H Jenkins on May 20, 2021
New of Will Ospreay vacating the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship shook the pro wrestling world. It turns out Ospreay isn’t the only member of the NJPW roster who isn’t doing very well right now.
NJPW just saw another outbreak within the company and shows were cancelled. There is now a growing frustration within the locker room as the real world outside of pro wrestling keeps getting in the way.
During Wrestling Observer Live, Bryan Alvarez went into the situation going on within New Japan Pro-Wrestling right now. There are a number of stars who are frustrated and a lot of them might want to go home, but they can’t.
“So, I don’t even know where to start here. There is a lot going on in New Japan and there is a lot of frustration within talent about a lot of things. Not the least of which is, with the rules in Japan regarding leaving, coming back, quarantining, shows get cancelled, you’d like to go home, but maybe you can’t go home, and you have to quarantine to come back and you can only be home for a second — I mean there are people very frustrated.”
“You can’t blame it on New Japan. Things happen, outbreaks, things have to be cancelled. Japan itself is not doing much in terms of vaccinations — they might be a little bit above 2% now, but not much — there’s people very frustrated.”
Will Ospreay, Kota Ibushi, and Kazuchika Okada are all hurt as well. There is a lack of star power, and the pandemic isn’t helping things at all. It all culminated in one perfect storm to create a ton of frustration within the roster.
Things are especially hard for foreigners in NJPW because they cannot go home when so many events are cancelled. They must wait in Japan or have to deal with the country’s rigorous pandemic protocol.
Do you blame NJPW talent for being frustrated at a time like this? Sound off in the comments!
Transcription by Ringside News
May 20, 2021 3:26 pm
Disqus Comments Loading...
Exclusives
