NEW JAPAN CUP 2020, NIGHT FOUR (6/23/20) STATISTICS, RESEARCH AND NOTES

Round 1 Match: Hirooki Goto v. Yujiro Takahashi

This will be Hirooki Goto’s 11^th New Japan Cup and record 31^st New Japan Cup Match.
Goto’s .733 Winning % is behind only Kazuchika Okada, Zack Sabre Jr, Katsuyori Shibata, and Kota Ibushi.
Hirooki Goto has won the New Japan Cup three times (2009, 2010, 2012), and he has appeared in the finals 6 times (2009, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2016).
Goto has gotten out of the first round of New Japan Cup action 7 times out of his 10 tournaments with his only first round losses coming in his first two tournaments and last year’s 1^st round loss to SANADA.
This will be Yujiro Takahashi’s 10^th New Japan Cup. He has gotten out of the first round three times, but his last trip to the second round was in 2015.
Hirooki Goto has elimnated Yujiro Takahashi from the New Japan Cup twice before (2010, 2012).

Hirooki Goto comes into tonight’s action 1-1 in singles matches in 2020. He defeated KENTA for the NEVER open weight title at Wrestle Kingdom and he lost the NEVER openweight title to Shingo Takagi at New Beginning in Sapporo.
Yujiro Takahashi’s 2020 singles matches were much lower in their stakes, defeating Misterioso Jr. and losing to Hiroshi Tanahashi during the New Beginning in USA tour.

Goto and Takahashi have met eight times in singles matches with Goto holding a 7-1 series lead over The Tokyo Pimp. They have not met in a singles match in almost 5 years with their last singles match happening during the 2015 G1 Climax.

This will be Satoshi Kojima’s 7^th New Japan Cup. He has only gotten out of the first round once, in 2016 when he reached the Quarter Finals.
This will be EVIL’s 3^rd New Japan Cup. He has also only gotten out of the first round once, in 2017 when he reached the Semi Finals.
EVIL’s key to victory during the 2017 New Japan Cup was outlasting his opponents. His 18:14 Average Winning Match Length is second highest amongst New Japan Cup competitors with more than one victory.

Satoshi Kojima has had a wide variety of singles opponents in 2020. He defeated Alex Coughlin and lost to Jeff Cobb during the New Beginning in USA tour and he lost a CMLL World Heavyweight Title match against Ultimo Guerrero during CMLL Fantastica Mania.
EVIL’s only 2020 singles match was a loss to Tomohiro Ishii in 21:14 at New Beginning in Sapporo.
Over the last 365 days, EVIL is only 4-7, with all of his wins coming during a mostly disappointing G1 Climax campaign.

EVIL and Satoshi Kojima have only met in singles action once, during the 2017 G1 Climax when EVIL defeated Kojima in 14:23.

This will be both competitor’s first singles match of 2020.
Over the last 365 days, BUSHI is 2-2 with wins over Zack Sabre Jr and Shota Umino. His most notable loss was to Will Ospreay in a very competitive match that got overshadowed by Hiromu Takahashi’s return.

YOH and BUSHI have me head-to-head in singles matches twice since YOH returned from excursion, both in Best of Super Junior Tournaments and both at Korakuen Hall. They are 1-1 with YOH winning in 2018 and BUSHI winning in 2019.

This will be Hiroyoshi Tenzan’s 10^th New Japan Cup. He has been eliminated in the first round during his last four appearances (2012, 2013, 2016, 2019)
This will be YOSHI-HASHI’s 7^th New Japan Cup. After getting knocked out in the first round of five straight tournaments, last year was the first New Japan Cup that he was able to get out of the first round, he lost to Tomohiro Ishii in the Quarter Finals.

YOSHI-HASHI’s last four singles matches all took place in the United States. Most notably, his NEVER Openweight Championship match loss to KENTA in New York City on September 28^th, 2019 during the Fighting Spirit Unleashed tour.
This will be Hiroyoshi Tenzan’s first singles match since his loss in the first round of last year’s New Japan Cup, and only his third singles match since the 2016 G1 Climax Tournament.