The 2025 New Japan Cup is coming real soon.
The annual tournament returns with 24 stars of New Japan competing for an opportunity at the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship. A total of sixteen of those wrestlers will have to fight in the first round, single elimination tournament. However, eight participants were randomly given a first round bye.
David Finlay, YOSHI-HASHI, Zack Sabre Jr., Taichi, Shota Umino, Jeff Cobb, TJP, and Shingo Takagi are the eight names that will sit out of the first round.
Below is the official first-round match-ups:
Left side —
- Yota Tsuji vs. EVIL (winner faces David Finlay in next round)
- Yuya Uemura vs. SANADA (winner faces YOSHI-HASHI in next round)
- Ryohei Oiwa vs. Chase Owens (winner faces Zack Sabre Jr. in next round)
- Gabe Kidd vs. Ren Narita (winner faces Taichi in next round)
Right side —
- El Phantasmo vs. Great-O-Khan (winner faces Shota Umino in next round)
- Tetsuya Naito vs. Callum Newman (winner faces Jeff Cobb in next round)
- Tomohiro Ishii vs. Drilla Moloney (winner faces TJP in next round)
- Oleg Boltin vs. Bad Luck Fale (winner faces Shingo Takagi in next round)
The tournament starts on March 7. A winner will be determined on March 20th. As usual, the winner will go on to Sakura Genesis (April 5) and challenge for the prestigious world title. Currently, Hirooki Goto is the IWGP World Heavyweight Champion and his only defense will be against Hiroshi Tanahashi at the 53rd Anniversary show in March.
The tournament is laced with plenty of interesting names including the NJPW Strong Openweight Champion Gabe Kidd, who’s had an incredible 2024 and kicked off 2025 with a match of the year candidate. Shingo Takagi and Jeff Cobb - two guys on the cusp of the main event - are also names to look out for.
Of course, former world champions like Testsuya Naito, EVIL, SANADA, and Zack Sabre Jr. are included in this year’s tournament. The New Japan Cup has been going strong for 20 years now and the win/loss record heavily favors the champion. The last participant to win the tournament and world title was SANADA in 2023. Given that Hirooki Goto just won the IWGP World Heavyweight title, it should be a given that he’ll likely retain, but New Japan officials aren’t shy about giving short title runs so anything is possible.
Are you excited for the upcoming New Japan Cup?