The 2026 New Japan Cup is set to commence on March 4, with the winner of the 24-man tournament earning a shot at Yota Tsuji's IWGP Heavyweight Championship at Sakura Genesis on April 4. However, one man who won't be getting his chance to fight for the title is Tomohiro Ishii as NJPW has confirmed that Ishii has been sidelined with a neck injury.New Japan Pro Wrestling broke the news via its official website, stating that the "Stone Pitbull" has suffered a neck injury and will be forced to withdraw from the tournament, while also apologizing to fans who were excited to Ishii perform. In his place, former two-time IWGP Heavyweight Champion Satoshi Kojima will take Ishii's place in the tournament, and will face the winner of the first round match between Taichi and Ren Narita as Ishii had already been given one of eight random byes into the second round. Ishii had never won the New Japan Cup and was hoping to change that this year, with his best performances in the tournament coming in 2017 and 2019 where he reached the semi-finals.It's not yet been confirmed exactly how Ishii suffered the neck injury that has put him out of action. His last match came at The New Beginning USA event on February 27 where he lost the NJPW STRONG Openweight Championship to Boltin Oleg, making that the most logical place to assume where the injury happened, but there had been no initial concerns from NJPW officials on that night. Ishii did appear on the February 28 episode of "AEW Collision" wrestling Andrade El Idolo, but that match was taped on February 25, two days before his match with Oleg. Ishii had actually dodged a bullet in terms of injuries recently as it looked as if he had torn his hamstring on the February 18 episode of "AEW Dynamite," where he and Orange Cassidy defeated Clark Connors and Gabe Kidd. However, that injury was nowhere near as serious as AEW doctors had originally feared.
