Various: Mercedes Mone on Her Goal to Elevate Any Women’s Division She Enters, Yutaka Yoshie’s Cause of Death Revealed, Indies

Mar 12, 2024

Mercedes Mone Comments on Her Goal to Elevate Any Women’s Division She Enters

A recent episode of The Kick Rocks Wrestling Podcast featured Mercedes Mone as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Mone’s thoughts about if she feels a responsibility to help elevate any women’s division she enters for her wrestling career.

“I don’t like putting pressure on myself like that. I don’t feel like it’s a responsibility when it’s my dream and what I love because it’s not a responsibility, it’s what I have to do. It’s what I was born to do. It’s my sole purpose. It’s what I’m chasing to do. Equality in this business, making this business safe for women and respected for women. It’s beyond that. Responsibility? You can put it on me, but it’s my goal. It’s what I’ve been chasing. It’s what makes me so passionate about this business and makes me go chase these dreams that you sometimes think are not possible. Let me see if it can be. If no one is going to do it, I will, or try to.”

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com

More on Yutaka Yoshie’s Passing – Cause of Death Officially Revealed

As noted before, All Japan Pro Wrestling talent Yutaka Yoshie passed away at the age of 50 this past Sunday following an event that day for the company in Takasaki, Japan.

Tokyo Sports reported that Yoshie’s family stated that Yoshie’s cause of death was officially revealed to have been due to arteriosclerosis, which is the narrowing of blood vessels (arteries) that carry oxygen and nutrients from the heart to the rest of the body resulting in it becoming thick and stiff.

Yoshie’s family also stated that Yoshie’s death was not caused by anything related to a wrestling match.

“The bereaved family explained that the cause of death was “due to arteriosclerosis” and said, “It’s not caused by a professional wrestling match, so please don’t worry about it.”

Misc. Wrestling News & Notes

Pro Wrestling NOAH announced that they have pulled Jake Lee from their upcoming Sunny Voyage 2024 events on March 13th in Himeji and March 14th in Gifu, Japan due to Lee recently suffering a concussion injury.

Mexican wrestling legend LA Park, former La Parka in WCW, suffered a leg injury during a match at a recent wrestling event in Matamoros, Mexico. LA Park suffered the injury following a spot where he ran off the ropes and instead of properly bouncing away, the turnbuckle came loose causing the entire top rope to break apart during his move. This led to LA Park falling backwards and landing awkwardly to the outside resulting in him injuring his leg. The Wrestling Observer’s Dave Meltzer reported that LA Park was not able to continue the match and was confirmed to have suffered a serious leg injury.

Tuesday’s New Japan Cup 2024 event for New Japan Pro Wrestling in Ehime, Japan featured David Finlay and Hirooki Goto advancing to the next round of this year’s New Japan Cup tournament. They join jack Perry and SANADA who have advanced to the Quarterfinal Round in this year’s tournament.

NJPW recently announced that Stardom talent will be making an appearance for the company at their Wrestling World 2024 event in New Taipei, Taiwan.

In a recent interview with Tokyo Sports, Tetsuya Naito gave his thoughts about Kazuchika Okada’s recent departure from NJPW and signing with AEW. Naito stated “I was surprised to see his comments about leaving the organization and the tears in his eyes, because I thought he would go farther away. I honestly thought that I would be closer than I thought…. Then I wondered what the tears were for (Will) Osprey at the San Jose tournament in January. After all, it’s all about the money, isn’t it? I’m not saying there is anything wrong with that. I’m happy if more people think that pro-wrestling is great and want to become pro-wrestlers too, but some of the kids who admired and cheered for Okada in New Japan may have thrown away their T-shirts in tears. （Just as I (a Carp fan) once threw away the uniform of manager Arai (Takahiro), who was transferred to the Hanshin FA team. Okada indicated that he values the ongoing fans as much as or more than the children of the future. Regardless, Okada’s new stage in his career is very inspiring. I’ve always said I wanted to make Okada ‘regret it. In other words, I have to make him think that he should have stayed with New Japan Pro-Wrestling even if he had to give up his 2 billion yen contract…. This made the job worthwhile. When he finds more than 2 billion yen worth of value in Naito, I think he will appear before me again.” (English translation via Fightful.com)

Game Changer Wrestling recently announced that Stardom talent Syuri will be making her official debut for the company at their GCW & JCW vs. The World event on April 4th in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Prestige Wrestling recently announced that Jeff Cobb will be making an appearance for the company at their Alive or Just Breathing event on May 16th in Los Angeles, California.

West Coast Pro recently announced one new match for the card of their For The Coast event on May 18th in San Francisco, California: