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, G1 Supercard. The event takes place on April 6th and emanates from the legendary Madison Square Garden in New York.

This stage, including the last first round matches of the New Japan Cup, took place on 3/11 from Kagawa, Japan.

New Japan Cup Results (3/11)

  • Taiji Ishimori, HIKULEO, Bad Luck Fale, and Chase Owens defeated Yuya Uemura, Michael Elgin, Juice Robinson, and YOSHI-HASHI via submission.
  • Shingo Takagi, BUSHI, EVIL, and Tetsuya Naito defeated Ren Narita, Manabu Nakanishi, Yuji Nagata, and Hiroyoshi Tenzan via submission.
  • Tomoaki Honma and Kota Ibushi defeated TAKA Michinoku and Zack Sabre Jr. via pinfall.
  • Will Ospreay and Tomohiro Ishii defeated Lance Archer and Taichi via pinfall.
  • Toa Henare, Mikey Nicholls, and Ryusuke Taguchi defeated Shota Umino, Kazuchika Okada, and Hiroshi Tanahashi via pinfall.

Tournament Matches

  • Toru Yano defeated Davey Boy Smith Jr. via pinfall.
  • Colt Cabana defeated Togi Makabe via pinfall.
  • Minoru Suzuki defeated Satoshi Kojima via pinfall.
  • SANADA defeated Hirooki Goto via pinfall.