During a recent interaction with the New York Post, Mercedes Mone shared her aspirations for the upcoming year 2025. She articulated, “This new year, I want to continue to expand awareness and opportunities for female wrestlers and female athletes in general, globally.”
Meanwhile, TNA Wrestling’s famous star Mike Santana spoke about his experiences during his tenor with All Elite Wrestling while conversing with Tim Hann Rivera. On why he left the company helmed by Tony Khan, he opined,
“If you’re not progressing in this business, then you’re dying. And that’s with anything, any job. If you’re not working to get a higher position or to progress in any way, then what are we doing here? And I’ve always said that my biggest thing was that I want to grow. I’ve always lived my life and every aspect where I’m chasing what’s next. ‘How are we going to grow? How are we going to continue building?’ And it got to a point where it was like that wasn’t happening, and we weren’t getting those opportunities. And I just wasn’t feeling that. I grew as a man there, cause I went through a lot of things. Like, during my time there, my father passed away. I dealt with my addiction issues. My friendship and partnership and all that stuff started to be affected. I grew. And it showed me a lot of different situations to learn from. So I’m always grateful for the opportunities that I had there. I’m not, like, everyone else, and I’m not going to bury everyone…that’s not me. It prepared me for what’s ahead, you know what I mean?”
In another conversation with Proresu-TODAY, Shota Umino opened up about the ankle injury he during his bout at the NJPW World Tag League event on November 29. Discussing his decision to participate in the following events despite the injury, he declared, “I was diagnosed with a one-month recovery, but I chose not to miss any matches during that time. I thought it was necessary to know how much I could move with the injury and what kind of movement I could not do in order to win at the Tokyo Dome. The company suggested that I take some time off, but I was more worried about going on the big stage without knowing the status of my ankle. The experience of running through the tag team league while on painkillers for the injury was great, and I feel that my condition is improving day by day. As a professional wrestler, I am most worried about losing the feeling of a match. There is a sense of tension and severity unique to matches that you cannot get from weight training and sparring alone. It was important for me to keep experiencing that in order to maintain myself. In fact, at the G1 Climax, I competed despite having a hiccuped back and fatigue fracture. Regardless of having injuries, I can give 100% of Shota Umino. I will step into the ring with confidence.”
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