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Tag: ibushi

  • Kota Ibushi & Tajiri among those named for WWE Cruiserweight Classic

    WWE announced the complete lineup for this summer’s Cruiserweight Classic tournament with some expected names and some surprises.

    The only major star not previously talked about is Gran Metalik (believed to be Mascara Dorada) which is a major coup considering he’s a CMLL wrestler and with the CMLL/New Japan/ROH alliance, it becomes an interesting move on his part.

    The biggest names involved include Kota Ibushi (rumored from the start) who has been taking it easy in Japan since his return after a serious neck injury; Tajiri (a former star in ECW and WWE), Brian Kendrick, Akira Tozawa, and Zack Sabre Jr. The latter just worked Kurt Angle Sunday night.

    Originally, Andrade Cien Almas was to be the star of the tournament, but they’ve decided to keep him out of it and leave on the regular NXT roster.

    The list:

    • Kota Ibushi
    • Gran Metalik
    • Tajiri
    • Zack Sabre Jr.
    • Noam Dar
    • Cedric Alexander (expected once he announced he was leaving ROH)
    • Da Mack – A German wrestler
    • Tony Nese – Evolve talent that qualified at Saturday’s iPPV
    • Zumbi – A Brazilian wrestler who had been working for Elite Lucha Libre but had kind of disappeared
    • Clement Petout – A bodybuilder from France
    • Fabian Aichner – A bodybuilder from Italy
    • Harv Sihra – One of the Bollywood Boyz tag team from British Columbia and half of the GFW tag team champions
    • Gurv Sihra – The other half of the Bollywood Boyz tag team and brother of Harv
    • Rich Swann – Anounced even though he’s been out of action with a shoulder injury but has apparently healed up
    • Brian Kendrick
    • Akira Tozawa – One of the top stars in the Dragon Gate promotion
    • Jack Gallagher – a U.K. wrestler
    • Johnny Gargano – a regular in NXT
    • Tommaso Ciampa – another regular in NXT
    • Ho Ho Lin – A small wrestler from Hong Kong
    • TJ Perkins – The former Manik from TNA who was recently cut by that promotion and works for Evolve as TJP
    • Anthony Bennett – A New Jersey independent wrestler
    • Drew Gulak – A top independent star that works in Evolve
    • Tyson Dux – The veteran Canadian independent star
    • Lince Dorado – Masked Florida independent wrestler that works in Evolve
    • Sean Maluta – the nephew of Afa Anoa’i, related to a number of current WWE stars
    • Raul Mendoza – Known as Jinzo in Mexico from the DTU promotion
    • Kenneth Johnson – a  Detroit based independent wrestler
    • Alejandro Saez – A wrestler from Chile who is known as XL
    • Damien Slater -An Australian based independent wrestler
    • Jason Lee – Japanese talent
    • Arya Daivari – The younger brother of Shawn Daivari, the former WWE talent

  • Kota Ibushi will appear on Evolve and WWN Mania weekend shows

    Gabe Sapolsky announcd Tuesday that Kota Ibushi will be part of the three WWN-related “supershows” over WrestleMania weekend in Dallas, TX.

    Ibushi, a former DDT and New Japan star, will return after a neck injury in two weeks. The current free agent has talked about starting his own group in Japan, and there has been rumors he would appear on the WrestleMania weekend shows for the past week.

    On Twitter, Sapolsky announced he would be at all three shows: Evolve on 4/1 and 4/2, and the WWN Super Show on 4/2.

    Ibushi has already made it clear he’s interested in appearing in WWE’s summer cruiserweight tournament. Evolve, WWN, and WWE has a relationship with WWE talent doing autograph signings on Evolve shows and William Regal has already been announced as being part of two upcoming March New York shows doing interaction with talent.

    Ibushi is one of the world’s most spectacular performers and had the 2015 match of the year award winner at the Tokyo Dome on 1/4 against Shinsuke Nakamura.

  • WWE/Nakamura press conference; Ibushi announcement; NJPW Cup Tournament

    There is quite a bit of news related to Japan today.

    WWE held a press conference on Monday in Tokyo to announce Shinsuke Nakamura has signed with the company, a formality since that’s been known since 1/4 and he was already announced at the NXT tapings for a match with Sami Zayn on 4/1 in Dallas.

    WWE ran a story with video on the Nakamura signing

    The other big news is that Kota Ibushi will be returning on 3/21 at DDT’s Tokyo Sumo Hall show, but will no longer be under contract to either DDT or New Japan.  Ibushi said that while he was injured, he realized he was keeping a ridiculous pace working for both groups.

    He announced he was forming the Kota Ibushi Pro Wrestling Kenkyujo (which means Ibushi Pro Wrestling Research Institute.  Not a lot is known about what that all means, but Ibushi was very important to New Japan with Shinsuke Nakamura gone, as he could have been elevated to big four status easily, and a feud with Kenny Omega would have been a natural.

    His first match back with be a falls count anywhere weapons three-team match with Jun Kasai & Sanshiro Takagi, Ibushi & Gota Ihashi and Kenso & Michael Nakazawa.

    Also announced today by New Japan is the first round matches in the New Japan Cup tournament, which take place on 3/3 at the company’s anniversary show at the Ota Ward Gym in Tokyo.

    The single elimination tournament will decide Kazuchika Okada’s opponent at Invasion Attack on 4/10 at Sumo Hall.

    • Yujiro Takahashi vs. Toru Yano
    • Hiroyoshi Tenzan vs. Michael Elgin
    • Togi Makabe vs. Tama Tonga
    • Tomoaki Honma vs Satoshi Kojima
    • Yuji Nagata vs. Hirooki Goto
    • Yoshi-Hashi vs Tetsuya Naito
    • Tomohiro Ishii vs. Evil
    • Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Bad Luck Fale