The first round of the 2026 New Japan Cup concluded in Amagasaki.
Shota Umino and Ryohei Oiwa earned victories Sunday at Baycom Gymnasium and moved on to the second round.
Umino faced off against Chase Owens, and the match featured a lot of the typical House of Torture shenanigans. Yujiro Takahashi and Dick Togo interfered, and Owens got two nearfalls in the closing stretch after two C-Triggers, followed by a low blow and a C-Trigger after pushing the referee out of the way. Umino avoided a Last Testament and countered with a headbutt and a lariat for a two-count. He landed Second Chapter to secure the win.
Umino will face Takahashi in the second round on March 14.
In the main event, Oiwa defeated Yuto-Ice, which marked the elimination of both Knockout Bros. from the New Japan Cup after Callum Newman eliminated OSKAR. Both men set the tone from the start, throwing a flurry of heavy shots at each other from the start. The match spilled over to the outside, where Ice threw Oiwa onto a row of chairs to try to get a count-out victory. The rest of the match was kept in the ring, with both wrestlers countering back and forth with hard-hitting elbows and lariats. Ice’s moment at the end of the match came when he landed an elbow and a kick to the head, but Oiwa kicked out at one. Oiwa fired up but ran into a knee strike. Ice set up Oiwa for a running knee strike, but Oiwa countered with the Roy Clutch for the three-count win.
Oiwa will face Zack Sabre Jr. on March 14. The second round of the New Japan Cup continues this Tuesday in Okayama, with Don Fale facing Shingo Takagi and Yuya Uemura against Drilla Moloney.
