NJPW New Japan Cup 2022 Competitors Revealed

The 2022 edition of the New Japan Cup is set to get underway soon and NJPW announced today the tournament will feature 48 competitors, including the returning Kota Ibushi, IWGP World Heavyweight Champion Kazuchika Okada and former world champions Will Ospreay and Shingo Takagi.

The New Japan Cup will get underway on March 2 and run until the finals on March 26 and March 27. There will be 16 first-round matches, with the remaining 16 wrestlers receiving first-round byes. 

The first-round matches will take place between March 2 and March 7. They are as follows:

March 2:

• Kazuchika Okada vs. El Desperado
• Tetsuya Naito vs. Yujiro Takahashi
• Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. YOH
• Toru Yano vs. Taichi
• Jeff Cobb vs. Togi Makabe
• Hirooki Goto vs. Yuji Nagata
• YOSHI-HASHI vs. Tomoaki Honma
• CIMA vs. TAKA Michinoku

March 6:

• Kota Ibushi vs. Great-O-Khan
• Will Ospreay vs. BUSHI
• Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Ryohei Oiwa
• Aaron Henare vs. Yuto Nakashima

March 7:

• Shingo Takagi vs. Tomohiro Ishii
• SHO vs. Hiromu Takahashi
• EVIL vs. Ryusuke Taguchi
• Chase Owens vs. Jado

The following wrestlers received first-round byes:

• Master Wato
• Hiroyoshi Tenzan
• Dick Togo
• Yoshinobu Kanemaru
• Bad Luck Fale
• Gedo
• Satoshi Kojima
• Kosei Fujita
• Taiji Ishimori
• DOUKI
• SANADA
• El Phantasmo
• Tanga Loa
• Tiger Mask
• Tama Tonga
• Minoru Suzuki