Various: MLW Introduces New Southern Crown Championship at 6/13 MLW Fusion Show, AKIRA Opens Up About Masha Slamovich Domestic Abuse Situation, Current Card for 6/20 AAA TV Show, Indies/Misc.

Jun 13, 2026

MLW Introduces New Southern Crown Championship at June 13 MLW Fusion Show

Saturday’s MLW Fusion show on beIN Sports, Veep, and MLW’s official YouTube channel featured Major League Wrestling officially introducing a new championship belt in the company called the MLW Southern Crown Championship.

It was announced that an inaugural champion will be crowned in a Bunkhouse Stampede match that will be taking place at a future show. It was also announced that more information regarding the competitors and when this match will be taking place will be announced in the upcoming weeks.

📰 BREAKING: MLW is introducing a brand-new title honoring the Southern legacy of pro wrestling: the Southern Crown!

Watch MLW FUSION, on now: ▶️https://t.co/duLdnUqFhU pic.twitter.com/oRPJSo6tmN
— MLW (@MLW) June 13, 2026

AKIRA Opens Up About Masha Slamovich Domestic Abuse Situation

As noted before, Masha Slamovich has been dealing with domestic abuse allegations made against her by her former partner and current indies wrestler AKIRA since September of 2025. Slamovich departed from TNA inD December of 2025 due to her contract had expired following an internal investigation by TNA into the allegations. Slamovich wrestled in her first match since the allegations against her for an indie event for Circle 6 this past January.

A recent episode of the Two Man Power Trip of Wrestling podcast featured AKIRA as the guest. One of the topics discussed included Akira denying claims that he was behind the information regarding Slamovich’s allegations becoming public.

“No. All I ever did was love that person. I’m not an evil, spiteful d***. It broke my heart every time people would mention her, or I would see her.”

AKIRA also gave his thoughts about his reaction when the news became public.

“I woke up to it three hours after the fact, and it broke my world. I was having a panic attack.

AKIRA also gave his thoughts about how he struggled to process everything that was happening and getting help from his mother to try to respond as thoughtfully as possible since he wanted to be “as empathic to the situation as possible, even though someone did wrong.”

AKIRA also gave his thoughts about how he never wanted revenge and was more focused on moving forward. AKIRA also stated that his goal was always accountability rather than retaliation.

“I wanted to move on. I just wanted to get back to work. I wanted my ex-partner to look at themselves and maybe grow from it … even if you give a fake apology, and get back to work.”

AKIRA also gave his thoughts about how the controversy had a negative impact on his wrestling career.

“You’re gonna become a f****** pariah,” and adding, “Of course, it made me a pariah. I’m genuinely a nice and kind person. I did all this cool sh*t in Japan. When I come back to America, zip, silent. Why do you think that is? I was too loyal for my own f****** good. I just don’t f*cking care anymore. I have nothing to hide about it.”

Transcript h/w: PWMMANews

Current Card for June 20 AAA TV Show

Saturday’s AAA TV show on FOX Latin America and WWE and AAA’s YouTube channels featured three new segments announced for next week’s show on June 20th.

Current card for June 20th AAA TV show:

El Grande Americano to appear
AAA Mega Champion Dominik Mysterio to appear
AAA GM Rey Mysterio to make a “massive announcement”

Misc. Wrestling News & Notes

As noted before, Momo Watanabe has been out of action for Stardom since this past November due to a knee injury. Saturday’s Stardom in Korakuen 2026 event featured Watanabe making a surprise appearance and announced that she will be making her in-ring return within the near future. Watanabe stated “Sorry to keep you waiting, you pieces of shit! Got it, got it, got it. This ring without me has been boring, hasn’t it? That’s right, isn’t it? If something’s felt like it was missing, it’s because ‘Momo Watanabe’ was missing!…So, I’m making my comeback! While I was away, it looks like a lot of stuff went down. There’s someone I need to go say hello to, right? Well, I don’t give a damn about anyone like that though. Starting today, I’m gonna make this ring and STARDOM interesting again… so look forward to it, you pieces of shit.” (English translation via meraWrestling)

Indie wrestler “Black Flash” Jordan Saint, real name Jordan Nasir St. Fort Colin, passed away on June 13th at the age of 23. Saint’s passing was first announced by Naptown Pro Wrestling. New 12 Long Island reported that Saint was involved in a car crash accident at the Bethpage State Parkway and died after being hit head on by another car. It was reported that the driver of the other vehicle was taken to the hospital with serious injuries. Prior to his passing, Saint had been wrestling since 2022 and for Naptown Pro Wrestling since 2023.

Dreamewave Wrestling announced that they have recently signed a partnership deal with Stardom.

NJPW reportedly drew a paid attendance of 1,102 for their June 5th Best of the Super Juniors 2026 event in Takasaki and 3,969 for their June 7th Best of the Super Juniors 2026 Finals event in Tokyo, Japan, according to the Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Dave Meltzer reported that NJPW’s attendance for their BotSJ Finals event was the largest for an event at the Ota Ward Gym since the 2020 New Year Dash event.

WWE and Lucha Libre AAA reportedly has sold 1,681 tickets for their September 11th AAA Triplemania 34 Night 1 event in Las Vegas as of Saturday morning, according to WrestleTix.

PROGRESS co-owner Big Damo, former Killian Dain in WWE, recently responded on Twitter to the online backlash from fans following the company booking former WWE talent Joe Coffey for a match against Kouga at their upcoming Chapter 196: Scorcio event. Big Damo stated “In this particular instance I saw the evidence. I saw the conversations that were doctored on one side. On the other side was the full conversation. This is why he wasn’t let go from his job when many others were.” Coffey was among the wrestlers who were outed during the #SpeakingOut movement in 2020 over allegations of him committing sexual misconduct. These allegations led to Coffey being suspended by WWE at the time from June of 2020 until October of 2020.

House of Glory recently announced one new match for the card of their Inferno event on June 19 in Chicago, Illinois: