NJPW New Japan Cup 2026 Round 2 Results & Review

New Japan Pro Wrestling
New Japan Cup 2026 – Second Round
March 10, 12, 13, 14 2026
Okayama, Takamatsu, Osaka and Yamanashi, Japan

The opening round of the New Japan Cup was a bit rubbish. There was little to recommend and much to malign. It was frustrating, as there’s no reason why this tournament couldn’t be good. A wealth of talent combined with the in-built drama of a tournament could lead to some interesting little stories.

Did they do that in the second round?

Not really. It was slightly better, but not in a way that makes it better than having food poisoning. It’s a low bar.

Let’s break down the matches!

New Japan Cup 2026 Second Round Match
Shingo Takagi def. Don Fale

The entire match was structured to hide Fale’s weaknesses, but even Shingo couldn’t manage that monumental task. It’s hard to articulate how bad Fale actually is these days. He’s a lumbering idiot, dealing out weak lariats that defy our suspension of disbelief. He can barely move, and it’s baffling to me that he is still employed as an in-ring talent.

Of course, this was absolutely infested with HOT bollocks. Shingo teased Kanemaru’s Suntory mist, leaving me baffled. Why would I be excited to see that? I’m so emotionless about these HOT spots, despite being tortured by them on a nightly basis. It must be Stockholm syndrome.

The best part of this match was Shingo playing the classics. He impressed the crowd with an amazing display of strength, lifting Fale off his feet in a German suplex. It was such pure pro-wrestling, it made me wish I could have watched that spot as a GIF and skipped the match. *¾

New Japan Cup 2026 Second Round Match
Yuya Uemura def. Drilla Moloney

This should have been a match full of youthful promise and excitement. Instead, it was bang average and I left it disappointed in both participants.

It had so much going for it. The premise of a young blue-eye battling the scrapping jock was a great set-up. Outside of kayfabe, we had a rising star and a man abandoned by his stablemates having to prove his individual worth to the booker. If there was ever a time to go out in a main event to steal this show, it was here.

Unfortunately, neither man seemed that bothered.

It started off well. Drilla added little wrinkles that grabbed my attention; he denied reversals and wrenched in headlocks to add believability to his actions. They started to build to a crescendo, and I was ready and willing to be taken along with them.

The problem was, they didn’t get the reaction they wanted and neither man knew what to do. Rope breaks and big spots didn’t get the momentum they needed, and they couldn’t get the crowd to invest. It felt flat, and even big top rope spots were too understated.

The ending was a confusing decision. Maloney hit the Drilla Killer, only for Uemura to roll forward and get the flash pin. This was a perfect example of hurting wrestlers whilst trying to protect them. The DK has been a brutal move, and is over as an absolute finish. That’s a really useful tool, and Uemura should have been dead to rights. Not using the DK in the finish was a perfectly plausible option.

This was good, but it could have been great. ***¼

New Japan Cup 2026 Second Round Match
Ren Narita def. Satoshi Kojima

Dragging a ref out of the ring should cause an immediate disqualification for the person it benefits. That seems so obvious to me, but yet again the officials of New Japan were neutered by this terrible trope.

Ren Narita really is terrible. EVIL was a good wrestler doing bad schtick. Narita has the charisma of a toilet brush and we’re supposed to believe he’s a criminal mastermind. I spent 12 minutes watching him work on Koijima’s leg, and I was desperate for the veteran to just knock his block off and move on.

Awful, anti-wrestling. *

New Japan Cup 2026 Second Round Match
Oleg Boltin def. HENARE

Much like Maloney/Uemura, this was a match between two young wrestlers that should have been good. Again, neither man seemed bothered and it fell flat.

I’m starting to wonder if New Japan’s refusal to consistently push people is having an effect on motivation. Boltin and HENARE should be gripping the main event by the horns; they should wrestle like they’re desperate to have the best match of the tournament. Instead, they had a match that was too gentle too often.

There were spots in this match that were laughable. Boltin was knocked back onto some chairs and sold the bump like death. Unfortunately, it was only his foot that hit the chair and his selling looked silly.

By the time the speed and violence came, it was too late. I enjoyed the visceral noise of the huge chops, and Boltin catching HENARE in mid air was impressive. By that point, however, they’d already convinced me they didn’t care about this match and I’d checked out. ***

New Japan Cup 2026 Second Round Match
Callum Newman def. Hartley Jackson

I loved Hartley Jackson in this match. His performance was grounded in a soul-crushing reality that many of us are facing: is our prime over? He was tired, out of breath and a step behind throughout this match. But it worked.

I enjoyed Newman being launched around the arena like a bowling bowl, but there was a shift in my perspective of this match. It moved from being a bit of fun to something much more compelling, and that shift was heralded by excellent commentary from Walker Stewart. The line was simple, but devastating in its honesty.

“I don’t think Hartley has the cardio for this.”

The delivery of the line was perfect. It was a sports like comment, with just the right amount of concern. It wasn’t concerned with presenting everyone in the ring like an unstoppable superstar. In fact, it did the exact opposite. Jackson was humanised, and I willed him on.

Credit must go to Newman for allowing Jackson’s comeback to be believable. He bumped, sold and led like a well-rounded professional. It’s a testament to the excellent, refined worker he has become.

The crowd rallied for Jackson, and he lost. This was hardly a mat classic, but it made me feel something. ***½

New Japan Cup 2026 Second Round Match
Hirooki Goto def. Jake Lee

BritWres Twitter would have loved Jake Lee. I hesitated typing that, because it’s quite a nasty insult, but Jake Lee can’t work a Cara Noir level gimmick and get away with it.

The juxtaposition here was painful. Goto’s stoicism gave this match a gravitas, whereas Lee’s painful prancing destroyed it. I could almost forgive Lee if he was a great worker but, again, he suffered in the comparison here. Goto was smooth, moving between offense with liquidity. Lee is awkward; a mess of uncontrolled limbs.

Every time Goto managed to grab my attention, Lee would ruin it by biting the corner mat or something. I desperately hope a second round loss is an indication of his position in the company. Skip. **

New Japan Cup 2026 Second Round Match
Shota Umino def. Yujiro Takahashi

I’m not sure I can express how much I hated this match. Not because of the work itself (the in-ring action was the solid two-star special you would expect), but because it showed us what New Japan is capable of booking, before booking the same old shit.

Walker Stewart started the match with some big-brain gymnastics. He claimed that Yujiro works at a slow pace because he’s calm and methodical, rather than being a lazy joke. He claimed that Umino, the charismaless carpet, is defined by his personability. Ridiculous, really.

Then he said that Umino is hoping that Yujiro can see the light and renounce the House of Torture. I dismissed the thought as more nonsense, especially when Togo and Kanemaru walked down the ramp.

I’m almost ashamed to admit it, but I looked deep into Yujiro’s eyes when he begged his HOT teammates to leave and felt something. I believed, foolishly, that Yujiro wanted to do this one on his own.

Not really. Nobody ever thought that could happen. We were treated to the usual HOT bollocks, just slightly delayed. I was annoyed that New Japan had that idea, and decided not to do it. Yujiro sent his mates away with such heartfelt earnest, that I wondered why a booker with some pride wouldn’t enjoy building a story where a lower card wrestler dies on his sword to redeem himself.

They can tell good stories. They don’t want to. DUD

New Japan Cup 2026 Second Round Match
Zack Sabre Jr. def. Ryohei Oiwa

Zack Sabre Jr is one of the greatest wrestlers of all time. We often get so muddled moving between macro and micro observations that the simple truth gets lost. ZSJ is a phenomenal wrestler, and very few have ever worked at his level.

This match was the “real sports presentation” that many people want. It was a battle between two stablemates, battling to establish whether the younger member of the stable was ready to beat the master. He wasn’t, but that simple story infected every movement.

I loved ZSJ’s expressions. He was determined to make the ever-increasingly complex submissions look easy. You could almost feel him hiding the strain behind his eyeballs, desperate to save face in front of the upstart Oiwa.

Rope breaks were sold to perfection. Oiwa timed outstretched limbs to a beat, allowing ZSJ to grab them away from the ropes at the last second. Control periods switched in a heartbeat, forcing your attention on the ring at all times.

Was this match perfect? No. Five minutes could have been shaved off with little impact. That being said, it was the best match of the tournament so far and definitely one to seek out. ****

Final Thoughts

The second round brought more disappointment than it did glory, but I believe the slog will be worth it. We’ve got a lot of talent in the quarter finals and the matches will have undeniable stakes.

I’ll be back to review the quarters and the semis!