YOH replaces Lio Rush in a big-time 3-Way at Destruction in Ryogoku.
During a recent press conference prior to NJPW Destruction in Ryogoku, it was announced that YOH would be replacing Lio Rush in a 3-Way for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship at the event on October 9.
Lio Rush will be missing the event as he is one of a number of wrestlers who have had to miss recent New Japan Pro-Wrestling events because of an illness.
At a special pre-Destruction in Ryogoku press conference today in Tokyo, a big change was made to the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship three-way match between Lio Rush, Hiromu Takahashi, and Mike Bailey.
Bailey’s international commitments have meant the challenger will arrive in Japan hours before his title match, making preview tags leading up to Destruction in Ryogoku contested between Takahashi and Rush. Earlier this week though, Rush fell ill and had been absent from final dates on the road to Destruction, raising questions over his status. In the midst of this confusion, IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion Hiromu Takahashi crashed the public contract signing, seemingly content with staging a press conference by himself, only to be interrupted by YOH.
Popcorn in hand, YOH took a seat with the fans, as Takahashi admitted losing to the CHAOS member 24 hours earlier in Miyagi. Hiromu told the crowd that he planned to defend his title in the three-way at Ryogoku before accepting the challenge of YOH, but YOH had other plans. Telling the champion that his tag team partner was out of the running for Ryogoku, YOH commented ‘We can’t help getting sick sometimes, and Lio got sick. He can’t wrestle. So that said, put me in his place in the three-way match!’
Hiromu didn’t need much time to consider things, and with Chairman Sugabayashi mute through the whole encounter, took silence for permission. As Takahashi vowed to surpass the defense record with the junior heavyweight gold, he now has to do it with a different match environment, and perhaps even more unpredictability tomorrow in Sumo Hall.
Fans can check out the full card for the October 9 event below:
NJPW Destruction in Ryoguku 10/9
- DOUKI, Taichi & TBD vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaru, SHO & Yujiro Takahashi
- Tanga Loa vs. Chase Owens
- BUSHI, Yota Tsuji, Shingo Takagi & Tetsuya Naito vs. Callum Newman, HENARE, Great-O-Khan & Jeff Cobb
- IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship: Drilla Moloney & Clark Connors (c) vs. Kevin Knight & KUSHIDA
- Best of Seven Series Final: Master Wato, Shota Umino & Yuji Nagata vs. El Desperado, Ren Narita & Minoru Suzuki
- NJPW STRONG Openweight Tag Team Championships: Alex Coughlin & Gabe Kidd (c) vs. El Phantasmo & Hikuleo
- NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Championships: Tomohiro Ishii, Hiroshi Tanahashi & Kazuchika Okada (c) vs. Josh Alexander, Chris Sabin & Alex Shelley
- NEVER Openweight Championship: David Finlay (c) vs. Tama Tonga
- IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship: Hiromu Takahashi (c) vs. YOH vs. ‘Speedball’ Mike Bailey
- IWGP World Heavyweight Championship Lumberjack Match: SANADA (c) vs. EVIL
Fightful will have coverage of Destruction in Ryogoku and full results in our results section.
