NJPW New Japan Cup Winner Revealed

TheSportster

By Vince Tinebra

Published Mar 24, 2018

The New Japan Cup is a single-elimination tournament and the winner of it gets the honor of challenging for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship.

On March 21^st, the finals of the 2018 edition of NJPW’s New Japan Cup took place in Niigata’s Ao-re Nagaoka. The single elimination tournament took place over nine weeks, with the last two participants, Zack Sabre Jr. and Hiroshi Tanahashi, facing each other at the end. Tanahashi won the inaugural event in 2005. Sabre had the opportunity to become the first “Gaijin”, or foreign born-wrestler to win the cup over the span of its 14 years.

After defeating Sanada, who is one-half of the current IWGP tag team champions, Sabre earned a spot in the finals. Tanahashi, on the other hand, had to face Juice Robinson in his semi-final match. After a spectacular back and forth, Tanahashi was forced to tap out, giving Zack Sabre Jr. the win by submission.

Despite the fact that this was his first time competing in the cup, Zabrze Jr. had to face some of the best wrestlers in the world in order to get to the final. After defeating Tetsuya Naito in the first round, he then faced Kota Ibushi and Sanada before locking up with Tanahashi. Long considered one of the best non-Japanese stars in NJPW, this victory has cemented his place as one of the best in the company, period.

This wasn’t the first time that Tanahashi and Sabre Jr. have wrestled each other. The two first met in last year’s G1 Climax, and then again for the Intercontinental title at Destruction in Hiroshima. Sabre Jr. failed to win the title during that match, which then began several months of him harassing Tanahashi every chance he got. It’s unclear what the future holds for their rivalry, as Sabre immediately challenged Kazuchika Okada for a shot at his NJPW heavyweight championship, a right earned by winning the cup.

Having a foreign born champion will go a long way to legitimizing the company in markets other than Japan. While the English star is still relatively unknown stateside, Britain has long been a strong hub for professional wrestling in Europe. Gaining a foothold there is just an early step in branching out for them and having Zack Sabre Jr. win the heavyweight belt would be huge. This is very unlikely because even though the NJPW is a fairly progressive company, Japanese traditionalism will still prevent them from recognizing a non-Japanese champion anytime soon. This may change one day, but not yet.