NJPW announces Yano vs. Owens KOPW stipulation for Castle Attack
Toru Yano will defend the provisional 2021 King of Pro Wrestling title against Chase Owens in a YTR style Texas strap match at Saturday’s NJPW Castle Attack event.
The stipulation was decided in a Twitter poll held on the NJPW Global account. Fans were asked to choose between the Yano style strap match and the Owens style. The winner of the match will be the participant who removes all four corner pads while strapped to their opponent. The Owens stip would have been a traditional four corners strap match.
Yano is the current provisional KOPW 2021 champ after winning the title in a four-way at Wrestle Kingdom 15 on January 5, defeating Owens, Bad Luck Fale and BUSHI.
The official 2021 KOPW will be decided after the final provisional title defense of the year. Yano won the 2020 version of the title, last defeating Fale in a bodyslam match at Road to Tokyo Dome on December 23 to cement his win.
Here are the announced lineups for Castle Attack. A change is yet to be announced to the Sunday card, as Hiromu Takahashi will be unable to defend the IWGP Junior Heavyweight title on that show due to injury:
Saturday, February 27, 2 a.m. Eastern time
- Kazuchika Okada vs. EVIL
- Tomohiro Ishii vs. Jay White
- Provisional KOPW 2021 Championship YTR style strap match: Toru Yano (c) vs. Chase Owens
- Tama Tonga vs. Hirooki Goto
- Tanga Loa vs. YOSHI-HASHI
- Hiroshi Tanahashi, Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima vs. Great-O-Khan, Will Ospreay & Jeff Cobb
Sunday, February 28, 12 a.m. Eastern time
- IWGP Intercontinental Championship: Kota Ibushi (c) vs. Tetsuya Naito
- 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