Josh Barnett is hitting pause on the Bloodsport concept.
For now.
During Bloodsport XV, Barnett revealed that the unique shoot-style event will be stepping away for the foreseeable future. While he stopped short of calling it a permanent end, the longtime MMA veteran made it clear that the project is officially on hold.
Originally launched by Matt Riddle in 2018, Bloodsport was later taken over by Barnett in 2019 after Riddle signed with WWE.
Over the years, the event carved out a distinct niche and became a staple of WrestleMania weekend, featuring talent from AEW, NJPW, and WWE in its hard-hitting, no-ropes format.
Speaking with Ariel Helwani on Monday, Barnett opened up about the reasoning behind the decision, and emphasized that it came from a genuine place.
“I wasn’t trying to make a big deal out of it, and I didn’t want it to come off as a gimmick or for people to think, ‘They’re just doing this for the purpose of drumming up interest’ or that it was insincere,” he said. “There was a lot of conflicting feelings in my own heart about whether this was going to be the case or not. When it’s all said and done, I feel like I absolutely made the right choice here.”
Barnett made it clear this wasn’t about a single issue, but rather the overall trajectory of the brand.
“It wasn’t necessarily a bad thing or a tragedy or major overarching bad issue, but for me, Bloodsport had an evolution of where it was trying to get to. That was not going to be a traditional wrestling path, especially because it’s not really made for the indie wrestling in a way that a lot of indie wrestling is done. You’re not doing shows with frequency; it’s not made for that. We don’t have the talent to keep up with it because you can’t book just anybody on this show. For me, that evolution was everything I was building on with that concept was to get it to that point where I felt like it could be put together in the best format in the best way possible to give it the ability to flourish at it’s best. We’re not there. We’re not close. For me, it was better to end it now than to keep going on and quite possibly diminish what the product is or run it down before we had a chance to get to where I feel like it would have been at it’s best.”
The decision, according to Barnett, wasn’t made lightly.
“I thought very deeply and heavily about this. I was trying to bring on corporate sponsors or sponsors in general to support the show, and bring in other outside elements to build towards what the ultimate example is, and we just weren’t able to do it. That’s not to say there isn’t any possibility of doing that, but I had a timeline and we didn’t meet those goals. It’s closed unless things can be done to get us where we need to go,” he said.
So what would it take for Bloodsport to return?
Barnett didn’t shy away from the realities of what’s needed to elevate the concept to his vision.
“We need more capital, we’d need our own office, we’d need more employees. We’d need a lot of things,” he said. “The way that this show can best flourish is not the indie wrestling way. We’re not trying to be AEW, WWE, New Japan. We don’t have that kind of money and aren’t going to run at that capacity. Just like we’re not like anybody else in pro wrestling, we can’t take the same approach as other facets of pro wrestling. It’s quite possible we can put together what is needed to fully envision what I see Bloodsport as being, but it’s going to take a lot. It’s a lot more than most indie shows, a lot less than major (promotions), but it’s going to need aspects of both.”
He continued, “Certain things I want to do are pay wrestlers better, have bonus incentive structures for certain things as far as numbers, and also be able to get multiple match deals with people that we can honor so we can make storylines and create more compelling aspects to this.”
For now, Bloodsport’s future remains uncertain, but Barnett has made it clear that if it does return, it will be under the right conditions.
