Various: Impact in Talks with NJPW for More Talent Exchanges, Friday’s NJPW Strong Card, Indies

Apr 23, 2021

Impact Co-EVP Scott D’Amore Comments on Impact Being in Talks with NJPW for More Talent Exchanges

A recent episode of the Wrestling Perspective Podcast had Impact Wrestling Co-Executive Vice President Scott D’Amore as the guest. One of the topics discussed included D’Amore revealing that Impact is currently in talks with New Japan Pro Wrestling over the possibility of more talent exchanges happening within the near future.

“Look, that New Japan relationship, I mean it’s no secret [it] was so badly destroyed in the TNA years and we’ve spent years, literally since Anthem Sports took over, trying to rebuild that relationship and it’s been a long, hard battle. Obviously The Good Brothers coming in helped melt the coldness and the ice on that relationship and I think so far it’s been a good relationship. You’ve seen TJP and Chris Bey appear so far only on their L.A. shows because of the travel restrictions going to Japan. You know The Good Brothers are gonna be working for both companies and there’s multiple talks about talents continuing to come this way from Japan and talent from here going over to Japan. So, look, I think it’s going to be one of those things that’s much like — I look at the New Japan relationship much [like] the way we looked at all the relationships when we took over IMPACT was people have been mistreated, respectfully in their opinion from previous regimes in IMPACT, been given promises that weren’t delivered. So part of what we have to do with New Japan and everybody else is what we try to do with everybody we’ve dealt with in the last few years which is tell you what we’re gonna do and follow through and do it and that’s what we’ve been doing with New Japan, that’s what we’ve been doing with AEW and I’d certainly be remiss if I didn’t say our great partners at AAA in Mexico who have been unbelievably supportive and collaborative with us over the last few years so I think we really have a great group coming together of like-minded people in the industry running major companies that are all willing to sit there and look at ways to collaborate and I think that’s one of the coolest parts of 2021.”

Transcript h/t: PostWrestling.com

Full Card for Friday’s Episode of NJPW Strong

New Japan Pro Wrestling recently announced the full card for tonight’s New Japan Cup 2021 USA Finals themed episode of NJPW Strong, which airs on New Japan World starting at 10PM EST.

Clark Connors & TJP vs. Team Filthy (JR Kratos & Chris Dickinson)
Rocky Romero vs. Wheeler Yuta
New Japan Cup USA 2021 tournament Finals – Brody King vs. “Filthy” Tom Lawlor

Misc. Wrestling News & Notes

Indie wrestler Queen Aminata recently announced on YouTube that she tested positive for COVID-19 earlier this week and has cancelled all of her upcoming bookings as a result. Aminata had worked for AEW during their last set of tapings at Daily’s Place i Jacksonville, Florida.

Lucha Libre AAA announced that this year’s Rey de Reyes event will be taking place on May 1st and will air live on Latin American cable television pay channel Space.

The Japanese government reportedly is currently expected to declare a new State of Emergency for the Tokyo and several other Prefectures that would last from April 25th to May 11th due to the recent surge in COVID-19 cases in the country, according to NKH News (English translation via Twitter account @sg_oxxt). It was also reported that the government will be requesting that all events scheduled to take place during that time period to not have any fans in attendance.

This past Wednesday’s episode of AEW Dynamite featured a match between Ricky Starks and Hangman Adam Page. During the match, Starks landed rough on his head following a German Suplex spot by Page. Fightful Select reported that Starks was stated to be feeling fine after the match, which was later confirmed by Starks on Twitter.

Major League Wrestling announced a new match for the card of their May 5th MLW Fusion episode:

MLW Middleweight Championship – Myron Reed vs. Lio Rush (c)