Various: Gail Kim to Be Special Guest Referee for Kenzie Paige vs. Natalya Match at NWA Crockett Cup 2025, Joe Hendry Confirms He Is In Contract Year with TNA, Indies/Misc.

May 14, 2025

Gail Kim to Make Appearance At NWA Crockett Cup 2025 Event & Be Special Guest Referee for Kenzie Paige vs. Natalya Match

The National Wrestling Alliance recently announced that TNA Hall of Famer Gail Kim will be making an appearance for the company at their Crockett Cup 2025 event on May 17th in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

It was also announced that Kim will be the special guest referee for the NWA World Women’s Championship match between Natalya and Kenzie Paige at the event.

“As the person who booked this very special match-up between the WWE’s Natalya and NWA World Women’s Champion Kenzie Paige, in a championship match no less, and given the bad blood between the two stars, which has only built since the Bloodsport event in Vegas and of course Ms.… pic.twitter.com/583vTML3C7
— NWA (@nwa) May 13, 2025

Joe Hendry Confirms He Is In Contract Year & Him Looking to “Have A Place” to Live in United States

Joe Hendry’s contract with TNA Wrestling is currently believed to be expiring this October.

A recent episode of the Insight with Chris Van Vliet podcast featured Hendry as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Hendry confirming that he is currently in a contract year with TNA.

“Who knows what’s gonna happen next. I’m in my contract year right now, it’s a very exciting time. I’m doing my best to give my best to the performance, give the audience everything else and too enjoy it.”

Hendry also gave his thoughts about if he is currently seeking a place to live in the United States for the future of his wrestling career.

“Certainly. I was kind of thinking about it last year as well, but I think we’re at the point now where, like I said, I’ve been home for one full day, the time before I was home for two full days. I love Scotland. I love it. But I need to have a place here.”

Transcript h/t: Fightful.com, F4WOnline.com

Misc. Wrestling News & Notes

Barstool recently covered the viral clip of Ninja Mack performing multiple consecutive backflips in and out of the ring during his Best of the Super Juniors tournament match against Robbie X at this past Sunday’s Best of the Super Juniors 2025 event for New Japan Pro Wrestling in Iwanuma, Japan.

DEFY Wrestling announced that they have pulled Paul Walter Hauser from their Final Fantasy event on May 16th in Seattle, Washington due to him recently suffering an injury. It was also announced that they will be announcing a replacement for Hauser’s scheduled match against Ricky Gibson for the PROGRESS Proteus Championship at the event.

Former Pro Wrestling NOAH talent LJ Cleary announced on Twitter that he recently got his work visa approved for the United States and is now fully based out of Orlando, Florida. Cleary also announced that he is currently a full free agent and available for bookings.

Jack Price announced on Twitter that his contract with TNA Wrestling recently expired and he is currently a free agent. Price stated “My TNA contract is officially up. Your favorite Diamond is a free agent. I won Gut Check in 2022. Pitched stories. Waited for opportunity. It never came. Now I write my own story. Diamonds are forever… and so is Jack Price. See you soon. #FreeAgent #JackPrice #TNA“

As noted before, TNA recently issued a new edict banning “excessive blood” and blading from matches going forward due to the company is currently shopping around Impact! for a potential new television deal. In a recent interview with Fightful, current TNA International Champion Steve Maclin gave his thoughts about TNA’s blood ban decision. Maclin stated “The past few pay-per-views, with the Dog Collar Match, you had Santana and Ali killing it at Rebellion, and then you had the Barbed Wire Massacre at Unbreakable, the same night that I won the International Championship. There’s a lot of blood recently. So I think that’s their way of scaling it back a little bit and kind of making it mean more for when it does happen again. I was perfectly fine. Referee was checking on me the entire match. Asa [Andrew] was right there to check me and docs as soon as I came to the back. I was perfectly fine, too. Then went straight to the table. EMTs were trying to start to wrap me up and stop the bleeding, and I told them to get off of me right away so I can cut my promo, please. This is money right now, so let’s use this. It doesn’t come free. So it was kind of nice. Then Carlos, Dreamer, everybody, majority of the roster, mainly my wife was right there looking at me, smiling, knowing you’re just an idiot. There’s no in-between for me. It’s just either I’m gonna do something full-heartedly and put every bit of it into it, or I’m not gonna do it at all. That’s when I tell people, like the day you know I’m hurt, is when you look at my wife and she’s actually concerned.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)

In a recent interview with CasinoBeats, WWE Hall of Famer Diamond Dallas Page gave his thoughts about his belief that Tank Abbott was the best seller of his Diamond Cutter move. DDP stated “Ah, God. There were so many good ones. But I literally have to say Tank Abbott and Tank Abbott was an MMA fighter who came in, legitimate badass dude, and the Diamond Cutter was a shoot hold. One of your brothers, Stephen Regal, the great Lord Stephen Regal, who was one of the best technical wrestlers maybe ever, but definitely in that top 1%. But there’s a hold that you craft. It’s not like a headlock. It’s reversed and it’s a cravat. And if I put you in that cravat and you don’t go, you are going anyway. And Tank happened. When I went, I don’t think he was ready because I came down, his feet went straight up and he came down flat. I was just happy that he was a tough son of a bitch because that could do some serious damage. And I tell him, if you don’t go, you are going anyway. He was pretty devastating looking.“

Game Changer Wrestling recently announced that Priscilla Kelly, former Gigi Dolin in WWE, will be making appearances for the company at their Boss of All Bosses event on July 11th in Dallas, Texas and July 19th event in Coney Island, New York.

GCW also recently announced one new match for the card of their Run For It event on May 18th in Rochester, New York:

Jonathan Gresham vs. Jimmy Lloyd

ACTION Wrestling recently announced one new match for the card of their co-promoted ACTION DEAN~!!!2 event with AEW/ROH on May 24th in Glendale, Arizona: