The semi-finals of the New Japan Cup sees Hiroshi Tanahashi and Kazuchika Okada look to avoid upsets against SANADA and Tomohiro Ishii respectively.

Results:

Manabu Nakanishi, Yuji Nagata, Hiroyoshi Tenzan and Satoshi Kojima Def. Michael Elgin, Yuya Uemura, Yota Tsuji & Colt Cabana// Nagata submit Tsuji with the Nagata lock.

LIJ (Shingo Takagi & BUSHI) Def. Shota Umino and Ren Narita// Takagi pinned Narita with the Noshigami.

Suzuki Gun (Minoru Suzuki, Lance Archer & Davey Boy Smith Jr) Def. Togi Makabe, Toru Yano & Toa Henare//  Archer pinned Henare with blackout.

Suzuki Gun (Zack Sabre Jr & Taichi) Def. Will Ospreay & Ryusuke Taguchi// Sabre submit Taguchi.

LIJ (Tetsuya Naito & EVIL) Def. Kota Ibushi and Tomoaki Honma// EVIL pinned Honma after Everything is Evil.

Juice Robinson, YOSHI-HASHI, Mikey Nicholls & Hirooki Goto Def. Bullet Club (Jay White, Chase Owens, Bad Luck Fale & HIKULEO)// Goto defeated Hikuleo with the GTR.

Kazuchika Okada vs Tomohiro Ishii

Okada and Ishii wrestled the kind of match you have come to expect from them.  Okada was on Rainmaker form as he had his way with Ishii using his height and skill advantage to control the match.  Ishii used his signature brawn to claw his way back and fought off The Rainmaker as best he could.  As usual, Ishii got some near falls that you could buy into as he had Okada rocked but in the end, The Rainmaker overcame his stablemate for the win.

Winner: Kazuchika Okada Rating: 7 out of 10

Hiroshi Tanahashi vs SANADA

This was presented as a match between two intelligent performers.  Tanahashi was using his experience to get the better of SANADA and trying to steadily put him away.  SANADA was trying to pick apart Tanahashi and did his best to set up for the Skull End.  The action was slightly boring but everything was ok and build to the surprise finish very well.

Winner SANADA Rating: 5 out of 10