New Japan Pro Wrestling kicked off its Summer Struggle in Sapporo on Saturday featuring an IWGP junior heavyweight title match in the main event.
The show was affected by the absence of Kota Ibushi, who the company stated was removed due to “side effects from a COVID-19 vaccination”.
Kota Ibushi is currently affected by side effects from a COVID-19 vaccination, and in his best health interests, will not be participating on tonight’s Summer Struggle in Sapporo night one card.
We apologise to fans who were looking forward to seeing Ibushi wrestle, and appreciate your understanding.
Ibushi’s condition will continue to be monitored, and decisions made as to his participation in upcoming matches.
Ibushi had been scheduled to team with Master Wato against Yuya Uemura & Yota Tsuji. Instead, it was changed to a 1-on-1 match between Master Wato and Yuya Uemura.
The card was headlined by El Desperado retaining the IWGP junior heavyweight title against Taiji Ishimori. After 28 minutes and 54 seconds, Desperado won with the Pinche Loco to make the second defense of his championship.
After, a video aired on the screen with a message delivered by Robbie Eagles, who made the next challenge for El Desperado.
Eagles has not wrestled for New Japan since last December when he was part of the Best of the Super Juniors tournament, which was won by Hiromu Takahashi.
There was no date set for the championship match.
Here are the results from Saturday’s card at the Makomanai Sekisui Home Ice Arena:
*Master Wato over Yuya Uemura
*EVIL & Dick Togo over Tomohiro Ishii & YOH
*Hiroshi Tanahashi, Ryusuke Taguchi & Rocky Romero over KENTA, Yujiro & El Phantasmo
*Jeff Cobb & Great O-Khan over Kazuchika Okada & SHO
*Shingo Takagi, Tetsuya Naito, SANADA & BUSHI over Zack Sabre Jr., Taichi, Yoshinobu Kanemaru & DOUKI
*IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship: El Desperado (champion) over Taiji Ishimori
New Japan runs the same venue on Sunday with a card headlined by Zack Sabre Jr. & Taichi defending the IWGP tag titles against Tetsuya Naito & SANADA.
