New Japan Pro Wrestling’s annual New Japan Cup tournament is underway.
The winner of this year’s single-elimination tournament will earn the chance to face “Switchblade” Jay White for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship. This matchup is scheduled to take place at their upcoming show, co-promoted with Ring Of Honor (ROH), G1 Supercard. The event takes place on April 6th and emanates from the legendary Madison Square Garden in New York.
We are now in the second round of the tournament. This event took place on 3/13 from Okayama, Japan.
New Japan Cup Results (3/13)
Taiji Ishimori, HIKULEO, and Bad Luck Fale defeated Yuya Uemura, Tomoaki Honma, and Juice Robinson via submission.
Ishimori secures Bullet Club another victory with a submission win over the Young Lion.
Satoshi Kojima, Hiroyoshi Tenzan, and Togi Makabe defeated Toa Henare, Manabu Nakanishi, and Yuji Nagata via pinfall.
Makabe picked up the win for his team after a King Kong Knee Drop to Nakanishi.
Shingo Takagi, BUSHI, and Tetsuya Naito defeated Ren Narita, Shota Umino, and Michael Elgin via pinfall.
Young Lion, Narita, would eat the fall after an impressive outing. Takagi finished him off.
EVIL and SANADA defeated Davey Boy Smith Jr. and Minoru Suzuki via pinfall.
The duo continued LIJ’s winning streak, finishing off the Suzuki-Gun team with SANADA pinning Smith Jr. via an O’Connor Bridge.
Hirooki Goto, Will Ospreay, and Kota Ibushi defeated TAKA Michinoku, Lance Archer, and Zack Sabre Jr. via pinfall.
Goto would get the win over TAKA once he was able to hit his GTA maneuver.
Colt Cabana, Mikey Nicholls, and Ryusuke Taguchi defeated Toru Yano, Kazuchika Okada, and Hiroshi Tanahashi via pinfall.
Yano would end up taking the loss here, courtesy of Nicholls’ Mikey Bomb finisher.
Tournament Matches
YOSHI-HASHI defeated Chase Owens via pinfall.
Chase’s dreams were dashed here as YOSHI-HASHI put an end to his tournament hopes via Karma.
Tomohiro Ishii defeated Taichi via pinfall.
Ishii secures his place in the New Japan Cup tournament after putting Taichi away with a Vertical Brainbuster.
