Category: Other Wrestling

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Zilla Fatu no longer with Game Changer Wrestling

Posted on by Bryan Rose

Zilla Fatu won’t be seen in GCW anytime soon.

The promotion announced shortly before their Aura event on Friday that Zilla Fatu would not be wrestling Matt Tremont on the show, and would no longer be used in the promotion moving forward.

Their statement reads:

Zilla Fatu will not be appearing on tonite’s GCW event in Philadelphia, or any GCW shows for the forseeable future. We tried our best to avoid this situation, but we have reached an impasse. We wish him the best. Matt Tremont will now face SLADE tonight at #GCWAura in Philly.

Fatu last wrestled for GCW at their Tha G-Code event on September 15, where he defeated Gringo Loco. He had made his debut in January, teaming with Jacob Fatu (now in WWE) against Jay Lyon and Midas Black.

The son of WWE star Umaga, Fatu first began wrestling in 2023 for Reality of Wrestling. Although they said they would no longer use him back in September of last year, Zilla eventually returned to ROW in March, winning the ROW title last month.

MLW announces change to Slaughterhouse 2024 match

Posted on by Joseph Currier

MLW has announced a change to one of its matches planned for Slaughterhouse 2024.

After announcing yesterday that Donovan Dijak vs. TJP would be taking place at the event, MLW shared an update today revealing that it will now be Dijak vs. Trevor Lee at Slaughterhouse. The show is taking place from The Coliseum in St. Petersburg, Florida on October 4 and will air for free live on MLW’s YouTube channel.

“In a shocking twist ahead of MLW Slaughterhouse on October 4 at the Coliseum, Trevor Lee has stepped up to face the unstoppable force known as Donovan Dijak. Following TJP’s unexpected withdrawal from the match, MLW’s roster was notified of an open contract to fight Dijak,” the promotion wrote. “Wasting no time, a fearless Trevor Lee raced to sign his name, setting the stage for an electrifying debut.”

Dijak and Lee both departed WWE earlier this year. Dijak left the company in June when his contract was not renewed, while Lee (formerly known as Cameron Grimes) was released by WWE back in April.

Lee is making his MLW debut at Slaughterhouse. Dijak arrived in the promotion last month at MLW Summer of the Beasts.

Here’s the updated card for Slaughterhouse:

MLW Slaughterhouse 2024 (Friday, October 4) —

  • MLW World Heavyweight Champion Satoshi Kojima defends against Ultimo Guerrero
  • MLW Tag Team Champions Minoru Suzuki & Ikuro Kwon defend against Bomaye Fight Club (Alex Kane & Mr. Thomas)
  • Weapons of Mass Destruction match: Mads Krule Krugger vs. AKIRA
  • Donovan Dijak vs. Trevor Lee

Leilani Kai ‘feeling amazing’ after total hip replacement surgery

Posted on by Joseph Currier

Former WWF & NWA Women’s Champion Leilani Kai is doing well as she begins her recovery from total hip replacement surgery.

Kai, 67, had her right hip replaced in an operation that was performed on Wednesday. After waking up from surgery, Kai sent out a post on X/Twitter thanking fans for their supportive messages.

“Just woke up after my hip replacement and feeling amazing! The love, messages, and prayers you all sent meant more to me than words can say,” she wrote. “I was scared, but you made sure I never felt alone. Thank you all from the bottom of my heart!”

A trainee of The Fabulous Moolah, Kai (real name Patty Seymour) was a star for the WWF in the 1980s, including holding the WWF Women’s Championship for 41 days in 1985. She won the title from Wendi Richter before dropping it back at the first WrestleMania. Kai had another WrestleMania match in her return to the company in 1994, losing to WWF Women’s Champion Alundra Blayze/Madusa at WrestleMania X.

Kai also held Women’s Tag Team gold as part of her famous Glamour Girls tag team with Judy Martin.

Kota Ibushi announced for GLEAT show next month

Posted on by Ian Carey

Kota Ibushi is returning to GLEAT.

The promotion has announced that the 42-year-old will wrestle on its October 6 show at EDION Arena in Osaka. His opponent has yet to be revealed.

The event will also feature Ricochet’s return to the promotion as he teams with CIMA against El Hijo del Vikingo & Soma Watanabe. Zachary Wentz & Trey Miguel of The Rascalz and former NXT/AEW wrestler Parker Boudreaux are scheduled for the show as well.

Ibushi last performed for GLEAT on its July 1 show at Tokyo Dome City Hall. He participated in a five-minute exhibition bout that night against Daisuke Sekimoto to celebrate his 20th anniversary in wrestling. It was Ibushi’s first bout in five months after an injury-plagued performance against Naomichi Marufuji at Pro Wrestling NOAH’s New Year 2024 event in January.

Ibushi has wrestled twice for DDT recently as well, wrestling tag team matches for the promotion on August 25 and September 8.

The announced lineup for Gleat Ver. Mega In Osaka on October 6:

  • LIDET UWF Champion Katsuhiko Nakajima defends against Masakatsu Funaki
  • G-REX Champion Hayato Tamura defends against Parker Boudreaux
  • G-INFINITY Champions Tetsuya Izuchi & Kaito Ishida defend against The Rascalz (Zachary Wentz & Trey Miguel)
  • Ricochet & CIMA vs. El Hijo Del Vikingo & Soma Watanabe
  • Kota Ibushi in action
  • Yu Iizuka vs. Caol Uno
  • Hideki Sekine vs. Kanten Man
  • Daisuke Nakamura vs. Masaki Takeura

World Heavyweight title match set for MLW Slaughterhouse

Posted on by Joseph Currier

NJPW and CMLL legends are set to clash over the MLW World Heavyweight Championship next month.

Satoshi Kojima will defend his World Heavyweight Championship belt against CMLL’s Ultimo Guerrero at MLW Slaughterhouse on Friday, October 4. The show is taking place from The Coliseum in St. Petersburg, Florida and will air live for free on MLW’s YouTube channel.

For more than seven months now, Kojima has held the MLW World title. He had a title defense against Mads Krugger at MLW Fightland this past weekend, but the match ended in a disqualification after Contra Unit interfered and Krugger threw a fireball at Kojima. There was then a post-match angle where Matt Riddle and AKIRA made the save for Kojima.

Kojima celebrated his 54th birthday on the day of Fightland.

Ultimo Guerrero, 52, has only wrestled for MLW once before, losing to Atlantis Jr. in May. MLW posted a video on Sunday with him calling out Kojima for this title match.

https://twitter.com/MLW/status/1835446233982501152

MLW Slaughterhouse 2024 (Friday, October 4) —

  • MLW World Heavyweight Champion Satoshi Kojima defends against Ultimo Guerrero
  • MLW Tag Team Champions Minoru Suzuki & Ikuro Kwon defend against Alex Kane & Mr. Thomas
  • Trevor Lee makes his MLW debut

Bobby Lashley on wrestling future: ‘I’m ready for anything’

Posted on by Bryan Rose

Bobby Lashley talks about his future.

On his latest vlog, Lashley briefly talked about his free agent status after his WWE contract recently expired.

“I’ve seen some of the articles about what I’m going to do. Is it WWE, TNA, and AEW? I can’t control any of that,” he said. “But the one thing I can control is how to prepare. I’m ready for anything.”

In a recent interview on The Bo and Them Show, Lashley said that he still wants to wrestle, but also has aspirations to box, having recently talked to a boxing promotion.

“Wrestling, I still want to wrestle,” he said. “I love wrestling. And the fans, the fans are writing me every day saying ‘when are you coming back, where are you going, I don’t care where you go, we want to be there for you,’ so I love the fans.”

Lashley left WWE amid reports that he and MVP, who has also left WWE, want to reform their Hurt Business stable in AEW with Shelton Benjamin.

April 9, 2007 Observer Newsletter: WWE WrestleMania 23 review

Posted on by Dave Meltzer

This year’s biggest pro wrestling event of the year will be remembered as the night promoter Vince McMahon shaved his head to draw what will likely be the most money any non-boxing event on PPV ever drew.

Wrestlemania 23 on 4/1 at Ford Field in Detroit would have been a good show, and would have set certain records no matter what. As each year goes by, the name “Wrestlemania” grows bigger. It was a huge closed circuit and later PPV event from its inception in 1985. Somewhere, probably in 1991, it started losing its luster and, while still the biggest PPV event of the year through 1996, those events are probably remembered as bigger deals than they were at the time. In 1997, WCW put on five shows that drew bigger money on PPV than Wrestlemania.

The turnaround came with Mike Tyson in 1998, and they’ve never looked back. As a live event, every ticket available will sell out long before any matches are announced. But PPV in North America has been strong for wrestling every year. In the big picture, it’s not been a gigantic deal in that regard since 2002, with the Hulk Hogan vs. The Rock match.

Subscribers can read this issue here.

Mick Foley set for GCW Dream On appearance

Posted on by Ethan Renner

WWE Hall of Famer Mick Foley will appear at GCW Dream On.

The promotion announced Thursday that Foley is set to appear at the Saturday, November 23 show:

*AMERICAN DREAM UPDATE* GCW comes to The American Dream Mall on Saturday, November 23rd! Just Signed: WWE Hall of Famer MICK FOLEY returns to GCW on 11/23 at #GCWDream! Tickets go On Sale Friday at 10AM: http://GCWDream.Eventbrite.com Watch LIVE on@FiteTV+!

Foley is advertised for a special appearance on the card, not in a wrestling role. Foley had considered climbing back into the ring for one final death match earlier this year, but pulled the plug after suffering a concussion in training.

Foley has appeared for the promotion previously, including a 2021 appearance for Fight Club which featured a Jon Moxley vs. Nick Gage bout.

Foley is one of two WWE Hall of Famers now set for appearances at Dream On, as Kurt Angle was announced for the event earlier this week.

GLEAT reveals Ricochet’s match for Japan return

Posted on by Joseph Currier

GLEAT has revealed Ricochet’s match for his upcoming return to Japan.

Earlier this week, the promotion announced that AEW star Ricochet would be competing for them alongside CIMA in Osaka on Sunday, October 6. It’s now been confirmed that the match will be Ricochet & CIMA vs. El Hijo del Vikingo & Soma Watanabe.

CIMA was Ricochet’s mentor earlier in his career, with them holding tag team titles in Dragon Gate. They have not teamed together since 2017. Ricochet joined WWE in 2018 but left the company this summer. He signed with AEW following his WWE departure, debuting at All In.

Vikingo has been out of action since February due to injury but is now returning to the ring. This tag match will be the first time he and Ricochet have ever faced each other.

In a recent interview on the Battleground Podcast, Ricochet said he still has a lot of goals he wants to accomplish in Japan for NJPW, including competing in a G1 tournament.

“I already won the Best of the Super Junior [in 2014], so I feel like now I should upgrade my goals to the G1, for sure,” he said. “And actually, obviously, there’s still a lot of things in New Japan that I didn’t get to accomplish that I still plan on accomplishing.”

Kurt Angle set for first GCW appearance at Dream On

Posted on by Ethan Renner

Kurt Angle is set to appear on a GCW show.

GCW has announced in a social media post that Angle has been booked for their Saturday, November 23 Dream On event.

The promotion posted:

*AMERICAN DREAM UPDATE* GCW comes to The American Dream Mall on Saturday, November 23rd! Just Signed: WWE Hall of Famer KURT ANGLE comes to GCW for the first time on 11/23 at #GCWDream! Tickets go On Sale this Friday at 10AM: http://GCWDream.Eventbrite.com Watch LIVE on @FiteTV+!

Angle joins Ricky Morton, Matt Cardona, Mance Warner, Masha Slamovich, Effy, Gringo Loco, Sonny Kiss, and Effy among the talent announced for the November 23 event.

Angle is not expected or advertised to wrestle for the event. The WWE Hall of Famer and Olympic gold medalist has abided by the retirement stipulation attached to his “farewell match” at WrestleMania 35 in 2019 and has not wrestled since.

In January of this year, Angle revealed that he was still under contract to WWE. It is unclear whether or not that is still the case given the GCW booking.

Former NBA star Dwight Howard says Ric Flair talked him out of wrestling career

Posted on by Ian Carey

Dwight Howard may have become a professional wrestler if it wasn’t for Ric Flair.

Howard took part in a WWE tryout in Nashville over SummerSlam weekend in 2022. Triple H would later say “The ball is in his court” regarding whether he would end up with the company.

Howard told TMZ recently that Flair talked him out of a post-NBA career in WWE.

“I was talking to Ric Flair,” Howard said. “He said I don’t know if my knees is good for wrestling.”

Howard dealt with knee injuries throughout his 18-season NBA career.

“My knees feel good, it’s just wrestling,” he continued. “You’re talking about picking up 300-pound dudes and all that stuff. Nobody wants to do that for their whole life!”

It doesn’t look like a wrestling career is in the cards for the 38-year-old, who signed a contract with the Taiwan Mustangs of The Asian Tournament (TAT) earlier this year. He also told TMZ he is interested in getting into stand-up comedy.

Athena vs. Gisele Shaw ROH Women’s title match set for Maple Leaf Pro Wrestling

Posted on by Ian Carey

The Ring of Honor Women’s World Championship will be on the line when Maple Leaf Pro Wrestling presents its debut shows next month.

Athena will defend her title against Gisele Shaw at MLP Forged in Excellence. The two-night event is scheduled for October 19 & 20 in Windsor, Ontario, Canada, and will air as a pay-per-view on Triller.

Shaw recently finished up with TNA Wrestling at the promotion’s tapings in Louisville, Kentucky earlier this month. She had been with the company since early 2022.

Athena vs. Shaw is the third match to be officially confirmed for MLP Forged in Excellence. Mike Bailey vs. Konosuke Takeshita has been announced for night one, and Takeshita vs. Josh Alexander is scheduled for night two.

Mauro Rannallo and Don Callis will serve as the promotion’s commentary team.

Also advertised for the shows are El Phantasmo, Raj Dhesi (Jinder Mahal), KUSHIDA, Alex Zayne, Kevin Knight, Jake Something, Kylie Rae, Trevor Lee, QT Marshall, Sheldon Jean, Stu Grayson and Miyu Yamashita.

Trevor Lee debuting for MLW at Slaughterhouse 2024

Posted on by Joseph Currier

Trevor Lee — the former Cameron Grimes in WWE — is coming to MLW soon.

Lee will debut for MLW at Slaughterhouse 2024, the promotion announced today. The event is taking place from the Coliseum in St. Petersburg, Florida on Friday, October 4. An opponent for Lee has not been announced.

This April, the 30-year-old Lee was released from his WWE contract. He was let go around the same time that Jinder Mahal, Xia Li, Veer, Sanga, Xyon Quinn, and Von Wagner were also released from the company. Lee had a successful NXT run while with WWE but was never heavily featured after being called up to the main roster. He has been competing on the indies since his release and is still a free agent.

Former WWE wrestler Donovan Dijak also recently arrived in MLW. Dijak departed WWE in June when his contract was not renewed.

No matches have been made official for Slaughterhouse 2024 yet. The show will air live for free on MLW’s YouTube channel.

MLW books Matt Riddle vs. Tom Lawlor stipulation match

Posted on by Joseph Currier

Former UFC fighters Matt Riddle and Tom Lawlor will do battle in a pro wrestling match this weekend.

MLW has announced that Riddle vs. Lawlor will take place on the TV taping portion of the promotion’s Fightland event in Atlanta this Saturday (September 14). It’s a “Vale Tudo rules” match, which MLW hypes as being a no holds barred martial arts-inspired street fight.

“Before MMA was an organized sport, pit fighters would battle in the underground fight world of Brazil in no-rules, no-holds-barred martial arts street fights. They called it Vale Tudo Rules! A dangerous, controversial, and arguably barbaric form of combat sports, Vale Tudo tests the limits of human endurance, skill, and sheer will to survive,” MLW wrote.

“Now MLW brings Vale Tudo to Center Stage in Atlanta, where two of the sport’s most dangerous competitors will collide in a match that harkens back to the true, gritty roots of MMA. Matt Riddle and Tom Lawlor will throw down in a clash that promises to be one of the most unpredictable encounters in MLW history.”

An air date for the match has not been announced. It’s the first one-on-one matchup between Riddle and Lawlor since 2017.

Fightland will include both a live special and TV tapings. The live special is airing for free on MLW’s YouTube channel.

MLW Fightland live special (Saturday, February 14) —

  • MLW World Heavyweight Champion Satoshi Kojima defends against Mads Krugger
  • Opera Cup finals: TBA vs. TBA
  • Opera Cup semifinals: KENTA vs. TJP
  • Opera Cup semifinals: Mistico vs. Bad Dude Tito
  • Donovan Dijak vs. Timothy Thatcher
  • The Andersons (Brock Anderson & CW Anderson) vs. Bomaye Fight Club (Alex Kane & Mr. Thomas)
  • Okumura vs. Adam Priest

TV tapings —

  • Vale Tudo rules match: Matt Riddle vs. Tom Lawlor
  • Bobby Fish vs. Kevin Knight

April 2, 2007 Observer Newsletter: UFC purchases Pride, WWE WrestleMania 23 advance

Posted on by Dave Meltzer

In two separate press conferences in Tokyo, one for the Japanese media and another for the U.S. media, it was announced on 3/27 that Lorenzo and Frank Fertitta, the owners of the UFC, had purchased the assets, contracts, tape library and all marks related to the Pride Fighting Championships from Dream Stage Entertainment.

The purchase price has been reported by various sources at being between $65 million and $70 million. The Fertittas will create a new company called Pride Fighting Championships Worldwide Holdings, LLC, keeping it separate from their Zuffa, LLC company, which runs both UFC and WEC events.

Lorenzo Fertitta, Dana White and Nobuyuki Sakakibara spoke at both press conferences. Nobuhiko Takada also spoke to the Japanese press and about 2,500 fans at Roppogi Hills in Tokyo. The Japanese press conference also featured most of Pride’s big name Japanese fighters as well as UFC matchmaker Joe Silva. It was announced that the companies would be largely kept separate, with distinct rosters, and have separate front offices with the Pride office remaining the group that currently worked for DSE with the exception of Sakakibara, who is leaving the company.

Subscribers can read this issue here.