New Japan Pro Wrestling returns to the PayPay Dome, the former Fukuoka Dome, on 5/1 for its first show in the building since 2001, with the card taking a hit when both Will Ospreay and Tatsumi Fujinami tested positive for COVID this week.
COVID is back in the news in wrestling in recent weeks after seemingly not being a factor in recent months. During the week not only Ospreay and Fujinami, but AEW world champion Adam Page and GHC heavyweight champion Kazuyuki Fujita tested positive. Page was scheduled to appear on the AEW show in Philadelphia on 4/27, likely to shoot an angle to results in the Page vs. C.M. Punk title match at Double or Nothing on 5/29 in Las Vegas. Both Dynamite and Rampage were changed around at the last minute (we’re told Rampage more than Dynamite with a match changed) for Page and another situation. Page noted to us that he was feeling fine and expected to be back next week. Fujita had to vacate his title due to being scheduled to face Go Shiozaki for the title on NOAH’s biggest show of the year on 4/30 at Sumo Hall in Tokyo. Ospreay was scheduled to face Hiroshi Tanahashi in the No. 2 match on the show for the vacant U.S. title. He’ll be replaced by Tomohiro Ishii. Ospreay was said to be completely fine other than having a cough, which he believed he got from the child of his girlfriend, and was fully ready when he got the word his test before his flight to Japan came back positive. He was tested just prior to getting on the plane and not allowed to travel.
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