Meiko Satomura Likely Added To Mae Young Classic

Tokyo Sports is reporting that longtime Joshi veteran, Meiko Satomura, will be taking part in the second Mae Young Classic. The 38-year-old is a former World of Stardom champion and 1/3 of the Chikara Trios champions.

In 2005, Satomura co-founded the all-woman promotion, Sendai Girls. She also worked with WCW in the mid-90s on their short-lived women’s division which was to feature the likes of Bull Nakano and Madusa.

She helped create Sendai Girls after a previous female promotion, Gaea Japan, went out of business. Satomura wrestled in the final match ever held by the promotion before founding a new company the next year. She is the current Fight Club Pro champion. Satomura is also the last person to win the Joshi Puroresu Grand Prize award before Io Shirai began her sweep of the award. Satomura was given the award in 2013 and Shirai has swept every year since. That will change in 2018, however, as Shirai has spent the year with NXT.

Satomura defeated Kairi Hojo (Kairi Sane) for the World of Stardom Championship on July 26th, 2015. She held the title for 150 days before losing it to Io Shirai, who would then hold the title for 546 consecutive days. The most recent title change in the promotion saw Toni Storm drop the belt to Kagetsu on June 9th in Nagoya. Storm is recently believed to have signed a WWE UK deal and could likely end up in the second Mae Young Classic as well.

Last year, the tournament taped over a couple of days in July. They then aired the finale live in September. This year, it is believed they are looking at filming the tournament in August. This has not been confirmed, however. Full Sail University is expected to host the tournament again this year.

Impact Wrestling Hires Alicia Atout As Backstage Interviewer

Impact Wrestling has hired Alicia Atout as the company’s new backstage interviewer. Atout runs the award-winning blog and interview site, AMBY. The site posts interviews with wrestlers and musicians.

Atout was brought in by the company for the latest set of TV Tapings in Windsor. She recently posted to her social media account that she is now with the company in a more permanent role.

Impact’s previous host, McKenzie Mitchell, recently posted about moving on to new adventures. This should lead some to believe she is no longer going to be working with the promotion.

The company likely chose to bring in Atout over McKenzie at the most recent set of tapings due to geographical convenience. McKenzie is based out of Nashville and it had been easy to bring her in for the Orlando shows. As the tapings earlier this month took place in Windsor, ON, Canada it would have been cheaper for the company to bring in Atout, who is from Toronto.

Atout has also interviewed wrestlers for promotions such as Smash Wrestling, RISE, Shimmer, and appears frequently on the Fight Network in Canada.

Chris Jericho Says He Turned Down All In, New Japan’s US Shows

Chris Jericho recently reiterated that he will never work for another wrestling company in the United States other than WWE. It’s a statement Jericho has been making ever since taking a sabbatical from wrestling in 2006.

The new IWGP Intercontinental Champion was a guest on a recent episode of “Inside the Ropes.” He went into further detail regarding his current situation with both NJPW and WWE.

“I got asked to do Long Beach, I said no, I got asked to do Cow Palace, I said no, I got asked to do All In, I said no,” Jericho explained. “I don’t want to do that.”

“(This) is the most I’ve made for the least amount of matches I’ve had in my career,” Jericho said regarding his current situation with New Japan Pro Wrestling. He then stressed he would not be entertaining offers from promotions other than WWE to wrestle in the United States unless they were willing to offer a significant payday.

“I’m not going to work anywhere else unless you wanna pay six f***ing  figures,” he said. “This is Mayweather-McGregor type s**t for me.”

During the interview, Jericho talked about the commitment he made to Vince McMahon and WWE.

“The unwritten rule is I don’t want to go into the States,” Jericho said. “I feel like that would be a real slap in the face to Vince.”

While Jericho seems committed to living up to his promise, one has to wonder how long he can avoid being booked on NJPW’s United States shows. As the company looks to expand internationally, Jericho is a star the company likely wants to promote outside of Japan.

As for Jericho’s relationship with WWE, the last time he appeared on WWE programming was at the Greatest Royal Rumble from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

Enzo Amore’s Return To Pro-Wrestling Announced

Enzo Amore is returning to professional wrestling. The promotion responsible for this is House of Glory, run by wrestler Amazing Red. The promotion has been running shows out of New York for the last 6 years. Their most recent event featured members of the Latin American Xchange and Juventud Guerrera.

The event will take place August 17th, 2018 from Jamaica, New York. There will be a pre-show Meet and Greet scheduled at NYC Arena as well. Amore now appears to be going under the name “Real1”, which has been his social media handle for some time now.

It is not yet clear if Enzo will be wrestling on the show or just making an appearance.

Amore’s last professional wrestling match was on January 21st, 2018. The match took place on a 205 Live house show. Amore successfully defended his Cruiserweight Championship against Cedric Alexander in a match which also featured Nia Jax as the special referee.

Ric Flair Says Ronda Rousey Only Signed A 1-Year Contract

According to the 16x World Champion, Ric Flair, WWE’s hottest mainstream celebrity is only signed on through next year’s WrestleMania. Flair’s understanding of the situation is that Rousey is only on a short-term commitment deal as she plans on starting a family.

Flair made the comments during an interview with Chris Van Vliet.

During the interview, the topic turned to Charlotte Flair possibly facing Ronda Rousey at WrestleMania 35 next year. It’s possible Charlotte and Ronda will be the first women to headline a WrestleMania.

Flair seemed to suggest Charlotte vs Ronda will need to happen next year as Ronda is only signed to a 1-year deal with the company.

“If they are ever going to put the women where they belong, this is the year because Ronda – I think Ronda only signed a 1-year deal and then she’s out of there,” Flair said. “She wants to have kids and all that.”

Flair and Hogan have been making promotional appearances together for several months. Since his health scare last year, Flair has been one of Hogan’s biggest proponents, stating the Hulkster has been there for him during some very tough periods in his life. Flair has been advocating for a return to WWE for Hogan as well.

The interviewer then turned his attention to Hogan. He asked the Hulkster how things were going in terms of an eventual return to WWE.

“Things are moving in that direction quite quickly,” Hogan said. “It’s all about execution and timing.”

Can Don Callis Bring Kenny Omega To Impact Wrestling?

Impact Wrestling recently held a press conference in Toronto to promote their upcoming Slammiversary pay-per-view.

During the conference, Callis was asked about Canadian wrestling prospects he might be interested in signing. His answer surprised me. “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.”

Chris Jericho likely isn’t working for an English language-based company other than WWE anytime soon. The potential for Kenny Omega ending up in Impact Wrestling somewhere down the line, however, is far greater.

Impact recently announced Taiji Ishimori will be returning to the company. Following Ishimori’s debut in NJPW, it was believed he was done with Impact. Ishimori was recently announced as competing at Slammiversary, however, indicating a deal has been reached for him to work for both companies.

Ishimori working for NJPW and Impact Wrestling is an interesting development. NJPW has talent-sharing agreements with CMLL and ROH. Impact Wrestling, in TNA form, previously had such an agreement as well.  After Kazuchika Okada’s excursion to the company went poorly, however, there was said to be a falling out between the two companies.

While one bridge between Impact and NJPW had been burnt, NJPW’s color commentator being hired as Impact Wrestling’s new co-Vice President built another. The Ishimori signing indicates Impact has at least cracked the door open for a talent-sharing arrangement with the talent-rich promotion. If that door opens fully, Kenny Omega will be the first one Callis brings in.

While it’s unknown if ROH and NJPW’s talent-sharing agreement is exclusive in the United States and Canada, it has worked out that way ever since TNA and NJPW had a falling out. ROH and Impact Wrestling don’t seem to mind sharing talent, however. They have already done so with Austin Aries.

To make things even more interesting, Chris Jericho recently announced Impact Wrestling will be apart of his cruise later this fall.

Brian Christopher Arrested In Memphis

Former WWE tag-team champion, Brian Christopher, has been arrested. Christopher and the owner/chairman of the Glory Championship Wrestling Alliance, Terry Teague, were arrested for failing to pay for a hotel bill totaling over $800.

It’s been an unfortunate few months for the son of Jerry Lawler. In March, it was reported that Christopher was beaten so badly he required surgery. Indie wrestler, Chase Stevens, was arrested shortly after the incident.

Fox Memphis was the first to report on Christopher’s arrest. According to their report, Lawler and Teague had used a company credit card to pay for their stay. When the hotel attempted to bill the wrestlers there was not enough money remaining on the card they used. The hotel then notified the police after being informed by Christopher and Teague that they were unable to pay their bill through other methods. The pair were staying at the Hampton Inn on Peabody Place in Memphis.

Christopher has been charged with Theft of Services under $1000 or less. The crime is deemed a misdemeanor offense in Tennessee.

Tennessee law lists the following possible penalties for Christopher’s offense:

“Tennessee law specifies that penalties for a Misdemeanor Theft conviction apply if the value of lost property or services was $1,000 or less.  Misdemeanor Theft is a Class A Misdemeanor and may result in some or all of the following penalties:

1. A sentence of up to 11 months, 29 days in prison;

2. A probationary period;

3. A fine of up to $2,500;

4. Court costs.”

The 46-year old has yet to wrestle a match in 2018. He’s been dealing with the facial injuries he suffered since March.

Christopher has been wrestling only sporadically in recent years. He wrestled 4 matches in 2017 and only 5 in 2016. Often, he will wrestle under his former Grandmasta Sexay gimmick as well. On occasion, he has been joined by Scotty 2 Hotty on the indie scene as well. In 2015, Too Cool wrested several matches together. Scotty 2 Hotty now works at the WWE Performance Center in Florida, however.