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PWInsiderElite.com interviewed Game Changer Wrestling's Brett Lauderdale recent about the GCW Collective in Philadelphia.
On WWE's Shayna Baszler being cleared to compete at Josh Barnett's Bloodsport, Lauderdale said, "Of course, everybody wants to know this and everybody has theories on it. And I've seen a lot of reports and the honest bottom line truth to this is that and it's something that I've learned over the last four or five years working with him is that Josh Barnett is a very connected and very respected person in the combat sports world. He has a lot of connections. He's friends with a lot of people. And again, he's very well respected. I've come to learn that he can move mountains and make things happen that, a lot of times seem impossible. And, this year, of course, with Shayna Baszler, it's, again, it seems to have reached a new level when it comes to, things that Josh can make happen. Of course, I can't tell, all of the backstory on how it happened, but this is, this has been something that's been discussed for a couple of years actually and there's been talks between WWE and Josh about GCW and Bloodsport in the past and what if we did this and what if we did that and it just, things always just kind of...they were close but just never lined up or it just was never the right time or the right place. But they've definitely been aware of it and had their eye on it for years. And I think people who have been following Bloodsport closely remember that at the Bloodsport in Jersey City, famously sitting right up above the ring in the balcony was William Regal, Dean Ambrose and [former WWE official] Canyon Ceman watching the entire show. So it's something that's in, in the again, in the. In the universe, pardon the pun for several years now. So I think, again, this year, I think you as, of course, as we all know, things have changed in WWE and I think this year was just the right discussion at the right time, and I think they just said, you know what, let's try it. And here we are. And, I think, at some point maybe there will be an opportunity to tell the rest of the story, but. There, there was let me think of the right way to say it. Shayna's a big star, and Shayna was only a piece of the puzzle. There was almost an even bigger piece of the puzzle, which just didn't end up working out due to a scheduling conflict at the last minute. But to say that the, had this other piece fall. Again, it would have been, that it would have been, again, shocking to see how the WWE stance has changed and I hope we get a chance to do more. Yes, I do think there will be possibly some other WWE competitors involved in Bloodsport whether they're announced or not between now and the day of the event."
In regard to the possibility of WWE stars popping up on other Collective events this week, Lauderdal noted, "I think of course, anything is possible, but as of right now, um, it looks like, Bloodsport is going to be a starting point and who knows, I don't know if this is a one and done or if this is a Wait and see how it goes, but I would imagine you would think, if this works out for everybody, then, maybe they would be open to doing more. But I think it's baby steps right now. Again, it's been. Whatever, however many years, decades of WWE doing things a certain way and keeping their talent in house strictly and I think it's I think we'd all be getting ahead of ourselves to think that there's the floodgates They're just gonna open, I think one at a time and see how it goes and yeah of course it would be of course we'd love to have more in GCW and it would be great for the Indies if there was a way that Others could pop up once in a while, but I think, for now, I think this is a, I think it's, let's be, excited about this one and hope it goes well and then we can see what happens from there."
The Collective will stream live this week on TrillerTV+.
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