After months of inactivity and caution during the global pandemic, New Japan Pro Wrestling is coming back. They had to cancel countless events, with the biggest being the New Japan Cup & Best Of Super Juniors tournaments. While we still don’t know what will happen in regards to Best Of Super Juniors, we now know the New Japan Cup is back on. They will be empty arena shows starting on June 16th, with nine shows total building up to two nights of Dominion in July which will take place in Osaka-Jo Hall.
While there are some matches from the previous tournament, the landscape is much different. With notable talent like Jay White & Will Ospreay missing, the focus is on Japanese talent and the Young Lions.
The Matches In The 2020 New Japan Cup
June 16th will start the tournament with Togi Makabe vs. Yota Tsuji, Tomohiro Ishii vs. El Desparado, Toru Yano vs. Jado, & Tomoaki Honma vs. Hiromu Takahashi. Not much star power, and the winners are all fairly obvious. Takahashi is the one to watch here.
June 17th brings Kazuchika Okada vs. Gedo, Yuji Nagata vs. Minoru Suzuki, Yuya Uemura vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaru, and Gabriel Kidd vs. Taiji Ishimori. Again, mostly obvious winners with the exception of Nagata vs. Suzuki, two men evenly matched.
Things Get Interesting On Night Three
The other half of the bracket starts on June 22nd with the most stacked night of the first round. Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Taichi, Kota Ibushi vs. Zack Sabre Jr., Ryusuke Taguchi vs. SANADA, and SHO vs. Shingo Takagi. It’s very possible the winner of this side of the bracket is within here, with every match being something verging on must see.
Finally the first round concludes on June 23rd with Hiroyoshi Tenzan vs. YOSHI-HASHI, YOH vs. BUSHI, Satoshi Kojimi vs. EVIL, and Hirooki Goto vs. Yujiro Takahashi. A solid night of action, but nothing to write home about. This tournament will really pick up in round two, with people matches like Tanahashi vs. Ibushi, SANADA vs. Takagi, and Okada vs. Suzuki standing out.
The winner of this tournament will likely go on to face Tetsuya Naito for the Double Gold on the second night of Dominion, with the finals happening on night one. Who do you think will be able to go all the way? Will there be any upsets in the bracket with someone like Gabriel Kidd slipping a win? Let us know what you think in the comment section down below.
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