Various: Bryan Danielson on His Arena Mexico Debut & Blue Panther Getting Approval to Wear His Mask Again, Chris Masters NWA Departure, Indies

Mar 29, 2024

Bryan Danielson Comments on His Upcoming Arena Mexico Debut for CMLL, Blue Panther Received Approval to Wear His Former Mask

CMLL’s Homenaje a Dos Leyendas 2024 event later tonight in Mexico City, Mexico will be featuring an Eight-Man Tag Team match of Blackpool Combat Club (Jon Moxley, Claudio Castagnoli, & Bryan Danielson) & Matt Sydal vs. Mistico, Volador Jr., Blue Panther, & Ultimo Guerrero.

Danielson recently reflected on Twitter about his upcoming appearance for CMLL and getting to wrestle for the first time in his career at the legendary Arena Mexico.

Tomorrow will be my first time stepping foot in the legendary Arena Mexico. The BCC will be standing across the ring from 4 incredible wrestlers, one of whom, Blue Panther, is my FAVORITE LUCHADOR OF ALL TIME!!! What a life! #CMLLvsAEW @CMLL_OFICIAL @AEW pic.twitter.com/3sv4ztbDAh
— Bryan Danielson (@bryandanielson) March 28, 2024

In an interesting note, Lucha Blog reported that Blue Panther recently got permission from the Mexico City Lucha commission to wrestle under his old Blue Panther mask for this upcoming match. It was reported that the reason for Blue Panther’s request was due to Danielson being a longtime fan of him and wanting to wrestle the old Blue Panther for his dream match.

Prior to the approval, Blue Panther had been wrestling maskless since 2008 following his loss to Villano V in a mask vs. mask match at CMLL’s 75th Anniversary Show.

Blue Panther recently showed off the custom Blue Panther mask he will be wearing for tonight’s event.

Blue Panther showed off his mask for this Friday. pic.twitter.com/U13RUduKmF
— RobViper (@RobViper) March 27, 2024

Chris Masters Confirmed He Departed from NWA & Reason for His Departure

A recent episode of Fightful’s In The Weeds podcast featured Chris Masters as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Masters revealing that he had recently departed from the National Wrestling Alliance and the reason for his departure.

“Not really (he said when asked if he’s still working with NWA).
It doesn’t mean that I couldn’t potentially be back there at some point. It just got to the point where I felt like NWA was a great platform and I’m appreciative to them for giving me a place where I could kind of work on all the intangibles and character stuff and evolve, but it got to the point where I felt like Billy [NWA owner Billy Corgan] took me for granted. I felt like I saw other people getting opportunities that weren’t working up to my level at all. I felt like, for me, I just needed to separate myself from them and see what else is out there for me and hopefully create new opportunities for myself. One thing I proved in my NWA run is that I can have a good match with anybody. I guess Billy, in my eyes, didn’t see value in me.”

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com

Misc. Wrestling News & Notes

WWE Hall of Famer Mick Foley recently announced on Instagram that he will be unable to make his scheduled appearance for this weekend’s Squared Circle Expo convention in Indianapolis, Indiana due to him suffering from dizziness issues over the past few weeks. Following his post, Squared Circle Expo confirmed on Facebook that Foley had canceled his scheduled appearance due to his current health situation and those who purchased a ticket for photo ops with Foley can either exchange it for a different photo op, receive merchandise, or be granted a cash refund.

In a recent video posted by Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre on YouTube ahead of Friday’s event at the Arena Mexico in Mexico City, Mexico, AEW talent Jon Moxley was shown sporting a new bald headed look.

Eric Bischoff and AEW CEO Tony Khan recently reignited their longtime online feud on Twitter. This newest round of insults between the two originated after Jon Alba announced this past Wednesday on Twitter that Bischoff’s Strictly Business podcast would be ending due to Bischoff being busy with other projects. Following Alba’s post, Khan responded stating “Sunsetting this fraud of a business podcast before the next AEW media deal is a wise choice.” Bischoff responded back stating “A money mark with no talent other than spending daddy’s money, going all the way to Canada to draw less than 4k in one of the hottest pro wrestling markets in North America, talking about “wise choices”? Strap in. It’s going to be a fun day!“

In a follow-up, Eric Bischoff announced on Thursday on Twitter that he was launching a new series on YouTube called “Wise Choices” and the debut episode premiering that day.

The Cauliflower Alley Club recently announced that Allision Danger will be the recipient of their 2024 Women’s Wrestling Award for this year’s Cauliflower Alley Club Awards event on August 19-21 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Major League Wrestling announced that this year’s Blood & Thunder event will be taking place on July 12th at The Colosseum in St. Petersburg, Florida.

MLW also recently announced that CMLL talent Atlantis Jr. will be making his official debut appearance for the company at their Azteca Lucha event on May 11th in Chicago, Illinois.

Game Changer Wrestling recently announced that ECW and ROH legend Steve Corino is the next official member for this year’s class for the Indie Wrestling Hall of Fame. It was also announced that Corino will be inducted by his son and NWA talent Colby Corino.

Josh Barnett and GCW recently announced that Masakatsu Funaki, Kazushi Sakuraba, Quinton “Rampage” Jackson, Davey Boy Smith Jr., Davit Mojimanashaviri, and Mike O’Hearn will be making an appearance at GCW’s Bloodsport Bushido event on June 22nd in Tokyo, Japan.

In a recent interview with Tokyo Sports, New Japan Pro Wrestling President and talent Hiroshi Tanahashi gave his thoughts about being interested in bringing The Iron Claw actor Zac Efron into the company. Tanahashi stated “Zac Efron (who plays the lead role of Kevin Von Erich) is just so cool. I had an image of actors playing professional wrestlers as thin and macho, but all the actors in this movie have good muscle mass. There were no unnatural moves at all. Chavo does a good job, and I wanted to bring Zac Efron to New Japan Pro-Wrestling.” (English translation via Fightful.com)

As noted before, Utami Hayashishita, MIRAI, Yuzuki, and Mai Sakurai will be leaving Stardom once their current contracts expire at the end of this month. Stardom recently announced the final matches for MIRAI, Yuzuki, and Sakurai for their March 31st event in Yamagata, Japan:

Mai Sakurai vs. Tam Nakano
5-Minute Time Limits Gauntlet match – MIRAI vs. Ranna Yagami, Ami Sourei, Saki Kashima, & Syuri
Stardom High Speed Championship – Yuzuki vs. Mei Seira (c)

Prestige Wrestling recently announced one new match for the card of their Alive Or Just Breathing event on May 16th in Los Angeles, California: