NJPW has announced that their newest Young Lion, Yuto Nakashima, will miss the rest of the Castle Attack tour after suffering an elbow injury.
Nakashima suffered the injury roughly twenty seconds into his main roster debut match against Yuya Uemura on Sunday’s Road to Castle Attack show at Tokyo’s Korakuen Hall.
The two were grappling and Nakashima planted his left arm on the mat to brace himself. The arm gave way and the elbow appeared to dislocate. The match was stopped and awarded to Uemura.
Nakashima lightly shoved Uemura and stared him down in the post-match. The impromptu angle sets up a natural rivalry between the two for when Nakashima returns.
Nakashima’s debut was announced on February 1 and he had been scheduled to work pre-show matches on the Korakuen leg of the tour, as well as other matches on untelevised events.
Nakashima, 24, was a Fale Dojo trainee in New Zealand prior to joining NJPW’s Noge Dojo in June 2020.