The Wrestling Underground, WrestleCorp News

Kenny Omega Heading to AEW? Major IMPACT News From Last Night and More!

We’re starting off today’s post with a crap-load of All Elite Wrestling based news.  Firstly involving Kenny Omega, it’s all but assumed that he’ll be joining with All Elite Wrestling.  His best friends are running the company, they’ll be willing to give him the creative freedom he seeks and let’s be honest, when you have billionaires backing your venture you won’t be in need of money.  Dave Meltzer expanded on this idea by saying;

Nothing will be official there until February 1st and Kenny Omega has not said this specifically, but the tea leaves kind of say it. I think that I’ve kind of heard from WWE that they really wanted him and it’s not gonna happen. So unless something there changes it’s gonna be All Elite and if that’s the case, New Japan really wants Kenny Omega so they may be working with All Elite. I don’t know how it’s all going to come down, but it definitely went down from the idea that ‘they’re not going to be working with All Elite now,’ I mean they may at some point, anything could happen at some point, but for now ‘that wasn’t gonna happen’ to I think it’s got a very good shot of happening, but still there’s a lot barriers. It’s a really complicated issue.”

As for the trio running All Elite Wrestling, Cody Rhodes and The Young Bucks have apparently signed five-year deals with the company.  The other four signed talents are the trio of the SocCal Uncensored (Christopher Daniels, Frankie Kazarian and Scorpio Sky) and Hangman Page.  Brandi Rhodes is also apart of the company as Chief Brand Officer, but her role as a wrestler is unknown as of right now.

Following up on the Tweet from earlier, PAC is in the area of the All Elite Wrestling rally, expected to appear.  While some will claim this means a return to the WWE is likely, it’s not. He hated his time there.  PAC has been wanting to work for the Elite for some time, but wanted to show his commitment to Dragon Gate by appearing for them first before he worked elsewhere, which is why he declined All In.  However, now that people know he’s back in wrestling, he’s open to working with AEW.  More so, with NJPW passing on working with AEW for ROH, PAC may represent a possible partnership with Dragon Gate.

The Khan’s, the family involved with the monetary backing of AEW, have released statements about the venture, confirming their involvement.  Because it’s mostly boilerplate stuff, I won’t each up inches with quotes, but you can read the whole thing by clicking here.

 

In some interesting NJPW news, firstly Chase Owens isn’t going anywhere.  It looks like he was removed from the Bullet Club at first due to his pending free agency, but Owens have made a contractual commitment to the NJPW organization and a verbal commitment to Bullet Club.  Owens and Yujiro Takahashi were kicked out of the group with The Elite, but rejoined seemingly at New Years Dash.

As for KUSHIDA, who’s leaving the promotion on January 31st, he’ll get one last shot at immortality.  KUSHIDA will face off with long time stable mate Hiroshi Tanahashi at the January 29th event in Korakuen Hall.  Both men have been apart of Taguchi Japan for some time now.  They’ve both been anchors of their respective classes, and seen by many to be the equivalent to the Muta/Liger in the 90’s and KENTA vs. Kenta in the 00′, in regards to different weighted competitors finally matching up.

As for Chris Jericho, Meltzer again chimes in stating that both Jericho and NJPW want to work together again.  Apparently Jericho is gun-ho about getting a match with Tanahashi for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship.  It’s considered a dream match by many, and it’s one Jericho wants.  This doen’t preclude him from working AEW as well, to be clear.

 

In WWE news, apparently the focus has changed for Ronda Rousey’s match at WrestleMania.  Charlotte Flair and Becky Lynch are both being eyed for that match, making it a triple threat match, according to Dave Meltzer.  The reasoning behind this stems from Sasha Banks getting a match at the Royal Rumble with Rousey, which was originally slated for Flair.  Meltzer was clear to say the triple threat isn’t official yet but;

 It sure seems that way, yes. I was told it’s not official, it’s under consideration and because it’s under consideration the decision was made to pull the match from the Royal Rumble, which means they’re leaning toward it.

 

 

 

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Photo Courtesy @BenTurpen on Twitter

Finally, in news from last night’s taping in Nashville, several bits broke on our Twitter.  Firstly, Scott Steiner and Crazy Steve appeared for the audience . Steve isn’t back full time with the promotion, but was set to be used in some capacity.  However the truck blew a breaker, losing power to the venue and stalling the tapings for a few minutes.  Steve wrestled Logan James in a dark match to fill time. The show picked up shortly after with no more issues.

The promotion also brought back Scott Steiner, who has a segment on Friday’s show.  This was done for their debut on Pursuit.  Steiner’s not back full time, but may stick around for this set of tapings.

In other news stemming from the event, Ed Nordholm held a meeting for everyone backstage where they addressed the future of the promotion.  He was asked about the rumors of the company being for sale, and Nordholm denied them completely; stating that IMPACT was always meant to be a property of Anthem, and to be used on Anthem platforms, which Pursuit is.  The feeling was that the meeting was very positive and everyone left at ease for the most part.

The taping was almost full, except for the 2nd deck which only holds at most a hundred or so seats.  Not sure why it wasn’t used, but I’m hearing that no one was up there at all; so it’s possible they didn’t sell those to begin with.

We mentioned before how Chris Harris was backstage at Sunday’s pay per view event, however we can now confirm that former IMPACT interviewer, manager and entrance theme composer Goldilocks was there as well.  She did a little backstage reunion with Abyss in the production truck.  If I remember correctly she either debuted Abyss, or at the very least was his first manager.  So the two have a lot of history together.

Lastly, congrats to former IMPACT Wrestling referee Andrew Thomas.  Many may not know this but he’s still with the promotion and even directed IMPACT’s Homecoming event on Sunday night.