Shota Umino Makes Shock NJPW Return

Jon Moxley’s former apprentice ‘Shooter’ Shota Umino has come home and he’s out for blood and gold.

Shota Umino is part of a group of Young Lions slowly being groomed to be a future star in New Japan. Two of his fellow Young Lions have already adopted new gimmicks: Hirai Kawato became Waster Wato and Tomoyuki Oka became The Great O’Khan.

Umino, meanwhile, had a short stint as Jon Moxley’s partner and the two started getting plenty of attention until Moxley left NJPW for AEW.

Umino’s last notable matches were at Forbidden Door where he took the fall in a six-man tag match; and then at Royal Quest II in London, where he lost to Will Ospreay in a non-title match.

But now Umino is back ‘home’ in New Japan proper and wants to face Ospreay again.

On November 5^th, Ospreay retained his IWGP United States Championship against Tetsuya Naito. Afterward, Umino accepted Ospreay’s open challenge for the title.

And according to The Wrestling Observer, Umino then channeled his former mentor Moxley and hit the champ with Moxley’s Deathrider DDT.

Umino, now going under the nickname ‘Roughneck’, will face Will Ospreay for the IWGP US Title at Historic X-Over on November 20^th.