The 2017 New Japan Cup semifinals are set

Tomohiro Ishii defeated Seiya Sanada earlier today in Tokorozawa to advance into the semifinals of this year’s New Japan Cup.

Ishii won with a brainbuster in 14:02. Ishii had previously beaten Kenny Omega with a brainbuster in one of this year’s best matches in the first round of the tournament on Sunday.

The semifinals will take place tomorrow night (Sunday in Japan) at 2 a.m. Eastern and 11 p.m Pacific from Hamamatsu, Japan with EVIL vs. Bad Luck Fale and Ishii vs. Katsuyori Shibata. Ishii and Shibata are known for having incredible matches with each other. EVIL and Fale are not known for that.

The tournament final is late Sunday night in the U.S., from Nagaoka, Japan also at 2 a.m Eastern and 11 p.m. Pacific time.

The winner of the tournament has the right to challenge either Kazuchika Okada for the IWGP Heavyweight title, Tetsuya Naito for the IC title or Hirooki Goto for the NEVER title on the April 9th show at Sumo Hall in Tokyo.

None of the four semifinalists have ever won the tournament previously. The only non-Japanese winner was Giant Bernard (Matt Bloom) in 2006.

Ishii and EVIL met last year in the first round with Ishii winning. Fale was eliminated last year by Michael Elgin in the second round. Shibata wasn’t in last year’s tournament, but lost to Goto in the 2015 tournament.

Fale was in the finals of the 2014 tournament losing to Shinsuke Nakamura.