🦁 NJC/Sakura Genesis/Windy City Riot/Dontaku

[Convoy]

Featuring a field of 28 wrestlers this year, the New Japan Cup returns on March 6th. That date is also the 52nd Anniversary show, headlined with by IWGP World Heavyweight Champion Tetsuya Naito vs. IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Champion SHO. The winner of the New Japan Cup is already confirmed to face Naito at Sakura Genesis on April 6th, days before Naito is set to face Jon Moxley at Windy City Riot on the 12th. If he is still champion at that time, he will defend the belt against Moxley. Above is a snapshot of the first round and potential future rounds for the Cup.

EDIT: Tsuji won the Cup, Naito retained and lost to Moxley in Chicago.

Next we head to Taiwan for the first time since 2016 for a showcase that includes crowning new NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Champions. Full card:

Kickoff Match - PUZZLE Presents: Touyuu vs. Axe Wang
NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Championship Tournament First Round: Hiroshi Tanahashi, Toru Yano & Boltin Oleg vs. United Empire (Great-O-Khan, Francesco Akira & Callum Newman)
NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Championship Tournament First Round: Los Ingobernables De Japon (BUSHI, Yota Tsuji & Shingo Takagi) vs. HOUSE OF TORTURE (EVIL, Yoshinobu Kanemaru & SHO)
Satoshi Kojima & Tiger Mask vs. El Desperado & Shoma Kato
Starlight Kid vs. HANAKO
DOUKI vs. Kosei Fujita
IWGP Tag Team Championships: Bishamon (Hirooki Goto & YOSHI-HASHI) vs. Just Five Guys (Yuya Uemura & SANADA)
NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag team Championship Tournament Final

[chrom]

That left side...god that is awful.

And they've really gone out of their way to make Shota a loser.

[chrom]

Tiger Mask is competing in CMLL this week, Jushin Thunder Liger will be there Friday as his second

[kingoftheindies]

This New Japan Cup feels... underwhelming.

Feels like Sabre either gets a third Cup win or you gotta go with one of the R3M

[ace]

If Sabre isn’t winning the belt at Sakura Genesis he shouldn’t win the Cup. The last thing they need to do is beat him in a title match when half their stars just left. He should win that title this year…and he doesn’t need to drop a title shot before he does that. He’s the most credible guy they have to move into the main event. And Gedo seems hell bent on making sure it stays that way for a long time.

Seriously…what is the Dome main event next year?  Things are dire.  And we have all the young guys set up to fail again in the Cup.  I warned about this shit so long ago.  Wasted energy and time on SANADA and Finlay and Tama Tonga.  They needed Tsuji and Yuya and Shota to absolutely sky rocket into top spots.  And here we are.  Staring at the New Japan Cup tournament and trying to find any way out.

People were mad Nemeth and Riddle won belts?  Well he wasn’t putting them on Shota and Tsuji.  What else is there?

[Allie Kitsune]

Feb 26, 2024 18:41:42 GMT -5 ace said:

If Sabre isn’t winning the belt at Sakura Genesis he shouldn’t win the Cup. The last thing they need to do is beat him in a title match when half their stars just left. He should win that title this year…and he doesn’t need to drop a title shot before he does that. He’s the most credible guy they have to move into the main event. And Gedo seems hell bent on making sure it stays that way for a long time.

Seriously…what is the Dome main event next year?  Things are dire.  And we have all the young guys set up to fail again in the Cup.

There's nobody on his side of the bracket (except MAYBE Shingo) that he wouldn't be diminished by losing to, though.

[ace]

Feb 26, 2024 18:46:36 GMT -5 Allie Kitsune said:

Feb 26, 2024 18:41:42 GMT -5 ace said:

If Sabre isn’t winning the belt at Sakura Genesis he shouldn’t win the Cup. The last thing they need to do is beat him in a title match when half their stars just left. He should win that title this year…and he doesn’t need to drop a title shot before he does that. He’s the most credible guy they have to move into the main event. And Gedo seems hell bent on making sure it stays that way for a long time.

Seriously…what is the Dome main event next year?  Things are dire.  And we have all the young guys set up to fail again in the Cup.

There's nobody on his side of the bracket (except MAYBE Shingo) that he wouldn't be diminished by losing to, though.

I don’t disagree.  At least they have baked in that upsets happen in the Cup all the time.  But they’ve also baked in that Sabre is a tournament master because of his style.  So they’re kind of stuck.  If I had to get out of it I would have Taichi beat him in his first match.  People won’t focus on it immediately because the tournament keeps going.  And their history makes an eventually rematch for a title something that could main event down the line…and they’re gonna need main events down the line.

[Alice Syndrome]

What the hell is that bracket?

[ace]

Feb 26, 2024 20:59:24 GMT -5 Alice Syndrome said:

What the hell is that bracket?

3 guys who don’t want to move (Shingo, Ishii and Sabre), 7 guys that Tony doesn’t want…yet (Shota, Tsuji, Yuya, Ren, Kidd, Newman and Boltin), 1 guy Tony cant use right now (Perry) and 17 guys Tony will never want that Gedo is going to build around.

[chrom]

Feb 26, 2024 20:59:24 GMT -5 Alice Syndrome said:

What the hell is that bracket?

Recipe for a disaster. Who the hell is asking for Hashi vs Kenta, Yujiro vs Yano, Tanga vs O-Khan?

[Starshine]

I'm surprised Sanada is in this. Isn't he still pretty banged up?

[Convoy]

By the way, for those wondering why some guys are missing from the cup, I've heard two things.

1. HENARE is in a bad way with his head wound. The cut was way worse than originally thought. Sounds like he could've bled to death if things went slightly differently. That being said, TJP was always in the mix to return for this tournament as an openweight competitor. Not a fan of him in that position, or really in general, but he's a dojo product so that gives him some credit with management.

2. Alex Coughlin has a neck injury. It's okay enough for him to hold a booking last weekend to work a hardcore match, but those can be deceptively easy to work if done right by a couple of professionals. I get the feeling this is more of a "rest up" thing than a surgery/retirement thing, but it's worth keeping an eye on. Coughlin was quietly ahead of Kidd in the pecking order of War Dogs, but times have changed and New Japan would prefer guys to relax rather than make things potentially worse. Also, for anyone curious why Drilla worked through his injury, the truth is it was really just pain management at that point for him. The injury couldn't get any worse, and Moloney was perfectly fine continuing as planned in Osaka.

[EZ: Brainy Bae]

I have a feeling EVIL is winning the Cup.

Yeah.

[Allie Kitsune]

Feb 27, 2024 0:27:36 GMT -5 EZ: Brainy Bae said:

I have a feeling EVIL is winning the Cup.

Yeah.

Gedo CAN'T be enough of a moron to 2020 us again.

[Starshine]

Feb 27, 2024 0:27:36 GMT -5 EZ: Brainy Bae said:

I have a feeling EVIL is winning the Cup.

Yeah.

I could see Finlay winning as well.

But I def suspect we're seeing an EVIL defence sometime soon. I wouldn't be surprised if the Naito/SHO match closed with a HOT beatdown on the champion.

[ace]

Feb 27, 2024 0:27:36 GMT -5 EZ: Brainy Bae said:

I have a feeling EVIL is winning the Cup.

Yeah.

I’d say that if he was going to do that Evil would have dropped the Never belt.  But that means Gedo would have had to give Shota a big win…so that wasn’t an option.

[EZ: Brainy Bae]

Feb 27, 2024 0:31:02 GMT -5 Allie Kitsune said:

Feb 27, 2024 0:27:36 GMT -5 EZ: Brainy Bae said:

I have a feeling EVIL is winning the Cup.

Yeah.

Gedo CAN'T be enough of a moron to 2020 us again.

Gedo gonna Gedo. They're not adding Narita to the group and giving SHO the title for HoT to not 'rise' higher - it was foreshadowed with EVIL's interruption at the dome. Doesn't matter that we've seen Naito/EVIL done to death, or that it was a miracle getting decent bouts out of them 3 years ago.

That last show (minus the main event) is the worst I've felt about the product since I've started following. It's ironic in a way that Gedo didn't intend for the Naito/Okada story; Naito now is the Shuyaku - but with the future stormy. Everything is now on his battered shoulders. Ideally he'd hold the title until next WK to give the upstarts time to gain momentum and shine from working with him, but will his body hold?

The new 3M should've been ready for hot feuds - instead Narita was turned, Shooter's been in the mud, and Tsuji only just won a big match at the cost of Uemura's hair (in turn part of his own mystique/crowd appeal). It should've been heartthrob central with the fans attaching themselves to their own chosen ones. The battles among them would've re-enforced each other, ideally with each having some feathers in their caps by now. 

[ace]

Everyone knows that in my world Tsuji beat SANADA for the belt and Shota beat Ospreay for his and the world is sunshine, rainbows and a better tomorrow. But…at the very least given what’s transpired with the roster since not doing those things…my final four in the Cup would have been written in permanent marker as Tsuji, Shota, Yuya and…someone. I’m not doing HoT shit when I need to heat guys up so Narita is out with me. Kidd maybe.

Of course, Windy City Riot blocks me from having anyone win the belt…but it’s well past time for these guys to go on meaningful runs that doesn’t involve their only wins being against each other. It’s madness.  Gedo acts like he both has years to push these guys and that it’s somehow better in the long run if he doesn’t.  Meanwhile he has a one eyed, broken down champion whose gimmick is that he doesn’t care and outside of Sabre…he has no one close to acceptable for a challenger let alone champion.

So what does he do?  Move Hiromu to heavyweight?  Strap the rocket to a young guy with star quality?  Nah.  Push HoT, baby!

This guy was the GOAT booker for a long time.  Now he’s their biggest obstacle to righting the ship.

[Mozenrath]

I still contend that pushing SANADA made sense, and continues to make sense, and that having Tsuji beat him for the title would have been really, really bad for Tsuji because he'd have peaked immediately and then probably failed to recapture that afterwards. But, I do think that they need to get behind the Musketeers if they want us to take them seriously.

I do agree that having Zack win this only makes sense if he's winning the title, but Naito probably doesn't need to lose the title just yet, especially given there's no telling if he's ever winning it back after this with the state of his own body. With that in mind, EVIL is weirdly not a terrible choice for the guy to win this because their twisted mentality is probably "Personal issues with Naito, NEVER title means even if he loses he has something to hang his hat on, last time he won the NJ Cup and challenged, he beat Naito so there's the added tension along with potentially furthering HoT's possible claim as being the real force in the Bullet Club", and while all of that would be true, this will probably be a mess, and it'd blatantly be filler. I'd prefer if someone like Tsuji or Shota surprised us and won the cup, but NJPW doesn't really seem to do that many surprises with the cup.

NJPW needs to build their future, and Sabre is the best guy to do it with, but giving him the belt right now would be f***ing him over because I don't have confidence that they would have the right match-ups ready for him right now. Have him win the G1.

Of course, NJPW being as odd as it has sometimes been in the past few years, watch Goto win it a 4th time and somehow finally win the title, years after his body and credibility could support that.

[chrom]

On April 14th, Wrestle World is being held in Taiwan