NJPW New Japan Cup 2017: Date, Competitors, First Round Matches Set
The details on NJPW’s New Japan Cup have been announced.
NJPW has been busy since January’s Wrestle Kingdom 11 event. This includes running the New Year’s Dash show, two nights of New Beginning, and two events with ROH for Honor Rising. However, they have another one coming up — the New Japan Cup. The winner receives a title opportunity for any of the NEVER Openweight, IWGP Intercontinental, or IWGP Heavyweight Championships at Sakura Genesis, the next NJPW live special. This takes place on April 9.
The winner of this receives a title opportunity for any of the NEVER Openweight, IWGP Intercontinental, or IWGP Heavyweight Championships at Sakura Genesis, the next NJPW live special. This takes place on April 9. Note that only once has the New Japan Cup champion challenged for a belt that’s not the top belt (Shinsuke Nakamura in 2014).
Well, NJPW has announced the competitors for the upcoming New Japan Cup event. All of them are familiar names, if you’ve followed this Japanese wrestling promotion; one of them even competed in WWE.
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A look at everyone competing at the show can be seen below:
- Bad Luck Fale
- EVIL
- Hiroshi Tanahashi
- Juice Robinson
- Katsyuri Shibata
- Kenny Omega
- Michael Elgin
- Minoru Suzuki
- SANADA
- Tama Tonga
- Tanga Roa
- Tomoaki Honma
- Tomohiro Ishii
- Toru Yano
- YOSHI-HASHI
- Yujiro Takahashi
It’s interesting that there are no Ring of Honor stars involved. However, there were also none in 2016.
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The first round matches are set too for March 11 and 12. The semi-finals will take place on the 19th and the finals on the 20th (the quarter-finals won’t be broadcasted on NJPWWorld.com, but everything else will be). Who will be facing each other?
On March 11, we will see Bad Luck Fale vs. Michael Elgin, EVIL vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi, Tama Tonga vs. Toru Yano, and Tanga Roa vs. Tomoaki Honma.
On March 12, Juice Robinson vs. Yujiro Takahashi, Katsuyori Shibata vs. Minoru Suzuki, Kenny Omega vs. Tomohiro Ishii, and SANADA vs. YOSHI-HASHI.
When factoring in a potential winner, it’s still no guarantee that the person moves on to face Kazuchika Okada for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship. However, the top names of NJPW have won in past years like Nakamura, Okada, Tetsuya Naito, and Hirooki Goto. So does that setup someone like Kenny Omega winning? What about Katsuyori Shibata?
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New Japan Cup should be NJPW’s latest exciting event, which will get us closer to the heart of their schedule in the spring and summer. Who do you think will advance to Genesis?