Night six of the 32-man competition took place and it featured well-established stars Kazuichika Okada and Will Ospreay.
The longest reigning IWGP Heavyweight champion took on former NXT superstar, Mikey Nicholls. The man formerly known as Nick Miller was looking to make a name for himself as a singles competitor inside the New Japan Cup. He had a very successful showing against Hikuleo in the first round; however, Nicholls wasn’t able to get the best of his CHAOS Brother, Kazuichika Okada.
In the second tournament match-up, former IWGP Tag Team champion Lance Archer was looking to make the same impact in singles competition himself. Archer has been in the business since 2000 and wrestled in nearly every well-established company; however, he’s yet to win a major singles title.
Unfortunately, it isn’t Archer’s time at the moment as Will Ospreay put an end to the former IWGP Tag Team champion’s hopes of facing Jay White for the IWGP Heavyweight championship. Ospreay and Okada are expected to face off in the quarterfinals, which should be one hell of a match.
Night seven will take place this Saturday with Hiroshi Tanahashi taking on Ryusuke Taguchi and Kota Ibushi facing the 2018 New Japan Cup winner, Zack Sabre Jr.