Table of contents for August 2023 in Pro Wrestling Illustrated

TWO ISSUES AGO, our “Hotseat” interview was replaced by an “Editors’ Roundtable” regarding the potential sale of WWE. Shortly before Wall Street opened on Monday, April 3—and less than 12 hours after the much-debated ending of WrestleMania 39—SEC filings confirmed the previous day’s CNBC report that WWE was being purchased by media power-house Endeavor (full story in “Ringside,” pg. 10). To combat sports fans, Endeavor is best known as the parent company of Ultimate Fighting Championship. Its announced purchase of WWE was accompanied by news that Endeavor sought to merge WWE and UFC into a separate, publicly traded company. Additionally, Vince McMahon would be kept on as executive chairman of this new venture. Mere hours later, McMahon took back the creative reins from Paul “Triple H” Levesque at the post-’Mania…

WITH SO MANY major wrestling shows taking place within a span of weeks, one of the biggest challenges of putting together our “Supercards” issue is fitting it all into one magazine. If you think this is hard today, try to imagine what it was like back in the late-1990s, when WWE, WCW, and ECW were all running pay-per-view events nearly every month. Of course, some of those cards weren’t all that “super.” But, given the choice, I think I’d still take Hulk Hogan and The Giant trying to run each other’s monster trucks off the roof of Cobo Arena, rather than another Miz and Snoop Dogg segment. So, settle into the best chair In Your House, grab your favorite BattleBowl of potato chips, and enjoy this “Quick Count” ode to…

PROMOTION: IMPACT WRESTLING DATE: 04.16.23 LOCATION: TORONTO, ONTARIO ON APRIL 16, at the Rebel Complex in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, IMPACT Wrestling held the 2023 installment of its annual pay-per-view, Rebellion. Determined to make lemonade out of the proverbial lemons they had been dealt in the run-up to the show, IMPACT management and talent put their best feet forward and ushered in a new era for the promotion’s top singles divisions. LOYALTY & REBELLION Before the pay-per-view portion of the show, the “Countdown To Rebellion” pre-show served up a double helping of tag team action, as Champagne Singh & Shera downed Rhino & Heath, and Knockouts tag team champions The Coven (Taylor Wilde & KiLynn King) retained over former champs The Death Dollz (Rosemary & Jessicka). The main Rebellion card opened…

PROMOTION: WESTSIDE XTREME WRESTLING DATE: 03.10.23-03.12.23 LOCATION: OBERHAUSEN, GERMANY FOR THE FIRST time in its glorious history, the European 16 Carat Gold tournament would decree not only a winner, but also the new wXw Unified champion, as the vacant belt was set to be awarded to the winner. ROUND ONE (Quick Results) The first man to walk down the ramp was the United Empire’s own Francesco Akira; the Italian NJPW star won with the Fireball (a running double-knee to the back of the head) in 12 minutes against the wXw Shotgun champion (and heel faction AMBOSS affiliate) Laurance Roman … The second match was a French-speaking derby between “The French Revolution” Tristan Archer (wXw’s 2022 MVP) and Belgian new-comer Mike D Vecchio; Archer scored the victory with the Coup D’Etat…

PROMOTION: TOKYO JOSHI PRO DATE: 03.18.23 LOCATION: TOKYO, JAPAN THE ARIAKE COLISEUM sports complex played host to Tokyo Joshi Pro-Wrestling’s highly anticipated supershow, TJPW Grand Princess ’23, which took place before a live audience of 1,500+ fans. Despite being only the second event under the “Grand Princess” banner, the card generated a great deal of interest outside of Japan. Partly thanks to recent international wrestling tours from TJPW roster members including Miyu Yamashita and Maki Itoh, many North American and European fans tuned in live to enjoy the festivities via CyberFight’s WRESTLE UNIVERSE streaming service. AN ENERGETIC OPENING The show commenced with two teammates pitted against each other, as Suzume faced Arisu Endo in a fast-paced battle. Looking stronger than ever, the upstart Endo used her size advantage against her…

ANYONE WHO KNOWS me knows I have a soft spot for Detroit wrestling. After all, I’m the guy who wrote the biography of The Sheik, without a doubt the greatest legend and hottest attraction in the history of wrestling in the Motor City. I’ve long taken an interest in the wrestling scene not just in Detroit, but in the whole Michigan area, as well as Ohio and southern Ontario—the areas traditionally serviced by The Sheik’s cherished Big Time Wrestling back in the day. That’s partly why I was thrilled to see that WWE will once again return to Detroit for this year’s 36th annual edition of SummerSlam. The show is to be held at Ford Field, the same venue the company took over the last time it brought a major…

PROMOTION: ALL ELITE WRESTLING DATE: 03.05.23 LOCATION: SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA COULD THIS BE the start of a new growth period for All Elite Wrestling? Though most analysts would agree that the promotion’s late-2021 hot streak has long since cooled, the company’s recent California jaunt has created some new excitement around the AEW product. Emanating for the first time from the American West Coast, Revolution 2023 took place before a crowd of about 9,000 fans at the Chase Center in San Francisco. This marked the third AEW show of the week in the City by the Bay, with live editions of Dynamite and Rampage recorded at the iconic Cow Palace on Wednesday and Friday, respectively. Fans in attendance at Revolution—joined by another 130,000+ watching the event on pay-per-view—were treated to an…

PROMOTION: WORLD WONDER RING STARDOM DATE: 04.23.23 LOCATION: YOKOHAMA, JAPAN THIRTY YEARS AFTER the fabled Dream Slam event presented by All Japan Women at the same venue, the industry’s current leading joshi promotion returned to the Yokohama Arena for a massive event featuring some of the most talented athletes in women’s wrestling. The recent Allstar Grand Queendom supercard may not have packed the venue to the same degree as its spiritual predecessor, yet, it remains a critical and commercial triumph. On the strength of five championship bouts and appearances from big names such as Mercedes Mone, Mayu Iwatani, and PWI favorite Syuri, the 11-match show set a new attendance record for a Stardom event, with more than 5,500 tickets sold. Additionally, fans from across the globe tuned in to watch…

PROMOTION: RING OF HONOR DATE: 03.31.23 LOCATION: LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA THE LAST TIME Supercard of Honor attracted a brigade of wrestling fans in California was in 2015. Eight years later, with dicey L.A. weather barely in the city’s rearview mirror, ROH dug its claws into the University of Southern California campus—bringing the buzz of excited wrestling enthusiasts to the Galen Center. DREAM BOUTS, DREAMS DASHED The event’s card boasted a number of anticipated matches that many would call dream bouts. To that end, Komander vs. El Hijo Del Vikingo kicked off the main show, with Vikingo’s AAA Mega championship on the line. This showdown, announced just a week before the pay-per-view, did not disappoint spectators, who watched in awe of each wrestler’s in-ring prowess. The audience held on to every…

PROMOTION: EAST COAST WRESTLING ASSOCIATION DATE: 03.25.23 LOCATION: MORGANVILLE, NEW JERSEY SINCE ITS INCEPTION in 1997, the ECWA Super 8 tournament has read the proverbial tea leaves. This showcase for future professional wrestling stardom has seen the likes of AJ Styles, Bryan Danielson, Matt & Jeff Hardy, Tommaso Ciampa, and Adam Cole vie for greatness. And while not all past winners have gone on to truly elite levels in professional wrestling—and some who didn’t win still made quite memorable careers—the annual tournament’s three-round, same-night, single-elimination format has provided a platform for the young stars of tomorrow to emerge. While this year’s Super 8 saw several such young stars step into the spotlight, the story of the night was seemingly focused on two longtime independent veterans: friends and riding partners, Joey…

HEAVYWEIGHT ROMAN REIGNS 265, Pensacola, FL  (1) WWE Undisputed champion SANADA  220, Niigata, Japan  (-) IWGP World champion HIJO DEL VIKINGO 207, Nuevo Leon, Mexico  (8) AAA Mega champion JAKE LEE  240, Hokkaido, Japan  (-) GHC heavyweight champion MJF 205, Plainview, NY (3) AEW World champion STEVE MACLIN  227, Rutherford, NJ  (-) IMPACT World champion ORANGE CASSIDY  UNK, Wherever  (-) AEW All Atlantic champion GUNTHER  297, Vienna, Austria  (-) WWE Intercontinental champion ALEX HAMMERSTONE  251, Phoenix, AZ  (10) MLW World champion TYRUS  375, Boston, MA (-) NWA World champion WOMEN BIANCA BELAIR 165, Knoxville, TN (2) Raw Women’s champion TAM NAKANO  123, Aichi, Japan  (-) World of Stardom champion DEONNA PURRAZZO UNK, Hackettstown, NJ  (-) Knockouts World champion MAYU IWATANI  117, Yamaguchi, Japan  (-) IWGP Women’s champion RHEA RIPLEY  170,…

PROMOTION: NEW JAPAN PRO-WRESTLING DATE: 04.15.23-04.16.23 LOCATION: WASHINGTON, D.C. & PHILADELPHIA, PA FOLLOWING THE RECENT retooling of its STRONG brand, New Japan Pro-Wrestling has moved away from traditional TV tapings in the U.S. to focus on must-see pay-per-view events. This new booking approach held sway at the recent Capital Collision and Collision in Philadelphia cards, which saw NJPW talent descend on the nation’s capital and its birthplace. Red-hot capacity crowds filled Washington D.C.’s Entertainment and Sports Arena and then Philadelphia’s 2300 Arena to see NJPW mainstays such as Hiroshi Tanahashi, Tetsuya Naito, and Tomohiro Ishii. Expectations ran high. And, despite some late changes to the Philly lineup, each show easily delivered the goods. CAPITAL COLLISION The D.C. card started with a pre-show encounter between TMDK’s Shane Haste & Bad Dude…

PROMOTION: LUCHA LIBRE AAA WORLDWIDE DATE: 03.19.2023 LOCATION: ZAPOPAN, JALISCO FOR THE FOURTH time ever—and the first since 2017—Lucha Libre AAA Worldwide once again hosted the Lucha Libre World Cup. This year, the show emanated from the Panamerican Stadium, home of the Charros de Jalisco baseball team in Zapopan (the New Jersey to Guadalajara’s New York). The show featured separate World Cup tournaments for men and women, each decided by single-elimination six-person tag team matches with a 10-minute time limit per match. If the time limits were reached, the round would be decided via sudden-death one-on-one matches. MEN’S WORLD CUP Round one saw the “Mexico Dream Team” of AAA’s Psycho Clown, World champion Hijo Del Vikingo, and former World Cup winner Alberto El Patron take on Team Latin America, comprised…

WHILE MUCH OF the world was loosening its COVID restrictions following the height of the pandemic, Japan held tightly to its own. Even as American promotions WWE and AEW allowed maskless fans to return to stadiums at full capacity in mid-2021, companies including New Japan Pro-Wrestling continued to practice social distancing in the form of reduced-capacity crowds, and, even more stringently, forbade any vocalizations from fans. Until earlier this year, the New Japan faithful were strictly limited to non-verbal reactions, such as foot stomps and claps, completely removing the dynamic chants and dramatic gasps that have long punctuated its shows. Japan was also slower to fully open its borders to tourists, only completing the process last fall. Prior to this, New Japan was able to occasionally book international talent for…