A Women of Honor World Championship rematch has been added to Ring of Honor’s next pay-per-view.
It was announced today that Mayu Iwatani will defend her Women of Honor title against former champion Kelly Klein at ROH’s 17th Anniversary PPV in Las Vegas, Nevada. The event is taking place at Sam’s Town Live on Friday, March 15.
Iwatani defeated Klein to win the WOH title at this month’s Bound By Honor show in Miami, Florida. Iwatani is the third WOH Champion in history, with Sumie Sakai and Klein having also held the title.
Iwatani made her first WOH title defense for Stardom in Osaka, Japan over the weekend, defeating Konami to retain.
Here’s the updated card for ROH’s 17th Anniversary PPV:
ROH World Champion Jay Lethal defending against Matt Taven
Women of Honor World Champion Mayu Iwatani defending against Kelly Klein
ROH Tag Team Champions The Briscoes defending against Villain Enterprises (PCO & Brody King)
While it had become expected leading into the announcement, that doesn’t make Kenny Omega joining All Elite Wrestling any less of a vital move for the start-up company.
Omega signing with AEW was confirmed at last week’s Double or Nothing ticket announcement party in Las Vegas. Omega signed a four-year deal that allows him to still wrestle for New Japan Pro Wrestling if he wants to (and if NJPW will have him). And in addition to his in-ring role, Omega will serve alongside Cody Rhodes and The Young Bucks as an executive vice president of the promotion.
I don’t expect more than a few more weeks of this format of Observers.
WWE grossed $930,160,000 and turned a $98,719,000 profit in 2018, both company records. Last year the company set a revenue record of $800,959,000 and turned a $32,116,000 profit.
Pedro Morales, best known for his three-year run as WWWF champion from 1971-73, passed away on 2/12 at Raritan Bay Medical Center in Perth Amboy, NJ, where he had been hospitalized for two weeks. He was 78 and had been battling Parkinson’s Disease for several years.
NJPW New Beginnings: As a legit shoot, while NJPW almost always sells out Edion Arena for big shows, they comped less and opened up more seats so this number was the highest since the 2015 show headlined by Hiroshi Tanhashi vs. A.J. Styles.
UFC 234 – Chaos erupted the day of UFC 234, the first UFC pay-per-view offering of 2019, at the Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne, Australia, causing dramatic change unheard of when it comes to UFC pay-per-view events.
It is now official that Kenny has signed with AEW.
Mustafa Ali’s eyeball got busted open and really messed up after a Garvin stomp by Randy Orton on SD Tuesday night.
Dwayne Johnson said he was the first choice to host the Oscars this year. But he said he couldn’t make it work due to the timing of shooting the Jumanji sequel.
Roman Reigns (Joe Anoa’i) will be making an appearance on a Nickelodeon series next month.
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MONDAY NEWS UPDATE
WWE
Kofi Kingston spoke backstage after being the last one eliminated in last night’s WWE title Elimination Chamber match.
Kingston tweeted after the match: “I wanted to say thanks to everyone for all the love and good vibes over the past week. Your support has been just overwhelming. Tonight didn’t go our way, but I believe that we are one step closer…”
Bayley and Sasha Banks also spoke backstage after becoming the new WWE Women’s tag team champions.
The Giant Baba Memorial show, with a main event featuring Hiroshi Tanahashi and Yoshitatsu taking on Kento Miyahara and Daisuke Sekimoto, will air on Samurai TV in Japan tomorrow morning starting at 4:30 a.m. eastern.
DDT wants your match ideas for a DDT Extreme Division Championship match between HARASHIMA and Muscle Sakai by March 10.
UFC/MMA
Nick Diaz made it clear he’s not interested in fighting anytime soon, writing on Instagram: “I’m no role model, I’m 35 years old, but I definitely wouldn’t advise anybody to take a fight for less than their worth or fight for free. Which is practically what I would be doing at this point in taking a fight with some of these guys that are not on my level. Nor would I be within my moral ethics to even do that aside from you not painting me as a role model. If there was an offer I couldn’t refuse, things would be different. Until they are – I’d like to continue to think I’ve been fighting to make the world a better place, but until I can continue to do that: ‘I don’t want to hurt nobody, I just want to party.’”
Audie Attar, Conor McGregor’s manager, has denied a story from Joe Rogan saying that a McGregor/Donald Cerrone fight was a “done deal”.
The Wrap reported that Sexy Star, real name Dulce Maria Garcia, will make her MMA debut for Combate Americas, the promotion backed by Alberto El Patron. She has a undefeated 5-0 record in boxing.
Following his loss last night (and also missing weight), Renan Barao’s coach said that this is his last fight at bantamweight.
Ed in San Antonio presents the WRESTLEMANIAWeekend Events (more to be added):
Sunday, April 6th, at 12:00 pm: Lunch (all you can eat) at Churrascaria Plataforma ($90 per person), located at 316 W. 49th street in Manhattan. Purchase tickets here~!
Luxury Bus to MetLife Stadium for Wrestlemania: We will depart from the Hilton Midtown (site of Wrestlecon) located at 1335 Avenue of the Americas. Departure time is 4:00 pm and will return from MetLife approximately 30 mins after the event. Times are subject to change, and cost $67.00 per person for the round trip. Purchase tickets here~!
Stardom’s Mayu Iwatani is the new Women of Honor World Champion.
Iwatani defeated Kelly Klein to win the title at tonight’s Bound By Honor event in Miami, Florida. The finish of the match was Iwatani hitting a moonsault off the top rope to win. Klein had kicked out of a moonsault off the top right before that, with Iwatani hitting it on Klein’s legs.
Former Women of Honor Champion Sumie Sakai, who was in Iwatani’s corner, congratulated her after the match. ROH ambassador Cary Silkin presented Iwatani with the title.
Iwatani also currently holds the Artist of Stardom titles with Saki Kashima & Tam Nakano.
Klein had been champion since defeating Sakai, Madison Rayne, and Karen Q in a four corner survival match at Final Battle in December 2018. Sakai was the first Women of Honor Champion in company history, defeating Klein in the finals of a tournament that concluded at Supercard of Honor XII over WrestleMania weekend last year.
The storyline for Klein’s title reign was that she vowed to defend the championship in all of her singles matches.
Two more title matches have been added to Ring of Honor’s television tapings in Lakeland, Florida this weekend.
Willie Mack will defend the NWA National Championship against Rhett Titus at the tapings, and Women of Honor World Champion Kelly Klein will defend her title against Stella Grey. The tapings are taking place at the RP Funding Center in Lakeland this Saturday (February 9).
In storyline, Klein has vowed to defend her title in all of her singles matches.
Klein is set to defend the WOH Championship against Stardom’s Mayu Iwatani at ROH’s Bound By Honor event in Miami on Sunday (February 10). Iwatani vs. Holidead has also been added to Saturday’s tapings in Lakeland.
Here’s the updated lineup for the tapings:
ROH Television Champion Jeff Cobb defending against Silas Young
Women of Honor World Champion Kelly Klein defending against Stella Grey
ROH Six-Man Tag Team Champions The Kingdom (Matt Taven, Vinny Marseglia & TK O’Ryan) defending against Villain Enterprises (Marty Scurll, PCO & Brody King)
ROH World Champion Jay Lethal & Jonathan Gresham vs. Coast 2 Coast (Shaheem Ali & LSG)
Dalton Castle vs. Kenny King
Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Rocky Romero
Rush vs. Tracy Williams
ROH Tag Team Champions The Briscoes & Shane Taylor vs. Cheeseburger, Eli Isom & Ryan Nova
Mayu Iwatani vs. Holidead
NWA National Champion Willie Mack defending against Rhett Titus
Stardom’s Mayu Iwatani is set to make her return to Ring of Honor next month.
ROH has announced Iwatani for their Bound By Honor weekend in Florida this February. She’ll be appearing at ROH’s television tapings in Lakeland on Saturday, February 9 and their HonorClub show in Miami on Sunday, February 10. Opponents for Iwatani have yet to be revealed.
Iwatani, who is one of the top wrestlers in Stardom, appeared at ROH’s Best in the World pay-per-view last June. She teamed with Tenille Dashwood, Sumie Sakai & Jenny Rose to defeat Kagetsu, Hana Kimura, Hazuki & Kelly Klein. She also took part in a set of TV tapings after the PPV, with Kagetsu & Kimura defeating Iwatani & Rose.
Iwatani made it to the semifinals of the tournament to crown the inaugural Women of Honor Champion last April before losing to Klein. Sakai won the title in the tournament, but Klein is the current WOH World Champion after defeating Sakai, Madison Rayne, and Karen Q in a four corner survival match at Final Battle 2018.
Earlier this month, Dave Meltzer reported that All Elite Wrestling had contacted Iwatani but noted that it was unlikely that she would be coming in to AEW: “Women wrestlers from Stardom and other promotions have been contacted. One of the key ones was Mayu Iwatani, who is unlikely to come. ROH, which also has an affiliation with Stardom, paid for Iwatani’s three-year U.S. visa so unless ROH and AEW make a deal, which will be difficult because they are competitors, Stardom feels it would be wrong to have her work against ROH, which also has booked Iwatani for its Madison Square Garden show.”
