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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 Hyogo’s Baycom Gymnasium, kicking off at a brisk 3AM Eastern / 11PM Pacific (ain’t Daylight Savings Time fun?), and is headlined by two first round tournament matches, Tetsuya Naito vs. Zack Sabre, Jr., and Kota Ibushi vs. YOSHI-HASHI, the winners of which will face off against each other in the quarter-finals.
Tomoyuki Oka & Yuji Nagata over Ren Narita & Tetsuhiro Yagi by submission with a Boston Crab from Oka.
El Desperado over Shota Umino by submission with a wrist-clutch Stretch Muffler.
Bullet Club (Bad Luck Fale, Chase Owens, Tanga Loa, & Yujiro Takahashi) over David Finlay, Juice Robinson, Michael Elgin, & Tomoyuki Oka by pinfall with Fire Thunder from Loa on Henare.
Chaos (Hirooki Goto, Tomohiro Ishii, & Toru Yano) over Suzuki-gun (Davey Boy Smith, Jr., Lance Archer, & Yoshinobu Kanemaru) by pinfall with a low blow and a small package from Yano on Kanemaru.
Suzuki-gun (Taichi & Takashi Iizuka) over Hiroshi Tanahashi & Ryusuke Taguchi by pinfall with a superkick from Taichi on Taguchi after Iizuka jabbed him in the throat with the Iron Finger.
Chaos (Chuckie T & Kazuchika Okada) over Los Ingobernables de Japon (BUSHI & SANADA) by submission with the cobra clutch from Okada on BUSHI.
Kota Ibushi over YOSHI-HASHI by pinfall with Kamigoye. (New Japan Cup 2018 First Round Match)
Zack Sabre, Jr. over Tetsuya Naito by submission with the leglace Stretch Muffler. (New Japan Cup 2018 First Round Match)
Enjoy the show!