NEW JAPAN CUP 2020, NIGHT SIX (7/1/20) STATISTICS, RESEARCH AND NOTES

Round 2 Match: Kota Ibushi v. Taichi

Kota Ibushi’s .778 (7-2) winning percentage in New Japan Cup matches is second amongst competitors with more than two New Japan Cup matches behind only Kazuchika Okada (11-1 / .917)
While it’s only two matches, Taichi’s losses in the New Japan Cup have taken significant energy from his opponents. His 23:24 average losing match length is the longest in New Japan Cup history for competitors with two losses or more.
Taichi has never made it out of the second round of the New Japan Cup, he lost in the 1^st round to Hiroshi Tanahashi in 2018 and he lost in the 2^nd round to Tomohiro Ishii in last year’s tournament.

Kota Ibushi’s 12 singles wins in the last 365 days is second most in NJPW behind only Kazuchika Okada’s 13.
Ibushi and Taichi both have the stamina to survive a long match. Both competitors feature an average match length of over 26 mintutes this year along with average losing match lengths of over 30 minutes. With no time limit in New Japan Cup matches, this one is shaping up to be a marathon.
Taichi’s 21:35 victory over Hiroshi Tanahashi was the longest match of this year’s first round.

Taichi and Kota Ibushi have met once in singles action. In 2009, during the Best of The Super Juniors tournament, Ibushi defeated Taichi in 11:59

SANADA’s four submission victories in the New Japan Cup are second only to Zack Sabre Jr. With ZSJ out of contention in this year’s tournament, SANADA has an opportunity to take the top spot in this area. SHO is not one to submit often though. The Roppongi 3K member has only submitted three times in 121 matches since the beginning of 2019 (once to SANADA).

Both SHO and SANADA achieved their first singles victory of 2020 during the first round of this year’s New Japan Cup.
SANADA ended a four match losing streak when he defeated Ryusuke Taguchi in this year’s first round.

This will be SANADA and SHO’s first singles meeting. SANADA pinned SHO three times and submitted him once over the course of 2019 in Tag and Multi-Person matches.

This will be Hirooki Goto’s record 32nd New Japan Cup Match.
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).
This will be EVIL’s second trip to the second round of the New Japan Cup. He previously reached the semi-finals in the 2017 tournament.

Hirooki Goto comes into tonight’s action 2-1 in singles matches in 2020. All three of his singles matches have had significant stakes attached. He defeated KENTA for the NEVER Openweight Title at Wrestle Kingdom, he lost the NEVER Openweight title to Shingo Takagi at New Beginning in Sapporo and he defeated Yujiro Takahashi in the first round of the New Japan Cup.
Goto enters with the edge over the last 365 days. His 8-6 record in singles matches greatly outperforms EVIL’s 5-7.

EVIL and Hirooki Goto have met in singles action four times in their careers and Goto holds the 3-1 edge in the series. Their most notable match was when Goto defended the NEVER Openweight Title against EVIL at New Beginning in Osaka 2018.
EVIL and Goto have been on the opposite side of tag matches 10 times since the beginning of 2020. In these matches, neither have pinned or submitted the other.

This year makes two successful New Japan Cup first rounds in a row for YOSHI-HASHI. He was knocked out of last year’s tournament by Tomohiro Ishii in the Quarter Finals.
YOSHI-HASHI was victorious over Hiroyoshi Tenzan with The Butterfly Lock, a hold that has brought him great success over the course of the last 18 months. YOSHI-HASHI led NJPW with 25 submission victories in 2019 and he is second behind only Young Lion, Yota Tsuji since the calendar turned to 2020.

YOSHI-HASHI’s New Japan Cup victory last week was his first singles match on Japanese soil since June 25th of 2019.

BUSHI and YOSHI-HASHI have never faced off in a singles match
BUSHI and YOSHI-HASHI have been on opposite sides of three tag matches in 2020. Neither have pinned or submitted the other.