Bobby Lashley has signed a contract with Bellator MMA and will have his second fight with the promotion on October 24. He will be fighting Englishman Karl Etherington, a 39-year-old Heavyweight with a 9-0 record. Etherington picked up his first win for the promotion at Bellator 87.

Lashley stated in an interview that his deal with Bellator will allow him to continue working for TNA, but he also wants to have a full-time MMA career and challenge for the Heavyweight Championship in 2015. This next fight will likely go a long way in accomplishing that goal. Another win would bring him to 11-3, possibly in range of some of the bigger Heavyweight names and maybe one or two wins away from a shot at the title, unless the division has a serious shake-up in the next six months.

Unrest in the TNA Locker Room

There’s a lot of stress in the TNA locker room right now, especially from some of the younger talents, stemming mostly from the fact that there isn’t actually a locker room to begin with. TNA is basically finished for the year, aside from Bound for Glory (which hasn’t booked a lot of the younger talents), and the next taping event isn’t until January.

impact wrestlingEveryone on the roster is now allowed to take indie bookings, so long as they don’t appear on PPV, iPPV or DVD for another promotion. That takes away the higher paying shows like Ring of Honor iPPV, and that company is so full of talent right now that there isn’t a lot of interest in most of the TNA line-up. The only guys basically guaranteed ROH dates if they wanted them are Eddie Edwards and Samoa Joe.

A lot of talent has reached out to Jeff Jarrett, but they only have one show on the books right now, and it’s New Japan’s Tokyo Dome PPV, which obviously isn’t an option. Lucha Underground is exclusively TV and is asking stars to sign exclusivity contacts of their own. Pro Wrestling Guerrilla only does DVD taped shows.

There are a handful of promotions on the east coast like Pro Wrestling Syndicate and FWE that are known for good shows and decent paychecks. The reality is that most of the TNA talent will have to settle for the occasional bigger name indie, and mostly small, local events until TNA announces their new direction in 2015, and figures out who they can afford to keep around.