New Japan Pro-Wrestling announced that Master Wato will now face Taiji Ishimori at NJPW Declaration of Power on October 10. Wato is replacing KUSHIDA who is not cleared to compete at the event.
From NJPW:
Yesterday the announcement was made that as a result of his continuing recovery from illness, KUSHIDA will not be able to wrestle his scheduled singles match with Taiji Ishimori on Monday October 0 in Ryogoku.
In the wake of the decision, Master Wato would issue his own challenge to Ishimori, suggesting that the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion ‘assess’ someone different. Ishimori accepted the non-title challenge, and now the match is official for Ryogoku!
As a result, what was an eight man contest now becomes six in the third match of the night, with Hikuleo, Ryusuke Taguchi and Hiroshi Tanahashi set to take on HOUSE OF TORTURE. Another set of champions in BULLET CLUB that seem reluctant to defend their belts, will this Hontai trio, with the huge Hikuleo making for a big time addition, force H.O.T’s hand into a future title match on Monday?
NJPW Statement.
You can see the updated card for Declaration Of Power below:
- IWGP World Heavyweight Title Match: Jay White (c) vs. Tama Tonga
- Kazuchika Okada vs. JONAH
- NJPW King Of Pro-Wrestling Title Who’s Your Daddy Match: Shingo Takagi (c) vs. El Phantasmo
- Taiji Ishimori vs. Master Wato
- Bishamon (Hirooki Goto & YOSHI-HASHI) vs. United Empire (Great-O-Khan & Jeff Cobb)
- Dangerous Tekkers (Taichi & Zack Sabre Jr.) vs. TMDK (Bad Dude Tito & Shane Haste)
- David Finlay, Ren Narita & Robbie Eagles vs. Suzuki-gun (DOUKI, El Desperado & Yoshinobu Kanemaru)
- Ryusuke Taguchi, Hikuleo & Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. House Of Torture (EVIL, SHO & Yujiro Takahashi)
- Los Ingobernables de Japon (BUSHI, Hiromu Takahashi, SANADA & Tetsuya Naito) vs. United Empire (Aaron Henare, Francesco Akira, TJP & Will Ospreay)
Follow Corey at @CoreyBrennanBS on Twitter
If you enjoy Bodyslam’s content, you can help donate to the site here. You can also visit our PWTees store and buy Bodyslam official merchandise here.
You can listen to all of Bodyslam’s podcasts by following us on Spotify and subscribing to our YouTube Channel, or any of your favorite podcast platforms.ⓘⓘⓘⓘⓘⓘⓘⓘⓘⓘ
