New Japan Pro-Wrestling is officially back!
The Japanese promotion held a press conference on Monday night and confirmed their plans to run live events starting on June 15, with the show being called “Together Project Special,” which is a mystery card event.
However, on June 16, the New Japan Cup will begin. Originally, the 32-man tournament was set earlier this year to crown a new challenger for the IWGP Heavyweight and Intercontinental titles at Sakura Genesis 2020, but the overall competition was one of the many events scrapped due to the coronavirus.
This year, the tournament will not be restricted to just heavyweight competitors as the likes of Hiromu Takahashi (IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion), Shingo Takagi (NEVER Openweight Champion), and SHO will be vying for a chance to fight Tetsuya Naito at Dominion on July 12.
Check out the confirmed first-round matches below:
June 16
Togi Makabe v Yota Tsuji
Tomohiro Ishii v El Desperado
Toru Yano v Jado
Toki Honma v Hiromu Takahashi
June 17
Kazuchika Okada v Gedo
Yuji Nagata v Minoru Suzuki
Yuya Uemura v Yoshinobu Kanemaru
Gabriel Kidd v Taiji Ishimori
June 22
Hiroshi Tanahashi v Taichi
Kota Ibushi v Zack Sabre Jr.
Taguchi v SANADA
SHO v Shingo
June 23
Hiroshi Tenzan v YOSHI-HASHI
YOH v BUSHI
Sataoshi Kojima v EVIL
Hirooki Goto v Yujiro Takahashi
The second round will take place on June 24 and July 1, with the quaterfinals taking place on July 2 and the semi-finals the following day. The New Japan Cup Finals will be on July 11 at Osaka-Jo Hall.