Tag: ikuro kwon

Minoru Suzuki wins MLW Tag Team titles with Ikuro Kwon

Posted on by Joseph Currier

Japanese wrestling legend Minoru Suzuki is now a champion in MLW.

At Summer of the Beasts in New York City on Thursday night, Suzuki and his Contra Unit partner Ikuro Kwon defeated Satoshi Kojima & Okumura to win the MLW Tag Team titles. After Kwon blinded Okumura with mist, Suzuki pinned him with a Gotch-style piledriver.

Contra Unit’s Mads Krugger and Janai Kai joined Suzuki and Kwon as they laid out Kojima in a post-match angle. Krugger will challenge Kojima for the MLW World Heavyweight Championship next month at Fightland.

Kai also holds MLW gold as the Women’s Featherweight Champion.

Since debuting for the promotion in October 2023, Suzuki has made regular appearances for MLW. He’s currently working as a freelancer in Japan and the United States.

Summer of the Beasts saw former WWE wrestler Donovan Dijak make his MLW debut, promising to bring destruction and devastation. He mentioned Kojima, Suzuki, Matt Riddle, and Timothy Thatcher as targets and vowed to become the next MLW World Heavyweight Champion.

https://twitter.com/MLW/status/1829341467203993732

The full Summer of the Beasts event can be watched for free on MLW’s YouTube channel.

CIMA to make MLW debut at Opera Cup, six-man tag match set

Posted on by Joseph Currier

Next month’s Opera Cup event will see CIMA make his MLW debut. 

MLW announced this morning that Strong Hearts (CIMA, El Lindaman & Shigehiro Irie) will face CONTRA Unit (MLW World Heavyweight Champion Jacob Fatu, Ikuro Kwon & Simon Gotch) in a six-man tag match at the Opera Cup television tapings. In storyline, the match was set up after an incident that CONTRA Unit got into in Japan.

CIMA is signed to AEW, where his Strong Hearts stable has also been featured. Lindaman & T-Hawk vs. The Young Bucks will air on this week’s episode of AEW Dark. 

Strong Hearts vs. Contra Unit is the first non-tournament match that’s been announced for the Opera Cup. The tapings are taking place at the Melrose Ballroom in Queens, New York on Thursday, December 5 and will feature a one-night, single-elimination tournament.

TJP vs. Brian Pillman Jr., MJF vs. Alexander Hammerstone, and Davey Boy Smith Jr. vs. Shinjiro Otani have been announced for the Opera Cup tournament. There will be four opening round matches, with the final one yet to be announced.