Various: Jerry Lawler Health Update, Nick Aldis Impact Contract Update, Indies

WWE

Apr 26, 2023

Jerry Lawler Health Status Update

As noted before, WWE Hall of Famer Jerry “The King” Lawler was hospitalized this past February following him suffering a stroke at his home in Fort Myers, Florida. Lawler was later discharged from the hospital and has been recovering at his home since then.

Lawler’s longtime friend and former WWE commentary partner Jim Ross recently provided an update on Twitter about the current status of Lawler’s health and recovery from his stroke.

Had a great one hour convo today with ⁦@JerryLawler⁩ who’s recovering from the affects of a stroke.

Jerry’s voice seem to get stronger the longer we spoke.

The King will undergo a procedure next week to help his situation. 🤠 pic.twitter.com/P68MooccB3
— Jim Ross (@JRsBBQ) April 24, 2023

Nick Aldis Impact Contract Status Update

As noted before, former National Wrestling Alliance talent Nick Aldis made his surprise return to Impact Wrestling at their Rebellion 2023 event earlier this month in Toronto, Canada and revealed that he had signed a contract with the company. Aldis’ deal with Impact was later discovered to only be a verbal agreement type deal for at least several months in length.

PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that his sources stated that Aldis recently signed an official contract with Impact. Johnson reported that the length nor terms of Aldis’ contract is currently not known.

Misc. Wrestling News & Notes

TNT recently announced that an episode based on the famous lawsuit trial of Hulk Hogan vs. Gawker is currently scheduled to air as part of season 2 of their Rich & Shameless documentary series starting on May 7th on the network. This trial revolved around Hogan suing media website Gawker over the release of the Hogan sex tape in 2016 which had included racist remarks made by Hogan. A jury ruled in favor of Hogan and awarded him over $120 million in damages.

PLUTO TV recently announced that they will be premiering a new wrestling-based documentary called WOW! The History of Women’s Wrestling tonight starting at 10PM EST on their network.

PROGRESS Wrestling recently announced that Mark Haskins is the first official competitor for this year’s Super Strong Style 16 Tournament on May 27-29 in London, England.

DEFY Wrestling recently announced that they and PROGRESS will be holding two events on August 26th at the Electric Ballroom in London, England. DEFY’s event will be called The Splendid & The Vile and starts at Noon local time and PROGRESS’ event will be called Its Clobberin’ Time and starts at 4PM local time. Both events will be taking place the day before AEW’s All In event in the city.

Wrestling historian Pat Laprade recently announced that himself and writer Bertrand Herbert are currently working on a new wrestling-related book based on the late Dino Bravo. Laprade also announced that this new book will be a true crime style book focusing on the life and death of Bravo and is currently planned to be released in 2025.

As noted before, Hiroshi Tanahashi has been out of action for New Japan Pro Wrestling since earlier this month due to a rib injury. In a recent interview with Tokyo Sports, Tanahashi stated that he is currently hopeful of being able to make his in-ring return from injury by mid-May. Tanahashi is currently scheduled to compete in a #1 Contender’s IWGP U.S. Heavyweight Championship tournament match against Will Ospreay at NJPW’s Resurgence 2023 event on May 21st in Long Beach, California.

NJPW recently announced an updated match for the card of their NJPW Satsuma no Kuni event on April 29th in Kagoshima, Japan: