New Japan Cup
The New Japan Cup is an annual single-elimination professional wrestling tournament held by New Japan Pro-Wrestling since 2005.
It is considered the second most prominent tournament in the NJPW, after the G1 Climax, which follows a round-robin format. Since 2006, the winner, like with the G1 Climax, receives a shot at the IWGP Heavyweight Championship. However, unlike with the G1 Climax, the reigning IWGP Heavyweight Champion does not participate in the tournament. Since 2014, the winner of the tournament can also choose to challenge for the IWGP Intercontinental Championship; in 2015 only, the winner could also challenge for the NEVER Openweight Championship. It usually featured 16 participants, before extending to 32 participants from 2019 onwards. Although it previously featured almost exclusively heavyweight wrestlers, the 2020 edition of the New Japan Cup was an Openweight tournament.
Hiroshi Tanahashi, the inaugural winner, is also the first to have won it twice. Hirooki Goto is both the only three-time winner, and the only person to win the tournament two years in a row. All past winners have chosen to challenge for the Heavyweight Championship, with the exception of 2014 winner Shinsuke Nakamura, who challenged for the Intercontinental Championship; in 2020, due to Tetsuya Naito also being both Heavyweight and Intercontinental Champion, the winner of the New Japan Cup would automatically challenge him for both.
Tournaments
Results
2005
The 2005 New Japan Cup was held from April 19 to April 24. The first two rounds were held on individual nights, with round one taking up the entire card on April 19.† Minoru was forced to pull out before his Round 2 match, due to suffering severe dizziness, and was replaced by Osamu Nishimura, who he beat in Round 1.
2006
The 2006 New Japan Cup was held from April 16 to April 30. Giant Bernard, the winner of the tournament, went on to fail in his challenge against IWGP Champion Brock Lesnar on May 3.2007
The 2007 New Japan Cup was a 14-man tournament held from March 3 to March 21. Giant Bernard and Hiroyoshi Tenzan received byes to the second round, due to their victories in the 2006 New Japan Cup and G1 Climax respectively. Shinsuke Nakamura was injured in a non-tournament match on March 13, giving Tenzan an additional pass to the semifinals. The winner, Yuji Nagata, went on to defeat Hiroshi Tanahashi for the championship on April 13, beginning his second reign with the title. He also became the first person to reach the NJC finals twice, and the first to win both the New Japan Cup and G1 Climax.2008
The 2008 New Japan Cup was a 16-man tournament held from March 9 to March 23. The winner, Hiroshi Tanahashi, became the first two-time winner of the NJC and went on to fail in his challenge against IWGP Champion Shinsuke Nakamura on March 30.1This match originally ended in a double countout at 2:35, but it was restarted with Makabe winning via pinfall in 14:49.
2009
The 2009 New Japan Cup was a 14-man tournament held from March 8 to March 22. Giant Bernard and Yuji Nagata, the winners of the Cups of 2006 and 2007, received byes in the first round of the tournament. The eventual winner of the tournament, Hirooki Goto, went on to lose the IWGP Heavyweight Championship match to Hiroshi Tanahashi on May 3 at Wrestling Dontaku 2009.1This match originally ended in a double countout at 3:18, but it was restarted with Inoue winning via countout in 9:15.
2010
The 2010 New Japan Cup was a 15-man tournament held from March 14 to March 22. As the previous winner of the Cup, Hirooki Goto received a bye in the first round of the tournament. With his victory Goto became the second two-time winner of the tournament and the first to win it back-to-back. Goto went on to challenge the IWGP Heavyweight Champion Shinsuke Nakamura on April 4, but would once again fail in his attempt to win the title.2011
The 2011 New Japan Cup was a 16-man tournament held from March 6 to March 20. The winner, Yuji Nagata, went on to unsuccessfully challenge Hiroshi Tanahashi for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship on April 3.2012
The 2012 New Japan Cup was a 16-man tournament held from April 1 to April 8. With his win, Hirooki Goto, became the first three-time winner of the tournament.2013
The 2013 New Japan Cup was a 16-man tournament held from March 11 to March 23. The winner of the tournament, Kazuchika Okada, went on to defeat Hiroshi Tanahashi for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship at Invasion Attack on April 7.2014
The 2014 New Japan Cup took place between March 15 and 23. The winner of the tournament got to choose whether to challenge for the IWGP Heavyweight or the IWGP Intercontinental Championship.2015
The 2015 New Japan Cup took place between March 5 and 15. The winner of the tournament got to choose whether to challenge for the IWGP Heavyweight, IWGP Intercontinental or the NEVER Openweight Championship at Invasion Attack 2015 on April 5.2016
The 2016 New Japan Cup took place between March 3 and 12. The winner of the tournament would once again get to choose whether to challenge for the IWGP Heavyweight, IWGP Intercontinental or NEVER Openweight Championship at Invasion Attack 2016 on April 10.2017
The 2017 New Japan Cup took place between March 11 and 20. Unlike previous years, this tournament was held across eight events in 10 days. Tomoaki Honma was originally announced for the tournament, but was pulled out and replaced with Yuji Nagata after suffering a spinal cord injury.2018
The 2018 New Japan Cup took place between March 9 and 21. The winner of the tournament, Zack Sabre Jr., challenged Kazuchika Okada for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship. Sabre also became the second gaijin, after Giant Bernard, to win the New Japan Cup.2019
The 2019 New Japan Cup took place between March 8 and 24. Unlike the previous year, the tournament featured 32 wrestlers instead of 16 and marks the New Japan Cup debut of 7 wrestlers. After David Finlay was pulled out of the tournament due to an injury, Ryusuke Taguchi was announced as his replacement.2020
The 2020 New Japan Cup took place between June 16 and July 11. It was originally going to take place from March 4 until March 21, but was postponed when New Japan Pro Wrestling suspended all of its activities due to the COVID-19 pandemic.On June 9, New Japan Pro Wrestling announced that it would resume its activities, beginning with the 2020 edition of the New Japan Cup, which would now be an Openweight tournament and take place from June 16 until July 11, with the finals being held at Osaka-jō Hall in Osaka.
Due to both the Heavyweight and Intercontinental titles being held by Tetsuya Naito, the winner of the tournament would earn a match against him for both titles at Dominion in Osaka-jo Hall, instead of choosing one title to challenge for.
Cancelled card
The original card for the New Japan Cup, when it was scheduled to take place from March 4 to March 21, had to be completely re-worked for the eventual final card, as a number of wrestlers originally planned to participate could not go to Japan when NJPW resumed its activities due to traveling restrictions in the midst of the pandemic.Of the 32 wrestlers included in the original card, 14 were not a part of the eventual tournament in June-July: Alex Coughlin, Bad Luck Fale, Chase Owens, Colt Cabana, David Finlay, Karl Fredericks, Jay White, Kenta, Jeff Cobb, Juice Robinson, Mikey Nicholls, Tanga Loa, Toa Henare, and Will Ospreay.
; Cancelled Round 1 card
=New Japan Cup USA=
On July 31, 2020, NJPW announced New Japan Cup USA to take place in their American subsidiary, New Japan Pro-Wrestling of America. The tournament will start on August 7 on the first episode of a brand new show, NJPW Strong.