NJPW has begun their annual New Japan Cup tournament.

The winner of this year’s single-elimination tournament will earn the chance to face “Switchblade” Jay White for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship. This matchup is scheduled to take place at their upcoming show, co-promoted with Ring Of Honor (ROH), G1 Supercard. The event takes place on April 6th and emanates from the legendary Madison Square Garden in New York.

The first stage of the New Japan Cup took place on 3/8 from Korakuen Hall, Tokyo, Japan.

New Japan Cup 3/8

  • Taiji Ishimori, HIKULEO, and Bad Luck Fale defeated Rocky Romero, Mikey Nicholls, and Will Ospreay via pinfall
  • Davey Boy Smith Jr., Lance Archer, and Minoru Suzuki defeated Toru Yano, Toa Henare, and Satoshi Kojima via pinfall.
  • BUSHI and EVIL defeated TAKA Michinoku and Zack Sabre Jr. via pinfall.
  • Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Togi Makabe, Kazuchika Okada, and Hiroshi Tanahashi defeated Ryusuke Taguchi, Colt Cabana, Michael Elgin, and Shota Umino.
  • YOSHI-HASHI defeated Manabu Nakanishi via submission
  • Taichi defeated Tomoaki Honma via submission
  • Chase Owens defeated Juice Robinson via pinfall
  • Tomohiro Ishii defeated Yuji Nagata via pinfall