• WWF Veteran Says He Would Show Lesnar vs. Reigns Match To Someone Who Says Pro-Wrestlers Aren’t Athletes
During a recent interview with The Wrestling Estate, former WWF & WCW ring announcer Gary Michael Cappetta talked about Bruno Sammartino passing away, wrestlers being successful outside of WWE, his thoughts on Roman Reigns & more.
Below are the highlights:
On ranking Bruno Sammartino among the all-time greats:
“Top five. There would not have been a healthy WWF to purchase and take forward and expand if it wasn’t for Bruno. I kind of chuckle when I hear Mr. Today Wrestler is seven-times world heavyweight champion. But how long did he hold that title for? Sammartino was a two-time champion, but he held it for a long stretch of time and carried the promotion on his back. There’s a big difference and it sort of diminishes the title. That kind of phraseology is meant to build up the personality for the here and now, but it shuts out the historic importance.”
On wrestlers being successful outside of WWE:
“Yeah, and it’s healthy for everybody. When I see the success of Cody, The Young Bucks and Kenny Omega, I call it the democratization of wrestling. That’s a group of guys who have gained power, mostly independent from a major corporate organization. If WWE ever seeks them out or if they ever want to go to WWE, there’s an even playing field that didn’t exist in the past.
I would compare them to Stan Hansen, Bruiser Brody and Abdullah the Butcher, who didn’t need American promoters in order to have a successful wrestling career. They were able to call their own shots. And now they’re All In promotion in Chicago. I wish them well. They’re really sharp. It was more difficult to do in the past because today there are free marketing tools available online, but they’re very savvy in how they use them.”
His thoughts on Roman Reigns:
“I like Roman Reigns. I don’t understand what exactly they’re doing with him, and I don’t really understand why the fans boo him, other than they’re following what somebody else said they should be doing. Anybody that saw the WrestleMania match between him and Lesnar, you’ve got to have respect for these guys. What a brutal match. That would be a match I’d show someone who says these guys aren’t athletes.”
• Conor McGregor To Eventually Work With WWE In The Coming Years?
WWE contacted Conor McGregor for an appearance at WrestleMania 33 last year, but WWE’s money offer and the money that McGregor asked for the appearance had a BIG difference.
But with WWE’s recent $2 Billion+ TV deals for RAW & SmackDown Live, Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer believes WWE can afford to pay a big amount to McGregor for a future WrestleMania appearance.
Below is what Meltzer said (credit to Ringside News for transcript):
“Conor’s out of his mind so who knows what kind of money he’s going to ask for but yeah, there’s always a possibility. I think with the amount of money they have there’s more of a possibility than ever before because what sounded like an outrageous amount of money in 2020 won’t be all that outrageous.
By 2020, let’s put it this way… I do believe there will be a day when Conor McGregor does something with WWE. Will it be when his career winds down as a fighter? Or will it be soon? I don’t know, I could definitely see them talking to Conor McGregor for next year’s WrestleMania. They had talks not this year but the year before and they were not close on money at all. What Conor wanted and they wanted was world’s apart but now?
The can afford anyone and anything and they already can. They could already, but they’ll really be able to going forward. But the thing is do they want to change their salary structure completely, and maybe they should. They could pay everyone a couple million a year and still be a super profitable company now.”
