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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 Kagawa’s Takamatsu City General Gymnasium #1, kicking off at a brisk 6AM Eastern / 3AM Pacific, and is headlined by two first round tournament matches, Chuckie T vs. SANADA, and Davey Boy Smith, Jr. vs. Toru Yano, the winners of which will face off against each other in the quarter-finals.
Suzuki-gun (El Desperado & Yoshinobu Kanemaru) over Ren Narita & Ryusuke Taguchi by submission with the wrist-clutch Stretch Muffler from Desperado on Narita.
Bullet Club (Bad Luck Fale, Tanga Loa, & Yujiro Takahashi) over Shota Umino, Tetsuhiro Yagi, & Yuji Nagata by pinfall with Pimp Juice from Takahashi on Umino.
Chaos (Hirooki Goto & YOSHI-HASHI) over Michael Elgin & Tomoyuki Oka by submission with the arm-trap single underhook neck crank from YOSHI-HASHI on Oka.
Los Ingobernables de Japon (BUSHI & Tetsuya Naito) over Suzuki-gun (TAKA Michinoku & Zack Sabre, Jr.) by pinfall with MX from BUSHI on Michinoku.
Suzuki-gun (Lance Archer, Minoru Suzuki, Taichi, & Takashi Iizuka) over David Finlay, Hiroshi Tanahashi, Juice Robinson, & Toa Henare by pinfall with Blackout from Archer on Henare.
Chaos (Kazuchika Okada & Tomohiro Ishii) over Chase Owens & Kota Ibushi by submission with the cobra clutch from Okada on Owens.
Toru Yano over Davey Boy Smith, Jr. by countout after crotching Smith on the barricade. (New Japan Cup 2018 First Round Match)
SANADA over Chuckie T by pinfall with the moonsault. (New Japan Cup 2018 First Round Match)
Enjoy the show!