New Japan continued the New Japan Cup today with the second half of the Quarterfinals, which would finish setting up the Final 4.
Today’s event was held at Act City Hamamatsu in Shizuoka and can be watched on demand on New Japan World.
The announced paid attendance was 1101.
Match 1: Kosei Fujita & Zack Sabre Jr. beat Oskar Leube & Ryohei Oiwa. Fujita pinned Oiwa.
Match 2: Aaron Henare & Kyle Fletcher beat Tomoaki Honma & YOSHI-HASHI. Henare pinned Honma after Streets Of Rage.
Match 3: Ren Narita, El Desperado & Minoru Suzuki beat El Phantasmo, Chase Owens & KENTA by DQ. KENTA DQ’d. Ref assault.
Match 4: Great-O-Khan, Jeff Cobb & Mark Davis beat Dick Togo, Yujiro Takahashi & EVIL. Khan beat Togo with Subaru Sheep Killer.
Match 5: Lio Rush, Yoh, Toru Yano & Tomohiro Ishii beat BUSHI, Hiromu Takahashi, Shingo Takagi & tetsuya Naito. Ishii pinned BUSHI after a vertical drop brainbuster. BUSHI was a late replacement for SANADA, who was removed from this match due to events earlier this week when he left LIJ to join what is now Just Five Guys (Taichi’s new post-Suzuki-Gun faction).
Match 6: New Japan Cup Quarterfinals: David Finlay beat Shota Umino. As a result, Finlay advances to the Semifinals.
Main Event: New Japan Cup Quarterfinals: Tama Tonga beat Hirooki Goto. As a result, Tonga advances to the Semifinals.
As a result of today, the second Semifinal will be Finlay vs. Tonga. The promotion also announced that, as is tradition, the tournament winner will face IWGP World Heavyweight Champion Kazuchika Okada for the title at SAKURA GENESIS on 3/8 at Ryogoku Kokugikan. (The Cup winner always gets the next title match)
The Semifinals are tomorrow at G Messe Gunma in Gunma. The rest of the card beyond those matches (Finlay-Tonga and SANADA vs. Mark Davis) is TBA. Live streaming on New Japan World will begin at 2:30 AM PT/5:30 AM ET.
