During a recent appearance on the “Two Man Power Trip of Wrestling” podcast, Josh Barnett discussed his upcoming match with MVP at GCW Bloodsport XII and explained why it will be a difficult bout.
MVP appeared at the previous Bloodsport event and issued a challenge to Barnett for this show.
Barnett said, “I think that, as people are now getting to know more about, not only what Bloodsport is and you end up in this ring, and by proxy of being allowed in the ring, that you’re already somebody who has a different set of skills than you’re used to seeing perhaps, but now people are also starting to understand that MVP has been on a Brazilian jiu-jitsu journey, all the way to becoming a black belt, not to mention his competitions that he’s won. While sure, you’d think that people would be on top of this kind of stuff, but to be honest, some of these things kind of fall under the radar, and this show obviously brings that to the forefront because we think that that’s incredibly important to highlight. But people forget MVP is a veteran, a very long time of being in the WWE, being in New Japan Pro-Wrestling, the guy’s been there and done that. People with that kind of experience are always dangerous. The type of capabilities that MVP possesses are pretty specific to him. It’s been a long time since we’ve rolled, and he has grown quite a lot since that time. I think back then, he might have been a blue belt, and now he’s a black belt. That’s a lot of time in between when we had first locked up on the mats, but also that’s a ton of time put into training, experience, and growth. So at this point, I don’t even really know exactly what his game would be. So it’s all gonna be something I’m gonna have to figure out on the fly when I see him across from me in the ring. I just know that he’s gonna be incredibly tough. I think people also forget that he’s 240 pounds or close to it, solid. He’s not a small man, he’s quite strong. They may be so used to seeing him on social media or as a mouthpiece for Lashley and Shelton Benjamin. But just because the man’s talking doesn’t mean the man can’t fight.”
During a recent appearance on the “Ring The Belle” podcast, Hiroko Suzuki, who served as a manager in WWE during the early 2000s, expressed her willingness to return for the Royal Rumble.
Suzuki managed both Rene Dupree and Kenzo Suzuki and had a rivalry with Torrie Wilson at one point. She returned to the ring at SHW RumbleJack in August.
Suzuki said, “I want to do that. Yeah, I want to do that. It’s a lot of fun. I forget that emotion. Jimmy called me and asked, ‘Hiroko (can you) you do this?’ I said, ‘I can’t do that. I’m old and forget everything.’ Once I showed up and entered the ring, it was so wonderful. I love it.”
