KENTA will now defend his NJPW Strong Openweight Championship at the upcoming Impact Wrestling x NJPW Multiverse United pay-per-view.
Impact and NJPW had previously announced a non-title match between KENTA and NEVER Openweight Six-Man Tag Team Champion Minoru Suzuki, but now KENTA will defend his NJPW Strong Openweight Title.
The title match was set after KENTA and Suzuki competed in New Japan Cup events this week. Suzuki, Ren Narita, Shota Umino, and El Desperado defeated KENTA, Chase Owens, El Phantasmo, and David Finlay in Tokyo, with Suzuki pinning KENTA. Suzuki teamed up with Narita and Desperado the next night in Shizuoka to take on KENTA, Phantasmo, and Owens. KENTA was disqualified from the match after trading chair shots with Suzuki.
Impact has also announced a match for the Countdown To Multiverse pre-show, which will be available for free on FITE at 10:45pm ET. NJPW superstars Yuya Uemura and Gabriel Kidd will square off in the match.
The Impact x NJPW “Multiverse United: Only The STRONG Survive” pay-per-view is set to take place on Thursday, March 30 from a sold-out Globe Theater in Los Angeles, CA, as part of WrestleCon and WWE’s WrestleMania 39 Weekend. The pre-show will begin at 10:45pm ET on FITE, followed by the main card at 11pm ET.
The updated card is as follows:
Impact World Title Match
Kushida vs. Josh Alexander (c)
NJPW Strong Openweight Title Match
NEVER Openweight Six-Man Tag Team Champion Minoru Suzuki vs. KENTA (c)
Fatal 4 Way for the Impact World Knockouts Title
Deonna Purrazzo vs. Gisele Shaw vs. Miyu Yamashita vs. Mickie James (c)
Impact X-Division Title Six-Way Scramble
Kevin Knight vs. Frankie Kazarian vs. Rocky Romero vs. Rich Swann vs. Clark Connors vs. Trey Miguel (c)
Fatal 4 Way for the Impact World Tag Team Titles
Aussie Open (Kyle Fletcher, Mark Davis) vs. NJPW Strong Openweight Tag Team Champions The Motor City Machine Guns (Alex Shelley, Chris Sabin) vs. TMDK (Shane Haste, Bad Dude Tito) vs. The Bullet Club (Ace Austin, Chris Bey) (c)
Jeff Cobb vs. Moose
Hiroshi Tanahashi (replacing the injured Will Ospreay) vs. Mike Bailey
PCO, Fred Rosser, Sami Callihan and Alex Coughlin vs. Tom Lawlor, JR Kratos, Eddie Edwards and Impact Digital Media Champion Joe Hendry
Countdown To Multiverse United Pre-show
Yuya Uemura vs. Gabriel Kidd
