Notes on Booker T, Tony Khan, and Timothy Thatcher

– While speaking on his Hall of Fame Podcast, Booker T revealed that he has turned down an offer to compete in next year’s Starrcast which would be Harlem Heat’s final match. He said “I was approached actually to have a final match next year at Starrcast. Harlem Heat’s final match, here in Texas. I said ‘Hell no. We ain’t doing none of that.’ I just had a match a couple of weeks ago, my knee was killing me. I can only imagine what it’s going to feel like next year. Y’all can forget about seeing me do one last match.”

– During a recent interview with SportsGrid, AEW President Tony Khan revealed that he is more concerned about WWE poaching AEW talent now that Triple H is Head of creative and once again EVP of Talent Relations. He said, “I think that’s always been a concern, but now probably more so than ever, I imagine great wrestlers are going to be in demand. And again, I think this is probably going to be good for the wrestling fans because that’s one of the most exciting things about pro wrestling: free agency. It’s one of those things that was really missing from the sport for almost two decades before AEW came in, because there was not a legitimate competitor in the free agent market, and now there is. I think it’s going to be some exciting times ahead, hopefully for many years to come.”

– Timothy Thatcher to miss N-1 Victory 2022 tournament; Yoshiki Inamura vs. Kinya Okada N-1 qualifier match booked for DEPARTURE 2022

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Aug. 4, 2022

Tokyo, JAPAN— Timothy Thatcher will be absent from the N-1 VICTORY 2022 tournament due to a delay in his visa issuance procedure at the embassy. As a result, the DEPARTURE 2022 match order and some of the matches on the card have been updated.

Live stream from 18:30 JST (5:30 a.m ET, 2:30 a.m. PT) on WRESTLE UNIVERSE

PRO WRESTLING NOAH
DEPARTURE 2022

★ August 5th (Friday)
Start: 18:30 JST
Doors: 17:30 JST
Venue: Korakuen Hall, Tokyo

The 1st and 6th matches have been changed.

<1st match / tag team match>

Masaaki Mochizuki & Shuhei Taniguchi vs. Masa Kitamiya & Muhammad Yone

<2nd match, Six-person tag team match>

Yoshinari Ogawa, Yuya Susumu & Kawei Fujimura, vs. Nosawa Rongai, Eita & Super Crazy

<3rd match / tag team match>

Katsuhiko Nakajima & Manabu Soya vs. Anthony Green & Stallion Rogers

<4th match, six-person tag team match>

Ninja Mack, Daisuke Harada & Seiki Yoshioka vs. Dante Leon, Atsushi Kotoge & YO-HEY

<5th match, Eight-person tag team match>

KENOH, Tadasuke, Hajime Ohara & Hi69 vs. Kaito Kiyomiya, El Hijo del Santo, Ultímo Dragon & Alejandro

<6th match / N-1 VICTORY 2022 qualifier match / singles match>

Yoshiki Inamura vs. Kinya Okada

<7th match, Naomichi Marufuji return match / six-person tag team match>

Naomichi Marufuji, Go Shiozaki & Takashi Sugiura vs. Satoshi Kojima, Masato Tanaka & Daiki Inaba

<8th match, main event: GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship>

(Champion) HAYATA vs. Shuji Kondo (Challenger)

* This will be the fourth defense of the 49th champion.