Various: Stephanie Vaquer on Mercedes Mone Match Being One of Her Favorites, New Matches for NJPW The New Beginning in Sapporo 2024, Indies

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Jan 25, 2024

Stephanie Vaquer Comments on Her Match with Mercedes Mone Being One of Her Favorite Matches of Her Career

A recent Thunder Rosa’s vlog featured Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre talent Stephanie Vaquer as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Vaquer’s thoughts about her match with Mercedes Mone at New Japan Pro Wrestling’s Resurgence 2023 event this past May was one of her favorite matches of her career.

“I think… but not just because of the fight (with Mercedes Moné), but because of everything that it involved. I think it was one of my favorite fights and it always will be. I mean, it includes so many things. When I was in Chile and I would watch New Japan, I never dreamed of being in New Japan because I thought it was only for men and I always grew up thinking that it was only for men. Then being the first Latina and then CMLL sending a foreigner and not a Mexican to be the first Latina in New Japan was like, wow, wait a moment! This was my dream because I never thought there would be women but being the first to get there was like, wow, and it was a really good fight.
It was exciting and look, it is my favorite fight even if I lost it. A lot of people say, ‘No’, but I won more than I lost because yes, I lost the opportunity for the championship, but I won more because I went to an audience I didn’t know, I went to arena where it’s not my home, it’s not my comfort zone, to a different style than mine, that I have to adapt to a fighter who has a lot of experience. She has experience and a lot of fame. So even though I lost, I remember it well. I will smile every time I remember that till the day I die. When I lost, I got out of the ring and walked to the locker rooms, people stood up and clapped and I thought they were clapping for Moné. Then when I turned around, she wasn’t there and I realized it was for me. I am excited, yes! In my role as a villain, but with a huge urge to cry, I said, I didn’t lose… I lost the opportunity for the championship, but I didn’t lose.”

Transcript h/t: PostWrestling.com

NJPW Announces Two New Matches for The New Beginning in Sapporo 2024 Night 1 Event

New Japan Pro Wrestling announced two new matches for the card of their The New Beginning in Sapporo 2024 Night 1 event on February 23rd in Sapporo, Japan.

The first new match announced was a NEVER Openweight Championship match of Shota Umiono vs. EVIL (c)

The second new match announced was a singles match of El Desperado vs. SHO.

Current card for The New Beginning in Sapporo 2024 Night 1:

Pre-show: Frontier Zone match – Tomoya & Toru Yano vs. TBA & TBA
El Desperado vs. SHO
BUSHI, Hiromu Takahashi, Yota Tsuji, Shingo Takagi, & Tetsuya Naito vs. Just 5 Guys (TAKA Michinoku, DOUKI, Yuya Uemura, Taichi, & SANADA)
NJPW World Television Championship – Matt Riddle vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi
NEVER Openweight Championship – Shota Umino vs. EVIL (c)
IWGP Global Championship – Nic Nemeth vs. David Finlay (c)

Misc. Wrestling News & Notes

PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported his sources stated that the National Wrestling Alliance’s NWA Powerrr series is currently scheduled to return with new episodes starting in two weeks. Johnson reported that NWA officials current plans are for these upcoming new episodes to stream exclusively on The CW App.

Game Changer Wrestling recently announced that The Great Sasuke will be making an appearance for the company at their JCW Jersey J-Cup 2024 event on February 9-10 in Jersey City, New Jersey.

Turnbuckle Championship Wrestling announced that they will be relaunching their promotion on February 8th in Atlanta, Georgia. It was also announced that they will be officially sponsored by The Nightmare Factory wrestling school.

WrestleCon recently announced that Arn Anderson and Mance Warner will be making an appearance for the company at their WrestleCon 2024 on April 4-7, 2024 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Discussing Film reported that wrestling-based film The Iron Claw failed to receive any Oscar nominations for this year’s Oscars Awards show.

New Japan Pro Wrestling recently announced that Nic Nemeth and Minoru Suzuki will be making an appearance at their Windy City Riot 2024 event on April 12th in Chicago, Illinois.

Fightful Select reported that former AEW talent Shawn Spears was in attendance backstage at this past weekend’s Impact! tapings for TNA Wrestling in Orlando, Florida.

In a recent interview with Denise Salcedo, Moose gave his thoughts about his reasons why he decided to recently signed a new contract with TNA to remain in the company for the foreseeable future. Moose stated “First of all, let me talk about that tweet. A lot of people don’t know my relationship with Scott [Scott D’Amore]. Scott is one of the reasons why I decided to stay with TNA and not leave. One of the biggest reasons was my relationship with Scott. He plays the role of my boss. He also plays the role of mentor, friend, and a big brother. That’s one thing I’m never going to get with wherever I decide to go, if I were to leave TNA. With that tweet, Scott was like, ‘Don’t tell people I called you chubby, I don’t want to get canceled.’ I understand where we are in 2024, but that was the truth. If you didn’t tell me that, that wouldn’t give me the fire to make the change. I don’t mind you tell me that. I love you telling me that. I’m the only person he would ever say that to. He would never say that to anybody else but me because of our relationship. I wasn’t going to go into the rebrand of TNA looking how I looked in that picture. I was going to try and make my main event of the first-ever rebrand TNA pay-per-view, I was going to try ad come in looking the best possible shape I could be in, god damn it really I don’t see it here.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)

Major League Wrestling recently announced two new matches for the card of their SuperFight 2024 event on February 3rd in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: