Various: Matt Riddle on Why His Working Relationship with NJPW Ended, TNA Reportedly Planning Another Potential Live Impact! Show This February, Indies/Misc.

Jan 14, 2025

Matt Riddle Comments on Why His Working Relationship with NJPW Ended

As noted before, Matt Riddle made his official debut for New Japan Pro Wrestling at their New Year Dash 2024 event in January of 2024. Riddle last appeared and wrestled for the company at their Windy City Riot 2024 event this past April. Riddle’s odd post-match antics at NJPW’s Windy City Riot 2024 led to online speculation that his time with the company had ended.

SHAK Wrestling held a recent interview with Riddle. One of the topics discussed included Riddle’s thoughts about why his working relationship with NJPW had ended.

“New Japan was great. I was supposed to go do a tour when I first started working with them, but I had a scheduling conflict. I had a match with RVD, and me being me, there is no way that I could miss a match with RVD. I told New Japan that I could come in the first week of the tour, but then I had to leave the second week and I’d be back before the weekend was over. They said that wasn’t going to work. I was like, ‘Okay.’ I worked for them in Chicago and dropped the title to Zack Sabre, and then they wanted me to wrestle again. When they did the next one in California, I had a booking with MLW, and MLW comes first. They’ve been taking care of me, I’ve worked with them in the past, and ever since I said, ‘I have a booking that day with MLW,’ they have not reached out. I don’t think it’s anything personal. I fill up my schedule early and wrestle two or three times a weekend, usually. Their schedule, they didn’t pencil me in. They would a lot of times call me or ask me to do a date and I was already booked. I think that was it. They have a lot going on and a lot of moving pieces. When you’re dealing with somebody like me, Mustafa Ali, or Donovan Dijak, we’re in demand. I wrestle all over the world all the time. You may not see me on TV, but I’m very busy.”

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com

TNA Reportedly Planning Another Potential Live Impact! Show This February

TNA Wrestling is currently scheduled to be holding a live episode of Impact on Thursday, January 23, 2025 at the Boeing Center in San Antonio, Texas.

Fightful Select’s Sean Ross Sapp reported in a recent Q&A article that his sources stated that TNA officials recently held internal talks regarding potentially holding shows on February 20-21 in Orlando, Florida.

Sapp reported that an official announcement is currently expected to be made in the coming weeks if the plans are finalized.

In regards to the February 20th date, this would be a Thursday and indicating another potential live Impact! show being currently planned.

Misc. Wrestling News & Notes

MMA Fighting reported that their sources stated that Professional Fighters League (PFL) will be shutting down Bellator this year. It was reported that fighters under Bellator contracts will now become PFL contracted fighters. It was also reported that PFL will be changing the format for their regular season and playoffs to a new format similar to a traditional single tournament.

Former WBC Heavyweight Champion Tyson Fury announced on Monday on Instagram that he has retired from his boxing career. In regards to wrestling, Fury was notable in wrestling history for making several appearances in WWE, most recently in November of 2019.

Marigold announced that current GHC Women’s Champion Kouki Amarei recently suffered a torn ACL injury in her left knee and she will be out of action for the company until at least this May.

Game Changer Wrestling recently announced that Gabe Kidd is the newest official competitor for this year’s Jersey J-Cup tournament at their JCW Jersey J-Cup 2025 events on February 15-16 in Jersey City, New Jersey.

PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that his sources within TNA Wrestling stated tickets for their Genesis 2025 event on January 19th in Garland, Texas has already surpassed the sales for last year’s Har To Kill event in Las Vegas, Nevada.

As noted before, former TNA ring announcer Jade Chung departed from the company this past December. Chung recently reflected on Twitter about her time in the company and thanked the company for giving her a platform for her wrestling announcing career. Chung stated “Even though my contract ended on December 31st, you’ll be able to catch me one last time on TNA iMPACT! this Thursday at 8pm on AXStv and on Sportsnet 360. Many thanks to TNA Wrestling for giving me a platform to hone my craft the last year and bit. Learning never stops. The hustle never stops. No matter at what age, work your hardest!! I have two littles who are watching and learning on how to work towards success. They’ve been able to see dad Josh Alexander work his butt off while loving it and mom got to continue in an industry that she LOVES (and all she’s ever known) even in a brand new role. Now they’ve been asking to see mom in action What’s next??? It’s to continue to show my kids that if you want something bad enough, make it happen. And I still want it.“

Major League Wrestling officials reportedly were very pleased with the attendance for this past Saturday’s Kings of Colosseum 2025 event in North Richland Hills, Texas, according to PWInsider. Mike Johnson reported that MLW officials claimed that they had sold 2,400 tickets for the event.

MLW officials reportedly are currently working on plans for more New Japan Pro Wrestling talents to make appearances for the company in the near future, according to PWInsider. Mike Johnson reported that MLW officials are also currently interested in bringing in some of the big free agents currently on the market.

MLW announced one new match for the card of their SuperFight 6 event on February 8th in Atlanta, Georgia:

MLW World Heavyweight Championship – Alex Kane vs. Satoshi Kojima vs. Matt Riddle (c)

West Coast Pro Wrestling recently announced one new match for the card of their West Coast Best Coast event on March 22nd in San Francisco, California:

Marcus Mathers vs. Timothy Thatcher