Various: Harry Smith on WWE’s Name Change Plans for His Return, Sat. NJPW Strong Card, Indies

Harry Smith Comments on WWE’s Original Plans for His Return Included New Ring Name

Inside The Ropes held a recent interview with Harry Smith, former Davey Boy Smith Jr. in WWE. One of the topics discussed included Smith revealing that WWE’s original plans for his return to the company last year included him being renamed to “Stampede Stud.”

“John Cone said,’ the next time you are going to come to SmackDown it’s going to be your debut”, you did really good [in your dark match], Vince really liked it.’ So I was like, great, I’ll just wait and then they asked me to do a dark match in Tampa and they were going to do some backstage vignettes with me and my father’s leather vest. They were going to show that for the documentary, and then luck be have it I ended up having COVID, really bad, so I was kind of out of commission for about three weeks or a month. Then I was kind of forgotten about, I came to TV one or two times… I was waiting to come back and then they called and Johnny [ Laurinaitis] said he wasn’t a fan of it [his release], he wasn’t happy with the list of names he was given but it wasn’t from him. I don’t know what they were waiting for, the only thing I was told was, I was going to be debuting on SmackDown and they were going to call me ‘The Stampede Stud’. It just never happened, it wasn’t my fault. I showed up more than in shape. I saw Vince and he was like ‘oh you’re looking good kid.”

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Full Card for Saturday’s Episode of NJPW Strong

New Japan Pro Wrestling recently announced the full card for this Saturday’s Collision in Philadelphia Night 1 themed episode of NJPW Strong, which will air on New Japan World starting at 8:00PM EST.

• Killer Kross vs. Yuya Uemura
• QT Marshall vs. Karl Fredericks
• 10-Man Tag Team match – Tomohiro Ishii, Rocky Romero, Chuck Taylor, Ren Narita, & Mascara Dorada vs. Bullet Club (Jay White, Juice Robinson, Hikuleo, Doc Gallows, & Karl Anderson)

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Misc. Wrestling News & Notes

Stardom recently announced that a new film based on Mayu Iwatani’s life story titled Runaway Wrestler is currently in the early stages of production.

Dragon Gate talent Riki Iihashi recently made the decision to retire from wrestling, according to the company. (English translation via PostWrestling.com)

Major League Wrestling recently announced that Little Guido, Los Maximos, NZO, Davey Richards, Ace Romero, and Savio Vega are the next set of official competitors for their Battle Riot match at their upcoming Battle Riot IV event on June 23rd in New York City, New York.

MLW also recently announced two new matches for the card of their Battle Riot IV event on June 23rd in New York City:

• The Von Erichs (Ross & Marshall Von Erich) vs. Samoan Swat Team
• Taya Valkyrie vs. Brittany Blake

GLEAT recently announced a new match for the card of their GLEAT Ver. 3 event on July 1st in Tokyo, Japan:

• STRONGHEARTS (T-HAWK, Issei Onitsuka, Shigehiro Irie, & mystery partner) vs. House of Torture (EVIL, SHO, Yujiro Takahashi, & Dick Togo)

Jersey Championship Wrestling recently announced a new match for the card of their Great American Birthday Bash event on July 10th in Ridgefield Park, New Jersey:

• Konosuke Takeshita vs. Cole Radrick

New Japan Pro Wrestling recently announced a new match for the card of their Dominion 2022 event on June 12th in Osaka, Japan:

• Provisional King of Pro Wrestling 2022 Championship 10 Minute Unlimited Pinfall Scramble match – Taichi vs. Shingo Takagi (c)

The National Wrestling Alliance recently announced a new match for the card of their Alwayz Ready event on June 11th in Nashville, Tennessee:

• Jake Dumas vs. Rodney Mack