Various: Kota Ibushi on Backlash to NJPW Unifying Their Titles, Dark Side of the Ring Update, Indies

Kota Ibushi Comments on Negative Backlash to the Unification of NJPW’s Top Titles

New Japan Pro Wrestling’s official English website held a recent interview with Kota Ibushi. One of the topics discussed included his thoughts on the negative backlash from fans over his idea to unify NJPW’s IWGP Heavyweight and IWGP Intercontinental championships.

“Mixed, I don’t know. I think from fans and wrestlers alike, I’d say 99% were against it. But that was a river we had to cross, I think. Just something I had to take and move on. You know, I get it, I do. It was one of those things where people told me what was happening, and then I went to see what everyone was saying for myself. Then, ‘Ok, so that’s how it is’, and move on.”

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Airing Schedule for First Half of Dark Side of the Ring’s Season 3

VICE TV recently released the airing schedule for the first half of Season 3 of their Dark Side of the Ring documentary series.

• May 13th – Nick Gage
• May 20th – Collision in Korea
• May 27th – Ultimate Warrior
• June 3rd – Grizzly Smith
• June 10th – Dynamite Kid

Following the airing of the Dynamite Kid episode, the series will being going on a break and will resume later this year with the remainder of the episodes for the current season.

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Misc. Wrestling News & Notes

Fullham F.C. is currently set to be one of the three teams relegated from the English Premiere League following the end of this season. The team is currently owned by Shad Khan, who is the father of AEW CEO Tony Khan.

PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that Nick Aldis will be making an appearance for T-Mart Productions at their The Gathering II series of events on July 22-25 in Charlotte, North Carolina. Aldis reportedly will be defending his NWA Worlds Heavyweight Championship at one of the events.

During a recent interview with the Turnbuckle Tavern podcast, NWA talent Slice Boogie revealed that he is currently not signed with the company and instead is a free agent. Boogie stated “I’m not signed with NWA right now. I’m still technically a free agent. Would I want to go to AEW? Probably, yeah. WWE tryout? Yeah. Japan? Yeah, that’s a dream. I feel like I should be on New Japan Strong. I’ve wrestled five or six people on the show already. I don’t have a specific company (I want to go to), I’m just trying to raise my stock right now. I’m still learning and improving, but I would like to be signed to a major company. Besides going to Japan, I don’t have enough time to go on a worldwide tour. I need to secure that money as soon as possible. I would like to at least experience Japan before signing a deal.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)

PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that Major League Wrestling is currently working on plans for a new event at the Melrose Ballroom in Queens, New York.