New Japan announced the entire field for the 2023 New Japan Cup today, their annual March singles tournament. After a whopping 50 man field last year for the promotion’s 50th Anniversary, it’s back down to a much more reasonable 24 this year in the tournament’s usual single-elimination format, and it’s back to all Heavyweights. The promotion also confirmed the tournament winner will get an IWGP World Heavyweight Championship opportunity at SAKURA GENESIS on 4/8 at Ryogoku Kokugikan, presumably against Saturday’s Kazuchika Okada-Hiroshi Tanahashi winner.
The first-round matchups are set as the whole bracket was revealed:
First-round byes: KENTA, Chase Owens, Jeff Cobb, Will Ospreay, Hirooki Goto, Tama Tonga, Great-O-Khan, Zack Sabre Jr.
Round 1 matches:
3/5: SANADA vs. Taichi, Tetsuya Naito vs. El Phantasmo
3/6: David Finlay vs. Tomohiro Ishii, Shota Umino vs. Yujiro Takahashi
3/8: Ren Narita vs. EVIL, Toru Yano vs. Mark Davis
3/10: YOSHI-HASHI vs. Kyle Fletcher, Shingo Takagi vs. Aaron Henare
Round 2: 3/11, 3/12, 3/13, 3/15
Quarterfinals: 3/17, 3/18
Semifinals: 3/19
Finals: 3/21
Zack Sabre Jr. is the defending tournament champion.
Also announced for the Finals on 3/21 is IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Champion Hiromu Takahashi vs. Lio Rush for the title.
All New Japan Cup events will air live in Japanese and English on New Japan World.
