Various: NJPW Announces Okada vs. Tanahashi for New Beginning in Osaka 2024, Kota Ibushi Ankles Injuries Update, MLW News, Indies

NJPW Announces Kazuchika Okada vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi Match for The New Beginning in Osaka 2024

As noted before, Kazuchika Okada will be leaving New Japan Pro Wrestling after his contract expires at the end of this month.

NJPW announced they have made several changes to the cards of their Road to The New Beginning 2024 event on January 24th in Tokyo and The New Beginning in Osaka 2024 event on February 11th in Osaka, Japan.

It was announced that the previously scheduled NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Championship match of TMDK vs. Tomohiro Ishii, Hiroshi Tanahashi, & Kazuchika Okada for their February 11th event will now be taking place at their January 24th event.

It was also announced that a new singles match of Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Tiger Mask has been added to the card of their January 24th event while a new singles match of Okada vs. Tanahashi has been added to the card of their February 11th event.

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Kota Ibushi Ankles Injuries Update – Ibushi Reveals Right Ankle is Fully Torn & Taking Time Off from Wrestling to Fully Heal

As noted before, Kota Ibushi suffered injuries to both of his ankles at Pro Wrestling NOAH’s The New Year 2024 event earlier this month in Ariake, Japan and underwent surgery this past Wednesday.

Ibushi recently provided an update this past Wednesday on Twitter stating that the ligament in his right ankle was completely torn and he will be taking time off from wrestling to fully rehab his injuries.

“Apologies for the delayed update. It seems that my ligament was completely torn (and another area was already quite weak). My leg has been fully immobilized in a cast up to my knee. Now, I need to decide what to do about my left side, while my right side requires treatments every two weeks. My shoulder isn’t in perfect condition either, so I plan to use this time to fully fix everything. I’m sorry for any inconvenience caused. Moving forward, I have a lot to think about and decisions to make.”

報告遅れました。完全に靭帯が切れていたみたいで(別のヶ所も元々もう少なかった)膝下くらいまでのギプスで完全固定されております。
次は左をどうするか、右は２週通いになります。
肩も万全ではないので今回で全てを治すつもりです。
ご迷惑おかけしました。
後は色々と考えて行きたいとおもいます。 pic.twitter.com/Dj9qF5xp94

— 飯伏 幸太 (@ibushi_kota) January 17, 2024

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MLW News & Notes

PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that his sources stated that Major League Wrestling’s upcoming SuperFight 2024 event on February 3rd in Philadelphia is currently scheduled to be MLW’s last event at the 2300 Arena for this year. Johnson reported that MLW’s current plans are to tour more around the country for this year. Johnson also reported that MLW’s only planned involvement for WrestleMania 40 week in the city is currently the upcoming Walemania 2024 event.

MLW recently announced that they have signed a partnership deal with Oceania Pro Wrestling.

MLW also recently announced that they will be expanding their events schedule with one premium live event and one free signature event to take place every month starting this January.

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

• Yuji Nagata vs. Jacob Fatu
• Davey Boy Smith Jr. vs. 1 Called Manders

MLW also recently announced one new match for the card of their MLW Fusion taping on February 3rd in Philadelphia:

• “Filthy” Tom Lawlor vs. Matthew Justice

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Misc. Wrestling News & Notes

DDT Pro Wrestling recently announced that Konosuke Takeshita will be making an appearance for the company at their DDT Goes Philadelphia event on April 4th in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Stardom recently announced that Tam Nakano will be making her official in-ring return from knee injury at their February 4th event in Osaka, Japan.

WrestleCon recently announced that Skye Blue will be making an appearance for the company at their WrestleCon 2024 on April 4-7, 2024 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling recently announced that Masha Slamovich will be making an appearance for the company at their Grand Princess ’24 event on March 31st in Tokyo, Japan.

New Japan Pro Wrestling announced that their upcoming Windy City Riot 2024 event on April 12th in Chicago, Illinois recently reached sold out status based on their original capacity configuration but they will be opening up more seats soon for sale.

In a recent interview with the Talk Is Jericho podcast, Deonna Purrazzo gave her thoughts about her time in Ring of Honor under the Sinclair era and how she felt that ROH officials did not believe in women’s wrestling. Purrazzo stated “No (I don’t think Women of Honor helped ROH reach its peak when I was there). I think, for many different reasons, we were held back and I think that there were just people in higher positions that didn’t believe in women’s wrestling and I couldn’t tell you the emails that I sent to Joe Koff and I would get the statistics from the YouTube pages and the Instagram numbers and be like, ‘Look at the interaction we’re getting. Look at the numbers we’re bringing to the company. We deserve better.’ Yeah. I don’t feel it ever happened.” (Transcript h/t: PostWrestling.com)

In a recent interview with the Insight with Chris Van Vliet podcast, EC3 gave his thoughts about him currently being more interested in being a catalyst to build something sustainable for the National Wrestling Alliance’s future than a potential return to WWE. EC3 stated “I’m so thoroughly content with building what we’re building right now. I’m very on board. I feel very much that I could be a gear in the strongest machine possible, or I can sink or swim being a catalyst to build something for the future. How much are they paying? [laughs] No, I believe in what we’re doing, I believe in WPC. They put me in a great position, not just champion, but sort of like, I don’t know, I guess I’m a locker room leader and things like that, and being able to help cultivate the future intrigues me greatly, especially because I’m still in my prime, and I could beat everybody.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)

Pro Wrestling Revolver recently announced that they will be holding a co-promoted event with House of Glory on April 5th in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Wrestling Revolver also recently announced one new match for the card of their WhatAShow event on February 17th in Grand Prairie, Texas:

• “Speedball” Mike Bailey vs. Elijah (former Elias in WWE)