Over the past few years, fans of professional wrestling have gotten used to cards being changed on the fly. The COVID-19 pandemic has placed a lot of risks in the world, especially in the world of professional wrestling. If someone is feeling ill, companies can’t risk an outbreak in the roster, and card changes are the result. The latest show to get shuffled up is New Japan Pro Wrestling’s upcoming Wrestling Dontaku PPV – as two men are out of the mix.
Will Ospreay & Tatsumi Fujinami Are Out Of Wrestling Dontaku
Both Will Ospreay & Tatsumi Fujinami will be unable to make the event, after being exposed to COVID-19. They tested positive, and have been removed from the card while they recover. Card changes have already been announced, with a mystery man stepping in for Fujinami.
The NJPW legend was intended to team with BUSHI & Shingo Takagi to face Suzuki-gun in the opening match of the show – but NJPW has kept his replacement secret at this time. Will Ospreay however was supposed to battle Hiroshi Tanahshi for the vacant IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship – and has been replaced by Tomohiro Ishii.
Both Ishii & Tanahashi have huge matches coming up at Capitol Collision, set to face Eddie Kingston & Jon Moxley respectively. Walking into that event carrying gold will make those matches even more high stakes, and Ishii & Tanahashi are sure to bring a show stealing performance at Dontaku.
The Full Card
Barring any extra changes ahead of May 1st, the card for Wrestling Dontaku is as follows.
1st Match: Shingo Takagi, BUSHI & X vs Zack Sabre Jr, TAKA Michinoku & Taichi
2nd Match: Hiromu Takahashi vs. YOH
3rd Match: Yujiro Takahashi vs. Tanga Loa
4th Match: Six Or Nine (Master Wato & Ryusuke Taguchi) (c) vs. Suzuki-gun (DOUKI & Yoshinobu Kanemaru) for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championships
5th Match: United Empire (Great-O-Khan & Jeff Cobb) (c) vs. Bishamon (Hirooki Goto & YOSHI-HASHI) vs. BULLET CLUB (Bad Luck Fale & Chase Owens) for IWGP Tag Team Championships
6th Match: EVIL (c) vs. Tama Tonga for NEVER Openweight Championship
7th Match: El Desperado (c) vs. Taiji Ishimori IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship
8th Match: Tomohiro Ishii vs Hiroshi Tanahashi for Vacant IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship
9th Match: Kazuchika Okada (c) vs. Tetsuya Naito for IWGP World Heavyweight Championship
You will be able to find full and live coverage of this event right here on TheOvertimer, on May 1st. Are you excited for Wrestling Dontaku 2022? Let us know what you think in the comment section down below.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ykTW7cYL2v8
