NJPW Cancels Events

By Ryan Joy
Updated: February 26, 2020
Ticker

In light of recommendations made by the Japanese Ministry of Health, New Japan Pro Wrestling announced the cancellation of all events between March 1 and March 15 impacting their anniversary show and several days of the New Japan Cup tournament.

How this announcement impacts the various major events is unclear at this time. The Eight New Japan Cup events would have narrowed the field from the initial 32 competitors through single elimination down to the final 8. New Japan could stick with the 32 man field and have wrestlers compete in multiple matches each night or they could stick with their plans and artificially narrow the field to 8 based on some other metric. Once they know how they plan to proceed, I am sure they’ll announce it.

They also haven’t announced anything for the March 31 Sakura Genesis show, but one can assume that they certainly had plans already in place. They could incorporate the finals into that event as another option.

The other major match impacted by the cancellations is the Tetsuya Naito vs. Hiromu Takahashi main event associated with the Anniversary Show. That match could certainly be moved to any of the later March dates including Sakura Genesis or the New Japan Cup finals. The match pits the IWGP Heavyweight Champion (Naito) vs. the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Champion (Takahashi). Given these two men are in the same faction and have a long history having never competed 1:1, a lot of emphasis was being put on the match.

The Announcement from New Japan

In light of recommendations made on February 26 by the Japanese Ministry of Health connected to the new Coronavirus COVID-19, New Japan Pro-Wrestling has arrived at the decision to cancel all live events scheduled between Sunday March 1 and Sunday March 15.
Further announcements will be made at a later date. All ticket holders will be refunded. Please check njpw1972.com and social media in the coming days for details on the refund procedure.
NJPW has reached this difficult decision after careful consideration. Ultimately, the health and safety of our fans, staff and wrestlers is our highest concern. We remain deeply appreciative of your support of New Japan Pro-Wrestling.
The following events are affected by today’s decision:
Anniversary Tour
Sunday March 1: Mito Municipal Gymnasium, Ibaraki
Monday March 2: Big Palette Fukushima
Anniversary Event
Tuesday March 3: Ota City Gymnasium, Tokyo
New Japan Cup
Wednesday March 4: Korakuen Hall, Tokyo
Saturday March 7: Aichi Prefectural Gymnasium
Sunday March 8: Baycom Gymnasium, Hyogo
Monday March 9: Kochi Prefectural Gymnasium
Tuesday March 10: ZIP Arena Okayama
Thursday March 12: Korakuen Hall, Tokyo
Friday March 13: Korakuen Hall, Tokyo
Saturday March 14: Makuhari Messe, Chiba