New Japan Cup

New Japan Cup
New Japan Cup
Promotions	NJPW
First event	New Japan Cup (2005)
Event gimmick	Single-elimination tournament for a championship match

The New Japan Cup (NJC) is an annual single-elimination professional wrestling tournament held by New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) since 2005. It is considered the second most prominent heavyweight tournament in NJPW, after the G1 Climax which follows a round-robin format.

Since the 2006 edition, the winner of the tournament, like with the G1 Climax, would receive a championship match, originally, for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship. However, unlike with the G1 Climax, the reigning IWGP Heavyweight Champion could not participate in the tournament (in the case of the champion winning the G1 Climax, he would get to pick the next challenger for his title). In 2014–2018, the winner could choose to challenge for the IWGP Intercontinental Championship instead, while in 2015–2018, the NEVER Openweight Championship was also an option; only the 2014 winner Shinsuke Nakamura chose not to compete for the Heavyweight Championship, challenging for the Intercontinental Championship instead. In 2020, due to Tetsuya Naito being both the Heavyweight and Intercontinental Champion, the winner received a match for both titles, and in 2021, after the Heavyweight and Intercontinental Championships were unified into a new championship, the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship, the latter became the title the winner of the New Japan Cup would automatically challenge for; like previously with the Heavyweight title, the World Heavyweight Champion cannot compete. However, in 2022, it was once again an openweight tournament and featured all the champions from both the heavyweight and junior heavyweight divisions including the IWGP World Heavyweight Champion. The first night of the 2022 tournament saw the IWGP World Heavyweight Champion take on the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion in the first round, a match that usually happens at NJPW's anniversary event.

The number of participants in the New Japan Cup has varied over the years, from a lowest of 14 in 2007 and 2009 to a highest of 48 in 2022; the 2021 tournament features 30 entrants. It is considered a heavyweight tournament, although the 2005, 2008–09, 2020, and 2022 editions were openweight tournaments instead, also featuring junior heavyweights; in 2020, NJPW premiered the New Japan Cup USA, a version of the tournament taking place in the United States to determine a contender for the IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship.

Hiroshi Tanahashi is both the inaugural winner of the New Japan Cup, and the first wrestler to have won it twice; Hirooki Goto, Yuji Nagata, Kazuchika Okada, and Zack Sabre Jr. have since also become two-time winners. Goto is both the only three-time winner and the only person to have won the tournament two years in a row.

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.^[5]

† 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.^[5]

The 2006 New Japan Cup was held from April 16 to April 30.^[6] Giant Bernard, the winner of the tournament, went on to fail in his challenge against IWGP Champion Brock Lesnar on May 3.^[7]

The 2007 New Japan Cup was a 14-man tournament held from March 3 to March 21.^[8] 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.^[9] He also became the first person to reach the NJC final twice, and the first to win both the New Japan Cup and G1 Climax.

The 2008 New Japan Cup was a 16-man tournament held from March 9 to March 23.^[10] 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.^[11]

¹This match originally ended in a double countout at 2:35, but it was restarted with Makabe winning via pinfall in 14:49.^[10]

The 2009 New Japan Cup was a 14-man tournament held from March 8 to March 22.^[12] 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.^[13]

¹This match originally ended in a double countout at 3:18, but it was restarted with Ishii winning via countout in 9:15.^[12]

The 2010 New Japan Cup was a 15-man tournament held from March 14 to March 22.^[14] 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.^[15]

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.^[18]

The 2012 New Japan Cup was a 16-man tournament held from April 1 to April 8.^[23] With his win, Hirooki Goto, became the first three-time winner of the tournament.

The 2013 New Japan Cup was a 16-man tournament held from March 11 to March 23.^[27] The winner of the tournament, Kazuchika Okada, went on to defeat Hiroshi Tanahashi for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship at Invasion Attack on April 7.

The 2014 New Japan Cup took place between March 15 and 23.^[31] The winner of the tournament got to choose whether to challenge for the IWGP Heavyweight or the IWGP Intercontinental Championship.^[32]

The 2015 New Japan Cup took place between March 5 and 15.^[36] 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.^[37]

The 2016 New Japan Cup took place between March 3 and 12.^[41] 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.^[42]

The 2017 New Japan Cup took place between March 11 and 20.^[46] Unlike previous years, this tournament was held across eight events in 10 days.^[47] Tomoaki Honma was originally announced for the tournament, but was pulled out and replaced with Yuji Nagata after suffering a spinal cord injury.^[48]

The 2018 New Japan Cup took place between March 9 and 21.^[57] The winner of the tournament, Zack Sabre Jr., challenged Kazuchika Okada for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship. Sabre also became the second non-Japanese wrestler, after Giant Bernard, to win the New Japan Cup.

The 2019 New Japan Cup took place between March 8 and 24.^[58] 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.^[59]