Final Four determined
Sunday March 17 will see the New Japan Cup come to Shizuoka for night 10 of the tournament. The second night of quarterfinals will see the Final Four locked in before semifinal action Monday.
Watch live in English on NJPW World!
Main event: New Japan Cup Quarterfinal- EVIL vs Shingo Takagi
Singles record: 2-1 Takagi
Winner faces Ren Narita or Yota Tsuji March 18 in Fukushima
The main event sees familiar foes Shingo Takagi and EVIL collide for a spot in the semifinals. These one time teammates in Los Ingobernables De Japon met in the 2021 New Japan Cup, where Takagi was victorious en route to the Cup final. Though the Dragon didn’t claim the trophy that year, he would be IWGP World Heavyweight Champion by the summer, and turned back the challenge of EVIL later that September in the MetLife Dome.
Yet the HOUSE has a long memory, and EVIL is always one to bear a grudge. That’s a grudge that brought him to the last night of block action for he and Shingo in Yokohama during last year’s G1 Climax, and a chaotic match full of interference that eventually put EVIL through into the knockout stage, Shingo out of the running and a Yokohama crowd that was on the brink of a riot. ‘Shizuoka’ might literally translate in English to ‘quiet hill,’ but the crowd will either erupt with delight or fury at the end of this contest.
7th Match: New Japan Cup Quarterfinal- Ren Narita vs Yota Tsuji
Singles record: 5-0-1 Narita
Winner faces EVIL or Shingo Takagi March 18 in Fukushima
The other quarterfinal tonight sees Yota Tsuji and Ren Narita battling for a spot in the Final Four. Both emerged from extremely hard fought second round matches in Osaka, but while Yota Tsuji had his hand raised after a rgipping back and forth battle with El Phanatsmo that ended with a diving Curb Stomp, Narita’s means to the Elite Eight were markedly different. After a match largely contested alone against Zack Sabre Jr., Narita showed grit and toughness until the very end, when submission defeat seemed looming, and HOUSE OF TORTURE intervened. It’s more than likely that the group will be involved in both of our tournament matches tonight, as they seek an all H.O.T semifinal in Fukuoka, and a guranteed place in the finals.
That said, with Tsuji’s best record against Narita being a twenty minute time limit draw during the G1, Ren may feel he has more than enough to defeat Tsuji on his own. Could hubris be the downfall of the Souled Out Narita, and the whole H.O.T clan?
6th Match: Los Ingobernables De Japon (BUSHI, Hiromu Takahashi & Tetsuya Naito) vs Just Five Guys (Yuya Uemura, Taichi & SANADA)
Six man action pits Los Ingobernables De Japon against Just Five Guys. As Tetsuya Naito continues to wrestle alongside his LIJ teammates, and perhaps will keep a watching brief over Shingo Takagi and Yota Tsuji in the final two matches of the night, his April 6 opponent in Ryogoku is coming closer and closer to being revealed.
5th Match: Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Toru Yano, YOSHI-HASHI, Tomohiro Ishii & Hirooki Goto vs BULLET CLUB (Taiji Ishimori, Gabe Kidd, Chase Owens, KENTA & Gedo)
Ten man action sees a Hontai and CHAOS combination face BULLET CLUB. During Cup competition both IWGP Tag Team Champions KENTA and Chase Owens were eliminated by YOSHI-HASHI and Hirooki Goto, leaving them with a clear claim to the tag gold that may be solidified this afternoon, even despite Goto’s continued presence in the tournament.
4th Match: YOH, El Desperado & Shota Umino vs HOUSE OF TORTURE (Yujiro Takahashi, Jack Perry & Yoshinobu Kanemaru)
Shota Umino continues to seek revenge against Jack Perry for his first round loss at the hands of HOUSE OF TORTURE. Meanwhile, with a singles match now official for the finals night in Nagaoka between Yoshinobu Kanemaru and YOH, tensions are sure to escalate.
3rd Match: TMDK (Mikey Nicholls & Zack Sabre Jr.) vs United Empire (Callum Newman & Jeff Cobb)
Tag action pits TMDK against United Empire. Both teams have had to come to terms with painful losses in their respective first tournament matches this year- can they bounce back strong tonight?
2nd Match: Guerrillas of Destiny (Hikuleo, Tanga Loa & El Phantasmo) vs United Empire (Francesco Akira, TJP & Great-O-Khan)
As GoD face United Empire, Catch 2.2 continue looking for a route back to the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championships, but might the STRONG Openweight Tag titles worn by Hikuleo and ELP prove just as attractive?
1st Match: Shoma Kato & Ryusuke Taguchi vs Katsuya Murashima & Boltin Oleg
With Young Lions Kato and Murashima joined by the strong and the strange in Boltin and Taguchi kicking us off, it’s a big afternoon of action in Shizuoka!
