NJPW News: Full lineup for King of Pro Wrestling announced, Umino and Narita learning excursions announced (w/Radican’s Analysis)

-The full card for NJPW’s next major PPV, King of Pro Wrestling on Oct. 14 has been announced. The show will air live on NJPW World. It is headlined by IWGP Hvt. Champion Kazuchika Okada putting his title on the line against SANADA, who pinned him during the G1 Climax tournament this year. Also, G1 Climax 29 winner Kota Ibushi will put his title shot at Wrestle Kingdom on the line as he faces EVIL, who earned a shot at Ibushi’s contract by beating him during G1 Climax.

The entire card can been seen below:

• IWGP Heavyweight Champion Kazuchika Okada vs. SANADA
• Kota Ibushi vs. EVIL for Ibushi’s G1 Climax 29 Briefcase
• IWGP United States Heavyweight Champion Jon Moxley vs. Juice Robinson in a No DQ match
• IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion Will Ospreay vs. El Phantasmo
• Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Minoru Suzuki
• Hirooki Goto & Tomohiro Ishii & YOSHI-HASHI vs. Jay White & KENTA & Yujiro Takahashi
• Tetsuya Naito & Shingo Takagi & BUSHI vs. Zack Sabre Jr. & Lance Archer & Taichi
• Hiroshi Tanahashi & Tomoaki Honma vs. Togi Makabe & Toru Yano
• Ryusuke Taguchi & SHO & YOH vs. El Desperado & Yoshinobu Kanemaru & DOUKI

-Shota Umino and Ren Narita will be going on their learning excursions in the near future. NJPW announced that Umino will be headed to the U.K. for his learning excursion. Narita will be going to the L.A. Dojo and train under Katsuyori Shibata for his learning excursion.

Radican’s Analysis: I would assume this means Umino is going to go to RPW for his learning excursion in the U.K. It was interesting to see that Narita asked to train with Shibata as part of a NJPW storyline given that there has been a rivalry between the NJPW Dojo and the L.A. Dojo that played out on NJPW shows in recent months. 

I’m excited to see what these two huge prospects do when they come back to NJPW. I would have liked to see one of them go to ROH as part of their learning excursion, but ROH hasn’t had a Young Lion since SHO & YOH did their learning excursion there a couple of years ago.