Various: NJPW Announces Talent for Battle in the Valley 2024, Giulia on Issues with Stardom Work Schedule, New ECW Docuseries Planned

Nov 23, 2023

NJPW Announces Several NJPW & Stardom Talent Appearing at Battle in the Valley 2024 Event

New Japan Pro Wrestling recently announced the list of NJPW and Stardom talent who are currently scheduled to make an appearance at their Battle in the Valley 2024 event, which takes place on January 13, 2024 at the San Jose Civic in San Jose, California.

Official press release:

As Battle in the Valley approaches Saturday January 13 in the San Jose Civic, some big names have been revealed for the lineup at NJPW’s first international event of 2024.
Battle in the Valley~ January 13 2024 San Jose Civic TICKETS
Nine days after Wrestle Kingdom and his second showdown with Bryan Danielson, how will Kazuchika Okada start his 2024 campaign in earnest? With his time as a full time NJPW wrestler nearing its end Will Ospreay heads to San Jose, but will he do so with new championship gold? Will current champions of NEVER, NJPW World TV and NJPW STRONG divisions still be in possession of their hardware come January 13? See these names and more this January!
Kazuchika Okada
Will Ospreay
Shingo Takagi
Zack Sabre Jr.
Eddie Kingston
Giulia
El Phantasmo
Hikuleo

Giulia Comments on Issues with Stardom’s Current Work Schedule for Events

As noted before, Stardom recently vacated their World of Stardom and Goddess of Stardom Championships due to issues related to injuries suffered by respective champions Tam Nakano and Natsupoi. Bushiroad owner Takaaki Kidani had stated in an interview with Tokyo Sports that issues involving Stardom’s “unreasonable” schedule was the cause for the recent string of injuries affecting the company.

Kakutolog held a recent interview with Stardom talent Giulia. One of the topics discussed included Giulia’s thoughts about her issues with Stardom’s current work schedule and the lack of care by some within Stardom and Bushiroad Fight management.

“Actually, a lot of things happened at the same time. I’m quite the type of person who gives my opinions. So, in my life, even before I became a pro-wrestler, I have had conflicts because of this, and in many situations, such as with friends, family, work, school, etc. …I thought, “Isn’t that wrong?” I’m the type of person who speaks very clearly. Maybe that isn’t very Japanese. In many cases, it is difficult to say things that are normally difficult to say. Especially the female staff and mostly male staff. I think there were a lot of things that everyone wanted to say but couldn’t bring themselves to say.
I really feel that way, and I’ve been communicating this a lot both internally and within the company. I’ve been trying to convey this in print as well. However, the final blow was the response to Ushiku (mismanagement and insufficient notice) that made me feel like nothing had changed and things were only getting worse. Plus, there was also the subsequent response (questions raised during interactions with staff). So I thought what should I do about this. I thought I’d send that SNS to (Takaaki) Kidani-san (owner of Bushiroad)… well, I wrote it.
If I didn’t do that, nothing would really change in this organization. The thing that Rossy Ogawa has built is being destroyed… up until last year and the year before, we had a lot of momentum, didn’t we? It was extremely frustrating to see that the things we had all built together were falling apart more and more, especially since the beginning of this year. So, with that in mind… I spoke out.
I don’t know if I should say this… there was a part of me that once again felt how great Rossy Ogawa is. Ogawa-san was the one who still prioritized the feelings of the wrestlers. Then it became that that is no longer the case.
Wrestlers, especially women, have a lot of different emotions, and by throwing them all at each other, it becomes a story. There are a lot of things going on and it becomes a fight, and there’s a lot of drama, but it’s like we can’t do that (bitter smile) … There are so many things being put together one after the other, and our feelings… we say a lot of things on social media and backstage, but I don’t think anything is getting through to them, or they don’t see it. I think the difference with Rossy Ogawa was that things were put together one after the other without looking.
The fans know how the wrestlers are feeling as they have the match, who their rivals are, who they hate, and how amazing these guys are right now. When Rossy Ogawa saw that, he used to say, “Well, this and this are interesting, so the match is decided,” but the reason why it stopped happening was (with increased emphasis) not because of the busy schedule.
It’s different. What the players wanted to show and what the “company” wanted to do were completely different. I’ve been able to create many rivals, such as Tam Nakano and Suzu Suzuki, and that’s because (Rossy Ogawa EP) knew the wrestlers well. That’s being ignored, all of it. That’s why the fans can’t put their emotions into it, and the wrestlers feel like there’s no point in putting so much emotion into it… seriously, they should do something about that (laughs). The new president said that he loves pro-wrestling, so I want him to listen to what the wrestlers have to say.”

English translation via Himanshu Doi.

New Potential ECW Docuseries Reportedly Being Shopped Around for Production

A new docuseries based on Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW) reportedly is currently planned for potential production, according to PWInsider.

Mike Johnson reported that his sources stated that this potential docuseries is only in the pitch stage and is currently being shopped around to potentially interested networks and streaming services.

Johnson reported that this docuseries would be based on former ECW owner Tod Gordon’s memoir Tod Is God.