Cero Reviews NJPW New Japan Cup 2019 - 3.11

[cero2k]

NJPW New Japan Cup 2019 Day 4
March 11, 2019
Amagasaki Gymnasium, Hyogo, Japan

Bullet Club (Bad Luck Fale, Chase Owens, Taiji Ishimori, & Hikuleo) w/Jado vs Michael Elgin, Juice Robinson, YOSHI-HASHI, & Yuya Uemura - 5.5/10
Bullet Club worked over YH for the first half of the match, then all the good guys worked over Hikuleo. At the end, Uemura came in and had a good exchange with Ishimori, who tapped him out with a crossface. Good for what it was, I enjoyed Uemura.

Post-match - Owens and company attacked YH when Yoshii decided to get face to face with Owens. What a dumbass.

Yuji Nagata, Manabu Nakanishi, Hiroyoshi Tenzan, & Ren Narita vs Los Ingobernables de Japon - 5/10
After a good start for Tenzan, LIJ turned the match on him and cut him off from his corner for half of the match. Home team turned it around and killed poor Ren Narita, BUSHI finished him off with a Boston Crab. With Narita and Nagata there, we got more Tenzan and Nakanishi, so meh. LIJ was great tho.

Suzuki-Gun (Zack Sabre Jr & TAKA Michinoku) vs Kota Ibushi & Tomoaki Honma - 6/10
"Oh hey! it's Honma!" FUCK YOU KEVIN KELLY! YOUR JOKES ARE BAD AND YOU SHOULD FEEL BAD!

Match was the same thing for the most part, Sabre and TAKA worked over Honma, who made a comeback, and we finally got a great exchange between Ibushi and Sabre. Ibushi pinned TAKA after Kamigoye after Honma landed a Kokeshi.

Suzuki-Gun (Taichi & Lance Archer) vs CHAOS (Will Ospreay & Tomohiro Ishii) - 6/10
Two stories going on here. Ospreay is becoming the Heavyweight Killer, but we still get Archer overpowering him for now. Between Ishii and Taichi, we're seeing that Taichi's kicks hurt Ishii, more than his chops hurt Taichi. Ospreay got the assisted upset pin on Archer with a crucifix pin.

Post-match - Suzuki-Gun took out Ishii and Ospreay. Taichi knocked them out with the mic stand, while Archer hit Blackout on Ospreay.

Ryusuke Taguchi, Toa Henare, & Mikey Nicholls vs Hiroshi Tanahashi, Kazuchika Okada, & Shota Umino - 5/10
Taguchi and Tanahashi did some comedy, I liked it. Shota and Henare faced each other until Shota's ring was cut in half. Okada and Nicholls did some stuff, but it was short and meh. Nicholls picked up the win with Mikey Bomb on Shota. Meh match, but I'm excited about Taguchi vs Tanahashi.

New Japan Cup 2019 First Round Match
"The Canadian Bulldog" Davey Boy Smith Jr. vs "Binwan Producer" Toru Yano - Dud
I honestly wasn't having a problem with the match, but the finish looked so fake that fuck it all. Smith had Yano figured out for a while until he actually dodged the low blow, only to be taken down by a normal roll up. I didn't even mind the idea, the execution just looked weak as fuck.

New Japan Cup 2019 First Round Match
"Boom Boom" Colt Cabana vs "The Unchained Gorilla" Togi Makabe - 6/10
I liked some stuff here, and I hated the rest. When they mat wrestled, traded strikes, or even tossed each other, it was awesome; however, when Cabana did his shitty ass shtick, it was dumb and made me wonder why NJPW would bring him in. Colt Cabana did manage to win with the Superman pin, so we're now getting a one-on-one between Cabana and Yano which should be interesting. This makes me fear a Yano vs Suzuki match later on.

New Japan Cup 2019 First Round Match
"The King" Minoru Suzuki vs "Cozy" Satoshi Kojima - 7.5/10
Match was about most of Suzuki-Gun's floor plan, with the brawl outside, the countout tease, the striking battles, and just when you think Satoshi has this done, Suzuki pulls of the GSP for the win. The match was good, but it's been a dull show and I never saw Kojima winning anyway.

New Japan Cup 2019 First Round Match
"Aramusha" Hirooki Goto vs "Cold Skull" SANADA - 9/10
Easily the match of the night. As long as Goto keeps using the GTR and SANADA keeps using the Skull End, they will always have a great dynamic in their wrestling since both moves have the same setup and that setup can be naturally countered to itself. The match felt like a spring chasing such finishers. Goto slightly worked SANADA's arm early on and SANADA sold it nicely thoughtout the match, but it wasn't like Ospreay, it was subtle.

I'd usually say that the finishing sequence was great, but that chase for the finisher was so long and great that it all felt like a finishing sequence, especially when they were doing Ushigoroshis on each other. SANADA at one point had the Skull End and went for the finisher moonsault, but Goto got out of the way; however, minutes later, SANADA went for it again, this time capturing the win. Great match. I'm really surprised that SANADA won considering that Goto was in that Anniversary beat down angle and had been sold as Mr. March all month by stupid Kevin Kelly, then again, Kevin Kelly usually talks out of his ass and it's on many occasions, calling it like a shoot from what he believes is going on.

Post-match - SANADA cut a promo saying this is his favorite town and wishing the crowd a nice day.

OVERALL THOUGHTS
Pretty boring show today, the tournament matches were kinda boring, with two final matches being the only redeemable things tonight. Suzuki vs Kojima was somewhat predictable, but i'll accept that I didn't call out the other 3. SANADA vs Suzuki and Yano vs Cabana are the second round matches, which kick off on the next show.