New Japan Cup 2022 First Round Matches Set

The field of wrestlers for this year’s New Japan Cup has been set – along with matches in the first round.

The tournament starts on Wednesday March 2nd at Budokan Hall, and runs throughout the month, culminating in the finals on March 27 at Osaka-Jo Hall.

New Japan had previously announced that the tournament would include 48 wrestlers.

CIMA vs. TAKA Michinoku (March 2, Budokan Hall)
Tomoaki Honma vs. YOSHI-HASHI (March 2, Budokan Hall))
Yuji Nagata vs. Hirooki Goto (March 2, Budokan Hall)
Togi Makabe vs. Jeff Cobb (March 2, Budokan Hall)
Toru Yano vs. Taichi (March 2, Budokan Hall)
YOH vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi (March 2, Budokan Hall)
Tetsuya Naito vs. Yujiro Takahashi (March 2, Budokan Hall)
El Desperado vs. Kazuchika Okada (March 2, Budokan Hall)
Yuto Nakashima vs. Aaron Henare (March 6, Fukushima)
Ryohei Oiwa vs. Zack Sabre Jr. (March 6, Fukushima)
Will Ospreay vs. BUSHI (March 6, Fukushima)
Kota Ibushi vs. Great-O-Khan (March 6, Fukushima)
Jado vs. Chase Owens (March 7, Ota City, Tokyo)
Ryusuke Taguchi vs. EVIL (March 7, Ota City, Tokyo)
Hiromu Takahashi vs. SHO (March 7, Ota City, Tokyo)
Shingo Takagi vs. Tomohiro Ishii (March 7, Ota City, Tokyo)

In addition to those 32, the following get byes through to the second round:

Master Wato – faces winner of Okada/Desperado
Hiroyoshi Tenzan – faces winner of Yano/Taichi
Dick Togo – faces winner of Goto/Nagata
Yoshinobu Kanemaru – faces winner of CIMA/TAKA
Bad Luck Fale – faces winner of YOH/Tanahashi
Gedo – faces winner of Naito/Yujiro
Satoshi Kojima – faces winner of Makabe vs. Cobb
Kosei Fujita – faces winner of Honma/YOSHI-HASHI
Taiji Ishimori – faces winner of Ibushi/O-Khan
DOUKI – faces winner of Sabre/Oiwa
SANADA – faces winner of Henare/Nakashima
El Phantasmo – faces winner of BUSHI/Ospreay
Tanga Loa – faces winner of Shingo/Ishii
Tiger Mask – faces winner of Jado/Owens
Tama Tonga – faces winner of EVIL/Taguchi
Minoru Suzuki – faces winner of Hiromu/SHO

Here is your official New Japan Cup 2022 bracket!

Who do you think goes the distance this year?

It all starts LIVE in English March 2!https://t.co/DwaafavinO#njpw #njcup pic.twitter.com/SIrKzFD2ys

— NJPW Global (@njpwglobal) February 21, 2022