New Japan began Round 2 of the New Japan Cup today with the first 2 matches, which would set up the first of the Quarterfinals beginning next week.
Today’s event was held at Aichi Prefectural Gym in Nagoya and can be watched on demand on New Japan World. This was a Samurai! TV broadcast in Japan.
The announced paid attendance was 2190.
Match 1: Aaron Henare, Great-O-Khan & Jeff Cobb beat Oskar Leube, Toru Yano & Tama Tonga. Henare pinned Leube after Rampage.
Match 2: El Phantasmo & David Finlay ebat Kosei Fujita & Zack Sabre Jr. Finlay pinned Fujita after Blue Thunder Bomb.
Match 3: Dick Togo, Sho, Yujiro Takahashi & EVIL beat TAKA Michinoku, DOUKI, Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Taichi. Sho pinned TAKA after a cross arm piledriver.
Match 4: Lio Rush, Yoh & Tomohiro Ishii beat BUSHI, Hiromu Takahashi & Shingo Takagi. Rush pinned BUSHI after Final Hour.
Match 5: Aussie Open & Will Ospreay beat Tomoaki Honma, YOSHI-HASHI & Hirooki Goto. Mark Davis pinned Honma after Corealis.
Match 6: Hiroshi Tanahashi & Kazuchika Okada beat Ren Narita & Shota Umino. Okada pinned Narita after Rainmaker.
Match 7: New Japan Cup Round 2: Tetsuya Naito beat Chase Owens.
Main Event: New Japan Cup Round 2: SANADA beat KENTA. As a result, the first quarterfinal will be Naito vs. SANADA. All LIJ, guaranteeing they’ll be in the Semifinals. The question of course is who…we’ll find out on Friday.
The next event is tomorrow at Shiga Prefecture Cultural Industry Community House Event Hall in Shiga. Tomorrow’s Quarterfinals are Tonga vs. Henare and Goto vs. Kyle Fletcher, which could set up the first of potentially two all-United Empire Quarterfinals. Live streaming on New Japan World will begin at midnight PT/3 AM ET, however the start time in the ET and CT time zones is subject to change because of the time change tomorrow at 2 AM local time (set clocks forward 1 hour).
