Josh Barnett Comments On The Possibility Of Signing With WWE As A Coach
On a recent episode of The Wrestling Inc. Daily podcast, former UFC Heavyweight Champion Josh Barnett sat down with Wrestling Inc. Managing Editor Nick Hausman to talk about Bloodsport, as well as other concepts that are inspired by Bloodsport. WWE recently had a Fight Pit concept where Timothy Thatcher defeated Matt Riddle. They also had the no-ropes, MMA styled RAW Underground on WWE TV for several weeks. Barnett talked about these concepts that seem to have been inspired by Bloodsport.
"It comes down to two things. One, if someone thinks it's going to make them money, they're going to do it, and it's not just RAW Underground," Barnett noted. "I've seen things that are just straight, blatant rip-offs of what we're doing as well from other companies, and its fine. It just means that they know that there's money there, there's something that the people want, that there is something that the wrestlers want and that there there's electricity in it.
"There's something they could draw from it. Now, they're not going to make what we make, and I'm not worried about that because they don't have the ingredients that we have. They don't have access to the things that we have because of our secret sauce so to speak. So I'm not concerned about competition. I'm only concerned about making the best shows that I can make the way that I can make them and that's what's important."
Hausman noted that many competitors from Bloodsport have been picked up by WWE, including Thatcher and Karrion Kross. Barnett praised Thatcher and said that the fact that athletes that compete at Bloodsport events are being picked up shows that he and GCW have an eye for talent.
"Now, when it comes to WWE and NXT picking up athletes from our shows, not a surprise," Barnett said. "People like Thatcher, I have personally trained before. He has been training with me for years, and before that, he's trained with other fantastic people. And he has taken a seminar with Billy Robinson when he was still around. So the fact that these kind of athletes are being picked from my show and put into the WWE, doesn't surprise me at all because I believe that people that me and Brett [Lauderdale] seek out and source, we do so because we have an eye. We can spot talent."
Barnett then commented on the possibility of him joining WWE as a coach. He said that the option is there, and he is open to the idea, but his focus right now is pushing Bloodsport to be as big as it can possibly be.
"I know people at WWE, and we have conversations, but there's nothing in the works as far as going over there and training folks or any of that kind of thing. I'm moving forward with Bloodsport as much as possible and a bunch of other things, but the option, I guess, is always there. If that's something that they want or something that we think would be a good idea, then I guess we'll do it."
Josh Barnett's Bloodsport takes place Sunday night, 7/6c, as part of GCW's The Collective. It will stream live via FITE.tv." target="_blank">Timothy Thatcher defeated Matt Riddle. Effy's full interview aired as part of a recent episode of our podcast, The Wrestling Inc. Daily. Subscribe to get the latest episodes as soon as it's released Monday – Friday afternoon by clicking here.