News! News! News! Read all about it right here! Welcome one and all, to your weekly irrelevant round up of the weeks hottest stories in pro wrestling. As always, I, “Smart” Mark Blake, have scoured the internet to find the biggest, strangest, and most interesting stories. So kick back, put your feet up and feast your eyes on this week’s Pro Wrestling Post Week In Review for 3/31/19!
Lucha Underground Lawsuits Settled
I wrote a few months back that Lucha Undeground were being sued by five wrestlers on their roster in regards to restricitng them from working for other companies. You can read all about that right here.
This past Tuesday 26 March, El Ray Network and Baba-G Productions (the TV network and production company for Lucha Underground) settled those lawsuits and gave all five wrestlers their immediate releases.
Ivelesse, Kobra Moon, Joey Ryan, Texano Jr and El Hijo del Fantasma were suing as the company violated California labor laws that illegally restricted them from working for other companies.
All those released are now free to negotiate with other companies, with WWE interested in del Fantasma while it’s most likely that Joey Ryan will sign with AEW.
Joey Ryan himself posted this statement onto Twitter –
Let the rumor mill begin as to where those five will be next. Personally, I don’t care where they are, as long as they’re free to work wherever they want and show the world just how good they are.
“Hacksaw” Jim Duggan Undergoing Heart Surgery
Jeremy Lambert from Fightful reported on Friday that WWE legend and Hall Of Famer Jim Duggan had to undergo a heart procedure and it would require at least an overnight stay in hospital to aid his recovery.
Duggan himself posted about the procedure on his Instagram page –
Ring Of Honor/NJPW G1 Supercard Announced
With Wrestlemania weekend in just five days, many companies running events over that weekend are annoucning their cards. And arguably the biggest of the lot is the joint RoH and NJPW that’s being held at the world famous Madison Square Garden.
Dave Meltzer broke the news that the show will begin at 6.15PM ET to accommodate the latest match announcement – a tag team match featuring STARDOM talent which is fantastic news for STARDOM and all its fans! The tag match will take place before the pre-show but unfortunately not be aired.
Below is the final card. It consists of 11 matches and will begin at 6.30PM ET where the
Dark Match – Kagetsu & Hazuki vs Hana Kimura & Sumie Sakai
Pre Show – Honor Rumble
Title vs Title Match – Will Ospreay (NEVER Openweight Champion) vs Jeff Cobb (ROH World Television Champion)
Singles Match – Dalton Castle vs Rush
WOH World Championship – Kelly Klein vs Mayu Iwatani (c)
New York Street Fight – Bully Ray vs TBA
IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship – Dragon Lee vs Bandido vs Taiji Ishimori
Title vs Title Match – SANADA/EVIL vs The Briscoes vs Guerillas Of Destiny (IWGP Tag Team Champions) vs Villian Enterprises (ROH World Tag Team Champions)
Rev Pro British Heavyweight Championship – Hiroshi Tanahashi vs Zack Sabre Jr (c)
IWGP Intercontinental Championship – Kota Ibusho vs Tetsuya Naito (c)
ROH World Championship Three-Way Ladder Match – Matt Taven vs Marty Scurll vs Jay Lethal (c)
IWGP Heavyweight Championship – Kazuchika Okada vs Jay White (c)
John Cena & Andre The Giant Battle Royal WrestleMania News
Dave Meltzer wrote on this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that WWE would like to add John Cena to this years Mania card. He explained that at the moment if John does indeed turn up at Mania, it won’t be to wrestle Kurt Angle. It would be a completely different match, with rumors saying he would interrupt Elias’s performance.
Friday 29 March, WWE announced 29 of the Andre the Giant Battle Royal participants. They are as follows –
Andrade
Titus O’Neil
Braun Strowman
Colin Jost & Michael Che (SNL stars)
Tyler Breeze
No Way Jose
Jinder Mahal
Bobby Roode
Chad Gable
Gran Metalik
Kalisto
Lince Dorado
Curtis Axel
Bo Dallas
Konnor
Viktor
Rhyno
Heath Slater
Ali
Shelton Benjamin
Luke Gallows
Karl Anderson
Apollo Crews
Matt Hardy
Jeff Hardy
EC3
Otis
Tucker
That’s it for today’s Week In Review, some great little nuggets of news if I do say so myself. As always I thank you all for reading not only my work, but all the work here at PWP each and every week. It doesn’t go unnoticed.
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