Various: NJPW Announces NEVER 6-Man Tag Tiles Tournament for Wrestling World 2024, Rossy Ogawa on Stardom Firing, Frankie Kazarian on Nic Nemeth in TNA

Mar 13, 2024

NJPW Announces Tournament to Crown New NEVER 6-Man Tag Champions at Wrestling World 2024

New Japan Pro Wrestling recently announced that they will be holding a NEVER G-Man Tag Team Championship tournament to crown new champions at their Wrestling World 2024 event on April 14th in New Taipei, Taiwan.

Official press release:

NEVER Openweight 6 man Champions to be crowned in Taiwan April 14!
When Kazuchika Okada wrestled his last match in Korakuen Hall for NJPW this past January, it was with the NEVER Openweight 6 Man Championships on the line against TMDK. With his team alongside Hiroshi Tanahashi and Tomohiro Ishii successful for their eighth defence on the night, Okada declared that he would be vacating the titles leaving the gold the center of much speculation ever since.
Now, it’s confirmed that the 27th NEVER Openweight 6 Man Tag team Champions will be crowned April 14 in Taipei, at Wrestling World 2024. A one night tournament will take place at Zepp New Taipei, with the winning team taking home the trios titles. NJPW’s return to Taiwan has gained a big stakes attraction, but who will come away with the gold?

Former Stardom Founder Rossy Ogawa Comments on His Firing from Stardom

As noted before, Stardom founder and head booker Rossy Ogawa was fired by Bushiroad this past February over allegations that he was he was poaching Stardom talent and staff for a new Joshi promotion.

Proresu-Today held a recent interview with Ogawa. In the article, it was reported that Ogawa had originally planned to make a formal announcement this past February to officially announce his departure from the company prior to his firing.

On the topic of when he was told of his firing and an emergency meeting held with talent and staff backstage at Stardom’s event on February 4th, Ogawa stated:

“I was about to leave the ring and go backstage when a staff member stopped me and took me to a room. There was a lawyer and a woman in charge of legal affairs there, and they handed me a piece of paper. They told me that my contract was terminated today. That was the end of it. They put me in a taxi prepared by the company and sent me home. It was like something out of a drama …
All the injured wrestlers were there that day. It certainly felt strange… I wanted to take a commemorative photo since I had come all this way, and since it was the 13th anniversary of the event, I thought it would be a good thing. I wanted to make it a memory for myself…”

Ogawa also gave his thoughts about his contract status with Bushiroad prior to his firing from Stardom.

“I believe it was for five years (his STARDOM contract), and after four years we would discuss the future… But, there was no such talk.”

Ogawa also gave his thoughts about how he got stuck in a rut and his job stopped being fun near the end of his time with Stardom.

“In the end, my work had become routine. It’s true that I was stuck in a rut, playing cards and traveling around the country. I just did what was in front of me, and I don’t know about you, but it stopped being fun.”

Ogawa also gave his thoughts about why there was no successor being lined up to take over things for him in Stardom.

“We didn’t have such people (to prepare a successor), or rather, employees are subject to transfer, so they can’t work there all the time. I don’t think there are people who can immerse themselves in this for the rest of their lives. In the end, I think that STARDOM is something that lasts only for one generation. From now on, I think it’s okay to call it the new STARDOM, Bushiroad STARDOM.”

English translation via PostWrestling.com

Frankie Kazarian Comments on Him Pushing Hard for TNA to Bring in Nic Nemeth

WRESTLESPHERE held a recent interview with Frankie Kazarian. One of the topics discussed included Kazarian’s thoughts about how he had “pushed hard” for TNA Wrestling to bring in Nic Nemeth to the company following Nemeth’s release from WWE.

“A great thing for the company (to have Mustafa Ali & Nic Nemeth). I pushed hard for Nic Nemeth the day that I found out he was gonna be available. I put in a call immediately and a couple of other guys too. He’s a guy that I’ve known for a long time, I have a tremendous amount of respect for and a guy that kind of got put in that same box that I’ve kind of been put in at certain points in my career where we were kind of labeled underrated, the what could have been? He’s had an amazing run, that dude. But still going strong and I like to think the same could be said for me. So, when you talk about, you know, I hate this word but, dream match scenarios, he’s always a guy that I really wanted to get in there, mix it up with. Like I said, tremendous amount of respect for him as an athlete and as a person. So I was very much in favor of getting him in and I’m very, very psyched that he decided to come to TNA.”

Transcript h/t: PostWrestling.com