wXw announced that the former ROH Champion would be returning to the promotion at Drive of Champions, which will take place on June 6 in Oberhausen. It would be Kingston’s first match back in the promotion since competing at the wXw 16 Carat Gold tournament in 2020.
In their announcement, wXw noted that this would likely be Kingston’s last appearance, as Kingston is ending all of his independent dates after 2026. He announced late last year that he is on his “final indy run.”
“So this is my last indy run. Doing beyond and a show in Jersey this weekend,” Kingston revealed. “After that I am taking only one show a month. By next November I am done with the indies and yeah nothing more too it. As of now I [have] December and March, April, May.”
After making his return to AEW last fall following a leg injury that kept him off television for a year, Kingston took more time away to deal with migraines. He returned late last month at Maple Leaf Pro, teaming with Ortiz.
One more time! Eddie Kingston kehrt zu wXw zurück!
Ein weiterer Sensations-Deal für wXw Drive of Champions:@AEW Superstar @MadKing_ston81 kommt zurück zu wXw!
NJPW wrestler Katsuya Murashima is heading to Europe as he gains more experience in his wrestling career.
Earlier this month, Murashima was crowned the winner of NJPW’s Young Lion Cup 2026 tournament. It was announced that he would be heading out on excursion, but the location was not revealed. Indie promotion wXw in Germany has now announced that Murashima will be joining their roster and will debut at an event in Essen on March 5.
Murashima will be moving to Germany in the next few weeks for this excursion. While there, he will receive additional training at the wXw Wrestling Academy. This follows OSKAR and Yuto-Ice — the current IWGP Tag Team Champions — having successfully completed their own excursions to wXw in the past.
New Japan Wrestler Katsuya Murashima ab März bei wXw!
New Japan Young Lion Cup Gewinner Katsuya Murashima wird ab März 2026 ein volles Rostermitglied bei wXw. Er ist nach Oskar und Yuto Nakashima der dritte Wrestler, der im Rahmen seiner Exkursion seine Zelte in Deutschland… pic.twitter.com/te0PDt8Izo
“We would like to thank New Japan Pro Wrestling for the trust they have placed in us and hope that Katsuya Murashima will have a similarly successful journey in Germany as [OSKAR and Yuto-Ice] before he too returns to Japan as a star,” wXw wrote.
Murashima is a former amateur wrestler who debuted for NJPW in 2023. Shoma Kato, the opponent he defeated in the Young Lion Cup finals, is going on excursion as well, though Kato is moving to Mexico where NJPW has a relationship with CMLL.
At the New Beginning in Osaka this week, Murashima competed in his final match before excursion. He and Kato tagged together in a loss to Togi Makabe & Toru Yano.
TNA X-Division Champion Leon Slater is set to miss two upcoming indie bookings, potentially setting the stage for an appearance at WWE Saturday Night’s Main Event.
Slater was set to wrestle at wXw’s 25th Anniversary show in Germany this Saturday and then head to the United Kingdom for Revolution Pro Wrestling Uprising 2025 on Sunday. He’s now been pulled from both of those dates. While there has been no confirmation of Slater’s plans, the obvious speculation would be that he’s missing these events so he can be at Saturday Night’s Main Event on December 13.
At the wXw show, Slater was set to take part in a four-way match to crown the promotion’s new European Champion. Ricky Sosa, Zoltan, and Joseph Fenech Jr. are the other participants.
Leon Slater hat uns mitgeteilt, dass er am Samstag für #wXwAnniversary leider nicht mehr zur Verfügung steht. Wir arbeiten an einer Lösung für sein angekündigtes Match.
“Leon Slater has informed us that he will unfortunately no longer be available for #wXwAnniversary on Saturday,” wXW announced. We are working on a solution for his announced match.”
Slater has been removed from what was scheduled to be a three-way match at RevPro Uprising where Sha Samuels is defending the Undisputed British Heavyweight Championship against Jay Joshua.
Along with starring for TNA, Slater has been featured in NXT and is part of a tag team with Je’Von Evans. They were both involved in the men’s Iron Survivor Challenge match at NXT Deadline this past weekend, which Evans won to earn an NXT Championship shot at New Year’s Evil 2026.
The December 13 edition of Saturday Night’s Main Event is being headlined by John Cena vs. Gunther in Cena’s last match. The undercard will feature exhibition bouts pitting main roster talent against NXT wrestlers. Cody Rhodes vs. Oba Femi and Bayley vs. Sol Ruca have been announced so far.
Los Tranquilos de Japon will not be making their scheduled indie appearance in Germany this weekend.
Tetsuya Naito & BUSHI were supposed to compete for wXw in Limbach-Oberfrohna this Saturday (November 15) on the promotion’s 25th anniversary tour. But wXw announced that, on short notice, Naito & BUSHI have had to cancel their appearance. Those who purchased meet and greets with Naito & BUSHI will have that money refunded, and wXw said the promotion still plans on giving fans a great show.
wXw’s statement regarding the cancellation said the deal for Naito & BUSHI to work the event was identical to the one they made when Los Traquilos de Japon wrestled for the promotion back in September. There were also plans for further collaborations between wXw and Naito & BUSHI, though the statement does not say if those will still be going ahead.
In their own statement, Naito & BUSHI apologized for the cancellation and said it was due to unavoidable circumstances.
“We deeply regret that due to certain unfortunate circumstances, we have decided to cancel our appearance,” Los Tranquilos de Japon wrote. “We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience and concern this has caused to all parties involved.”
Naito & BUSHI have competed in a limited number of dates globally since departing NJPW in May. They were part of Los Ingobernables de Japon in NJPW, with Naito being one of the top stars in the company. He and BUSHI have now rebranded to using Los Tranquilos de Japon as their team name. The two had been hoping to work a United States tour earlier this year, but that could not happen because of issues obtaining a work visa.
The new issue of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter is out with the fallout of three major shows this past weekend and what key things we learned from them:
Reader polls on the weekend shows
Key points we learned from WWE going after AEW
Numbers for all three shows and how they did
Does the price make a difference, how is afternoon vs. evening?
What we’ve learned about AEW that goes against the grain of 30 plus years of PPV numbers
Mistico vs. MJF looked at as well as Mistico’s place in Lucha Libre history
Misconceptions about John Cena vs. Brock Lesnar
The next big shows from WWE & AEW
Lots of injury updates
Advanced ticket sales for the major shows over the next month
Odds for last weekend and next weekend
Where wrestling shows stood in the weekly ratings and comparisons with the same week in 2024 and 2023
Exactly how much the audience makeup has changed for AEW on television this past year
For every major TV show, what percentage of viewers were women this past week
Blue Panther wins title at 65 years old
Big head-to-head battles in Mexico City on Saturday and Sunday this week
Lineup for the women’s Grand Prix match in Mexico City with talent from RevPro, Stardom and AEW/ROH
Notes from the Pokemon CMLL crossover event
Story about the changes in the crowds at Arena Mexico and leading reporter opposes the story
Lots of health updates
Real American Freestyle signs first woman gold medalist
Masha Slamovich controversy
Zuffa Boxing close to announcing TV deal
Former WWE developmental talent signs with UFC for November debut
International promotion in talks with ESPN Unlimited
Jake Paul vs. Tank Davis silliness
Cody Rhodes talks Paul Levesque’s successor
Mark Shapiro talks how WWE & UFC will decide on locations for big shows
ESPN review of Wrestlepalooza and the controversy allows ignoring the far bigger story
Jazmyn Nyx turns down WWE offer, says it’s too low
He was a badass, highly intelligent, witty and charismatic dude who grew up in the 90s.
He loved video games, Warhammer, R.A. Salvatore, among many other cool bro stuff.
Recently we had been on Discord playing StarCraft 2 co-op together and he was enrolled in classes at the University of Cincinnati.
He was a veteran who suffered from issues after surviving some traumatic events while serving in Afghanistan.
He loved his country, his last Facebook post was this:
‘Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough.’ —Franklin D. Roosevelt
Some words to live by…
The battle with your demons is now over brother.
Rest in Peace Jesse Morgan
In recognition of October being Breast Cancer Awareness Month, Bret Hart shared a video from his daughter Jade, who successfully completed cancer treatment in 2024:
I’m so immensely proud and joyful that my daughter Jade has triumphantly battled breast cancer with a courage and strength that will always define her. As a cancer survivor myself, I can’t begin to express how grateful I am, that my beautiful daughter Jade has won her fight. She proved that faith and love can beat anything when one’s heart is full. I am so proud beyond words.
I wanted to share this video she made for #breastcancerawarnessmonth as a reminder to everyone that early detection is the best protection. Please remember to self examine and schedule your mammogram.
Retired professional wrestler RIC FLAIR and second-generation professional wrestler Charlotte Flair will get fans on their feet and kick off the game as the honorary Rampede Captains.
Didn’t expect such a lovely gift from someone that works in @NandosUK near me.
Whoever done this…genuinely thank you so much for the love
Super hard right now but this hit me in the feels.
Your chicken gives me strength.
TNA President Carlos Silva spoke to TV Insider about the NXT-TNA relationship and next week’s Showdown special:
Working with the NXT folks as well as WWE folks has been very easy. There has been great coordination. We’ve kind of supported each other with last-minute asks on both sides, which I think is a testament to a good partnership. It’s not just one asking. We might ask, or they might ask, and we always find a way to move things forward. This big Showdown episode of NXT happening down in Orlando is going to be great. You saw it on The CW live with the teams sort of aligning. I think the theme is building. There is also intrigue and maybe a little strangeness the way certain teammates are on each team, but they have certain alliances and allegiances to the other organization. Whether they’ve come from that organization or been there or holding the belt from one organization even though they work for the other. I think all of that there. I think as a result it’s going to be awesome Tuesday night on NXT down in Orlando.
Silva reiterated that he wants TNA Impact to air more live episodes in 2026:
All of us that are new to the organization are live sports and entertainment executives. I brought in a new executive producer in George Veras, and he is working closely with Eric Tompkins (VP of TV production and executive creative director) and our team down in Nashville. We all want to do more live. We’re all live guys. So, I think building TNA and continuing to be healthy as an organization gives us the ability to do more live. In a perfect world, I’d love to be live every week. But there are different operational implications and budgets to being live every week including a place to do some of them because you’re probably not going to be traveling 52 weeks a year. The short answer is we’re going to continue to do more live in 2026 and lay out that schedule right now. The talent responds to live in a way that is great also. They all tell us, so we want to continue to build this all together and do more live in 2026.
German promotion wXw has ended its relationship with wrestler Marius Al-Ani after he posted a social media video using a Nazi marching song. Along with cutting ties with him, wXw has vacated the European Championship at Al-Ani held.
In an interview with Tokyo Sports, Tetsuya Naito gave an update on how he’s feeling after working back-to-back dates for wXw and RevPro at the end of September:
After leaving New Japan, I did feel like I wasn’t wrestling enough. This time, wrestling back-to-back matches brought back that familiar ache in my body. It felt nostalgic. That’s when I realized, ‘This is what being a pro wrestler is all about.’ I want to get back in the ring soon, and there are so many countries that haven’t seen pro wrestling yet. I want to show people all over the world the real Tetsuya Naito.
Naito has matches coming up in Hong Kong this month and Singapore in November, with Tokyo Sports writing that more are “expected to be added, primarily in Asia and Europe.”
Women’s promotion Genesis Premier League announced that it has signed Leyla Hirsch and Abaddon to its roster.
Indi Hartwell will be defending her House of Glory Women’s Championship against Zayda Steel at With Glory Comes Pride in Queens, New York on October 10.
Over the weekend, Westside Xtreme Wrestling (wXw) hosted its Pro Wrestling Grand Prix series in Oberhausen, Germany — their second biggest weekend of the year after 16 Carat Gold. The weekend featured the finals of three major tournaments, saw two championships change hands, and included several announcements for the 2026 edition of the 16 Carat Gold tournament.
Grand Prix Tournament Summaries
König der Catcher (King of Wrestlers)
The “König der Catcher” tournament, a round-robin competition held as a tribute to the late Karsten Beck, was won by Ahura. Beck, who won wXw’s last major fall round-robin tournament in 2013, passed away from a brain tumor in 2020. Ahura went undefeated in his block to proceed to the final.
Final: Ahura defeated the winner of Block A, Elijah Blum, in the main of Night 4 of the Grand Prix
Block A Standings: Elijah Blum advanced with 4 points, followed by Bobby Gunns and Marius Al-Ani with 3 points each and LaBron Kozone with 2 points
Block B Standings: Ahura dominated with a perfect 6 points, followed by Joseph Fenech Jr. and Adam Priest with 2 points each. Hektor Invictus and Dennis Dullnig scored 0 points.
Femmes Fatales 2025 Tournament
Safire Reed emerged as the winner of the women’s tournament.
Final: Safire Reed defeated Anita Vaughan (her tag team partner in Hyperactive)
Semifinals:
Safire Reed beat Leyla Hirsch
Anita Vaughan was victorious over Orsi
Quarterfinals:
Leyla Hirsch defeated Baby Allison
Orsi beat B3CCA
Safire Reed defeated Stephanie Maze
Anita Vaughan was victorious over Emersyn Jayne
World Tag Team Tournament
The Greedy Souls (Brendan White & Danny Jones) from the UK won the tournament. Although they lost in the final, The Grind (Laurance Roman & Nick Schreier) likely earned a future title opportunity by defeating reigning wXw World Tag Team Champions Planet Gojirah in the semifinals.
Final: The Greedy Souls defeated The Grind
Semifinals:
The Grind advanced by defeating Planet Gojirah (Marc Empire & Robert Dreissker)
Greedy Souls beat Violence Is Forever (Dominic Garrini & Kevin Ku)
Quarterfinals:
Planet Gojirah defeated Hype Dawgs (Kuro & Mecca)
Violence Is Forever were victorious over The Gulyas Bros (Atilla Gulyas & Vilmos Gulyas)
The Grind beat KxS (Axel Tischer & Fast Time Moodo)
Greedy Souls defeated Dragon Dia & Dragon Kid
Title Changes
Two championships changed hands during the weekend:
wXw Unified World Wrestling Title: Peter Tihanyi recaptured the championship he never lost by defeating 1 Called Manders. Tihanyi had been sidelined with a shoulder injury since February and recently returned as the #30 entrant of the Shortcut to the Top battle royal, which he won and earned the title shot in the process.
wXw Shotgun Title: In a no holds barred match, Dennis “Cash” Dullnig became the new champion after defeating former tag team partner Hektor Invictus.
16 Carat Gold 2026 Announcements
wXw also began announcing participants for its marquee 16 Carat Gold tournament 2which will take place from March 6-8, 2026. Tickets for the event are now on sale. The first three entrants are:
YAMATO (Dragon Gate)
Chihiro Hashimoto (Sendai Girls, first ever female Japanese entrant)
Arez (El Clon in AEW)
Other Major Matches & Events
The weekend kicked off Thursday with wXw Inner Circle 18 at the wXw Academy in Gelsenkirchen. In the main event, Adam Priest defeated one-half of the wXw World Tag Team Champions, Robert Dreissker. Also on the show, future tournament finalists Laurance Roman and Elijah Blum scored singles victories.
At Pro Wrestling Grand Prix – Show 2, special guest stars from Japan Los Tranquilos de Japon (BUSHI & Tetsuya Naito) defeated the team of Metehan & Rambo.
The wXw Extreme Wrestling Party show featured a three-way fans bring the weapons match won by Iceman and a Four Corners Of Pain intergender match where Emersyn Jayne defeated Norman Harras.
Ludwig Kaiser appeared today at Westside Xtreme Wrestling’s Broken Rules in Hamburg, Germany.
He confronted wXw Unified World Wrestling Champion Peter Tihanyi on the show. The two came face to face after Tihanyi successfully defended his title against Bobby Gunns.
Kaiser, the son of Axel Dieter, previously won the wXw Unified title in 2016. He wrestled for the promotion as Axel Dieter Jr. from 2012 until signing with WWE in 2017. Kaiser has returned to wXw for occasional appearances since, including in 2018 for the company’s 18th anniversary when he teamed with Timothy Thatcher and Gunther in a win over British Strong Styles’ Pete Dunne, Tyler Bate, and Trent Seven. He also returned the following year for the 16 Carat Gold tournament.
Kaiser is scheduled to be back in the United States for Monday’s Raw in Glendale, Arizona. He’s advertised to face Bron Breakker on the show.
German wrestler Absolute Andy (Andreas Ullmann) has passed away after a long battle with an illness.
wXw issued a statement on Saturday announcing that Andy passed away on November 23 with his wife by his side. He was 40 years old.
Andy was a decorated champion during his wXw career, holding their World Championship twice, Shotgun Championship once, and Tag Team titles five times. He also won wXw’s 16 Carat Gold tournament in 2018.
“We wish his family and friends lots of strength at this time and ask you to give them the necessary distance until we can all say a farewell to Andy together in the wXw ring with the respect he deserves,” wXw said in their statement.
Andy began his career in 2003 and last wrestled in 2022. wXw listed Bryan Danielson, Hiroshi Tanahashi, Jeff Jarrett, Gunther, Ilja Dragunov, and Malakai Black as some of the standout opponents Andy got to face in his more than 330 matches for the promotion.
“Im speechless,” Black wrote. “Rest easy my friend.”
“Absolute Andy was one of my favorite parts about my time in Europe,” Allison Danger shared. “His kindness towards me, first sharing a locker room to becoming a friend, lead to some memorable moments over the years. All my love to his family and his wXw family.”
“I can’t wrap my head around this and I don’t know if I will anytime soon,” Jurn Simmons wrote. “So many of us talk about Andy already, how much he has impacted us and how much we miss having him on shows. I feel honored having spent as much time with him as I did and I hope he knew how loved he was.”
“So sad to hear this. He was a larger than life personality and a locker room leader,” Leon St. Giovanni tweeted. “You can still feel the impression he left on the wXw roster because of [how] much everyone still talks about him. My love goes out to his family and friends. RIP to the legend, Absolute Andy”
This week’s MLW Fusion was taped at Philadelphia’s famous 2300 Arena in July with Joe Dombrowski and Matt Striker on the call.
At the end of the Kiss My Foot match at Fury Road, Mance Warner bit MSL’s foot instead of kissing it and tonight, MSL promised revenge against the entire Second Gear Crew at the hands of Matt Cardona.
Snisky defeated Yoscifer El
MSL introduced former WWE wrestler Snitsky, now going by Snisky, as the latest member of his World Titan Federation and he took no time to destroy El. A clothesline and a chokeslam was enough to put him away, but the focus was on Snisky joining forces with MSL. As EL was being stretchered out, MSL instructed his new charge to attack him again and give him another beating.
– The next big event on the MLW calendar is Slaughterhouse on October 14th which will feature the MLW debut of Minoru Suzuki. Now that New Japan talent is free to appear in MLW, Jacob Fatu called him out.
The Mane Event (Jay Lyon & Midas Black) and Microman defeated Jesus Rodriguez and The FBI (Little Guido & Ray Jazz)
The FBI and Rodriguez interrupted Matt Striker before the match to introduce themselves and to get some easy heat before the faces came out to a nice ovation from the Philadelphia crowd.
Rodriguez is the latest foe of Microman, taking umbrage at being shown up in this year’s Battle Riot. FBI had some comedy spots double-teaming Microman, but it was always Rodriguez who came in to get the real heat by flooring Microman with stiff kicks.
Black got the hot tag and both the action, and quality, increased tenfold. Black hit a spin kick and a tiger feint kick on Jazz and Lyon hit a middle rope springboard moonsault for a close two count.
Black saved Lyon from an FBI attack and then hit a 3D into an X-Factor on Guido before Microman hit a middle rope Vader bomb through a circus hoop to pick up the pinfall.
After the match, Sam Adonis came out and distracted Microman by accusing him of things from when they were both in Mexico together. But the distraction was used to bring Snisky out who chokeslammed The Mane Event, punted some dolls into the crowd and threatened to punt Microman too. The Second Gear Crew then ran out to make the save and send Adonis, Snisky and MSL (who had come out with Snisky) to the back. Adonis will take on Microman next week.
– We saw a special All Access look at the MLW Champion Alex Kane who was out of character talking through his rough childhood, emotionally talking through his earlier suicidal thoughts and telling us that wrestling saved him. His recent popularity swing was highlighted and if any doubts were remaining, this video cemented that Kane is now a babyface.
wXw Unified World Wrestling Champion Shigehiro Irie defeated Calvin Tankman to retain the title
Earlier in the night, Tankman called himself one of the biggest, baddest and heaviest hitters in MLW but he is still looking for his first singles championship.
This got some time and built to a good finish that had the crowd growing with interest throughout. I felt it had similarities to the Miro vs. Powerhouse Hobbs AEW All Out match with two big men hitting each other hard.
The hard-hitting chops and strikes began early as the action spilled to the outside. Tankman caught the champion and hit a nice powerslam on the apron as Irie had draped him backfirst across the middle rope. A big splash followed for a two count.
Irie got a boot up which seemed to rock Tankman. The match broke down into a striking battle that finished with Irie dropping a clobbering hammer first on a fallen Tankman. Tankman later found himself sitting on the apron and Irie came running and took them both to the floor with a sliding elbow.
Tankman came back with a spinning elbow and a pump handle slam to bring the momentum back in his favor. After shrugging off a rear choke attempt, Tankman hit a pop-up back elbow and a power bomb for a two-count. Tankman quickly hit his hard back elbow to the back of Irie’s head, but the champion had enough left to block a Tankman Driver.
Irie used the momentary opening to hit a hard clothesline to the back of the head, a somersault senton as Tankman was draped on the middle rope and two Beast Bomber clotheslines to put Tankman down and retain his title. Both eventually shook hands after they had recovered from the brutal match.
WALTER will return to wXw for the first time since March 2020 later this month.
wXw announced a first-time ever match, WALTER vs. Cara Noir, for their December 18 21st Anniversary event. Tickets for the show in Oberhausen, Germany are on sale now.
The match will be the first match outside of WWE for WALTER since his last wXw appearance on March 8, 2020. He recently worked four house show dates on a WWE tour of the United Kingdom, but has not wrestled on television since dropping the NXT United Kingdom Championship to Ilja Dragunov at TakeOver 36 in August.
WALTER has held wXw’s Unified World Wrestling Championship three times, with his most recent reign ending in 2015. He has also held wXw’s World Tag Team titles on four separate occasions. His most recent Tag title reign ended in September 2019. He co-held the titles with Dragunov during that reign.
WALTER and fellow NXT UK talent Jinny recently went public with their relationship.
Biff Busick will soon be back in action. The former Oney Lorcan was announced today as taking part in wXw’s 16 Carat Gold tournament in March 2022.
Busick was released from his WWE contract just yesterday after spending over six years with the company. Busick revealed in a YouTube video that he has a 90-day non-compete clause to wait out before he can return to the ring.
Busick held NXT Tag Team Championship gold from October 2020 to March 2021, before an injury to partner Danny Burch forced the duo to relinquish the titles.
The list of past 16 Carat Gold tournament winners reads like a who’s who in terms of international stardom. NXT UK Champion Ilja Dragunov, Zack Sabre Jr., Malakai Black, Chris Hero, Sami Zayn, Sami Callihan, WALTER and IWGP World Heavyweight Champion Shingo Takagi are all past 16 Carat Gold winners.
The 16 Carat Gold will be held from March 4 to March 6, 2022 in Oberhausen, Germany. Jonathan Gresham, Ace Romero and Fuminori Abe have also been announced for the tournament.
wXw announced today the return of Axel Tischer, the former Alexander Wolfe in WWE.
The company’s Twitter account posted a short video with Tischer training. They announced that he would be part of their 20th anniversary show, which will take place at the Congress Centrum Oberhausen on August 7.
Tischer was released from WWE on May 19th as part of roster cuts across NXT. He was a part of the Imperium stable with Fabian Aichner, Marcel Barthel, and WALTER. The day prior to his release, he was written out of storylines after the rest of Imperium, minus WALTER, attacked him after he was defeated by Killian Dain, who would also later be released.
Prior to signing with WWE, the German-native Tischer was a regular for wXw, winning their Unified World Wrestling Championship once and their Shotgun championship twice. He signed with WWE in 2015 and joined the Sanity stable with Eric Young, Killian Dain, and Nikki Cross. The three men were called up to the main roster, but quickly went nowhere and was disbanded. Wolfe then made his debut for the NXT UK brand and joined Imperium.
A look at what happened in the last two months of the life of Jon Huber is the lead story in this week’s edition of the Wrestling Observer. We look at how the situation was handled, when the talent found out, why Huber didn’t get a lung transplant, and a look at comments from a number of people in WWE in particular as well as Jim Ross and Amanda Huber’s extensive writing on the subject.
Also in this issue:
Extensive coverage of Wrestle Kingdom and New Year’s Dash. We have match-by-match, star ratings and poll results. We also have business notes, the story of Kota Ibushi and Kenny Omega, the effect of COVID on the show and of wrestling in Japan going forward, Jay White, goal of Hiromu Takahashi, the new main event programs and international television news.
Full year television notes, Linda McMahon’s donations to Donald Trump, Dusty Rhodes tag team tournament, next Takeover show, A&E documentary notes, update on Damien Priest and others earmarked for Raw & Smackdown, lots of booking notes, new WWTV deals, Sonya Deville return, Hulk Hogan talks, head of a rival promotion sets up WWE production person’s engagement, amateur wrestling standout about to start training with WWE, how wrestling shows this past week did compared to sports, international television ratings, who was creative told a few years ago not to even think of ideas for, upcoming TV bouts, WWE market value and the most-watched shows of the past week on the WWE Network.
A story on Irwin Rivera, the UFC fighter who is being accused of stabbing two of his sisters.
A story on Bobby Davis, one of the first of the modern managers.
What wrestlers had the most four star matches in 2020, as well as in history the top 25 of all-time.
Detailed look at the television business, looking at stats not available elsewhere to get the deepest read into how shows are doing, what categories are doing well and how shows compare with previous weeks and one year ago.
Results of all the major pro wrestling events around the world over the past week.
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WEDNESDAY NEWS UPDATE
WWE
Today’s episode of The Bump featured AJ Styles, Sheamus, Jim Duggan, and Randy Jackson of ‘American Idol’ fame. Rey Mysterio, Dolph Ziggler, Robert Roode, Chad Gable, and Booker T will be the guests on next week’s show.
WWE Senior Producer Steve Conoscenti noted to WrestlingInc that future projects for the WWE Network include new episodes of WWE 24, WWE Icons, and a second season of Ruthless Aggression.
WWE has filed a trademark for the name ‘Joshua Bruns’.
In a Twitter thread, wXw noted that all events until March 31 has been postponed due to a COVID-19 resurgence. There are also no taping dates, no wXw 16 Carat tournament, and no expectations of live events with audiences before the summer.
The AEW on TNT Twitter account noted that The Elite would be in six-man tag team action tonight.
Jake the Snake Roberts on Twitter: “Well I’ve seen my lung specialist and was told my lungs will outlive the rest of me. Hooray!!! That is IF I don’t go back to smoking.”
T-Mart Promotions Marty D’Amato on Facebook wrote that the Demolition virtual signing this Saturday would not be taking place. “Some bad news to report,” he wrote. Unfortunately Demolition signing will not take place this Saturday. I just got a call from Bill and his oldest Grandson had contacted Covid last week and now Bill and his wife are feeling sick with symptoms. Let’s all send our prayers to one of the nicest guys you can ever meet Bill Eadie and is family as they deal with Covid. Bill said once he is better him and Barry will make the trip to join the marty party.”
NJPW World will undergo maintenance starting tonight at 9 pm ET and will run through Thursday morning at 3 am ET.
Former wXw champion Karsten Beck (Karsten Pitann) passed away on Thursday morning following a battle with brain cancer.
“Karsten Pitann aka Karsten Beck has passed away this morning after battling brain cancer for years,” wXw announced. “We say farewell to a Hall of Famer wrestler, a Unified World Wrestling champion, a World Triangle League winner, our director of sports, our colleague, our companion, our friend. We wish Karsten’s family and Ruth, those who have walked along Karsten until the very end, all the strength in the world. We miss you, Karsten.”
Beck was 33 years old.
Beck’s in-ring career began in 2006 and he last wrestled prior to being diagnosed with a brain tumor in 2016. Beck became an on-screen authority figure as wXw’s director of sports after his diagnosis. In 2017, Beck announced that his plans to return to the ring had to be halted due to doctors finding during a routine checkup that his tumor was growing again.
Beck held the wXw Unified World Wrestling Championship twice and was inducted into the German-based promotion’s Hall of Fame in 2017.
Content from WWE-affiliated independent wrestling promotions is finally coming to the WWE Network.
It was announced via Sports Illustrated today that “WWE officials have confirmed that shows from EVOLVE, wXw, PROGRESS, and Insane Championship Wrestling will begin airing on the WWE Network beginning this Saturday.” Here’s what will be uploaded to the WWE Network on Saturday:
Best of Drew McIntyre in EVOLVE
Best of Keith Lee in EVOLVE
ICW’s Shug’s Hoose Party 5: Night two
wXw Femme Fatales 2019
wXw AMBITION 11
PROGRESS Wrestling Chapter 92
The McIntyre compilation will include matches against Ricochet, Johnny Gargano, Roderick Strong, Tommy End (Aleister Black), and Matt Riddle, while the Lee compilation will include matches against Timothy Thatcher, WALTER, Riddle, and Donovan Dijak (Dominik Dijakovic).
WWE wrote that more content from these promotions will be made available on the WWE Network in the weeks and months to come: “EVOLVE, PROGRESS Wrestling from England, Germany’s wXw and Scotland’s ICW will debut for subscribers to the award-winning streaming service, giving the WWE Universe the chance to see some of their favorite Superstars like never before. And this is just the beginning! You’ll continue to see footage from their libraries, as well as new and exciting content from all of these promotions on WWE Network in the weeks and months to come.”
