Katsuyori Shibata To Make "Major Announcement" At Upcoming NJPW Show
Shibata wrestled his first match since 2017 at the G1 Climax 31 finals in October.
Two months after wrestling his first match in over four years, Katsuyori Shibata will deliver what is being billed as a "major announcement" at NJPW's World Tag League/Best of the Super Juniors finals on 15 December.
The promotion uploaded the following announcement to its website earlier today:-
Katsuyori Shibata will be in attendance next Wednesday, December 15 at the Best of the Super Jr./World Tag League finals. Shibata has expressed he has a major announcement that he would like to deliver directly to the fans.
This comes following a sensational comeback match for Shibata at the G1 Climax 31 finals on 21 October, when he worked Zack Sabre Jr. in an unannounced five-minute grappling exhibition. Shibata hadn't competed since April 2017, when he was given an "18% or less" chance of surviving after being rushed to hospital following a bout with Kazuchikada Okada, suffering a subdural hematoma requiring emergency surgery.
Shibata currently works as head trainer at NJPW's LA Dojo. Interviewed last week, he claimed that there was more to his pro wrestling comeback than the Sabre Jr. match:-
"I mean, Budokan felt like a comeback to me. That grappling match was Katsuyori Shibata’s pro-wrestling. Everything about these last four and a half years was Katsuyori Shibata’s pro-wrestling, and I’m proud of it, all of it. Now whether it counts within some official rules or not, I don’t know, but take from it what you will. But that wasn’t the end point. There’s more to this."
We await this "major announcement" with anticipation.