Cero Reviews NJPW New Japan Cup 2022, 3.2

[cero2k]

NJPW New Japan Cup 2022, Day 1
March 2nd, 2022
Nippon Budokan, Tokyo, Japan

Strong Spirits Game Launch - Prior to the show starting, there was a cord-cutting ceremony for the launch of the Strong Spirits NJPW mobile game. Kidani, Tanahashi, and the developer's representatives were there for the ceremony.

New Japan Cup 2022 First Round Match
TAKA Michinoku vs. CIMA (w/#STRONGHEARTS) - 7/10
Of all the matches that CIMA could have had, it being TAKA makes it really weird, because a couple of months ago, this could had been a match in any other indie promotion in the country.

Really good match. Every now and then, TAKA reminds us that he can still go, and with a dance partner like CIMA, everything just works out. TAKA mostly worked CIMA's arm towards the submission win, but CIMA managed to escape and win with a Meteora.

CIMA goes after Yoshinobu Kanemaru in the next round.

New Japan Cup 2022 First Round Match
Tomoaki Honma vs. YOSHI-HASHI - 6.5/10
Ok match, to an extent, it felt like the pair up they would have in a multi-person tag match on any given show. Honma spammed Kokeshis and got some near falls from then, while YH mostly did chops and lariats until the end when he won with Karma. Honma has been getting quite trigger happy with unprotected headbutts, I hope he stops.

YOSHI-HASHI gets an easy second round versus Yosei Fujita.

New Japan Cup 2022 First Round Match
Yuji Nagata vs. Hirooki Goto - 7.5/10
Good match. Things were looking back and forth until Goto accidentally hit a lariat to the ring post, at which point, Nagata started targeting the arm for a bit towards the arm breaker. Goto made a comeback with kicks, but he had a lot of trouble making it stick. At one point, he hit Ushigoroshi, but then went straight into Nagata's armbreaker. Goto would end up relying on Goto Ni Shiki once again to pin Nagata, just like he did in the 2016 New Japan Cup.

Goto gets to kill Dick Togo next.

New Japan Cup 2022 First Round Match
Togi Makabe vs. Jeff Cobb - 7/10
Total hoss fight, and all about building Cobb into the new powerhouse of New Japan. Makabe due to age, can't go as hard nor he could pick up Cobb for anything, so he was all strikes. Cobb however, does have the power to get Makabe up for some slams, ending with the Tour of the Islands for the win.

Cobb vs Kojima for round 2.

New Japan Cup 2022 First Round Match
Toru Yano vs. Taichi - 4/10
This was of course a YTR match, a big sack came into play for some bling spots before Taichi got the win with the Yokozuna-shiki Elbow. This lasted about 5 minutes, but there wasn't much wrestling to even consider giving it a proper rating.

With Tenzan out of the tournament, Taichi gets a second round by and waits for the winner of Wato vs Okada/Despy.

New Japan Cup 2022 First Round Match
Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. YOH - 8/10
I'm really warming up to YOH's new theme, if it was a faster tempo, it be even better. Along with the main event, this was one of the first round matches that I'm most interested in. Not long ago, YOH started adopting the Dragon's arsenal, which up to this point, had been Tanahashi's, so in a way, this could be like seeing a Tana vs Jr. Tana.

This was great, but I can see it being better if YOH were to be given more against a heavyweight. They started with mat wrestling, going after each other's legs, which YOH arguably did way more damage to Tana than the other way around, YOH kept going for the leg, so it forced Tana to get into a standing match and bring down YOH via Slingblades, slaps, and eventually, a Dragon Suplex for the win. With a little bit more, YOH could had given a better fight if he was allowed to push Tana to his real limit.

Tanahashi versus his old time rival Fale is set for round two.

New Japan Cup 2022 First Round Match
Yujiro Takahashi vs. Tetsuya Naito - 6.5/10
Even without the involvement of the House of Torture, this was a weakish match, I'd actually argue that it was when EVIL and SHO jumped the ring that the match got interesting, because we finally saw Naito in trouble. Last year, Naito took a loss in the first round to O-Khan, so it wasn't out of the realm of possibilities that Naito COULD indeed lose, especially with the HoT guys being a factor, but because of that, we had to wait for the interference to happen for the action to matter.

Most of the early match was just Naito and Yujiro kinda going back and forth, with Naito showing a clear advantage. Even when Yujiro managed to cut of Naito, you could see the latter not exactly suffering or anything like that. Eventually we had the referee bump that brought out EVIL and SHO, and once they took down Naito, we had a short tease from Yujiro, pretending that he wanted to beat Naito by himself, but instead, he just low blowed Naito for a near fall. At the end, with the referee still recovering, Naito kicked Yujiro in the nuts, pushed EVIL off the apron, and ran and jumped over Yujiro with a Gedo clutch for the win.

Naito vs Gedo is next. It's probably going to be really similar to this match.

Post-match - Naito kicked EVIL in the nuts too.

New Japan Cup 2022 First Round Match
Kazuchika Okada vs. El Desperado - 8.5/10
I really really liked this match, but I had the same problem as I did with Tanahashi and YOH, were you see a clear difference of levels between the heavyweight champion and the Jr. heavyweight champion. As much damage that Desperado did to Okada's leg throughout the match, and hitting him with Guitarra del Angel and a lesser Pinche Loco, Okada always looked in control, or that he could at least keep going for way longer, he just had to deal with walking with one leg. At the end, Okada ended up winning with the Rainmaker, which he had some trouble landing after Desperado countered the first attempts.

Okada will face Wato of all people in the next round. It will be interesting.

Post-match - Okada cut his winner's promo and send the crowd happy.

OVERALL THOUGHTS
Ok show, as usual, these opening rounds of the tournament are always here and there because for every Okada vs Despy, we get a YOSHI-HASHI vs Honma. Having said that, I thought the show was good overall, enjoyed it bell to bell, and got me somewhat excited for some of the second and third round matches already.

[Big Red Machine]

NJPW New Japan Cup 2022, Day 1
March 2nd, 2022

Really good match. Every now and then, TAKA reminds us that he can still go, and with a dance partner like CIMA, everything just works out. TAKA mostly worked CIMA's arm towards the submission win, but CIMA managed to escape and win with a Meteora.

I think TAKA is secretly one of the smartest workers in the world. When he is given the chance, he puts on great matches without doing things that are going to take their toll on him in the long run.