In interesting news, Dragon Lee is signing with Ring of Honor! Something that shouldn’t come as surprise, as NJPW/CMLL/ROH all have a working relationship. The deal isn’t a pure exclusive deal, as Lee will still be able to work for NJPW/CMLL and any partners they may have, but as far as Canada and the U.S. goes, he’s now got an official touring partner. Lee’s signing comes in the wake of his brother Rush signing with ROH as well. Their other brother, the 2nd Mistico, may also be signing I hear as ROH is trying to use Lucha Libre talent to soften the loss of The Elite. While Rush is CMLL’s top guy, Dragon Lee is considered the best light-heavyweight, middle-weight, X-Division guy going today.
This has risen some interesting questions about ROH’s competition Major League Wrestling. Court Bauer, MLW’s owner and operator, had a deal in place for Rush to work some shows, but after Rush left that deal on the table for ROH, Bauer apparently reconsidered working with CMLL talents again, saying, “MLW has never had contracts talks with Dragon Lee. While I was told I can use other CMLL guys I was uncomfortable doing so. The only CMLL talent ever engaged was Rush. Once the political alliance demonstrated it was ironclad, @MLW moved away from CMLL talent.”
Bauer also said that anyone under contract is legally bound to work those dates, but that Lee was never under a deal. He also pointed out that he’s going to be avoiding using talent that aren’t a strategic partner of theirs. This will be interesting as Bauer uses plenty of IMPACT talent through Konnan. We’ll see how that unfolds.
In Other News…
Ian Rapoport claims that the WWE is not in future plans for the Patriots star Tight End, Rob Gronkowski.
Speaking of the WWE, John Cena was questionable for the Royal Rumble following an apparent ankle injury according to WWe’s Twitter account but the tweet appears to have been deleted.
Speaking of things that should of been deleted, Sasha Banks is trying to get fired after sending a gif to The Revival, who are apparently three months from freedom. The duo were promised the division would be turned around in three months and if they were still unhappy they would be let go; according to ‘sources’. The duo then said that they’ll steal the show wherever they go, spurring Banks to reply with a gif that said ‘Take me with you!” Banks has long been rumored to be unhappy with her standing in the company, and it feels ore like the match at the Royal Rumble against Ronda Rousey is to satisfy her; which won’t work.
In OVW news, yup, Al Snow says the promotions new goal is to go live every Wednesday night on t.v. and run occasional major events through Fite TV Network’s app. Snow bought OVW from former owner Danny Davis last year.
In IMPACT Wrestling news, the next pay per view event is expected to be at Toronto’s Rebel Entertainment Complex, the same place as Slammiversary XVI. The event isn’t expected to be Lockdown, and why anyone would still thing that is dumb. The event hasn’t been used as a pay per view event since 2014.
In rapid fire news, Billy Gunn, AEW’s new producer is open to working as in ring talent for the promotion as well going forward. One would presume he’d like to see his son with him. NXTUK bound talent Viper won the WOS from Kay Lee Ray last week, only to drop it to Bea Pristley several days later. Both Viper and Ray are expected in UK’s developmental territory soon.