New Japan Pro Wrestling’s annual New Japan Cup tournament is underway.

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.

This stage of the New Japan Cup took place on 3/10 from the Amagasaki Memorial Park Gymnasium, Japan.

New Japan Cup Results (3/10)

  • TAKA Michinoku and Minoru Suzuki defeated Yota Tsuji and Satoshi Kojima via submission.
  • Manabu Nakanishi, Yuji Nagata, Juice Robinson, and YOSHI-HASHI defeated Taiji Ishimori, HIKULEO, Bad Luck Fale, and Chase Owens via pinfall.
  • Shingo Takagi, BUSHI, and SANADA defeated Ren Narita, Tomoaki Honma, and Hirooki Goto via pinfall.
  • Taichi, Davey Boy Smith Jr., and Lance Archer defeated Tomohiro Ishii, Toru Yano, and Will Ospreay via pinfall.
  • Michael Elgin, Colt Cabana, and Mikey Nicholls defeated Toa Henare, Togi Makabe, and Kazuchika Okada via pinfall.

Tournament Results

  • Ryusuke Taguchi defeated Hiroyoshi Tenzan via submission.
  • Hiroshi Tanahashi defeated Shota Umino via submission.
  • Zack Sabre Jr. defeated EVIL via submission.
  • Kota Ibushi defeated Tetsuya Naito via pinfall.

Probably the best first round match of the tournament so far. These two brought it to each other, wrestling as though it were already the finals. A fantastic sequence would culminate with Ibushi executing the Kamigoya, eliminating Naito for the tournament.