News

Wrestling News: NJPW’s Response to COVID

We sum up how NJPW has responded to the crisis

Published

4 years ago

May 8, 2020

Steven Mitchell

How the pandemic has affected New Japan Pro-Wrestling!

While the WWE and AEW have been able to operate with weekly television, even under limited conditions, that is obviously not the case for many other companies. NJPW has had to cancel event after event over the last three months. This meant no 48th Anniversary Show’s highly anticipated IWGP Heavyweight Champion VS Junior Heavyweight Champion exhibition, which would’ve seen the first-time-ever match of Tetsuya Naito VS Hiromu Takahashi. No New Japan Cup, the great traditional tournament to name a #1 contender. No Sakura Genesis, no Wrestling Satsuma no Kuni, no Wrestling Dontaku. And even the Best of the Super Juniors tournament had to be canceled, which would’ve started in a few days on May 12th and stretched to June 6.

Now most recently, as reported by NJPW themselves, the brand new Wrestle Dynasty event which would’ve marked NJPW’s return to America and Madison Square Garden, must be canceled. As just about every news outlet in America will tell you, New York is still too deep in its battle with COVID-19. While Wrestle Dynasty would’ve been in August, that does not offer enough time for New York to completely recover and decontaminate. Dave Meltzer and Wrestling Observer Radio noted, though perhaps obviously, NJPW did not want to cancel this event, as they were considering it the number two event for the year, second only to Wrestle Kingdom. At this point, Wrestle Dynasty will have to wait until 2021.

However, there is also plenty to be optimistic about.

For one, Tama Tonga has spoken out to how NJPW has taken care of their roster during these hard times. In first speaking with Sports Illustrated, Tama Tonga was quoted as saying, “There is a different sense of unity in Japan.” Tama being American-born and even a veteran of the United States Air Force, said, “Here in America, the show must go on. Money needs to come in, so the wrestlers are still wrestling. New Japan stopped holding shows. That’s not just for the safety of the fans, but it’s also for the health of the wrestlers.” Tama knows that it comes down to basic, fundamental mentalities of the countries and culture. “The company is more of a family in Japan,” which is why no one has been let go, or even furloughed.

“New Japan does its best to look out for the entire wrestling scene in Japan. Even Tanahashi going in front of government, that may surprise people in wrestling, but it doesn’t surprise us. He really is our leader. You can see that unity in our roster, too. Our guys go from young to old. This isn’t a factory of young guys that get chopped up and spit out. The mindset around wrestling is different in Japan.”

Kazuchika Okada himself has donated ¥5 MILLION ($46,885 USor so) to Coronavirus relief in Japan.

“I’m always grateful for NJPW fans’ support, and it’s my hope that I can get back to hearing the cheers of sold out crowds as soon as possible. It’s usually me receiving the support and power of the people, but now I feel it’s my turn to lend support to medical staff fighting this disease. I hope fans continue to stay home and stay healthy, so that we can return to the ring as soon as possible.”

But in the midst of cancelling big events both in the present and in the near future, NJPW is discussing taking at least one page out of the American playbook. Meltzer says NJPW officials have been discussing empty arena shows for the first time. They would still have to wait for Japan’s first phase of opening up the country. The state of emergency ends on May 31st, so perhaps the company will attempt just some of the Super Juniors or some similar event. While Tama characterizes American wrestling as “The show must go on,” perhaps NJPW is only weeks away from getting their show back on track. And if that is the case, then perhaps we can all be optimistic about the world getting back on track with the Summer.

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

Related Topics:Coronavirus COVID-19 Featured Featured Big Featured News News NJPW njpw news

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Chairshot News Report: TNA Impact Results, AEW Speculation For Ricochet & Shane McMahon, Vince McMahon, More!

Your Wrestling News for July 5, 2024, including TNA Impact, Ricochet, Shane McMahon, his daddy Vince, and more!

Published

3 weeks ago

July 5, 2024

Chairshot

Your Wrestling News for July 5, 2024, including TNA Impact, Ricochet, Shane McMahon, his daddy Vince, and more!

Welcome to your daily dose of pro wrestling news–and analysis you can trust! We take all wrestling news with a grain of salt here at The Chairshot, and we hope to steer you in the right direction.

Results: TNA Impact (July 4, 2024)

Here are your results from Thursday night’s edition of TNA Impact (originally taped on June 28 at the 2300 Arena in Philly):

Trey Miguel vs. Leon Slater ends in a no-contest after WWE NXT star Charlie Dempsey attacks everyone.
Dani Luna battled Jody Threat to a time limit draw in the 10-Minute Challenge. They were granted the customary “5 more minutes” but were attacked by Alisha Edwards & Masha Slamovich. During the match it was revealed that Nic Nemeth had been attacked backstage.
Frankie Kazarian defeated Mike Santana by countout to advance to the TNA World Championship Match at Slammiversary.
Matt Hardy & Reby Hardy beat Eddie Edwards & Alisha Edwards.
Joe Hendry pinned Jake Something to advance to the TNA World Championship Match at Slammiversary.

No surprise that Joe Hendry advanced to the world title match, but Santana-Kazarian could have gone either way. A promo video to end the show implied that Kazarian was the one who took out Nic Nemeth backstage, seemingly creating a story for them within the Slammiversary title match. No shocker that The Hardys won the tag team match, but a great surprise with Charlie Dempsey getting involved in the opener. That TNA/NXT collaboration continues to be a lot of fun.

You can catch Andrew’s Review of the event here.

Ricochet Expected To Sign With AEW

Many outlets are reporting that Ricochet’s expected landing spot remains AEW, with additional reports surfacing that his agent has been working out the details on his behalf.

Personally, I’d rather see him back in WWE. Even after an initial push in AEW, he will be a novelty act much like PAC, so I don’t see the difference. But if he’s going to AEW, here’s hoping that agent does a great job and secures quite the bag for ol’ Ric.

Vince Russo Suggests Shane McMahon As A Front Man For Vince McMahon to Purchase AEW

”We saw this with WCW, it happened before. It (purchasing AEW) could be under the guise of Shane, that’s what I’m saying. Shane is as clean as whistle. Vince could be behind it without anybody knowing it, bro.”

Those are the words of Vince Russo, who on the surface seems to be spouting nonsense. Time will tell if there is something to it all, but I wouldn’t place any wagers on this one. Shane McMahon to AEW would be an entertaining shocker, but that–like many things in AEW–would quickly wear off.

Shawn Michaels Discusses NXT Releases, Referencing Drew Gulak

During the NXT Heatwave media call, Shawn Michaels was asked about the release of Gable Steveson, but also lumped Drew Gulak in his response about main roster viability:

“From my understanding, nothing on anyone’s part other than contracts being up. Certainly, in the place of Drew Gulak. From a company standpoint, there not being anything from a main roster standpoint that they were going to be using him in. In NXT, over the last year and a half to two years, we’ve been trying to get into the process of keeping it fluid. It’s all about getting to the main roster when everything is said and done. In two or three years, if that doesn’t happen, we bring other people in or see if we’re ready to move on.”

If anything, it’s a stark reminder that NXT still exists to, above all else, populate the main roster. It’s quite the delicate balance between booking your own television show and preparing for the future, one that HBK has arguably done better than Triple H himself.

Other Odds & Ends:

According to reports, the mini-stroke referenced by Britt Baker (DMD) on AEW Dynamite is legitimate. If so, both she and Adam Cole have been through a ton over the past 24 months.
Mason Madden (Mace) and Mansoor, now known as the MxM Collection, showed up in ROH when featured in a vignette on this week’s broadcast. They might not have made it in WWE, but it’s good to see them getting work, and a second chance to make this gimmick their own. YEAH!
Cody Rhodes continues to be the ultimate good dude, this time helping a fan who won tickets to Money In The Bank actually attend the event. The fan who won the tickets is in a wheelchair, and there were no more accessible seats left. That was, of course, until Cody got involved. Now the fan can be there and enjoy the show as intended when he won the contest. Cody wins again!

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

AEW Coverage

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

What a start to the tournament!

Published

8 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!