Various: CMLL Announces New Partnership Deal with Stardom, Braun Strowman on Being Open to In-Ring Return But Enjoying His “Little Break” with Outside Projects, Current Card for 10/23 ROH TV Show, Indies/Misc.

Oct 23, 2025

CMLL Announces New Partnership Deal with Stardom

Wednesday’s CMLL Informa show featured Lady’s Ring Kounosuke Izui and Stardom President Taro Okada as the guests.

During the show, Okada and CMLL owner Salvador Lutteroth announced a new partnership between Stardom and CMLL. It was announced that this new partnership will feature a talent exchange and the goal to help the development of talent in both companies.

本日配信された情報番組「CMLLインフォルマ」にCMLLのサルバドール•ルテロ氏、STARDOMの岡田太郎氏、レディリンの泉井弘之助氏が出演し、正式にCMLLとSTARDOMの業務提携を発表しました。両団体の今後の展開にご期待下さい！@tokada_mh4e @wwr_stardom pic.twitter.com/8C5puKnAcf
— Lucha Libre CMLL (@CMLL_OFICIAL) October 23, 2025

Braun Strowman Comments on Being Open to In-Ring Return But Enjoying His “Little Break” with Outside Projects

A recent episode of the In The Kliq podcast featured former WWE talent Braun Strowman, real name Adam Scherr, as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Strowman’s thoughts about him being open to making an in-ring return in the future but he is currently enjoying his little break from wrestling to work on his outside television projects.

“You’ll see me when I feel like letting you see me, when it comes to that. I’m really focused on the food space. I got four movies I’m attached to next year, I’m in talks with four, five other television shows. Don’t get me wrong, I miss being in the ring. These [hands] things are very capable of being passed out whenever I want to. But I’m also enjoying a little break because my body is starting to somewhat feel normal. I’m getting some of these injuries healed up that were nagging for years, and stuff like that.”

Strowman also gave his thoughts about his new Everything On The Menu food television series for USA Network.

“Sitting at home, recovering, I’m going ‘Am I ever going to be able to wrestle again? Am I going to be able to lift weights again? What kind of life am I going to have?’ Whatever normal is, being six-foot-eight, 350 pounds. But I had this realization while I’m sitting out, like I’m so blessed, not only with my physical attributes, but I have something inside me that God gave me, that I’m very good at putting smiles on people’s faces, and I realized that I want to keep doing that. I’m trying to figure out how I could continue to make people happy. So I’m out, and one day I’m on the phone with my agent, Nick, and my good friend, Kevin, who’s the producer of Everything on the Menu. And, I don’t know if it was because they were giving me a hard time, we were talking about something, goofing around about how, when I go out to eat, I normally order two, three, four entrees when I go out to eat. I didn’t get 350 pounds by accident; I like to eat.”

Transcript h/t: PostWrestling.com

Current Card for Thursday’s ROH TV Show

Ring of Honor recently announced the card for tonight’s ROH TV show on HonorClub.

Current card for October 23rd ROH TV show:

Pure Rules match – Aneglica Risk vs. Deonna Purrazzo
Six-Man Tag Team match – Dark Order (Alex Reynolds, John Silver, & Evil Uno) vs. Jay Lethal, Adam Priest, & “The Dynamite Kid” Tommy Billington
Mixed Six-Person Tag Team match – Grizzled Young Veterans (James Drake & Zack Gibson) & Isla Dawn vs. mystery opponents
Yuka Sakazaki & Alex Windsor vs. Aleah James & Billie Starkz
Angelico vs. Mascara Dorada
Griff Garrison vs. Komander

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by ROH – Ring of Honor Wrestling (@ringofhonor)

Misc. Wrestling News & Notes

Thursday’s NJPW Super Junior Tag League 2025 Night 1 event in Tokyo, Japan featured Francesco Akira making his surprise return from injury. Akira joined Chris Charlton for the English commentary team for this year’s Super Junior Tag League tournament. This was Akira’s first appearance since this past August due to a fractured wrist injury.

In a recent interview with NJPW’s NJPW1972 website, Konosuke Takeshita gave his thoughts about why it meant a lot to him to wrestle against Hirooki Goto in last year’s G1 Climax tournament. Takeshita stated “There aren’t many wrestlers still active who I used to watch as a kid; in my block that year, Goto was the only one, and that made the match special to me. I entered first that night, so I was stood waiting for Goto and it really hit home in that moment that, hey, I’m wrestling in an NJPW ring.“

In a recent interview with Sports Graphic Number, Marigold talent Mayu Iwatani revealed that she is currently recovering from recent ankle injuries but expects to be healed enough for her upcoming match against IYO SKY at Marigold’s Grand Destiny 2025 event on October 26th.

Indies wrestler Unagi Sayaka recently announced on Twitter that she is currently taking a break from wrestling until November 2nd due to her currently recovering from a broken nose and swollen foot injury.

As noted before, former WWE wrestler Mike “Duke The Dumpster” Droese was arrested this past May in Warren County, Tennessee on charges of attempted aggravated sexual exploitation of children. PWInsider’s Mike Johnson reported that Droese’s scheduled court hearing on Wednesday was postponed to a new date of January 14, 2026 based on recent court records. Johnson reported that the reason for the postponement is currently not known. Droese’s scheduled hearing is listed as a “plea or trial selection.”

In a recent interview with TV Insider, Shotzi Blackheart gave her thoughts about Major League Wrestling being the best place she has worked for since her departure from WWE. Blackheart stated “MLW has honestly been my favorite place to work for right now. It kind of reminds me of my first year at NXT. When I got to NXT, Hunter [Triple H] really got me. They gave me the opportunity to host Halloween Havoc and really let me be me and my character and really understood me. MLW really understands the ‘Ballsy Badass.’ I came in and every creative thing they have given me, they totally get my character. From promos to giving me my ‘Graveyard Shift’ talking segment. Just letting me be myself and understanding my character. MLW gets me. It’s a breath of fresh air to be somewhere where someone enjoys your character and appreciates what I bring to the table and highlights it.” Blackheart also gave her thoughts about her not currently being interested in a potential return to WWE. Blackheart stated “Right now, I can genuinely say if WWE offered me another contract I’d be like, ‘call me back in six months.’ Ask me again in six months because I’m just having so much fun right now. I feel like I’m growing so much as a performer, an in-ring wrestler and a ring leader. I don’t want to stop that right now. I’m learning so much about myself. I don’t trust I would be able to do that there. I just want to develop myself and regain all my confidence and just have a good time right now and not rush back.“

In a recent interview with the Games With Names podcast, WWE Hall of Famer Ric Flair gave his thoughts about the lack of a union for wrestlers in the pro wrestling industry. Flair stated “They don’t see it like that. How do we not have a union? A multi-billion-dollar company. No union.” Flair also gave his thoughts about his belief why a union never came to fruition. Flair stated “Nobody wants to do it because they’ll just move on without you. They wanted me and Hogan to do it. Hulk called me and I said, ‘I’m not jumping out there. They’ll just replace me.’ Jesse Ventura drove me crazy. ‘Come on, come on.’ I go, ‘Jesse, so I give up the NWA World Championship, walk out. They’ll just put the belt on DiBiase or back to Harley.’ It just wasn’t something I wanted to explore, but I was certainly asked to do it a lot.” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)

In a recent interview with WhatCulture Wrestling, TNA interviewer Gia Miller gave her thoughts about her TNA in-ring debut match against Tessa Blanchard at TNA’s Bound For Glory 2025 event earlier this month. Miller stated “Yeah, it was a really amazing experience to make my TNA wrestling debut and on a stage like Bound for Glory. I mean, a record setting event. The energy that night was just absolutely electric. unfortunately it had to be against Tessa Blanchard, who y’all know my feelings on her, but that’s, that’s not what it’s about. It was about the incredible moment that was Bound For Glory. It’s still hitting me, you know?” (Transcript h/t: Fightful.com)

Prestige Wrestling recently announced one new match for the card of their Big Kiss Goodnight event on November 2nd in Portland, Oregon: