Our latest round-up of tidbits from our wrestling bubble…
NEWS: NXT UK announced a trio of new tapings: Glasgow’s Braehead Arena on April 19/20, the Download Festival between June 14-16 and a return to the Plymouth Pavilions on July 19/20. Tapings in Coventry wrapped up yesterday, and there’s another eight matches left from the Phoenix tapings to air. Take those two shows, and the 6-8 shows they’ll tape in Coventry… and before this turns into a Scott Steiner promo, you’re looking at some tapings being held over Mania weekend.
Curiously, that three-day hold they reportedly had on London’s York Hall in April hasn’t materialised into anything, such as a follow-up NXT UK Takeover event. Add in the fact that we’ve got tapings announced until summer, I think we can also rule out a second Takeover before August at this rate…
UPCOMING: Command Bolshoi’s returning to EVE for their double-header in March. The Joshi promotion Pure-J announced on their Twitter this past week that the Pure-J championship would be defended on the “She Slams on Saturdays” show on March 9, with Command Bolshoi defending against LEON. Tickets still remain for “She Slams On Saturdays” and “She Fights on Fridays” at the Resistance Gallery on March 8/9.
UPCOMING: Meanwhile, for EVE’s “She Fights on Fridays” show on March 8 is Britt Baker vs. Charli Evans, coming off the back of Charli’s Battlebowl win in January.
UPCOMING: Our updates in the next few weeks will be a little weird – the first half of this week will likely see us post some older reviews as we’re on the road with the “shoot job”, as some may say. We’ll try and get the wXw Road to 16 Carat Gold: Bielefeld show up as quickly as we can after it drops on Sunday, while our TV reviews (Defiant, NXT UK, IPW) will likely be delayed.
Then the following week, there’s the small matter of 16 Carat Gold! We’ll be in Germany from Wednesday which means that our coverage of the New Japan anniversary show on March 6 will be delayed, while we’ll get to NXT UK and other TV reports “when we get to it”. Like last year, our coverage of the New Japan Cup will also be restricted, since New Japan World is doing live shows almost DAILY between March 8 and March 24 (12 shows). At least for the early stages, we’ll only be covering the tournament matches, rather than the undercards…
NEWS: Kip Sabian’s been announced for the “Over Budget Battle Royal” for May’s Double or Nothing. Ditto Brandon Cutler, who was last seen in Dojo Pro…
ICYMI: EVE held a secret mini-show in Westminster a little over a week ago. The show was taped and uploaded to EVE On Demand this past week – it’s a single-camera, almost Fire Pro-y view of a three-match show, with Heidi Katrina squashing Jetta, Bea Priestley vs. a debuting Darcy Stone, and Martina vs. Jinny. If you’ve got half an hour to spare, it’s some non-canon graps for you!
ICYMI: Check out the #CaratCountdown hashtag on Twitter – in the run-up to 16 Carat Gold, a different match is being recommended from wXw fans of all vintages. Check it out and get yourself warmed up for Carat!
ICYMI: Trevor Lee was announced for PROGRESS’ Super Strong Style 16 weekender in May. He’s in the tournament alongside Ilja Dragunov and Travis Banks.
UPCOMING: Dirty Dragan and Andre Cartier have been announced for the upcoming GOOD Wrestling show at the Craufurd Arms in Craufurd, near Milton Keynes. Of course it’s their debuts, as they’ll be teaming with Candy Floss and Spike Trivet respectively on “Graps Will Only Bring You Happiness” on March 16.
UPCOMING: Joel Redman, formerly Oliver Grey in NXT many moons ago, is among the field of entrants for this year’s Champions Carnival in All Japan Pro Wrestling.
ICYMI: We were looking to review CZW’s 20th anniversary show that dropped on HighSpots this past week – sadly, the audio track for the show is plagued by what sounds like a cat pawing at the microphone throughout. From what we watched on almost mute, it looked like a decent, show with Leyla Hirsch doing double duty with wins over LuFisto in the opener, and Joe Gacy later on the card. Unfortunately, the issues that plagued CZW when we last saw them persist, as the crowd remained deathly silent outside of the Hall of Fame induction ceremony.
ICYMI: Ditto the PWX Battlefield X show – except this time the VOD was also zoomed in a little too much (even on full screen) as anything happening on the edges of the screen gets cut off too quickly. From that show though, if you can cope with ultra-zoom, check out DJZ vs. Slim J…
UPCOMING: WatchaMania 2019 – our insane “let’s try and watch as much as we can from WrestleMania weekend” is approaching… FITE.tv have a package up now if you want to block buy access to a bunch of shows for a one-off payment. If you sign up using the code “ndvzkdo” you’ll also get $15 credit on the FITE app. http://fite.tv/invite/ndvzkdo
Available for $99.99 (with a $20 FITE Bucks credit) is a package called the Collective, which offers these shows:
April 4 – IndependentWrestling.TV: Family Reunion (noon ET start); GCW Josh Barnett’s Bloodsport (4pm ET start); ISW Boner Jam IV: Balls Out (7.30pm ET start); AIW – The Slumber Party Massacre (11pm ET start)
April 5 – CHIKARA Once Upon a Beginning (2pm ET start); Black Label Pro Adventures in Wrestling (3.30pm ET start); GCW Joey Janela’s Spring Break Part 1 (8pm ET start); Blackcraft Wrestling No Apologies (11.59pm ET start)
April 6 – NOVA Pro Born to Run (12 noon ET start); IWS Unstoppable (4pm ET start); GCW Joey Janela’s Spring Break Part 2 (11.59pm ET start)
All of those shows are available separately on an iPPV basis. Over on independentwrestling.tv, a subscription to that service will get you the Family Reunion show, plus the ISW, CHIKARA, Black Label Pro, NOVA Pro and IWS shows… and the two Beyond Wrestling TV shows that’ll bookend WrestleMania week.
Meanwhile, the New Japan/ROH G1 Supercard of Honor (how many tags can they shoehorn into one name?!) will stream on Honor Club, New Japan World, and also be available via Fite.tv as a one-off purchase.
On the More Than Mania side of things, EVOLVE 125 and WWN Supershow: Mercury Rising will stream live on Club WWN (the $10/month subscription). The shows from wXw, DDT, Kaiju Big Battel and SHIMMER will be available as iPPVs from wwnlive.com.
As of yet, none of the WrestleCon events have had broadcast information shared – last year, they had a stupidly-fast turnaround time, and at one point were being listed for live streams on Fite.tv…
Card are slowly being announced for the slate of shows over WrestleMania weekend – once we’re past 16 Carat, we’ll let you know what we’re looking to go for coverage-wise…
NEWS: The Courage Wrestling show that was due to have taken place yesterday, featuring Avalanche, Bobby Gunns and Lucky Kid, was cancelled three days out, citing low ticket sales. In its place, Phoenix Wrestling held a pop-up show in Cork, Ireland, called “Just Enough Courage to Perform”.