Various: Kazuchika Okada on CM Punk & Danielson, Bobby Cruise on Deonna Purrazzo & ROH Final Battle, Rohit Raju

Jan 4, 2022

Kazuchika Okada Comments on Wanting to Wrestle CM Punk & Bryan Danielson

Sports Illustrated held a recent interview with NJPW talent Kazuchika Okada. One of the topics discussed included Okada’s thoughts on wanting to wrestle against CM Punk and Bryan Danielson while both are still active in their wrestling careers.

“Danielson and Punk would make for some incredible matches. A lot of those dream match scenarios are about getting excited for the possibilities, and once the match is done, it’s done. So it is important to keep that excitement and anticipation, I think. Still, if we wait too long, they’ll both retire eventually, so I want to face them both while they’re still active.”

Okada also gave his thoughts about AEW’s Best Friends becoming official members of his CHAOS group.

“The Best Friends were part of CHAOS when they were in New Japan, and with the door to AEW being opened a bit, it added more possibilities. [Tomohiro] Ishii was able to come into AEW from CHAOS, and if Orange Cassidy and the Best Friends were able to show up in New Japan, there is no doubt that would be a lot of fun. The sooner the whole pandemic settles down, the better as far as that’s concerned.”

Bobby Cruise Comments on Deonna Purrazzo’s Surprise Appearance at ROH Final Battle 2021

A recent episode of the ROH Strong podcast had ROH ring announcer Bobby Cruise and Maria Kanellis as the guests. One of the topics discussed included Impact Wrestling’s Deonna Purrazzo’s surprise appearance at this past December’s Final Battle 2021 event.

On the topic of the process leading up to Purrazzo’s appearance:

Cruise – “We never had any discussions with AEW. We did have discussions with NWA about something that we thought would be really good and mutually beneficial. Obviously, that did not happen. Maria and I had been talking to IMPACT this past spring about Deonna, specifically. When you’re booking something and writing something, any time you can have reality in a situation, it just adds to it that much more. Deonna having unfinished business in Ring of Honor is a shoot. She did not leave Ring of Honor under the best terms and she knows that. She had unfinished business. A year ago, I talked to her and was going to pitch IMPACT on getting her involved, whether it was the tournament or something to do with the tournament. We had a call in the spring and we thought we had something, we had an agreement, but at that time IMPACT also wanted some of the guys to crossover and Ring of Honor wasn’t interested in that at the time, so it fell apart. Her appearing at Final Battle, we didn’t work on that one for months.”
Kanellis – “Bobby was like, ‘what about this’ and I went, ‘yes,’ and it was literally all within a week. IMPACT has been fantastic with it. Everybody has been so helpful and it’s been great. I can’t wait to see what those women have been able to accomplish.”
Cruise – “It was Sunday night before Final Battle, I’m watching TV and I’m like…the big things with Final Battle was having moments. We saw several moments. My thought was, the women’s division has been so good and so well received that why can’t they have a moment as well? I didn’t even text Maria first, which I usually do. I text Deonna and I said, ‘Are you available on Saturday?’ She had to move some stuff around, but she said, ‘What are you thinking?’ With her unfinished business in Ring of Honor, she loved it. Ran it by Maria, she said yes, I emailed Scott D’Amore and within ten minutes he got back to me and we got the ball rolling. After a few emails and one phone call with IMPACT, that Tuesday afternoon, we had it and we knew we had something special and a special moment for the women’s division to go along with everything else.”

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com