Various: Great-O-Khan Retires KoPW Title at 12/22 NJPW Event, Scott Steiner on Current Plans for His Son to Pursue Pro Wrestling Career, Indies

Great-O-Khan Retires King of Pro Wrestling Title at Sunday’s NJPW Event

Sunday’s Road to the Tokyo Dome event for NJPW in Tokyo, Japan featured Great-O-Khan defeating Taichi in a Best of Taichi KOPW Best Two Out Of Three Falls match to retain the Provisional King of Pro Wrestling Championship and crown himself as the official KoPW Champion for 2024.

Following the match, Khan grabbed a microphone and officially declared that the KoPW title would be retired and stated that the New Japan Rambo at next month’s Wrestle Kingdom 19 should be for a shot at the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship.

In recent years the New Japan Rambo has been used to determine the first provisional champion for the KoPW title for a given year.

#andSTILL#andLAST???

Great-O-Khan vs Taichi ended in a double KO draw- and O-Khan declared he was retiring the title on one big condition!

Road to Tokyo Dome report:https://t.co/yf5SVroENR

Watch the replay!https://t.co/3yNau2N5jd#njpw #njwk19 pic.twitter.com/Vd9x8vxQgr

— NJPW Global (@njpwglobal) December 22, 2024

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Scott Steiner Comments on Current Plans for His Son Brock to Pursue Pro Wrestling Career

ESPN held a recent interview with WWE Hall of Famer Scott Steiner. One of the topics discussed included Steiner’s thoughts about if his son Brock Rechsteiner will be following in his footsteps in pursuing a professional wrestling career after he finishes his football career.

“Yeah, that’s the plan. That’s what he wants to do. Whatever makes him happy.”

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Misc. Wrestling News & Notes

Game Changer Wrestling owner Brett Lauderdale reportedly was in attendance at Ring of Honor’s Final Battle 2024 event this past Friday at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York, New York, according to PWInsider.

New Japan Pro Wrestling announced that they had pulled Hiroyoshi Tenzan from their Road to Tokyo Dome event earlier today in Tokyo, Japan due to him currently dealing with a fever.

NJPW reportedly drew a paid attendance of 2,435 for their Dec. 15th Strong Style Evolved 2024 event in Long Beach, California, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.

As noted before, NJPW’s upcoming Battle in the Valley 2025 event in San Jose, California will feature a Sumie Sakai Retirement Six-Person Tag Team match of Sumie Sakai & mystery partners vs. Hiromu Takahashi & mystery partners. Takahashi recently announced that Yuka Sakazaki will be the second of his mystery partners for this upcoming match. This updated match is currently Sumie Sakai & mystery partners vs. Hiromu Takahashi, Mayu Iwanatni, & Yuka Sakazaki.

Westside Xtreme Wrestling announced that Masha Slamovich is the next official competitor for their 16 Carat Gold 2025 tournament event on March 7-9, 2025 in Obserhausen, Germany.

TNA Wrestling reportedly drew an attendance of 600 for their Dec. 13th Final Resolutuon 2024 event in Atlanta and 600 for their Dec. 14th Impact! tapings in Atlanta, Georgia, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.

TNA Wrestling’s Bound For Glory 2024 event this past October in Detroit, Michigan reportedly generated around 8,300 cable television pay-per-view based on updated late buys purchases numbers for its final number, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter.

As noted before, TNA Hall of Famer Rhino departed from TNA Wrestling earlier this month. Dave Meltzer reported in this week’s Wrestling Observer Newsletter that his sources stated that TNA officials had asked for Rhino to take a pay cut for a potential new deal and he rejected it. TNA officials reportedly then asked Rhino if he would be willing to work under a per-date type contract and Rhino refused the offer. Meltzer reported that the reason for Rhino’s refusals was due to him feeling that he could make more money working in the indies than in a per date deal with TNA.

TheCubsFan reported that longtime CMLL announcer Leobardo Magadan recently quit the company. It was reported that Magadan’s departure was due to issues over his exclusivity to CMLL being demanding and CMLL officials don’t value the talent. It was also reported that the current belief is that Magadan had asked for more money due to him being blocked from working for other promotions on the side and CMLL refused. It was also reportedly that CMLL owner Chavo Lutteroth held a recent meeting with CMLL’s commentary team and they thought maybe it was to address better pay. It was reported that this meeting instead was Lutteroth being critical of the announcers and told them to stop using English language names for the moves.

DDT Pro Wrestling recently announced one new match for the card of their Ultimate Party 2024 event on December 28th in Tokyo, Japan:

• DDT Extreme Championship – Great-O-Khan vs. Danshoku Dino (c)