Starting back in 2005, New japan has been running its annual single-elimination tournament every March/April. The New Japan Cup is your classic tournament in wrestling with the winner being able to choose between challenging for the IWGP Heavyweight, NEVER Openweight, or IWGP Intercontinental championship.
Several notable wrestlers have won the tournament including current WWE star Shinsuke Nakamura, who went on defeat Hiroshi Tanahashi for the IWGP Intercontinental Championship at Invasion Attack 2014.
This year, the NJPW's New Japan Cup 2018 kicked off. The participants of the tournament are as follows:
Michael Elgin
Tomohiro Ishii
Juice Robinson
Yujiro Takahashi
Hiroshi Tanahashi
Bad Luck Fale
Lance Archer
Yoshi-Hashi
Zack Sabre Jr.
Tetsuya Naito
SANADA
Chuckie T
Taichi
Davey Boy Smith Jr.
Kota Ibushi
Toru Yano
Michael Elgin defeated Tomohiro Ishii in the main event. Here’s the rest of the match results for night 1:
CHAOS defeated Tomoyuki Oka, Shota Umino, and Tetsuhiro Yagi
Killer Elite Squad defeated Tanga Loa and Bad Luck Fale
Suzuki-gun defeated BUSHI, SANADA, and Tetsuya Naito
Suzuki-gun defeated Toa Henare, David Finlay, and Hiroshi Tanahashi
YOSHI-HASHI and Kazuchika Okada vs. Chase Owens and Kota Ibushi
Juice Robinson defeated Yujiro Takahashi (New Japan Cup 2018 First Round Match)
Michael Elgin defeated Tomohiro Ishii (New Japan Cup 2018 First Round Match)
The next New Japan Cup show takes place early tomorrow at 4:30am ET / 1:30am PT. The next two tournament matches are: Bad Luck Fale vs. Lance Archer and Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Taichi.