After the prior week had given us the quarter-finals, New Japan were back on the road for a show that featured the semi-finals of this year’s New Japan Cup.
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Unlike in past years, New Japan have spread out the quarter-finals of this year’s Cup across multiple non-televised shows. Fortunately, the Cup matches have since been uploaded to New Japan World… Here’s our take on them!
The first round of this year’s New Japan Cup concluded with a show that largely mirrored night one… up until a match-of-the-year contender in the main event.
The annual New Japan Cup kicked off in Nagoya on Saturday, with a first round of matches that threw up a couple of shocks, but precious little excitement.
New Japan wrapped up their 2016 New Japan Cup tournament on Saturday in Aomori, with a show that featured both sets of semi-finals and the tournament final, along with the usual variety of entertaining undercard bouts as the company set up their next big show – Invasion Attack – coming the week after WrestleMania.
Following the sad news of the passing of Hayabusa, the second day of the New Japan Cup understandably could have been a muted affair at Korakuen Hall. New Japan held firm though, and put on another entertaining card as the final four in this year’s New Japan Cup were determined.
With New Japan heading into their next big show – Invasion Attack – the company continues with its tradition holding a multi-night tournament to crown a number one contender for their April event. In America, holding such a tournament over more than one show is destined to lead to trouble (just look at how successful TNA’s Bound For Glory Series’ were!), but the tournament format can help to build up an unexpected challenger in just a few shows.