During New Japan Cup 2018 press conference, it was announced Rey Mysterio will be missing this Sunday’s Strong Style Evolved event in Long Beach, California. Will Ospreay will replace him to face Jushin Thunder Liger.

Mysterio suffered a Grade One partial tear of his left biceps back at a Northeast Wrestling indie event earlier this month. He is said to be in talks with WWE about a return to the company and also became the co-owner and future performer for the upstart Aro Lucha promotion.

Strong Style Evolved is the second event NJPW is promoting in the USA and was sold out in less than 20 minutes. Last year, during G1 Special in USA shows in July, the first-ever IWGP United States Champion was crowned in California as a result of a tournament won by Kenny Omega.

NJPW also released the full card for Sunday’s show during the press conference. No news for the moment on when the highly-expected debut of Rey Mysterio with the company is going to take place.

Strong Style Evolved Full Card:

* Roppongi 3K (Yoh & Sho) and Rocky Romero vs. Christopher Daniels, Frankie Kazarian & Scorpio Sky

* Gedo & NEVER Openweight Champion Hirooki Goto vs. Juice Robinson & David Finlay

* Chuckie T & Toru Yano vs. Davey Boy Smith Jr. & Lance Archer

* Cody & Marty Scurll vs. Guerrillas of Destiny (Tama Tonga and Tanga Loa)

* Hiroshi Tanahashi, KUSHIDA, Dragon Lee & Ryusuke Taguchi vs. SANADA, Tetsuya Naito, BUSHI & Hiromu Takahashi

* Jushin Thunder Liger vs. IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion Will Ospreay

* IWGP Heavyweight Champion Kazuchika Okada & Tomohiro Ishii vs. Zack Sabre Jr. & IWGP Intercontinental Champion Minoru Suzuki

* IWGP United States Championship Match: Jay White (c) vs. Hangman Page

* The Golden Lovers (Kenny Omega & Kota Ibushi) vs. The Young Bucks (Matt and Nick Jackson)

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zeOksH74QvM]

By Steph Franchomme

News, Reviews, Social Media Editor, Impact Wrestling Reviewer, Interviewer Well, call me The Boss... And French...