1. Yuji Nagata, Yuya Uemura, Yota Tsuji & Gabriel Kidd vs. Minoru Suzuki, Yoshinobu Kanemaru, El Desprado & DOUKI
Considering how stacked this group of Round 1 matches was, the Bonus Match multi-man tag opening up was a good call. It didn’t add much to the catalog, but Nagata leading three Young Lions against Suzuki-Gun was a fine dynamic. Tsuji tried to bring it to Suzuki with elbows at one point, learning his lesson with a single elbow to the face in response. *3/4
2. New Japan Cup – Round 1: SANADA vs. Ryusuke Taguchi
This was so good. Like in the 6-man a week ago they worked well together, having a pretty traditional New Japan juniors match that eventually had me biting on a Taguchi upset on three separate occasions. The match was coasting along until SANADA did a cool counter of Taguchi’s ankle lock, crawling to and then up the turnbuckle so he could backflip over Taguchi and apply the Skull End, which Taguchi countered again back into the ankle lock that they milked EVERYTHING out of. Taguchi pulled off a couple other scrappy near falls after that before SANADA dropped him. ***1/4
3. New Japan Cup – Round 1: Shingo Takagi vs. SHO
Best match with no crowd I’ve seen yet, even better than that one where they did re-shoots and piped in crowd noise. This delivered the match you’d expect and be excited for between these two, a stiff battle of will between two tough guys. That type of match is usually brought to another level by a crowd freaking out for it, but these guys just threw themselves into everything that it didn’t really matter. If anything, the Japanese commentary being all frantic and wonderful followed my internal monologue perfectly.
It was a hard-hitting battle with a lot of smart touches that made it compelling and dramatic from bell to bell. Junior heavyweight SHO was the underdog, and he went right at Shingo at the bell. They built up all their big collisions – anytime somebody got hit hard or knocked down, it was a MOMENT. SHO was relentless at the start, but when Shingo caught him with a couple punches and a chop that sent him to the corner he couldn’t help but stop and think, “dang.”
Shingo kept going for the kill, but SHO kept coming back with outrageous stuff – managing his double knee powerbomb finish, kicking out of the Last Dragon, kicking out of the most insane lariat you’ve ever seen. Shingo brought the pain, but SHO’s selling was another level – not just staying grounded, but hitting the mat off the lariat like he just got blasted by a bigass shotgun.
They played with all the possibilities in the end, eventually giving the most satisfying one: a clean, well-earned victory for young SHO. An awesome, smart wrestling match all the more impressive for being so good in the midst of ALL THIS. ****1/2
4. New Japan Cup – Round 1: Kota Ibushi vs. Zack Sabre Jr.
This didn’t really hit for me. The Ibushi/ZSJ pairing usually has trouble reaching second gear, and the no audience made it seem even more glaring. That’s almost the inverse of WWE stuff, as the matwork-heavy matches usually hit better. It went around 15 minutes like SHO/Shingo, but SHO/Shingo felt longer because there was so much more to chew on. Here ZSJ just tied up Ibushi in all kinds of fun painful holds for a little while, then Ibushi KO’d his ass with a couple Kamigoye’s. Good variety, but not actually good. **3/4
5. New Japan Cup – Round 1: Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Taichi
Hiroshi Tanahashi worked his beautiful ass off to not just make Taichi look like a threat but provide a compelling main event for the New Japan World subscriber. It hit the beats, though it didn’t quite work for me as the Taichi bag of tricks and Tanahashi’s grimacing really needs folks reacting. A good, solid match – whatever that means. ***
Happy Thoughts: Any evening of wrestling with that Shingo Takagi vs. SHO match is a winner. The most stacked card of New Japan Cup Round 1 mostly delivering was nice too. 9/10
