This week’s edition of News & Notes features info on New Japan USA’s TV deal, New Japan and WWE striking a deal, additions to the Inoki Dojo office, SoCalers joining the WWE, and more. Click below for more information.-The big news of the weekend was the announcement that the New Japan Inoki Dojo has inked a television deal, and will begin taping TV shows soon. For more info check out the press release here. The TV show will be airing in Mexico, and on Samurai TV in Japan, and they hope to expand to other US markets too. The plan is for the same show to be shown in all three countries, with Spanish commentary for Mexico, and either Japanese commentary or subtitles for Samurai TV.
-The Inoki office has completed a business licensing agreement with the WWE, which the New Japan footage on UPN’s Eddie Guerrero special, and New Japan footage on the WWE’s upcoming Chris Benoit DVD will be the first examples of.
-Kevin Quinn is joining the Inoki Dojo to act as head trainer and Director of Talent Relations for New Japan USA. Kevin Quinn is an accomplished wrestler, who has wrestled all over the world, and is an accomplished trainer having been the trainer for Windy City Wrestling from 1993-1995, Steel Domain (Chicago) Wrestling in 1998, UPW’s head trainer in 2000-2001, and running his own school for a few months n El Segundo.
-Desire (Shelly Martinez) should be the next SoCal wrestler to sign a developmental contract (if she hasn’t done so already), as she is reportedly very close. AWS was to make an announcement about it at their May 29th show, but Desire was unable to make it due to illness, so no announcement was made.
-B-Boy will be making his debut for Jersey All Pro Wrestling in Rahway, NJ on June 5th. He will be facing Trent Acid. On that same show Samoa Joe is going to be teaming with Danny Maff to take on Vader and Mike Awesome.
-With Revolution Pro bringing back the “Spirit of the Revolution” tournament, which was probably the SoCal highlight of 2001, I thought I’d include a link to 2001’s results for those who don’t know the history of the tournament. Check out http://www.socaluncensored.com/titles/revprocruiser.htm.
-There should be a new “Steve’s View” up mid-week that will include any mid-week news updates.
If you have any news you’d like to submit for this column, please send it to steve@socaluncensored.com.
