The saga of Karl Anderson’s NEVER Openweight title fight has another new wrinkle: NJPW has canceled the match.
NJPW issued an official announcement regarding the NEVER Openweight title match that was supposed to take place at Battle Autumn between champion Karl Anderson and his challenger, Hikuleo. Battle Autumn is set to take place on November 5th. On that same date, WWE is holding their Crown Jewel event. Anderson will be teaming with Luke Gallows and AJ Styles to take on The Judgment Day at that show.
Hikuleo will now face Yujiro Takahashi in a non-title match. You can read the official announcement from NJPW below:
Despite extensive efforts by New Japan Pro-Wrestling to negotiate with Karl Anderson regarding his scheduled match in Osaka at Battle Autumn on November 5, NJPW officials have still been met with no response, and have been left with no other option but to cancel the planned NEVER Openweight Championship match.
We apologise to fans who had been looking forward to watching Anderson wrestle.
After a challenge from Yujiro Takahashi, and at the direct request of Hikuleo, Osaka will now see a non-title special singles match between Yujiro Takahashi and Hikuleo.
NJPW holds its champions to the highest standard of professionalism. We deeply apologise for the inconvenience and disappointment caused by this matter.
Here is the updated card for the Battle Autumn event:
- Yujiro Takahashi vs. Hikuleo
- IWGP US Championship: Will Ospreay (c) vs. Tetsuya Naito
- IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championships: United Empire (Francesco Akira & TJP) (c) vs. Titan & BUSHI
- Taiji Ishimori, Master Wato, El Desperado, and Hiromu Takahashi compete in a wild card tag match
- Aussie Open (Mark Davis & Kyle Fletcher) vs. TBA
