Various: Mickie James on Staying Loyal to Impact, Sat. NJPW Strong Card, New Trademarks, Indies

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Jan 27, 2023

Mickie James Comments on Her Reasons for Staying Loyal to Impact

SEScoops.com held a recently interview with Mickie James. One of the topics discussed included James’ thoughts on her career in Impact Wrestling and her reasons why she has remained loyal to Impact after all of these years.

“I feel, I mean IMPACT is my home. I think a lot of people feel IMPACT is their home, or it’s certainly a home for them. You look at the people that have come through that roster over the last 20-plus years, the amount of people who have gone on to have great success, and who have had major success within IMPACT. But they gave me my first chance, they really did. They gave me my first chance. They gave me my first chance, they gave me a chance at a time when I was really questioning myself and my value, my decisions, where I was. I was in such a weird place in 2010, I was just really uncertain. It helped me remember who I was and what I wanted, and realize that there’s a reason for everything and there’s a learning for everything. There wouldn’t have been ‘Hardcore Mickie’ Mickie James and this whole resurgence of my career. When I felt like I was in an either sink or swim kind of place, and now to be able to come back, and what they did for myself and NWA with EmPowerr was special, like the fact that they dedicated a lot of time, television time, the fact that we could have the Knockouts World Championship match on that card, and a match that I felt was something people had never seen before, it was one of those dream matchups. It was cool. It was so, so special.
Then the comeback and then go into this angle against someone who, she’d been the champion a long time, Deonna. In conversations when you talk about women’s wrestling and you’re looking at the landscape of people in those conversations who are deemed to be the best, and she was very much in that. So it was a different test because I felt like I hadn’t really been able to have a lot of those matches. I really hadn’t wrestle wrestled like that for a while. I had wrestled, but I felt like it wasn’t Mickie James. It wasn’t a representation of who Mickie James truly is. I always try to do my best and do whatever, and I loved what I did. I loved being with Alexa, I loved working with Asuka, or whatever, but there were so many other things that I really wanted to do and people I wanted to wrestle. I just never had a chance to do a lot of that stuff. Even I was going like, ‘Man, these girls are freaking going. I don’t know if I can keep up.
To be able to test myself against someone like her, I think that we may not love each other on television, but in that ring, we have incredible chemistry, and I love a lot of respect for her as an opponent, as a talent, because she is one of the best. She’s earned that. It’s amazing. They have a lot of faith in me, and they trust me, and I trust them. I think that I trust them because I can have open conversations with them and real conversations, and it’s not anything but good vibes, and I like that. I don’t want to be in a place where I’m not happy to be there and having fun.”

Full Card for Saturday’s Episode of NJPW Strong

New Japan Pro Wrestling recently announced the full card for this Saturday’s New Japan Nemesis 2023 Night 4 themed episode of NJPW Strong, which will air on New Japan World starting at 8:00PM EST.

Blake Christian vs. KEITA
Misterioso vs. Mistico
NJPW Strong Openweight Championship – “Pretty” Peter Avalon vs. Fred Rosser (c)

WWE, Charles Wright, & Matt Cardona File New Trademarks

WWE, Charles Wright, and Matt Cardona recently filed several new trademarks to the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

A trademark for “Emma” was filed by WWE on January 20th for wrestling and entertainment-related purposes.

Trademarks for “The Godfather” and “Papa Shango” were filed by Charles Wright on January 18th for wrestling and entertainment-related purposes. Both terms are the ring names that Wright was most known by during his career in WWE.

A trademark for “Woo Woo Woo. You Know It” on January 19th for wrestling and merchandise-related purposes. This is the catchphrase Cardona used under the ring name of Zack Ryder during his career in WWE.

Misc. Wrestling News & Notes

This past Wednesday’s episode of Power Slap drew 413,000 viewers and a 0.13 key demographic rating on TBS, according to ShowBuzz Daily. This is up compared to last week’s debut show’s 295,000 viewers and a 0.10 key demographic rating.

As noted before, former wrestler Tammy Sytch was arrested this past May in Florida following a police investigation into a fatal car accident involving Sytch this past March. PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that the Circuit Court of the Sevenths Judicial Circuit approved on January 17th to officially add Ultimate Motor Cars, LLC as a new defendant to the current civil lawsuit against Sytch based on recent court records.

Ice Ribbon announced that they have recently formed a new sister promotion called Hot Shushu.

The Japanese government reportedly is currently planning to lift their COVID-19 pandemic restrictions for public indoor events soon, according to Kyodo News. This reportedly would include all of the current restrictions on vocal cheering for indoor events being lifted.

Impact Wrestling recently announced that they will be holding this year’s Bound For Glory event on October 21st in Chicago, Illinois. It was also announced that this year’s event will be part of the inaugural “Season Pass” they are currently selling for a series of events in the city this year, which included Spring Slugfest on April 28-29, Chicago Heat on July 28-29, and Bound For Glory 2023 Fallout Impact tapings on October 22nd.

Impact announced a new match for the card of their No Surrender 2023 event on February 24th in Las Vegas, Nevada:

Impact World Championship – Rich Swann vs. Josh Alexander (c)

Lucha Libre AAA recently announced the full list of trios teams for this year’s Men’s Lucha Libre World Cup tournament on March 19th in Guadalajara, Mexico:

Team Mexico #1 – Psycho Clown, Alberto El Patron, & Hijo del Vikingo
Team Mexico #2 – Tausurs, Pentagon Jr., & Laredo Kid
Team USA – Sam Adonis, Johnny Caballero, & Christopher Daniels
Team Canada – Josh Alexander, Vampiro, & PCO
Team Europe – Thomas Latimer, Joe Hendry, & Heddi Karaoui
Team Japan – La Estrella, Kuuaki, & Nishikawa
Team Latin America – Carlito, Hip Hop Man, & Zumbi
Team Rest of the World – Classy Ali, Rage, & Bhupinder Gujar

AAA also recently announced the full list of trios teams for this year’s Women’s Lucha Libre World Cup tournament on March 19th in Guadalajara:

Team Mexico – Sexy Star II, Flammer, & La Hiedra
Team US – Deonna Purrazzo, Kamille, & Jordynne Grace
Team Japan – Emi Sakura, AKINO, & Mayumi Ozaki
Team Rest of the World – Christi Jaynes, Taya, & Natalia Marakova

Game Changer Wrestling recently announced four new matches for their JCW Jersey J Cup 2023 event on February 11th in Jersey City, New Jersey:

J Cup 2023 tournament First Round match – “Speedball” Mike Bailey vs. Jonathan Gresham
J Cup 2023 tournament First Round match – Kommander vs. Arez
J Cup 2023 tournament First Round match – Jordan Oliver vs. Alex Shelley
J Cup 2023 tournament First Round match – Lio Rush vs. Tony Deppen

GCW also recently announced a new match for the card of their Eye for an Eye event on March 17th in New York City, New York:

Bandido vs. Gringo Loco

GCW also recently announced a new match for the card of their Middle of the Night event on February 18th in Los Angeles, California:

GCW Tag Team Championship – The Bollywood Boyz (Gurv & Harv Shira) vs. Los Mazisos (Ciclope and Miedo Extremo) (c)

New Japan Pro Wrestling recently announced seven new matches for the cards of their TAMASHII brand event on February 3rd in Coogee, Australia:

Robbie Eagles vs. Aaron Solo
Michael Richards vs. Ricky South
Andrew Villalobos vs. Lyrebird Luchi
Rogue Army (Bad Luck Fale & Jack Bonza) vs. United Empire (Kyle Fletcher & Aaron Henare)
Richard Mulu & Matt Rogers vs. Mick Moretti & Adam Hoffman
Jake Taylor vs. Carter Deams
Nikolai Anton Bell & Jordan Allen Wright vs. The Velocities (Jude London & Paris De Silva)

New Japan Pro Wrestling also recently announced four new matches for the cards of their TAMASHII brand event on February 4th in Melbourne, Australia: