Collision Is Back on Saturday! PROGRESS and DEFY Wrestling Sold! NJPW Bought By CyberAgent! Ibushi Seeks To Save The Culture of Pro Wrestling!

Good day, lucha fans! I'm Francis aka Francisthewitcher and this is Lucha Corner, where I bring you mucho wrestling! And today I bring you a new entry which is gonna be a little more different than the previous ones I made.

While I'm looking to talk more about other brands aside just AEW, I thought I could try to make a sort of mini-review about last Saturday's Collision, and after that, I'd like to share my opinions about some news we learned during the past week.

So let's get to it!

Let's start with what we saw in Collision. Not only it was great to see the show again on the weekend, it also had a very interestng card compared to what we got back in Dynamite, and by that I mean is the talent that has been featured in this occassion. 

For starters, we got Hazuki making her debut on AEW and facing Maya World in an outstanding match, basically to prepare Hazuki from her upcoming match against Persephone who made a return after being "injured" by Julia Hart's mist. 

Two things what I loved about this match, they both had a great coordination to work together since they both wrestled each other once in Ignite Texas. And the crowd not only were loving this match, they chanted their names as they knew their value. I was a little concerned that they would stay quiet during Hazuki's entrance, thankfully that wasn't the case. 

I'm sure that this would also bring awareness to the audience across the US about the brand of Stardom and other Joshi wrestling promotions. 

We also saw The Gunns from the Gang Gang Ban (also formely known as Bullet Club Gold) facing the former OG Bullet Club members known as The Dogs. What I find interesting in this match is that since the build up to Forbidden Door has started, it's not too far-fetched to assume that we might see a feud between them since David Finlay has history with Jay White back in NJPW.

Of course, this is all speculation since it's still unknown whether Jay White will come back before the PPV, but I can only hope that he's doing really well in his recovery and he would be more than ready to make a big return and witness his confrontation with Finlay.

Also we saw Lee Moriarty facing none other than Tim Bosby in a squash match. Now, while personally I'm not a fan of squash matches, it came a huge surprise to me that Bosby made a debut in AEW. Now, I don't know much about this wrestler as I don't look too much the indies, but I've seen clips of him on social media and I'm very impressed by his talent. 

He definitely has a lot of potential and I wish he will have a promising future in the pro wrestling business, but after he was featured on AEW TV last Saturday, I think he's off to a very good start. 

And to wrap this up, I'd like to say that STP being regularly featured on Collision is becoming a great decision. I find them as one of the biggest heel factions who can have a big role in AEW. Which I believe they already have as we saw them brawling with the Death Riders and we might see a new feud after they had a beef with The Conglomeration.

One more thing I haven't forgotten about is that the match between Konosuke Takeshita and Daniel Garcia was the best thing we've seen in Collison for a while, especially the fact that it was Garcia's best match he had in a long while, so I hope this would help him develop more.

Anyhow, it was a really good episode that made use of their stacked roster.

Big Damo and Nikki Cross Bought PROGRESS And DEFY Wrestling 

That's right, to those who didn't hear this news, two former WWE wrestlers have bought a couple of independent promotions known as PROGRESS and DEFY. Clearly it was something that no one, not even me, would ever saw that coming. I even wonder how much they spent to buy two promotions and how they pulled it off, but maybe we'll heard any answers from them.

Now, what does that mean for the future of these promotions with Damo and Cross as the new owners? That is a very good question, to be honest. As far as I know I haven't heard if these promotions were having some financial issues or if they were on the brink of closing. What I could only gather was that they used to work with WWE in the past, but not much has been known about their relationship for years, so maybe it was just a rumor or things didn't work out between them.

That being said, it's just a wait and see situation, but I can only hope that Damo and Cross at least have some experience with running down not one, but TWO wrestling promotions. 

Then again, this made me believe that we're witnessing a significant shift in the pro wrestlng industry. Which brings to the next point.

BUSHIROAD Sells NJPW to CyberAgent and TV Asashi

On May 27th, Bushiroad made an unexpected announcement that they sold their NJPW's shared to TV Asashi and CyberAgent for 3.8 billion Yen, the latter who are the owners of CyberFight, which is also a parent company where they own NOAH, DDT and TJPW.  

This was a very surprise turn of events, let alone the fact that they sold the brand with a low price if we looked at the Yen price to USD Dollars. At first I was also concern about the future of Stardom, but considering they're having an upgrade under their ownership, I think there's no reason to worry about it.

But back to NJPW, this news led to some speculation of what's gonna happen next. Some fans thought it would affect the partnership between AEW and CMLL, taking account that years ago WWE and NOAH announced their partnership.

Personally, I doubt this would affect the partnerships. If anything, we're talking about a giant corporation who owns three Japanese promotions, and it's more than likely that they're gonna give an upgrade to NJPW's production. As for what happened to their partnership with WWE, we also learned that later this year the company will move to Netflix Japan, leaving ABEMA in the process.

With an empty spot on ABEMA, I think it's safe to assume that they need NJPW to take that spot and they might make good numbers since they're are the most popular wrestling promotion in Japan. They could probably get enough funds to keep their top stars in the brand since some of them left the company to work with either WWE or AEW. 

Only time will tell, but I'm convinced that this is gonna bring a bright future to NJPW.

A little fun fact, Cyberagent are also the owners of Cygames, creators of a popular gacha mobile game known as Umamusume: Pretty Derby. Imagine if we'll ever see a collaboration of the game with NJPW, especially the fact that one of the characters is a WRESTLER.

And last but not least.

Kota Ibushi Aims To Build A New Wrestling Venue.

At first I thought it was gonna be a heartbreaking announcement since we've seen more than a few of those lately all across the promotions, but this time was definitely different. Ibushi announced a very bold goal that he's looking to create a new venue for the wrestling industry while he's still recovering from his injury.

He explained his reason was because it's been publicly known that Shinjuku FACE is gonna close the doors on September 30 of this year, which was a very discouraging news for him and for us fans since the place staged so many wrestling shows, even to this day.

His last update after the announcement was that he had a chat with an old acquiantance who works in a real estate agency to determine how much money he needs to build or rent a wrestling venue. And as you already guessed, it's not as cheap as it may look.

Nevertheless, Kota Ibushi claimed that he will never give up to repay the pro wrestling industry for everything and asks the fans to give him a job or anything to raise money so he could achieve his goal. 

A very ambitious plot that it might also be impossible, even Ibushi, to make it come true. But honestly, I'm the type of person who believes miracles does exist and I think it's very noble from Ibushi who wants to do something for the wrestling industry. I can only deduce that he might seek help from other connections from his homeland and overseas as well to find a way to build a new wrestling venue. 

All I can say about it is that if he can pull this off, it would be very beneficial for other promotions and that could be his greatest achievement. I never judged Ibushi even when he's almost risking himself during his recovery, so I believe he should at least try and I wish the best of luck to him.

CONCLUSION

So that's all I could recap about what we learned the past week, so I hope you enjoyed this new entry. If you have any questions or an opinion you want to share, you can leave a comment. And remember, you can follow me on Twitter and Instagram. Your support will mean a lot to me.