Special singles match made official for Cup final night

Wednesday March 20 will see the finals of the New Japan Cup in Nagaoka. We’ll determine who will challenge for the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship@ Aopril 6 at Sakura Genesis, but that’s not all, as a special singles match has been added to the lineup between Yoshinobu Kanemaru and YOH. 

In the wake of SHO winning the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship at New Beginning in Sapporo, YOH quickly made away with the title belt the very next night. Since then, YOH would provoke the furious champion with the missing title, and after Testuya Naito handed substantial neck injury to the already existent ‘severe mental distress’ SHO was suffering, the Murder Machine withdrew from the New Japan Cup series. 

That didn’t stop YOH from parading around Japan with SHO’s title belt until Osaka Friday March 15. Kanemaru would take advantage of a momentary distraction to high tail it with the junior heavyweight title, with one thief in hot pursuit of another. Backstage, Kanemaru demanded that things be settled with a singles match as YOH fired back that the Heel Master should ‘return’ the title belt posthaste.

While quite what happens to the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship belt is still highly unclear, what is official is Kanemaru vs YOH in a special singles match in Nagaoka Wednesday!