Barnett Says Bloodsport Is Shopping for Investors
Summary: Josh Barnett said in an interview with Ariel Helwani, reported by Fightful on Monday, Nov. 9, that he is looking for investors to bring Bloodsport back and has had "some good bites." Hours later GCW posted "Bloodsport Reborn, coming soon."
The quick version
- Barnett said Bloodsport is "not running at the moment" and that he and his team have been "shopping it around a bit, trying to find some investing."
- He said there have been "some good bites from people with a lot of interest." No investor, date or deal was named.
- Game Changer Wrestling (GCW) posted a teaser the same night, "Bloodsport Reborn, coming soon," per Fightful. Nothing we found says how it relates to Barnett's plans.
- He said he once had Barnett vs. Bill Goldberg in Japan and a tournament with Mike O'Hearn in mind. These are his own words about plans that did not happen.
Josh Barnett says Bloodsport, the hard-hitting show he has run since 2019, is looking for money to return. He told Ariel Helwani in a new interview, as Fightful reported on Monday, Nov. 9, that there has been interest but nothing is settled. Bloodsport went on hiatus after Bloodsport XV in April.
What Barnett said
On the search for backing, Barnett said: "We have been shopping it around a bit, trying to find some investing. We've had some good bites from people with a lot of interest in it. We'll see what we can put together."
He said the show is not costly by the standards of produced streaming content, "but still, you need somebody to give you that money." If an investor or group steps in, he said, "we'll get going full speed and we'll get to work on putting all the essentials in place for how we'll produce it."
On whether he wants it to stay dormant, he said: "Well, it's not running at the moment. No I don't [want it to be dead], if I can help it." He said he would "rather it sit buried than do anything less than what I'm trying to do." The bracketed words are Fightful's.
The Goldberg and O'Hearn plans
Fightful says Barnett had planned to bring Bill Goldberg in for a show in Japan. Barnett's words: "I potentially had me versus Bill Goldberg in Japan and Mike O'Hearn in a tournament." He did not say when those plans were made or why they stopped. No other party has commented in anything we read.
Background
Fightful says Barnett told Helwani in April, at the end of Bloodsport XV, that the brand was stopping "for the foreseeable future" because he wanted more capital, an office and more employees. Fightful adds that Bloodsport began in 2018 under Matt Riddle and that Barnett took it over in 2019. The show became a WrestleMania weekend regular with talent from AEW, NJPW and WWE, per Fightful.
Barnett also appears in our earlier story on his claim that he offered to run NJPW's U.S. program. See Josh Barnett Says He Offered to Run NJPW's U.S. Program.
GCW teases "Bloodsport Reborn"
Later on Monday night, Game Changer Wrestling posted a graphic reading "the legacy continues," then "Bloodsport REBORN," then "coming soon," Fightful reported at 9:10 PM ET. Fightful says no further details were given. Fightful's article does not say the project is connected to Barnett, and we found no statement from GCW or Barnett that says it is or is not. For context, Fightful reported in April that Barnett said he would not pass the Bloodsport name to someone else. We did not open GCW's post.
What we do not know
No date, venue, investor or platform has been named for Barnett's plans. "Good bites" is Barnett's description and we have no way to check it. We found no other outlet that heard from a buyer or backer. Whether GCW's "Reborn" is the same project, a licensed one or a separate one is not stated anywhere we read.
Source: Josh Barnett's on-the-record comments to Ariel Helwani, as printed by Fightful (Skylar Russell), and Fightful's report (Jeremy Lambert) on GCW's post. We read both Fightful articles in full. We did not watch the Helwani interview, which Fightful links on YouTube, and we did not open GCW's post. We did not contact Barnett or GCW. Nothing in this story is a rumor.
Sources
- Fightful (Skylar Russell), "Josh Barnett Says He's Shopping Bloodsport Around, 'We've Had Some Good Bites From People With A Lot Of Interest'", Nov. 9, 2026, 5:32 PM (all quotes and the Goldberg and O'Hearn plans). https://www.fightful.com/wrestling/josh-barnett-says-hes-shopping-bloodsport-around-weve-had-some-good-bites-from-people-with-a-lot-of-interest/
- Fightful, "Josh Barnett Explains Decision To Stop Bloodsport Events For The Foreseeable Future", April 2026, exact date not shown on the page we read (the hiatus, the history of the show). https://www.fightful.com/wrestling/josh-barnett-explains-decision-to-stop-bloodsport-events-for-the-foreseeable-future/
- Ariel Helwani, interview with Josh Barnett, YouTube, as linked by Fightful, Nov. 2026. We did not watch it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muqdfsTVeIs
- Fightful (Jeremy Lambert), "GCW Bloodsport Reborn Announced", Nov. 9, 2026, 9:10 PM ET (GCW's teaser and what it says). https://www.fightful.com/wrestling/gcw-bloodsport-reborn-announced/
- Game Changer Wrestling (@GCWrestling_) on X, "Bloodsport Reborn, coming soon", as embedded by Fightful, Nov. 2026. No link: we did not open it.
- WrestlingNews.com, "Josh Barnett Says He Offered to Run NJPW's U.S. Program", Nov. 7, 2026. https://wrestlingnews.com/story/josh-barnett-says-he-offered-to-run-njpw-us-program/
- WrestlingNews.com staff reporting: read both Fightful articles in full and checked our own Barnett story. We did not watch the interview and did not contact Barnett.
How we credit sources: Editorial standards.