Author: John Bass

NJPW Events In London And Texas Announced, 2 Tokyo Dome Shows Next Year For WK14

New Japan made a handful of announcements on Friday before Wrestle Kingdom 13, including plans to run events later this year in Texas and London.

G1 Climax 29 will kickoff July 6th in Dallas, Texas at the American Airlines Center. The company will then head to the UK on August 31st for an event at The Copper Box.

As you’ll recall, this is in addition to their joint show with ROH at Madison Square Garden.

NJPW also announced they’ll be at the Tokyo Dome for two days next year during the weekend of Wrestle Kingdom.

Read New Japan’s full announcement by CLICKING HERE.

Source: Pro Wrestling Sheet

WWE Has Reportedly Made A “Fantastic Offer” To Kenny Omega

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Despite Kenny Omega being under contract with New Japan Pro Wrestling until later this month, Dave Meltzer reported on the latest edition of Wrestling Observer Radio that WWE made Omega a “fantastic offer.”

With All Elite Wrestling being announced earlier this week, Meltzer noted that Omega is a “wildcard”, as NJPW obviously wants to keep him while AEW wants him as well.

Omega was defending his  IWGP Championship against Hiroshi Tanahashi at Wrestle Kingdom 13.

Source: WrestlingINC

Mauro Ranallo Expresses Frustration With His Performance

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NXT announcer Mauro Ranallo took to Twitter and expressed frustration with his performance at last night’s NXT TV tapings.

Mauro mentioned his car accident from December 23 and wrote, “Like me or loathe me, I pride myself on performing my job at the highest level possible. Tonight, I failed. I know it will come across as an excuse to some but the car accident and other personal issues affected me more than I thought. I apologize to @WWENXT I WILL BE BETTER.”

https://twitter.com/mauroranallo/status/1081017592243019776

NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 13 1/4/19

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NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 13 will take place tomorrow (1/4) from the Tokyo Dome in Tokyo, Japan at 2 am ET/11 pm PT (tonight). You can watch the show live on NJPW World (about $9 to sign-up) or on Fite.tv for $34.99.

You can also watch it on AXS TV:

  • Jan. 4 – Wrestle Kingdom 13 (2 hours) @8 pm ET
  • Jan. 11 – Wrestle Kingdom 13 (2 hours) @8 pm ET
  • Jan. 18 – Wrestle Kingdom 13 – @8 pm ET

IWGP Heavyweight Championship: (C) Kenny Omega vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi

IWGP Intercontinental Championship – No DQ: (C) Chris Jericho vs. Tetsuya Naito

IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Championship: (C) KUSHIDA vs. Taiji Ishimori

IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Championship: (C) Yoshinobu Kanemaru and El Desperado vs. Roppongi 3K vs. BUSHI and Shingo Takagi

RevPro British Heavyweight Championship: (C) Tomohiro Ishii vs. Zack Sabre Jr.

IWGP US Championship: (C) Cody Rhodes vs. Juice Robinson

IWGP Tag Team Championship: (C) Tama Tonga and Tanga Loa vs. EVIL and SANADA vs. The Young Bucks

NEVER Openweight Championship: (C) Kota Ibushi vs. Will Ospreay

Kazuchika Okada vs. Jay White

Number One Contender Gauntlet Match for the NEVER Openweight Six-Man Tag Team Championship (Pre-Show): Hirooki Goto, Beretta, & Chuckie T vs. Minoru Suzuki, Lance Archer, & Davey Boy Smith Jr. vs. Ryusuke Taguchi, Togi Makabe, & Toru Yano vs. Yuji Nagata, Jeff Cobb, & David Finlay vs. Marty Scurll, Hangman Page, & Yujiro Takahashi

 

I will try to get the results posted sometime Saturday.

“WOW – Women Of Wrestling” Preview Featuring Tessa Blanchard, Santana Garrett, Eye Candy And More

Image result for "WOW - Women Of Wrestling" AXS TV

In the video below is the first look of AXS TV’s new series, WOW – WOMEN OF WRESTLING, from the cult classic GLOW founder David McLane. The series premieres Friday, January 18 at 9 p.m. ET / 6 p.m. P.T. The preview clip features several of the matches on the debut episode.

AXS TV issued the following:

WOW – WOMEN OF WRESTLING PREMIERES ON AXS TV FEATURING WRESTLING SUPERSTAR TESSA BLANCHARD IN HER WOW DEBUT ON FRIDAY, JANUARY 18 AT 9PE/6PPDebut Episode Includes Four Matches including The Beast Against Stephy Slays, Abilene Maverick vs. Fire, and Khloe Hurtz vs. Eye Candy, Headlined by Jungle Grrrl vs. Santana Garrett for the Coveted WOW Championship

Los Angeles, CA – (December 20, 2018) – From the Los Angeles Lakers Owner Jeanie Buss and founder of the original GLOW “Gorgeous Ladies Of Wrestling” David McLane, comes the groundbreaking all-female wrestling promotion WOW – WOMEN OF WRESTLING to AXS TV on Friday, January 18 at 9pE/6pP. The premiere episode features four powerhouse matches and also includes the arrival of third-generation wrestling superstar, the Born Legend, Tessa Blanchard, as she sets out to immediately make her mark by demanding a Championship Title Match.

The season gets off to a roaring start as the phenom, The Beast looks to destroy fan-favorite Stephy Slays. Then, “The Governor’s Daughter,” Abilene Maverick, tries not to get burned when she elects to take on Fire in a sizzling singles match; and WOW bombshells “The All Natural” Khloe Hurtz and Eye Candy go toe-to-toe in a battle of beauty and brawn. It all leads up to the highly-anticipated main event, when WOW legend Jungle Grrrl gets her long-awaited shot at redemption, putting her legacy on the line as she faces off with WOW Champion Santana Garrett for the coveted WOW title in a high-stakes match to close the show.

“We are extremely proud to make WOW – WOMEN OF WRESTLING’s debut on AXS TV,” said McLane. “For this special premiere event, we have planned an incredible event that will satisfy our loyal audience, while serving as the perfect introduction to WOW’s roster of Superheroes for new viewers. This season promises to be one of the best, packed with even more of the intense action, beloved personalities, and family-friendly entertainment that WOW is known for. I’m confident AXS TV viewers are really going to enjoy it.”

WOW – WOMEN OF WRESTLING is a part of AXS TV’s new Friday Night Fights lineup. The schedule for January 18 is NEW JAPAN PRO WRESTLING at 8pE, followed by the debut of WOW – WOMEN OF WRESTLING at 9pE and then Legacy Fighting Alliance’s first LIVE event of 2019, LFA 57 at its new time,10pE from the 1st Bank Center in Broomfield, Colorado.

Impact Wrestling Preview 1/3/19

Tonight is the final Impact before this Sunday’s Homecoming pay -per-view and is also the final Impact on Pop TV before it moves to it’s new home, Friday Jan. 11 – 10/9c on The Pursuit Channel.

* Brian Cage & Johnny Impact vs. Lucha Bros (Pentagon Jr. & Fenix)

* Fallah Bahh & KM vs. Desi Hit Squad

* Allie vs. Kiera Hogan

* 10 Man Tag: Willie Mack, Rich Swann & The Rascalz vs. Sami Callihan, oVe, Matt Sydal & Ethan Page

* Eli Drake’s Homecoming Address

WWE Reportedly Planning To Offer Big Developmental Deal Soon

With the announcement of All Elite Wrestling this week and with Ring of Honor getting aggressive regarding signing new talent, Dave Meltzer recently indicated on Wrestling Observer Radio that WWE offered a developmental deal that is much larger than their standard contracts.

“I think there are going to be some interesting ones,” Meltzer said of talent signings in early 2019. “Nothing that hasn’t been rumored, and imminently. But there’s also an instance of someone who is under contract to a company, they’re going to be out of contract with the company in a couple of months. WWE, and another company, and maybe even two other companies, were involved in being interested [negotiations] in this person. And this would be a developmental deal [for WWE NXT] but I will say that the developmental money compared to others that WWE has offered was way, way higher. Multiples. Because the business has changed so much, and because of everything that’s going on,” Meltzer said in an apparent reference to the buzz going around the pro wrestling world these days.

It’s no secret that the new AEW promotion will be announcing talent acquisitions as they prepare for their first big event, rumored to be held this spring. Meltzer had recently reported that three members of The Elite (Cody Rhodes, The Young Bucks, Hangman Page) had themselves turned down major money deals from WWE, reported to be multi-year deals that were worth more than seven figures annually.

ROH’s offer to Bandido was said to be much higher than the deal he had on the table from WWE. WWE came back with a second offer that was “dramatically higher” when they realized he had better offers on the table, and that he wasn’t going to sign for low money just because it was WWE. Bandido will be making his ROH debut on January 12 in Atlanta at Center Stage for an international TV taping.

It should be noted that the wrestler set to receive the large deal was not identified in the report.

NWA Partners With Ring Of Honor For Crockett Cup Tag Team Tournament

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The Crockett Cup will be returning to North Carolina this year and NWA is partnering with ROH to make it happen.

The company announced:

On April 27th, 2019, The National Wrestling Alliance (in association with The Crockett Foundation) will partner with Ring of Honor Wrestling to bring the classic tag-team tournament, The Crockett Cup, back to North Carolina at the Cabarrus Arena in Concord, NC.

Former Crockett Cup winner Road Warrior Animal announced at the NWA 70th Anniversary event that the tag team tournament would return in 2019.

“The NWA is known for the legends who have carried the famous Ten Pounds of Gold,” said Billy Corgan in the announcement.

Adding, “Jim Crockett Promotions built a foundation in the Mid-Atlantic region with their tag team wrestling in the 70s and 80s.  The Crockett Cup in 1986 brought together the best tag teams in the world under one roof.  It’s our honor partnering with Ring of Honor to bring this tradition back to North Carolina while supporting the Crockett Foundation with their philanthropy for veterans.”

“Our utmost important stakeholders, investors, or partners in this business are the wrestling fans,” ROH General Manager Greg Gilleland continued. “Partnering with The NWA to bring back this prestigious tournament and truly create a special event is a responsibility that we have to all fans, and is one of many other special events to come.”

The first qualifying match for The Crockett Cup takes place this coming Saturday at the NWA Pop Up Event in Clarksville, TN.

Source: Pro Wrestling Sheet

WWE NXT Preview 1/2/19

NXT tonight at 8 ET on WWE Network.

Tonight’s WWE NXT episode will be a two-hour special with the announcement of the 2018 NXTYear-End Awards nominees and a look back at the black & yellow brand’s 2018.

* Matt Riddle and Kassius Ohno lock up in TakeOver rematch

* NXT Year-End Award nominees to be announced

* Relive NXT’s wild and crazy 2018

WWE 205 Live Preview 1/2/19

205 Live tonight at 7 ET on WWE Network.

* Kalisto vs. Lio Rush in a Royal Rumble WWE Cruiserweight Title Fatal 4 Way qualifying match.

* Drew Gulak vs. Akira Tozawa in a Royal Rumble WWE Cruiserweight Title Fatal 4 Way qualifying match.