Various: Kenny Omega Special Guest Appearance Set for NJPW Power Struggle 2024, C*4 Wrestling on Negative Impact of New WWE ID Program for Indie Wrestlers, Indies

Oct 30, 2024

Kenny Omega Special Guest Appearance Announced for NJPW Power Struggle 2024

New Japan Pro Wrestling announced that Kenny Omega will be making a special guest appearance at their Power Struggle 2024 event on November 4th in Osaka, Japan.

Official press release:

Kenny Omega to appear at Power Struggle!
Special guest appearance set
Power Struggle in EDION Arena Osaka is set to be loaded enough with championship action up and down a card headlined by Zack Sabre Jr. and Shingo Takagi for the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship. Fans from all over the world will be watching an event that’s sure to see ground laid on the road to the Tokyo Dome January 4 & 5.
That includes one special guest who plans on seeing the action up close and personal. Kenny Omega will be at EDION Arena Osaka for a special guest appearance! After a reunion at NJPW’s offices with Hiroshi Tanahashi created buzz across the wrestling world, what will come from this special appearance?

This will be Omega’s first in-person appearance in wrestling since this past May. Omega has been out of action for AEW since this past past January due to diverticulitis and surgery.

C*4 Wrestling Comments on Negative Impact of WWE’s New WWE ID Program for Indies & Indie Wrestlers

As noted before, WWE recently announced that they will be launching a new indie wrestler development program called WWE ID and have affiliated with several wrestling schools to specifically develop indie wrestlers for potential careers in the company.

Indie promotion C*4 Wrestling recently commented on Twitter about the negative impact of WWE’s new program for the indies and young indie wrestlers.

“The point of independent wrestling is for talent to discover themselves, and develop themselves. To grow. To learn. If you claim to be an independent but are bound to a billion dollar company, you’re not an independent.”

In a follow-up tweet, it was stated:

“If you’re a young trainee, there is no “fast track” to the big leagues.
I know when you’re 19, 20, 21, etc it may feel like it is a “now or never” type situation to make a career in wrestling.
Don’t rush yourself. Pride yourself on growing and traveling.
Take your early years to learn. Travel. Have experiences that are outside the box.
The art of professional wrestling is not experienced in a one size fits all box.
I wouldn’t want to promote shows and use talent that fit into a cookie cutter assembly line.
I *promise* any young kid out there, that shows potential – that spending 5-10 years making a name for themselves, developing & becoming confident in their own skin by traveling & working a variety of talents, is going to make you much more valuable than what school you pick. I feel like I have some value in my opinion having done this for nearly two decades. But nobody I’ve seen gain success in wrestling did it by following a pre-determined path or taking an easy route …
To be clear – the point of these thoughts are that there is no “one size fits all” approach to succeeding in professional wrestling.
What works for some won’t work for others.
Convincing people that there is only one path is the problem.”

Misc. Wrestling News & Notes

Lucha Blog reported that the recent reports of WWE Hall of Famer John Bradshaw Layfield investing in Lucha Libre AAA and joining AAA’s ownership group are not true. It was reported that AAA recently posting a video of JBL meeting with AAA Director Dorian Roldan and JBL’s comments on Twitter about him becoming a part owner of the company were only meant to be for storyline reasons.

Indie wrestling Jordan Cruz announced on Twitter that he recently suffered a fractured fibula injury and will be out of action for the foreseeable future.

DDT Pro Wrestling announced that they have pulled To-y from their event on Wednesday in Kyoto City, Japan due to him recently being diagnosed with viral gastroenteritis (stomach flu) and is not medically cleared to compete.

In a recent interview with Proresu-Today, Stardom President Taro Okada stated that the company currently has the goal to run an event at the Tokyo Dome within the near future. Okada stated “In the future, STARDOM would like to hold a women’s professional wrestling event at the Tokyo Dome as soon as possible.“

New Japan Pro Wrestling announced that they are currently holding a sale with AEW for their upcoming Fighting Spirit Unleashed 2024 event on November 8th in Lowell, Massachusetts. It was announced that they are currently offering a 30% off discount on select tickets using the code “AEWNJPW” on AEWTix.com.

In a recent interview with the Battle on Battleground podcast, Kyle Fletcher gave his thoughts about his interest in making a potential return to NJPW in the future. Fletcher stated “One of the big things I would like to do is go back to New Japan. I had a great run there, I feel there is definitely unfinished business. New Japan is and was, for a very long time, my favorite wrestling to watch. It’s my favorite style. I love how it’s treated like a sport. I would love to go back. There are a lot of people I would love to step back in with. I want to put Gabe Kidd in his place. I want to put those War Dogs in their place. I want to put Shingo Takagi in his place. (Zack) Sabre, I’d love to step back in the ring with. There are a bucketload of people. I would love to go back to UK and RevPro. Luke Jacobs is the Undisputed Champion there now, I would love to get in there with him. I want to go back to CMLL. In the Grand Prix, I pinned Mistico, the greatest luchador of all time. There is unfinished business there. I’m sure he would like his win back and I would love to rip his mask off. A lot of things on horizon. Excited for the future.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)

West Coast Pro Wrestling recently announced that they will be holding co-promoted events with Deadlock Pro Wrestling and Prestige Wrestling on April 17-18, 2025 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Deadlock Pro Wrestling recently announced one new match for the card of their World’s Strongest event on November 17th in Jersey City, New Jersey: