Professional wrestlers all have their dream opponents, and in WWE Superstar Jacob Fatu’s case, his dream opponent is someone who liked to take things to the extreme. While some performers cite the likes of Shawn Michaels, Bret Hart, Hulk Hogan, or even John Cena as their dream opponents, Fatu revealed in a recent interview with “Give Me Sport” that the ECW legend New Jack was a man he aspired to be like as a child.

“New Jack was one of my favorite all time man. Like man, we used to put ketchup on our head and walk into the living room with our old school toy bucket, ‘Yo, ECW!’ Yeah man, and my mom used to whip our a** because we used all that ketchup fake bleeding. But no man that’s a dope match. Man it would have been so dope if that was to happen.” New Jack has since been immortalized in the “WWE 2K26” video game as a playable character, meaning that Fatu can put himself against the “Original Gangster” in game. 

However, if the match were to play out in real life, Fatu knows exactly the match would go. “I would have let him, I just would have let him win. I would have said ‘F***, put the fork away dude,’ I would have seen him playing the guitar, ‘Put the guitar away,’ I would have seen him with the vacuum, ‘Put the vacuum away.'” Despite being a polarizing figure due to his behavior in and out of the ring, tributes poured in for New Jack, real name Jerome Young, following his passing in 2021, including his former boss Paul Heyman who gave an emotional tribute on an episode of “Talking Smack” shortly after his passing.

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Before Matt Cardona returned to WWE last year and signed as a full-time member on the main roster in January, he spent half a decade becoming one of the biggest names on the independent wrestling scene, where he developed a reputation as “The Indy God.” From being open to wrestling in any promotion, to winning over 20 championships, Cardona wanted to prove that WWE made a mistake by releasing him. However, now that he’s returned to the Connecticut-based promotion, he’s been impressed with another star who has followed in his footsteps. 

Speaking with “The Wrestling Classic,” Cardona praised former WWE star Shotzi Blackheart, who he believes has already taken his place as the face of the indie scene.

“Listen, Shotzi, she took my ‘Indy God’ hat and she’s been killing it all over the place. We had a huge feud in GCW last year, all summer. And I’m very happy and proud of her. She’s someone I didn’t really know before, I knew who she was, right? But, she was just such a hard worker on the indies and was hustling and going everywhere and doing everything, making her own merch, everything that I tell people to do. Like, this girl gets it and if I’m going to leave, she’s going to take my spot.”

Last May, Blackheart was released from WWE after a five-year stint with the company, but she quickly garnered the interest of several indie wrestling companies over the past year, and has competed for promotion’s like House Of Glory, Major League Wrestling, and Game Changer Wrestling. The 35-year-old has also continued to add to her resume, as she currently holds the HOG Women’s Title and the MLW Women’s World Featherweight Title.

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When Eric Bischoff joined TNA Wrestling in late 2009, AJ Styles was the face of the company. He was the TNA World Heavyweight Champion, he had been with the company since the first show, and was adored by the fans whether he was a face or heel. However, Bischoff’s time with the company didn’t exactly go according to plan, with many people crediting him and Hulk Hogan for sending the company on a downward spiral in the early 2010s, and his relationship with Styles didn’t start off well either.

Styles told the story of his first interaction with Bischoff on his “Phenomenally Retro” podcast, revealing that his lack of enthusiasm about his gimmick at the time had rubbed the former WCW executive the wrong way. “The first time that Eric and I started working together, it was just not–our experience wasn’t very good,” Styles said. “I had said some things regarding my Ric Flair lookalike kind of thing and it kind of p***** Eric off, and my intention was to let him know how I feel. So we didn’t start off so well and it’s probably my fault more than anybody’s.”

There seemed to be tension between the two men from that point on, but time heals all wounds, and one interaction when Styles wanted a more serious character shift completely changed his relationship with Bischoff. 

“I remember when I went to ‘Lone Wolf’ AJ Styles and I had this idea about I’ll be coming from the crowd, and I told Eric about it. He goes ‘No we’re not going to do that right now.’ I said ‘Okay’ and I walk off, he goes ‘Hey, hey, AJ, let me tell you why.’ After that, our relationship went through the roof.” Styles rounded off by saying that he has a lot of respect for Bischoff, not just because of what he’s accomplished throughout his career, but because of the fact he took the time to explain why something wasn’t the right move, rather than just brushing Styles to the side.

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