New Japan Cup: Will Ospreay out of tournament, two advance to quarterfinals

Photo Courtesy: New Japan Pro-Wrestling

Will Ospreay is out of the New Japan Cup tournament due to injury while two more advanced on Wednesday.

Following a shoulder injury sustained this past Monday in a match with United Empire stablemate Mark Davis, Ospreay is officially out of the New Japan Cup.

Ospreay missed Wednesday’s show due to the injury where he was scheduled for a tag bout. Prior to the show in Okayama, a press conference was held where Davis stated that Ospreay was out of the tournament and that he would be replacing Ospreay in the next round.

It is unknown how long Ospreay will be out of action. He is currently scheduled to wrestle during WrestleMania Week at the Mark Hitchcock Memorial Supershow and the IMPACT x NJPW Multiverse United event, which are both scheduled for March 30.

Wednesday’s card in Okayama was highlighted by the final matches from the second round with Shota Umino and David Finlay advancing.

Umino scored a major win by pinning Zack Sabre Jr. after executing the Death Rider in a match that exceeded the twenty-six-minute mark. ZSJ attacked the arm of Umino throughout the contest and saw Umino’s nose bloodied. After the match, Umino complimented ZSJ and handed him his NJPW Television Championship.

David Finlay defeated Great O-Khan in the other second-round match-up after countering the Eliminator and hitting Trash Panda to win in 13:07.

Umino and Finlay will meet in the third round this Saturday.

Below are the next set of tournament matches:

Quarterfinals:
*SANADA vs. Tetsuya Naito (3/17)
*EVIL vs. Mark Davis (3/17)
*Hirooki Goto vs. Tama Tonga (3/18)
*David Finlay vs. Shota Umino (3/18)

Semi-Finals:
*SANADA/Naito vs. EVIL/Davis (3/19)
*Goto/Tonga vs. Finlay/Umino (3/19)

The finals will take place next Tuesday in Niigata with the winner receiving an IWGP Heavyweight title match against Kazuchika Okada.

About John Pollock 5915 Articles
Born on a Friday, John Pollock is a reporter, editor & podcaster at POST Wrestling. He runs and owns POST Wrestling alongside Wai Ting.