New Japan wrapped up the 2023 New Japan Cup tournament today with the Finals, which would decide who would get sn IWGP World Heavyweight Championship shot in just over 2 weeks.
Today’s event was held at Aore Nagaoka in Niigata and can be watched on demand on New Japan World. This event aired as part of WORLD PRO WRESTLING LIVE 2023 on TV Asahi in Japan.
The announced paid attendance was 3384, a full house/near sellout.
Match 1: DOUKI & Taichi beat Yuto Nakashima & Hiroshi Tanahashi. Taichi pinned Nakashima after Dangerous Backdrop.
Match 2: Ryohei Oiwa & Shota Umino beat Kosei Fujita & Zack Sabre Jr. Umino pinned Fujita after Death Slider.
Match 3: El Phantasmo, Chase Owens & KENTA beat Tomoaki Honma, Tomohiro Ishii & Tama Tonga. Phantasmo pinned Honma after CR 2.
Match 4: Dick Togo, Sho, Yujiro Takahashi & EVIL beat Ryusuke Taguchi, Toru Yano, Ren Narita & El Desperado. Takahashi pinned Taguchi after Big Juice. Borderline squash. Afterwards, House Of Torture demanded a rematch for the NEVER 6-Man Tag Team Titles.
A cryptic video played…
Match 5: Shingo Takagi & Tetsuya Naito beat Aaron Henare & Great-O-Khan. Naito pinned Khan.
Match 6: Jeff Cobb & Aussie Open beat YOSHI-HASHI, Hirooki Goto & Kazuchika Okada. Mark Davis pinned YOSHI-HASHI after Corealis.
Match 7: IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Champion Hiromu Takahashi beat Lio Rush to retain the title. V2 for Takahashi. Next up: Possibly Robbie Eagles, who made the challenge by video via Zack Sabre Jr. Eagles has defected from Chaos to TMDK. It could happen on 4/8 at Ryogoku Kokugikan.
Main Event: New Japan Cup Finals: SANADA beat David Finlay to win the tournament. As a result, SANADA will face IWGP World Heavyweight Champion Kazuchika Okada for the title on 4/8.
The next event is MULTIVERSE UNITED: Only The STRONG Survive, a joint event with Impact Wrestling, on 3/30 at the Globe Theater in Los Angeles, CA. The event will be a live PPV only on FITE and is available now for pre-order for $24.99. Live streaming will begin at 8 PM PT/11 PM ET. Live results updates are scheduled.
UPDATE: Will Osprey is now officially off 3/31. Shoulder injury. He was to have faced Mike Bailey. Hiroshi Tanahashi is the replacement.
