NJPW confirms change to IWGP Junior Tag Team title match
NJPW has officially confirmed a change to the card for the final show of their Road to Castle Attack tour.
IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions El Phantasmo & Taiji Ishimori will now defend their titles against El Desperado & Yoshinobu Kanemaru in the main event of this Thursday’s Road to Castle Attack event. Hiromu Takahashi & BUSHI were originally set to be Phantasmo & Ishimori’s challengers, but Takahashi is expected to be out of action for approximately six months due to a torn left pectoral muscle.
Takahashi had been scheduled to defend his IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship against Phantasmo at Castle Attack night two this coming Sunday. NJPW hasn’t announced what their updated plans are for that match with Takahashi unable to compete due to injury.
Phantasmo & Ishimori won the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team titles from Desperado & Kanemaru on the Road to The New Beginning tour this January. Desperado & Kanemaru replacing Takahashi & BUSHI in Thursday’s title match was set up by an angle where Desperado & Kanemaru laid out Phantasmo & Ishimori at Monday’s Road to Castle Attack show and vowed to become champions again. Phantasmo & Ishimori had claimed that they had no challengers with Takahashi injured.
Thursday’s Road to Castle Attack event is taking place at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo, Japan. It will air live on New Japan World starting at 4 a.m. Eastern time. Here’s the full card for the show:
- IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions El Phantasmo & Taiji Ishimori defend against El Desperado & Yoshinobu Kanemaru
- Kota Ibushi, Yuji Nagata & Tomoaki Honma vs. Tetsuya Naito, SANADA & Shingo Takagi
- Tomohiro Ishii, Hirooki Goto & YOSHI-HASHI vs. Jay White, Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa
- Kazuchika Okada, Toru Yano & SHO vs. EVIL, Chase Owens & Dick Togo
- Hiroshi Tanahashi, Satoshi Kojima & Yota Tsuji vs. The Great O-Khan, Will Ospreay & Jeff Cobb