Welcome to the latest addition to the Puroresu Press and it looks like I will be making it into a bi-weekly piece. Here we have more coverage for your reading pleasure. Good thing that we did. In fact, waited since quite a lot has happened during this week. Not gonna bore you with the introductions and just get right into the juicy stuff. Among the topics of discussion including Bushiroad Purchases Stardom.
Bushiroad Purchases Stardom, WWE Fails to Make a Purchase!
Earlier in the week, there was a rumor going around that New Japan Pro Wrestling would be purchasing Stardom. A lot of fans were either excited or unhappy with the news going around since there was plenty of speculation. Luckily on October 17th, we were able to find out more as it wasn’t New Japan that purchased Stardom but it was the company that sponsors them. Bushiroad has been able to make the purchase for the company.
Stardom President, Rossy Ogawa has held a press conference to talk about what would transpire. He did state that Stardom will still be its own company and wouldn’t be partnering with New Japan. Despite Bushiroad owning both companies but just things will stay the same for the most part. For the most part, they’ll be making more money in the company, have better TV time in Japan, and a chance to wrestle more and in possibly bigger venues. I was very skeptical as to what would happen when Bushiroad Purchases Stardom.
But after reading about the press conference and what will be happening, it did make me feel better.
That it will be getting more exposure and looking forward to what will actually happen if things do go well. Another thing we learned during all of this was that another company was interested in purchasing Stardom and that would be WWE as it looks like they’re planning on creating an NXT Japan and wanted to use Stardom as their cornerstone for the women’s division. Luckily, WWE hasn’t been getting any luck with buying a promotion or two in Japan as both Stardom and Pro Wrestling NOAH have denied being purchased by them. Bushiroad Purchases Stardom was the next sure thing.
WWE would even offer Rossy a Hall of Fame induction if they were able to purchase the company and to me, that sounded hilarious as they just threw the HOF like it’s nothing or if it would seal the deal when it really shouldn’t, that just sounds like a dealbreaker if anything. I would much rather them try an NXT Asia instead of NXT Japan. But I just don’t see it going well in WWE’s favor since they’re a lot more different than the UK.
Minoru Suzuki and Harold Meij Leaving NJPW?!
On October 5th, according to Joe Lanza from Voices of Wrestling, both Minoru Suzuki and current NJPW president, Harold Meij are looking to leave New Japan Pro Wrestling. For Minoru Suzuki, it’s about him being unhappy with his current position with the company. The only reason he stuck around was because of the rivalry he had with Jyushin Thunder Liger, which concluded on October 14th in a great match. There were rumors about him returning to Pro Wrestling NOAH whenever he was done with NJPW. As for Harold Meij, there were no details as to why he’s leaving or who will take over as the next president. But what we do know is that he would be leaving after the Wrestle Kingdom shows on January 4th and 5th.
With Harold leaving.
We have no comment at this time since we don’t know how other officials feel about him. There also isn’t any more details about his upcoming departure with the company since he has been helping them out financially. Especially with the western expansion, they’ve been doing. With Suzuki leaving, it really should be no surprise about him being unhappy since ever since he came back in 2017. Suzuki-Gun just felt like they were just there in the background with no significant importance. Sure, Suzuki won a title or two but they felt like they didn’t matter since they were either poorly booked or just forgettable.
Even Taichi and Zack Sabre Jr get used a lot more then Suzuki lately and if they get used more than your leader, then it’s time to go. With NOAH under new management and Jado no longer being the booker, Suzuki could bring in more people to their product. He was very marketable despite the poor booking as GHC Heavyweight Champion. We do believe it’s time for Suzuki to move on and go solo. While leaving Suzuki Gun with Zack Sabre Jr to make Sabre-Gun since there’s no need for Suzuki to be with them anymore.
Royal Road Tag Team League Participants Announced!
On October 9th, All Japan Pro Wrestling has announced details about their Real World Tag League for this year as it’ll run from November 9th to December 2nd and the winner will fight the World Tag Team Champions, Zeus and Ryouji Sai unless they win the tournament themselves. These are the participants down below.
Zeus & Ryouji Sai (Current Champions)
The End (Odinson & Parrow)
Yoshitatsu & Joel Redman
Jake Lee & Naoya Nomura
Kento Miyahara & Yumi Aoyagi
The Bomber (Joe Doering & Dylan James) (2018 Winners)
TAJIRI & KAI
Violence Giants (Shuji Ishikawa & Suwama)
Takashi Yoshida & Gianni Valletta
Daisuke Sekimoto & The Bodyguard
This is an impressive line-up and some interesting pairings like Daisuke coming back with The Bodyguard, The End coming back. Takashi Yoshida entering another tournament in All Japan this year, and Yoshitatsu’s partner. If we had to pick someone from this list, we would probably have to go with The End to win the tournament. To go all the way to win the titles once it’s scheduled. Odinson and Parrow have been getting positive feedback ever since they made their debut in last year’s Real World Tag League. They are back this time to try and win it all. Looking forward to the tournament and see who will come out the winner.
Ultimo Dragon Producing a Special Event!?
On October 8th according to the Dragon Gate English Facebook page, Ultimo Dragon will be producing a special Toryumon show on January 31st, 2020. He will be working on this show with Dragon Gate. Ultimo has had plenty of graduates from Toryumon from all over the world. He’s looking to have as many of them come over for the special event. As of right now, we only have Ryo Saito, Dragon Kid, Don Fujii, and Genki Horiguchi confirmed for the event. We are hoping to have Naruki Doi and Masato Yoshino involved in the event along with many of his graduates.
It does suck that it’ll be happening by the time I’m gone for Japan. During my trip there does look like it’s going to be a great show. We’re looking forward to seeing who will Ultimo book for this event. Part of me wishes we could get Kazuchika Okada involved since he was trained by Ultimo Dragon but with how New Japan. We highly doubt it but a man can dream.
Giulia Officially Joins Stardom, Ice Ribbon Furious!
If you remember from my #AndStill article with Bea Priestley and Arisa Hoshiki retaining their titles, I did mention that something else has happened. I wanted to hold off on talking about it until I wrote this article. On the October 14th show, former Ice Ribbon wrestler, Giulia would make an appearance after the main event to announce that she has officially joined Stardom. This stirred up some controversy as she left Ice Ribbon the day before the show and Ice Ribbon would try to have an extension but Giulia insisted on leaving the company when she wanted her release, so she would be granted that without telling them her motives after, leaving it to be a surprise for everyone.
There’s also a translated article to where Ice Ribbon did talk about the situation. After reading the official statement, it did look like she handled it rather poorly. It does look like Stardom is making enemies in the Joshi scene. It isn’t that Stardom and Ice Ribbon have gotten along since this isn’t the first issue they’ve had with each other. Due to Giulia’s departure, Tequila Saya has decided to hold off on her retirement until December 31st. She will replace Giulia in the upcoming shows. Saya didn’t have to do this for Ice Ribbon and just retire when originally scheduled to. But she chose to do this in support of her company. Very rough situation and how it transpired.
But I hope Giulia is okay with how it turned out.
https://twitter.com/Yapi/status/1183793276916137985
So that concludes this version of Puroresu Press. We’ll be sure to lookup more info and content to get something ready for the next addition. We hope you all enjoyed what you probably knew. However, we still thank you all for sticking around to read including Bushiroad Purchases Stardom. Until next time.
