New Japan Cup

The New Japan Cup (often abbreviated NJC) is an annual single-elimination tournament held by New Japan Pro Wrestling. Originally intended for every April, it was rescheduled to March in 2007. Though NJPW also runs the annual G1 Climax tournament, the NJC is different in that it is single-elimination, whereas the G1 is a round-robin. Like the G1 however, the winner of the tournament receives a shot at the IWGP Heavyweight Championship; this stipulation was added in 2006. In 2014, the winner was given the right to choose whether to challenge for the IWGP Heavyweight or the IWGP Intercontinental Championship. The following year, the winner could have also chosen to challenge for the NEVER Openweight Championship.

List of winners

 * 2005: Hiroshi Tanahashi
 * 2006: Giant Bernard
 * 2007: Yuji Nagata
 * 2008: Hiroshi Tanahashi
 * 2009: Hirooki Goto
 * 2010: Hirooki Goto
 * 2011: Yuji Nagata
 * 2012: Hirooki Goto
 * 2013: Kazuchika Okada
 * 2014: Shinsuke Nakamura
 * 2015: Kota Ibushi
 * 2016: Tetsuya Naito

2005
The 2005 New Japan Cup was held from April 19 to April 24. The first two rounds were held on individual nights, with round one taking up the entire card on April 19.

† Minoru was forced to pull out before his Round 2 match, due to suffering severe dizziness, and was replaced by Osamu Nishimura, who he beat in Round 1.

2006
The 2006 New Japan Cup was held from April 16 to April 30. Giant Bernard, the winner of the tournament, went on to fail in his challenge against IWGP Champion Brock Lesnar on May 3.

2007
The 2007 New Japan Cup was a 14-man tournament held from March 3 to March 21. Giant Bernard and Hiroyoshi Tenzan received byes to the second round, due to their victories in the 2006 New Japan Cup and G1 Climax respectively. Shinsuke Nakamura was injured in a non-tournament match on March 13, giving Tenzan an additional pass to the semifinals. The winner, Yuji Nagata, went on to defeat Hiroshi Tanahashi for the championship on April 13, beginning his second reign with the title. He also became the first person to reach the NJC finals twice, and the first to win both the New Japan Cup and G1 Climax.

2008
The 2008 New Japan Cup was a 16-man tournament held from March 9 to March 23. The winner, Hiroshi Tanahashi, became the first two-time winner of the NJC and went on to fail in his challenge against IWGP Champion Shinsuke Nakamura on March 30.

1This match originally ended in a double countout at 2:35, but it was restarted with Makabe winning via pinfall in 14:49.

2009
The 2009 New Japan Cup was a 14-man tournament held from March 8 to March 22. Giant Bernard and Yuji Nagata, the winners of the Cups of 2006 and 2007, received byes in the first round of the tournament. The eventual winner of the tournament, Hirooki Goto, went on to lose the IWGP Heavyweight Championship match to Hiroshi Tanahashi on May 3 at Wrestling Dontaku 2009.

1This match originally ended in a double countout at 3:18, but it was restarted with Inoue winning via countout in 9:15.

2010
The 2010 New Japan Cup was a 15-man tournament held from March 14 to March 22. As the previous winner of the Cup, Hirooki Goto received a bye in the first round of the tournament. With his victory Goto became the second two-time winner of the tournament and the first to win it back-to-back. Goto went on to challenge the IWGP Heavyweight Champion Shinsuke Nakamura on April 4, but would once again fail in his attempt to win the title.

2011
The 2011 New Japan Cup was a 16-man tournament held from March 6 to March 20. The winner, Yuji Nagata, went on to unsuccessfully challenge Hiroshi Tanahashi for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship on April 3.

2012
The 2012 New Japan Cup was a 16-man tournament held from April 1 to April 8. With his win, Hirooki Goto, became the first three-time winner of the tournament.

2013
The 2013 New Japan Cup was a 16-man tournament held from March 11 to March 23.

2014
The 2014 New Japan Cup took place between March 15 and 23. The winner of the tournament got to choose whether to challenge for the IWGP Heavyweight or the IWGP Intercontinental Championship.

2015
The 2015 New Japan Cup took place between March 5 and 15. The winner of the tournament got to choose whether to challenge for the IWGP Heavyweight, IWGP Intercontinental or the NEVER Openweight Championship at Invasion Attack 2015 on April 5.

2016
The 2016 New Japan Cup took place between March 3 and 12. The winner of the tournament would once again get to choose whether to challenge for the IWGP Heavyweight, IWGP Intercontinental or NEVER Openweight Championship at Invasion Attack 2016 on April 10.