#it became

- Left side felt like a no-brainer. It will be full of gifts such as Okada vs. Gedo and Hiromu vs. Yano. If my version of 6/24 comes to pass I will be so pleased to see all of those matches. 

- The winner will come from the 6/22 quarter of the bracket. I could easily see Tana, Ibushi, ZSJ, or SANADA winning the whole thing. I’m guessing this will end with a filler defense for Naito, and all of those would be interesting. Hope they save Tana for a later one though, I feel like Naito proving himself against Tana is a big emotional moment that he needs to work up to. Still this feels almost like a toss-up.

- Just wanna point out that SHO gets a NEVER title shot out of my bracket. Pls.

- Actually BUSHI will probably pin YOH bc they never let sho and yoh look awesome at the same time, and RPG3k will need a title defense.

- We’ve seen that combo of Ibushi, ZSJ, SANADA, and Tanahashi in the NJ Cup for the past 2 years. In 2018, ZSJ beat the other three on his way to victory, along with Naito. In 2019, we got Ibushi vs. ZSJ, SANADA vs. ZSJ, and Tanahashi vs. SANADA. 

- I really feel like it’s FINALLY SANADA’S TIME JESUS CHRIST PLEASE, but I ended up choosing ZSJ as the ultimate winner. SANADA challenging Naito, the leader of his stable, is one of those things that is Not Done, but I’d like to see it.

EDIT: ZSJ CONSPIRACY THEORY -- all of the other gaijins are gone, even Ospreay who has a home in Japan. Gabriel Kidd is from a competently and maybe even skillfully-run country (New Zealand) where they have effectively eliminated coronavirus. So maybe Zack (who afaik doesn’t have a home in Japan) is the only gaijin (other than Kidd) bc it was only worth the extra effort to get him to Japan, because he’s going to win the tournament.

end boring conspiracy theory

- Often they make the winner of the NJ Cup look like an absolute monster so they’re a credible threat to the champ, who usually comes into the defense looking v strong. This means the winner of the NJ Cup often takes down giant after giant on his way to victory. ZSJ and Ibushi both have a potential Very Impressive possible path, but one of the Dangerous Tekkers has to win at some point bc they’ve teased challenging for the tag belts, which means Ibushi vs. Tanahashi isn’t likely, and no one except me is really clamoring for Ibushi vs. Taichi. So, ZSJ’s path to victory is Ibushi -> Tanahashi -> SANADA -> EVIL -> Okada, which is P DARN IMPRESSIVE.

Some other crack ideas:

- LIJ FINALS. Hiromu pulls off the upset over Okada, EVIL vs. SANADA for the semifinals, then SANADA beats Hiromu to win the cup. - JUNIORS DOMINATE. Semifinals are Ishimori vs. Hiromu and SHO vs. YOH, Ishimori beats Hiromu and gets a shot at the Junior title but then loses to SHO who wins the whole thing, bc fuck it.

- RESPECT ON TAGUCHI’S NAME. And he beats Naito too, because we all need this healing moment.