>NJPW's annual elimination tournament New Japan Cup continues with the semifinal matches as CHAOS stablemates collide as Tomohiro Ishii faces Kazuchika Okada and Hiroshi Tanahashi faces SANADA. The stakes for this year's tournament are higher than ever before with the field doubled from 16 to 32 wrestlers but the reward is even bigger. For this year's winner of the New Japan Cup, they will receive an IWGP Heavyweight Championship match against the current titleholder Jay White at G1 Supercard in the sold out Madison Square Garden on April 6. Who of the remaining wrestlers will go on to face the Switchblade for the title and perhaps become the next Heavyweight Champion? Here is the lineup for the show:
>New Japan Cup 2019 Semifinal Match: Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. SANADA
>New Japan Cup 2019 Semifinal Match: Kazuchika Okada vs. Tomohiro Ishii
>Eight Man Tag Team Match: Juice Robinson & CHAOS (Hirooki Goto, Mikey Nicholls & YOSHI-HASHI) vs. Bullet Club (Bad Luck Fale, Chase Owens, HIKULEO & Jay White)
>Tag Team Match: Kota Ibushi & Tomoaki Honma vs. Los Ingobernables de Japon (EVIL & Tetsuya Naito)
>Tag Team Match: Ryusuke Taguchi & Will Ospreay vs. Suzuki-gun (Taichi & Zack Sabre Jr.)
>Six Man Tag Team Match: Toa Henare & Most Violent Players (Togi Makabe & Toru Yano) vs. Suzuki-gun (Davey Boy Smith Jr., Lance Archer & Minoru Suzuki)
>Tag Team Match: Ren Narita & Shota Umino vs. Los Ingobernables de Japon (BUSHI & Shingo Takagi)
>Eight Man Tag Team Match: Manabu Nakanishi, Yuji Nagata & Tencozy (Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima) vs. Colt Cabana, Michael Elgin, Yota Tsuji & Yuya Uemura
archer is usually cringe but him challenging rocky to a steel cage match is hilarious
Henry Davis
3 G1's 1-2 People only talk about THAT one since it was such an upset. Okada was the champ and it was alot of people's MOTY
Benjamin Rodriguez
does this mean ishii stand a chance today
Austin Diaz
that shit is hysterical
it's also talked about because Ishii never got a title shot during that legendary reign. that match could have rivaled Shibata's.
Juan Rivera
I just realized Sho and Yoh haven't been on the shows. Neither have Tama and Tanga. Do champs normally get time off of tours like this?
Elijah Lopez
it's such a long tour i know Sho was on at the start.
Michael Ross
yoooooooooooooo this is hysterical
ospreay's facial expressions are fantastic
Jacob Johnson
Sho and Yoh each wrestled at least one match on this tour. New Japan gives guys time off now and then. And that's a good thing!
Cameron Clark
yeah I agree, I just miss Sho and Shingo beefing it up
Jonathan Scott
i mean they can afford it. Since every night they are getting more people free to add to tags.
Thomas Scott
its also fine because they just won the titles, so they don't have story to set up. they're obviously setting Shingo and BUSHI up for the next Jr tag title match, with having them kick the shit out of most of their opponents this tour.
which is great, because Shingo is fucking awesome.
Jacob Bailey
Based Zack Sabre JUSTnior
Angel Murphy
Ibushi lookin JACKED brother
Hudson Rogers
Having Honma scream at you while your walking home at 3am or in a dark alleyway would make you shit yourself
Nathan Diaz
holy shit that Ibushi Kokeshi
Michael Allen
BASED RETARD Ibushi adding more moves he can remove braincells with to his arsenal.
Jace Bailey
They are doing basically everything they can to not reference Kenny anymore. Even the English commentary doesnt. Surely if they were setting up an angle they would mention his name to keep him in your mind?
James Long
Ibushi just sold his own clothesline by landing on his own neck and shoulder... NOTHING TO LOSE
Nicholas Hughes
probably, yeah. Why would you think they were planning on him coming back any time soon?
Mainly the fact that they released that Ibushi interview on 1972 with some direct conversation about Kenny.
David Brown
Oh? I didn't see it, what did Ibushi say?
The lack of mention could also just be to focus on the tournament. No point in overshadowing all these guys that are on the tour working towards the MSG show.
Zachary Baker
if you watch the backstage stuff. Kota's character now is a man running out time before he hit's the wall and is past is prime. He's pretty much trying to catch up to Kenny in terms of accomplishments
Ryan Cruz
>juice >goto >yoshi >mikey nicholls literally JUST: the team
Gavin Rogers
Q: After a memorable reunion last year, the Golden Lovers (hereinafter referred to as GL) have once again broken-up. Do you still have feelings for Kenny?
Ibushi: Kenny has his own path to follow and I support him with it completely. I’d like to see Kenny change the world with wrestling, but I don’t want to lose to him. I’m going to fight my battles with everything I’ve got. Looking back now, I think Kenny really overshadowed me in New Japan, right?
Q: That being said, when the GL were reunited, Kenny said that “Ibushi and I are in a 50/50 relationship.” Do you not think that was the case?
Ibushi: No. When I look at what he’s achieved, Kenny’s won the G1 and was IWGP Heavyweight Champion, two things I’ve never done. Because I felt that I was not on the same level as him, I was always conscious about linking arms and teaming-up with him.
Q: Now you’ll have bouts in a different way than Kenny right?
Ibushi: Yes that’s right. Of course in wrestling, no one ever knows what’s going to happen and maybe we’ll meet in the ring again. In the meantime I’ll just have to think of him as someone who is fighting a different fight.
And they for sure wouldnt be just not mentioning him without reason. They didnt even call ibushi doing the Bicycle knee a V Trigger, which is obviously what the point of Ibushi doing the move is.
Sebastian Collins
OH FUCK HE'S BACK
Owen Johnson
Oh, that is pretty compelling. I assume he was crushed concerning losing to ZSJ again?
Thank you user!
OH WOW SWITCHBLADE IS HERE
Gabriel Young
Jay got some pretty good boo's then
Jack Jackson
Chase being a huge faggot is great
Angel Bailey
Mikey Janetty
Ethan Collins
YOSHI can meme well, too bad he can't wrestle as well
Hunter Jones
Juice has fallen so fucking hard after winning the US title for the first time.
That Okada/Ishii match was fucking bananas. Ishii really is the best bout machine.
Lucas Bennett
when he locked in the arm bar i jumped out of my seat. Holy fuck i have never been worked like that before
Carter Thomas
>That crucifixion imagery
Bravo Snyder
Jackson King
Ishii's never done that before. He's incredibly good at inserting new stuff into big matches, and always well-timed too.
Samuel Howard
that cheer for SANADA
cmon cold skull, make me believe
Levi Myers
zoomer vs boomer
Kevin Foster
Time for heel Tanahashi.
Isaiah Watson
Big pops Sanada
Michael Fisher
COME ON SANADA I don't think he will but I hope Main reason why is cause this is for MSG right? SANADA isn't really as big a name in the west as Japan unlike Okada.
Noah Price
If we get another Tanahashi vs Okada Im going to kms.
Hudson Bell
Okada is by far their most over guy in america. They revere him there beyond just being a fan kinda.
he JUSTed on his own bro, I can't believe it either
Jordan Thompson
he's lost to sanada before
Ethan Peterson
The Japanese commentary just referenced Kenny in the main event.
Cameron Hall
What did they said?
James Clark
Kenny's probably isn't appearing on a NJPW ring until the build up to Wrestle Kingdom. He's not going to be on the G1 this year either.
Jayden Nguyen
ishii died for our sins
Jack Bell
Get a clue newfag
Landon Anderson
>Shitty booking >N-NEWFAG!
Matthew Ortiz
both of you shut the fuck up and praise based ishii
Aaron Rivera
The logic is that SANADA was the better man tonight, e-babby.
Mason Carter
he also had the home town support.
Brayden Davis
based chris poster
Cameron Russell
>Better man That works against guys of his kayfabe level. Not against the guy that won the G1 and main evented WK. Specially on a tournament level match. ZSJ should have beat Tana. It made more sense/logic than lol Sanada out of nowhere.
Liam Jenkins
Crowd seemed fine with it. Maybe you should just go with the flow and enjoy the story instead of trying to quantify everything? Holy fuck.
Eli Carter
Also it isn't as if upsets don't happen in real life combat sports tournaments.
Justin Brooks
>Crowd seemed fine with it I mean it was his home town
Jonathan Roberts
>GEDO makes a shitty decision Dude just enjoy it xd >Vince does Vince's things Shitty booking lmao
And of course Sanada got a good reaction. Its his home town.
Isaac Sanders
Sanadafags and Naitofags are one and the same.
John Nguyen
duh
Grayson Baker
Gedo's "Shitty thing" is basically making new stars and developing term build
"Vince being Vince" is typically shitting on the entire roster for a quick nostalgia pop or getting one guy and one guy alone over at the expense of the rest of the roster.
The former has many reliable stars who could believably be put into the main event and a very strong midcard scene as well while the latter has literally zero drawing stars to the point that it has to dig into its depleting well of short term nostalgia pops.
Carson Peterson
ISHII DIED FOR OUR SINS
Grayson Taylor
surely someone clipped that ishii judo throw into an armbar? based granite canine turning a simple counter into one of the spots of the year so far.
Jordan Reed
So you missed when he beat him in the G1 2 years ago?
Gavin Davis
>having a girlfriend: cringe >beating the fuck out of her: based
Okada seeks to win the new japan cup will this be SANADAS final fantasy?
Henry Scott
That would have been so based
Isaiah Evans
Nah. Naito is a cringe simp, SANADA is good.
Matthew Mitchell
Reverse that
Brody Nelson
This means shit for SANADA because he's going to be stuck on the tag division after the G1. Last year was the same shit. This is just GEDO not burning a potential main event on the final of the NJCup
Landon Foster
Oh no a stronger tag division and potential main eventer if needed, Gedo must be stopped.
