Chase Owens is getting his shot at singles gold in New Japan.
The finals of the 2019 New Japan Cup tournament is set for March 24th and the winner of the tournament will earn the right to challenge Jay White for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship at Ring Of Honor and New Japan Pro Wrestling's G1 Supercard show at Madison Square Garden. Adding on to the match card for the final night of New Japan Cup action is an IWGP U.S. Heavyweight Title match as the champion Juice Robinson is set to defend against Bullet Club's "Crown Jewel" Chase Owens.
IWGP US Heavyweight Championship match set for March 24th!
— NJPW Global (@njpwglobal) March 18, 2019
The IWGP US Heavyweight Championship will be on the line as @realchaseowens challenges the 5th champion, Juice Robinson!https://t.co/DV3n1exFDc#njpw #njcup
New Japan posted the following preview of the match on their website:
On March 24th the 5th IWGP US Champion, Juice Robinson will defend his title against Chase Owens! After Owens beat Juice in the 1st round of the New Japan Cup 2019, the Crown Jewel has been hounding the US Champion for a title shot. The match between the two on the first night of the cup was a rough and tumble affair, with Owens pulling out every trick in his book to get the better of his opponent. As the match wore on, the champ became more and more frustrated with his opponent’s tactics and started leaving openings, which the BULLET CLUB member capitalized upon.
Following this, Chase Owens started shadowing Juice, regularly attacking him after each match, demanding a title shot. The champion for his part denied that he was avoiding such a match, but neither did he make any concrete plans to defend his championship. This culminated in a vicious incident after the March 17th event when Chase assaulted Juice with the belt itself and with the backing of Jado, continued his assault on him for a long time. The match is now set for the New Japan Cup final on March 24th where Juice Robinson will attempt to successfully defend his championship for the second time.
The Quarterfinals of the New Japan Cup tournament will resume on Wednesday and to catch up on results from past shows, head over to Fightful's "results" page.
