
Obviously, a potential Okada/Tanahashi semifinal seems too good to be true, especially in a general throwaway tournament like the New Japan Cup.
There's a few guys who could really win this. I don't think they'd go with a Ibushi/Shibata final though, so I expect one of Okada or Tanahashi to be there. An Ibushi win over Tanahashi seems pretty plausible in the Quarters. We can do a prediction similar to last year. Here are the rules:
1. First Round correct predictions are worth 1 point.
2. Quarterfinal correct predictions are worth 2 points.
3. Semifinal correct predictions are worth 3 points.
4. Predicting the winner is worth 5 points.
The tiebreaker is predict how long the final will be down to the second. You can go over and still win by being the closest to the time. I would say we could send picks directly to me so no one can steal others picks but then there's a bit of a dubious feeling that I could cheat and just pick the formula that would see me win. So, we'll just post them here.
All picks must be submitted prior to the First Round beginning on March 5 at 7:00 PM Japanese time (or 5 AM Eastern Time on March 5). Failure to do so will result in immediate disqualification.
With that said, here are my picks:
First Round:
Hiroshi Tanahashi over Toru Yano
Kota Ibushi over Doc Gallows
Karl Anderson over Tetsuya Naito (All the sad feels)
Kazuchika Okada over Bad Luck Fale
Togi Makabe over Tomoaki Honma
Yujiro Takahashi over YOSHI-HASHI
Yuji Nagata over Hirooki Goto
Katsuyori Shibata over Satoshi Kojima
Quarterfinals:
Kota Ibushi over Hiroshi Tanahashi
Kazuchika Okada over Karl Anderson
Togi Makabe over Yujiro Takahashi
Katsuyori Shibata over Yuji Nagata
Semifinals:
Kazuchika Okada over Kota Ibushi
Katsuyori Shibata over Togi Makabe
Final:
Katsuyori Shibata over Kazuchika Okada
Time of Final: 24:13