Earlier this month, Omega announced his exit from NJPW with his contract expiring in early February. Although his next promotion is not officially known, he’s reportedly heading towards All Elite Wrestling. In the most recent Being the Elite, Omega’s phone has a new countdown that will end at AEW’s Double or Nothing Ticket Party on February 7 for their next event on May 25 in Las Vegas at the MGM Grand Garden Arena.
Source: WrestlingINC
Matt Sydal’s contract with Impact Wrestling ended on January 1, 2019, according to Dave Meltzer on the latest Wrestling Observer Radio.
Meltzer reports that Sydal is now a free agent and has contract offers from both All Elite Wrestling and WWE. There’s apparently no word yet on Impact Wrestling coming to terms on a new contract with Sydal.
Matt Sydal was taken out of the Warrior Wrestling event earlier this month due to a knee injury. Sydal announced he scheduled knee surgery to repair some torn cartilage, however, Sydal later tweeted out that the original date of the surgery was postponed because of insurance issues. In another tweet, Sydal noted that he should be back in the ring by March or April.
Sydal has seen success in wrestling promotions all around the world, including the WWE. In 2007, Sydal introduced himself as “Evan Bourne” and showed off his impressive high-flying offense to the WWE Universe. He teamed up with Kofi Kingston in 2011 and “Air Boom” would eventually become WWE Tag Team Champions. Sydal also won Championship gold in New Japan Pro Wrestling, where he is a two-time IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champion and a one-time NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Champion. In Impact Wrestling, he is a former Impact Grand Champion and Impact X Division champion.
Source: WrestlingINC
Impact Wrestling announced that they’ve renewed their broadcast deal for Mexico with Mexico City-based MVS Comunicaciones MVStv.
“Hot off the heels of a pair of successful events in Mexico City, we are thrilled to extend our partnership with MVStv to broadcast our premier content across Mexico,” said Ed Nordholm, president of IMPACT Wrestling. “We had more than 30 million social media engagements in Latin America across our YouTube, Facebook and Twitter platforms in 2018. We are very pleased that our fans in Mexico will now have an opportunity to see our full lineup of original content.”
MLW also announced an international television deal, as they will partner with Ananey Communications to bring MLW’s flagship weekly series, MLW: FUSION, to Israel on Ego Total.
“This is the perfect home for Major League Wrestling as we keep on our track as the fastest growing wrestling property in sports,” said MLW CEO Court Bauer. “As a combat sport league, this is a great fit for us and for our partners. We’re excited to bring MLW to Israel each and every week.”
“As the home of professional Wrestling in Israel for the past decade, we are proud to add MLW to our broadcast roster and looking forward to a great partnership,” said Adi kfir Ego Total Vice President.
The first episode will air on Ego TV in Israel on Tuesday at 6:10 PM local Israeli time.
– MLW also announced that World Heavyweight Champion Low Ki defending his title against “Filthy” Tom Lawlor will headline the MLW: SUPERFIGHT live national televised special emanating from the 2300 Arena in Philadelphia on Saturday, February 2nd. Also added to the show was Puma King vs. Gringo Loco. The live broadcast begins at 8pm ET / 5pm PT. Fans can buy tickets starting at $15 at https://www.MLWgo.com. Bell time is 7:15pm.
Source: WrestlingINC
Chris Jericho and Kenny Omega almost ended up signing with Impact Wrestling, according to The Wrestling Observer Newsletter.
Impact Co-Executive Vice President Don Callis, who is good friends with Jericho, was reportedly very close to signing Jericho and Omega to contracts before All Elite Wrestling brought their offers to the table.
Jericho recently revealed that his AEW contract is the best deal of his pro wrestling career. Omega is expected to sign with AEW once his New Japan Pro Wrestling contract expires on January 31, however his signing has not been confirmed.
The Observer notes that before AEW was the plan, the idea was for Omega to keep working for NJPW and then do 30 dates per year for Impact. Jericho would have worked for Impact while working another year for NJPW since he would have had so much input on his creative plans. Jericho recently confirmed that he will continue to work with NJPW in the future.
Jericho recently spoke about signing with AEW on his “Talk Is Jericho”podcast and discussed his talks with Impact. Jericho praised Callis and Scott D’Amore for what they’ve done with the company, adding that he really enjoys the product these days.
“I’ve gotta tell you guys, man, I’ve been really impressed with Impact over the last year,” Jericho said. “I thought Don Callis and Scott D’Amore have really turned things around in that company, and I really, really enjoy it. And I thought long and hard about doing some shows there. I even had a meeting with Scott and Don in Toronto, and Ed Nordholm. The offer they made was a great offer. That’s something that’s funny when I hear all these companies are vying for the talent, for the free agents – WWE, AEW, Ring of Honor, New Japan, and someone mentioned MLW. Dude, what about Impact? They’ve got money. They were going to spend some money on Chris Jericho. We had some great matches planned. Jericho vs. Sami Callihan maybe, or with Johnny Impact, Brian Cage, Rich Swann. I’d love to work with Rich Swann. I did honestly talk to Impact and really, really thought about going there. And then Tony Khan came in with this offer, that’s the biggest offer I’ve ever been offered in my career.”
Source: WrestlingINC
Kenny Omega appeared at the Tokyo Sports Awards earlier this week and wished good luck to All Elite Wrestling.
“I cannot tell the future. I would like to say good luck to AEW. It is going to be amazing. I am interested because it is a group of friends of mine. Since they are my friends, I have no choice but to support,” Omega said, according to a Google newspaper translation from Japanese to English.
Omega also said he won’t be on the Tokyo Sports stage next year, for New Japan, but that he “would still be putting on Match of the Year performances on a large international platform,” according to a translation by Chris Charlton.
It’s believed that Omega will sign with AEW over WWE once his NJPW contract officially expires at the end of this month. The Wrestling Observer Newsletter has reported that Omega already turned down an offer from WWE.
Source: WrestlingINC
Members of The Elite made a surprise appearance at Bar Wrestling in Los Angeles on Wednesday night.
It all happened at the Bootleg Theater during the main event after SCU laid out an open challenge which was answered by RockNES Monsters and Watts.
Both referees got knocked out at one point in the match and Joey Ryan intervened to stop Watts from hitting Scorpio Sky with a chair. Joey got attacked for doing so and Hangman Page came out to save him. The two rivals then put their differences aside … by making Watts grab their penises.
RockNES Monsters returned to the ring afterward and attacked Joey/Page from behind, but Cody and Brandi Rhodes came out to make the save. Brandi hit the Bionic Spear and Cody hit an outside dive while wearing his dress clothes.
Watts re-emerged and hit Cody with a big boot … then The Young Bucks hit the ring.
The full match showing SCU end things with a victory will be available soon on Pivot Share.
According to SoCalUncensored.com (where the group’s name came from), Cody told the crowd during a post-match speech that they were all signed to AEW … then Brandi made him fire them.
This appearance is the first for the group after announcing their new promotion All Elite Wrestling.
Watch the video below.
Source: Pro Wrestling Sheet
Although IMPACT Wrestling has been streaming programming through Twitch for some time, there was a special curiosity regarding the promotion’s new distribution strategy: to air on domestic television via the Pursuit Channel and stream concurrently on Twitch on Friday nights.
In numbers available on SullyGnome (a Twitch statistics and analysis website) for the 7 day period of January 8th-14th, IMPACT Wrestling peaked at 10,422 viewers (at some point on Friday night). The channel is programmed nearly 24/7 and over 155 hours in the last week averaged 318 viewers for a total watch time of 51,662 hours. IMPACT gained 4,816 followers for the week (and now has 67,320 followers on the platform).
IMPACT was the most watched program in the Wrestling category. In comparison, AAA was ranked second. The AAA promotion had no specific destination programming this week but did stream 144 hours of content. It peaked at 194 viewers and averaged 60 viewers with a total watch time of 8,731 hours.
Over the last 365 days, the most watched 5 promotions were the following:
1. IMPACT
2. AAA
3. Rocky Mountain Pro
4. House of Hardcore
5. Capitol Wrestling
Source: WrestlingINC
Popular Mexican wrestler Rush has been forced to pull out of an upcoming MLW event after signing an exclusive contract with Ring of Honor.
Rush’s signing was announced on Tuesday with a video from the Los Ingobernables founding member in which he says ROH is his new home.
MLW confirmed shortly after that Rush had been pulled from his scheduled match against La Park during WrestleMania weekend and would be replaced by Pentagon Jr.
“With great reluctance Rush has been forced to withdraw from his April 4th match against LA Park,” MLW wrote. “Despite efforts by MLW, Rush was pulled due to the insistence of a third party promoter.”
MLW CEO Court Bauer added, “This is a match and organization Rush wanted to be a part of, but sometimes politics get in the way and that’s what this comes down to: politics.”
Watch the signing announcement below.
Source: Pro Wrestling Sheet
Ivelisse isn’t the only wrestler looking to get out of their Lucha Underground contract, as Joey Ryan released a statement which implies he’s going through a similar battle.
As we noted, Ivelisse says she’s been requesting a release from her Lucha Underground contract for over a year and now feels like she’s being “legally held hostage.”
Joey echoed similar sentiments in a tweet on Tuesday saying,
“I back Ivelisse 100% on this. Prior to S4, we were told anybody who requested a release would be granted one. Some did and left after the tapings. Others showed faith in the product and now seems are being punished for it. With no S5 in sight, it’s petty to keep anyone locked up.”
https://twitter.com/JoeyRyanOnline/status/1085301692961181697
Pro Wrestling Sheet reports that the creative team behind the show are all for the cast working as much as possible and feel terrible about Dorian Roldan not granting release requests. One source says if it were up to the creative team making the show, talent would be allowed out of their contracts.
Source: Pro Wrestling Sheet
Lucha Underground wrestler Ivelisse says she’s been fighting to get out of her contract for over a year and now feels like she’s being “legally held hostage.”
Ivelisse released a statement via social media saying:
l’ve done everything in my power to avoid having to do this but.. at this point I literally have no other choice.. For a bit over 1 1/2 [years] now l’ve been battling LU to grant me my release. They convinced me to do S4 under the promise that I’d be released after the season concluded and was still unhappy. They currently are still refusing to do so despite having been told numerous times that they would. This has caused me an unbearable amount of grief for so long now, I really have no words to describe and don’t know what else to do.. being legally held hostage while Pro Wrestling is booming is a matter not to be taken lightly, especially coming from someone who has dedicated their life to their work, its everything to me. I am at my wits end, so at this point, regardless what happens from here on out, at the very least my story is told.
Pro Wrestling Sheet reports that there hasn’t been a lot communication between MGM and Lucha Underground execs in regards to an additional season. We’re told things are currently in a stalemate because both sides are standing firm on what the budget needs to be.
The show’s Executive Producer Eric Van Wagenen tells Pro Wrestling Sheet, “None of the producers, executives, or lawyers at MGM make those decisions. All contracts are controlled by the LLC – currently run by Dorian Roldan and John Fogelman.”
Source: Pro Wrestling Sheet
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