Juice Robinson is no longer IWGP United States Heavyweight Champion.
NJPW has announced that they have stripped Robinson of the title.
Instead of a three-way battle between Robinson, Will Ospreay and Sanada at tomorrow’s Dominion event it will just be Sanada and Ospreay.
“In fact, Robinson had initially agreed to the championship match Sunday in Osaka Jo Hall. Having now reneged on this agreement and refusing to attend in Osaka, NJPW is hereby stripping Robinson of his champion status and is demanding the return of the championship belt currently in his possession,” wrote NJPW in a statement.
Robinson wasn’t able to wrestle at the Best of the Super Juniors Finals on June 3rd as he suffered an appendicitis attack and had to be rushed to hospital.
On Thursday, NJPW posted a video from Robinson on their YouTube channel in which he declared he cannot defend the IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship because he must have surgery removed said appendix.
Robinson was absent from NJPW for quite some time recently before reappearing at Wrestling Dontaku in May as the newest member of Bullet Club.
“New Japan Pro-Wrestling apologises to fans who were looking forward to seeing Juice wrestle, as well as for the confusion and inconvenience caused,” said the promotion.