Shota Umino And Zack Sabre Jr. Advance To NJPW New Japan Cup Quarter Finals

By: Ian McCord

The last 2 quarter final spots of the New Japan Cup were up for grabs on March 14th when New Japan Pro Wrestling returned to Nagoya. Shota Umino and Zack Sabre Jr. picked up victories in their 2nd round matches to advance to the next stage of the tournament.

In the semi-main event, Shota Umino faced off against House of Torture’s Yujiro Takahashi.

Takahashi came to the ring sporting a baseball glove that was given to him by Umino on March 13th after their preview tag match. The gifted baseball glove to Takahashi was meant to remind the House of Torture member how he and Umino would play catch during Umino’s childhood.

For a good portion of the match Takahashi kept things fair until frustrations got the better of him, leading to interference from House of Torture. Umino was able to overcome the odds, hitting Takahashi with his Second Chapter finisher for the win in just over 16 minutes.

In the main event of the evening, TMDK stablemates Ryohei Oiwa and Zack Sabre Jr. battled it out to see which would be advancing to face Umino in the quarter finals. After a back and forth technical contest, Zack Sabre Jr. was able to put away Oiwa with a Sabre Driver to advance in the tournament at around the 28 minute mark.

After the match, ZSJ had some encouraging words for TMDK stablemate Ryohei Oiwa stating:

“I’m not immortal either. My time will come to an end eventually. When that happens, Roy will lead New Japan’s heavyweight division into a golden age. He has everything. The only thing he lacks is experience—something he can’t gain on his own. Once he gets that, there won’t be anyone who can stop him.”

(English Translation via DeepL)

Shota Umino and Zack Sabre Jr. will face off in the quarter finals of the New Japan Cup on March 17th when New Japan Pro Wrestling heads to Koriyama.

Here are the full results from NJPW New Japan Cup Day 8 courtesy of purolove.com:

• Great-O-Khan, HENARE, Francesco Akira, and Jakob Austin Young defeat Yuto-Ice, OSKAR, Drilla Moloney, and Daiki Nagai (9:21) following Akira’s Fireball against Nagai.
• Don Fale, Chase Owens & Yoshinobu Kanemaru defeat Aaron Wolf, Satoshi Kojima & Masatora Yasuda (8:37) following Owens’ Last Testament against Yasuda.
• Yota Tsuji & Shingo Takagi defeat Yuya Uemura & Tomoaki Honma (9:52) as Tsuji pins Honma following the Dragon Soul Blaster.
• Jake Lee, Callum Newman & Zane Jay defeat Hirooki Goto, YOSHI-HASHI & Tatsuya Matsumoto (9:35) following Lee’s FBS against Matsumoto.
• Oleg Boltin & Toru Yano defeat Ren Narita & Dick Togo (6:54) following Yano’s Horizontal Cradle against Togo.
• New Japan Cup – Round 2: Shota Umino defeats Yujiro Takahashi (16:14) with the Second Chapter.
• New Japan Cup – Round 2: Zack Sabre Jr. defeats Ryohei Oiwa (28:07) with the Sabre Driver.