Day 7 of the 2020 New Japan Cup opened with a unique contest between IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion Hiromu Takahashi and Tomohiro Ishii. Coming into the match, Ishii held a 6-0, yet they hadn’t met in singles competition since February 2012.
Ishii had hard-hitting matches against El Desperado and Togi Makabe to advance to the quarter-finals, while Takahashi defeated Tomoaki Honma and had a less than intense match against Toru Yano in the second round to earn the opportunity to face Ishii.
Despite having a more grueling path to the quarter-final round, Ishii unsurprisingly refused to relent and brought the fight to Hiromu. To counter Ishii’s head down offensive strategy, Hiromu worked the D multiple times throughout the match to wear down his headstrong opponent with the arm-triangle submission.
Ishii fought through the pain and would take the fight to Takahashi with a wave of lariats that nearly bested the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion, yet the damage to Ishii did start to show. Hiromu would earn near falls with the Dynamite Plunger and the Time Bomb.
Rarely has anyone kicked out of the Time Bomb, but Ishii showed his true fighting spirit as he battled through the pain. Hiromu would finally best Ishii at the nineteen minute and twelve-second mark after hitting the Time Bomb 2.
Hiromu had only ever previously used the technique during Wrestle Kingdom 14 Night 1 on January 4, 2020, when he defeated Will Ospreay to begin his third reign with the title.
The victory makes Hiromu the first wrestler competing in the junior heavyweight division to make it to the New Japan Cup finals since Kendo Kashin did so in 2005. Prior to Hiromu, Kashin was the only junior heavyweight to hold that distinction.
