NJPW Title Match Possibly Off Due To WWE

A previously advertised NJPW title match could be off the table due to developments that took place in WWE on Monday Night Raw.

Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows recently made their shock return to WWE to reform The O.C. with their old running buddy AJ Styles in his battle with The Judgment Day.

On Raw, Finn Balor emerged with his Judgment Day partners Damian Priest, Dominik Mysterio, and Rhea Ripley to challenge Karl Anderson, Luke Gallows, and AJ Styles to a six-man tag team match at Crown Jewel.

That is an interesting development as Karl Anderson is still the NEVER Openweight Champion in NJPW and is scheduled to defend that title against Hikuleo in Osaka on the 5th of November – the same day as the Crown Jewel event in Saudi Arabia.

Speaking on Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer discussed the issue and suggested that Anderson was originally going to be allowed to defend his NJPW title:

“The deal with Crown Jewel is it’s the same day as that Osaka show where Karl Anderson is wrestling Hikuleo. So if they’re doing that match [at Crown Jewel] which they said they were, that stuff about how they were going to work out their dates for New Japan, which was the idea last week is I guess, not the idea anymore.”

“[…] But he ended up going back anyway and went back to the company and he was gonna work out his New Japan dates, I don’t know if he’s gonna be working those New Japan dates anymore.”

Whether Anderson will complete dates for New Japan Pro Wrestling at another time remains to be seen.

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