The New Japan Cup kicked off on Wednesday with the opening night taking place from Budokan Hall.
It was the company’s second consecutive night in the building following its 50th Anniversary show on Tuesday that was headlined by Kazuchika Okada, Hiroshi Tanahashi & Tatsumi Fujinami defeating Minoru Suzuki, Zack Sabre Jr. & Yoshiaki Fujiwara.
This year’s New Japan Cup features a 46-man field with previously announced participants Kota Ibushi and Hiroyoshi Tenzan removed from the field.
On Wednesday, eight opening round matches took place with the following results (we will have a more detailed report of the show from Mark Buckeldee later today):
*CIMA over Taka Michinoku (advances to face Yoshinobu Kanemaru)
*Tomoaki Honma over YOSHI-HASHI (will face Kosei Fujita in the next round)
*Hirooki Goto over Yuji Nagata (faces Dick Togo next)
*Jeff Cobb over Togi Makabe (faces Satoshi Kojima next)
*Taichi over Toru Yano (receives a bye in the second round due to Hiroyoshi Tenzan’s injury, faces the winner of Kazuchika Okada vs. Master Wato)
*Hiroshi Tanahashi over YOH (faces Bad Luck Fale next)
*Tetsuya Naito over Yujiro (faces Gedo next)
*Kazuchika Okada over El Desperado (faces Master Wato next)
The opening round matches continue on Sunday’s show from Fukushima with Will Ospreay vs. BUSHI, Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Ryohei Oiwa, and Aaron Henare vs. Yuto Nakashima.
