Various: TNA Sacrifice 2024 Announced for This March in Toronto, GCW Announces Schedule for The Collective 2024, NJPW News, Indies

Jan 5, 2024

Date & Location Announced for TNA Sacrifice 2024

Impact/TNA Wrestling announced that this year’s TNA Sacrifice event will be taking place on March 8th in Windsor, Ontario, Canada.

It was also announced that they will be holding a new set of Impact television tapings on March 9th in Windsor as well.

Tickets for both upcoming set of shows were announced to officially go on sale starting on January 12th.

BREAKING: TNA Wrestling RETURNS to Windsor, Ontario, Canada for TNA #Sacrifice and #TNAiMPACT! Mark your calendars for Friday, March 8th, and Saturday, March 9th! Tickets go on sale January 13th at 10AM ET!

Read more: https://t.co/JaSKp3OoYk pic.twitter.com/WXinbPy6NF
— TNA Wrestling (@IMPACTWRESTLING) January 5, 2024

GCW Announces Full Events Schedule for The Collective 2024

Game Changer Wrestling announced the full schedule of events for their The Collective 2024 set of indie events on April 4-6 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Full schedule for GCW The Collective 2024:

Thursday, April 6th:

11AM – Defy Wrestling
4PM – Josh Barnett’s Bloodsport X
8PM – DDT Pro-Wrestling
11:59PM – Jersey Championship Wrestling

Friday, April 7th:

11AM – Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling
3PM – Progress Wrestling
7PM – Joey Janela’s Spring Break 8
11:59PM – For The Culture

Saturday, April 8th:

11AM – Effy’s Big Gay Brunch 9
2:30PM – TBA
11:59PM – Joey Janela’s Spring Break: Cluterf*ck Forever

The Official 2024 Collective Schedule has arrived!

*Collective Ticket Packages will go On Sale on Friday, January 12th.

*Individual Event Tickets will go on sale Monday, January 15th.

2024 Indie Hall of Fame info coming soon

(Sat 230pm slot will be announced Friday evening) pic.twitter.com/o9CDOBhifU
— TheCollective2024 (@collective2024) January 4, 2024

NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 18 News & Notes

New Japan Pro Wrestling announced that the official attendance for their Wrestle Kingdom 18 event on Thursday at the Tokyo Dome in Tokyo, Japan was 27,422. This was the largest attendance for a Wrestle Kingdom event since 2020.

Will Ospreay recently reflected on Twitter thanking Ubisoft for allowing him to wear Assassin’s Creed themed gear for his entrance at Thursday’s Wrestle Kingdom 18 event for NJPW. Ospreay stated “Thank you to @Ubisoft and @assassinscreed for allowing me to live a lifelong dream at Wrestle Kingdom! I hope you all enjoyed it!“

Fightful Select reported that their sources stated that Ospreay’s Assassin’s Creed themed gear for NJPW’s Wrestle Kingdom 18 event had been in the works for some time.

Misc. Wrestling News & Notes

Nic Nemeth, former Dolph Ziggler in WWE, released a “Wanted Man” teaser video following his surprise appearance at Thursday’s NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 18 event.

AEW talent Kenny Omega and WWE talent Xavier Woods recently released their Top 10 games list for GiantBomb.com’s annual Top 10 games lists for 2023.

The Dothan Civic Center in Dothan, Alabama recently announced that they will be the host venue for the National Wrestling Alliance’s Hard Times 2024 event on March 2nd.

Game Changer Wrestling announced that Jacob Fatu and Zilla Fatu will be making an appearance for the company at their Touch The Sky event on February 23rd in Dallas, Texas.

DDT Pro Wrestling recently announced that they have pulled MAO from their upcoming events from January 5-7 in Japan due to him currently suffering from a flu.

Indie wrestler and Monster Factory coach Missy Sampson recently announced on Twitter that she will be launching a new all-women’s promotion called Belle 2 Belle at the Monster Factory this March in New Jersey.

Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre recently announced that longtime referee Alfonso Ramírez passed away this past Tuesday at the age of 85.

As noted before, AXS TV’s contract with cable television provider company Verizon FIOS was set to expire at the end of 2023. The Wrestling Observer’s Dave Meltzer reported that AXS TV was officially dropped from FIOS this past Monday due to no new deal was reached in time between the two sides. Meltzer reported that the loss of FIOS will have a major negative effect on Impact Wrestling and NJPW’s viewership for their shows for this year.

In a recent interview with WrestleZone, former WWE NXT backstage interviewer McKenzie Mitchell gave her thoughts about her interest in a potential return to Impact/TNA in the future. Mitchell stated “It would be a homecoming if I did come back to IMPACT. A ton of my friends still work there. Deonna Purrazzo, Jordynne Grace, Gail Kim, I absolutely love Gail Kim. We still keep in contact and just randomly will message occasionally. So that would be really fun. I think if a unique situation presented itself to where it worked out with IMPACT, I could certainly see myself going back for a couple gigs. I just think we’ll have to figure out when and if it makes sense for me in the path that I’m on in 2024.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)

In a recent interview with FOX News, Matt Riddle gave his thoughts about his upcoming return to Major League Wrestling. Riddle stated “I’m pretty stoked. It’s been quite a few years since I’ve wrestled for MLW. I remember having a lot of good matches with guys like Swerve (Strickland), Tom Lawlor and others. So, pretty, pretty stoked about it. Then, to get to wrestle (Jacob) Fatu in my first match back is, yeah, I’m excited. I wanted to wrestle Fatu before I got signed by WWE before but now it’s happening. Pretty happy about it. The last couple months, they’ve been good. I feel like the last probably 10 years, I’ve been wrestling pretty hard in the sense, like on the indies before I went to the ‘E’ (WWE), I was pretty busy traveling to Europe and wrestling everywhere. And then, of course, with the ‘E,’ I was traveling everywhere. So, the last three months, I kinda just had my first vacation in a really long time. I had a kid. A little son, Matthew. So, it was really getting ready and kinda like a reset button. The last couple of months, I totally just didn’t want to do anything other than work out, relax and take care of my family. And now that (it’s) the New Year and I got that time and everything else like that, I think it’s just time to cook again and just really been focusing on that and what I want to do in the ring. I feel like before was more of a … it’s always entertainment, but it was a lot of entertainment before. And now, I think, the direction I’m going in, I’m going to be able to show the world what I can do in the ring and just present that version of myself rather than kind of a goofball on TV.“

Indie wrestler Baron Black recently announced on Twitter that the reason why he was absent from wrestling for almost all of 2023 was due to him dealing with a serious ankle injury and gut bacteria health issues. Black stated “In late December 2022, I sustained an ankle injury during a match, worsening it by wrestling in January 2023. It turned out to be an ankle ligament injury, no surgery requiredbut 3-6 months of healing time In June I tried to make a return, but my ankle wasn’t ready, and I also battled terrible food poisoning. I took more time off then tried to resume in-ring training in July, but severe dehydration and fatigue forced me to the ER, with doctors initially finding “nothing wrong” Over the next three months, severe dehydration persisted, requiring over six ER visits. It wasn’t until my seventh visit in October that a gut bacteria issue, stemming from the earlier food poisoning, was identified. Thankfully, it’s correctable, and I am near the end of the healing process. Appreciate all who reached out and looking forward to returning soon. Happy New Year!“