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After a brief hiatus to film the Hollywood movie Bad Lieutenant: Tokyo, Liv Morgan made her much-anticipated return to WWE RAW on May 26, 2025 . Fans were eager...
It was fun while it lasted. There are so many wrestlers on the WWE roster that it can be easy to forget about some of them. To make it even more complicated, there is also the NXT roster, which features stars who are not on television nearly as often. Occasionally someone will quietly slip away from the company and that seems to be the case again with an international star. IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: WRESTLING RUMORS: WWE Considering Two Huge Backlash Main Events According to Tokyo Sport, Sarray’s WWE contract has expired and she will be returning to the ring in Japan on May 16. Sarray signed with WWE in 2020 but her debut was delayed due to the Coronavirus pandemic. She appeared infrequently on NXT and was eventually repackaged into an anime inspired character who transformed with a magical necklace. Sarray last wrestled for WWE on the August 2, 2022 NXT and only wrestled 23 matches for WWE in total. Sarray was fun while she was around. Check out some of her time in WWE: [This post co..
Already? Earlier this month, one of the longer running wrestling questions in recent months was answered, as Mercedes Mone, formerly known as Sasha Banks, made her debut with New Japan Pro Wrestling at Wrestle Kingdom 17. That seemed to be the end of things but also a new beginning. As it turns out, there might already be some issues with Mone and her new boss. IN CASE YOU MISSED IT: WATCH: Steve Austin Works Does The Weather And Works The Drive Thru At Restaurant According to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, there might be some heat on Mone in New Japan and Stardom (New Japan’s sister promotion). Mone had been talking about how she wanted to face wrestlers from the Sendai Girls and Tokyo Joshi Pro promotions, both of which are seen as competition to Bushiroad (the parent company of New Japan and Stardom). While in Japan, Mone went to the Sendai Girls dojo but not the Stardom dojo. There is no word on what this could mean for Mone, or if she will be in any actual trouble. It has b..
Welcome to KB’s Old School (and New School) Reviews. I’ve been reviewing wrestling shows for over twelve years now and have reviewed over 6,000 shows. Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, I’ll be posting a new review here on Wrestlingrumors.net. It could be anything from modern WWE to old school to indies to anything in between. Note that I rate using letters instead of stars and I don’t rate matches under three minutes as really, how good or bad can something that short be? Wrestle Kingdom XVII Date: January 4, 2023 Location: Tokyo Dome, Tokyo, Japan Commentators: Kevin Kelly, Chris Charlton, Gino Gambino It’s time to go back to New Japan for a promotion that I have not looked at since last year’s Wrestle Kingdom. As tends to be the case with this show, I’m coming in mostly blind, save for knowing the wrestlers involved. The main event is Jay White defending the IWGP World Title against Kazuchika Okada, who he took the title from back in June. Let’s get to it. Pre-Show: Boltin Oleg ..
An international guest star. WWE is the most well known wrestling company in the world and their stars are some of the biggest names in the history of wrestling. However, there are several other promotions out there with quite the history of their own with quite the series of legendary stars. Now a WWE star is going to get to go do something special with a legend from outside the company. Pro Wrestling Noah has announced that WWE’s Shinsuke Nakamura will be facing the Great Muta on January 1 in Tokyo, Japan. The match will be part of Muta’s retirement tour, which culminates later in the month. Nakamura has commented on the match on Twitter, calling it a “miracle”. The two have wrestled two singles matches before, with Muta winning both, including defeating Nakamura for the IWGP Heavyweight Title in 2008. On New Year's Day, fans will see pro wrestling's biggest dream match in 2023. 2023.1.1 ABEMA presents "NOAH: THE NEW YEAR 2023" at NIPPON BUDOKAN: GREAT MUTA vs. SHINSUKE..
That would be a big loss. There are a lot of wrestlers who comprise the AEW roster. The company has so many wrestlers in a mixture of newcomers, established names and veterans, who have come together to make for quite the impressive collection. However, sometimes a wrestler is going to head off and that seems to be happening again with a long tenured star. AEW’s Christopher Daniels has sent out a tweet saying that he is getting close to the end of the in-ring part of his wrestling life. Daniels, 52 years old, has been wrestling since April 1993 and has wrestled in various promotions around the world. He is currently the Head Of Talent Relations and an occasional wrestler for AEW. Daniels most recently faced Konosuke Takeshita over the weekend at the Tokyo Game Show. I’m pretty sure I’m the first person to hold the distinction of wrestling for all of these great companies in their career. As I get close to the end of the in-ring part of my wrestling life, I’m honored & humbled to have..
It’s another place to go. WWE and AEW get most of the attention in the wrestling world and that is not going to change for the time being. That being said, they are also not the only promotions in the world and there is a lot of talent out there away from the major companies. Sometimes you see a former WWE wrestler try his luck elsewhere, and that is the case again with a homecoming. Kushida made a surprise return to New Japan Pro Wrestling this week at the New Japan Road show in Tokyo. Kushida returned and confronted IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion Taiji Ishimori, likely setting up a future match between the two. After the confrontation, Kushida announced that he would be spending the rest of his career with New Japan. This marked Kushida’s first appearance since leaving WWE in April of this year. Opinion: I don’t know if Kushida returning to New Japan was so much a matter of if but rather when. He had the greatest successes of his career there and it makes sense to bring him back ..
That doesn’t sound good. Injuries are the kind of thing that can take place at any given time to any given wrestler. Some of them can sneak up on you, but there are some that happen out of nowhere in the middle of a match. Oftentimes the latter are the worst, if nothing else for the shock value. That was the case again this week and it is not exactly looking good. According to 411mania.com, wrestling legend Shinjiro Otani suffered an injury at a Pro Wrestling ZERO1 event. Otani was challenging ZERO1 World Heavyweight Champion Takashi Sugiura in the show’s main event when he was German suplexed into the corner. The landing left Otani unable to move, meaning the match was immediately stopped. According to Tokyo Sports, the match’s referee said that Otani was conscious and able to speak, but said he was unable to move his hands. There is no word on Otani’s status or if he is able to move his limbs. Opinion: First and foremost, what matters is Otani’s health. This is a serious kind of in..
It was great while it lasted. There have been a lot of stars throughout the history of wrestling but very few make it all the way to legendary status. Those are the names who have been around for so long that it is hard to imagine wrestling without them, but at some point, everyone is going to have to hang up their boots. That is the case again with an all time legend. Triple H was a guest on ESPN First Take and announced that his in-ring career was over due to health issues. This comes after Triple H suffered a cardiac event back in August and has not returned to full time work in WWE since. He also revealed that his heard injection fracture was at 12%, while 55-65% is considered good, meaning that he was in heart failure. As a result, Triple H has a defibrillator in his chest and he did not thing it was a good idea for him to be zapped on live television. There is no word on his return to working backstage for WWE. Triple’s last match came at a live event in Tokyo, Japan on June 29,..
Join the team. There are a lot of talented wrestlers in the world today and thanks to the rise of streaming, fans are able to see more of them than ever before. Now you can see just about any wrestling show in the world at any time, which has opened all kinds of new doors for fans. A big time wrestling promotion has noticed that, and now they plan to bring in some more stars to their own shows. Over the weekend, AEW announced that they had entered into a working relationship with DDT-Pro Wrestling, which will see the stars of the Japanese promotion come to AEW. According to Wrestling Observer Radio, this deal also includes stars from the women’s promotion Tokyo Joshi Pro. AEW’s Kenny Omega was said to have played a role in setting up the deals as he has a relationship with DDT-Pro Wrestling. There is no word on when the wrestlers could begin appearing in AEW. Opinion: The more the merrier in theory, as I don’t know if this is going to be much more than a series of cameos and showcase..
Wrestle Kingdom XVI Night Two Date: January 5, 2022 Location: Tokyo Dome, Tokyo, Japan Attendance: 6,379 Commentators: Chris Charlton, Kevin Kelly It’s the second of three nights of this show and this one feels like the biggest. Last night’s main event saw Kazuchika Okada win the IWGP World Title again, which leaves him ready for his first defense against Will Ospreay. The second biggest match on the card is Kenta defending the United States Title against Hiroshi Tanahashi in a No DQ match, which could be a heck of a fight. Let’s get to it. Pre-Show: Togi Makabe/Yuji Nagata/Tomoaki Honma vs. Bullet Club That would be Bad Luck Fale, Gedo and Jado for the Club. The Club jumps them to start but Jado and Gedo are knocked to the floor to start. Fale is fine enough to run Honma over though and the good guys are in trouble early. Honma is sent outside and Makabe gets taken into the corner with Jado standing on his chest. Gedo and Fale take Jado’s place but Makabe fights up and brings Nagat..
Wrestle Kingdom XVI Night One Date: January 4, 2022 Location: Tokyo Dome, Tokyo, Japan Attendance: 12,047 Commentators: Chris Charlton, Kevin Kelly It’s back to Japan for the first time in about a year, though the company does feel a good bit colder this time around. The pandemic and a slew of injuries have battered New Japan, but this show’s reputation is more than enough to warrant a look. The main event of this first night is Kazuchika Okada challenging Shingo Takagi for the IWGP World Title, with the winner facing Will Ospreay tomorrow night. Let’s get to it. Note that I do not regularly follow New Japan so I won’t know much in the way of storylines or recent character development. Please bear with me if I miss something that commentary does not explain. Pre-Show: New Japan Ranbo This is a 19 man Royal Rumble and over the top/pinfall/submission eliminations with one minute intervals. The final four advancing to a four way on night two for the Provisional King Of Pro Wrestling 2..
There’s your game changer. The WWE Draft has the potential to shake up a lot of things in the company in a hurry and sometimes it happens more than others. You never know when you might see a move that can change everything at once and occasionally it comes from the least likely location. That might be the case this year with a huge Draft pick being made this week. In the final round of the 2021 WWE Draft, Monday Night Raw selected Olympic Gold Medalist Gable Steveson with its final pick. Steveson won a gold medal in freestyle wrestling earlier this year at the Tokyo games and signed with WWE soon thereafter. It is not clear when Steveson will make his in-ring debut, as he is under a special contract with WWE which allows him to continue his college career at the University of Minnesota. He will begin full time with WWE when he graduates next spring. WWE has a history with Olympians. Check out some of their time in WWE: [This post contains video, click to play] [This post contains..
It worked before. When you break it down to its purest form, wrestling is not complicated. Ultimately, a match is usually won by holding someone down or making them submit in a hold. It is one of the most basic forms of athletics that you are going to find and it has been around for a very long time. There have been some high level people involved in it, and now WWE might be going after another one. This week in Tokyo, Tamyra Mensah-Stock won a Gold Medal in the 68kg division in freestyle wrestling. Following her win, she was asked if she would ever consider signing with WWE, replying that she had always wanted to. WWE tweeted out a video of the response. There is no word on any possible negotiations between the two sides or if she is planning to continue amateur wrestling. WWE has a history with Olympians, with the most famous example being Kurt Angle, a former Gold Medal winner in the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta. Other Olympians have tried their hand in WWE, including Ronda Rou..
History has been made! Titles are an interesting thing in wrestling as there are so many of them around today that they might not have the same impact that they have had in the past. With so many titles around, you are only going to get so far with any of them. Some promotions have fewer than others, but one imports from another promotion. Now one of those imported titles has changed hands. This week on AEW Dynamite, Lance Archer defeated Jon Moxley in a Texas Death Match to become the new IWGP United States Champion. Archer defeated Moxley by chokeslamming him through a pair of tables with a barbed wire board on top. This is the pair’s second Texas Death Match, after Moxley defeated Archer to win the title on January 4, 2020 at Wrestle Kingdom 14 in Tokyo, Japan. The win makes Archer a record tying two time champion. This was a war. Check out how the match went down, plus the two in action: [This post contains video, click to play] [This post contains video, click to play] [Thi..
Mark your calendars. There have been all kinds of changes taking place throughout the wrestling world over the last year, with some of them being a bit more important than others. Some wrestlers have come and gone and now fans are going to be back for most major promotions by the end of the month. The changes are not done yet though, even if one of them is going to be minor. According to PWInsider.com, both the July 27 and August 3 episodes of NXT will be broadcast on the SyFy network instead of USA due to USA’s coverage of the Summer Olympics. There is nothing to suggest that Monday Night Raw will be moved due to Olympics coverage. The Olympics are scheduled to run from July 23 until August 8 in Tokyo, Japan. NXT has been doing fairly well as of late. Check out some of their recent efforts: [This post contains video, click to play] [This post contains video, click to play] [This post contains video, click to play] Opinion: This is one of those things that happens every now an..
It’s a classic. WWE is an international company and the biggest wrestling company in the world. Its roster includes some of the most well known wrestlers throughout the world with names from a variety of countries. That can make for some interesting moments as you have some very unique pairings. WWE is taking a look back at one of the more international matches it has ever presented. WWE has released the full match video of Kevin Owens vs. Finn Balor from Beast In The East. The match took place in Tokyo, Japan on July 4, 2015 and saw Balor defeat Owens to become the new NXT Champion. The special featured WWE wrestlers with Balor vs. Owens being the only NXT match. Balor would go on to retain the title over Owens in a ladder match at Takeover: Brooklyn in August of the same year. These two had a nice rivalry. Check out the match and some more like it: [This post contains video, click to play] [This post contains video, click to play] [This post contains video, click to play] Op..
Welcome back. AEW has not been around all that long at the moment, but they already have a rather deep history of their own. This includes some things that have been better than others, including the not so great early days of the women’s division. The division has come a long way, and now one of their previous starts is ready to make a return to the promotion. Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling has announced that Yuka Sakazaki will be returning to AEW television at some point in July. This is described as her excursion, meaning that it will not be a permanent move. According to 411mania.com, assuming there are no changes in Japanese policy over the Coronavirus pandemic restrictions, Sakazaki will be back in Japan on August 14. Sakazaki’s most recent match for AEW took place in February 2020. ??????AEW??? ?????7???????????????? 7?1?(?)?????????????????????1??? @AEW ??????????? [BREAKING] Yuka Sakazaki @YukaSakazaki will be on US excursion! She will be in the US from July to appear in #AE..
At New Japan Pro Wrestling’s ‘Dominion” event this weekend, Chris Jericho defeated Tetsuya Naito to become the IWGP Intercontinental Champion. It was a surprise for a lot of wrestling fans because most weren’t expecting Jericho to wrestle for the company long-term. As a result, his title win has made his future in wrestling very unpredictable. According to the Wrestling Observer, Y2J winning the IWPG IC Title means he’s staying with the promotion and there are multiple matches coming. Dave Meltzer is saying that a rematch between Jericho and Naito seems to be coming down the line. It may happen inside the Tokyo Dome, but the next match for Chris Jericho seems to be against Evil. Related: Chris Jericho: “I Come And Go When I Feel It’s Right” The beat down angle Jericho did after beating Naito and the save from Evil is obviously a setup for Jericho vs. Evil. One of the most interesting dynamics for fans watching Y2J with New Japan is the more violent and brutal heel he’s been playing...
Road Warrior Animal gives his take on why today's group of wrestlers have such a hard time getting over. WWE Hall Of Famer and former three-time WWE Tag Team Champion Road Warrior Animal recently joined "The Ride With JMV" podcast to discuss his run in WWE alongside Road Warrior Hawk as 'The Road Warriors'. Throughout their years Animal and Hawk had the opportunity to work with some of the most well-known names in the sport of professional wrestling. One of the names who has been in many of headlines recently because of the documentary that is based on him is "The Eighth Wonder Of The World" Andre The Giant. Animal recalled the time when he, Hawk, and their then-manger Paul Ellering were in Japan and they got their first glance at the mythical-like man that was Andre The Giant. "No, I haven’t got a chance to watch it [The ‘Andre The Giant’ documentary]. You know its funny the first time I met Andre; we were in Tokyo, Japan and we go by that little club that…. There’s ..