AXS TV announced today that they have renewed WOW Women of Wrestling for a second season.
The network announced the reneweal in a live streaming conference held this morning, The season will be split in two, with the first part airing in the fall of 2019 and the second half airing in early 2020. The finale for the first season will air on March 8.
“WOW is proud to partner with AXS TV to bring this incredible promotion to viewers across the country,” Jeanie Buss, owner of WOW said in the press release. “It is an honor to be able to continue this organization’s long tradition of showcasing the absolute best in all-female wrestling.”
Although the channel does not release ratings information, the press release stated that the series has “garnered massive gains in viewership, smashing records en route to establishing itself as one of the highest performing original series among live viewers” in the network’s history.
The next set of WOW tapings will take place on May 15 and 16 at the Belasco Theater in Los Angeles. Ticket information can be found here.
AXS TV announced today that it will be broadcasting the first night of this year’s G1 Climax tournament live.
The tournament begins on Saturday, July 6 at the American Airlines Center in Dallas, which is head-to-head with what UFC is at least planning at this point to be its biggest show of the year as part of International Fight Week in Las Vegas.
AXS will also be broadcasting the 2019 tournament, which ends on Monday, August 12 with the final three nights taking place at Budokan Hall in Tokyo, on a more up-to-date basis than any tournament since it started broadcasting New Japan in the United States.
Tickets for the G1 show in Dallas will go on sale at noon Central time on Wednesday, March 13. The lineups for the G1 are expected to be announced in June, after NJPW’s Dominion show.
NJPW announced earlier this week that their wrestlers have obtained their visas for the U.S.
Ahead of Wrestle Kingdom 13, AXS TV will be airing a 10-hour marathon on IWGP Heavyweight Champion Kenny Omega.
AXS TV has announced that Omega will host a “Kenny Omega-thon” on the station starting at 2 p.m. Eastern time on Friday, December 28. The marathon will begin with Omega’s G1 Climax 2016 win and conclude with his IWGP Heavyweight title defense against Kota Ibushi and Cody Rhodes from King of Pro Wrestling 2018.
Omega will defend the IWGP Heavyweight title against Hiroshi Tanahashi in the main event of Wrestle Kingdom 13 on January 4. Wrestle Kingdom will air live on New Japan World, and a two-hour broadcast of the top matches from the show will air on AXS TV on a same-day delay at 8 p.m. Eastern time on January 4.
Here’s the full lineup for the Omega marathon (all times listed are Eastern):
2 p.m. — Kenny Omega vs. Hirooki Goto in the G1 Climax tournament finals (G1 Climax 2016 Finals)
3 p.m. — Kazuchika Okada vs. Kenny Omega for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship (Wrestle Kingdom 11)
4 p.m. — Kazuchika Okada vs. Kenny Omega for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship (Dominion 2017)
5 p.m. — Kenny Omega vs. Tomohiro Ishii in the IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship tournament finals (G1 Special in USA)
6 p.m. — Kenny Omega vs. Chris Jericho for the IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship (Wrestle Kingdom 12)
7 p.m. — Kenny Omega vs. Jay White for the IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship (New Beginning in Sapporo 2018)
8 p.m. — Kazuchika Okada vs. Kenny Omega in a no time limit, two-out-of-three falls match for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship (Dominion 2018)
10 p.m. — Kenny Omega vs. Cody for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship (G1 Special in San Francisco)
11 p.m. — Kenny Omega vs. Kota Ibushi vs. Cody for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship (King of Pro Wrestling 2018)
The top matches from NJPW’s Wrestle Kingdom 13 show at the Tokyo Dome will air on a same-day tape delay on AXS TV on January 4.
AXS has confirmed what had been expected in some form. This will be the first time AXS has had same-day coverage of a pro wrestling show from Japan.
In addition, with Jim Ross and Josh Barnett finishing up with New Japan commitments at the end of the year, the Tokyo Dome matches will use the New Japan World commentary team of Kevin Kelly and Don Callis. Kelly will be full-time on the AXS commentary team going forward.
Both the Kenny Omega vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi IWGP Heavyweight Championship match and the Chris Jericho vs. Tetsuya Naito IWGP Intercontinental title match will air on January 4, on a two-hour show from 8 to 10 p.m. Eastern time.
The rest of the Dome show will air with a two-hour show on January 11 in the same time slot, and a one-hour show on January 18.
“Same-day coverage of NJPW’s Wrestle Kingdom 13 ushers in a new era of NJPW on AXS TV,” said AXS TV Fights CEO Andrew Simon. “Based on the tremendous growth of NJPW on AXS TV, we are making changes to reward wrestling fans by offering NJPW in prime time on Friday nights as close to when it takes place as possible.”
The company also announced that the new Beginning in Sapporo show will air in three one-hour installments on February 8, February 15, and February 22.
New Year’s Dash, the show that takes place on January 5 and features the angles that start the new year, will air on AXS on January 25 and February 1.
Tessa Blanchard has signed with Women of Wrestling and is set for the promotion’s first television tapings for AXS TV next month.
Blanchard will challenge reigning champion Santana Garrett for the the WOW World Championship at the tapings. Blanchard is also working as a trainer at WOW’s Training Center in Southern California.
The first set of WOW tapings for AXS will take place at the Belasco Theater in Los Angeles on October 10 and October 11. WOW will begin airing weekly on AXS in January 2019.
“Knowing the expectations of our WOW fans to see the best in women’s professional wrestling, we are elated to sign Tessa Blanchard,” Women of Wrestling owner Jeanie Buss said in a press release. “Tessa enhances and elevates our athletic roster of talent beyond measure and we can hardly wait to showcase her skills in the series set to broadcast on Mark Cuban’s AXS TV.”
Blanchard will be wrestling for WOW while also being part of Impact Wrestling, where she is the current Knockouts Champion.
“I am grateful to both Impact Wrestling and the WOW executives for working out the details to allow me to pursue my dream of competing at the highest levels within our industry,” Blanchard said in the press release. “The success I’ve experienced in the past month in winning the Impact Championship, winning in Chicago at the ‘All In’ event in front of over 10,000 people, and now signing with WOW is what dreams are made of. My next dream to come true that will top off my year’s success will be when I beat Santana Garrett to win the WOW World Championship.”
The Women of Wrestling promotion is owned by Buss (the owner of the Los Angeles Lakers), with Mark Burnett and David McLane as partners. Burnett is the chairman of the MGM Worldwide Television Group, while McLane is most notable for developing the original GLOW series. WOW originally aired for one season as a syndicated show in 2000-2001, but was revived in 2012 and has been running shows in the Los Angeles area since then.
New Japan Pro Wrestling’s next show in the United States will be airing on AXS TV a few days after taking place.
AXS announced today that Fighting Spirit Unleashed, which will be held at the Walter Pyramid in Long Beach, California on September 30, will be premiering on the channel at 8 p.m. Eastern time on October 5. The show is taking place on a Sunday and then airing on AXS on Friday.
Jim Ross and Kevin Kelly will be the broadcast team for the event, with Kelly filling in for Josh Barnett due to Barnett having a scheduling conflict.
“I had a conflicting event with one of my fighters in Japan,” Barnett said, “otherwise I’d be there to call this event and have my partner Jim Ross’ back, as always. I’ll be back next time!”
“While I will miss working with my normal broadcast partner Josh Barnett, I am excited for the opportunity to work again with Kevin Kelly, whom I broadcast with for the first time 20 years ago,” Ross said. “Kevin has great knowledge from working on NJPW World, so he’ll bring another perspective to the broadcast and, as we all know, anything can and usually does happen. It should be a heck of a night.”
Cody Rhodes challenging for Juice Robinson’s IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship, The Young Bucks defending their IWGP Tag Team titles against Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa, and Will Ospreay vs. Marty Scurll in an IWGP Junior Heavyweight title tournament semifinal match have been announced for Fighting Spirit Unleashed.
KUSHIDA vs. BUSHI is the other semifinal match in the eight-man tournament, with them facing off at Destruction in Kobe on September 23. The finals are scheduled for King of Pro Wrestling on October 8.
AXS TV is adding a second wrestling promotion, and it couldn’t be more different from the first.
The home of New Japan Pro Wrestling in the United States has made a deal with Jeanie Buss (the daughter of Jerry Buss), David McLane, and MGM Television and Mark Burnett, to air the new Women of Wrestling promotion which will start on the station in 2019.
Women of Wrestling is a remake of GLOW, which gained cult popularity in the 80s and had a nostalgia run based on the current Netflix television show based on that promotion and the period.
This will also be MGM Television’s second foray into pro wrestling as they produce Lucha Underground.
AXS will produce and distribute the events, which they are describing as pro wrestling using major concert production.
“I knew of Jeanie’s passion for elevating women’s wrestling for several years, so when Mark Burnett told me what MGM Studios has planned for WOW, I decided to get involved,” said AXS TV Chairman and CEO Mark Cuban. “AXS TV’s long-term success inside the squared circle and broadcasting New Japan Pro Wrestling makes airing WOW a natural fit.
The first tapings are scheduled for the end of this year, and the television will start in early 2019.
AXS TV is expected to announce imminently that they will be airing the July 7th New Japan Pro Wrestling G1 Special show at the Cow Palace in San Francisco live.
It was expected this would be the case when the show was announced with a 5 p.m. local start time, meaning it was designed for primetime viewing on the East Coast.
The name of the show will be “G1 Special in San Francisco,” and the official headliners on the show will be New Japan’s big four, Kazuchika Okada, Kenny Omega, Hiroshi Tanahashi, and Tetsuya Naito. The Young Bucks are also officially booked for the show.
Jim Ross and Josh Barnett will return as announcers.
“As New Japan Pro Wrestling continues their U.S. expansion, we are proud to provide a platform for NJPW and TV-Asahi to bring their electrifying events to as many fans as possible through our live primetime broadcasts,” said AXS TV Fights CEO Andrew Simon. “The Cow Palace has a rich history of major pro wrestling events and we are exited to continue that tradition with our presentation of the G1 Special in San Francisco.”
The Cow Palace is one of the historically legendary arenas for pro wrestling in the world, from its hosting of the three Lou Thesz vs. Leo Nomellini matches in the 1950s where the pro wrestling World Champion defended his title against the still active and in his prime best lineman in the NFL of that era. One of those matches, which Nomellini won via disqualification, led to the U.S. acceptance of the rule that the title could not change hands via DQ.
In the early 1960s, behind the promotional expertise of Roy Shire and headliner Ray Stevens, the Cow Palace was considered the hottest arena for pro wrestling in the world and with emphasis on in-ring, had the best wrestling anywhere. It set its all-time record crowd for a 1963 match with Stevens against Pepper Gomez.
In the 1970s it was known for its annual January Battle Royal, which was the forerunner of the modern Royal Rumble. Pat Patterson, who came up with the Royal Rumble, was featured in most of the Battle Royals, which were annual sellout events, and spawned the famous Los Angeles Battle Royals.
It remained a major arena through the mid-70s, and then picked up again as a key building in the WWF’s early expansion. It housed Eddy Guerrero’s title win over Brock Lesnar in 2004. While dormant for pro wrestling for many years, it was revived last year when the local All Pro Wrestling ran one of the biggest independent shows of 2017 in the arena, headlined by a cage match with Cody vs. Joey Ryan.
On Sunday, AXS TV will officially announce a three-hour Wrestle Kingdom 12 special to air on Saturday, January 6th, starting at 8 p.m. Eastern time, the main focus of 11 straight hours of New Japan programming starting at noon that day.
All of the top main card matches — IWGP Heavyweight Champion Kazuchika Okada vs. Tetsuya Naito, US Champion Kenny Omega vs. Chris Jericho, and IC Champion Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Jay White — will be on the special.
The marathon will feature many of the biggest matches in New Japan from the last six months, including Omega’s matches with Tomohiro Ishii in Long Beach where he won the tournament to be crowned the US Champion, Omega vs. Naito in the G1 Climax final, and Omega vs. Juice Robinson for the US title.
From 5-8 p.m., they will replay the recent King of Pro Wrestling special from Sumo Hall in Tokyo that featured Okada vs. EVIL and Naito vs. Ishii.
They will be airing matches from Wrestle Kingdom 12 starting January 12th through February 9th, broken down into five one hour programs in their regular Friday night timeslot.
“While NJPW has delivered some of the greatest matches in wrestling history over the past year, we’ve seen viewership growth on AXS TV thanks to New Japan’s expansion in the U.S. and our commitment to air matches closer to when they take place,” said Andrew Simon, the CEO of AXS TV Fights.
“With Wrestle Kingdom as their marquee annual event, we thank NJPW and TV Asahi for their support and are proud to kick off 2018 with this historical prime time Saturday night special featuring the dream match-up Kenny Omega vs. Chris Jericho.”
New Japan Pro Wrestling made a number of announcements today at a Los Angeles press conference covering the July 1st and July 2nd shows in Long Beach.
As reported here already, AXS TV will be airing both shows. The July 1st show will air live at 8 p.m. Eastern and 5 p.m. local time. The July 2nd show will air live on New Japan World with a replay airing on AXS on July 7th with AXS airing it in a four-hour window from 8 p.m. Eastern to midnight.
The first night will only be shown live on NJPW World for those outside of the United States.
The IWGP Heavyweight, IWGP Intercontinental, IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team, and IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team titles will all be defended over the two days. A tournament will also be held to create the IWGP United States Championship, which will be the key territorial belt when New Japan opens up a full-time U.S. outpost in 2018.
The press conference featured Kenny Omega, Cody Rhodes, and The Young Bucks, and they spoke about the show in Long Beach as well as all three talking about their matches on the June 11th Dominion show in Osaka where Omega faces Kazuchika Okada for the IWGP title, The Young Bucks challenge Rocky Romero & Trent Barreta for the IWGP Junior tag titles, and Rhodes faces Michael Elgin in a singles match.
Wrestlers who will be appearing over both nights in Long Beach were also announced, with them being organized by the factions and promotions that they represent. The lineup is:
