Before he showed his face in AEW, Will Ospreay made his way to back to his old promotion, New Japan Pro-Wrestling. While he was making his amazingly-rapid recover from neck fusion surgery, Ospreay flew to Japan to pay his respects to Hiroshi Tanahashi as NJPW’s ace-turned-president retired at Wrestle Kingdom 20 on Jan. 4. Then he stuck around for the following day’s New Year Dash! to tell the fans, and his old faction United Empire…
“When I’m good to go, I’m going to handle some business in AEW. I’m going to come
back to New Japan Pro-Wrestling.”
A man of his word that Bruv. Just days after booking a showdown with “motherf***er” Jon Moxley for AEW’s upcoming Dynasty PPV, the Brit’s announced his return to NJPW. At Sakura Genesis next Saturday (April 4) in Ryōgoku Sumo Hall, Ospreay will team with fellow United Empire originals Great-O-Khan and Henare for a match against Yuya Uemura, Taichi, and El Desperado. X/Twitter translation of Will’s message reads:
April 4th, Ryogoku Kokugikan. The original members of United Empire have reunited for the first time in two years. Please cheer me on as I return to my favorite arena in the world of pro wrestling, and above all, to my hometown. Thank you.
Ospreay’s appearance at New Year Dash! led to some tension between himself and the current leader of United Empire, Callum Newman. As the winner of the New Japan Cup, Newman challenges Yota Tsuji for the IWGP Heavyweight championship in the main event of Sakura Genesis. That means there will be a few places where the Billy Goat might butt heads with fellow Englishman over how to run UE. Newman set the stage on social media while helping Ospreay promote All In’s return to Wembley this August:
With the announcement of Ospreay’s first New Japan match in more than two years, the full line-up is set for next weekend:
- Yota Tsuji (c) vs. Callum Newman for the IWGP Heavyweight championship
- The Knock Out Brothers (Oskar & Yuto-Ice) (c) vs. Zack Sabre Jr. & Ryohei Oiwa for the IWGP Tag Team titles
- Konosuke Takeshita (c) vs. Shota Umino for the NJPW World Television championship
- Hirooki Goto, YOSHI-HASHI & Oleg Boltin (c) vs. House of Torture (Ren Narita, Yujiro Takahashi & Chase Owens) for the NEVER Openweight Six-Man Tag Team titles
- United Empire (Will Ospreay, Great-O-Khan & HENARE) vs. Yuya Uemura, Taichi & El Desperado
- Aaron Wolf, YOH, Toru Yano & Master Wato vs. House of Torture (Don Fale, DOUKI, SHO & Yoshinobu Kanemaru)
- Unbound Co. (Shingo Takagi, Taiji Ishimori & Robbie X) vs. United Empire (Jake Lee, Francesco Akira & Jakob Austin Young)
- Togi Makabe & Tiger Mask vs. TMDK (Hartley Jackson & Kosei Fujita)
- KUSHIDA & Masatora Yasuda vs. Tatsuya Matsumoto & Taisei Nakahara (pre-show)
Sakura Genesis will be available, as almost all New Japan events are, on the NJPWWorld service. The show will have English-language commentary. Excited, puroresu-watching Cagesiders? Or if you’re not regularly watching wrestling from across the Pacific, does Ospreay’s return — or Takeshita’s title defense — make you want to check this one out?
