Oriental Wrestling Entertainment
While I’ve yet to ferret out any details on whom OWE will be sending to AEW’s Double or Nothing in May, that certainly doesn’t mean that there’s not been news. As I’d predicted in my article on 5 Chinese Wrestlers (Outside of OWE) that you should pay attention to, “The Insolent Devil” Gao Yuan made his inevitable debut with OWE on February 23rd 2019. Gao Yuan isn’t certain when he will work with OWE again, exactly, but has informed me that there will be more collaboration this year.
The same match also saw Lin Dong Xuan, who works primarily in Pro Wrestling NOAH via Simon Inoki’s Oriental Heroes Legend, made his OWE debut to replace an injured Gao Jingjia (good news is that from what I have heard it is not serious and he should be fine in a matter of weeks.) Lin Dong Xuan also ranked on the same list as Gao Yuan, and brings the number of promotions represented in the match up to three, with Gao Yuan being the owner of We Love Wrestling. For the record, the match was A-Ben and Lin Dong Xuan vs. T-Hawk and Gao Yuan, and I’m very excited to get to see it.
Furthermore, OWE recently had a near 20 minute, according to reports, match between Zhao Junjie and Fan Hewei to determine their first “Annual Champion.” In the end, Zhao Junjie stood tall with the championship around his waist. While not made terribly evident in their YouTube broadcasts to English-speaking audiences, many of the singles matches over the last stretch of shows have been single-elimination tournament brackets to determine this final encounter.
This event to crown the first ever OWE champion also comes at an opportune time, as NEO-TV have announced that starting next week they will have exclusive English-language content for OWE. While I had previously announced that English-language content would be forthcoming, no date had been provided so this marks a big change in accessibility for Chinese Pro Wrestling. Of note is that the translations will feature entirely new English-language commentary with goals to have the non-commentary dialogue subtitled. For the time being this will be on content moving forward only, but NEO-TV have said that going back and translating old content is “something to consider.”
Additionally, while I haven’t yet had it provided to me, Michael Nee, OWE’s COO, has advised me that the match card for their cross-promoted show with NTW in Taiwan has been determined.
Middle Kingdom Wrestling
MKW’s International “Belt and Road” themed show presently being planned to take place in Nepal will see the first time in a few years that Middle Kingdom Wrestling have venture outside of the Chinese mainland. While dates have yet to be confirmed, and the venture built around China’s Belt and Road Initiative may not come to pass, looking into this story has granted me a brief glimpse into the Nepalese Pro Wrestling scene which is, as has become the norm, shockingly more developed than I had anticipated.
Adrian Gomez has made connections with the Nepal Ring Wrestling Association (NRWA) in efforts to stage this show and, so far, all looks to play out to produce an exciting event that could introduce Chinese audiences to a new crop of talent. Current MKW champion, Big Sam, expects that he will be participating in the event but has not had any particulars about his match confirmed as of yet.
While the specifics of the event in the works for Nepal have not been confirmed, MKW’s next Chinese event now has a date and matches announced. Titled “A New Chapter,” the event will take place in Harbin, China on March 10th 2019. So far there are two championship matches scheduled. Black Mamba will defend his Belt and Road Championship against both Bitman and Jyunyan Lee. Big Sam will defend his MKW Championship against “Masterclass” Michael Su. Ho Ho Lun has also been announced for the card.
Of particular note herein is that both Bitman and Michael Su ranked on the same list I had Goa Yuan on, and are now in increasingly high profile championship matches, with MKW’s last streamed event having been viewed by 8 million people. Jyunyan Lee on the other hand is a Chinese-born wrestler currently living in Ontario, Canada and training at Santino Marella’s Battle Arts Academy. I was lucky enough to watch him debut less than a year ago and already he’s become a well loved part of the MKW roster, developing into quite the well-traveled performer very early in his promising career.
King of Pro Wrestling
KOPW recently posted an open recruiting call t try and attract students to a newly launched Pro Wrestling training facility located in Guangzhou, China. Ho Ho Lun, Shen Fei and Wang Junjie are listed in the article as the trainers of note. It also notes that there are 10 students currently enrolled, and that some competed after only a few months of training.