The New Japan Cup is almost here!
Now that Wrestle Kingdom 14 is done, the company looks ahead and the first big tournament in NJPW is the New Japan Cup. Each year, the promotion runs a 32-man single elimination tournament to determine the next challenger for the IWGP Heavyweight Champion at Genesis.
New Japan revealed the brackets for the tournament that will begin on March 4 and run through March 21. Not surprisingly, names such as Kazuchika Okada, Jay White, Hiroshi Tanahashi, and Will Ospreay are confirmed for the tournament.
In an interesting move, Tanga Loa, Karl Fredericks, and SANADA are also in this year’s competition. The latter isn’t too much of a surprise given the fact that SANADA has been pushed as a singles star in the last year; however, the end result could end up being SANADA vs. Tetsuya Naito, which could be the beginning of the end for the Los Ingobernables de Japon faction.
New Japan has been known to make stars during their yearly tournament, which could be the case for Tanga Loa of The Guerillas of Destiny and Karl Fredericks. IWGP United States Champion Jon Moxley and Lance Archer aren’t in the tournament this year. Check out the full round one match listings below: