NJPW: New Japan Cup Finals Set With Okada vs SANADA

The redemption story of Kazuchika Okada is continuing to build while the birth of a new top star in SANADA is underway as the New Japan Cup comes to a close. Who will go on to challenge Jay White for the IWGP Heavyweight Title in Madison Square Garden?

The first of two shows in Niigata has come to a close with the field of the New Japan Cup narrowed down to the final two. With exceptional victories coming from both men, what does either finalist still have in the tank for their one-on-one encounter in less than 24 hours?

Kazuchika Okada’s quest to Madison Square Garden is an interesting and winding tale. Last year, Jay White and longtime mentor Gedo turned their backs on Okada and CHAOS in a betrayal that shook the faction, and NJPW, to its core.

White would come to reveal himself as the leader of the new era of Bullet Club before going on to lay waste to Okada, returning to his full Rainmaker form, at Wrestle Kingdom 13. The claim that White and the Bullet Club would always have the one-up on Okada and CHAOS suddenly rang truer than ever before.

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Since White’s sudden ascent to the top of New Japan, strange bedfellows have been made across faction lines looking to put an end to the reign of Bullet Club. On several occasions this year, Okada and Tanahashi found themselves teaming up to little success against White and his cohorts.

When March’s New Japan Cup rolled around, it was as if a reset button was hit on the journeys of Okada, Tanahashi, and the other 30 men involved in the tournament. With the chance to challenge for the IWGP Heavyweight Title at the G1 Supercard in New York City hanging in the balance, it was anybody’s game.

Okada pulled off solid but expected victories in the first two rounds of the tournament against Mike Elgin and Mikey Nicholls. In the quarterfinals, Okada bested the NEVER Openweight Champion Will Ospreay in a match that could have gone either way.

In the semifinals, Okada and Tomohiro Ishii slugged it out in a war between the two top singles wrestlers in CHAOS. In the end, Okada would deliver his Rainmaker against an Ishii who fought as valiantly as one could have hoped. While this sadly slots Ishii back down the card and away from the thought of main event glory, it opens Okada up for a tremendous challenge in the final round.

SANADA finds himself in the finals of the tournament after walking a much different path than that of Okada. While often seen as a tag team wrestler, and holder of the IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Titles, alongside EVIL there have been no shortage of outstanding singles matches in SANADA’s New Japan career.

After coming up short in the G1, SANADA returned to comfortable ground alongside EVIL to claim their second-in-a-row victory in the World Tag League.  This not only tied them with SANADA’s mentor Keiji Mutoh and partner Hiroshi Hase but also led the pair to reclaim the IWGP Heavyweight Tag Titles at Wrestle Kingdom.

The second reign for LIJ would end less spectacularly than their first after only 50 days when a rejuvenated Guerrillas of Destiny claimed their fifth reign at Honor Rising in February. While the loss was disappointing, it did free SANADA and EVIL up for the looming 32-man tournament set to kick off a few weeks later.

SANADA’s road to the finals has been less of a sure thing than Okada’s. He has had to overcome Okada ally Hirooki Goto, the most vicious man in New Japan Minoru Suzuki, and the sudden sensation Colt Cabana in the first three rounds.

In the semifinals, the deck was stacked even more against SANADA who stood toe to toe with former champion Hiroshi Tanahashi. With Okada already having beaten Ishii earlier in the night, it seemed like another Okada/Tanahashi classic could be on the horizon.

Just as he did against Suzuki in the second round, though, SANADA busted out a career-making performance against the Ace before forcing a tap out with the Skull End. It’s one thing to defeat someone at the level of Tanahashi via pinfall – it sends a completely different message to force him to willingly give up.

Looking even further back, SANADA has been inching closer and closer to this goal for the past three years. In 2017’s Cup, he fell to Ishii in the second round. In the 2018 offering, he was defeated by Zack Sabre Jr in the semifinals. If SANADA can defeat both Okada and Tanahashi in this year’s tournament, he’ll have cosmically righted those wrongs by defeating the men who eliminated both Ishii and Sabre from the 2019 Cup.

SANADA now finds himself at the crossroads of his career. A loss to Okada could push him back down the card and into more tag wars with EVIL while a victory could cement him as a singles star and a new top name in the company. SANADA has deserved a spot at the top of the roster for quite some time, so to many this feels like a true coming-of-age moment for Cold Skull.

What happens in Niigata will tell the story of the coming year in New Japan. Can Okada complete his transformation back to the Rainmaker of old, or will SANADA put an end to the dreams of CHAOS’ fearless leader?

Okada stands to redeem himself against White for the loss suffered in the Tokyo Dome, but for SANADA the risk may be even bigger – a New Japan Cup win will mean he is on his way to achieving the same status as Okada and Tanahashi while a loss could snuff out his flame before it truly begins to burn.