A new NEVER Openweight title match has been added to Battle in the Valley.
Jay White vs, Tomohiro Ishii has been added to NJPW’s event in San Jose, which takes place on November 13. Ishii has agreed to the stipulation that if he loses, he can never challenge for the NEVER Openweight Championship again. He agreed to the new stipulation after Jay White cut a promo accepting the challenge Ishii had issued back in September. White said he would only accept it, however, if the stipulation was added.
White vs. Ishii is the first match announced for Battle in the Valley, NJPW’s next major event in America. G1 Climax 31 winner Kazuchika Okada, Strong Openweight Champion Tom Lawlor, David Finlay, Juice Robinson, Lio Rush, Fred Rosser, Hikuleo, Ren Narita, and Will Ospreay have also been announced for the show.
Battle in the Valley will take place at the San Jose Civic Center.
Buddy Matthews will debut for the promotion on the Saturday, November 13 Battle in the Valley event in San Jose, California.
NJPW made the announcement with a video promo during tonight’s NJPW Strong tapings in Philadelphia. The video can be seen below. The company later tweeted the video, which Matthews then retweeted.
The tweet read:
“‘They say as one door closes, another opens… Maybe it was staring at me the entire time.’
Buddy Matthews is coming.”
Matthews joins an announced lineup for Battle in the Valley that includes Jay White, Will Ospreay, Tomohiro Ishii and Juice Robinson. No matches have been made official for the event as of yet.
Matthews was released from his WWE contract on June 2, 2021. He had been with the company since signing in March 2013. After a lengthy run in NXT, Matthews joined the 205 Live brand when it was part of WWE’s main roster in 2018.
Matthews had a run on SmackDown in 2019, but had his most high-profile run after joining Raw in the 2019 WWE Draft. With Paul Heyman as Executive Director of Raw, Matthews and Aleister Black had a series of matches late in the year and in early 2020 that served to elevate both.
Matthews aligned with Seth Rollins and feuded with Black and the Mysterio family in 2020. Matthews later turned face and began a storyline romance with Mysterio’s daughter Aalyah. The romance storyline was later abruptly dropped.
Matthews would make only a couple of more WWE appearances after the Mysterio story was discontinued. His appearance in the 2021 Andre the Giant Memorial Battle Royal on the April 9, 2021 edition of SmackDown would be his last in WWE.
The NJPW appearance will be the most high-profile for Matthews since leaving WWE, though he wrestled a pair of independent matches in September following his non-compete expiring.
An indie match against Black for Battleground Championship Wrestling on December 18 in Philadelphia has also been announced.
Jon Moxley is off New Japan Pro Wrestling’s upcoming event in San Jose.
NJPW of America announced this evening that Moxley would be unable to participate at Battle in the Valley, which takes place on November 13. They have instead announced that Will Ospreay will be at the event. This may be due to AEW’s next event, Full Gear, taking place on the same date.
Additionally, the bell time for Battle in the Valley has been moved to 8 pm PT.
Full Gear originally was set to take place on November 6. However, a high profile UFC card featuring Kamaru Usman vs. Colby Covington, as well as a boxing match between Canelo Alvarez and Caleb Plant, are both scheduled to take place that weekend. AEW announced at All Out earlier this month that Full Gear would take place a week later instead. No venue or location has been announced.
Other stars announced for Battle of the Valley include Tomohiro Ishii, Jay White, and Filthy Tom Lawlor.
NJPW has tapings in October at the 2300 Arena in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and in November at the Riverside Municipal Auditorium.
NJPW announced a return to California during tonight’s show.
NJPW Battle in the Valley will take place on Saturday, November 13 at the San Jose Civic in San Jose, California.
Among the talent announced for the show are AEW’s Jon Moxley, plus NJPW’s Jay White and Tomohiro Ishii. Tickets for the event will go on sale Tuesday, August 17 at noon Eastern time.
A full card will be announced for the event at a later date.
Battle in the Valley will mark the first NJPW event in the San Jose area since the 2019 New Japan Showdown event. Kazuchika Okada and Will Ospreay defeated Kota Ibushi and Amazing Red in a tag match in the main event of that show.
Here is the full list of talent advertised for the show:
