NEW JAPAN CUP, BABY! Winner gets a shot at the title belt of his choosing (Heavyweight, Intercontinental, NEVER). This is also the first time NJPW uploads all of the Cup shows on New Japan World. So maybe WE are the real winners here, my dudes.
Hirooki Goto, Toru Yano & Chuckie T vs. Tomoyuki Oka, Shota Umino & Tetsuhiro Yagi
The young lions rarely get the chance to mix it up with CHAOS and you could tell they were trying to make the most of this, especially Oka, who came off as a real badass in the making by out-striking Goto and getting a huge reaction. Very paint by the numbers, but worked in a way to make the youngsters look good. **1/4
Bad Luck Fale & Tonga Loa vs. Lance Archer & Davey Boy Smith Jr
9 minutes of wrestling that felt like 20 and did nothing to make the Fale/Archer Cup match seem interesting. Heatless brawling segment, boring beatdown on Loa with TWO (!) chinlock spots from Davey and a weird finish were the KES double-teams were set up awkwardly. Do better, New Japan undercards. *3/4
Tetsuya Naito, SANADA & BUSHI vs. Zack Sabre Jr, Yoshinobu Kanemaru & El Desperado
TAKA acting as ZSJ’s Gedo-like hypeman is pure greatness. This match is a good little warm-up for Naito/Zack, but also for an eventual LIJ/Suzuki-Gun all-out war, which is something that has a whole lot of potential. Suzuki-Gun do a bunch of cheating, SANADA pulls a nifty babyface comeback and ZSJ comes off as a KILLER in the ending stretch, countering one of BUSHI’s spots with a naaaaaasty-looking submission. **1/2
Hiroshi Tanahashi, David Finlay & Toa Henare vs. Minoru Suzuki, Takashi Iizuka & Taichi
Lots of good stuff here. Tanahashi’s only been gone for like a month and he gets a HERO’S WELCOME. Suzuki trying to re-destroy his knee right off the bat is great, as is Suzuki beating the ever-loving hell out of Finlay. Sidenote: we have two new young lions at ring-side for this show. One of them has to cover the crowd during a brawling sequence and the look of pure fear in his eyes when Suzuki spots him is PRICELESS. The beginning of a wonderful relationship. There’s an awesome moment where Heavyweight Taichi dickishly tries to punk out Tana only after he just fought for his life against Suzuki. Fun wrestling and good character work. ***
Kazuchika Okada & YOSHI-HASHI vs. Kota Ibushi & Chase Owens
This was very okay pro-wrestling with a hot last few minutes. I kept wishing that Ibushi and Owens would acknowledge the weirdness of Ibushi teaming up with a Bullet Club guy, but they just played it straight, which might’ve made the whole situation even weirder. There’s a very long beatdown on YOSHI-HASHI that doesn’t really go anywhere until the hot tag where everyone gets fired up. Okada/Ibushi exchanges are surprisingly tame, but I guess they had to put the focus on YOSHI/Ibushi due to their upcoming Cup match. Okada going out of his way to fist-bump Chuckie T on commentary after the match is genius. **1/2
Juice Robinson vs. Yujiro Takahashi – New Japan Cup (Round 1)
Juice Robinson and Yujiro working a 15 minute G1 Climax-type Big Match was a weird prospect, but it all turned out pretty well. The early portion is a little slow as Yujiro is not a wrestler that is well known for having the most compelling runs of offense and the crowd reacts accordingly (they don’t). Shit gets real when the action spills to the floor and Juice takes two MASSIVE bumps: back body drop all the way in the front row (which carves up his back hardway) and then a Fisherman’s buster on a chair.
Beat-up Underdog Juice gives the match a clear direction and Robinson works his babyface magic to get the crowd going. A lot of this reminded me of an old FMW singles match: nasty bumps, lots of kickouts and crowd heat but nothing super interesting to string the big moves together. Yujiro unloads his entire arsenal on Juice: top-rope Fisherman’s buster, Miami Shine, brutal-looking Tokyo Pimps. BUT IT’S NOT ENOUGH! Juice’s selling is really great and adds some serious drama before his comeback and Pulp Friction win. This won’t end up on any year-end lists but I dug it. All aboard the Juice Train, baybay. ***1/4
Michael Elgin vs. Tomohiro Ishii – New Japan Cup (Round 1)
A match of two very distinct halves that left me feeling super conflicted. I thought the first half was good stuff: beefy strike exchanges between two tough sum’bitches. It’s classic Big Match Ishii but it’s a formula that works so well that you don’t need to reinvent the wheel. Forearms, slaps, lariats: these are the tools that one needs to prove his worth as a Man. Both guys came at each other like bulldozers and Korakuen was eating it up with two spoons.
The second half of the match, where Elgin tries to convince the crowd that he’s Dr. Death and Kenta Kobashi rolled into one and literally almost ends Ishii’s career with reckless head-drops spots, let’s just say I liked it a little less. The whole thing is 10 minutes too long as everything following the botched avalanche Splash Mountain death bump feels like complete overkill. I also have to mention Elgin’s fucking leg-slapping again. This shit has reached a new level of ridiculousness. Elgin now not only slaps the leg for his own spots, he also does it for Ishii’s. On HEADBUTT SPOTS. Why would a headbutt make a slapping sound? What in the actual fuck.
I liked parts of the match, but it was ultimately too long, overkill-y and leg-slappy for me. If this stuff doesn’t bother you as much, add all the stars. ***1/4
The Cup is off to an okay start, I think? Happy to see Juice winning after that surprisingly fun match with Yujiro, kind of bummed to see Ishii job and almost get paralyzed against Elgin. This was a New Japan Korakuen Hall show, so I don’t have to tell you there was nothing must-see on the undercard. The fun continues tomorrow with Tana and HEAVYWEIGHT TAICHI!
