New Japan Pro-Wrestling has announced the full lineup for the 2021 New Japan Cup, and just in case there wasn’t already a crazy amount of wrestling happening this week, the annual single elimination tournament kicks off on THURSDAY.

The tournament will feature 30 competitors, with 2020 winner EVIL and the reigning NEVER Openweight Champion Hiroshi Tanahashi receiving first round byes into the Round of 16.

The winner of the New Japan Cup will receive the first shot at the brand new IWGP World Heavyweight Championship. The IWGP Heavyweight Championship will be officially unified with the IWGP Intercontinental Championship following Kota Ibushi’s defense against El Desperado, also taking place on Thursday.

Below is a complete list of first round matches:

March 4

• Satoshi Kojima vs. Jeff Cobb
• Tetsuya Naito vs. Great O-Khan

March 5

• Toru Yano vs. Bad Luck Fale
• Hirooki Goto vs. Taichi

March 6

• Kazuchika Okada vs. Shingo Takagi
• Tomoaki Honma vs. Minoru Suzuki
• Juice Robinson vs. KENTA

March 7

• Hiroyoshi Tenzan vs. Will Ospreay
• Gabriel Kidd vs. Zack Sabre Jr.

March 9

• Yuji Nagata vs. Yota Tsuji
• Tomohiro Ishii vs. SANADA

March 10

• David Finlay vs. Chase Owens
• YOSHI-HASHI vs. Yujiro Takahashi
• Toa Henare vs. Jay White

New Japan Pro-Wrestling has revealed the complete match card for their 2021 anniversary event at Nippon Budokan in Tokyo. The show takes place this Thursday, March 4 and will feature the final IWGP double title defense before the championships are official unified into the brand new IWGP World Heavyweight Championship.

We will have live coverage of the entire show, which will feature English commentary, this Thursday morning kicking off at 3:00 AM ET.

Match card:

8-Man Tag Team Match
Master Wato & Gabriel Kidd & Tomoaki Honma & Hirooki Goto vs. Suzuki-Gun (DOUKI & Zack Sabre Jr. & Minoru Suzuki & Taichi)

10-Man Tag Team Match
Ryusuke Taguchi & Toa Henare & David Finlay & Juice Robinson & Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Bullet Club (Taiji Ishimori & Jay White & Chase Owens & KENTA & EVIL)

6-Man Tag Team Match
CHAOS (SHO & Tomohiro Ishii & Kazuchika Okada) vs. Los Ingobernables de Japon (BUSHI & SANADA & Shingo Takagi)

New Japan Cup Match
Satoshi Kojima vs. Jeff Cobb

New Japan Cup Match
Tetsuya Naito vs. Great O-Khan

IWGP Heavyweight & IWGP Intercontinental Title Match
Kota Ibushi (c) vs. El Desperado

While we are still awaiting official confirmation from New Japan Pro-Wrestling, it would appear that this year’s anniversary show will be headlined by a clash between the two most decorated stars in the company at the moment.

Kota Ibushi halted Tetsuya Naito’s quest to keep him from unifying the IWGP Heavyweight title with the IWGP Intercontinental title on Sunday at night two of NJPW Castle Attack, his second straight win over the leader of Los Ingobernables de Japon.

After the match, El Desperado confronted the champion ahead of the annual NJPW anniversary show, where it is traditional that the company’s heavyweight champion battle the junior heavyweight champion in a non-title special singles match. This year, however, Despy has challenged Ibushi to put the IWGP double gold on the line, and the “Golden Star” told him in no uncertain terms that he was ready for any challenger, at any time.

Earlier in the same show, Desperado defeated El Phantasmo and BUSHI in a triple threat match to win the vacant IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Championship. He is also one half of the IWGP Jr. Tag Team Champions with Yoshinobu Kanemaru.

NJPW Anniversary Event will take place on Thursday, March 4 at Nippon Budokan in Tokyo.