Throughout the "
NEW YEAR GIANT SERIES 2002" tour, All Japan held a tournament of midcard wrestlers named the Giant Baba Cup. With a unique scoring system (explained below), it was a race to win matches as quickly as possible. Block A was dominated by Mitsuya Nagai, who established himself as being above a regular midcard rank, and went on to win the tournament.
Win under 4:59 (5 points), win under 9:59 (4 points), win under 14:59 (3 points), win under 19:59 (2 points), 20:00 draw (1 point)
Giant Baba Cup 2002 (1/2/02 to 1/14/02)
Block A:
1. Mitsuya Nagai [24]
2. Shigeo Okumura [14]
3. Nobukazu Hirai [11]
4. Hideki Hosaka [8]
5. Ryuji Hijikata [8]
6. Hi69 [0]
1/2/02 @ Tokyo Korakuen Hall
1. Nobukazu Hirai [2] beat Shigeo Okumura [0] (15:58) with a Gedo clutch.
1/3/02 @ Tokyo Korakuen Hall
1. Hideki Hosaka [5] beat Hi69 [0] (2:09) with the Building bomb.
2. Mitsuya Nagai [5] beat Ryuji Hijikata [0] (1:59) with a chickenwing armlock.
1/5/02 @ Hakata Star Lane
1. Shigeo Okumura [4] beat Hideki Hosaka [5] (5:13) with a brainbuster.
2. Mitsuya Nagai [10] beat Nobukazu Hirai [2] (4:27) with a knee kick.
1/6/02 @ Nagasaki NCC Studio
1. Nobukazu Hirai [6] beat Hi69 [0] (5:18) with a Rock Bottom.
2. Shigeo Okumura [9] beat Ryuji Hijikata [0] (4:23) with a brainbuster.
1/7/02 @ Sasebo Sports Bunka Hall
1. Hideki Hosaka [8] beat Ryuji Hijikata [0] (10:33) with the Building bomb.
2. Mitsuya Nagai [15] beat Hi69 [0] (3:00) with a knee kick.
1/8/02 @ Kokura Northern Gymnasium
1. Ryuji Hijikata [4] beat Nobukazu Hirai [6] (9:05) with the Hiji clutch.
2. Shigeo Okumura [14] beat Hi69 [0] (2:27) with a brainbuster.
3. Mitsuya Nagai [20] beat Hideki Hosaka [8] (2:19) with the Hyper Knee.
1/9/02 @ Kagoshima Prefectural Gymnasium
1. Ryuji Hijikata [8] beat Hi69 [0] (7:41) with the Hiji clutch.
1/11/02 @ Osaka Central Gymnasium
1. Nobukazu Hirai [11] beat Hideki Hosaka [8] (4:30) with a Rock Bottom.
2. Mitsuya Nagai [24] beat Shigeo Okumura [14] (7:16) with the Hyper Knee.
Block B:
1. Nobutaka Araya [21]
2. Masato Tanaka [19]
3. Tomoaki Honma [8]
4. Kazushi Miyamoto [8]
5. Gran Naniwa [7]
6. Yasu Urano [0]
1/2/02 @ Tokyo Korakuen Hall
1. Nobutaka Araya [5] beat Yasu Urano [0] (1:48) with a lariat.
2. Gran Naniwa [3] beat Tomoaki Honma [0] (12:24) with a horizontal cradle.
3. Masato Tanaka [4] beat Kazushi Miyamoto [0] (5:54) with a modified katahajime.
1/3/02 @ Tokyo Korakuen Hall
1. Gran Naniwa [7] beat Yasu Urano [0] (6:37) with Driver The Naniwa.
2. Masato Tanaka [8] beat Tomoaki Honma [0] (7:16) with the Diamond Dust.
1/5/02 @ Hakata Star Lane
1. Tomoaki Honma [4] beat Yasu Urano [0] (8:16) with a crab hold.
1/6/02 @ Nagasaki NCC Studio
1. Nobutaka Araya [10] beat Kazushi Miyamoto [0] (2:08) with a short lariat.
1/7/02 @ Sasebo Sports Bunka Hall
1. Nobutaka Araya [15] beat Gran Naniwa [7] (3:29) with a short lariat.
2. Masato Tanaka [13] beat Yasu Urano [0] (4:16) with a modified katahajime.
1/8/02 @ Kokura Northern Gymnasium
1. Tomoaki Honma [8] beat Kazushi Miyamoto [0] (7:13) with a crab hold.
1/9/02 @ Kagoshima Prefectural Gymnasium
1. Kazushi Miyamoto [4] beat Yasu Urano [0] (8:54) with a German suplex hold.
2. Masato Tanaka [18] beat Gran Naniwa [7] (3:17) with the Complete Dust.
3. Nobutaka Araya [20] beat Tomoaki Honma [8] (1:14) with a short lariat.
1/11/02 @ Osaka Central Gymnasium
1. Kazushi Miyamoto [8] beat Gran Naniwa [7] (8:06) with a reverse cradle.
2. Nobutaka Araya [21] vs. Masato Tanaka [19] went to a draw (20:00) when the time limit expired.
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1/14/02 @ Yokohama Bunka Gymnasium
1. Final: Mitsuya Nagai beat Nobutaka Araya (18:35) with the Hyper Knee.
