NJPW New Japan Cup – Night Three
Date: March 7, 2021
Venue: Aimesse Yamanashi
Time: 3:00pm JST
Watch: NJPWWorld
Undercard
First Match: Yota Tsuji vs. Yuya Uemura
Second Match: Satoshi Kojima & Tomoaki Honma vs. Great-O-Khan & Jeff Cobb
Third Match: Hiroshi Tanahashi, Juice Robinson, Ryusuke Taguchi & Toa Henare vs. Dick Togo, EVIL, Jay White & KENTA
Fourth Match: Hirooki Goto, Kazuchika Okada, SHO & Tomohiro Ishii vs. BUSHI, SANADA, Shingo Takagi & Tetsuya Naito
Fifth Match
New Japan Cup 2021 First Round
Gabriel Kidd vs. Zack Sabre Jr.
Sport of Pro Wrestling New Japan Cup Bracket Challenge
- 99.2% of entrants to the Sport of Pro Wrestling New Japan Cup Bracket Challenge picked Zack Sabre Jr. to advance to the second round.
New Japan Cup History
Gabriel Kidd
- Second New Japan Cup, second consecutive
- 2020: Eliminated by Taiji Ishimori in the first round.
Zack Sabre Jr.
- Fourth New Japan Cup, fourth consecutive. 2018 winner.
- 2018: Defeated Hiroshi Tanahashi in the final to win the tournament. 2019: Eliminated by Hiroshi Tanahashi in the quarter-finals. 2020: Eliminated by Kota Ibushi in the first round.
- Zack Sabre Jr is just two years removed from winning the New Japan Cup in 2018 by going through Tetsuya Naito, Kota Ibushi, SANADA, and Hiroshi Tanahashi.
- Zack Sabre Jr’s New Japan Cup Winning % of .750 is second all time. Only Kazuchika Okada holds a better winning percentage all time in the New Japan Cup.
Recent History – Overall
- Zack Sabre Jr has wrestled a surprisingly light schedule to this point in 2021 with only 9 matches under his belt and zero singles matches.
- In terms of toatl ring time, Gabriel Kidd is less than 13 minutes behind Zack Sabre Jr through the first quarter of 2021. Almost a quarter of Kidd’s ring time has come from singles matches, so it stands to reason he’s had more actual time in the ring than ZSJ.
Recent History – Singles (365 Days)
- It has been 141 days since Zack Sabre Jr. has wrestled in a traditional singles match. His last singles match was his last G1 Climax Block match on October 17, 2020.
Head To Head History
- Zack Sabre Jr and Gabriel Kidd haven’t faced off in a singles match in NJPW, but they did battle in three singles matches in 2017 in What Culture Pro Wrestling (WCPW). Gabriel Kidd was able to defeat ZSJ in one of those three matches, defending his WCPW Internet Title in the process. Sabre defeated Kidd in their two other matches.
Sixth Match
New Japan Cup 2021 First Round
Hiroyoshi Tenzan vs. Will Ospreay
Sport of Pro Wrestling New Japan Cup Bracket Challenge
- 98.8% of entrants to the Sport of Pro Wrestling New Japan Cup Bracket Challenge picked Will Ospreay to advance to the second round.
- Many Bracketologists are rooting for Will Ospreay. 31.2% of brackets entered at Sport of Pro Wrestling have Will Ospreay winning the entire tournament. That is, by far, the highest percentage in the field.
New Japan Cup History
Hiroyoshi Tenzan
- 11th New Japan Cup appearance, third consecutive
- 2020: Eliminated by YOSHI-HASHI in the first round. 2019: Eliminated by Ryusuke Taguchi in the first round. 2016: Eliminated by Michael Elgin in the first round. 2013: Eliminated by Karl Anderson in the first round. 2012: Eliminated by Karl Anderson in the first round. 2011: Eliminated by Toru Yano in the second round. 2008: Eliminated by Togi Makabe in the second round. 2007: Eliminated by Togi Makabe in the semi-finals. 2006: Eliminated by Hiroshi Tanahashi in the second round. 2005: Eliminated by Hiroshi Tanahashi in the semi-finals.
Will Ospreay
- Second New Japan Cup appearance
- 2019: Eliminated by Kazuchika Okada in the quarter-finals.
- 2011 was the last time Hiroyoshi Tenzan got out of the first round of the New Japan Cup. He defeated Takashi Iizuka before being eliminated by Toru Yano in the second round.
Recent History – Singles (365 Days)
- Hiroyoshi Tenzan’s most recent singles victory was in February of 2018 when he defeated Katsuya Kitamura. To find a victory singles over a non-Young Lion wrestler, we’d have to go all the way back to July of 2016 during Tenzan’s last G1 Climax tournament when Tenzan defeated Tama Tonga.
- Since officially leaving the Junior Heavyweight ranks behind to establish himself in the heavyweight division permanently, Will Ospreay is 7-5 in singles matches.
Head To Head History
- Ospreay and Tenzan have never met in a singles match. They have, however, met in 11 tag matches throughout the first quarter of 2021. Ospreay and Tenzan have only factored into the finishes of those matches once, and that was just last weekend at Castle Attack when Ospreay pinned Tenzan during thair six-man tag.