NJPW Cancels All Remaining January 2022 Events Due To "Wrestlers Presenting Elevated Temperatures"

New Japan Pro Wrestling has announced that they are cancelling all their shows for the remainder of this month “in accordance with event protocols” following six wrestlers getting pulled from shows. Those stars are Toru Yano, Tomoaki Honma, Minoru Suzuki, Taichi, Taka Michinoku, and Satoshi Kojima.

While COVID has not been specifically mentioned as the reason for this, one can't help but think about it as NJPW gave “a number of wrestlers presenting elevated temperatures or being in close contact with same” as the reason for the decision to cancel three New Year’s Golden Series dates — January 25th in Fukushima, January 29th at Korakuen Hall, and January 30th in Ibaraki, and have postponed an Aichi show from January 28th until April 18th.

New Japan plans to resume its schedule on February 6th in Chiba.

The next major cards are in Hokkaido, February 19th and 20th. Hiroshi Tanahashi defends the IWGP United States title against SANADA in the main event of the first show, while Tetsuya Naito challenges IWGP World Heavyweight champ Kazuhcika Okada to close out the second show.