Zack Sabre Jr. vs. SANADA official for NJPW Royal Quest
If Zack Sabre Jr. becomes IWGP World Heavyweight Champion next month, his first title defense will take place in his home country.
NJPW has confirmed Sabre vs. SANADA for Royal Quest IV in London on Sunday, October 20. It’s billed as a special singles match right now, but Sabre has said he’ll put the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship on the line if he wins the title.
Sabre is challenging Tetsuya Naito for the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship at King of Pro Wrestling on October 14. He earned the title shot by winning this year’s G1 Climax. Though the winner of the tournament traditionally gets their title shot at Wrestle Kingdom, Sabre did not want to wait until then. He wanted the chance to return to the United Kingdom as champion at Royal Quest.
The Sabre vs. SANADA match was set up by a challenge that was issued by SANADA after pinning ZSJ in a tag match on Wednesday.
There have now been two matches confirmed for Royal Quest:
NJPW Royal Quest IV (Sunday, October 20) —
- Zack Sabre Jr. vs. SANADA
- NJPW Strong Openweight Tag Team Champions TMDK (Shane Haste & Mikey Nicholls) defend against Hiroshi Tanahashi & Tomohiro Ishii