IMPACT Wrestling News – PWinsider is reporting that IMPACT Wrestling will tape from Universal Studios, in Orlando Flordia, from January 10th, through the 15th. After that, they’ll be back in Canada for the tapings in early March.
It’s also been announced that Indian-Australian wrestler Tony Cage, who was trained in Canada by Lance Storm, has signed with IMPACT Wrestling. He’s expected to work the X-Division when he joins the roster. He was signed earlier in the month and was in attendance at Bound for Glory. He was also a contestant on the Global Forged segment.
Indy Wrestling Controversy – A top indy wrestler, David Starr has laid an anti-Semitic accusation against indy wrestler Mathias Glass. Mathias Glass is a self proclaimed Jewish wrestler, who embraces hasidic stereotypes in his pro wrestling gimmick. The character has a giant fake hair helmet and has a shirt that says “Just Jew It”. The problem? Glass isn’t actually Jewish.
Starr, who is in fact Jewish, claims that the stereotype driven character is the equivalent of black-face. The character has been accused of running away from wrestlers carrying ham, eating bagels while cutting promos, pretending to be afraid of German chocolate and more.
Glass has stated on his Facebook;
Wrestling is real and I’m Jewish. Oy
Starr has gone on record saying that until he found out that Glass wasn’t Jewish, he thought the gimmick was entertaining.
Opinion: As an Italian, I’ve seen my fair share of ethnic based gimmicks that insulted me. The F.B.I., The Mamalukes, anything involving Big Vito, Santino Marrella, so I understand the issue here. Most of these gimmicks involved men of Italian decent but that didn’t make it any better for me, as it was not representative of my heritage and culture. I don’t blame Starr for being ok with it at first. It’s that old belief, “I can make fun of my (family) because it’s mine, but if you do it, we have a problem”. It’s ok to mock your own heritage because it’s self deprecating. The minute you find out it’s someone else doing it, then it becomes bigoted in nature. I support Starr’s opinion on this, even if he once enjoyed it.
Women’s Royal Rumble Coming? – The WWE has thought about doing a women’s Royal Rumble for some time, but have always opted not to. Dave Meltzer recently shot down said rumor for this year. However, UK’s The Sun (a less than respectable tabloid) has claimed that the WWE will be announcing a women’s Royal Rumble match for the event. If true, they’ll kill the gimmick just like they did the Hell in a Cell, Elimination Chamber, TLC, and Money in the Bank matches by over-saturating the gimmick on the same event.
Opinion: There are three options here that should be looked into, and neither is two Rumble matches. One is to have the Rumble at another event, preferably for SummerSlam. Give it it’s own name, and just go for it. Another would be to have it at WrestleMania instead of the Andre Memorial Battle Royal. Because that is a joke. The second option is to create a women-specific gimmick to be included at SummerSlam or Money in the Bank, where you could do a big major, women’s only gimmick match. The third option, will be least popular, just do a women’s royal rumble at the Royal Rumble event and don’t do anything with the men for said match. To do two Rumble matches would be to kill the aura of the gimmick. Fans always say “it won’t, it won’t” but it always does.
Goldberg Appearing on Major Show – Bill Goldberg has confirmed he’ll be appearing on two episodes of “The Flash” in season four. He confirmed this on Twitter, stating it was for his son. No role has been revealed as of yet, but it’s safe to say it’ll probably be a villainous role, as the current storyline has The Thinker creating new meta’s to battle Barry Allen.
Quick Hits – Drew McIntyre as reported by us earlier, won’t be back until around WrestleMania of next year. DDP reveals that Shawn Michaels was the first WWE star to ever use DDP Yoga. Michael Hayes pitched the idea to revive Starrcade. Austin Aries suffered a slight eye injury in a ring he claims was of poor quality.