NJPW New Japan Cup Night Four: Results and Analysis

The first round of the NJPW New Japan Cup 2018 comes to an end tonight. Who will advance to the next round?

NJPW has delivered three nights of excellent wrestling, and night four looks to continue the trend.

Ren Narita & Ryusuke Taguchi vs. Suzuki-gun (El Desperado & Kanemaru)

Ren Narita was given a lot of time to shine in this match. More than the typical young lion. I think Narita and Umino are well thought of by management, otherwise this kind of booking wouldn’t happen. The match saw El Desperado get the win via stretch muffler.

Result: Suzuki-gun

Rating: 2.25 stars out of 5

Tetsuhiro Yagi, Shota Umino, & Yuji Nagata vs. Bullet Club (Tanga Loa, Yujiro Takahashi, & Bad Luck Fale)

The two young lions wrestling with one of their mentors is always interesting, as it’s an opportunity for them to learn first hand. The was mostly standard fare with the young lions getting a little offense in, and The Bullet Club mostly dominating. Takahashi got the win with a DDT.

Result: The Bullet Club

Rating: 2 stars out of 5

Tomoyuki Oka & Michael Elgin vs. CHAOS (YOSHI-HASHI & Hirooki Goto)

CHAOS spends the majority of this match in control, getting the heat on Oka. Oka still manages to look like a future star though, as he had some good hard hitting offense against Goto and YOSHI-HASHI. YOSHI-HASHI got the win with a butterfly lock.

Result: CHAOS

Rating: 2 stars out of 5

Los Ingobernables de Japon (BUSHI & Tetsuya Naito) vs. Suzuki-gun (Taka Michinoku & Zack Sabre Jr.)

Tetsuya Naito is coming off a devastating loss to Zack Sabre Jr. last night. That alone makes this match interesting. Naito had a few more brief clashes with ZSJ, but nothing too extensive. ZSJ tied BUSHI up in knots several times, but this didn’t stop BUSHI from hitting the MX on Taka and getting the win.

Result: Los Ingobernables de Japon

Rating: 2.5 stars out of 5