Various: Tokyo Sports Awards, Omega on Jericho, ROH Announcement

Tokyo Sports Announces the Winners of Their 2017 Wrestling Awards

Tokyo Sports recently announced the list of winners for their 2017 Japanese wrestling awards. For the second year in a row, New Japan Pro Wrestling’s Tetsuya Naito took the magazine top honor by being named their Most Valuable Person. Other notable winners included Kenny Omega versus Kazuchika Okada at Wrestle Kingdom 11 winning Match of the Year award, Io Shirai winning Best Woman wrestler of the year award, and Katsuyori Shibata winning this year’s Fighting Spirit award.

TOKYO SPORTS AWARDS 2017!

MVP: Tetsuya Naito
Best Tag Team: Suwama & Shuji Ishikawa
Best Bout: Okada vs Omega (1/4)
Technique: Hideki Suzuki
Fighting Sprit: Katsuyori Shibata
Special Award: YAMATO
Women's GP: Io Shirai
Rookie of the year: Yuma Aoyagi

— STRIGGA (@STRIGGA) December 13, 2017

Kenny Omega on Facing Chris Jericho & Using Blood for Their Feud

Rolling Stone held a recent interview with Kenny Omega and one of the topics discussed involving his upcoming match with Chris Jericho at Wrestle Kingdom 12. When asked about being busted open at the hands of Jericho during the final show of the World Tag League tournament, Omega stated it was something he wanted done to help sell their upcoming match even though NJPW is not comfortable with blood shown in their shows. They still allowed him to do it because of the amount of trust the company has in him.

“I’ve been lucky where I’ve asked for a little bit of trust from the company. When you put yourself in a situation like that, you either hit consecutive home runs or you’re dead in the water, because there’s a lot of money on the line, there’s a reputation on the line. And a lot of times I really forced them to step out of their comfort zone. Between last year’s G1 and now with Jericho, I have done a lot of things the company isn’t necessarily comfortable with, but they’re seeing positive growth from it. Drawing blood is a faux paus. They don’t like it at all. Our parent company makes its money through anime and card games.”

ROH to Make a Special Announcement This Friday

Ring of Honor recently teased on Twitter they will be making a major announcement regarding their Women of Honor division during this Friday’s Final Battle pay-per-view event.

MAJOR @Women_of_Honor #WOH announcement to be made at @ringofhonor #FinalBattle this Friday in NYC LIVE on PPV!! You do not want to miss this! If you can’t be there in person…make sure you order the PPV & tune in! https://t.co/PGG8jT4mIm pic.twitter.com/TYmz4FWheV

— ROH Wrestling (@ringofhonor) December 13, 2017