A lot of questions come our way on our twitter and generally we try to answer them the best we can. But for a long while now, we’ve had a question that keeps popping up for which we have no answer. What happened to the Wrestling Retribution Project? What happened to the WRP? Jeff Katz seemed to have disappeared, with about $100,000 of Kickstarter funded money and over a year and a half later nothing to show for it. Well, we finally have our answer.
Jeff Katz did a podcast with PWInsider.com where he talks about what happened (available on the Elite side of the website), what he has been up to, and what has happened to the footage. Without a shred of anger in his voice, Jeff lets everyone know a story that he tried to put out there on Twitter. He essentially LOST everything in his financial life. Now, it was clear that it had nothing do with the WRP, but it was a typical investment deal gone bad. But unfortunately, and this is something I believe many can relate to, Jeff basically had to restart his life from the ground up. He didn’t ask for sympathy and explicitly said he didn’t want to sound like he was making excuses for his behavior and that perhaps, with hind site, he should have better stated the situation. One could look back and perhaps see the flaws in how he handled the situation and letting those who funded the project know anything about his personal life and the situation he was in, but as the saying goes, hind sight is twenty-twenty.
What he does address though is that the footage is in post production still. Now some may feel this is ridiculous and that perhaps this is all a facade. It’s understandable. Katz is a producer/executive. He should have known better. But it is what it is and he makes no bones about it. The plan is still for the footage to be cut, he references 65 matches taped, and they still are going to be distributed by Image Entertainment. And that is pretty much where we stand.
Jeff mentioned that he had to reach out to friends and call in some favors to rebuild his life, to pay his rent, to just live. For that, it is possible that one could forgive Jeff, though he vehemently states that he understands all the criticism sent his way and makes no excuses. He also mentions to Mike Johnson that because the footage/content is so encapsulated within it’s own universe that it will hardly make a difference when it’s released or where the talents are who are featured within the project. That is good to hear as many have asked us if it will feel dated when it does come to the light of day.
At this point that is the most anyone can hope for when it comes to an answer. PWP has already made overtures and in the near future, we should have Jeff Katz on again to discuss this project. Feel free to check out our first interview by clicking here.
Any questions about the podcast, we highly suggest to go to PWInsider.com and listen to it, but feel free to email or tweet us and we will try to answer as best we can about the WRP project though you can find A LOT OF DETAILS about it here, without spoilers of the matches.