Will Ospreay originally sustained a shoulder injury during his New Japan Cup quarter-final match against Mark Davis in March. Although he was medically cleared to return last month, he is still dealing with an injury.
On Sunday, Ospreay defeated Hiroshi Tanahashi at NJPW Resurgence to move on to the next stage of the IWGP United States Championship #1 Contender’s Tournament.
Ospreay will meet Lance Archer in Osaka on June 4 at NJPW Dominion to determine who will challenge AEW’s Kenny Omega for the title at an upcoming event that has yet to be announced, although likely to be booked for AEW x NJPW: Forbidden Door 2 later that month.
While speaking on Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer noted Ospreay is dealing with an AC joint injury in his right shoulder.
“He’s hurting…I presume he’s wrestling Lance Archer. I’ve heard nothing different. You know, which would be the June 4th match in the Winter faces Kenny Omega, presumably at Forbidden Door, if not in England or somewhere. He’s AC joint injury in his right shoulder, and it’s very painful. And what he was doing at the end of the match with Tanahashi was moving it around and everything that wasn’t selling and that wasn’t theatrics. He was hurting, and he didn’t take time off, which I don’t think he’s going to do. It’s not in great shape right now and I would you know the thing with the shoulder injuries is that I’ve seen guys just go and go and go and go and go on some of the shoulder injuries and if they don’t take care of it, it becomes a really bad injury that that just gets you know that that it can be you know really bad,” Meltzer stated.
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