Various: Heath’s Impact Contract Set to Expire This October, Will Ospreay on Career Future, Indies

Sep 15, 2023

Heath’s Contract with Impact Reportedly Set to Expire This October

Heath’s current contract with Impact Wrestling reportedly is currently set to expire this October, according to Fightful Select.

It was reported that talks between Heath and Impact officials have yet to reach any agreement for a potential new deal as of late.

It was also reported that Heath’s current contract did have injury time added to it due to him suffering an injury early into his tenure with the company.

Heath has been working for Impact since July of 2020.

Will Ospreay Comments on Future of His Wrestling Career

New Japan Pro Wrestling held a recent interview with Will Ospreay. One of the topics discussed included Ospreay’s thoughts on his current plans for the future of his wrestling career.

“This country (Japan) has been a part of my growth as an adult. It means a lot to me as well to see Callum (Newman) come to Japan as a 21 year old boy and be an apprentice to the United Empire, learning the trade. I came here as a 22 year old kid, and I’ve been able to grow here. I know that I’ve failed countless times, either here in front of you and on social media, but Japan has allowed me to get back up, and to mature, and become the best wrestler in the world. My priorities have shifted, and that doesn’t mean that Japan isn’t included anymore. It means I have a family and they need me right now. So my value has gone up, and my price has gone up. I know I’m a top guy, but it needs to be more.
More money, but more respect as well. Why am I not in the world title picture? United Empire are top sellers at the box office and in the merch store, so it’s time for that respect to come to all of us. This place means so much to me, and one of these days I’ll get a tattoo of Ryogoku because I lived near there so long — I’m not saying I’m moving on, but I need to do what’s right for me, and when I say I’m open to all options, that doesn’t mean I’m limited to anything, it means I’m open for everything.”

Ospreay also gave his thoughts about his belief of him being the best professional wrestling currently in the world.

“A burden? No, but it is tolling, it is taxing (being the best). I thrive in that situation. I live for that. I want to see if anyone can knock me off my throne, and I don’t think that anyone can. I don’t think there’s anyone that can say they are consistently, on point, the best in the world. I don’t think anyone can, not in AEW, not in WWE and not in New Japan Pro-Wrestling. Nobody can say they’re better than Will Ospreay.
It’s pride (to represent the U.K. as champion). For a long time when people have talked about the best of the world, they’ve looked to Japan, at Kobashi or Misawa, or Okada and Tanahashi. If people didn’t think of Japan, they thought of Canada, and Kenny Omega and Chris Jericho. Or maybe then they look at America and bring up Bryan Danielson, and maybe CM Punk, or whatever other garbage pro-wrestlers they have over there. People have never talked about Great Britain, they never talk about the UK. But now? Honestly bruv, I don’t think anyone matches up to me right now. I wear this championship with a lot of pride, because I do think I’m the best in the world. I don’t think there’s a single person in the world, no pro wrestler that is better than Will Ospreay and that’s the pride I bring with me when I wear this championship.”

Ospreay also gave his thoughts about the influence he has had on today’s crop of younger wrestlers.

“That blows my mind (that there are a generation of wrestlers who came up on my matches). A friend of mine was wrestling during WrestleMania weekend, he did four or five matches and he was talking about kids that are 18 years old on these indie cards doing my pose and trying for OsCutters. It’s crazy. When I came in, they called me ‘white Ricochet’ and I had to grow from that. But now there are probably a ton of guys that will be inspired by the Kenny Omega matches, or the Shingo matches. It’s mind blowing, crazy. I had one wrestler come up to me and say that he decided to start wrestling when he was 14 because he saw me and Ricochet.”

Misc. Wrestling News & Notes

As noted before, Pro Wrestling Illustrated recently released their PWI 500 List for this year. PWI’s Kristen Ashly recently announced on Twitter that Masha Slamovich became the highest female wrestler to ever be ranked in a PWI 500 list with a #15 ranking for this year’s list.

Thursday’s Impact 1000 show for Impact Wrestling featured the main event of Chris Sabin defeating Lio Rush to become the new X-Division Champion. Prior to the start of the match, Impact announced on Twitter that Sabin became the only person to main event both the very first episode of Impact and their 1000th episode.

Thursday’s Impact’s Impact 1000 show also featured the official announcement of Traci Brooks being the third member of this year’s Impact Hall of Fame Class. Brooks joins Mike Tenay and the late Don West as the official inductees for this year’s class.

Indie wrestler Kidd Bandit announced on Twitter that they recently suffered an undisclosed injury and will be out of action for at least the next two months.

Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling announced that Haruna Neko recently suffered a torn ACL and a meniscus injury in her left knee and will be undergoing surgery for it this October. Neko most recently wrestled for TJPW at their City Circuit ’23 event on September 3rd.

In a recent interview with the Under The Ring podcast, former Major League Wrestling talent Richard Holliday provided an update on his health following his cancer being in remission. Holliday stated “I feel great. Probably the best I’ve ever felt. To be honest, I feel rejuvenated. I feel like my body’s working again, like maybe even better than prior to everything. I’m in such an amazing physical mental space right now. I definitely look at life and my career and how appreciative I am for both much differently now. So definitely a different outlook, but it’s a good one.” (Transcript h/t: WrestlingNews.co)

New Japan Pro Wrestling announced that Boltin Oleg was recently medically cleared to return from his left wrist injury while Yoshinobu Kanemura has been pulled from the remainder of their Road to Destruction tour due to the current situation with his left knee injury.

NJPW also recently announced one updated match for the card of their Road to Destruction 2023 event in Kobe, Japan:

Provisional King of Pro Wrestling Championship 2023 Seconds Handcuff match – SHO vs. Taichi (c)

NJPW also recently announced one new match for the card of their Destruction in Ryogoku 2023 event on October 9th in Tokyo, Japan:

NEVER Six-Man Tag Team Championship – Motor City Machine Guns (Alex Shelley & Chris Sabin) & Josh Alexander vs. Tomohiro Ishii, Hiroshi Tananashi, & Kazuchika Okada (c)

Major League Wrestling recently announced one new match for the card of their Slaughterhouse event on October 14th in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania:

Minoru Suzuki vs. Jacob Fatu