Yuya Uemura and Don Fale Advance in Opening Night of NJPW New Japan Cup 2026

By Noah Leatherland

NJPW have kicked off the annual New Japan Cup, with two first round matches in the first night. Packed into Korakuen Hall, Yuya Uemura and Don Fale became the first two wrestlers to advance into the second round.

After a series of tag matches previewing upcoming tournament matches on the undercard, the New Japan Cup kicked off with Don Fale and Aaron Wolf. Ahead of the tournament, Wolf had spoken on his desire to purge NJPW of the House of Torture after they had cost him the NEVER Openweight Title from him. Once again, he found himself in an unfair uphill battle against the full strength of the villainous faction.

Once again, the force of the House of Torutre’s interference cost Wolf the match. Fale nailed Wolf with the Grenade and pinned the rookie, bringing Wolf’s first ever New Japan Cup to a quick end.

The main event pitted Yuya Uemura against United Empire’s Great-O-Khan. While Fale and Wolf was a circus of run-ins, Uemura and Great-O-Khan went back and forth for over twenty minutes. In a much more competitive affair, Uemura came out on top, booking his spot in the second round. Speaking in the post-match comments, Uemura is a bundle of energy after his opening night win:

There are preliminary matches too, but I intend to show 120% of myself at full throttle in every single bout, throughout the entire tournament. It’s been a while since my last singles match, so I’m absolutely fired up. I plan to unleash everything I’ve honed and gained through tag team work in this tournament, and win it all.

(Quote translated via DeepL)

Both men will now move on to face opponents who had first round byes in the tournament. On March 10th, Fale with face Shingo Takagi, while Uemura will face Drilla Maloney.

The night also saw the debut of a new Young Lion, Taisei Nakahara. He suffered a loss to the more experienced Young Lion, Tatsuya Matsumoto.

Here are the full results for NJPW New Japan Cup 2026, Day 1, courtesy of purolove.com:

• Tatsuya Matsumoto def. Taisei Nakahara (7:40)
• Chase Owens & Yujiro Takahashi def. Shota Umino & Masatora Yasuda (8:37)
• Oleg Boltin & Toru Yano def. El Phantasmo & Jado (9:09)
• OSKAR, Shingo Takagi, Drilla Moloney & Daiki Nagai def. Callum Newman, Jake Lee, Henare & Zane Jay (11:54)
• Taichi, Master Wato & Tomoaki Honma def. Ren Narita, DOUKI & Dick Togo (11:19)
• Ryohei Oiwa, Robbie Eagles, Kosei Fujita, Zack Sabre Jr. & Hartley Jackson def. Yuto-Ice, Taiji Ishimori, Robbie X, Yota Tsuji & Gedo (9:03)
• New Japan Cup – Round 1: Don Fale def. Aaron Wolf (8:46)
• New Japan Cup – Round 1: Yuya Uemura def. Great-O-Khan (22:06)