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We’re headed towards the second of New Japan Pro Wrestling’s “big four” in Sakura Genesis, and that means only one thing— New Japan Cup!
A sixteen-man single elimination tournament spread across nine shows (check out the bracket and the schedule here), the winner earns a shot at a singles heavyweight-eligible title of his choice. All nine shows, naturally, will air live and in full on NJPW World, so why not watch along with the best pro wrestling community on the internet?
Today’s action takes place in Aichi’s Aichi Prefectural Gymnasium, kicking off at a brisk 4AM Eastern / 1AM Pacific, and is headlined by two first round tournament matches, Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Taichi, and Bad Luck Fale vs. Lance Archer, the winners of which will face off against each other in the quarter-finals.
Suzuki-gun (El Desperado & Yoshinobu Kanemaru) def. Ren Narita & Ryusuke Taguchi by submission with a wrist-clutch Stretch Muffler from Desperado on Narita.
David Finlay & Tetsuhiro Yagi def. Shota Umino & Yuji Nagata by pinfall with a Stunner from Finlay on Umino.
Chaos (Tomohiro Ishii & Toru Yano) def. Michael Elgin & Tomoyuki Oka by pinfall with a low blow into a schoolboy pin from Yano on Oka.
Suzuki-gun (Davey Boy Smith, Jr. & Takashi Iizuka) def. Juice Robinson & Toa Henare by pinfall with a sitout powerbomb from Smith on Henare.
Los Ingobernables de Japon (BUSHI, SANADA, & Tetsuya Naito) vs. Suzuki-gun (Minoru Suzuki, TAKA Michinoku, & Zack Sabre, Jr.) by submission with an inverted facelock swing into Skull End from SANADA on Michinoku.
Chaos (Chuckie T, Hirooki Goto, Kazuchika Okada, & YOSHI-HASHI) def. Bullet Club (Chase Owens, Tanga Loa, & Yujiro Takahashi) & Kota Ibushi by submission with the cobra clutch from Okada on Owens.
Bad Luck Fale def. Lance Archer by pinfall with Grenade. (New Japan Cup 2018 First Round Match)
Hiroshi Tanahashi def. Taichi by pinfall with High Fly Flow. (New Japan Cup 2018 First Round Match)
Enjoy the show!