My wrestling watching has severely tanked in the last few months and of course from that, I haven’t felt much like reviewing stuff either.
But with New Japan making a return, it’s piqued my interest a little more and made me want to do some reviews again. So I thought I’d cover at least some, if not all, of the New Japan Cup.
So here’s day one and two, and as usual, I’ll just be focusing on the tournament matches and skipping the random tags. Let’s go!
New Japan Cup Round 1 Match: Togi Makabe vs. Yota Tsuji
Decent match to kick off the tournament. Yota has a good start coming right at Makabe with a spear, doesn’t take long for Makabe to turn things around and take control though, locking in a couple holds. Yota soon comes back though and manages some bursts of offense that showcase some of the power he’s built up. He even gets close to a win with a rolling pinning clutch and a boston crab. Makabe also locks Yota in his own Boston Crab, but after a good struggle, Yota reaches the ropes. However, at the end, despite a good effort from Yota, Makabe takes his head off with a lariat and hits a german suplex hold to get the victory.
Winner: Togi Makabe (via German Suplex Hold) **3/4
New Japan Cup Round 1 Match – Toru Yano vs. Jado
I’ve certainly missed some Yano antics, and he starts out spraying disinfectant everywhere and tries to get the non-existent crowd to chant his name. He proceeds to get a turnbuckle pad, whilst Jado gets his kendo stick and as the ref takes the stick from Jado, Yano bops Jado in the head with the pad. He stumbles about for a while before falling to the ground and as the ref checks on him, Yujiro attacks Yano allowing Jado to get control.
This control bit is then dragged out a little longer than it needed to be, but eventually, Yano comes back and a low blow schoolboy gets him the win. Pretty dull Yano affair overall, but I’m not sure much was to be expected with his match with Jado anyway.
Winner: Yano (via Schoolboy roll-up) *3/4
New Japan Cup Round 1 Match – Tomoaki Honma vs. Hiromu Takahashi
Pretty solid match. Honma really struggles to keep up with Hiromu, allowing him to take control early on. Honma soon manages to get back into the fight, and mainly throws out a bunch of Kokeshis in variant forms, with a few being dodged by Hiromu, who in the end hits the DVD in the corner followed by the time bomb to get the victory. Match was a bit slow going, and Honma doesn’t seem all that mobile these days, but Hiromu has heaps of energy which helped alot, and it was an enjoyable match.
Winner: Hiromu (via Timebomb) ***
New Japan Cup Round 1 Match – El Desperado vs. Tomohiro Ishii
Very good match to end day one. Despy uses some smarts to take control by goading Ishii into hitting him with a forearm, but before Ishii does, Despy kicks him in the leg and proceeds to continually attack the legs for a good portion of the match, even locking a modified stretch muffler a couple of times to try and make Ishii submit. He also tries a couple of cheap tactics, including the use of low blows and the exposed turnbuckles, which helps him rack up a few nearfalls. Ishii won’t stay down so easy though and fights through to pain to deliver some big strikes and moves wherever he can, and ends up hitting a big brainbuster to get the win. Fair play to Despy, he didn’t seem much like a Jr. heavyweight at all here, he wasn’t try to match up much in the strike department and worked it smarter, but it still seemed like he matched up quite evenly to Ishii.
Winner: Ishii (via brainbuster) ***1/2
Onto day two.
New Japan Cup Round 1 Match – Taiji Ishimori vs. Gabriel Kidd
Decent little match, follows a simple format you usually get with Young Lion matches, with Ishimori getting control, Kidd managing some flashes of offence including blocking a diving ‘rana into a Boston crab, but in the end, Ishimori gets him into a crossface to make him tap. Kidd looks like he has some good agility to him, and Ishimori was as speedy as ever.
Winner: Ishimori (via crossface) **1/2
New Japan Cup Round 1 Match – Yuya Uemura vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaru
This was solid, with a good showing from Uemura. He comes right at Kanemaru from the get-go, and manages to have the upper-hand at the start with Kanemaru only managing to put a stop to him and take control with a leg drop over the guardrail. Yuya manages to come back though and busts out a couple big things like a swan dive crossbody and an arm trap belly to belly, and even manages a couple nearfalls which includes a rolling cradle.
In the end though, Kanemura hits a Deep Impact to get the win and advance.
Winner: Kanemaru (via Deep Impact) ***
New Japan Cup Round 1 Match – Minoru Suzuki vs. Yuji Nagata
It’s always a fun time to see these slug it out and this is no different. The first five minutes is literally just them going back and forth with elbows and slaps, with both guys refusing to go down until Suzuki finally catches Nagata’s leg and drops him down into a heel hold, from there he takes control for a bit, which includes him using a chair despite, the ref’s many attempts to stop him. Nagata gets back in the fight though and things go more back and forth and by the end, they’re back slapping each other until Suzuki busts out a few headbutts that takes them both down.
After all that, the match has quite a sudden end, which I think worked well, where Nagata hits an exploder, Suzuki gets back and up and runs but Nagata catches him right into a backdrop hold to get the victory. Really good match overall.
Winner: Nagata (via backdrop driver hold) ***3/4
New Japan Cup Round 1 Match – Gedo vs. Kazuchika Okada
Of course, Gedo booked himself in a 15 minute main event where he controls the majority of it. To be fair though, he only manages this through a bunch of cheating. At first, his cheap tricks are thwarted, he comes out in an arm cast, which is actually harbouring a spray can, he tries to goad Okada into pinning him so he can grab him in a small package, and he has a pair of brass knucks in jacket that Okada. But as Okada and the ref are turned away getting rid of the knucks, Gedo gets out a spanner and attacks Okada with it. From there, he ‘s in full control, attacking Okada’s midsection and every time Okada tries coming back, he uses some new dirty trick to get back control and even manages a nearfall after using another pair of hidden brass knucks and going for the Gedo clutch. In the end though, Okada, of course, makes his successful come back and hits tombstone and locks in a modified sleeper to make Gedo submit. This would’ve been better shorter and not as the main event. Gedo’s control was way too long and with no crowd present, you really feel the drag. I didn’t think it was all that bad, just a bit dull and overlong.
Winner: Okada (via modified sleeper) **
Certainly a mixed bag for the first two days, but let’s be fair, that was to be expected with the kinda matches happening. Still got some good stuff though including Ishii/Deperado and Suzuki/Nagata which has been the best match so far.
Looking forward to watching more.
Thanks for reading.
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