Indy Minute - Weekly independent wrestling news round up

 Welcome back to the Delco Elbow Drop for the extended Indy Minute – all the great indy wrestling news you heard on the RingRust Radio podcast and a whole lot more.

  At a WWE event in Osaka this past weekend, Japanese wrestling superstar KENTA was officially signed to a WWE contract at an event with Hulk Hogan and Jimmy Hart. The man whose innovative offense has been used by Daniel Bryan and CM Punk will join NXT in the coming months.

  In other NXT news, Summer Rae defeated Bayley to become the new #1 contender for the NXT Women’s championship and former indy star Drake Younger also made his referee debut on NXT this week in a match between Sin Cara and Wesley Blake.

  Whoa, whoa, whoa...is Renee Young a heel on NXT commentary? She's been making fun of Jason Albert and later she was agreeing with the heelish CJ Parker. What the what?

  And speaking of heels - are the Vaudevillains really heels? Cause they're hilarious and doing a really good job being likeable, which is pretty much the opposite of what heels should do

  I noticed Caleb Conley in Adam Rose’s Exotic Express on Monday night. Anyone else from the indy circuit that I didn’t pick up on?

  Chris Sabin takes on Shane Hollister for the AAW title on 7/18 in Chicago, IL

  Recently released NXT star Mason Ryan is on Colt Cabana’s “The Art of Wrestling” podcast this week

  Evolve is rebooting its product starting with its upcoming events, Evolve 31, 32 and 33 (August 8-10) and are touting it as a great jumping off point for fans not familiar with the product. The company is returning to its roots and putting more emphasis on win/loss records. Each week, a top 10 ranking list will be released which will determine matches and title shots for wrestlers. In the event of wrestlers with the same records, tie breakers like fan response, quality of opponents and most dominant victories will be used to determine the rankings.

  Shannon Moore announced his retirement last week. Moore was trained by Matt and Jeff Hardy and wrestled in their organization OMEGA before joining 3 Count in WCW with Shane Helms and Evan Karagias. Moore and also wrestled in TNA and WWE in his nearly 20 years in the sport.

  JTG has a new shirt on Pro Wrestling Tees that says "Damn! Why I pick up my phone?"
 

  The Asylum, the movie studio that brought you "classics" like Snakes on a Train, Nazis at the Center of the Earth and Sharknado announced its latest cinematic masterpiece "Hercules Reborn" starring John Morrison.


   The Northeast Wrestling show “Wrestling Under the Stars 3” on August 2 featuring the first meeting between the Young Bucks and the Hardy Boys will also feature Kevin Steen versus Jerry Lawler in a piledriver vs piledriver match. Also advertised are Bret Hart, Booker T, Jimmy Hart, Matt Sydal, Mike Bennett and Maria Kanellis, Matt Taven, Brodus Clay, Velvet Sky and Reby Sky.
 
 

  Nick Jackson of the Young Bucks tweeted that the Wyatt Family was hanging out with the Bullet Club while WWE was on tour in Japan. So...confirmed – Wyatt Family are joining Bullet Club. I’d post the pic but it looks like it was taken down cause I can’t find it now.
 

  Rumors that former UFC light heavyweight champion Rashad Evans has expressed interest in joining WWE. Evans responded in an interview with ewrestlingnews.com saying he wouldn’t even consider it until after he was done fighting and estimated that he has at least four years left in the sport of MMA.

 

  Canadian indy star Tyson Dux worked a dark match in Ottawa against Sin Cara. Doubtful it will lead to more for Dux as he's already 36. Another Canadian Indy wrestler Vanessa Kraven worked the same Ottawa taping as a Rosebud on the Exotic Express
 

  Ring of Honor’s Aftershock in Minnesota was last weekend. Kevin Steen defeated Tomasso Ciampa in first of 3 farewell matches, Silas Young defeated Matt Taven, Tadarius Thomas and ACH to earn a World title shot on 8/22. Micahel Elgin retained World title against Matt Hardy. Before the match, Hardy gave the Iconic title to Maria Kanellis as a gift for saving it numerous times, saying he wouldn't need it after winning the World title.

  The Young Bucks will be returning to ROH August 9 in Philadelphia to take on Bad Influence, Christopher Daniels and Frankie Kazarian, as part of the Summer Heat tour. Michael Elgin will also be defending the ROH World championship.

  The Masked Mania show which took place at the former ECW Arena will be available on Pay-Per-View this September. The show features lucha libre stars like La Parka and Dr. Wagner Jr., indy wrestlers like Homicide, Chuck Taylor, and Green Ant and ECW legend Sabu. It will be a two hour long edited version of the show with English and Spanish commentary. I attended this spectacular lucha libre show and did a write up of the event so if you’d like a preview, check out this link.

  CZW’s New Heights was this past Saturday at the Flyer’s Skate Zone in Voorhees, New Jersey. It seems like Drew Gulak is turning face after confronting CZW Owner DJ and The Front, leading to an impromptu match between Gulak and The Front’s Sozio, which Sozio won after interference from CZW Champion Biff Busick. The Juicy Product retained the CZW Tag Team titles in a four-way against Team Tremendous, OI4K and the Beaver Boys. Shane Strickland successfully defended the CZW Wired TV championship against Caleb Conley. And Biff Busick retained the CZW World Championship against “Speedball” Mike Bailey. AR Fox was originally slated to face Busick in this match but was replaced by Bailey after suffering a wrist injury, which will require surgery. I’m not familiar with Mike Bailey but from the few YouTube clips I just looked up, he has a high-flying, fast-paced style similar to Fox.

  AR Fox’s injury is going to keep him out of many upcoming shows such as PWG’s Battle of Los Angeles 2014, the three Evolve shows on 8/9-8/10 and Beyond Wrestling’s Americanrana ’14 on July 27. It’s said that he’ll need surgery on his wrist and will be out of action 2-3 months.

 

  Finally, I’m afraid I’ve got some bad news for American fans of Japanese wrestling as the website UStream, which hosts New Japan Pro Wrestling and Dragon Gate shows, announced that it will end its Pay-Per-View services on October 1. There’s a much more detailed look at the details surrounding the decision to no longer host the Japanese PPVs at FightNetwork.com but it seems to boil down to UStream not having the staff to deal with iPPV issues in real-time and decided to shut down the service rather than hire more people.