Karl Anderson Vows To Defend His NJPW NEVER Openweight Title

Karl Anderson made his return to WWE, but he didn’t tie up all of his loose ends outside the company prior to that. He is still the NEVER Openweight Champion in NJPW, but a previously scheduled title defense no longer took place for an unfortunate reason. Anderson now vows to defend his title as well.

The O.C. squared off against The Judgment Day at WWE Crown Jewel on November 5th. However, Anderson was previously booked for a title defense at NJPW Battle Autumn on the same day.

In the end, Anderson did not defend his title but he wasn’t stripped of it either. While speaking on After the Bell with Doc Gallows, Karl Anderson made it clear that he will defend his title in the future.

“I’m gonna go back [to New Japan] on my time. New Japan Pro-Wrestling usually strips their champions when they can’t make a show. And they threw a leniency in there, because they announced a match for me when we hadn’t totally agreed on what we were going to do … The dates are coming up.” Anderson assured fans that he will make a return to NJPW to defend the championship, but did not reveal any specific date or timetable for that occurring. 

Advertising

Advertising

“I’ve gotten some slanderous tweets. I’ve messaged Rocky Romero, who’s a great friend of ours [and is] one of the office brothers at New Japan Pro-Wrestling. I said ‘I can’t wait to announce this date, because these people are just really, really hating me right now.'” Anderson and Gallows then threatened in jest that they planned on keeping the title “hostage in America” forever.”

By the looks of it, it seems Karl Anderson will defend his NJPW NEVER Openweight Title at Wrestle Kingdom 17 on January 4th, 2023. We’ll have to see if that will happen or not. If anything, this is getting pro wrestling fans talking.

Are you excited about this? Sound off in the comments!