Lio Rush pulled from NJPW Destruction, YOH added to IWGP Junior title match

Originally posted on F4WOnline.com | By Ian Carey | Last updated 10/8/23

Lio Rush has been pulled from Monday's NJPW Destruction in Ryogoku event due to illness.

Rush had been scheduled to challenge for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship against Mike Bailey and champion Hiromu Takahashi in a three-way match on the show.

NJPW announced on October 3 that Rush was dealing with a fever and would miss the upcoming Road to Destruction shows. It was later confirmed at a press conference on Sunday that Rush has been pulled from Monday's show as well and will be replaced by YOH in the title match.

YOH was the sole survivor of an elimination match that headlined Saturday's show in Miyagi. He pinned Takahashi for the final elimination and then cut a promo saying he wants to face the winner of the IWGP Junior Heavyweight title match in Ryogoku. However, with Rush having since been pulled from Monday's show, YOH revealed at today's press conference that he has been added to the three-way with Takahashi and Bailey.

The updated card for NJPW Destruction in Ryogoku on Monday, October 9 is below:

DOUKI, Taichi, & TBA vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaru, SHO, & Yujiro Takahashi
Tango Loa vs. Chase Owens
BUSHI, Yota Tsuji, Shingo Takagi, & Tetsuya Naito vs. Callum Newman, HENARE, Great-O-Khan, & Jeff Cobb
IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions Drilla Moloney & Clark Connors defend against KUSHIDA & Kevin Knight
Master Wato, Shota Umino, & Yuji Nagata vs. El Desperado, Ren Narita, & Minoru Suzuki in match 5 of the Best of 7 series
Strong Openweight Tag Team Champions Gabe Kidd & Alex Coughlin defend against El Phantasmo & Hikuleo
NEVER Openweight Six Man Tag Team Champions Tomohiro Ishi, Hiroshi Tanahashi, & Kazuchika Okada defeated against Josh Alexander, Chris Sabin, & Alex Shelley
NEVER Openweight Champion David Finlay defends against Tama Tonga
IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion Hiromu Takahashi defends against Mike Bailey and YOH in a three-way match