Kota Ibushi set to miss Wrestle Grand Slam; officially replaced by former IWGP Heavyweight Champion for title match

Hiroshi Tanahashi has officially replaced Kota Ibushi for the main event of NJPW Wrestle Grand Slam only a few hours before the show. In the lead-up to the event, Ibushi was originally set to challenge Shingo Takagi for the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship.

However, after recently being diagnosed with aspiration pneumonia, Kota Ibushi's status for Wrestle Grand Slam was already in question. NJPW decided to give it some time before making an official decision regarding The Golden Star's status for the promotion's Tokyo Dome return.

Taking to Twitter, NJPW confirmed that Takagi will now defend the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship against Tanahashi. The announcement can be seen below:

As Kota Ibushi continues to recover from aspiration pneumonia, he will be absent from Wrestle Grand Slam in the Tokyo Dome. In his place, after his main event victory last night- Hiroshi Tanahashi will challenge Shingo Takagi tonight!https://t.co/lESZDkynwX#njpw #njwgs pic.twitter.com/KQWFOQRspd

— NJPW Global (@njpwglobal) July 25, 2021

Despite the cancelation of the Takagi vs Ibushi match, Tanahashi is definitely the perfect replacement one could ask for. It wasn't too long ago when The Ace faced Takagi and defeated him to win the NEVER Openweight Championship after a match that lasted over 30 minutes.

With that being said, Tanahashi now has the opportunity to repeat history and take another belt off The Dragon.

The IWGP World Heavyweight Champion looks to forge the Age of the Dragon. Hiroshi Tanahashi has beaten Shingo before- and nobody is fitter for the biggest stage. A battle Made In New Japan and available in English or French tonight on @fitetv!https://t.co/EP9XmVcP3N#njwgs pic.twitter.com/J0ju6gKTe4

— NJPW Global (@njpwglobal) July 25, 2021

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Kota Ibushi is set to miss one of NJPW's biggest shows of 2021

Kota Ibushi

While things haven't been going in the planned direction for New Japan Pro Wrestling this year, the promotion has been doing its best to put together some world-class matches amid the ongoing pandemic.

After all the ups and downs in recent months, Kota Ibushi was once again set to challenge for the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship. The title was initially vacated by Will Ospreay, who was set to face Kazuchika Okada in the original main event of the show, but that match was also forced to be canceled due to Ospreay's injury.

The vacant title was then captured by Takagi who beat Okada to win the strap and was set to put his belt on the line against Kota Ibushi. Unfortunately for The Golden Star, he was forced to withdraw from the match at the very last minute.