BY JEFF KNAPP
Before anything, I’d love to say how happy I am to hear the wonderful new baby news coming from Ruby Soho and Angelo Parker. Congrats to the future mom and dad.
After that good news came out, it was also revealed that Sara Rowe (Valhalla) and Erik are expecting their second child. Congrats to both of them as well.
This past weekend we had two great PPVs by both TNA & AEW. I’d like to take the time to say congratulations to Kazuchika Okada, Roderick Strong, Toni Storm, Spitfire, Mustafa Ali, The System, Jordynne Grace and Moose for all successfully retaining their respective championships.
I’d also like to congratulate all the people who walked out champion, Laredo Kid becoming the new TNA Digital Media Champion, Bullet Club Gold in unifying the AEW & ROH Trios Championships, Willow Nightingale in becoming the new AEW TBS Champion, The Young Buck becoming the 3x AEW World tag team champions and finally but not least, Swerve Strickland in becoming the new AEW World Champion. I’m not a fan of the you deserve it, but for Swerve he EARNED it.
Speaking of new Champions, this young man has also put in the work and you can see him improving each time and that is the new NXT Champion, Trick Williams. Trick defeated Ilja Dragunov at NXT Spring Breakin on Tuesday.
There were also a few returns over the weekend. During the TNA PPV we saw the return of 3 wrestlers, Mike Santana, The Death Machine Sami Callihan and “Broken” Matt Hardy DELETE !!! and with AEW we saw the return of Jack Perry.
In a wave of releases between Friday night and Tuesday afternoon, the WWE has released the following wrestlers. Jinder Mahal, Veer, Sanga, Xia Li, Xyon Quinn, Von Wagner and Cameron Grimes. These are all talented men and women that we all hope, as wrestling fans and compassionate humans, find work after their no compete clause has finished.
This past Monday on Raw, there was a Battle Royal to crown a new Women’s World Champion and Becky Lynch eliminated Liv Morgan to become the new Champion.
In huge and exciting news, on Tuesday it was announced that STARDOM will become a fully owned subsidiary of NJPW starting on June 28, 2024. The parent company of both promotions is Bushiroad Fight, which acquired STARDOM in 2019.
In injury related news, word is that Powerhouse Hobbs suffered a knee injury while wrestling Jon Moxley. No word as of yet on the severity.
It appears that Dominik Mysterio will be having Tommy John surgery on his elbow which could sideline him up to 9 months. With that timetable, we could see him make an in-ring return at the Royal Rumble.
Reports are out that Jimmy Uso has been sidelined with an undisclosed injury and there is no word on how long he will be out but it appears that the injury was enough to keep him out of the WWE Draft pool
At Thursday’s NFL draft, Tony Khan appeared on television while they drafted WR Brian Thomas Jr. The beauty of this was he was in a neck brace from his vicious attack from Okada, The Young Bucks and Jack Perry.
Steve Maclin, a former Impact World Champion, re-signed with the company on Thursday.
Roll call of current Champions across the wrestling world
WWE
Undisputed WWE Champion – Cody Rhodes
World Heavyweight Champion – Damian Priest
World Tag Team Champions – The Miz & R-Truth
WWE Tag Team Champions – Grayson Waller & Austin Theory
WWE Women’s Champion – Bayley
Women’s World Champion – Becky Lynch
WWE Women’s Tag Team Champions – The Kabuki Warriors
WWE US Champion – Logan Paul
WWE Intercontinental Champion – Sami Zayn
NXT
NXT Championship- Trick Williams
NXT Women’s Champion – Roxanne Perez
North American Champion – Oba Femi
Tag Team Champions – Nathan Frazer & Axiom
Heritage Cup – Charlie Dempsey
AEW
AEW World Champion – Swerve Strickland
TNT Champion – Adam Copeland
AEW Women’s Champion – Toni Storm
TBS Champion – Willow Nightingale
AEW World Tag Team Champions – Young Bucks
AEW & ROH Unified Trios Champions – Bullet Club Gold (Jay White & Austin & Colton Gunn)
AEW International Champion – Roderick Strong
AEW Continental Champion – Kazuchika Okada
TNA Wrestling
World Champion – Moose
X Division – Mustafa Ali
Tag Team Champions – The System (Eddie Edwards and Brian Myers)
Digital Media Champion – Laredo Kid
Knockouts Champion – Jordynne Grace
Knockouts Tag Champions – Spitfire (Dani Luna and Jody Threat)
ROH
ROH World Champion – Mark Briscoe
ROH TV Champion – Kyle Fletcher
ROH Pure Champion – Wheeler Yuta
ROH Tag Champions – The Kingdom (Matt Taven & Mike Bennett)
ROH Women’s Champion – Athena
ROH Women’s TV Champion – Billie Starkz
NJPW
IWGP World Champion – Jon Moxley
IWGP Global Heavyweight – Nick Nemeth
IWGP Junior Heavyweight – Sho
Strong Openweight Champion – Eddie Kingston
IWGP Television Champion – Zack Sabre Jr.
IWGP Tag Team Champions – Bishamon (Hirooki Goto & Yoshi Hashi
IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions – Bullet Club War Dogs (Drilla Moloney and Clark Connors)
Strong Openweight Tag Team Champions – TMDK (Shane Haste & Mikey Nicholls)
NEVER Openweight Champion – Shingo Takagi
NEVER Openweight Six Man Tag Champions – Vacant
KOPW 2023 – Great O Khan
IWGP Women’s Champion – Maya Iwatani (Shared with Stardom)
Strong Women’s Champion – Stephanie Vaquer (Shared with Stardom)
NWA
NWA Worlds Heavyweight Champion – EC3
NWA World TV Champion – Max The Impaler (unified men’s and women’s)
NWA World Jr Heavyweight Champion – Joe Alonzo
NWA National Champion – VACANT
NWA World Tag Team Champions – Blunt Force Trauma – (Carnage & Damage)
NWA US Tag Team Champions – The Immortals (Kratos & Odinson)
NWA World Women’s Champion – Kenzie Paige
NWA World Women’s TV Champion – Max The Impaler
NWA World Women’s Tag Team Champions – The King Bees (Charity King & Danni Bee)
AAA – Triple A Worldwide
AAA Mega Champion – Nic Nemeth
AAA Latin American Champion – Octagon Jr
AAA World Cruiserweight Champion – Komander
AAA World Tag Team Champions – Nueva Generacion Dinamita (Sanson & Forastero)
AAA World Trios Champions – Los Vipers (Abismo Negro Jr, Psicosis & Toxin)
AAA Reina de Reinas Champion – Flammer
CMLL – Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre
CMLL World Heavyweight Champion – Gran Guerrero
CMLL World Light Heavyweight Champion – Averno
CMLL World Middleweight Champion – Templario
CMLL World Welterweight Champion – Titan
CMLL World Lightweight Champion – Stigma
CMLL World Tag Team Champions – Los Nuevos Ingobernables (Ángel de Oro & Niebla Roja)
CMLL World Trios Champions – Los Bárbaros (Dragon Rojo Jr., Bárbaro Cavernario & El Terrible)
CMLL World Women’s Champion – Stephanie Vaquer
CMLL World Women’s Tag Team Champions – Stephanie Vaquer and Zeuxis
Stardom
World of Stardom Champion (main title) – Maika
Wonder of Stardom Champion (secondary title ie IC title) – Saori Anou
Goddess of Stardom Champions (tag) – Crazy Star (Suzu Suzuki & Mei Seira)
Artist of Stardom Champions (trios) – Empress Nexus Venus (Maika, Mina Shirakawa & Xena)
High Speed Champion (lightweight or x type of title) Saki Kashima
The Sports Insanity Network 