IWGP Junior Heavyweight title bout set for NJPW Castle Attack

El Phantasmo, BUSHI and El Desperado will square off for the vacant IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship at Sunday’s NJPW Castle Attack event. NJPW made the announcement this evening. 

The Jr. Heavyweight title was officially vacated at today’s Road to Castle Attack event at Korakuen Hall. Former champ Hiromu Takahashi announced that he was unable to make his scheduled title defense on Sunday against El Phantasmo and asked that BUSHI take his place in a match for the vacant belt. 

In today’s main event, Desperado and Yoshinobu Kanemaru defeated Phantasmo and Taiji Ishimori to capture the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team titles. Desperado then cut a promo asking to either be added to the match with ELP and BUSHI or to face the winner of that bout at the March 4 NJPW Anniversary event. 

Phantasmo then hit Desperado with a Sudden Death superkick. BUSHI ran in and laid out ELP with a codebreaker to complete the three-way angle. 

Desperado tied for the block lead in the 2020 Best of the Super Juniors tournament and scored wins over both Hiromu and BUSHI on the tour before falling to Hiromu in the BOSJ Finals. Phantasmo won both the 2019 and 2020 Super J-Cup tournaments. 

Sunday’s Castle Attack show will feature four title matches. Here is the lineup for both nights of Castle Attack:

Saturday, February 27, 2 a.m. Eastern time on NJPW World

  • Kazuchika Okada vs. EVIL
  • Tomohiro Ishii vs. Jay White
  • KOPW 2021 Provisional Championship YTR style Texas strap match: Toru Yano (c) vs. Chase Owens
  • Hirooki Goto vs. Tama Tonga
  • YOSHI-HASHI vs. Tanga Loa
  • Hiroshi Tanahashi, Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima vs. Great-O-Khan, Will Ospreay & Jeff Cobb

Sunday, February 28, 12 a.m. Eastern time on NJPW World

  • IWGP Intercontinental Championship: Kota Ibushi (c) vs. Tetsuya Naito
  • IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship: El Phantasmo vs. BUSHI vs. El Desperado
  • NEVER Openweight Championship: Hiroshi Tanahashi (c) vs. Great-O-Khan
  • IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Championships: Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa (c) vs. Hirooki Goto & YOSHI-HASHI
  • Kazuchika Okada, Tomohiro Ishii & Toru Yano vs. EVIL, Jay White & Chase Owens
  • Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima vs. Will Ospreay & Jeff Cobb