KENTA Suffers Injuries at NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 16, Pulled from Wrestle Kingdom 16 Night 3 Event

New Japan Pro Wrestling announced that KENTA suffered multiple injuries during their Wrestle Kingdom 16 Night 2 event in Tokyo, Japan this past Wednesday.

The company announced that KENTA suffered a dislocated left hip, a broken nose, tendon damage to his finger, and severe lacerations to his back.

KENTA’s injury occurred near the end of his match against Hiroshi Tanahashi for the IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship. Tanahashi pushed KENTA off of a very tall ladder resulting in KENTA crashing hard onto a trash can in the ring and getting his face busted open. Following the spot, Tanahashi placed KENTA on top of a table and hit a High Fly Flow from the same ladder onto KENTA through the table.

Due to his injury, NJPW also announced that they have pulled KENTA from the card of this Saturday’s Wrestle Kingdom 16 Night 3 event. A mystery opponent was announced to be replacing KENTA in his scheduled six-man tag team match with Takashi Sugiura & Kazushi Sakuraba against Minoru Suzuki, Taichi, & Taka Michinoku.

Official press release:

After his match on January 5 in the Tokyo Dome, KENTA has sustained a dislocated left hip, a broken nose, tendon damage to his finger, and severe lacerations to his back.

As a result, he will not be cleared to participate at Wrestle Kingdom 16 in Yokohama Arena Saturday January 8. We apologise to fans who were looking forward to seeing KENTA wrestle, and appreciate your understanding.

KENTA was scheduled to team with Takashi Sugiura and Kazushi Sakuraba on the card. There will now be a mystery partner for Sugiura-Gun.

We join fans in wishing the best to KENTA for a speedy recovery.