Various: Thekla on Stardom Contract Expiring Soon, Black Taurus Changing Ring Name, Cagematch’s New Rules for Their Ratings System

Jan 17, 2024

Thekla Comments on Her Current Break from Wrestling & Expiring Stardom Contract

SES Scoops held a recent interview with Stardom talent Thekla. One of the topics discussed included Thekla’s thoughts about her decision to take her current break from wrestling for rest and to recover from injuries.

“Well, there’s a few things (Thekla responded when asked why she’s taking time off). Definitely. You’ve seen the STARDOM schedule, right? It’s really extreme. I think STARDOM did like 140 shows last year or something. I had more than a hundred matches, and I’ve been here for four years and I barely ever take time off. The Japanese girls are a little bit more used to it because they’ve got this crazy work ethic. I do too naturally but sometimes I get tired too. I haven’t been home in one-and-a-half years, so maybe I hope to make it back during that time. But doing a hundred or 110 matches a year kind of takes its toll, especially with the STARDOM style. This is not WWE. You know how everybody’s working and the way we’re traveling too. And yeah, it’s just your body starts to kind of…. every match, you can feel it afterwards. So I was like, okay, I could feel Donna del Mondo, they might be coming to an end. And I quickly thought maybe that’s a perfect time to just go away for a little while and also refill my creative tanks. Because what I’m going to start doing today is I’m going to start drawing my next gear set… I already have some stuff ready and my mom just sent me a box of new fabrics and some white fur, so I might be doing something in that direction. And I’m going to be painting a lot. So I’ve got an exhibition coming up in April. That’s going to be in Tokyo. But I hope I can do it in Austria too. Also talking to some people in New York so I want to travel around. Depending on how much time I’m taking off, it’s going to be me being in the studio, drawing, drawing, drawing.”

Thekla also revealed that he current contract with Stardom is set to expire soon.

“My contract is up soon, so that too. I haven’t decided yet what I’m going to do after that so we’ll see. I’m definitely very interested in traveling a lot.”

Thekla also gave her thoughts about her current plans to wrestle more overseas and Mercedes Mone and Athena being some of her current dream opponents for her career.

“When it comes to bookings, I love STARDOM. I love being in Japan. And Japan is my base, but I’ve really been dreaming also to get out of Japan and to take it to other countries. I went to Singapore last year, that was brilliant. Just feeling the love from international fans is so cool. And getting to showcase what we do here in Japan is really nice. So definitely I want to go to the States this year and experience a lot of stuff outside of the Japanese bubble and also change up my style a little bit because I think American style is very, very different. Very different and it’s not everybody’s cup of tea, but I always feel like I love learning and I love studying new things. And then I love to pick from different things and then mix it up. That’s really important for me, and that’s what I need to stay inspired. And I’ve been in Japan a little bit too long. I know how it works here. I know how it’s done. I know what strong style is like, and I need to get inspired by something new again.
About dream opponents… one in the mix is obviously Mercedes (Moné). Absolutely. She looks like a star. And I loved her style, and that’s just somebody I would love to be in the ring with, especially after meeting her briefly at STARDOM. She’s just such a nice person. She’s got the look. It’s the look! And that’s what I’m kind of really targeting right now. People who have that similar mindset when it comes to that sort of stuff. And who else? Athena we were talking about. She’s cool. Maybe we’re even too similar, you know what I mean? But that’s somebody I would love to hang out with. Who else do we have? WWE? Not so much right now. I don’t know. I mean obviously Charlotte Flair is a fantastic wrestler. They’ve got brilliant wrestlers like Becky Lynch and stuff, but I mean, they’re very full there too. WWE, I never saw myself there growing up as a wrestler because way too much I get really annoyed when somebody tells me what to do, but only recently I’ve thought that could be so interesting to be able to learn from the best because they have brilliant coaches and just Performance Centers there so that’s really interesting. But again, AEW is really cool because they give people a lot of freedom, you know what I mean? I feel like the product is still developing and there’s space for everything and for a lot of creative people too. Yeah. So that’s it. That’s really something that I would like to look into.”

Black Taurus to Change Ring Name Over Trademark Ownership Issues

As noted before, Lucha Libra AAA talent Black Taurus recently departed from the company and is currently a free agent. Outside of AAA, Black Taurus has worked for Impact and the indies under the ring name of Taurus.

The Masked Republic recently announced that Black Taurus will be officially changing his ring name in clarification of an earlier tweet regarding the release of an upcoming official Black Taurus action figure.

To be clear…this is because he will no longer be “Black Taurus” not because he will never have another figure made of himself. https://t.co/pSrNmh9LLK
— Masked Republic (@maskedrepublic) January 16, 2024

Lucha Blog reported that their sources stated that the reason for Black Taurus changing his ring name is due to AAA and not him currently owns the trademark for the Black Taurus name and likely the character as well.

LRT: I don’t want to shock you but there’s a quiet ongoing issue over who owns what part of a gimmick concerning a wrestler who’s left AAA and so they’re going to end up with a different name
— luchablog (@luchablog) January 16, 2024

Cagematch Announces New Rules for Their Ratings System Over Wanting to Stop Be Dragged More in WWE vs. AEW Flame Wars

Wrestling database website Cagematch.com recently announced that they have enacted new rules for their website in regards to their ratings system for wrestling matches and shows.

It was announced that these new rules are meant to try to finally put a stop to the WWE vs. AEW tribalism and trolling that they stated has been negatively affecting their website. It was also announced that they also want to be stopped being dragged into these flame wars following recent online incidents involving USA Network and others bringing negative attention and hateful comments to the website.

Official statement:

You know who this is aimed at.
I do not believe I have to do this, but with the unnecessary amount of news and attention that we have received over the last few weeks, the amount of tribalism between WWE and AEW trolls has reintensified. I wish all of you idiots step on legos for the rest of your days.
Here’s the new rule:
a) No mention of “AEW” or “Tony Khan” or similar topics in comments about WWE promotion, shows, titles, matches or contracted wrestlers, neither directly or indirectly.
b) No mention of “WWE” or “Triple H” or “Vince McMahon” or “Nick Khan” or “Shawn Michaels” in comments about AEW promotion, shows, titles, matches or contracted wrestlers, again neither directly or indirectly.
I will leave it at my disgression to extend this list of “contextually banned words” without further announcement. The vast majority of the community gets it and I will protect this community and our ideals.
Non-compliance with the new rule may lead to one-time warnings or direct bans, depending on severity and comment history.
I am sick and tired of “you people” (again, you know who this is aimed at). Stop dragging us into a painfully unnecessary and embarassing “flame war” between two fucking world-sized companies. The next step is to lock down WWE and AEW ratings to long-term registered users and I don’t fucking care if half of you leave at that point. CAGEMATCH was a lot of fun when we were small and unknown and I much prefer “fun and small” over “big and hateful” any day. No money is made with this website off of any of you clowns and more people just cost me more each month for maintenance and hosting, so I don’t give a shit about the “page hits”.
Personal note: I just gave out warnings for the Jinder/Rollins match where people were not commenting about the match but making it about WWE vs. AEW or themselves. I genuinely do not understand how these people can call themselves wrestling fans. I genuinely don’t.