Date: 01/04	3:00 PM
Views: 377

Tues. #1 is HERE. To help out the site subscribe to Mistah MegaManFan or support us on Patreon. With the cheap plugs out of the way here's Tuesday's latest wrestling news.

At night one of Wrestle Kingdom 16, Kazuchika Okada beat Shingo Takagi to win the IWGP World Heavyweight Title. He will go on to defend that title on night two against Will Ospreay, taking place tonight in Japan or the early hours of the morning in the United States tomorrow, depending on which time zone you live in. (NJPW)

In this interview Ricardo Rodriguez recalls trying out for WWE: "I'm nervous as hell because I don't know what to expect, and then they bring in Alberto and I don't recognize him. I probably should've watched WWE before I went in for the tryout, and I still didn't see the vignettes. I didn't know anything. The only time I saw that vignette was that RAW where we were backstage in catering so we had to watch the product. Then he comes up, we introduce ourselves, and they give us a small little script and I'm nervous as hell. And then Vince comes down, and he comes and he's like, 'be more animated, be more Hispanic,' and in my head, I'm thinking, like, the soccer announcers? Or, I'm thinking the AAA announcers, so be louder. I go and do the thing and he's like, 'good, do that,' then we do SmackDown. I do the intro, we go to the back, I don't hear anything. Then they come up to me again after that night and are like, 'hey, can you come tomorrow,' because they're doing a double taping for Tuesday and Wednesday. Then I go to Fresno again, they pull me to the back, they pull me and this guy named Alex Kozlov and they pull us to the office and say, 'hey, are you guys under contract... alright we're going to send you guys to get your physicals done and then we're going to offer you guys contracts and then send you to Florida.' They offered me the contract on the spot and they were like, 'hey, are you available for Boston?' So then me and Alex, we went to the back of the locker room and I just said, 'we just got hired.'"

New WWE related videos are available below.

Via social media, Will Hobbs a/k/a Powerhouse Hobbs released a statement in support of AEW's diversity.

It often flies under the radar that Tony and Megha are people of color, and having them in charge of AEW represents progress for pro wrestling. I see firsthand how hard they're working to make wrestling more diverse.

I want you all to know that I consider Tony and Megha family, and I'm disappointed to see their efforts dismissed. People have no issue the time and effort it takes to put shows on and to make AEW an open environment where people like me are seen and heard.

Tony works hand in hand with people of color on the roster all the time about their story ideas, input, matches, etc. Not every idea will work, but every idea is listened to and valued. My personal voice has been heard and I've had input for many of my opportunity. As a Black make, I plan on using my voice to do what I can to make sure that this company is diverse. I'm also very aware that diversity comes in many forms - Women, Black, Latinx, East Asian, South Asian, Southeast Asian, LGBTQ+ and more. The more diversity, equity and inclusion we can build in wrestling, the more fans we can engage with, and the more fun we can all have together.

AEW is a young company led by people of color heading in the right direction. I'm proud to be a part of that momentum, and I know my colleagues stand beside me when I say that.

In this interview Drew McIntyre explains why he stopped doing "Story Time with Drew" on TV: "If you watch the duration of the promo, I was back to being just regular Drew. I wasn't trying any outside-the-box things like, 'Story Time with Drew'. I instantly dropped that crap the second fans came back because I knew it wasn't gonna work with a live audience. You could hear them cheering by the end of the interview. From that moment forward, I kept with what I know works, what brought me to the dance as a main-event player, which is just me with the volume turned up. I had fun on the rest of my time on Raw with a live audience being there. Outside of the title scene, fans really started paying attention again, and the move to Smackdown was like a whole fresh coat of paint all over again. That was the kind of rebirth again of Drew McIntyre."

Here Cody Rhodes talks about AEW's future in 2022: "2022, I think it's easy to say it will be AEW's best year yet. We are moving into our next phase of our relationship with FITE, our relationship with WarnerMedia. New talent is coming in, contracts coming up. All that crazy stuff you hear about makes for a really good wrestling television. Wrestling is best when it could be as real as it could be. As real as you could make it, at least."

A new Ring of Honor video is below.

Drew McIntyre is now officially off the road for WWE until his neck can be medically evaluated. (PWI)

The New Year's Eve edition of Rampage did 453,000 viewers (down from 589,000) and a 0.19 18-49 demo (down from 0.26). (Wrestlenomics)

A documentary on Eddie Guerrero is being produced by ITV that will air on Reelz in the United States. (PWI)

Jacob Fatu vs. Mads Krugger has been added to MLW Blood & Thunder.

CIMA, Minoru Suzuki, Chase Owens and Toru Yano will have a four way at Wrestle Kingdom 16 night two for the 2022 King of Pro Wrestling trophy. (NJPW)

Brock Lesnar has been announced for next week's Raw in Philadelphia. (WWE)

1:00 PM ET. Here's a new Bron Breakker interview ahead of New Year's Evil and a new Jimmy Smith interview.

Three more matches have been added to Wrestle Kingdom 16 night two. (NJPW)

* Kickoff Match 1: Yuji Nagata, Tomoaki Honma & Togi Makabe vs BULLET CLUB (Bad Luck Fale, Jado & Gedo)
* Kickoff Match 2: Master Wato, Satoshi Kojima & Hiroyoshi Tenzan vs Suzuki-Gun (El Desperado, TAKA Michinoku & Yoshinobu Kanemaru)
* Kickoff Match 3: Los Ingobernables De Japon (BUSHI, Hiromu Takahashi & Shingo Takagi) vs Suzuki-Gun (DOUKI, Zack Sabre Jr. & Taichi)

3:00 PM ET. Kris Statlander talks about her time off due to injury: "A lot of negative thoughts. I'm a bit of a psycho and one of the first things that I was thinking was, 'How am I going to work out now?' Not even 'How am I going to get back to wrestling?' It was during COVID, it was the very height of COVID, and it was like, 'How am I going to get help? How am I going to do anything?' It was such a nightmare. Usually, it's like, go in, get the MRI, get surgery right away. It took almost two months for me to get my surgery. It was a nightmare and so frustrating, the whole process of it, on top of being stuck in the house because of COVID. You can't go out and do anything. It was a very dark time for me. There was like four months straight where I cried every single day like, 'what am I even doing this for? What is happening?' Then I got to come back and I go, 'I'm good.' It was a struggle. I would never wish that upon anybody."

Will Ospreay vs. Brian Cage will headline Warrior Wrestling 18.

Xavier Woods on if The New Day will turn heel: "My feeling is if we do turn, it feels organic and it feels natural again. Unfortunately, we're in a position right now where our reactions are pretty damn good. So, I don't see that happening any time soon, but who knows? They will always remember that moment of when, 'I cheered for this guy against The New Day, he threatened to ground me but my guy beat him.' I love that dynamic. It's so much fun and we think about it all the time, but these people won't stop cheering for us. These people like their pancakes and their Booty-Os too much."

Tetsuya Naito never wanted New Japan to do the title unification: "I never wanted the titles to be unified. I wanted to be the first to hold both titles, and to defend them separately. It was the company who ignored me. I was the one vocally against the unification from day one. I wanted to put a stop to it, but to be the one blamed for bringing the whole deal about ticks me off. I won't be better and say that my plan would have played out better, but I want it emphasized that I was anti unification."

Gail Kim talks about Eat Defeat: "My wrestling school that I trained in Toronto (is where I learned it). My only thing is you don't have to ask me necessarily, but I don't like when people don't use it as a finisher. Because that's what's more disrespectful, I think. You don't use it as a transition move or whatever. Use it as a finish at least."

CM Punk has invited Kazuchika Okada to "come see me" in Chicago.

ROH has named Jonathan Gresham their "Wrestler of the Month" for December 2021.

4:00 PM ET. Tony Khan confirmed that Jake Atlas is officially signed to All Elite Wrestling.

The Rock says XFL training camps won't begin until January 2023.

Booker T will return to the ring Jan. 22nd for his Reality of Wrestling promotion.