NJPW New Japan Cup Finals

Date: March 21, 2021

Watch: NJPWWorld (with live English Commentary)

Will Ospreay was, by far, the most common pick to win this year’s New Japan Cup. 31.2% of entrants to the Sport of Pro Wrestling New Japan Cup Bracket Challenge have picked Will Ospreay to win the whole tournament.
18.18% of entrants to the Sport of Pro Wrestling New Japan Cup Bracket Challenge have picked Shingo Takagi to win the whole tournament.
16.2% of brackets entered to the Sport of Pro Wrestling New Japan Cup Bracket Challenge correctly predicted Will Ospreay vs. Shingo Takagi as this year’s New Japan Cup Final Match. 51.2% of the brackets that predicted the correct final selected Will Ospreay to defeat Shingo Takagi and win the tournament. Just two more brackets picked Will Ospreay than picked Shingo Takagi.
33.2% of brackets entered to the Sport of Pro Wrestling New Japan Cup Bracket Challenge still have something at stake with this match by picking either Will Ospreay, Shingo Takagi or both to reach the finals.

Will Ospreay

Shingo Takagi

Will Ospreay

Shingo Takagi

One could make a case that Shingo Takagi had the most difficult path to the finals in this year’s tournament. In the first round, he defeated two-time New Japan Cup winner, Kazuchika Okada who has the highest all-time New Japan Cup winning percentage (.813). Then, in the second round, Shingo eliminated three-time cup winner, Hirooki Goto, who has the most all=time New Japan Cup wins (24). In the quarter-finals, Shingo defeated defending New Japan Cup USA winner, KENTA. And in the semi-finals, Takagi defeated last year’s New Japan Cup winner, EVIL.
If Shingo Takagi has defeated the winners of 41% (7 of 17) New Japan Cup tournaments to do reach the finals of this year’s tournament.
Shingo Takagi has been challenged to get to this point in the tournament. His 23 minute and 35 second New Japan Cup match average is nearly five minutes per match higher than Will Ospreay’s 18 minute and 45 second average through this year’s tournament.
Shingo is currently on pace for the second-longest New Japan Cup tournament of all time. Only Zack Sabre Jr’s 2018 tournament (26:05 average match length) was more strenuous than Shingo’s tournament to date.
Will Ospreay’s 18-minute and 45-second average would be the shortest average for a New Japan Cup winner since Katsuyori Shibata in 2017.
Will Ospreay’s .800 New Japan Cup winning percentage is the second highest all-time, only behind Kazuchika Okada’s .833.

Shingo Takagi is the first NJPW wrestler to accrue six singles victories in 2021. Will Ospreay looks to join him at six singles victories by winning the New Japan Cup.
So far in 2021, Will Ospreay and Shingo Takagi have been two of the most difficult wrestlers to put away. Will Ospreay’s 35-minute and 41-second loss to Kazuchika Okada at Wrestle Kingdom stands as the second-longest match on record in NJPW this year. Shingo Takagi’s lone loss was equally impressive, as he lost to Hiroshi Tanahashi in 35 minutes and 40 seconds, just one second shorter than Ospreay’s loss to Okada.

Will Ospreay returned to NJPW after nearly a 7-month hiatus by entering 2020’s G1 Climax tournament. That tournament began almost exactly 6 months ago today. In that time, Ospreay’s .733 winning percentage is the third highest in NJPW.
Shingo Takagi lost the NEVER Openweight Championship on the same night EVIL lost the IWGP Heavyweight & Intercontinental Championships (August 29th, Summer Struggle in Jingu). Since then, Shingo is 11-6 in singles matches, including his second NEVER Openweight Championship reign and all New Japan Cup matches to date.

Shingo Takagi’s 7 hours, 1 minute, and 53 seconds of total singles match length over the course of the last 365 days is the third highest in NJPW and he is likely to surpass SANADA for second during tonight’s match.

Shingo Takagi and Will Ospreay’s first matchup in June of 2019 was the consensus match of the year in 2019. That match ended with Ospreay victorious, but Shingo was the one to immediately leave the Junior Heavyweight ranks behind and head towards the Heavyweight division.
Will Ospreay followed and is now truly a heavyweight and Shingo and Ospreay met again in last year’s G1 Climax Tournament in Kobe, Hyogo Japan, a venue Shingo is very familiar with after many years with Dragongate Pro-Wrestling. Shingo used his home-field advantage to defeat Ospreay. The series now sits at 1-1 with another high-stakes classic sure to come.