Via his Twitch stream, Kenny Omega said Hikaru Shida is working on getting her visa renewed: “Shida, it’s unfortunate, every couple of years, everyone has to go back to their home country and re-up their visa. I would’ve hated for her cats to have been alone for who knows how long because you never really know how long the process is going to take. In this case, it’s taking quite a while. Her cats get separation anxiety and don’t like being alone. Dobby is generally very gentle. They do get along. It’s nice and it’s fun. I would do it anytime. It’s not a chore.” (Dobby is Kenny’s cat.)
Mick Foley says he refused to take a chair shot on Jimmy Kimmel Live: “It was actually on The Jimmy Kimmel Show. Back when he had co-hosts for the week, he explained to me that it was tough to book guests because you didn’t know which co-host were going to work with you. I knew from wrestling that it is Jimmy’s show, I’m here to help him, I’m not here to overshadow Jimmy Kimmel on The Jimmy Kimmel Show, not that I could if I wanted to anyway. But, there were other people who didn’t know that. They would talk over the guests and it was pretty hard to book people. They wanted me taking a chair shot with a gimmick chair. The problem was the edges of the chair weren’t gimmicks, like the lip. The lip is usually what does the damage. He goes, ‘No, it’s not going to hurt’ and I go, ‘What if he hits me with this part?’ He goes, ‘What do you mean?’ I go, ‘It’ll split me open like a can of sardines on your show. Does he have any experience doing this?’ ‘No.’ I said, ‘I can’t do it.'”
On his podcast MVP reminisces about how he got into WWE: “I took my experiences from South Beach and ESPN, and I crafted this character called MVP. I wrote up a treatment, chapters explaining who the character was and photos of me in a suit and how the character dressed. This came because, fortunately for me, Ricky Santana was a very good friend of mine, he worked at WCW, and he and John Laurinaitis were very good friends. I told Ricky, ‘I have this idea but I’m scared they’ll steal it from me.’ I pitched him the idea and he said, ‘That smells like money to me.’ He called Johnny, Johnny gave him his word, ‘We won’t put the kid off.’ Spoke to Johnny and he said, ‘Sounds great. Give me 20 storyline ideas.’ I literally wrote 20 vignettes and storylines. Within a week or two, I had this ready for him and they loved it.”
Josh Woods vs. JD Drake has been announced for ACTION DEAN~!!!2 on Saturday.
The WWE programming block on A&E is on hiatus until season two of LFG debuts on Sunday, June 22nd. (PWI)
In this interview Alex Kane says his MLW contract is up in June: “My contract is up on June 1st. So, yeah, not there long-term but I’ve been there for a long time. I’m gonna play the open market a little bit. I really had no choice. The door’s always open, but, ‘We want you to try, you know, make some real money.’ So, that’s what I’ma try to do… I’m looking any and everywhere. I’m getting what they call like a sizzle reel so it’s like promos and – it’s like a highlight reel with promos included or maybe even soundbites included. So I’m getting one of those made. Once that’s complete, I will have something that I can actually send to the other companies and hopefully, somebody’s like, oh, this guy has a lot of promise. Let’s spend some money.”
Speaking of MLW: “Major League Wrestling (MLW) today announced MLW: WAR CHAMBER ’25, airing Saturday, June 7 at 10PM ET on beIN SPORTS and streaming worldwide for free on https://www.youtube.com/@MLW. This signature special features the return of one of the most feared structures in the sport: the War Chamber – a caged fortress constructed of unforgiving carbon steel, wrapped in barbed wire and built for one purpose: total warfare. No escape. No disqualifications. The only way out is by destroying your enemies.”
Ivy Nile earned a title shot on the latest episode of WWE Speed.
Rossy Ogawa thinks it’s okay to fat shame Utami Hayashishita: “She has already bloomed once in STARDOM. I think she has a sense of mission for the organization, but it is difficult for her to bloom a second time. Personally, I want to see her show a toned body as a wrestler. It’s not like the Showa era, so I’m not saying that just because she’s a pro wrestler, she should drink and eat a lot. But I don’t approve of a fat wrestler.”
Kenny Omega isn’t surprised that he did it: “The funny this is, is I remember comments I made, and maybe I said too much. People attacked me, instantly, ‘How dare I say anything bad about Rossy. I’m lying. I’m a liar. What would I know? If I know something, maybe I should just say what it is because if I don’t say it, I’m just as guilty.’ It doesn’t work that way. If you think it works that way, you don’t know how life works. Someone like Rossy does a good job of revealing himself to the world on his own. Sooner enough, whether he goes full mask off on his own and will start talking, the writing will be on the wall. I don’t want to be caught up in this. I’m doing my own thing. As soon as I said anything, I didn’t even allude to anything, necessarily, but what happened was his buddy in the industry, Fumi Saito, came to his rescue and had some disparaging remarks towards me. It became this entire thing that I didn’t want it to become.”
To make a long story short Maria Kanellis says “never say never” about a WWE return.
Another long story short — Yota Tsuji says he’ll stop coming to the US if the IWGP Heavyweight Title isn’t respected and treated as a main event at New Japan shows here.
Willow Nightingale says she’s signed a new AEW contract: “That is true, yes. I am happy where I am. I think there is so much left ahead for me to do at AEW, things that I want to accomplish. But also, I’m just really excited to be a part of something when it’s fresh and new and, like, you know, I think we’re past the years of finding our footing. But to have been a part of that and continue to water and watch it grow is just a privilege as well as a joy, you know? So I’m excited to continue, to take part in that.”
Here’s the card for Dynamite tonight. (AEW)
- The Young Bucks & Jon Moxley vs. Swerve Strickland, Samoa Joe & Powerhouse Hobbs
- Julia Hart vs. Mina Shirakawa (Toni Storm on commentary)
- Mercedes Mone & Jamie Hayter go face-to-face
- Hangman Page & Will Ospreay go face-to-face
- MJF officially joins the Hurt Syndicate
