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wrestlingisfake · 5 years

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New Japan Cup first round preview

This is a 32-man single elimination heavyweight tournament. The winner will get to challenge Jay White for the IWGP heavyweight championship at G1 Supercard on April 6 in New York City.

The first round is scheduled for March 8-11. The winners of these matches will advance to the second round on March 13-17.

March 8

Tomohiro Ishii vs. Yuji Nagata - These two have been at each other’s throats for months, and this is the first one-on-one match in the feud. Ishii feels like the favorite of this block, and I’m pretty sure he can get past Nagata.

Juice Robinson vs. Chase Owens - Robinson is the IWGP United States champion. The title isn’t on the line, but if Chase wins he would be in line for the next title defense. They’ve given Owens a little bit of a push lately, but I can’t see him getting into a title program this soon. I’m picking Robinson.

Taichi vs. Tomoaki Honma - Taichi is coming off of a feud with Tetsuya Naito where he took every shortcut for cheap heat and still got beaten handily. So you can tell they want to push him but they don’t want to put him over anyone important. Honma isn’t very important since returning from a major neck injury, so he’s exactly the sort of guy they’d use to rehab Taichi after the Naito loss.

YOSHI-HASHI vs. Manabu Nakanishi - Of the old-timers on the roster, Nakanishi is protected the least, and it’s pretty rare to see him in singles competition. Yoshi-Hashi ought to be able to win this without much trouble, but it’s hard to string “Yoshi-Hashi” and “win” together in the same sentence. I’ll go with Yoshi, but I’m not very confident.

March 9

Kazuchika Okada vs. Michael Elgin - Okada is the logical favorite to win the whole tournament to get revenge on Jay White and win back the title he lost back in the summer. Elgin should be able to make it seem like an upset is possible, but Okada should cruise to victory.

Will Ospreay vs. Bad Luck Fale - Ospreay’s NEVER openweight title is not at stake. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Ospreay face anyone the size of Fale in a singles match, but if he’s going to be a junior heavyweight with an openweight title, he’s going to have to prove he can beat a guy twice his size. If any of the champions are going to get eliminated in the first round, my gut says it’ll be Ospreay. But I’m still cautiously picking him to advance.

Mikey Nicholls vs. HIKULEO - Nicholls is just coming off of a three-year run in NXT as Nick Miller. Hikuleo has recently returned from a knee injury that interrupted a promising start in Bullet Club. Both men could use a win but I’m thinking Nicholls needs it more. I can see it going either way, but I’ll pick Nicholls.

Lance Archer vs. Toa Henare - Henare is starting to gain some momentum but he’s still a prelim guy. Archer will likely step all over him.

March 10

Tetsuya Naito vs. Kota Ibushi - Naito is not defending the IWGP intercontinental championship. This is easily the hottest match in the first round, as both men could be considered favorites to make it to the finals. Naito is building an angle where he wants to be a double champion, but he doesn’t necessarily have to accomplish that this spring. Ibushi is finally under contract after years of free agency and months of speculation about him jumping to AEW, so I expect big things for him in 2019. This is a pick-’em, but I tend to want to go with Naito.

Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Shota Umino - Tanahashi was the champion a month ago, and Shota is one of the young boys, so this is basically the “Duke vs. some little Catholic school” mismatch of the tournament. It should be fun to see how Tana makes it seem like Shota has a hope in hell of winning, but the outcome isn’t really in doubt.

EVIL vs. Zack Sabre, Jr. - This continues the feud these guys have had on and off since last summer. It took months for Evil to just get one win over Sabre. If he doesn’t win here, that would seem to renew the “Has Zack got Evil’s number?” issue, so Evil probably can’t afford to lose. Interestingly, if Evil and Naito both win it’ll be LIJ vs. LIJ in the second round. This one’s too close to call.

Ryusuke Taguchi vs. Hiroyoshi Tenzan - Originally David Finlay was set to face Tenzan, and he probably would have been the favorite in that match, but he’s out with a shoulder injury. Having run out of heavyweights to book, New Japan went with junior heavyweight Taguchi to fill the slot. (Although I suppose Taguchi co-holds the trios title, which is an openweight championship, so it kinda works.) Tenzan’s a big cool dude but he’s old and breaking down and I’d rather not see him limp through this whole thing. The winner will probably lose to Tanahashi in the second round anyway, so I’d rather see Taguchi in that position.

March 11

Hirooki Goto vs. SANADA - Goto scored a pin over Sanada at the Anniversary show, so he’s got the momentum. I could see this one going either way, though. I’m leaning towards Sanada, but I’m not very sure about it.

Minoru Suzuki vs. Satoshi Kojima - A battle of the old guys, except Kojima is booked like a real old guy while Suzuki is treated like he has magic old-guy badass power. I could dig Kojima winning this one, but I’d be shocked as hell if it actually happened. Suzuki wins.

Colt Cabana vs. Togi Makabe - Of all the ROH guys they could’ve brought in for this tournament, I wouldn’t have guessed that Cold Cabana would be the one. I’m curious to see what they have in mind for him on this tour. I can’t imagine that he’ll beat Makabe, but stranger things have happened.

Toru Yano vs. Davey Boy Smith, Jr. - The winner of this one faces the winner of Colt vs. Makabe, which makes me think they’re setting up Yano vs. Makabe--the battle of tag partners who broke up ten years ago and just got back together. DBS could certainly win but it wouldn’t lead to anything nearly as interesting, so I gotta pick Yano.

#njpw #new japan cup

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