The bout is official for Yoshihiro Takayama’s event.
Yoshihiro Takayama’s blog was updated and one of the posts included a match announcement for his TAKAYAMANIA EMPIRE III show on September 3rd at Korakuen Hall.
It’ll be Minoru Suzuki going one-on-one with Katsuyori Shibata. Both Suzuki and Shibata have close ties to Takayama. In 2017, Takayama suffered a cervical spinal cord injury which paralyzed him from the neck down.
The conversations about Shibata working the show began when the former ROH Pure Champion visited Takayama in February. Shibata brought the idea back to AEW and they approved. Tickets for the show went on-sale on July 5th.
In addition to the Suzuki versus Shibata match, among those scheduled to appear are Keiji Muto, Kazou Yamazaki, Kenta Kobashi and Sanshiro Takagi.
Over the weekend, Minoru Suzuki was taken to a hospital after a match he was involved in was stopped because he suffered a concussion. Suzuki provided an update and noted that he is fine.
