News

NJPW News: Kenny Omega Coming Under Fire For Booking Chasyn Rance

Published

6 years ago

June 30, 2018

Last month, current IWGP Heavyweight Champion Kenny Omega announced via an interview with Sports Illustrated’s Extra Mustard that New Japan Pro Wrestling had given him their blessing to run a show during the 2018 CEO Gaming Championships (you can read that here) in Daytona Beach, Florida. That took place last night with the following results:

Chasyn Rance defeated Aaron Epic
Michael Nakazawa defeated Adam Schmidt
Alex Jebailey defeated Michael Nakazawa
Jyushin Thunder Liger defeated Rocky Romero
The Guerrillas Of Destiny defeated David Finlay & Juice Robinson
Jeff Cobb defeated Chase Owens
Dragon Lee & Ryusuke Taguchi defeated Roppongi 3K
The Golden Lovers defeated Tetsuya Naito & Hiromu Takahashi

Results c/o PWInsider

Omega has since started taking criticism for putting Chasyn Rance in a match, as Rance is a registered sex offender after he was convicted of having sex with a 15-year old in 2011. Reportedly, in 2008 a California teen went to police after her mother read her diary where it was written the teen had sex with Rance while on multiple occasions while on a trip to Orlando, Florida. It was also added that the two remained in contact and Rance was aware that she was a minor, while he was 24-years old at the time. Rance was also previously on the VH1 show ‘Tool Academy’.

Kenny responded to criticism on Twitter this morning, vehemently defending the decision to book Rance:

“Here it is: I produced all matches from dark match #2 on.I gave the ring crew (also a wrestling school) carte Blanche to have our first dark. No entrances,no name graphics. And thus they had a match. I met Chasyn once in 2004 so his name was familiar. The other guy I’d never met.

Regardless of their history or whatever, this crew of people were all very helpful in set up, tear down, and various odd jobs around the arena. I’d felt giving them the opportunity to have a dark match was the least I could do as a way to show appreciation.

I’m gutted that people feel betrayed by their involvement, but at no point did I feel I was working with criminals or anything of the sort. As I’d said earlier, they were nothing but polite and helpful throughout the entire experience.”

The IWGP Heavyweight Champ has now issued an apology:

Big thanks to all that made #CEOxNJPW possible, but I wanted to address a terrible oversight on my part, in depth, for all to read. pic.twitter.com/JKBiqcuzGK

— Kenny Omega (@KennyOmegamanX) June 30, 2018

EA’s Take: This is pretty tricky because in this day and age where everybody is so sensitive and Chasyn Rance obviously was wrong in what he did, at the same time it’s also been ten years since it happened and America is supposed to be about second chances. I’m not defending what he did by any means (even though I know some will interpret it that way), but Omega isn’t the only one who’s booked Rance in the last seven years since his conviction. Ultimately, I think Kenny’s actual feelings are what we saw with him defending the decision at first. Seems to me like somebody, whether it be the fan backlash or maybe even New Japan themselves got him to change his tune on it. Or maybe he just really was truly unaware.

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AEW Coverage

Mitchell’s AEW Continental Classic Update! (11/27/23)

What a start to the tournament!

Published

5 months ago

November 27, 2023

Steven Mitchell

Did your picks win points?

The AEW Continental Classic is underway, with almost everyone competing. Check in here if you haven’t seen the winners and losers of week 1!

Here are your Gold League standings!

Jon Moxley: 1-0, 3 points
Swerve Strickland: 1-0, 3 points
Jay White: 1-0, 3 points
Rush: 0-1, 0 points
Mark Briscoe: 0-1, 0 points.
Jay Lethal: 0-1, 0 points

Here are your Blue League standings!

Brody King: 1-0, 3 points
Claudio Castagnoli: 1-0, 3 points
Daniel Garcia: 0-1, 0 points
Eddie Kingston: 0-1, 0 points
Bryan Danielson: Yet to Compete
Andrade El Idolo: Yet to Compete

My Thoughts:

Nothing too crazy, nothing too wild, this tournament only just got started. The only disappointing point is that they could not get Bryan “cleared to compete” Saturday night. Not sure how much of that is shoot given the bad eye, but this was kinda the problem of wanting him in the tournament over tons of other choices. Bryan wants to face Okada for WrestleKingdom 18, how is Bryan supposed to do that at his best if he’s also gonna be in a round robin, doing five top level matches in about as many weeks? And it takes away from Andrade being able to do something. Also a little surprised we didn’t even hear from Andrade on Saturday.

Now as we heard on Saturday, round two’s matches are set. Gold League will see Mark Briscoe VS Rush, White VS Swerve, and of course, Moxley VS Lethal. Nice variety there, a couple 0-1 guys facing off, as well as two 1-0 guys, and then 1-0 VS 0-1. No offense to Lethal, but he feels like an 0-2 going up against Moxley. Hard to call the other ones but that’s the fun of it. Meanwhile, Blue League sees Brody VS Claudio in a showdown to be 2-0, then Bryan and Andrade finally jump in, Bryan against Eddie and Andrade against Garcia. Sadly, feels like Eddie and Garcia are going 0-2, no way Tony Khan is booking Bryan and Andrade to lose their first shots.

In fact, that could be half the reason they did wait on those two, that’s almost too good for just a first round opener. But I still would’ve done it, same as NJPW does stuff like that for round robins, which this is all modeled after anyway.

Let us know what you think on social media @ChairshotMedia and always remember to use the hashtag #UseYourHead!

AEW Coverage

AEW announces Continental Classic entrants

The C2 is set!

Published

5 months ago

November 22, 2023

Steven Mitchell

Tony Khan Reveals the Blue and Gold “Leagues!”

Originally livestreamed, Tony Khan and Tony Schiavone officially announced the twelve total entrants and divided them into the two round robin blocks known as the “Blue League” and “Gold League.” If you don’t feel like sifting through the almost 30 minute video, the groups are:

Blue League

Bryan Danielson
Andrade El Idolo
Brody King
Claudio Castagnoli
Daniel Garcia
Eddie Kingston

Gold League

Jon Moxley
Swerve Strickland
Rush
Mark Briscoe
Jay Lethal
Jay White

Tony Khan also explains the rules for the Continental Classic:

Every match has a 20 minute time limit
The winner of each match earns 3 points, losers earn 0, 1 point for a draw
EVERYONE ELSE is banned from ringside for true 1v1 action

Eddie Kingston also joined the selection special as his “life’s work” is on the line in this tournament, both the ROH World Championship and NJPW Strong Openweight Championship on the line as part of the modern day North American Triple Crown Eddie, Tony Khan, AEW, ROH and NJPW are looking to create together. Gold League competes tonight on Dynamite while Blue League will have their start this Saturday on Collision. Look for more articles like this one to keep up with the Continental Classic standings over the next six weeks of tournament action!

Let us know what you think on social media @ChairshotMedia and always remember to use the hashtag #UseYourHead!