Various: Francesco Akira vs. El Desperado for IWGP Jr. Title Set for NJPW 53rd Anniversary Show, Curry Man Announces Wrestling Retirement, Omos on His Recent Time in NOAH

Francesco Akira vs. El Desperado for IWGP Jr. Title Announced for NJPW 53rd Anniversary Show

New Japan Pro Wrestling announced one new match for the card of their 53rd Anniversary Show, which takes place on March 6th at the Ota City General Gymnasium in Tokyo, Japan.

This new match announced was an IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship match of Francesco Akira vs. El Desperado (c).

Current card for NJPW 53rd Anniversary Show:

• IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship match – Francesco Akira vs. El Desperado (c)

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Curry Man Announces Retirement from Wrestling at Chris Jericho Cruise Event

This past Saturday’s Chris Jericho’s Jericho Cruise 2025: Six On The Beach event featured Curry Man defeating The Masked Brother.

Following the match, Curry Man grabbed a microphone and gave a speech to the live crowd announcing his official in-ring retirement for his wrestling career.

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Prior to his announcement, Curry Man had been wrestling since 1999. Curry Man is a masked character performed by Christopher Daniels who had announced his in-ring retirement for his own wrestling career this past January.

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Omos Comments on His Recent Time in NOAH

As noted before, Omos recently announced that his time with Pro Wrestling NOAH is over and he would be returning to WWE following NOAH’s event on January 25th. Omos had relinquished his half of the GHC Tag Team Championship and gave his title belt to Daga to take over as tag champions with Jack Morris but this was not officially recognized by NOAH who vacated the titles instead.

MuscleManMalcolm held a recent interview with Omos. One of the topics discussed included Omos’ thoughts about his recent time in NOAH.

“It was a life changing experience. It was something that I needed for my experience as a performer. It was great to experience a different culture. I ingratiated myself in the Japanese culture, which was awesome.”

Omos also gave his thoughts about working with Jack Morris during his time in NOAH.

“It was awesome. Jack has so much potential. He was a great tag team partner. I can’t speak any more highly of him. He’s amazing. Look out for Jack Morris. He’s a star.”

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com