NJPW President 'Angry' Over Karl Anderson Double-Booking

It was revealed this week that current NEVER Openweight Champion Karl Anderson will not be able to defend the title at NJPW’s upcoming Battle Autumn event on November 5 as a result of Anderson being double booked due to his recent return to WWE.

‘Machine Gun’ was set to defend the title against Hikuleo in Osaka Japan, but will instead be teaming with Luke Gallows and AJ Styles in six-man tag action against Judgement Day at WWE Crown Jewel in Saudi Arabia.

News of Anderson’s cancellation has seemingly not gone down well with New Japan, with NJPW President Takami Ohbari telling Tokyo Sports that he is “angry” with how things have panned out, but declined to comment specifically on his thoughts of Anderson choosing WWE over NJPW on this occasion.

Tokyo Sports’ article claims that Anderson cancelling his scheduled NJPW title defence is the first instance of a ‘foreign fighter blatantly refusing to participate’ in a pre-advertised event for NJPW.

Before their WWE return earlier this month, it was widely reported that Gallows and Anderson would still be working with New Japan through Wrestle Kingdom on January 4, and it remains to be seen if NJPW will reschedule Anderson’s title defence, or if they will strip ‘Machine Gun’ of the belt. Anderson has noted that he still plans to work for NJPW until at least Wrestle Kingdom.

Translation via Google translate.