RIPPA Posted March 8, 2019 Share Posted March 8, 2019 Quote By Mike Johnson on 2019-03-08 17:09:00 One of the big topics of conversation at this week’s Smackdown tapings were the future of Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows, PWInsider.com has learned. The former WWE Raw and multi-time IWGP Tag Team Champions have been among the talents that WWE management approached about signing new deals well in advance of their current contracts expiring this fall. While Gallows, 35 years old and Anderson, 39, had multiple meetings with WWE about their future, we have been told by three sources over the last two days that the pair have turned down “multi-million-dollar deals” from the company and intend to exit after their current deals expire. From sources we have spoken to, part of the reason the pair are looking to exit is how they have been handled in recent years. While they were signed with great fanfare at the onset of 2016 and debuted in April of that year, the last several years have seen the team relegated to live events and inconsistent televised appearances and storylines. A planned WWE Network series starring the pair titled Botch Club was abruptly dropped after its debut episode as well. One source pointed out that while the pair has been brought to TV, they aren’t currently even being booked on live events, claiming their removal followed initial meetings that didn’t lead to a new deal. Obviously, Gallows and Anderson would be in demand should they leave the company. Karl Anderson was a cornerstone performer for New Japan Pro Wrestling and Gallows, upon joining the promotion after his WWE Straight Edge Society run alongside CM Punk, found himself in a major way. Of course, they would also likely be coveted by All Elite Wrestling, which has pushed it wants tag teams to main event their shows. Gallows and Anderson have a long past relationship with members of the Elite from their time in NJPW and Ring of Honor. ROH could also be a possibility, as could Impact Wrestling, since the management team there would not be the one that Gallows and Anderson negotiated with then turned down to sign with WWE in 2016. Before their WWE run, Anderson spent a long time working for New Japan as one of the cornerstones of the original Bullet Club franchise, teaming with Giant Bernard (Matt Bloom, current WWE Performance Center Head Coach) before meshing with Gallows. Gallows had a long run in WWE under a myriad of personalities, including a long-forgotten fake Kane and Festus before finding himself as a performer as Luke Gallows. Upon leaving WWE, he was rechristened Doc Gallows in New Japan, returning to the Luke name when he returned to WWE. The team's WWE debut almost didn't come to pass as they were negotiating, along with AJ Styles to go to Impact Wrestling. Before signing their deals, a call was made to WWE management, which was willing to sign all three, changing their trajectories within minutes and leading to all three instead heading to WWE. While obviously there is a long period of time between March and late September (which two sources have stated it the end of Gallows and Anderson’s current WWE deals), as of this week, the talk among wrestlers in the company is that the pair are determined to find their futures outside of World Wrestling Entertainment. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John from Cincinnati Posted March 8, 2019 Share Posted March 8, 2019 (edited) How can you talk about their history without mentioning Gallows' stint as the Aces & Eights Director of Chaos?! As the article said multiple times, he really found himself. Edited March 8, 2019 by West Newbury Bad Boy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AxB Posted March 8, 2019 Share Posted March 8, 2019 2 hours ago, Overly Critical Man said: Wow, so people are going to “forget” who Ronda is within two years? Really? From the company that still parades people around from the Attitude era that was 20+ years ago and practically lives on nostalgia acts? Well, there is a reason why all their nostalgia acts are from 20+ years ago. All the stars from 15 years ago are still there, and the ones from 10 years ago aren't as popular as the current ones. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kang Posted March 8, 2019 Share Posted March 8, 2019 Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson to AEW. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Niners Fan in CT Posted March 8, 2019 Share Posted March 8, 2019 (edited) @Rick that means nothing. Sasha isn't even receiving a push and she is still #6 of all sports women. Becky/Ronda/Charlotte are in the main event and THEY ALL SHOOTIN BRO <_> ! Get at me in a few months when "this is all fake except this part over here" bs is over lol Edited March 8, 2019 by Niners Fan in CT 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joseph2112 Posted March 8, 2019 Share Posted March 8, 2019 Not that I take these money reports that serious, but if we are living in a world where Gallows and Anderson can turn down a multi-million dollar offer from WWE, I'm not even sure what to say about that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sky Blue Sam Posted March 8, 2019 Share Posted March 8, 2019 Yeah, I can't believe WWE are offering deals of that size to two guys who aren't anywhere close to making TV. Don't see them being any kind of loss either, Gallows has seemed pretty broken down since returning and Anderson is a big old glass of nothing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
piranesi Posted March 8, 2019 Share Posted March 8, 2019 Shoot angles. Dudes jumping ship for big money contracts. Kurt Angle getting a push. I can't wait to fire up Eyada on Tuesday and get all the quarter hour breakdowns!!!! 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beech27 Posted March 9, 2019 Share Posted March 9, 2019 Hypothetically: 500,000 per year for both guys, over three years, is collectively a multi-million dollar deal, and wouldn’t be bank-breaking for WWE. I imagine that’s what the report means, not that each guy would get 2 million annually or something. Anyway, New Japan could really use some new tag teams, but Bullet Club already has GOD, so this seems a sure bet for AEW. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nice Guy Eddie Posted March 9, 2019 Share Posted March 9, 2019 1 minute ago, Beech27 said: Hypothetically: 500,000 per year for both guys, over three years, is collectively a multi-million dollar deal, and wouldn’t be bank-breaking for WWE. I imagine that’s what the report means, not that each guy would get 2 million annually or something. Anyway, New Japan could really use some new tag teams, but Bullet Club already has GOD, so this seems a sure bet for AEW. I'd say AEW is more likely than New Japan, since one of the reasons Gallows & Anderson left was because of they didn't want to travel between Japan and the US any longer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swift Posted March 9, 2019 Share Posted March 9, 2019 If Rousey is gonna be an absolute nobody that no-one will remember or want to work with after she loses a Wrestlemania main event, how the fuck are Gallows & Anderson gonna make a living? 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OSJ Posted March 9, 2019 Share Posted March 9, 2019 3 minutes ago, Swiftian said: If Rousey is gonna be an absolute nobody that no-one will remember or want to work with after she loses a Wrestlemania main event, how the fuck are Gallows & Anderson gonna make a living? I'm thinking that they'll be a fine addition to AEW. To be entirely accurate, I didn't say that no one will remember or want to work with Ronda after losing a main event at Wrestlemania, I did say that if she loses (as it appears that she will AND takes the proposed year or two off to start a family, she has a really tough row to hoe in order to be perceived as anything but a failed MMA fighter who left the biggest stage in pro wrestling as a loser.) You add all those factors together and the road back seems pretty bumpy to me. Now all of those negatives can be addressed very simply by good long-range planning for her return, but we're talking about a company run by a crazy old man with the attention span of a baboon, who simply cannot restrain himself from hotshotting everything. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nate Posted March 9, 2019 Share Posted March 9, 2019 2 hours ago, West Newbury Bad Boy said: You think the average person who just knows her name is aware of this and the other ugly views she's held? I think you've got to be in the loop or have a long memory to know about all that. Funny thing hit me about this part ... a *lot* of people forgot or were unaware that Bill Cosby was a serial rapist, until that one moment happened in a stand-up comedy set, and now we're here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian Fowler Posted March 9, 2019 Share Posted March 9, 2019 Exactly. I think Ronda is much better known as "a pioneer in women's sports" than she is as "objectively awful human being." That's just the world we live in. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Craig H Posted March 9, 2019 Share Posted March 9, 2019 Saying Anderson is a big glass of nothing is so wrong. Karl is crazy good in the ring and on the mic. Anderson has also gotten into even better shape. Gallows is fine and he's funny as hell, but Anderson is the better all around talent 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
caley Posted March 9, 2019 Share Posted March 9, 2019 5 hours ago, Yo-Yo's Roomie said: The thing with the twitter stuff is, to the best of my knowledge, it hasn't been brought up on Raw and Smackdown. At least, not any of the shooty stuff. Everything on the actual shows has been strictly kayfabe for the most part. And that's what they consider canon. Ronda's bullshit (and yes, I agree it is bullshit, and you can throw Becky's in there too if it suits you) is just something for the hardcore fans (or really it's a layer of fans between casuals and hardcores) to give the veneer that there is really animosity between Ronda and Becky, and maybe plant the seed of 'shit, I have to watch this match to see if Ronda is really going to shoot on Becky'. I'm not trying to defend this at all, but I do think that it should be pointed out that Ronda tweeting 'it's fake' or whatever isn't actually part of the build of the match as presented by WWE. It's something running alongside it. This is all true buuuuuut I felt like they were sowing the seeds for shooty nonsense with Ronda’s promo and Steph being “outraged” at her behaviour. I really think we are in danger of Ronda going off-script being the crux of this feud going forward. Also I thought it was pretty common knowledge now that Charlotte is part of the feud as a safeguard in case someone got injured. They did a similar thing last year where they kept Strowman in the WC mix and IC mix for a long time in case injuries didn’t heal up/in case no one got hurt/in case that Reigns PED Rumor was legit (it wasn’t!). They can still pivot Charlotte out of that feud if need be (The way the booking for that feud had gone, it might still end up being 76-Pack Submission Retirement/Pink Slip on a Pole match yet...), or not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matt925 Posted March 9, 2019 Share Posted March 9, 2019 10 hours ago, Web Conn said: Was Australia a one off or are they running another Stadium show there? Meltzer said it’s all up to them if they want to buy another show. Right now nothing is on the table. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
matt925 Posted March 9, 2019 Share Posted March 9, 2019 8 hours ago, Technico Support said: It's a great idea. Another idea would be cancelling house shows altogether. Are they seriously profitable enough to balance out the injuries and lost storylines that come from all the travel and extra matches? They barely break even on house shows now. Think it’s just a matter of tradition and it being a big change to just suddenly eliminate them (not that it’s a bad idea). 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AxB Posted March 9, 2019 Share Posted March 9, 2019 Well, the 20 year old theory always was that for young Wrestlers with the option, it's better to go to the WWF than WCW because the WWF's house show circuit means you get a lot of ring time, which is the one thing a young Wrestler needs (then you jump to WCW for guaranteed money and an easier schedule later). Whereas WCW only ran TV tapings, and most of the TV was squash matches, so they had a harder time developing talent. But maybe it makes sense to have NXT doing regular house shows, and cutting back slightly on main roster ones... maybe to a three days on, fours days off schedule, instead of four on three off. Although the Wrestlers wouldn't like it if that meant their wages dropped by 25%. I was going to say dropped by a quarter but you'd think I meant 25 cents because American money is stupid. Seriously, Nickel and Dime? Call them by their values like everyone else does. British kids only have to remember that a Pound is a hundred pennies, because every other coin is named after it's value. So are the Euro coins. 1 Cent, 2 Cents, 5 Cents, 10 Cents, 20 Cents, 50 Cents, 1 Euro, 2 Euros. EASY. What the bloody hell is a Dime supposed to be worth? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joseph2112 Posted March 9, 2019 Share Posted March 9, 2019 I'm not trying to defend Ronda the person but the only people that see her as a "failed mma fighter" are looney mma fans. Because if she is a failed fighter, there's only two kinds of fighters. Current and failed. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AxB Posted March 9, 2019 Share Posted March 9, 2019 No, some current fighters are also failed. Also, there are the legends who went out on top, like GSP. And... the last two fights of Bisping's career were losses, but nobody considers him a failed fighter because he came back from all of his other losses, fought clean in a steroid heavy era, and won the title after a long career of constantly getting into contention and then getting put straight back out of contention. Then he won a rematch of his worst loss, had a couple of wins over all time legends, lost his title, came back very quickly against an opponent who was a horrible style match up for him and lost again... and the retired because he was in danger of going blind if he ever got hit in the head again. Not a failed fighter. A great fighter who retired after a long and eventful career. Ronda came in as a sensation, went undefeated her whole career, had a embarrassing loss, took two years off to cry about it, returned with no improvement whatsoever and lost embarrassingly again. Then quit the sport altogether. Also, right at the height of her unbeatability gimmick, refused to fight Cris Cyborg because she was too scared. But failed fighter, if you look at the Holm and Nunes fights, that looks like someone who doesn't know what they're doing. If someone were to describe (E)n(z)o (A)more as a failed Wrestler, that would be fair, yes? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
joseph2112 Posted March 9, 2019 Share Posted March 9, 2019 The only people that know any of those details are hardcore mma fans. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Overly Critical Man Posted March 9, 2019 Share Posted March 9, 2019 Oh, so now Ronda’s mma career is comparable to Enzo’s wrestling career? Glad we’re not being ridiculous. 3 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ziggy Posted March 9, 2019 Share Posted March 9, 2019 3 hours ago, joseph2112 said: Not that I take these money reports that serious, but if we are living in a world where Gallows and Anderson can turn down a multi-million dollar offer from WWE, I'm not even sure what to say about that. Their best friends are the office of a Company that would likely offer them multi million dollar deals on top of them working a much lighter Schedule and get the chance to work on the projects they had going on outside of WWE. Gallows is still young age wise but he's already had 2 runs with WWE I'm sure he isn't naive enough to wait for WWE to really do something with them. I don't think there are many people that are ju SD t going to stick around and wait for WWE to give them a push . Even a guy like Balor Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Victator Posted March 9, 2019 Share Posted March 9, 2019 6 hours ago, Rick said: It's almost like WWE are harnessing the internet know-it-all's into engaging with the feud. Clearly it's worked. Tell me how much that coverts to money 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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