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Report: Stardom Want To Re-Sign WWE's Kairi Sane & Io Shirai

Stardom's new owners eyeing big moves when Sane & Shirai's contracts expire.


WWE duo Kairi Sane and Io Shirai are reported signing targets for their former promotion, World Wonder Ring Stardom, when their current contracts expire.

This is according to Dave Meltzer on a recent episode of Wrestling Observer Radio, who notes that Bushiroad, whose subsidiary Kix Road bought the joshi promotion last month, want to bring the popular duo back to Japan.

Sane and Shirai both joined WWE directly from Stardom. Sane was signed in October 2016 and started the following March, commencing a reported three-year deal worth $800,000 per annum. If those reports were accurate, she'd be free to return to Stardom after March 2020.

Shirai, meanwhile, was originally supposed to join WWE at a similar time, though plans were scuppered after she turned the opportunity down. She didn't end up signing with the company until May 2018. There's no word on how long her current deal runs for.

Whether or not the former Sky Pirates would want to return to the promotion in which they made their name is up for debate. One would imagine Io is probably quite creatively fulfilled in NXT, though Sane's main roster run has been up and down, even as a Women's Tag Team Champion.
 

NJPW reveals World Tag League 2019 participants
The roster for this year’s World Tag League has been revealed.

There’s no real surprises in this year’s line up. The current IWGP Tag Team champions Guerillas of Destiny are in, as well as last year’s winners EVIL and SANADA.

Coming in for the tour are Colt Cabana (who will team with Toru Yano) and El Terrible (Shingo Takagi). Mikey Nicholls & Jeff Cobb will also be coming in as a tag team. This year's format will be the same as last year's tournament, consisting of a single block where the two teams with the most points will meet in the finals.

Some of New Japan’s older roster members who don’t appear on every tour will also be a part of the tournament. That includes teams like Manabu Nakanishi & Yuji Nagata and Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima.

Full lineups of each show can be found on New Japan’s website. The tournament will start on November 16 in Kanagawa and end on December 8 in Hiroshima.

The full list of participants is as follows:

  • Guerillas of Destiny
  • David Finlay & Juice Robinson
  • Toru Yano & Colt Cabana
  • Zack Sabre Jr. & Taichi
  • Lance Archer & Minoru Suzuki
  • Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima
  • Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma
  • EVIL & SANADA
  • Shingo Takagi & El Terrible
  • Chase Owens & Bad Luck Fale
  • KENTA & Yujiro Takahashi
  • Tomohiro Ishii & YOSHI-HASHI
  • Hirooki Goto & Karl Fredericks
  • Manabu Nakanishi & Yuji Nagata
  • Toa Henare & Hiroshi Tanahashi
  • Jeff Cobb & Mikey Nicholls
 

Major League Wrestling has announced that it has signed MLW World Champion Jacob Fatu to a long-term, multi-year contract.

PWInsider reports that there has been a lot of interest in Jacob Fatu prior to him signing a new long-term deal with MLW. WWE is one of the promotions that had been interested in hiring Fatu. MLW will now have the rights to book Fatu out to other promotions. They will have control over how he is used and presented by any independent companies that book him. This will help MLW protect Fatu and maintain his “aura as a top MLW star.” The company also plans to continue building the promotion around him and CONTRA Unit.
 
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