With the last big wrestling weekend of the year in Southern California coming up, here is today’s installment of news and notes from around the Southern California wrestling world including New Japan, Baja Stars, UEW, SCWA, OWA, and more. Click for today’s update.
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Mike Johnson of PWInsider.com has reported that New Japan Pro Wrestling is looking at running multiple dates at the Long Beach Convention Center in Long Beach sometime in July 2017. This wouldn’t be New Japan’s first foray into Southern California, with their Los Angeles Inoki Dojo running shows in the mid-2000s. These would be the first actual real New Japan shows though, as the Inoki Dojo shows consisted mainly of American indy wrestlers with the occasional wrestler from New Japan as more of a way for New Japan to get a look at wrestlers to bring to Japan. They would also send their young wrestlers there for additional training and wrestlers such as Shinsuke Nakamura and Toru Yano went through the Los Angeles Inoki Dojo at one point or another.
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Pentagon Jr. is still scheduled for the January 21st Baja Stars show in San Diego despite being pulled by AAA from the January 20th PCW show.
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Douglas James is off December 17th’s Santino Bros.’ show in Bell Gardens and December 18th’s Lucha Wrestling Puroresu show in Los Angeles due to injury. He will be back in action in early January.
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UEW has announced Damian 666 as a participant in their death match tournament “Sovereign of Slaughter 2” on December 17th in Los Angeles.
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If you are going to NXT in Riverside tomorrow plan to leave a little early due to traffic from Riverside’s Festival of Lights.
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Sabotage announced that they will be holding their third show in Austin, TX on May 13th.
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Chelsea Green has been added to RISE 2 on January 27th in South Gate.
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UIPW announced they will have a show on January 15th. No venue or any other other information was announced. If they follow their normal protocol they will likely announce everything on January 14th.
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SCWA will be running at the Clela Arena in East Los Angeles on April 8th. Shotzi Blackheart has already been announced for the show.
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I’m told Oddity Wrestling Alliance is looking at the 25th of February for their next show.
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The webpoll for the 2nd part of the 2016 Southern California match of the year, covering May through August is now open for voting on the message board. The webpoll for the 1st part will remain open until December 21st.
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This week’s shows:
12/15:
12/16:
Lucha Libre Toy Drive in Pico Rivera, CA
12/17:
Underground Empire Wrestling presents Sovereign of Slaughter 2
KnokX Pro Entertainment presents Jingle Bells KnokX in Sun Valley, CA
Santino Bros. Wrestling in Bell Gardens, CA
12/18:
Lucha Wrestling Puroresu in Los Angeles
SoCal Pro Wrestling Holiday Toy Drive in Escondido, CA
MMA
12/17:
California Xtreme Fighting – CXF 5: Night Of Champions in Studio City, CA
12/18:
King Of The Cage presents “Warranted Aggression” in Ontario, CA
That bit about leaving early to get to Riverside is no joke. A few years ago I went to the Festival of Lights, and it took me over two hours to get from Imperial Hwy in Yorba Linda to the Mission. It was a complete nightmare, even worse than the normal clusterfuck that is the 91 thru Corona. I would advise leaving in the early afternoon, if possible, and grabbing dinner once you get out there
I feel for the people who planned on going after work or whatever. The Festival going on is one of the reasons I decided against going ultimately.