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PWTorch editor Wade Keller presents a special Thursday Flagship edition of the Wade Keller Pro Wrestling Podcast featuring a WrestleMania 36 Preview with ex-WWE Creative Team member and professional stand-up comedian Matt McCarthy.
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-As first announced by Drew McIntyre on Sean Waltman’s XPac 1,2,360 podcast. EVOLVE booker Gabe Sapolsky has been serving as a consultant for NXT. Sapolsky is not part of the creative team, but is around to offer help and suggestions. Sapolsky is said to very much enjoy the environment when he is consulting with NXT. Sapolsky has been reporting to NXT for TV and Takeover specials going back several months. He also recently spent a week at the WWE Performance Center.
-In addition, multiple sources have confirmed that Progress Wrestling owners Jon Briley, Jim Smallman, and Glen Joseph have been flying in regularly for to serve as consults backstage as well. Like Sapolsky, they have sat in the gorilla position and observed how WWE runs their operation during Takeover specials and TV tapings. It will not be a surprise if reports come out that the owners of Progress and Sapolsky continue to make appearances at WWE’s Performance Center going forward.
Radican’s Analysis: It’s not a surprise that the Progress owners and Gabe Sapolsky are working closely with WWE as consultants. This appears to be the next step in the working relationship between WWN and WWE and Progress and WWE. Sapolsky is a really good idea guy when it comes to characters and promos, so it’s not a big surprise that he was able to help Galloway in NXT.
It will be interesting to see how the relationship between Progress and WWE grows in the coming months. Progress has had regular access to the WWE contracted U.K. talent. They have had the WWE U.K. Championship defended in Progress previously and WWE U.K. Champion Pete Dunne as supposed to defend his title this weekend before suffering an injury on Friday. WWE has also given Progress access to their contracted talent, as Dakota Kai and Jack Gallagher appeared on both of the Progress events this past weekend.