Hiromu Takahashi Injury Update

New Japan Pro Wrestling has sent out an update on the condition of Hiromu Takahashi. The IWGP Junior Heavyweight champion collapsed backstage at the Cow Palace Saturday. He is believed to have suffered a broken neck during a triangle to a cradle-suplex spot where he landed on his head.

“It is reported Takahashi, after the match was immediately taken to a nearby hospital,” the statement reads. “He is currently undergoing a thorough evaluation, Takahashi is conscious, and is able to sit and talk.”

Takahashi indicated to the referee after the botched move that he was OK to finish the match despite the injury. He even performed his Time Bomb finisher without looking as though he was in much discomfort. Takahashi walked to the back on his own after winning the match as well.

I will keep you up-to-date with any news regarding Hiromu Takahashi’s condition.

Hiromu Takahashi Taken To Hospital With Possible Broken Neck Following G1 Special

Hiromu Takahashi is believed to have suffered a broken neck during his match with Dragon Lee last night in the Cow Palace. The injury is believed to have been suffered during a cradle-suplex where Takahashi was dropped on top of his head.

“He finished the match, retained the championship and I guess he collapsed backstage or something. They took him to the hospital and the preliminary word is they thought that he had a broken neck,” Dave Meltzer said on Wrestling Observer Radio last night. “Hopefully, it’s not as bad as that but that’s the word we got.”

Takahashi would continue the match. Red Shoes checked on him after the spot and then backed off as if everything was ok. They did several spots after the injury, including Takahashi giving Dragon Lee the Time Bomb for the win.

3 More Names Confirmed For All In

3 more names have been confirmed for All In on September 1st, 2018 from the Sears Center in Chicago. Despite hating the city the event is being held in, the members of ROH”s SoCal Uncensored faction have just declared for All In.

Christopher Daniels announced the news earlier today on Twitter:

The trio from Ring of Honor consists of Christopher Daniels, Frankie Kazarian, and Scorpio Sky.

Confirmed For All In:

Cody Rhodes

The Young Bucks

Hangman Page

Marty Scurll

Kota Ibushi

MJF

Madison Rayne

Paul Turner (ref)

Rick Knox (ref)

Todd Sinclair (ref)

Jerry Lynn (ref)

Earl Hebner (ref)

Matt Cross

Kazuchika Okada

Stephen Amell

Specifically not Flip Gordon

Tessa Blanchard

Joey Janela

Jay Lethal

Pentagon

Fenix

Brandi Rhodes

Cody Takes Shot At Triple H, Offers Advice To Deonna Purrazzo

Cody Rhodes is generally complimentary of Triple H when he speaks about his time in WWE. He decided to take a jab at WWE’s COO recently on Twitter, however.

Cody’s jab came after it was revealed that Deonna Purrazzo has pulled out of All-In on September 1st, 2018. Speculation is Purrazzo is likely going to be competing in the Mae Young Classic next month.

“It’s been incredible to see first hand what @MattJackson13, @NickJacksonYB, & @CodyRhodes envision for pro wrestling. I am so sad I won’t be wrestling at #AllIn but my heart will be there September 1st.” Purrazzo tweeted.

Cody responded to Deonna’s Tweet with some advice on how to handle her potential photo with Triple H:

“Take 1 large step forward in the photo, he likes to make people look shorter than him. Good luck D. Beat everybody. Run up the score.”

Last month, Cody addressed the possibility of WWE signing talents scheduled to appear at All-In. The discussion began when a fan asked Dave Meltzer on Twitter about how WWE might decide to counter the Chicago event.

“Nope and tickets are sold,” Meltzer responded to a fan’s question of possible WWE action against the event. “All they can do it try and sign the talent on the show and pull them, and most are under contract elsewhere past that date.”

Cody saw the Twitter conversation and responded. “That’s a possibility,” Cody admitted. “Everybody has different goals. If your goal is to take a meet/greet style handshake photo, and pretend to be excited about going back to wrestling school…that’s your prerogative ha.”

Bullet Club Throws Joey Ryan A Funeral

In the Being the Elite universe, Joey Ryan is presumed dead. That Ryan has been wrestling regularly on the independent scene is not referenced on the show. The characters on Being the Elite believe Joey Ryan is missing and presumed dead, however. Stephen Amell had been considered a suspect.

Marty Scurll and Hangman Page ran into Joey Ryan’s hot-wife, Laura James, to start off the episode. James noted that Page looks an awful lot like Amell. Scurll and James then talked about how they would beat up Joey’s killer if he was there. This caused Page to storm off from the scene.

James then told Scurll that she is unable to make her late husband’s funeral and Scurll commented on how poorly Ryan’s funeral is going to draw.

Later in the show, it was revealed that actor, Stephen Amell, had been let out of prison due to insufficient evidence.

Matt Jackson confronted Page about having killed Ryan and Page responded by strangling him and storming off. Jackson then told his brother he believes Page is responsible for Ryan’s disappearance.

During the funeral, Flip Gordon noted that since Ryan was presumed dead there is an open spot on All-In.

Hangman Page showed up to the funeral at the very end despite Matt Jackson not inviting him. He said Joey Ryan taught him to never give up and to never quit. Page continued to say he believes Ryan would be proud that he became a famous dick-wrestler just like him. As Page is in the hallway collecting himself a mysterious voice tells him “I know you didn’t kill Joey Ryan, because I did.”

Don Callis On Kenny Omega and Chris Jericho Potentially Going To Impact Wrestling

Don Callis is believed to have played a key role in organizing the Chris Jericho vs Kenny Omega match at the Tokyo Dome this year. All three are from Winnipeg and Callis also has his own podcast through the Chris Jericho podcast network.

At the Slammiversary press conference in Toronto recently, Callis indicated to me he’d love to bring Omega and Jericho to Impact Wrestling. “There’s a young Canadian kid I like, we’d love to sign him, his name is Kenny Omega,” Callis said. “Another is Chris Jericho.”

Callis recently doubled-down on his comments during his appearance on Jim Ross’ podcast.

Callis explained his history with Omega. “I’ve been on this journey with Kenny Omega since he was a 16-year-old kid who I booked,” Callis explained.

“I gave him his first break wrestling for the promotion I had in Winnipeg [Canada]. And his uncle, The Golden Sheik, who was an indie wrestler in Winnipeg helped train me in the [pro wrestling] business in 1989, so my roots with Kenny go back many years. I’ve been on this journey with him, and specifically since I’ve been in New Japan and we have a very close relationship. We talk about ideas, we do things, I helped put together the match between him and Chris [Jericho] for the Tokyo Dome.”

Callis continued to say the chances of Omega and Jericho appearing in an Impact Wrestling ring are less remote than they seemed not too long ago.

“I kind of say, ‘never say ‘never” and I think that one of the things that we’ve been doing under Ed Nordholm here at Impact is breaking some longstanding paradigms of pro wrestling,” Callis said.

“The intellectual property stuff that we’ve talked about before, but also we’ve been working with multiple people now and now recently announced by Chris Jericho and I know [Ross] will be on that cruise, so that’ll be cool, get to have a beer together. It’s going to be Impact and Ring Of Honor on the same cruise ship, so there’s some stuff that’s probably going to happen and I don’t think you can have those talents in a closed environment like that, so we are working, in a sense if you take that, with Ring Of Honor right now.

We’ve got Taiji Ishimori coming in for our pay-per-view and our TV in July. The Bone Soldier just started with New Japan, so we’ll see what happens. How many people would’ve thought that Chris Jericho would’ve headlined the Tokyo Dome with New Japan Pro-Wrestling? I was so sheepish when I pitched it to him because he always told me, ‘I will never work for anyone except Vince McMahon and I have a deep respect for Vince.’ Obviously, he took Vince into consideration. Vince is the first guy he told about it. Nevertheless, it shocked me that Chris was on a New Japan show, so I’ve learned to say, ‘never say ‘never” in this business.”

Jimmy Jacobs On Role With Impact Wrestling, WWE, and Matt Sydal’s Development

Last October, Jimmy Jacobs was fired from the WWE creative team. While multiple reasons have been given for Jacobs’ release, a selfie he took with members of Bullet Club during their “invasion” of Raw is largely believed to have been the catalyst.

Many felt Jacobs would sign with Ring of Honor and begin working with Bullet Club following his WWE release. After all, there was a built-in storyline regarding Jacobs being fired from WWE for his association with the faction.

Instead, Jacobs chose to sign with Impact Wrestling. He’s been working as the manager of Kongo Kong and serving as a producer backstage.

Jacobs recently gave an interview to Vulture Hound in the UK and spoke about how he has been enjoying his time with Impact.

“I really enjoy working with Impact,” Jacobs said. “I feel like with Impact right now, I get all the upside, I get the chance to help create, I get the chance to help out talents. Having the opportunity to have somebody like me for talents, like Tessa Blanchard who has a lot of potentials and is awesome in the ring.”

Jacobs has returned to in-ring work as well since leaving WWE. In fact, he recently defeated Joey Ryan on June 28th, 2018 for Bar Wrestling in Los Angeles.

Jacobs doesn’t believe he’ll step inside the Impact ring, however.  “As far as wrestling with Impact goes,” Jacobs continued. “I don’t see that happening right now, it’s not especially completely off the table but what I do at the shows, producing the shows, honestly it’s a lot.”

Jacobs also mentioned Matt Sydal as someone who he has particularly enjoyed working with recently. On the latest episode of Impact Wrestling, we saw Sydal and Jimmy Jacobs possibly align with each other due to their mutual disdain for Brian Cage.

“Matt Sydal has been one thing his whole career,” Jacobs said. “It’s been great, being a sort of babyface that can have great matches, who doesn’t talk much, being a good wrestler and doing high-flying stuff. That’s been him his whole career and, a few months back, we took a chance on him when we said: “hey I think there’s something more.” We capitalized on what he’s in real life, with him being kind of spiritual and holistic and those sort of things.”

Last month, Jacobs spoke to the Irish Mirror in the UK. The conversation focussed on his time in WWE and his new role with Impact Wrestling

“Going to WWE and working there in the capacity that I did was a blessing,” Jacobs said. “It was great to be there, but that being said it’s great to not be working there anymore.”

“I spent so long on the independent wrestling scene, but sometimes it’s like the cliche goes ‘you don’t know what you have until it’s gone,'” he continued. “I’m very excited to be working in Impact Wrestling and using some of the things I picked up in my last job to help out here.”