Given New Japan’s reliance on uneventful tags to rest their talent and fill out shows, delivering 45 singles matches inside of one-month is kind of a big deal. Throughout the month of March, 48 competitors vied for the largest New Japan Cup there’s ever been. Two of them exited with injury and 16 received second-round byes chosen out of a deep hat or something. The Finals took place at Osaka Castle Hall, as did the Semi Finals one night prior. Preceding both were (mostly) uneventful tags.
1. BUSHI vs. Kosei Fujita
BUSHI was by the book here in giving young Kosei Fujita ring experience while kicking his ass. Great opening match. *1/2-ish.
2. Tama Tonga, Tanga Loa, Ryusuke Taguchi, Master Wato & Jado vs. Bad Luck Fale, Chase Owens, Taiji Ishimori, El Phantasmo & Gedo
The Guerillas of Destiny and Jado were kicked out of the the Bullet Club during the tour, another chapter in a story that keeps delivering lukewarm payoffs because it’s driven less by booking sense and more an assortment of contract or travel restrictions — which, as we know, have always been the coolest and most interesting parts of professional wrestling. *1/2
3. Tomohiro Ishii, Toru Yano & YOH vs. Minoru Suzuki, Taichi & Yoshinobu Kanemaru
In between a few minutes of Toru Yano on defense and YOH comeback that ended unsuccessfully, Ishii and Suzuki brought some fire enough fire to call it even. **1/2
4. El Desperado & TAKA Michinoku vs. SHO & Yujiro Takahashi
SHO is next up for Desperado, so: SURPRISE! He taps out TAKA in 30 seconds, a welcome-ish twist. *
5. Hirooki Goto, YOSHI-HASHI, Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma vs. Will Ospreay, Great-O-Khan, Jeff Cobb & Aaron Henare
CHAOS knows how to bring the fun, or at least fill time on the undercard in a respectable way. I thought Honma chopping Cobb down like a big tree was fun, and YOSHI-HASHI and Great O-Khan might stumble their way into an excellent chemistry. ***
6. Shingo Takagi & Hiromu Takahashi vs. EVIL & Dick Togo
Shingo is in that phase one finds themselves in from time to time where he became so synonymous with being The Champion that in the aftermath of losing The Championship, he feels aimless despite still being high on cards and the exact same wrestler (see: Kazuchika Okada). Hiromu and EVIL have their sights on each other as they find their own way around the New Japan ranks too, and they continued their beef here in between signatures by Shingo and stomps from Dick Togo **1/2
7. Kazuchika Okada, Hiroshi Tanahashi, Satoshi Kojima & Tiger Mask IV vs. Tatsumi Fujinami, CIMA, T-Hawk & El Lindaman
New Japan turns the undercard tag on its head by literally having Okada standing on his own head while exchanging holds with Tatsumi Fujinami, but also by taking a spotfest approach with a bunch of great bits leveraging the novelty of a 68-year-old man known as The Dragon tagging with CIMA and the boys in a New Japan ring: intimidating and subtext-filled staredowns, dragon screw leg whips, and a star-making run from T-Hawk. ***1/2
8. New Japan Cup – Final: Tetsuya Naito vs. Zack Sabre Jr.
Last year’s Cup was a drag, but it did have three matches I really liked and two of them featured Tetsuya Naito (vs. Great O-Khan) and Zack Sabre Jr. (vs. Will Ospreay). It makes sense too as these are two guys who have great matches with opponents who don’t always them, opponents who may have some ideas but need a point of view to match up against. That can include each other too. I loved their match in the G1 Climax 2020, the G1 rematch in 2021 match not so much but Naito got hurt so it’s a wash.
They brought their dueling dipshit attitudes bell-to-bell, which carried the quiet moments between vicious elbows to the neck and aggressively creative counters like a jackknife cradle countered with a triangle choke. ZSJ has reached the point in his career one rarely achieves where he’s workshopping so many new moves he’s giving them names, this salty crafty and skinny man who seems to have an answer for everything the confident but exhausted Naito was trying.
A gigantic tournament ended with a gigantic finishing sequence that, though there’s words to be had with the formula in general, impressively stood out above anything in the Cup besides another Ishii vs. Shingo. ZSJ wins the New Japan Cup a second time and prepares for a second showdown with Okada, too, with both guys re-affirming their status as they advanced round after round. ****1/2
Happy Thoughts: The New Japan Cup was ambitious, but ended up working out. Good wrestling, fresh directions, and the final night ended with two top matches well worth seeking out. 4.0 / 5.0
