NJPW New Japan Cup Night 1
March 11, 2017
The New Japan Cup is a single-elimination tournament featuring 16 wrestlers, that will take place over the course of the next week. The winner will earn a championship match against either IWGP Heavyweight Champion Kazuchika Okada, IWGP Intercontinental Champion Tetsuya Naito, or NEVER Openweight Champion Hirooki Goto.
Night one was live on New Japan World featuring the first four matches from the first round. We will return tomorrow (early Sunday morning) for the second series of first round matches.
Hirai Kawato & Ryusuke Taguchi vs. Taka Michinoku & El Desperado [Suzuki-Gun]
Fun opening match, with Kawato taking a bulk of the damage from Suzuki-Gun. The Young Lion looked really good though, throwing some impressive dropkicks and even getting in a few near-falls. They built a hot tag to Taguchi who traded moves with Taka Michinoku back and forth. They teased Kawato getting a roll-up win a few times, but eventually he fell to a spear and big boot combo from the heels. Desperado got the pinfall. Seems to be a pretty lively crowd here, just judging by the opening match. Winners: Suzuki-Gun
Jushin Thunder Liger, Satoshi Kojima & Hiroyoshi Tenzan vs. Tiger Mask, Manabu Nakanishi & Tomoyuki Oka
A fun and chaotic 6-man tag that was pretty much exactly what you’d expect, with all the veterans that the live crowd wanted to see, doing all their famous spots. Honestly I spent most of the match coming up with new bread-based names for Satoshi Kojima’s moveset. The Cozy Lariat will hence forth be known as White Bread, the Cozy Cutter will be called the Sticky Bun, and – I’m really proud of this one – the machine gun chops he does in the corner will now be called the Baker’s Dozen. And on the extremely rare occasion that he pulls out the old Emerald Flowsion, we can either refer to it as Sliced Bread #3 or come up with something more clever later. Oh, and Kojima picked up the win with the Cozy Lariat White Bread lariat. Winners: Liger, Kojima & Tenzan
Yoshi-Hashi & Tomohiro Ishii [Chaos] vs. Yujiro Takahashi & Kenny Omega [Bullet Club]
Another good opening tag match, probably the best of the three so far. There was a stare down between Omega and Ishii who will collide on tomorrow’s show in a tournament match, but there was a ton of action between Omega and Yoshi-Hashi teasing a very likely second round match. Takahashi came out with another scantily clad valet, rocking what looked to be 8-inch heels, a black Playboy bunny mask, and the smallest thong you’ve ever seen. She did the “too sweet” and the Omega gun pose after the match, so at least she was getting into the gimmick. Kenny blocked a swanton bomb from Yoshi-Hashi and hit him with the V-Trigger and the One Winged Angel to a huge reaction from the crowd, picking up the pin. Winners: Bullet Club
David Finlay, Kushida, Juice Robinson & Katsuyori Shibata vs. Bushi, Hiromu Takahashi, Sanada & Tetsuya Naito [Los Ingobernables de Japon]
A relatively short match, and nobody really got going to the extent that you’d hope. There was a bit of good action between Sanada and Shibata, which made me really want to see that match down the line. Juice started this one in control of Bushi, but eventually the heels teamed up on him and then worked over Finlay on the floor as well. Shibata tagged in and got right in Sanada’s face, lighting him up with stiff kicks and elbows, and a huge hesitation dropkick in the corner. Sanada thinks it’s a good idea to rake him in the eyes, which just results in him receiving a worse beating. At that point everyone hit the ring and traded signature moves, clearing the ring for Sanada to tap out Finlay to the Skull End. Typical post-match assault by LIJ afterwards. Winners: Los Ingobernables de Japon
Jado, Gedo, Hirooki Goto & Kazuchiki Okada [Chaos] vs. Taichi, Yoshinobu Kanemaru, Takashi Iizuka & Minoru Suzuki [Suzuki-Gun]
Suzuki-Gun didn’t even bother with the formality of a match, attacking before the bell and continuing their assault for several minutes. Suzuki caught Gedo in the ropes with a cross armbreaker, then laid out Okada on the ramp while Taichi drove the end of a hammer into Gedo’s eye. The ref didn’t throw out the match, likely because he’s worried about Minoru legitimately murdering him, or being eaten whole by Iizuka. The heels continued to work over Gedo, who was screaming out in pain as Suzuki tortured him with an armbar. Okada tried to break up but got caught in a simultaneous heel hook, going back to the injuries sustained from their title match. Gedo just took a ridiculous beating the entire match; at one point Iizuka was biting his knee, and choking him with a ring rope? Eventually Goto made the hot tag and squared up against Iizuka. Okada mounted a comeback against the entire enemy team, obviously upset at the amount of Suzuki-Gun beatings he’s taken over the last few months. He tried for the Rainmaker but Suzuki broke it up, and all eight guys hit the ring with bodies flying everywhere. Taichi mocked the Rainmaker pose, then got lit up with a dropkick and planted with the Rainmaker for the win, as Goto was holding back Suzuki on the apron. Winners: Chaos
First Round Match
Yuji Nagata vs. Tanga Loa
A fairly basic brawl between two brutes. This was Tanga Loa’s first big singles match, and he did…okay. A bit of brawling on the floor, into the barricade early on, and then they took their time with back and forth slugfests and big suplexes. Everything Loa threw at him, Nagata kept getting back up, which at first he thought was funny, then frustrating, then downright unbelievable. Loa put up a good fight, but couldn’t match the stamina of Nagata. Loa escaped the armbar, but got caught with a bridging back suplex for three in about 12-13 minutes, which was probably a bit too long for what this was. So Nagata moves on to face either Evil or Hiroshi Tanahashi in the second round, which we’ll find out tonight. Winner: Yuji Nagata
First Round Match
Toru Yano vs. Tama Tonga
A quick comedy match, but a damn good quick comedy match. Tonga fans probably won’t like the decision one bit, but this was an exceptionally hilarious Yano match. He did all his usual spots, but as we’ve seen plenty of times before he’s deathly afraid of Tama Tonga, to the point where he ran from the ring and told the crowd to stop chanting for him, because he was afraid it would make him mad. He did all the usual spots – grabbing the referee, taking the turnbuckle pad off, going for the low blow – but Tama had him scouted. That is, until he finally got caught with a low blow and a roll-up for a surprise upset. Yano moves on to face either Michael Elgin or Bad Luck Fale. Winner: Toru Yano
First Round Match
Michael Elgin vs. Bad Luck Fale
A very physical bout between two mammoths. Elgin spent the entire match trying to chop down Fale with a series of stiff lariats, but Fale kept coming back and doing exactly the same thing. Irresistible force, immovable object, that sort of thing. They went back and forth for quite some time until Elgin finally took the big man down with a running lariat, but only got two. They went back at it, and Elgin lifted him up for a huge German suplex. He signalled for the end, but Fale caught him with a massive spear, followed by the Grenade for the 1-2-3. It will be Toru Yano taking on Fale in round two. Winner: Bad Luck Fale
First Round Match
Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Evil
The first half the match was a complete destruction of Tanahashi. Evil took him to the floor, threw him into the barricade, back into the ring, back to the floor – he basically had his way with him for more than five minutes. Eventually Tanahashi mounted a comeback with the Slingblade and a dragonscrew, but Evil put him back down and continued to work him over. Tanahashi fired up once more and hit a dragonscrew in the ropes, followed by the signature High Fly Flow all the way to the floor, taking them both down. Back in the ring he tried for the High Fly Flow again, but Evil threw the referee into the ropes to take him off his balance. Evil went for a chair and hit Tanahashi in the back with it, but Tanahashi fired up, took the chair and just went crazy with it. The ref recovered and tried to take it from him, but in a rare display the ace actually shoved down the ref and continued with his assault. He went up for the High Fly Flow a third time, but Evil got his knees up. They went into a fast-paced, back and forth exchange with both guys hitting big moves. Evil connected with huge lariat for a nearfall, then hit Darkness Falls for another very close nearfall. Frustrated he went into a side headock, which Tanahashi sold like it was torture, fading out but still managing to kick out of a pin. Evil went for the STO, Tanahashi blocked it and hit the Slingblade as both men go down. The ace is back up first and tries for a dragon suplex, but Evil blocks it, throws down the referee, spits poison mist into Tanahashi’s eyes of of nowhere, and catches him with the STO for the win. Winner: Evil
Tomorrow will be live on New Japan World once again, then the quarter finals matches will be spread over four house shows that will not air live. The tournament matches from the house shows will be uploaded by themselves to World within a day. Then we’re back live on March 19-20 for the semi-finals and the finals.
