Our latest round-up of tidbits that may have flown under your radars…
It’s been a quiet news week, but here we go!
NEWS: We weren’t kidding when we said there’d be more names entered into 16 Carat Gold… Avalanche announced his entry into the field after his double count-out with Jurn Simmons at Back to the Roots. WALTER announced his entry on Tuesday, and two more names won places at wXw’s event in London later today. Check our Twitter for the spoilers, or wait until Tuesday for the show to drop on wXw NOW (followed by our review!)
NEWS: We’re sorry to report on a couple of serious injuries. Kid Lykos suffered a dislocated shoulder at PROGRESS last Sunday during the tag title match between CCK and the Swords of Essex. The match continued for a brief moment before they went to the finish as the Electric Ballroom was hurriedly cleared so medics could check on Lykos. A little earlier, over in Dublin, Katey Harvey suffered a broken arm and dislocated both elbows after a dive during a tag match went awry on an OTT Contenders’ show. It goes without saying, but we wish Lykos and Katey a speedy and full recovery.
NEWS: GOOD finally have a “proper” title – Beano beat Gene Munny for the latter’s Certificate of Excellence at GOOD 12 – To Hell With Good Intentions last Saturday in Wolverton. After the match, GOOD management literally flung aside the Certificate of Excellence and replaced it with a new, proper title belt… the GOOD Wrestling Grand Prize! Tickets are on sale for their next show on March 16, called Graps Will Only Bring You Happiness.
NEWS: Speaking of titles, WOS Wrestling’s women’s title changed hands twice last weekend in as many days. Kay Lee Ray, who ended the TV series as champion, dropped the title to Viper in a three-way in Southampton last Friday, before Viper lost the belt the next night in Newport to Bea Priestley. Given Bea’s the only one of those three not on the WWE radar, I’d be stunned if there’s any further switches…
NEWS: From the files of “some saw this coming”, Ilja Dragunov was pulled from his Futureshock booking in February. At time of writing, Ilja’s still booked to appear for WrestleGate Pro in March, but after NOVA Pro owner tweeted (and deleted) some annoyance to the reaction he got for announcing Dragunov vs. Arik Royal over WrestleMania weekend. That match also is no longer being plugged by NOVA Pro…
UPCOMING: wXw have announced dates and shows for this year’s Autumn festival. It’ll be the 2019 World Tag Team League, as usual in the Turbinenhalle in Oberhausen. The World Tag Team League shows run from Friday 4th through Sunday 6th of October, while there’ll be two matinee shows too: Saturday’ll have the annual Femmes Fatales tournament, while the Sunday afternoon will play host to an AMBITION tournament. Tickets will be on sale from wXw-wrestling.com
UPCOMING: We don’t make a habit of listing upcoming New Japan cards, line-ups for their New Beginning in USA shows next weekend were dropped this week. Perhaps due to the recently-resolved US Government shutdown, there’s a dearth of “native” New Japan talent, with New Japan instead being represented by the likes Rocky Romero, Marty Scurll, the Killer Elite Squad and Juice Robinson. There’s debuts on the tour for Jonathan Gresham, Shane Taylor and Brody King, while the shows on February 1 and 2 sees the Great O-Kharn make his “proper” New Japan debut. He debuts on February 1 in Charlotte against Tracer X (finally, the Style Battle win pays off!), while Harlem Bravado is O-Kharn’s opponent the next night in Nashville. Whether this is a one-off or a permanent move to the States remains to be seen; although it does mean O-Kharn will likely be off Rev Pro’s February Cockpit show…
ICYMI: Our photo gallery from last week’s GOOD Wrestling show, “To Hell With Good Intentions” is up now at throughthelensofafan.com – our review of the show, which is now up on VOD, will follow soon…