Our latest round-up of tidbits that may have flown under your radars…
NEWS: EVE have a new International champion – and it’s not one that was crowned at the Resistance Gallery! On STARDOM’s 8th Anniversary show at Korakuen Hall on January 14, Viper defended the EVE title – along with her SWA Undisputed World Women’s Championship (a belt she won from Toni Storm last year) – but ended up dropping the belt to 20-year old Utami Hayashishita. Utami’s only been wrestling since August 2018 and has now won FOUR belts in the space of two months as she looks to become the modern-day answer to Ultimo Dragon’s time as a nine-belt champion. For those wondering, Viper has been linked with a move to WWE…
NEWS: Sticking with EVE, the promotion are bringing in tag team championships. Perhaps that’s what finally jolted WWE into announcing their belts on Raw this week? The announcement was made during She Who Dares, Wins last Saturday (we’ll have a review shortly) – it’ll be the second time EVE attempted to crown tag team champions; the first being in 2013 when they’d reached the semi-final stage before the promotion went on hiatus.
NEWS: If you were a fan of Rev Pro’s World of Pro Wrestling TV show, don’t hold your breath waiting for a second series. During a Twitter Q&A, Rev Pro revealed that there’d been “literally zero discussions” on the possibility of the show returning.
NEWS: The steady stream of signings for AEW continued with the announcement of Portugal’s Shanna joining their roster. Shanna, who currently holds the Queen of Southside championship, had a run in STARDOM in 2017 which saw her win the promotion’s High Speed title for a month. She becomes the second female signed to All Elite after Britt Baker (assuming you don’t count Brandi Rhodes due to it being an office role).
NEWS: Rush signed with Ring of Honor this past Tuesday – a move that derailed MLW’s plans for a LA Park vs. Rush match over WrestleMania weekend. In what some originally took as a retaliation, MLW pulled Tom Lawlor from another WrestleMania booking, where he was originally set to team with Bryan Alvarez for Black Label Pro. We’ll look to have “WatchaMania” preview for the barrage of shows that’ll be streaming over WrestleMania weekend…
UPCOMING: On February 23, Futureshock Wrestling holds Underground 31 at Prestwich’s Longfield Suite. A lot of Futureshock’s stuff goes under the radar, but that show’s gotten quite a few big names on it, with PAC vs. Soner Dursun announced thus far, while Ilja Dragunov has also been announced for that show.
UPCOMING: wXw hits London next weekend (January 26) for Road to 16 Carat Gold at the Tufnell Park Dome. Depending on who wins at Back to the Roots tonight (as this goes up), David Starr will be challenging either Absolute Andy or Ilja Dragunov for the wXw Unified World Wrestling Championship; there’s a trios match involving the Calamari Thatch Kings – Chris Brookes, Timothy Thatcher and Kid Lykos, against a team of wXw Stars – Lucky Kid, Bobby Gunns and a TBA. There’ll also be two four-man tournaments taking place for spots in this year’s 16 Carat Gold – Mark Davis, Oliver Carter, Francis Kaspin and Ivan Kiev are in one tournament, while Jay Skillet, Kyle Fletcher, Julian Pace and Shigehiro Irie make up the other.
Speaking of 16 Carat Gold, I’d be surprised if wXw didn’t drop any more names for it this weekend…
UPCOMING: While their debut show doesn’t even place until next weekend, WrestleGate Pro added even more shows to an already long list of future dates, as a pair of co-promoted shows with Will Ospreay’s Frontline Puro were announced for August 23 and 24 in Nottingham (ish)’s Rushcliffe Arena. Already, WrestleGate have shows on January 26 (headlined by Chris Ridgeway vs. Jake McCluskey, after Jordan Devlin was forced to drop out); March 16 (seemingly headlining with Chris Ridgeway vs. Konosuke Takeshita), May 18 (featuring Hiroyo Matsumoto and Shigehiro Irie) and a pair of shows on July 6, all taking place at the Rushcliffe Arena in West Bridgford, Nottingham.
UPCOMING: NORTH Wrestling’s back at the Riverside in Newcastle on February 2 for their first show of the year: NCL.15 You Think I Ain’t Worth A Dollar. The main event sees Rory Coyle defend his NORTH Championship against Primate, in a match that’ll be buoyed by their feud in Defiant, while there’s debuts on the card for Scotty Davis against Chris Ridgeway, while More Than Hype’s LJ Cleary, Nathan Martin and Darren Kearney also make their NORTH debuts.
UPCOMING: EVE return to the Resistance Gallery on February 9 for Global Women Strike 2. Announced thus far is Nina Samuels defending her EVE title against Emi Sakura. Also on the card are debuts for Mary Apache and Mercedes Martinez. EVE follow that up with a double-header in March, with “She Fights on Friday” and “She Slams on Saturday” – a pair of shows tying in with International Womens’ Day, held on March 8 and 9 respectively. Tickets are on sale for those now, but Global Women Strike 2 may well be sold out by the time you read this.
UPCOMING: Rev Pro’s debut in Bristol on January 27 has something resembling a card; announced thus far is Will Ospreay vs. El Phantasmo, Chris Brookes vs. MK McKinnan, and a tag team match with Chardonnay & Zoe Lucas vs. Sammii Jayne & Yuu.
ICYMI: Flash Morgan Webster & Mark Andrews vs. Marcel Barthel and Fabien Aichner from this week’s NXT UK TV (the “Takeover Plus” episode). WATCH IT. Especially because it’s up for free on YouTube…
ICYMI: For Rev Pro’s debut in Northampton on March 24, the promotion has announced a main event of PAC vs. Chris Brookes. Also on the poster for that show is Shigehiro Irie, Yuu, Josh Bodom, MK McKinnan and El Phantasmo.
ICYMI: ATTACK!’s 24/7 title is certainly active – with Robbie X having won it in a tournament on January 4, the belt then went though several hands on ATTACK!’s Despair & Traffic event on January 13. Kyle Fletcher originally pinned Robbie X to win the belt, before Mark Davis came in and traded the title with his tag team partner, including at one stage being a co-champion, only for Robbie X to leave Cathays as champion again when he won an impromptu three-way match.