Minoru Suzuki to miss New Japan Cup finals & Dominion due to fever

As a precautionary measure, Minoru Suzuki will miss this weekend’s NJPW events.

“On July 10,  Minoru Suzuki developed a fever, and as a cautionary measure, will not be present for the New Japan Cup or Dominion events on July 11 & 12,” NJPW announced. “Since wrestling on July 3, where Coronavirus antibody and antigen testing all showed negative, Suzuki has had no contact with any other wrestlers.”

Suzuki was scheduled to team with Taichi, Zack Sabre Jr. & El Desperado against Hiroshi Tanahashi, Kota Ibushi, Yuji Nagata & Ryusuke Taguchi at the New Japan Cup finals. With Suzuki off the show, Yoshinobu Kanemaru will take his place in the eight-man tag match.

The full card for Dominion has yet to be revealed.

Suzuki lost to Nagata in the first round of the New Japan Cup.

The New Japan Cup finals and Dominion are both taking place at Osaka-jo Hall in Osaka, Japan. They’ll be the first NJPW events with fans in attendance since the promotion resumed running events last month, though the arena will be limited to one-third capacity each night.

Two title matches added to NJPW Dominion

Two new title matches are set for this year’s NJPW Dominion event.

IWGP Tag Team Champions Hiroshi Tanahashi & Kota Ibushi will defend their titles against Taichi & Zack Sabre Jr. at Dominion. Ibushi eliminated Sabre from the New Japan Cup tournament last month, while Taichi eliminated both Tanahashi and Ibushi.

Shingo Takagi will also defend his NEVER Openweight Championship against SHO at Dominion. Takagi won the NEVER title from Hirooki Goto on night one of the New Beginning in Sapporo in February. SHO eliminated Takagi from this year’s New Japan Cup in the first round.

Dominion is taking place on Sunday, July 12 at Osaka-jo Hall in Osaka, Japan. The show will air live on New Japan World at 2 a.m. Eastern time. In the main event, Tetsuya Naito will defend the IWGP Heavyweight Championship and the IWGP Intercontinental Championship against the winner of the New Japan Cup tournament final between Kazuchika Okada and EVIL.

The New Japan Cup finals are being held at Osaka-jo Hall on Saturday, July 11.