– Monochrome Cowboy Chase Owens and Cunnilingus Fiend Takahashi def Shota Umino Masatora Yasuda
A quick stomping of the energetic Young Lion and yelling enthusiast Shota Umino. Yasuda gets a great kick out and good sequences as Chase and Yujiro continue to their role as heel utility tag team. Shota's bad tag luck continues despite looking like he'll go far in the Cup this year, looking much better with the hair growing in.
– Toru Yano and Boltin Oleg def ELP and Jado
Despite hairy nipple play from ELP, featuring full camera zoom on a lone chest hair being pulled, Oleg bulldozes Jado. The human mountain has worked his ass off to earn the NJPW Strong Openweight title and his heavyweight drubbings are fun as hell.
– Daiki Nagai, OSKAR, Shingo, Drilla def Callum Newman, HENARE, Jake Lee, Zane Jay and Punch the Monkey
OSKAR and anything KOB related continue to be hype as hell. It's rare to see excited young performers fully tapped into their skillset and make every movement matter. Results never in doubt as Drilla absolutely demolishes mouthy Zane.
Callum beefs up his pesky shit heel tactics and eats a rear naked from the big German following the result. Prop comedian Jake Lee continues his latex glove shenanigans while also adding a plushy to his…offense? Aura?
-Taichi, Tomaki Honma, Master Wato def Dick Togo, Ren Narita, DOUKI
Love to see a stretch plum get a win in 2026 as the Holy Emperor gets the win despite having his Dick get Togo'd. Honma enjoys a snack AND a win!
-Ryohei Oiwa, Robbie Eagles, Kosei Fujita, Zack Sabre Jr., Hartley Jackson def Yuto-ICE, Taiji Ishimori, Robbie X, Yota Tsuji, Gedo
The most exciting multi-man tag by far on the night. Yuto-ICE and Oiwa are gonna feed families Sunday during their clash, and undoubtedly in the months ahead. Amazing watching Yuto make small moments big with corner offense, crowd brawling, strike exchanges, the guy can do it all. Hartley devours Gedo as Big Jags do in the wild.
-Don Fale def Aaron Wolf
This match is a head canon enthusiast special. Chris Charlton explains Aaron Wolf comes out with no friends against a member of HoT because he's too cocky on the bus between shows.
Being able to suplex and slam the Don shows Wolf has the physical skills but hard to feel excited about his shining moments when inevitable interference plays out again, and again, and again.
Narita helping end things through a belt shot is the next step in squandering the Olympian's hype, as Wolf's next big obstacle won't be the New Japan Cup competition, but making friends. AWOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
-Yuya Uemura def Great O'Khan
A bombastic main event as fiery, scrappy Uemura took every unique burst of offense O'Khan threw his way to a win. O'Khan looked like an absolute menace, making his claw based offense look lethal. Uemura showed the drive to go far if not win the tournament this year
by Human_Cress6933