I wanted to post about some non-TJPW stuff that has also been happening recently.
First up, here’s another interview from Mr. Haku! This one is with former Stardom wrestler Sumire Natsu, who is a very interesting person.
One note on these interviews is that Mr. Haku said that all of the wrestlers he’s interviewing are doing these interviews because they have international aspirations. So definitely keep an eye out for them appearing in other countries besides Japan!
There have been quite a few high profile wrestlers from Japan coming to America (and the UK) to work the indies this year. TJPW has been sending loads of their wrestlers on excursions, with Miyu, Itoh, and Yuka coming over to work AEW and other shows, and Mizuki having at least one appearance scheduled at Deadlock. Plus with Takeshita’s continuing excursion, and former Stardom wrestler Jungle Kyona scheduled to make appearances over here as well.
The other things I wanted to mention concern negative industry things, so I’ll hide the details for both.
Michael Elgin seems to have finally burned his last bridge in Japan.
Apparently he got arrested for shoplifting protein powder?? Can’t say that’s how I expected his career to end, but I also can’t say I’ll miss seeing him at all. He seems to be out of NOAH in the short term, likely the long term, because I believe his options were to either serve prison time in Japan or leave the country and never come back, and I think he chose the second one. Basically the whole wrestling world has been united in dunking on him, so if you hear anyone on NJPW commentary or elsewhere joking about protein powder, it’s almost certainly a reference to this.
In any case, NOAH has gotten easier to watch, though I’m still waiting for them to do something about Hajime Ohara…
And on another note:
Kota Ibushi's injury is not healing well.
I was worried about this after a comment Kenny said in a recent stream where someone asked which of the Golden Lovers are closer to making an in-ring return, and he said that Kota’s shoulder is in pretty bad shape.
Kota himself basically confirmed this on twitter not long afterward. He also alluded to having plans for creating something (a stable? a promotion? an organization?) that will benefit wrestling, even if he himself is unable to make his own return to the ring. He’s still optimistic that he’ll be able to come back eventually, though, but it might take a long time. He also is very firm about not wanting to work at NJPW anymore, and says that he’s going to say more about them after he quits.
Here’s a summary with all of his tweets about it and translations.