NJPW President Reportedly 'Furious' Over Karl Anderson Booking Conflict

NJPW President Takami Ohbari is reportedly unhappy over Karl Anderson's decision to withdraw from his NEVER Openweight Title defense against Hikuleo at NJPW”s Battle Autumn event on November 5. 

In a recent interview with Tokyo Sports, Ohbari stated that he was "furious," but declined to comment on where he stood on the issue of Anderson choosing to wrestle at WWE's Crown Jewel premium live event instead of NJPW's event in Osaka. As noted earlier, both are being held on the same day caused a conflicting schedule, with Anderson pledging his loyalty to WWE via video message earlier this week. Although "The Machine Gun" thanked NJPW for their cooperation over the years, he jokingly blamed the promotion for booking him to a match on November 5 without the consent of his manager and partner, Doc Gallows.

"We're double-booked because you didn't run it [Anderson's NJPW title defense] through me," Gallows said in the video message. "He ain't coming, we're not coming – unless it's on our time."

The Tokyo Sports article noted that although Brock Lesnar was forced to pull out of an NJPW event in 2006 due to visa issues, Anderson's decision to withdraw from Battle Autumn is the first instance of a "foreign fighter blatantly refusing to participate" at a pre-advertised event. 

NJPW has yet to announce the date for Anderson's eventual NEVER Openweight Title defense. There was previously speculation that Anderson would either be stripped of the title or defend it at one of NJPW Strong's Halloween-themed shows in New York later this month.

Anderson, Gallows & AJ Styles of The O.C. will wrestle Finn Balor, Damian Priest & Dominik Mysterio of The Judgment Day in a Six-Man Match at Crown Jewel. The war between the two factions kicked off with The Good Brothers' return to "WWE Raw" earlier this month.