New Japan Cup tournament field, first-round matches set

Yep, folks, we're on the cusp of March and you know what that means— the field for the annual New Japan Cup has been set!

The winner, of course, gets to challenge for any of the three heavyweight-eligible singles titles in New Japan, the NEVER Openweight Championship (currently held by Hirooki Goto), the IWGP Intercontinental Championship (currently held by Tetsuya Naito), and the IWGP Heavyweight Championship (currently held by Kazuchika Okada) at Sakura Genesis on April 9.

The complete tournament field is as follows—

• Bad Luck Fale (Competing in his fourth New Japan Cup, former finalist)
• EVIL (Competing in his second New Japan Cup, has never made it out of the first round)
• Hiroshi Tanahashi (Competing in his eighth New Japan Cup, won in 2005 and 2008, but he's lost in the first round the last two years)
• Juice Robinson (Competing in the New Japan Cup for the first time)
• Katsuyori Shibata (Competing in his third New Japan Cup, former quarter-finalist)
• Kenny Omega (Competing in the New Japan Cup for the first time)
• Michael Elgin (Competing in his second New Japan Cup, former semi-finalist)
• Minoru Suzuki (Competing in his fourth New Japan Cup, former semi-finalist)
• SANADA (Competing in the New Japan Cup for the first time)
• Tama Tonga (Competing in his third New Japan Cup, former quarter-finalist)
• Tanga Roa (Competing in the New Japan Cup for the first time)
• Tomoaki Honma (Competing in his seventh New Japan Cup, has never made it out of the first round)
• Tomohiro Ishii (Competing in his ninth New Japan Cup, former quarter-finalist)
• Toru Yano (Competing in his eleventh New Japan Cup, former semi-finalist)
• YOSHI-HASHI (Competing in his fourth New Japan Cup, has never made it out of the first round)
• Yujiro Takahashi (Competing in his eighth New Japan Cup, former quarter-finalist)

So, just based on past merits, it's a pretty wide open field. Normally you'd pick Tanahashi as an easy favorite, but the old ace has clearly lost a step and is unlikely to be in serious contention this year. And with so many first-timers or first-time repeats in the field, it'd be quite easy for the 1/100 dude to find himself caught.

But we don't have to stick to looking at the field, because we have a complete bracket!

March 11

• Bad Luck Fale vs. Michael Elgin
• EVIL vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi
• Tama Tonga vs. Toru Yano
• Tanga Roa vs. Tomoaki Honma

March 12

• Juice Robinson vs. Yujiro Takahashi
• Katsuyori Shibata vs. Minoru Suzuki
• Kenny Omega vs. Tomohiro Ishii
• SANADA vs. YOSHI-HASHI

I don't know about you cats, but Omega/Ishii and especially Shibata/Suzuki are top-shelf exciting to me! Might as well go ahead and pre-emptively pull a few more stars down from the sky, right?

Plus, from the 3/11 matches, BIG MIKE vs. Fale should be a pretty fun hoss fight, seeing as NJ Cup is the time of year Fale seems to shine brightest, and EVIL vs. Tanahashi is a fine spot for the old Ace to prove he can hang with these young bucks (but not with the Young Bucks, who aren't in the tournament, of course) or for EVIL to make his name taking him down.

Quarter-finals will happen on shows from March 13, 14, 15, & 17, with semi-finals on March 19, and the finals on March 20. The first round, semis, and finals will be live on NJPW World, to boot

There you have it, folks

Excited to get up at butt o'clock for some of these matchups, Cagesiders?