Various: Mike Bailey on NJPW Best of the Super Jrs, Impact NFTs Announced, New Trademarks, Indies

May 12, 2023

“Speedball” Mike Bailey Comments on Competing in NJPW’s Best of the Super Jrs Tournament

A recent episode of the Battleground Podcast featured “Speedball” Mike Bailey as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Bailey’s thoughts on him competing in this year’s Best of the Super Juniors tournament for New Japan Pro Wrestling being a great opportunity to represent Impact Wrestling in Japan.

“I think the kind of talent that is at IMPACT Wrestling only benefits more from the more eyes you can possibly get on it. It’s a mutually beneficial relationship between IMPACT Wrestling and myself, and they give me an awesome platform in which to showcase my skills, and I get to go around the world and show them what IMPACT is all about. I’ll be doing that in the Best of Super Juniors Tournament coming up too, in Japan, and I think that is the best possible opportunity to showcase IMPACT. The X-Division is that junior heavyweight style of wrestling that is gonna be absolutely highlighted in one of the craziest tournaments in all of professional wrestling. So I’m very fortunate to represent something as positive as the ideas behind IMPACT Wrestling.”

Bailey also gave his thoughts about getting to compete in front of Japanese audiences again.

“I am looking forward to wrestling in front of the Japanese audience once again. I don’t think there is anywhere in the world where the audience shows taking in as much detail and appreciates all of the intricacies quite like it is in Japan, and I think that’s why Japanese wrestling is so good. I think New Japan is the best promotion in all of Japan, and so I think the audience is incredibly appreciative of that and seeks to understand the wrestling that is happening to the level that the performers are doing it. That’s always been really special is the connection with the Japanese audiences.”

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com

Impact Wrestling Announces Launch of Impact NFT Line for This June

Impact Wrestling recently announced that they will be launching their first ever Impact-themed NFTs collection this June.

Official press release:

Here Come IMPACT Wrestling NFTs, Launching Soon
IMPACT Wrestling is vaulting into the popular, trendy world of NFT collectibles, including exclusive offerings with Santino Marella and Mickie James.
NFTs (Non-fungible tokens) are unique digital assets that are not interchangeable. The demand for NFTs is driven by the fact that each NFT is a one-of-a-kind and cannot be exchanged for another NFT or for any other asset in a one-to-one manner.
The first IMPACT NFT will be the General NFT Pass. The Santino Marella NFT will launch in June. There will only be 100 copies of Santino available and each will include access to an exclusive IMPACT Discord channel within the server, a chance to win a personal phone call via Discord from Santino, a community chat with Santino, as well as an exclusive signed photo.
A Mickie James NFT will launch this summer with the same utility as the Santino NFT.
“We are very excited to move into the NFT industry – something we have been studying for quite some time,” said IMPACT Wrestling president, Scott D’Amore. “The NFT opportunities are endless and we are certain that our loyal fans will be thrilled with the IMPACT NFTs.”
Media agency, Rumble Gaming, spearheaded this drop with the help of their partner, SHOPX. “To ensure the success of this initiative, we are building a community and giving fans the opportunity to interact directly with their favorite wrestlers,” says Adam Ivers, Rumble Gaming’s CEO. “We felt this was an ideal time to help elevate IMPACT into the metaverse and unlock new ways for fans to connect with the brand.”
The NFT market grew dramatically from 2020 to 2021. The trading of NFTs in 2021 increased to more than $17 billion, up by 21,000 percent over 2020’s total of $82 million.
IMPACT will host a Twitter Spaces event to talk about the launch of the IMPACT NFTs. Additional IMPACT NFTs are expected to drop on a regular basis through the end of 2023.

Nigel McGuinness & WOW File Several New Trademarks

Nigel McGuinness and Women of Wrestling recently filed several new trademarks to the United States Patent and Trademark Office.

A trademark for “Nigel McGuinness” was filed by McGuinness on May 4th for wrestling and entertainment-related purposes.

Trademarks for “WOW Wear” and “WOW Sportswear” were filed by WOW on May 5th for merchandise-related purposes.

Misc. Wrestling News & Notes

As noted before, WWE Hall of Famer Superstar Billy Graham is currently dealing with a bone infection that has spread to his bone ears and portion of his skull. Graham has been hospitalized for a second time over this health issue. Graham’s wife Valerie recently provided an update on Facebook stating that Graham had underwent emergency surgery this past Wednesday to remove an infection he had on his left hip.

Wrestlenomics’ Brandon Thurston reported that the State of New York is currently considering a potential new law that would require the New York State Athletic Commission to officially review the regulation of profession wrestling in the state.

Revolution Pro Wrestling announced that they will be holding their 11th Anniversary event on August 26th at the Copper Box Arena in London, England. This upcoming event will be taking place the day prior to AEW’s All In event in the city.

Major League Wrestling recently announced that their next season of MLW Fusion will debut on May 26th on beIN Sports.

Indie wrestler Megabyte Ronnie recently announced on Twitter that he is retiring from wrestling due to back-related injury issues.

In a recent episode of the Busted Open Radio podcast, Nick Aldis gave his thoughts on his belief that Mickie James has not gotten the credit she deserves for the influence she has had on today’s era of women’s wrestlers. Aldis stated “She’s an O.G. and a first ballot Hall of Famer whenever that time comes and I think that, maybe this is just me talking but you know, maybe I’m bias but, I don’t think that she’s ever been fully recognized for how much her fingerprints are on this current generation of women who are making boatloads of cash and experiencing tremendous opportunities. I think a lot of the wrestlers that you see today that are part of this movement of women’s wrestling, they were studying Mickie James, as much as anybody because to me, I think she sort of encapsulated the mix of beauty and athleticism and she dedicated herself to the business. She’s one of the boys.” (Transcript h/t: PostWrestling.com)

As noted before, Trinity recently revealed her upcoming work schedule for Impact Wrestling this summer. While details regarding Trinity’s deal with Impact is currently not known, Fightful Select reported that their sources within Impact confirmed that Trinity is committed to working for the company through this summer.

Impact recently announced one new match and one updated match for the card of their Under Siege 2023 event on May 26th in London, Ontario, Canada: