NJPW New Japan Cup Night One Results and Analysis

Los Ingobernables de Japon (BUSHI, SANADA, & Tetsuya Naito) vs. Suzuki-gun (El Desperado, Yoshinobu Kanemaru, Zack Sabre Jr.) w/ Taka Michinoku

Taka Michinoku grabbed the mic from the ring announcer and introduced all the members of Suzuki-gun. SANADA came out with both tag titles as EVIL is injured at the moment. Chuck Taylor joined Kevin Kelly on commentary for the rest of the night. This means a ton of hilarious lines from him. ZSJ attempted to bend Naito in half on the outside of the ring. Suzuki-gun maintained control throughout the majority of this match before ZSJ nearly broke BUSHI and got the tap out.

Result: Suzuki-gun

Rating: 2.5 stars out of 5.

This was a lot of fun. Chuck Taylor on commentary made this even better. He had a lot of good lines, and actually called the action well.

Toa Henare, David Finlay, & Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Suzuki-gun (Taich, Takashi Iizuka, & Minoru Suzuki)

Way to go right for our heart, Suzuki. He attacked Tanahashi right from the get-go and attacked Tanahashi’s knee. The action spilled into the audience as Suzuki beat on Henare. Iizuka took out Finlay. Taichi took Tanahashi into the crowd and beat on him for awhile too. Suzuki threw Finlay back into the ring before he could be counted out. Tanahashi is eventually tagged in and had some good action with Suzuki, before Suzuki went after the knee again. Henare got the hot tag and went right after Taichi, getting a near fall. Minoru Suzuki would have none of that though, and choked out Henare with a rear naked choke before sending Henare into a superkick from Taichi. Taichi got the pinfall over Henare.

Result: Suzuki-gun

Rating: 2.5 stars out of 5.

It’s always good to see Tanahashi again. He took it easy in this match, for the most part, but didn’t look bad. It looks like Tanahashi is okay. Here’s hoping he has recovered well.

CHAOS (YOSHI-HASHI & Kazuchika Okada) vs. Chase Owens & Kota Ibushi

Chase Owens seemed to be very happy to be teaming with Ibushi, meaning that some members of the Bullet Club have no problem with Kota. YOSHI-HASHI starts the match with Kota Ibushi with some fast paced action. Okada and Owens have a few exchanges before a few quick moments between Okada and Ibushi. While this tag is designed to preview Ibushi vs. YOSHI-HASHI, I have a theory. I think New Japan wants to hint at a future match between Ibushi and Okada. I don’t know if that means that Ibushi is going to win the New Japan Cup, but it will be interesting if he does.

Ibushi had some great exchanges with YOSHI-HASHI before Owens and Okada are both tagged in. YOSHI-HASHI gets a hold of Ibushi after a western lariat and a butterfly lock. Okada locks in the cobra clutch on Chase, and gets the tap out.

Result: CHAOS

Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars.

I’m really interested to see if we get to see more interaction between Okada and Ibushi on this tour. That would make things quite interesting going forward, especially if Ibushi ends up being the one to defeat Okada.