NJPW And Dragon Gate Cancel More Shows After Japan Declares State Of Emergency
In an effort to curb the spread of COVID-19, Japan has declared a state of emergency. As a result, many Japanese wrestling promotions have announced the cancellation of their early May shows including Stardom.
New Japan Pro Wrestling and Dragon Gate have joined those promotions by cancelling their events in early May. Japan's state of emergency is announced for a month pending how the country is affected by the coronavirus.
NJPW President Harold Meij has discussed previously on how to get the promotion back to "business as usual." He talked about acting responsibly during this situation. He did express that NJPW will come back strong when they can run shows again.
In the meantime, NJPW will continue to air their NJPW Together Project content on NJPW World that features original content from NJPW talent and English commentary of classic NJPW matches. NJPW World also released Hiroshi Tanahashi's movie, My Dad is a Heel Wrestler, on NJPW World as well.
NJPW have been forced to cancel the New Japan Cup, Sakura Genesis and now Wrestling Dontaku has been officially cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In their official statement, the promotion said that there are plans of presenting matches without fans in attendance. The possibility of this depends on the health and safety of wrestlers and staff.
You can view the announcements from NJPW and Dragon Gate below:
In response to the ongoing Coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic, NJPW events have been cancelled up to and including Wrestling Dontaku on May 3 & 4.
Full details: https://t.co/X5qwmZIGY1#njdontaku #njpw #NJPWTogether pic.twitter.com/oWEPp0LXs4
— NJPW Global (@njpwglobal) April 8, 2020
In accordance with the State of Emergency declaration due to the Covid-19 outbreak, we regret to announce the cancellation of the following live events in May:
5/2 Okayama
5/3 & 4 Kyoto
5/5 Tsushima
5/6 Aichi (Dead or Alive 2020)We apologize for the inconvenience.#dragongate
— Dragongate Japan Pro-Wrestling (Official English) (@DragonGateEN) April 8, 2020