WK 13 Card Revealed – Wrestle Kingdom 13 is a go for January 4th, as it’s been for decades.  New Japan Pro Wrestling has revealed several matches for the upcoming major super-show, and some are interesting.  Kenny Omega has already been booked to face Hiroshi Tanahashi for the IWGP Heavyweight and is seen as one of the biggest dream matches of all time.  Omega’s New Japan future is hanging on this match.  If Omega loses, many assume he’s leaving the promotion.

Another major title match will be the IWGP Intercontinental Championship which will see Chris Jericho taking on Tetsuya Naito, who have been taking shots at one another for nearly a year.

The most decorated Heavyweight Champion of all time, Kazuchika Okada will take on Jay White.  White joined the Bullet Club and betrayed Okada whom he used to be running bodies with.  White also took Okada’s former manager Gedo as his own, thus putting some real heat into this feud.

KUSHIDA will defend his IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship against Taiji Ishimori, the former IMPACT X-Division Champion.  KUSHIDA won the Junior Heavyweight title after Hiromu Takahashi broke his neck and was forced to vacate the title.  Taiji didn’t just leave IMPACT to join New Japan but his long time home promotion of Pro Wrestling NOAH.

Finally, New Japan has announced that defending Light-Heavyweight Tag Team Champions El Desperado & Yoshinobu Kanemaru will face off with Rocky Romero’s  Roppongi 3K and Shingo Takagi & BUSHI for the straps. Roppongi 3K just recently won the Super Junior Tag Team Tournament, earning their way into this match.  The Junior Heavyweight titles are more often than not in a multi man match.  So that tradition continues.

Court Documents Show How Anthem Acquired IMPACT – So firstly, this whole situation is in response to Jeff Jarrett’s lawsuit against Anthem and IMPACT Wrestling for their use of the Global Force Wrestling’s Amped Anthology which was originally filmed as a pilot for a future television series.  Essentially, Anthem rejected Jarrett’s desire to hold the proceedings in Nashville, as Anthem is a Canadian based company, and rejected Jarrett’s assertions to the contrary over who owns the rights of certain footage, and copyrights.    They’re also stating that Jarrett’s filings shows that he’s unaware of how Anthem operates, and thus invalidates his claims.

The interesting note though involves with how Anthem and Ed Nordholm were able to acquire IMPACT Wrestling in the first place.  Apparently Anthem and Dixie Carter came to terms on a credit relationship.  Anthem loaned Dixie Carter funds to finance the promotion but if she defaulted on them, the company would then be acquired by Anthem.   Dixie was notorious for defaulting on loans, with at least four different outfits being owed money to at once point.  So Anthem acquired the company through those terms.  It’s believed that the plan all along was to acquire the company through this tactic.

PWInsider has a pretty detailed read up, and if you don’t speak legalese, then it might be a bit over your head.  However, it’s worth the read.

 

Quick Hits – Jeff Cobb spoke with Jim Ross on the latter’s Ross Report podcast, and revealed that he did have dreams of working for the WWE once, and cites them as the reason he got into pro wrestling

The Kingdom’s Matt Taven, TK O’Ryan and Vinny Marseglia defeated The Elite’s Cody Rhodes and The Young Bucks for the ROH World Six Man Tag Team titles for the third time at tonight’s taping.

Former ROH and Pro Wrestling NOAH standout Takeshi Morishima was arrested in Japan after assaulting a cab driver after refusing to pay a $159 (18,000 yen) fair.  The taxi driver has a fractured left orbital bone from his encounter with Takeshi.  Takeshi was reportedly planning a comeback at the age of 40.