Karl Anderson Shares His Plans To Defend NJPW Openweight Title Eventually

Karl Anderson appeared on WWE’s After The Bell podcast recently and talked about the scheduling conflicts around his defense of his NJPW NEVER Openweight Championship title (per Fightful). Anderson was present at WWE Crown Jewel for a tag team match after having been double-scheduled on the same date to face off against Hikuleo for the title. He was clear on his intent to fully defend the title at some point in the future, although no rescheduled matches have been announced yet. You can read a highlight from Anderson and listen to the full podcast episode below.

On his future plans for the title defense: “I’m gonna go back on my time. New Japan Pro-Wrestling usually strips their champions when they can’t make a show. They threw a leniency in there because they announced the match when we hadn’t totally agreed what we were going to do. The dates were coming up…I’m going to come back and defend my championship. I messaged Rocky Romero, he’s a great friend and one of the office brothers, and I go, ‘I can’t wait to announce this date because these people are really hating me right now.’ I’m keeping this title and never giving it back.”