Various: Impact Promising “Major Surprise” For Friday’s Tapings in Chicago, Santino Marella, Indies

Impact Wrestling Teasing “Major Surprise” for This Friday’s Impact Taping in Chicago

Impact Wrestling recently announced that this Friday’s Impact! television tapings in Chicago, Illinois will be featuring a “major surprise.”

This upcoming taping will be held as a Spring Slugfest themed tapings for future episodes of Impact.

There will be a MAJOR SURPRISE THIS FRIDAY at #SpringSlugfest in Cicero Stadium in Chicago!

Get tickets and be there to see it in person: https://t.co/irq7WV5qUd pic.twitter.com/GSNqamZ9fL

— IMPACT (@IMPACTWRESTLING) April 25, 2023

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Santino Marella Comments on Future of His In-Ring Wrestling Career

A recent episode of The Ignorance is Strength podcast featured Santino Marella. One of the topics discussed included Marella’s thoughts on the future of his in-ring wrestling career and the possibility of him being inducted into WWE’s Hall of Fame in the future.

“I don’t know. There are a lot of well-respected people that are pretty confident I’m going in. I don’t know. I hope working for IMPACT doesn’t take away from that anymore. If it happens ten years from now, that would be cool. My daughter is 27, but I also have a one-year-old and a four-year-old. I just wrestled in front of my four-year-old for the first time at the Rebellion pay-per-view. It made me realize that I want to wrestle a little bit just for him and my younger daughter, just to give them a memory. My son is only four. Do you remember shit from when you were four your whole life? A wrestling match is a big thing, he might remember that, or have pictures of it. I’ll probably have to wrestle when he’s seven or eight just to make sure he remembers the event. I may have to wrestle for a few more years, sporadically, and give them some lifelong memories.”

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com

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Misc. Wrestling News & Notes

Tuesday’s MLW Underground show featured Alex Kayne being victorious as the winner of this year’s Battle Riot match.

Tuesday’s NWA Powerrr show featured S.V.G.S (Jax Dane & Blake Troop) defeating Daisy Kill & Talos and Trevor Murdoch & Mike Knox defeating The Fixers (Wrecking Ball Legursky & Jay Bradley) in qualifying matches for this year’s Crockett Cup 2023 tag team tournament, which takes place on June 3-4 in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

Indie wrestler Kylie Rae recently announced on Instagram that she and her fiance and indie wrestler Isaiah Velazquez are currently expecting the birth of their first child.

Impact Wrestling recently released a video profiling Rosemary on their YouTube channel. In the video, Rosemary discusses her struggles with mental health and injuries issues.

All Japan Pro Wrestling recently announced that New Japan Pro Wrestling talents BUSHI and Tetsuya Naito will be making an appearance for the company at their May 7th event in Tokyo, Japan.

In a recent interview with NJPW’s official English website, SANADA gave his thoughts about his IWGP World Heavyweight Championship at NJPW’s Sakura Genesis 2023 event earlier this month and becoming a world champion for the first time in his career. SANADA stated “I’m only at the start line now. I’ve been in NJPW for seven years, and I even took the tryout way back in 2005. It’s only now I’ve become IWGP World Heavyweight Champion. So I’m walking proof that if you don’t give up you can achieve your dreams.” SANADA also gave his thoughts about his upcoming match against Hiromu Takahashi at next month’s Wrestling Dontaku 2023 event. SANADA stated “The business and NJPW’s place in it, it can be up and it can be down. Either way, it’s the champion that’s the representative, the champion that’s responsible. That’s why this title match is so important. To keep presenting gifts to everyone else, the gift I’ll present Hiromu with is the truth, and the knowledge of just how much this title means.”

Indie wrestler and former WWE talent Lince Dorado recently revealed on Twitter that he was the person who created the Eddie Guerrero Black Tiger mask for Mercedes Mone for her IWGP Women’s Championship match at Stardom’s All Star Grand Queendom 2023 event this past Sunday in Japan.

Sareee, former Sarray in WWE, recently announced on Twitter that she will be holding an indie event called Sareee-ISM on May 16th in Tokyo, Japan. Sareee also stated that she will be competing in a singles match against Chihiro Hashimoto at the event. This will be Sareee’s first match since her release from WWE this past March.

In a recent virtual fan signing event for Captain’s Corner, Lucha Libre AAA head booker Konnan stated that AAA currently has plans to give the ring name of a notable veteran AAA talent to an upcoming new wrestler for the company. Konnan stated “Another guy, we’re gonna be coming out with a new — I can’t say the name yet but it’s a wrestler in AAA that’s very popular who’s been there for about 20 years that we’re gonna be giving his name to somebody new.” (Transcript h/t: PostWrestling.com)

Game Changer Wrestling recently announced a new match for the card of their Lifestyle event on May 26th in Las Vegas, Nevada:

• Komander vs. El Hijo del Vikingo vs. Gringo Loco