I read this possibility in Greg Savage's Recap of Pride 33 on Sherdog.
I took that as strictly a rumor and would wait to see how it turns out. Now I've read a small transcript of Loretta Hunt's appearance on the Wrestling Observer show tonight.The coup de grâce, however, may be the fact that PRIDE 35, already scheduled for April 28 in Las Vegas, may be in danger of not happening.
All weekend rumors swirled that PRIDE USA's president Ed Fishman is the one who controls the venue and date. If he is not successful in acquiring PRIDE FC he may just pull his support, and in doing so stop DSE from running in Vegas in April.
That scenario could be catastrophic for PRIDE. Fishman is also rumored to have deals in place to get the Japanese organization a much higher-profile presence on television in the States if he is indeed able to buy the promotion. Without him, PRIDE USA may be a pipe dream and after seeing how damaging the well-publicized divorce with Fuji TV has been for PRIDE, things are not looking up.
I truly hope this is not the case, that Fishman is not such a jerk that he would attempt a powerplay to buy Pride by holding the rights to the venue over DSE's heads. What a scumbag if this is true. He's been known as a sleazeball in the casino business for a long time, maybe that's coming into his role as Pride USA president. DSE would be better off dumping both him and that shill Jerry Millen and hire guys who are more in touch with the US market, not just from a casino marketing viewpoint.1-Pride 34 is being called Kamikazi cause Prides in a life and death situation. And that Kamikazi also means attack according to Sakakibara.
2-Pride 34 will take place at 1PM in Japan so that it can air live at 8PM in America. Loretta Hunt thinks its too little, too late.
3-Ed Fishman and Sakakibara had a falling out. The April US show is definitely off.
Pride 33 was such a great show, it would be a real shame to have to scrap the next scheduled US show 8 weeks from now because of this BS. Hopefully, we'll still get to see that show!


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