involvement

WWE has another licensing agreement that is possibly on the horizon.

Wrestlevotes Radio on Fightful Select reported that WWE has had conversations regarding a crossover promotional effort with MLB's San Francisco Giants and Jimmy Uso and some merchandise. WWE has done a number of crossover elements with sports.

It was hinted on the show that this crossover could be integrated into Jimmy Uso's gear as well. Wrestlevotes Radio said while the relationship still exists, the deal was held off because WWE Survivor Series was at PETCO Park, the NL West rivals of the Giants.

When aggregating this story please credit as Wrestlevotes Radio on Fightful Select and link to FightfulSelect.com

News on the Royal Rumble front runner

The Royal Rumble is upon us, and potential spoilers could be en route, so beware.

Bron Breakker vs. CM Punk is currently slated to take place on the WWE Raw on Netflix on January 5, but we would possibly see more out of Bron Breakker. Wrestlevotes Radio on Fightful Select reported that Bron Breakker is the current “white board favorite” to win the Royal Rumble as of now. The “white board” is a reference to the board featuring creative plans as seen on WWE Unreal. Also, as seen on WWE Unreal and in general, things can change as we get closer to the show.

WWE is still in the process of fielding and implementing their plans creatively. However, as of now, WWE sources indicated that Bron Breakker is among the favorites.

When aggregating this story please credit as Wrestlevotes Radio on Fightful Select and link to FightfulSelect.com

Ask Grapsody! December 4th, 2025 Edition

Phil and Reg return for another edition of Ask Grapsody! They will answer your questions!

YouTube Link: https://youtu.be/d3UucBnAprw

WrestleVotes Radio 12/4/25: Rumble Favorite, CM Punk's Raw absence, Much More

The first ever episode of WrestleVotes Radio on Fightful Select.

• WWE Survivor Series Wargames

• Fightful Awards

• TNA TV deal

• NXT Deadline

• Chris Jericho's future

• CM Punk

• 30 under 30 list

• Royal Rumble favorites

• WWE x MLB

• Nattie

When aggregating this show, please credit as Wrestlevotes Radio on Fightful Select and link to FightfulSelect.com

Select Answers: Contracts, promo rehearsals, Thanksgiving

Welcome to Select Answers, a feature that provides some of the answers to questions that were posed to Sean Ross Sapp in the most recent Fightful Weekly Q&A Podcast. The show drops every week on Fightful Select for subscribers.

When aggregating these posts please refer to it as "Fightful Select Answers Q&A" and tag Fightful, noting that it was in the Q&A format to avoid confusion.

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How do the different types of contracts work? For example, do “per appearance” deals usually guarantee a certain amount of appearances, or is it just “we’ll get you in when we can and we’ll pay you when we do”?

They can work a variety of ways. These days, most WWE and AEW deals are just fully guaranteed, with some reimbursements and extras for some additional work or licensing elements. Mansoor and others have talked about the payout method and how certain things go into your "bucket" in WWE, and how going above that is when you make more money.

For per appearances, many are simply that -- you get paid when you work. There are some "exclusive paid per appearance" deals that don't allow you to sign elsewhere. I am of the belief that anyone who signs these should make sure they have a guaranteed minimum they make per month on those deals. Otherwise they're pointless. Larry D and Ace Romero asked for their TNA releases years ago because they were on exclusive PPA deals and weren't getting used.

How do promo rehearsals work? Is everyone just assuming where the crowd will boo or cheer or is it just about memorizing the lines and adapting to the crowd, when it's live? Follow up: Is it the same in taped interviews/promos (expecting where the crowd will cheer/boo and giving that a few seconds before they continue with it)?

Sometimes they just don't exist. But yes, you have to anticipate the reaction from the crowd. In WWE, almost every promo is meticulously scripted and followed. You need a good balance of how the crowd will react compared to how you want them to react. There are pretapes where they have to anticipate where a pop will happen as well.

What is your best Thanksgiving Wrestling moment?

I hate to say it, but I have absolutely none that come to mind. There's been so many food fights and turkey suits and all that, that none of them stand out or are any different than one another. I'm not old enough to know how good Thanksgiving wrestling was in the 80s. Thanksgiving weekend wrestling, however -- that's always Wrestlecade. One of my favorite weekends of the year.

AEW lands another signing

It appears AEW beat out another suitor to land a sought out free agent indie wrestler. 

Earlier this year, Fightful reported that TNA was hopeful they could sign indie standout Lena Kross. They brought her in, but she quickly appeared on AEW after that. It would seem that AEW won out in that regard, because word we’ve got from people in the company is that she’s either signed a deal with AEW or will be soon.

The Australian Kross has worked a busy independent schedule this year. In addition, she’s made trips to Japan every year since 2022 to work Sedai Girls tours.

It was intimated to Fightful that Lena Kross is in the process of moving to Florida.

ESPN and WWE sources respond to Freddie Prinze claims

Freddie Prinze Jr. made some headlines this week.

On his Wrestling With Freddie podcast, he said “ESPN, by the way, so unhappy with the deal. I was talking to a friend of mine who works for Disney, and he was just like, ‘Yo, they better make their money back on this deal.’ He just said, ‘They’re hot.’”

Fightful reached out to sources in WWE and ESPN, with one rep from ESPN simply claiming that they haven't heard that chatter, and have enjoyed working with WWE.

When we spoke to sources in WWE, a higher up said "no one in WWE upper management is aware of Freddie Prinze's role in wrestling or otherwise."

FREE POST: Andrew Schulz- WWE Update

TC of Wrestlevotes posted the following to Twitter/X

"I've heard from WWE sources that comedian
Andrew Schulz has made a strong impression with many people within the company.

Schulz, who has several specials on Netflix, made two appearances on RAW in 2025.

Expect to see more of Schulz featured in WWE programming moving forward"

TC's first Fightful show, Wrestlevotes Live aired Monday at 3 PM ET

FREE POST: Hardy Boyz defending HOG Titles

Fightful Select has confirmed that the HARDY BOYZ will be at HOG Winter Warfare

HOG Provided the following:

TNA Legends The Hardys Set to Defend HOG Tag Team Championships Against Zilla Fatu & Lance Anoa’i at Winter Warfare
Friday, December 19th • NYC Arena, Jamaica, Queens • Streaming Live on TrillerTV+

JAMAICA, QUEENS — House of Glory Wrestling is closing out the year with one of its biggest main events ever, as TNA icons and global wrestling legends The Hardys return to defend their HOG Tag Team Championships at Winter Warfare on Friday, December 19th at the NYC Arena. The event will also stream live worldwide on TrillerTV+.

Their challengers? A dominant and dangerous pairing with championship pedigree running through their bloodline—HOG Crown Jewel Champion Zilla Fatu and Lance Anoa’i, two rising stars representing one of wrestling’s most storied families. Individually powerful and collectively explosive, the duo steps into this championship clash aiming to dethrone Matt and Jeff Hardy and claim their first HOG tag team gold.

The Hardys, fresh off their massive title victory and riding a wave of momentum, now face one of the most physically imposing and unpredictable teams in HOG history. Zilla Fatu has quickly become one of the most destructive forces in the company, while Anoa’i brings lineage, ring savvy, and a relentless drive to capture championships. Together, they form a threat unlike any the Hardys have encountered during their HOG tenure.

With tag team gold, legacy, and supremacy on the line, Winter Warfare promises to deliver a showdown packed with intensity, unpredictability, and the trademark chaos fans expect when the Hardys are in the ring.

EVENT DETAILS
Event: HOG: Winter Warfare
Date: Friday, December 19th
Venue: NYC Arena — 91-12 144th Place, Jamaica, NY 11435
Bell Time: 8 PM
Streaming: Live exclusively on TrillerTV+

Fans are encouraged to secure their seats early, as Winter Warfare is expected to draw one of the most electric crowds of the year.

For tickets and additional event information, visit House of Glory Wrestling on social media and TrillerTV+.

About House of Glory Wrestling:

Select Answers: Travel arrangements, ref pay. dirt sheet perception

Welcome to Select Answers, a feature that provides some of the answers to questions that were posed to Sean Ross Sapp in the most recent Fightful Weekly Q&A Podcast. The show drops every week on Fightful Select for subscribers.

When aggregating these posts please refer to it as "Fightful Select Answers Q&A" and tag Fightful, noting that it was in the Q&A format to avoid confusion.

***

How do travel arrangements work? Does the company book it all and the talent just pays?

In WWE, they have a travel department that arranges flights, which are paid for by the company. The talent is responsible for paying for their own rental car, bus, ubers, and hotels unless it's a major PPV or they're being sent somewhere for a specific WWE obligation.

In AEW, the company pays for flight, hotel and travel in between. Sometimes talent can get it themselves, and get reimbursed later. That's what was subject of all the controversy regarding CM Punk taking the tube in London. He could have got a taxi, car, limo or Uber and expensed AEW.

On the indies, if you're one of the top people, you'll get a hotel, and gas money. If you're starting out, tough!

How are referees paid? Is it a yearly salary, by show, or some other method? Are they also responsible for their expenses on the road? Lastly, what is the pay range for a referees with WWE or AEW?

In AEW and WWE, they are salaried. AEW referees are in the same hotels as the talent. In WWE, they're often responsible for their own hotel rooms, but can sometimes be reimbursed along the way. I'll follow up and see if I can get more specifics. Refs often work more jobs in the company

Do you believe that the work that you and fightful have done has helped get rid of the stigma that wrestling reporters or "dirt sheets" are bad for the business?

I wanted to normalize talent, staff, execs talking to media, because it's common in sports. Wrestling is way different, but if there's one thing I think Fightful specifically made more acceptable was contract news. It wasn't as common as it is today, and is now a normal and heavy part of news cycles. Wrestlers and reps don't see it as dirty any more.

It will never completely go away. I know my general willingness to respond to bad faith characters isn't something many people like, but that's the position we're able to be in.

Bonus show: SRS talks Survivor Series

SRS was traveling this past weekend, so he speaks with you all about WWE Survivor Series in this Select exclusive

What's next for TNA wrestling and some contracts

TNA just announced a new TV deal, their biggest in 11 years, and will launch on AMC on January 15.

Now, the company has a lot of talent to retain.

Fightful Select has reported that The Rascalz, Steve Maclin, AJ Francis, Jake Something, Jody Threat, Mustafa Ali all had contracts coming up within a one month period for TNA. There have already been some conversations, but with others, not so much.

In addition, tag team champions The IInspiration's deals expired after Bound For Glory, as did Cedric Alexander. So TNA has a heavy slate of talent to get re-signed. There are also talent like Rich Swann and Matt Cardona who have not signed contracts since joining TNA.

Fightful Select is told that a number of conversations are expected to happen over the next week regarding the contracts coming due, and possible extensions moving forward. A couple of talent told Fightful that they wanted to wait until the new TV deal was announced before they start negotiating.

Fightful learned that TNA had been eyeing new talent such as Bear Bronson, among others as well.

Lots of details behind TNA's new TV deal, roster and staff reaction, why they took time off.

TNA has landed a major television deal with AMC.

Jon Alba of Sports Illustrated first reported on the deal weeks ago, and it was made official on December 2. TNA will air on AMC and stream on AMC+ on Thursday nights at 9 PM ET to 11 PM ET. The show will now be known as Thursday Night Impact.

There were immediate rumors that NXT/WWE were terminating their partnership with TNA, but TNA reps spoke with Fightful and vehemently denied such claims. They went as far as to say that WWE even aided in TNA landing the television deal. Nobody we spoke to in TNA had been told the partnership was ending, but talent we spoke to said they hoped that "catering to NXT" wouldn't be happening. WWE sources confirmed to Fightful Select they knew the deal was coming ahead of the announcement.

The announcement itself noted that the show would be live on January 15. It was specified to Fightful Select that the subsequent episodes will be a mix of live and taped, and the belief internally in TNA is that there are a certain number of shows they're required to do live. We also followed up on why the company went dark for a month after Bound For Glory. We weren't given an official answer, but those we heard back from believed it was for budget reasons and to finalize the TV deal.

We're told work started in the Spring to nail down this deal, and a very close circle of people knew the details behind it.

The reaction from staff and roster was unanimously positive from those we heard back from, with a lot of excitement. A common hope from the roster and staff was that creative would get a big step up with the platform expanding. Outside of that, it was sunshine and rainbows from the people within the company. They were briefed on the news on the morning of December 2 ahead of the announcement.

Last month, Fightful spoke to TNA President Carlos Silva about Nielsen's new Big Data + Panel numbers being initially unfavorable to pro wrestling content. At the time, Silva said it hadn't come up in conversations and he wasn't familiar with what we were referencing. It is important to note that AMC+ numbers are unlikely to be included in the viewership totals that emerge on a weekly basis.

A reminder, Fightful has a TNA post show every Thursday.

We will update this article as we get more info.

Select Answers: Producing a match, Accidental Rumble elimination, security

Welcome to Select Answers, a feature that provides some of the answers to questions that were posed to Sean Ross Sapp in the most recent Fightful Weekly Q&A Podcast. The show drops every week on Fightful Select for subscribers.

When aggregating these posts please refer to it as "Fightful Select Answers Q&A" and tag Fightful, noting that it was in the Q&A format to avoid confusion.

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How does producing/laying out a match work? You hear stories about Macho Man being very meticulous in his match planning such as Wrestlemania 3 contrast that with other wrestlers who love calling spots in the ring. What are the guidelines or how does that process work in modern wrestling? Thanks Sean super appreciate the work you do!

Talent work directly with the coach/producer, and see what spots are a plausible possibility. Most talent already have a good idea of that, but there may be something that creative has said that they need to get over in a match. That is implemented, and generally the producers also speak with each other, and to the production truck to let them know what to prepare for. The producers/coach are in the Gorilla position sending the spots and cues to the ref via an ear piece if needed. Coaches and Producers typically also take notes on the match.

What would WWE do if the supposed winner of the Royal Rumble accidentally got eliminated? Both on the night and then going forward to Wrestlemania?

Well....that actually did happen in 2005. I guess the answer to your question is "march down to the ring and tear both quads."

But, this actually kind of has happened. In 2005, John Cena and Batista were eliminated at exactly the same time, but Cena was supposed to hit first. The match was resumed and Batista won, as was the plan.

In 2000, The Rock did beat Big Show to win the Royal Rumble. However, The Rock's feet hit the ground first. On TV, you couldn't tell from the angle they showed. However, they brought it up on TV, and made a nice short angle out of it. The Big Show actually won top contendership to the WWF Title at No Way Out, and they had a triple threat match for the world title on Raw in March. Then Rock, Big Show, then-WWF Champ Triple H and Mick Foley competed for the title at Mania. Big Show was factored in to a lot of top house show stories as a result, too.

How does it work with security when wrestlers come through the crowd and hop the barricade? Like are they informed of the spot etc? I’m thinking more so when like a hooded wrestler comes through the crowd and into the ring.

Well, they're supposed to. That's how it almost always happen. However, it doesn't always go that way. At WrestleMania 33, Rob Gronkowski was to get involved in the ring and do a spot with Mojo Rawley and Jinder Mahal. However, Lisa the security guard ran over the prevent it. A bunch of refs smartened her up on the spot, and everything ended up okay.

FREE POST: TNA TV Update

I would expect an announcement of TNA's TV deal as soon as Tuesday.

There is a talent call scheduled early on Tuesday, which is expected to address it.

Sports Illustrated's Jon Alba has been reporting AMC as a favorite to land TNA.

Alex & Alexei's SOUR GRAPS: Raw 12/1 | It's Been A Long December

YOUTUBE: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stCv5CxZa5M

Raw wasn't entirely terrible tonight!

It was still mostly terrible, but the non-terrible stuff was actually pretty great.

Gunther & Solo had a Rudo v Rudo match for the ages, and Bron Breakker cut a promo that signalled his arrival as THE GUY OF THE FUTURE™, and it looks like they might give us the Nattie Neidhart character going forward, inside of the corpse of boring old Natalya.

But yeah, everything else was either bad or varying degrees of nonsensical.

Everything (partially) sucks. Let's talk about it.

Liv Morgan had been considered for another movie role

Liv Morgan almost had another movie role.

Morgan finished up the Bad Lieutenant: Tokyo role in May, as her first significant movie role. However, prior to joining Paradigm, she was considered for another movie.

In 2023, Fightful had reported that both Charlotte Flair and Liv Morgan had been offered roles in the Queen of the Ring film that has since released. Earlier this year, it was revealed that WWE had pulled Charlotte Flair from the project, and she was replaced by Kamille. However, she wasn’t the only one.

Sources we spoke to confirmed that Liv Morgan was offered a spot, and was also kept from it by WWE. We weren’t given a specific reason as to what that was the case. However, she was considered for the role. 

Liv Morgan returned to WWE at Survivor Series, and filmed the WrestleMania commercial in New York the week prior. 

Bad Lieutenant: Tokyo is slated for a 2026 release. Liv Morgan was repped b Paradigm for that role.