New Japan Pro Wrestling has announced the first set of names for their New Japan Showdown events that are taking place in San Jose and Los Angeles in November.
Announced so far for New Japan Showdown at San Jose Civic on November 9, 2019, are the IWGP World Heavyweight Champion Kazuchika Okada, IWGP World Junior Heavyweight Champion Will Ospreay, Kota Ibushi, Jushin Thunder Liger, Juice Robinson, Tesuya Naito, EVIL, SANADA, Jay White, Chase Owens, Minoru Suzuki, and Lance Archer.
At New Japan Showdown in Los Angeles on November 11, 2019, at the Globe Theater in Downtown Los Angeles, Okada, Ospreay, and Liger will not be appearing. Everyone else announced for the San Jose event are currently scheduled to appear at the Los Angeles event.
New Japan Pro Wrestling has stated further talent announcements and the match card will be released at a later date.
The New Japan Showdown San Jose event was first announced on August 24, 2019, during the Super J-Cup second-round event in San Francisco. The New Japan Showdown Los Angeles event was announced by the promotion earlier this week.
This will be the first time New Japan has held an event in San Jose. This will be the third time New Japan has held an event in Southern California this year, and the second time at the Globe Theater. NJPW previously ran at the Globe Theatre January 30 as part of The New Beginning USA tour. That event was marred by a visa issue that kept most Japanese talent off the show and saw tickets on the secondary market go for as little as 5% of face value.
NJPW will also hold Lion’s Break Project 2 as part of CharaExpo USA 2019 in Anaheim, CA on December 7 and 8.
Tickets for New Japan Showdown San Jose are on sale now through Ticketmaster. Ticket information for New Japan Showdown Los Angeles has not yet been announced.
