New Japan Cup 2021, Night 5 and 6 Tournament Matches Predictions

 

So it's time again to do predictions for the New Japan Cup, this time for nights 5 and 6.  There was some big surprises in the first four nights and some not so surprising results, so lets get right into the next few matches.  Here is the updated bracket as it stands.

Night 5, Round 1

Yuji Nagata vs. Yota Tsuji

Yuji Nagata, just like Tenzan and Kojima probably shouldn't be in here but unlike them who took a fall in the first round to members of The Empire, he's facing a young lion.  Nagata is entering his fourteenth New Japan Cup, and his third consecutive, and he won it in 2007 and 2011.  Tsuji is entering his second ever and second consecutive.  As I mentioned with Gabriel Kidd I don't expect young lion entrants to go past the first round and I'd be very surprised if it happened even here.  It seems like Tsuji is one of the young lions they have high hopes for and him winning here would a big deal but I just don't see it happening, Nagata moves on to round two to face the winner of the next match.

Winner: Yuji Nagata

Tomohiro Ishii vs. Sanada

This is going to be a hell of a match, I'm super excited to watch this one.  Ishii is entering his thirteenth New Japan Cup, and his sixth consecutive.  Sanada is entering his fifth ever and fifth consecutive.  These two have had three singles matches against one another Ishii has a 2-1 record and the most recent was the G1 in 2018 won by Ishii.  They've had one New Japan Cup match against one another in 2017 which was won Ishii.  With Ishii winning the last two meetings I feel it's time for Sanada to get one over on Ishii.  Ishii has kind of been put on the back burner recently and I think that's going to continue here as Sanada is on the way up.  I hope he's in the world title picture soon as he is that good.  I'm gonna pick Sanada to win this one, of course it could go either way but I think Sanada needs the win more right now.

Winner: Sanada

Night 6, Round 1

David Finlay vs. Chase Owens

This shouldn't be bad match at all, these two always work well together.  David Finlay is entering his first ever New Japan Cup here as he was in the USA version last year where these two had their last match against each other, and Owens is entering his second ever after missing it the last two years.  These two have a 1-1 record against each other in singles competition.  Their previous one on one meeting was nearly five years ago.  I fully expect this will be a good match and it's pretty tough to call.  Finlay has been on more of a roll lately but that didn't seem to matter for his partner Juice Robinson who lost to KENTA.  Regardless of that I'm gonna pick David Finlay to win here.

Winner: David Finlay

Yoshi-Hashi vs. Yujiro Takahashi

This is a match I'm not looking forward to really because I just don't care for either one of these guys.  It's been clear for a long time Yoshi-Hashi's role is the guy who works from behind and eventually fails.  Yoshi-Hashi is entering his eighth New Japan Cup and his seventh consecutive.  Yujiro is entering his eleventh New Japan Cup, and his second consecutive.  These two haven't faced each other in six years and the last time was a New Japan Cup match in 2015.  I think Yoshi-Hashi will win this one.  Yujiro is not even in the mix that much anymore, he wins the six man titles that mean nothing and that's it.  Yoshi-Hashi wins here and moves on to the next round to face the winner of Finlay/Owens.

Winner: Yoshi-Hashi

Toa Henare vs. Jay White

This should be an interesting match but I don't think the winner is that much in question.  Toa Henare is entering his second ever New Japan Cup, his first in two years, and Jay White is entering his first ever which is very surprising.  Also these two have never faced each other ever which is also surprising.  With that said, the winner of this match is facing Hiroshi Tanahashi who is also getting a bye in round one I guess for being the NEVER Openweight Champion.  So I think it's obvious that Jay White is winning here.  That's the much bigger second round match and I don't think Henare is ready for a second round match against Tanahashi at all, he doesn't have the momentum.  Jay White is established and has beaten Tanahashi before thats the second round match.  Regardless I was wrong about Naito and Okada as most people probably were too so I could be completely wrong here but I think we seen enough first round surprises.  Jay White wins and moves on.

Winner: Jay White 

That's gonna do it for me, I'll be back on the 10th to discuss the first two nights of round two.  We've seen some big surprises so far and if we get more here I'll be shocked looking forward to some of these matches going forward.  Thanks for reading.