Various: Karl Anderson NJPW Update, D’Lo Brown on Recent Stint in Impact Wrestling, Indies

AEW

Dec 14, 2022

Karl Anderson NJPW Status Update

As noted before, Karl Anderson’s future in NJPW was in doubt following his and Luke Gallows’ return to WWE this past October and him being involved in a recent booking dispute with NJPW. This dispute was later resolved with Anderson’s originally scheduled appearance for NJPW’s Battle Autumn event this past November being rescheduled for NJPW’s Super Junior Tag League and World Tag League 2022 Finals event, which took place earlier today in Japan.

PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that his sources stated that WWE and NJPW officials recently agreed to a deal allowing Anderson to work at NJPW’s Wrestle Kingdom 17 event next month.

Johnson reported that this deal allows NJPW to keep their creative plans in place for Anderson at the event, which they had set well before The Good Brothers made their return to WWE. Johnson also reported that Anderson is currently planned to have a “strong role” at the show in the form of a singles match.

D’Lo Brown Comments on His Recent Time in Impact Wrestling

Captain’s Corner held a recent virtual fan signing event with D’Lo Brown. One of the topics discussed included Brown’s thoughts on his recent stint in Impact Wrestling working in backstage and commentary positions in the company.

“I just recently left there [IMPACT Wrestling]. I was Head of Talent Relations and I got to be part of signing some really good guys and girls at IMPACT Wrestling and I got to work with some really good people. I got to work with, you know, people like Tessa Blanchard or Eric Young or Chris Bey, Josh Alexander. I got to be next to Josh Matthews calling play-by-play and color commentary. It was very cool being in that role because it was mentor/advisor/helper and you get to give back to the next generation of talent which is what you really wanna do in this business is give the knowledge you’ve been given and pass it forward so the business stays strong so, I was very happy with my time in IMPACT Wrestling. I love the people I worked with, I love the office there. It’s nice to work with young, up and coming talent. I got to work with a young A.J. Styles before he was A.J. Styles you know of today, which was kind of cool, to watch him grow.”

Brown also gave his thoughts about his time in Ace & Eights and how he was not originally planned to be a member of the group.

“So, it’s weird. I was not supposed to be a member of Aces and Eights as it started out. If you remember back when Aces and Eights started, everybody was wearing masks and they were just doing run-ins and beat people up. So, it was a bunch of younger guys and Eric Bischoff said, ‘Hey D’Lo, would you mind putting a mask on? Because I know you’ll make it look tight out there in the beat down because it can look a little clustery if not done right and you can help the young kids kind of see how it’s done.’ So I was like, ‘Cool. Yeah, no problem’ and the more times I went out there, look, I’ve got a familiar head. You can’t hide this head. So after a while, people realized it was me under the one hood and so it evolved to where I had to be unmasked as a member. If not, we would have lost credibility. So I got in Aces and Eights out of happenstance. I was not supposed to be part of it but it worked out that through the wrestling Gods, I became the Vice President. I went from not being in it to the Vice President overnight. Think about that.”

Transcript h/t: PostWrestling.com

Misc. Wrestling News & Notes

As noted before, All Japan Pro Wrestling talent Jake Lee will be leaving the company once his contract expires by the end of this month. In a recent interview with Tokyo Sports, Lee stated that he had made his decision to want to leave AJPW at the beginning of this year due to him wanting new challenges for his career, including wrestling more outside of Japan. (English translation via PostWrestling.com)

AJPW recently announced that they have pulled Hikaru Sato from the cards of their December 21st and December 25th events in Tokyo, Japan due to him suffering a lower back injury this past Sunday.

Premier Streaming Network announced that they have recently signed a multi-year deal with Combat Zone Wrestling to air their live events and library of past events on the service starting next year.

Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling recently announced that Chris Brookes and Drew Parker will be the English commentary team for their January 4, 2023 event in Tokyo, Japan.

Wrestling Revolver recently announced that Johnny REVOLVER (also known as John Hennigan), Taya Valkyrie, Ace Austin, and Chris Bey will be making an appearance for the company at their Drip event on March 4, 2023 in Clive, Iowa.

New Japan Pro Wrestling recently announced that they will be holding a four-day Oceania Cup event in 2023 in Australia. It was also announced that this upcoming event is being held as part of a collaboration with the New South Wales government.

NJPW also recently announced that their Concurso bodybuilding contest will be returning this year on December 22th & 23rd in Tokyo, Japan. This will be the third time NJPW will be holding their Consurso event and the first time since 2020.

Game Changer Wrestling recently announced that due to Lucha Libre AAA’s current policy, El Hijo del Vikingo’s upcoming appearance for the company at their Amerikaz Most Wanted event on December 16th in Los Angeles, California will not be streamed on FITE+. GCW also announced that this policy covers all of Vikingo’s scheduled booking in the United States going forward. LuchaBlog reported that his sources stated that this policy also covers VOD uploads of events and also likely included televised shows.

During a recent episode of the Podding with Ego podcast, host and indie wrestler Anthony Henry revealed that he recently was given a pay raise in the National Wrestling Alliance. It was also announced that Missa Kate and Joe Alonzo also recently signed official contracts with the company.

MLW recently announced two new matches for the card of their Blood & Thunder 2023 event on January 7, 2023 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania: