When Shayna Baszler competes in Bloodsport X in Philadelphia during WrestleMania week, it will break a longstanding WWE prohibition against talent working outside the company. But Baszler isn’t the only big name Josh Barnett has spoken to about a potential Bloodsport appearance — in WWE or AEW.
Barnett appeared as a guest this week on Wrestling Junkie’s Under the Ring podcast with Phil Strum and shared some other names that are sure to raise some eyebrows among pro wrestling fans.
“I love giving people opportunity, and that’s a huge reason to do this,” Barnett said. “So if given the chance to bring other guys in, of course. I’ve spoken with Malakai Black now plenty of times about coming in to Bloodsport. I’ve spoken to CM Punk. It would be great to have Chad Gable or Bron Breakker or any number of people with amateur backgrounds.”
Barnett also put over NXT’s Charlie Dempsey as someone who’s caught his eye and would fit the Bloodsport mold.
“Charlie Dempsey, he’s out there showing catch-as-catch-can, and he spent the time abroad training for quite some time. And I’ve actually worked with him over distance for some years prior.
“But honestly, the kid’s been doing all his own work, because he really wants to be the type of wrestler that you think he is. It’s important to him, I can see.”
AEW’s Miro was another name that Barnett threw out as a potential fit. And Bill Goldberg is someone that he said “is like family to me.”
While the sky is pretty much the limit and Baszler certainly seems to have opened a door that was long shut and padlocked, Barnett says in the end, anyone be brings in has to want to be there as much as he’d like having them there.
“Whoever it is, they also have to really see this ring for what it is and what we’ve created and say, ‘That is something I gotta do.'”
Bloodsport X and the rest of the GCW Collective events during WrestleMania week can be seen live on TrillerTV+.