Welcome to the first in what should be a regularly irregular look at some news bits that may have gone under everyone’s radars.
What we’re aiming to do here is more than just “list results, upcoming shows and rumours” – lord knows, there’s plenty of sites that do that (and in a much better way); but since we’re ones for throwing in our opinions, well, there’ll be some of that too.
NEWS: We probably should open this with Friday’s announcement of the opening of the NXT UK Performance Centre. It’s a 17,000 square-foot converted warehouse near Enfield, which’ll be the “first of many” according to Paul Levesque, who was on hand for the opening. There’s two rings, the weights you’d expect and production facilities a la the “original” PC in Florida. The Enfield PC will see over 30 people training there on a regular basis, with the opening day videos showing a lot of the NXT UK roster training, along with some names whom weren’t previously reported as under contract, including Primate. As to whether everyone working at the PC is going to be on deals that preclude them from working other shows, we’ll have to wait and see, but Primate’s a good barometer of that.
NEWS: DDT and Fight Club Pro have entered into an agreement that may well see DDT wrestlers appearing in England, and vice versa. This was announced on the January 3 “Maji Manji Super” show in Korakuen Hall, just ahead of Fight Club Pro’s show there on the 7th. On vaguely related notes, Millie McKenzie’s currently in Japan with DDT’s “sister promotion” Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling, while Fight Club Pro’s Dream Tag Team Invitational this year features Dragon Gate’s PAC and Eita, which may be interesting, politically. There was speculation that that DDT were in talks with other European promotions before things fell into place with Fight Club Pro.
NEWS: Beyond Wrestling has announced that they’ll be running weekly shows on IndependentWrestling.tv every Wednesday from April. Those shows will be two-hours long and live from the Electric Haze every week, with a rather ominous tweet from Beyond that “if the weekly shows flop there will be NO SHOWS going forward”. They’re giving themselves three months to “condition fans”, after which point… who knows? Online at least, Beyond’s Unchartered Territory show will be going head to head with at least NXT, and possibly 205 Live (unless WWE moves that back to its Tuesday slot).
UPCOMING: Avalanche, Bobby Gunns and Lucky Kid will be appearing for Courage Wrestling in Dublin, Ireland on February 23. The show’s being co-promoted by the Low Blows podcast and VOD network, with the show being called “Low Blows Ruin Wrestling”. Tickets for the show at Dublin’s Temple Bar are available now…
UPCOMING: New Japan announced a London show for this coming August. It’s a “proper” New Japan show, as opposed a co-promoted event with Rev Pro it seems. No information has been made available at time of writing regarding an on-sale date for the show at the Copperbox Arena in London on August 31.
UPCOMING: NXT UK’s February taping dates have been announced: they’re running on the 22nd and 23rd at Coventry’s Skydome. That’s a Friday and Saturday, so the February PROGRESS show in Camden won’t be changing dates…
UPCOMING: ATTACK! crowned a new 24/7 champion last weekend in Cheltenham, with quite a lot of the regular roster missing because of the Fight Club Pro show in Tokyo a few days later. Pete Dunne vacated the title after last year’s Mistletour, having held the belt since he “won” it from Tyler Bate in the same match he won the NXT UK title back in 2017. Robbie X, making his first appearance in ATTACK! since April 2016, won the one-night tournament, beating Connor Mills in the finals.
SIGNINGS: All Elite Wrestling have been announcing a steady flow of signings since the promotion came to life on January 1. At time of writing, Cody, Hangman Page, Brandi Rhodes, Britt Baker and the Young Bucks have inked deals, while MJF, Joey Janela, Penelope Ford, Chris Jericho and Pac were unveiled at a rally on January 8 in Jacksonville. Bizarrely rumours linking Bill Goldberg to the new promotion.
ICYMI: Pro Wrestling EVE will be working with STARDOM for their June 30 show at York Hall – WrestleQueendom 2. No STARDOM names have been mentioned yet for the show, although EVE have poked fun at how Jamie Hayer’s currently in the same Oedo Tai stable as Martina… but unless Martina suddenly wins the title, that’ll not transition into anything for York Hall since Jamie Hayter’ll be getting her SHE-1 title shot there.
ICYMI: OTT’s first big show of 2019 will be at the National Basketball Arena in Tallaght (near Dublin) on February 17. The main event has been announced as WALTER vs. PAC, while we’re also getting Jordan Devlin vs. David Starr and a cage match. Tickets are on sale now, but only general admission remain.
ICYMI: 8 names have been announced for 16 Carat Gold this year: Axel Dieter Jr. and Daisuke Sekimoto perhaps being the big names from a historical perspective, while Penta El Zero M, Fenix, Timothy Thatcher, Jurn Simmons, Chris Brookes and Rey Horus round out the announced field. Two more names will be confirmed at wXw’s Road to 16 Carat Gold: London show at the end of the month, with two mini tournaments seeing one from Mark Davis, Oliver Carter, Francis Kaspin and Ivan Kiev making it through, while Jay Skillet, Kyle Fletcher, Julian Pace and Shigehiro Irie fight for another spot. Tickets for the 16 Carat Gold weekend, and the London show, are currently on sale.
ICYMI: IPW in the UK is getting a TV deal – with hour-long shows airing on the Fight Network in the UK. No start date has been announced, but the pilot episode is currently available on HighSpots Wrestling Network now, consisting of matches from the promotion’s shows at Unit Nine in Milton Keynes.