Just hours before the Wrestle Grand Slam event at the Tokyo Dome, NJPW has officially removed Kota Ibushi from the main event and will be replaced by Hiroshi Tanahashi.
Ibushi has been battling aspiration pneumonia and has not wrestled since July 2nd. He was removed from the Summer Struggle cards in Osaka and Nagoya over the past few days with his status for the Tokyo Dome left up in the air.
NJPW issued a statement on Saturday evening to confirm the change,
On Saturday’s card in Nagoya, Tanahashi said he would be ready to take the match if needed.
The new main event will see Shingo Takagi defend the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship against Tanahashi, who defeated Takagi this past January to win the NEVER Openweight Championship.
The card will stream at 3 a.m. ET on New Japan World with the following matches:
*IWGP World Heavyweight Championship: Shingo Takagi (champion) vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi
*IWGP Tag Team Championship: Tetsuya Naito & SANADA vs. Taichi & Zack Sabre Jr.
*Kazuchika Okada vs. Jeff Cobb
*IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Championship: El Desperado (champion) vs. Robbie Eagles
*IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Championship: El Phantasmo & Taiji Ishimori vs. Ryusuke Taguchi & Rocky Romero
*New Japan Ranbo with Handcuffs for the KOPW 2021 title
Wai Ting and I will have a Wrestle Grand Slam POST Show out Sunday night for members of the POST Wrestling Café.
