Various: PCO vs. Matt Cardona’s “Monster” Match Set for TNA Emergence 2024, Donovan Dijack Makes MLW Debut & More MLW Summer of the Beasts News, Indies

Aug 30, 2024

PCO vs. Matt Cardona’s “Monster” Match Announced for TNA Emergence 2024

TNA Wrestling recently announced one new match for the card of their TNA Emergence 2024 event, which takes place on August 30th at the Old Forester’s Paristown Hall in Louisville, Kentucky.

This new match announced was a TNA Digital Media Championship and International Heavyweight Championship match of Matt Cardona’s “Monster” vs. PCO. It was also announced that this match will be taking place on Emergence 2024’s pre-show.

BREAKING: @TheMattCardona‘s Mystery Monster will face @PCOisNotHuman on the Countdown To #TNAEmergence, streaming LIVE & FREE THIS FRIDAY, August 30 at 7:30pm ET on TNA+ and TNA digital platforms!

Subscribe NOW: https://t.co/2UiVG1DKkd https://t.co/3RkRf1k9l5 pic.twitter.com/WdT1NPJtQD
— TNA Wrestling (@ThisIsTNA) August 30, 2024

This match was setup following a backstage promo segment involving Cardona and TNA Director of Authority Santino Marella. During the show, Cardona provided an update on his injury status stating that he was not medically cleared to compete against PCO at Emergence 2024. This led to an angry Marella showing up and claiming Cardona was trying to get out of his contracted match. Cardona stated that he found a mystery monster to take his place at the event.

.@TheMattCardona‘s has a Mystery Monster to face @PCOisNotHuman at #TNAEmergence!

Subscribe to TNA+ watch #TNAiMPACT NOW: https://t.co/hBjZBGP7Bm pic.twitter.com/C4Dif2hM3F
— TNA Wrestling (@ThisIsTNA) August 30, 2024

Current card for August 30th TNA Emergence 2024:

TNA World Championship 60 Minute Iron Man match – Josh Alexander vs. Nic Nemeth (c)
TNA X-Division Championship Ultimate X match – Zachary Wentz vs. Riley Osborne vs. Jason Hotch vs. Hammerstone vs. Laredo Kid vs. “Speedball” Mike Bailey (c)
Eight-Man Tag Team match – The System (JDC, Brian Myers, Eddie Edwards, & Moose) vs. The Hardys (Matt & Jeff Hardy), Joe Hendry, & Mike Santana
Knockouts Six-Women Tag Team match – Jordynne Grace & Spitfire (Jody Threat & Dani Luna) vs. Ash By Elegance & The Malisha (Masha Slamovich & Alisha Edwards)
Steve Maclin vs. Eric Young
Pre-show: TNA Digital Media Championship and International Heavyweight Championship match – Matt Cardona’s “Monster” vs. PCO (c)
Pre-show: KUSHIDA vs. Frankie Kazarian

Donovan Dijack Makes MLW Debut & More MLW Summer of the Beasts News & Notes

Thursday’s Summer of the Beasts event for Major League Wrestling in New York City, New York featured Donovan Dijak making his surprise official debut appearance. During the show, a Doomsday clock was seen counting down and reached zero during the Four-way Scramble match between Little Guido, Nolo Kitano, Jimmy Lloyd, and LSG. This led to Dijak making his surprise debut coming out with Mister Saint Laurent and laid out all four men.

Thursday’s MLW Summer of the Beasts event in New York City also featured CONTRA Unit (Minoru Suzuki & Ikuro Kwon) defeating CozyMAX (Okumura & Satoshi Kojima) to become the new MLW World Tag Team Champions.

Thursday’s MLW Summer of the Beasts event in New York City also featured Bobby Fish, The Andersons (Brock Anderson & CW Anderson) & BRG forming a new stable. During the show, Fish and BRG were attacking Paul London in the ring only to be stopped by The Andersons who ran out to save London. This turned out to be a ruse and The Andersons attacked London and joined forced with Fish and BRG afterwards.

Thursday’s MLW Summer of the Beasts event in New York City also featured Mistico, KENTA, TJP, and Bad Dude Tito advancing to the Semifinal Round of this year’s MLW Opera Cup tournament. TjP defeated “Filthy” Tom Lawlor, KENTA defeated Akira, Bad Dude Tito defeated Alex Kane, and Mistico defeated Atlantis Jr. in Quarterfinal Round matches at the event.

Misc. Wrestling News & Notes

Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre announced that Villano V, real name Raymond Mendoza Jr., passed away on Thursday at the age of 62. Mendoza Jr.’s wrestling career spanned from 1975 to 2017 and was a member of the legendary Mendoza wrestling family in Mexico. Mendoza Jr.’s was most known for his time in Lucha Libra AAA and CMLL and also had notable stints in WCW and New Japan Pro Wrestling. Mendoza Jr.’s notable career achievements and accolades included being a two-time AAA American Trios Champion and one-time AAA Mexican National Atomicos Champion.

Major League Wrestling reportedly recently hired former WWE NXT creative member Nick Bonanno to a backstage producer job in the company, according to PWInsider.

MLW recently announced that The Andersons (Brock Anderson & CW Anderson) will be making an appearance for the company at their Fightland 2024 event on September 14th in Atlanta, Georgia.

MLW also recently announced that this year’s One Shot event will be taking place on December 5th in Queens, New York.

Maple Leaf Pro Wrestling recently announced that “Speedball” Mike Bailey will be making an appearance for the company at their Forged In Excellence events on October 19-20 in Windsor, Ontario, Canada.

Josh Barnett announced that Game Changer Wrestling’s Josh Barnett’s Bloodsport XII event will be taking place on November 24th in Jersey City, New Jersey.

New Japan Pro Wrestling announced that this year’s Fighting Spirit Unleashed event will be taking place on November 8th in Lowell, Massachusetts.

As noted before, WWE backstage interviewer Kayla Braxton departed from WWE this past June. In a recent interview with the Insight with Chris Van Vliet podcast, Braxton stated that she is currently not interested in potentially working for AEW in the future and believes that her broadcasting career in wrestling might be done. Braxton stated “Yeah, I think so. That’s one thing with our fans. ‘Oh, leaving WWE, must be going to AEW or OnlyFans.’ It’s like the only two options they think you have. Actually, I’m doing neither. Wrestling will always be a love of mine and a family of mine. I really didn’t want to pigeonhole myself as a host and broadcaster. I wanted to see what else I could do out there. There is always a possibility I pop in for a fun cameo or something down the road. I think my time is done.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)

In a recent episode of the Grilling JR podcast, co-host Jim Ross revealed that he was recently interviewed by Dark Side of the Ring series producers for an upcoming episode based on Mick Foley. Ross stated “I did an interview the other day on Mick Foley’s ‘Dark Side’ piece. They really liked it. Evan (Husney) and those guys really liked it, they told me. It’s very honest. That will be coming up whenever it’s released. I don’t know. They told me it’s a key part of their feature. One of my favorite topics. Mick Foley. How can you not love him?” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)

The National Wrestling Alliance announced that they have recently signed AJ Cazana to an exclusive contract with the company.

The NWA also recently announced one new match for the card of their NWA 76 event on August 31st in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: