News and notes for this week

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Thomas Moore, a British wrestling champion in the 1950s, passed away this past week at the age of 87. He wrestled under the name Jack Dempsey and had his roots in Wigan, home of the infamous Billy Riley catch wrestling Snake Pit. Apparently there was a major TV documentary done on him twelve years ago. He beat Mick McManus to win the British Welterweight Title in 1957.

 

After two days of deliberations, "Hardbody" Harrison Norris was declared guilty by a federal grand jury this week on multiple charges of sex trafficking and slavery related to a scheme to force women into prostitution. Norris took in a number of girls, promising to train them as professional wrestlers, and instead forced them into prostitution.

 

A number of women testified during the trial that Norris had threatened and beaten them if they disobeyed, with one claiming that Norris headbutted her when she refused to have sex with two customers and told her he'd throw her through a plate glass window. He ran his home like a military camp, putting the girls in "squads" overseen by an "enforcer".

 

He was referred to as the "General" and the girls often had to sleep with him in "the General's Quarter". One women said that Norris had forced her to sexually assault another woman during a party, and that acts of prostitution had occurred throughout North Carolina and Georgia, in hotels, nightclubs, apartments, etc. He really got hit hard because he crossed state lines. At the house, Norris forced them into labor, and also fined women for infractions such as not working out or talking too much. He would tell the girls they could not go free until their debts were paid, but then increase their debts regularly. Because his offenses were found to involve aggravated sexual abuse, he faces life in prison when sentences in February of 2008. Acting Assistant Attorney General Rena J. Comisac said,

 

This jury has vindicated the rights of the numerous young women this defendant exploited, abused, and forced into prostitution. The Department of Justice will continue to prosecute vigorously matters, such as this one, involving the sexual exploitation of young women." United States Attorney David E. Nahmias added, "The evidence at trial clearly proved that Norris used force and threats of force against the victims forcing them to work as prostitutes against their will. Sex trafficking and other forced labor are forms of modern day slavery and cannot be tolerated." The grand irony here is that Norris, involved in modern day slavery, won over a million dollars in a racial discrimination lawsuit from WCW/Time Warner.

 

 

The line-up for the Tokyo Dome show on January 4th, which has a New Japan vs. TNA theme, looks to be Manabu Nakanishi vs. Abyss, Giant Bernard & Maybe Travis Tomko (he underwent emergency surgery for some sort of muscle tear last week so I have no idea what the story is with him) vs. Rick & Scott Steiner for the IWGP Tag Team Titles,

 

Kurt Angle vs. Yuji Nagata for Angle's V2 or V3 or whatever version it is of the IWGP Title (the original belt that Brock Lesnar took with him when he left New Japan, that ended up going to Angle after Angle talked Brock into putting him over at the debut Inoki Genome Federation event earlier this year in exchange for an MMA match between the two down the road that probably is never going to happen) (got all that?), and Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. the winner of the December 9th Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Toji Makabe number one contender's match.

 

I'm not sure what will go on last, but at least at this point they're really positioning Kurt's IWGP belt higher than Tanahashi's "official" IWGP belt. Obviously, the idea is to built towards a unification match. I suspect they'll go with Tanahashi vs. Angle since Angle is an outsider and that's been New Japan's modus operandi for two decades, though they could go with Nagata since Tanahashi beat Nagata for the official belt a few months back.

 

Naruki Doi & Masato Yoshino of Dragon Gate beat Kotaro Suzuki & Ricky Marvin on November 24th at the NOAH show in Sapporo to win the GHC Jr. Tag Team titles. It's pretty interesting that if you look at all available factors (in-ring work, attendance, etc.), you could probably make an argument that Dragon Gate is one of if not the top wrestling promotion in the country right now.

 

ROH announced that Daniel Puder would be appearing at the December 29th and 30th Final Battle shows in Manhattan. They said he liked the physical style of the company and was there to see what ROH was about in person. Don't know if he'll have any interest in wrestling since he's fighting fairly regularly these days, and pro-wrestling is much harder on the body and would require quite the pay cut,

 

credit:F4W Newsletter