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| Baretta has Joined the Force Photo Credit: WWE.com |
Jeff Jarrett has coaxed several wrestlers to Join the Force, and now, he's provided a neat and tidy roster page where they're all listed. The page shows few surprises, as everyone who has been announced so far is on the site. Several new faces are shown that haven't been explicitly announced: Shelton Benjamin, Jamin Olivencia (Ohio Valley Wrestling standout), Andrew Everett, Takaaki Watanabe, and Trent Baretta. Additionally, Brodus Clay's new name - George T. Murdoch - was unveiled, and a couple of legends types were added to the page, including Scott Hall and Jim Cornette.
Cornette's involvement in the promotion is still unclear as to whether he's just an on-screen guy or also a booker/agent/writer, although he apparently traded some barbs on Twitter with the Young Bucks as he's wont to do. I don't know what exactly he said because the red-faced jerk blocked me, but hey, maybe this will be a case of real life heat turning into a work. Also, the fact that GFW is using the "Trent Baretta" name is either a sign that WWE's copyright on it wasn't as strong as what was thought, or Jarrett just doesn't give a toss about things like legality. Either way, it's not a big deal until WWE takes action, I guess. The lack of new women on the roster suggests either that more signings are on the way or that Lei'D Tapa and Thea Trinidad will be competing against men, both of which are not terrible things to anticipate.
The roster doesn't look spectacular by any means, but the lack of free agents restricted the potential for the roster to dazzle. Unless the New Japan and AAA partnerships were able to give it names like Kazuchika Okada or Alberto el Patron, or the group was able to lure CM Punk out of wrestling hiding, it wasn't going to have the same oomph to compete with WWE. But at this point, the smart money should be staying as far away from direct competition with WWE as possible and being the best possible alternative it can be. With that scope in mind, the roster looks impressive.