NJPW New Japan Cup Night One Results and Analysis

Night One of the NJPW New Japan Cup aired in the early hours of March 9th in North America. The show featured two first round matches. Juice Robinson vs. Yujiro Takhashi & Michael Elgin vs. Tomohiro Ishii.

NJPW looks to setup their spring and early summer with the matches here in the New Japan Cup, so lots of stories are going to develop here moving forward. The tag matches will supply little hints about what’s coming, and it’s always exciting to pay attention to those little details.

Shota Umino, Tomoyuki Oka, & Tetsuhiro Yagi vs. CHAOS (Chuck Taylor, Toru Yano, & Hirooki Goto)

Nice quick little opening match right here. Oka and Umino showed a lot of fire as the young lions. Chuck Taylor got the pinfall over Umino with the Awful Waffle. NJPW has a lot of young lions that are looking to step up. I expect Oka and Umino to both be major parts of NJPW for years to come.

Result: CHAOS

Rating: 2 stars out of 5.

This was simply average. Nice little tag match to get the crowd warmed up for the rest of the show. Nothing wrong with it, but nothing special at all.

Bullet Club (Tanga Loa & Bad Luck Fale) vs. Killer Elite Squad (Suzuki-gun) (Davey Boy Smith Jr. & Lance Archer)

Lance Archer came out and spit an ocean’s worth of water on the people in the building. Archer started the match with Loa. KES went for the Killer Bomb, but couldn’t hit it. The action spilled outside, and Davey Boy brawled with Fale into the crowd. KES brought it back to the ring and got the heat on Loa for a few minutes. Loa eventually managed to outwit KES and makes the hot tag. Fale got control for a little bit, but as soon as Loa is tagged back in, KES took control again. KES kept Fale at bay and hit the Killer Bomb on Loa for the pinfall.

Result: KES

Rating: 2 stars out of 5.

Solid tag match here. Nothing exciting, but if you want to watch the whole show, it’s not a bad watch either.

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.

Juice Robinson vs. Yujiro Takahashi

Given that this match has Yujiro in it, I expected something that was only average. Juice and Yujiro delivered well beyond what I expected. A decent back and forth match that picked up quite a bit once the action spilled to the outside of the ring. Juice cut his back on the guardrail, and started bleeding. Yujiro hit a fisherman’s buster onto a chair, nearly knocking Juice out. Juice barely made it back into the ring on time.

Unfortunately for Juice, Yujiro hit a fisherman’s buster in the ring again. Juice managed to kick out. Juice went to the top rope, but Yujiro cut him off and Juice got caught. Yujiro hit a fisherman’s buster off the top rope! Holy cow! Juice kicked out. Somehow, despite eating kicks from Yujiro, Juice managed to hit a massive lariat. Juice hit a big corner cannonball on Yujiro, followed with a double knee gutbuster. Yujiro kicked out. Takahashi hit Juice with everything in this one, but Juice keeps kicking out. Yujiro did a Canadian Backbreaker into a Piledriver on Juice, but Juice still kicked out! That was crazy! Juice hit a massive powerbomb! Takahashi kicked out! Juice picked him up and finally hit Pulp Friction! Juice Robinson wins in an absolute war!

Result: Juice Robinson (1/1 on my first round predictions.)

Rating: 3.5 stars out of 5.

Wow. This match was only decent at the start, but goodness did it ever pick up. Juice and Yujiro really turned it up towards the end of the match. This was excellent.

Michael Elgin vs. Tomohiro Ishii

This is basically what you’d expect from both men. Lots and lots of hard forearms. Both men exchange some power shots, before Elgin hits a gorilla press on Ishii for a near fall. The strike exchanges continue with Elgin dropping Ishii. Ishii returns the favour a few minutes later. Elgin managed to hit a few big shots, followed by a Blue Thunder Bomb. Ishii kicked out. Elgin hit a big splash from the top rope, but that didn’t finish Ishii either.

Elgin hits a falcon arrow off the middle rope, but Ishii still manages to kick out. Elgin goes back to the top rope, and Ishii headbutts him to keep him there. Ishii hits a massive superplex off the top rope on Elgin. Elgin kicked out. Elgin hit a big blow, and followed with two huge lariats. Ishii barely kicks out. Elgin hit a massive top rope powerbomb and almost killed Ishii with a botch. Somehow, Ishii kicked out. Ishii ate a buckle bomb, and followed with a Frankensteiner. Ishii is the toughest man in wrestling. He hit a headbutt followed by a lariat. Elgin responded with a series of hard blows, and Ishii somehow still kicked out!

Ishii ate another buckle bomb, where Elgin almost dropped Ishii again. Elgin hit a burning hammer, and pinned Ishii. I am not pleased with this result. Elgin was the wrong guy to win here, and until the end of the match looked like he didn’t want to be there. Not to mention he almost killed Ishii with two botches. The match was still good though. I’m just really displeased with who won, especially because Ishii is one of the best in the world. Nonetheless, NJPW delivers a quality main event again.

Result: Michael Elgin (1/2 for my predictions on round one).

Rating: 4 stars out of 5.

Again, this was a really good match. After the match, Elgin offers to help Ishii up, but Ishii refuses. He doesn’t want any help.

Final Thoughts

Other than the anti-climatic ending to Ishii vs. Elgin, this show was quite solid. Elgin was the wrong guy to win in the main event, but the match itself was excellent if I divorce myself from it emotionally, especially by the end. With that being said, the opening part of the match saw a very lethargic looking Elgin. The best parts of this match were totally because of Ishii. Let’s hope Elgin doesn’t make it past the second round. NJPW went with the wrong guy here, in my opinion.

Show rating: 3 out of 5.

Next: WWE Releases Abbey Laith; others

A mostly fun NJPW show that was soured quite a bit by Elgin winning. I would have given the rating an easy 3.5 or higher without that ending. With that being said. Juice Robinson vs Elgin in the second round should be a good match. I hope NJPW goes with the guy that has a better chance long term with the company in Juice.