Tag: NJPW

Mercedes Mone Injured At NJPW Resurgence

Mercedes Mone appears to have suffered an injury.

At Sunday night’s NJPW Resurgence pay-per-view event, the former Sasha Banks faced off against AEW wrestler Willow Nightingale in the finals of the one-night NJPW STRONG Women’s Championship tournament.

The end of the match came when Nightingale hit her Doctor Comb finisher on Mercedes for a two-count. She then hit another one immediately after for the pinfall. Following the match, Mone was carried out of the arena.

As of this writing, there is no word on Mone’s current condition.

Pwinsider and Bryan Alvarez report that the word going around is that Mone suffered a broken ankle in a spot where she fell off the top rope, which you can see below:

Dave Meltzer noted on Wrestling Observer Radio that Mone was supposed to win the title, but the decision to put the title on Willow was made on the fly due to the injury.

https://twitter.com/Queenofallerass/status/1660490281370931202
https://twitter.com/THENEXTBlGTHlNG/status/1660488950727983104

Source: eWn

https://twitter.com/MercedesVarnado/status/1660509287335211009

NJPW Resurgence 5/21/2023 (Results)

  • The DKC def. Bateman
  • Alex Coughlin def. Christopher Daniels
  • Virus & Barbaro Cavernario def. Zack Sabre Jr. & Bad Dude Tito
  • Mercedes Moné def. Stephanie Vaquer – NJPW STRONG Women’s Championship Tournament Semi-Final
  • Willow Nightingale def. Momo Kohgo – NJPW STRONG Women’s Championship Tournament Semi-Final
  • Juice Robinson def. Fred Rosser – Street Fight
  • KENTA def. Hikuleo (c) – NJPW STRONG Openweight Championship
  • Jon Moxley, Wheeler Yuta, & Shota Umino def. Rocky Romero, Kazuchika Okada, & Tomohiro Ishii
  • Will Ospreay def. Hiroshi Tanahashi – IWGP United States Heavyweight Title Number One Contender’s Tournament Semi-Final
  • Willow Nightingale def. Mercedes Moné – NJPW STRONG Women’s Championship

NJPW Resurgence 5/21/2023 (Card)

NJPW Resurgence – May 21 at the Walter Pyramid in Long Beach, California. It will air on NJPW World and FITE TV as a pay-per-view event.

CARD

  • NJPW STRONG Women’s Championship Final
  • IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship Number One Contender’s Tournament: Will Ospreay vs Hiroshi Tanahashi
  • CHAOS (Rocky Romero, Tomohiro Ishii & Kazuchika Okada) vs Wheeler Yuta, Shota Umino & Jon Moxley
  • NJPW STRONG Openweight Championship: Hikuleo (c) vs KENTA
  • Street Fight: Juice Robinson vs Fred Rosser
  • TMDK (Bad Dude Tito & Zack Sabre Jr.) vs Barbaro Cavernario & Virus
  • NJPW STRONG Women’s Championship Tournament: Momo Kohgo vs Willow Nightingale
  • NJPW STRONG Women’s Championship Tournament: Mercedes Moné vs Stephanie Vaquer
  • Alex Coughlin vs Christopher Daniels
  • The DKC vs Bateman

Mercedes Mone Signs Contract Extension With NJPW/STARDOM – UPDATED Information

Mayu Iwatani defeated Mercedes Moné to win the IWGP Women’s Championship in the penultimate match at STARDOM All-Star Grand Queendom.

While Mone isn’t the IWGP Women’s Champion anymore, she will stay with NJPW and STARDOM for the immediate future.

The Wrestling Observer is reporting that Mone signed a contract extension with Bushiroad ahead of her title defense at STARDOM All-Star Grand Queendom. It’s unknown how long the contract extension is.

Following her loss at All-Star Grand Queendom, Mone announced that she will appear at NJPW Resurgence on May 21st in Los Angeles, CA.

Source: eWrestlingNews

UPDATE

New information suggests that Moné’s extension may be short-term instead of long-term.

Fightful Select has learned from people in Mone’s camp that the former IWGP Women’s Champion has no more dates with Stardom, and only one more date with NJPW, scheduled to be the Resurgence event in Long Beach, California on May 21. While future dates for NJPW in Japan weren’t dismissed, it was noted that none were planned as of now, which would effectively make Moné a free agent following her Resurgence appearance.

Despite that, things appear to be rosy between Moné and the Bushiroad promotions, with both sides being open to doing business again in the future. Those in Stardom, in particular, appear to be thrilled with Moné’s recent work with Mayu Iwatani in the promotion and believe Mone helped boost Stardom’s business. Due to that, however, it’s expected that a “bigger renegotiation” would be required to obtain Moné’s services for her to appear in Stardom again.

As has been the case after previous reports of Moné’s contract status with Bushiroad, speculation will now turn to where she could wind up following her Resurgence appearance, with WWE (where she worked as Sasha Banks for over a decade) and AEW serving as the leading candidates. Whether Moné would entertain joining either promotion is unknown, as it was noted she is currently working on TV and film projects, in addition to her wrestling commitments.

Source: Wrestling Inc.

STARDOM Turned Down Signing Trinity Fatu Due To Financial Reasons

The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic continue to ripple to various degrees throughout the professional wrestling industry. While promotions in the United States have largely returned to business as usual, those in Japan have seen things move along a bit more slowly. There were still a number of restrictions in place in recent months, and, as a result, Bushiroad — the parent company of both New Japan Pro-Wrestling and STARDOM — has had to navigate a tough road in recovering from the financial hits taken by the wrestling arm of the company, even as both promotions have grown. Because of the financial strain, both NJPW and STARDOM have been under pressure to keep costs down. That’s led to each passing on some opportunities that may have brought more eyes to the Japanese wrestling product. 

Per the latest Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Trinity Fatu — formerly known during her time in WWE as Naomi — was there for the getting. With her former tag team partner Sasha Banks, who now goes by the moniker Mercedes Mone, carving her path to Japan, there was a chance for Fatu to join her. It appears as if feelers were put out to indicate her willingness to head overseas to re-enter the squared circle. However, Bushiroad felt it’d cost too much and, because of their money situation, ultimately passed on making such a deal — at least thus far.

Fatu has been out of action since she and Banks walked out of WWE over creative differences and were indefinitely suspended, never to return to this point. Fatu did make the trip to Wrestle Kingdom 17 in January to support her former partner as she made her NJPW debut and recently she was backstage at Ring of Honor’s Supercard of Honor over WrestleMania weekend. While doing other things, she has remained within reach of the wrestling business if the right situation presented itself for her to make a return. However, that has yet to materialize yet since she has become a free agent.

Source: Wrestling Inc.

Impact Wrestling x NJPW Multiverse United: Only the STRONG Survive 3/30/2023 (Card)

IMPACT Wrestling and New Japan Pro-Wrestling present Multiverse United: Only the STRONG Survive LIVE TONIGHT at 11pm ET streaming exclusively on FITE.

CARD

  • IMPACT WORLD TAG TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP 4-WAY MATCH: Bullet Club (Chris Bey & Ace Austin) (c) vs. Motor City Machine Guns (Chris Sabin & Alex Shelley) vs. Aussie Open (Mark Davis & Kyle Fletcher) vs. TMDK (Shane Haste & Bad Dude Tito)
  • IMPACT X DIVISION CHAMPIONSHIP 6-WAY SCRAMBLE MATCH: Trey Miguel (c) vs. Rich Swann vs. Frankie Kazarian vs. Rocky Romero vs. Kevin Knight vs. Clark Connor
  • “Winner is added to Impact Knockouts World Championship match at Rebellion”4-WAY MATCH: Deonna Purrazzo vs. Masha Slamovich vs. Gisele Shaw vs. Miyu Yamashita
  • NJPW STRONG OPENWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP: KENTA (c) vs. Minoru Suzuki
  • Hiroshi Tanahashi [NJPW] vs. Mike Bailey [Impact]
  • Jeff Cobb [NJPW] vs. Moose [Impact]
  • Fred Rosser, Callihan, PCO & Alex Coughlin vs. Team Filthy (Tom Lawlor & JR Kratos), Eddie Edwards & Joe Hendry
  • [Countdown to Multiverse Pre-show]
    Yuya Uemura vs. Gabriel Kidd

Jay White Officially A Free Agent, No Confirmation Of Upcoming Jump To WWE, AEW Possibility

Jay White is officially on the move, but where to seems to still be up in the air.

In the latest edition of the weekly Wrestling Observer Newsletter, veteran pro wrestling journalist Dave Meltzer confirmed that the former IWGP World Heavyweight Champion is officially a free agent after his NJPW contract expired at the end of last month. 

Meltzer reported that all indications point toward White heading to WWE but “there has still been no confirmation of that.” He added, “If he is going to WWE, it’s not something well known within the company by many because multiple people who normally know haven’t heard his name mentioned.”

White’s tenure with NJPW has been seemingly wrapping up over the past two months. In January, the former Bullet Club leader dropped the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship to Kazuchika Okada in the main event at Wrestle Kingdom 17. 

Then last month, he lost two apparent farewell matches, first losing to his former stablemate Hikuleo in a “loser leaves Japan” match at The New Beginning in Osaka and then losing to Eddie Kingston in a “loser leaves NJPW” match at Battle in the Valley. After White’s loss to Hikuleo, the wrestler posted photos of his time in Japan on social media with the caption, “Peace. #SwitchbladeEra.” And after his loss to Kingston, his opponent bowed to him after leaving the ring and joined the crowd in applauding him.

Several reports have since indicated WWE has heavy interest in bringing White into the fold and that officials there are “confident” he’s coming, though a jump to AEW or the broader independent scene also remains possible.

Source: Wrestling Inc.

NJPW Battle In The Valley 2/18/2023 (Results)

Alex Coughlin defeated JR Kratos

David Finlay defeated Bobby Fish

Kushida, Volador Jr., Kevin Knight and The DKC defeated Máscara Dorada, Josh Alexander, Adrian Quest and Rocky Romero

Strong Openweight Championship
KENTA defeated Fred Rosser (c) to WIN the Strong Openweight Championship

KENTA picked up the win with the Go To Sleep as CM Punk watched on from the stands after Juice Robinson returned to NJPW and decked Fred Rosser with a fistful of coins. 

Strong Openweight Tag Team Championship
The Motor City Machine Guns (Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin) (c) defeated West Coast Wrecking Crew (Jorel Nelson and Royce Issacs)

Loser Leaves NJPW 
Eddie Kingston defeated Jay White

Jay White lost his Loser Leaves NJPW Match to Eddie Kingston following four Urakens and two Northern Lights suplexes. White was set to cut a post-match promo but he was suddenly attacked from behind by David Finlay, who cut a long promo about being a foreigner everywhere he wrestles.

Filthy Rules Fight
Tom Lawlor defeated Homicide

NJPW World Television Championship
Zack Sabre Jr. (c) defeated Clark Connors

IWGP Women’s Championship
Mercedes Monè defeated Kairi (c) to WIN the IWGP Women’s Championship

 Moné became the second-ever IWGP Women’s Champion after defeating fellow former WWE talent KAIRI in the semi-main event of Battle in the Valley. Moné hit a Bayley-To-Belly and was put through a table in her NJPW in-ring debut before she picked up the win with her Moné Maker finisher. Moné and KAIRI then hugged after the match as Bayley watched on from the crowd.

IWGP World Heavyweight Championship
Kazuchika Okada (c) defeated Hiroshi Tanahashi

NJPW Battle In The Valley 2/18/2023 (Card)

New Japan Pro Wrestling returns to California for a major PPV event featuring the New Japan in-ring debut of Mercedes Mone, formerly known as Sasha Banks, in the WWE.

When: Saturday February 18, 2023

Where: San Jose Civic Arena in San Jose, CA

How To Watch: Live on Fite TV

CARD

  • Kairi (c) vs. Mercedes Mone – IWGP Women’s Championship
  • Jay White vs. Eddie Kingston – Loser Leaves NJPW
  • Homicide vs. Tom Lawlor – Filthy Rules Fight
  • The Motor City Machine Guns (c) vs. The West Coast Wrecking Crew – NJPW Strong Openweight Tag Team Championship
  • Fred Rosser (c) vs. KENTA – NJPW STRONG Openweight Championship
  • Adrian Quest, Josh Alexander, Mascara Dorada & Rocky Romero vs. Kevin Knight, Kushida, The DKC & Volador Jr.
  • David Finlay vs. Bobby Fish
  • Zack Sabre Jr. (c) vs. Clark Connors – IWGP Television Championship
  • Kazuchika Okada (c) vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi – IWGP World Championship

Impact Wrestling & NJPW Announce Joint Show On WrestleMania Weekend

Impact Wrestling and New Japan Pro-Wrestling announced today that they will co-produce a show on Thursday night, March 30, at the Globe Theater in Los Angeles. The following was sent out:

IMPACT Wrestling & New Japan Pro-Wrestling Announce Major Co-Produced Live Show, Set For Thursday, March 30th in Los Angeles

“Multiverse United: Only The STRONG Survive” Will Feature Must-See, Cross-Promotion Dream Matches

“Speedball” Mike Bailey vs. Will Ospreay Expected To Be A High-Energy, Action-Packed Match of the Year Candidate

IMPACT Wrestling and New Japan Pro-Wrestling will co-produce a major live pro wrestling show on Thursday night, March 30, at the Globe Theater in Los Angeles with megastars from both promotions in-action and numerous first-ever dream matches confirmed.
 
The show, Multiverse United: Only The STRONG Survive, will air live on pay-per-view on fite.tv, starting at 8 p.m. PST.
 
IMPACT World Champion Josh Alexander steps into the ring at Multiverse United against KUSHIDA, while “Speedball” Mike Bailey battles Will Ospreay in the co-main event that will be a nonstop fight for bragging rights.
 
The Bailey-Ospreay battle is their fifth-ever one-on-one contest and the first since August 2022, with their first-ever back in 2015. “Will Ospreay is the best professional wrestler in the world, after me,” Bailey said. “So, this will be the best professional wrestling match of the year.”
 
Alexander is the longest-reigning IMPACT World Champion and also was half of the decorated tag-team The North that is the longest-reigning IMPACT World Tag Team Champions. KUSHIDA is a 6-time IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion and a 2-time IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champion (with Time Splitters teammate Alex Shelley). KUSHIDA is a 2-time winner of the prestigious Best of the Super Juniors tournament.
 
Also confirmed for Multiverse United: NJPW’s Jeff Cobb battles former IMPACT World Champion Moose. IMPACT stars confirmed for the dual promotion spectacle: reigning X Division Champion Trey Miguel, Ace Austin and Chris Bey, plus most of the Knockouts. NJPW will be represented at Multiverse United by KENTA, Rocky Romero, Minoru Suzuki, Clark Connors, Kevin Knight, Fred Rosser and many others.
 
Tickets for Multiverse United start at $60 and go on-sale THIS FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 10, starting at 10am EST. Front-row seats and the coveted balcony seats are $350 each – and those prized, limited VIP seats are perk-filled, including an exclusive event t-shirt, commemorative ringside photograph, and more! For tickets, go to highspots.com
 
“We are very excited for this unique collaborative event that brings together two of the best wrestling companies in the world,” said IMPACT Wrestling executive vice-president Scott D’Amore. “Since NJPW returned to AXS TV just over a year ago, we have been looking at ways to expand our working relationship between the two brands. Multiverse United on March 30th at the Globe Theatre in Los Angeles is the first of many exciting collaborations between IMPACT and NJPW.”
 
NJPW representative director Takami Ohbari said, “New Japan Pro-Wrestling and IMPACT have been a winning combination on AXS TV, and now fans get to see these two companies share the same ring in person. I personally cannot wait to see what arises from this special card, and I can guarantee fans will experience a historic event the likes of which they’ve never seen before.”
 
The IMPACT Wrestling/New Japan Pro-Wrestling relationship began in 2005 with Jushin Liger facing Samoa Joe at BOUND FOR GLORY. In 2006, Hiroshi Tanahashi faced AJ Styles at FINAL RESOLUTION and New Japan fielded Team Japan for the 2006 World X-Cup. 
 
IMPACT was involved in New Japan’s Wrestle Kingdom events from 2008 to 2011, with such legendary matches as Kurt Angle vs. Yuji Nagata, Abyss vs. Manabu Nakanishi, and Giant Bernard and Tomko vs. The Steiner Brothers. Other stars who have participated in IMPACT/New Japan matches, including the Motor City Machine Guns, Kevin Nash, Masahiro Chono and Tomohiro Ishii, among others. The 2011 Wrestle Kingdom featured a World Championship title defense by Jeff Hardy against Tetsuya Naito. 
 
In 2021, NJPW tag team FinJuice arrived in IMPACT Wrestling, as well as Jay White, Satoshi Kojima, Minoru Suzuki, the Guerrillas of Destiny, and others.
 
IMPACT star Ace Austin competed in NJPW’s 2022 Best of the Super Juniors. Ace Austin and Chris Bey made the finals of the 2022 NJPW Super Junior Tag League and the Motor City Machine Guns are the reigning NJPW Strong Openweight Tag Team Champions.