First show to take place with fans in Osaka-jo Hall on July 11 & 12
New Japan Pro Wrestling is set to run shows again after several months of dormancy.
The last show New Japan held was a February 26th New Japan Road event. They had previously said that they would not hold shows until the state of emergency in Japan was lifted, which happened for all of the country on May 25th.
NJPW Chairman Naoki Sugabayashi announced today in an online press conference that NJPW events will return starting on June 15th. That will be a mystery card Together Project special.
After being postponed in March, The New Japan Cup will instead start on June 16th and run through July 11th with the majority of these shows being held with no fans in attendance.
The finals on July 11th and Dominion on July 12th will take place in Osaka-jo Hall and fans will be in attendance, but it will only hold a third of its normal capacity to in-keep with social distancing.
Sugabayashi also announced that the previously scheduled tour that was to take place in July in the Hokkaido region has been cancelled.
They also did announce that the New Japan Cup will be a 32-man openweight tournament this year, featuring both heavyweights and junior heavyweights.
Here is the schedule for the tournament:
June 16th
- Togi Makabe vs. Yota Tsuji
- Tomohiro Ishii vs. El Desperado
- Toru Yano vs. Jado
- Tomoaki Honma vs. Hiromu Takahashi
June 17th
- Kazuchika Okada vs. Gedo
- Yuji Nagata vs. Minoru Suzuki
- Yuya Uemura vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaru
- Gabriel Kidd vs. Taiji Ishimori
June 22nd
- Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Taichi
- Kota Ibushi vs. Zack Sabre Jr.
- Ryusuke Taguchi vs. SANADA
- SHO vs. Shingo Takagi
June 23rd
- Hiroyoshi Tenzan vs. YOSHI-HASHI
- YOH vs. BUSHI
- Satoshi Kojima vs. EVIL
- Hirooki Goto vs. Yujiro Takahashi
June 24th
- Left side of the bracket second round
July 1st
- Right side of the bracket second round
July 2nd
- Quarter Finals
July 3rd
- Semi Finals
July 11th
- Finals