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NJPW: The 5 New Japan Cup Matches You Need To See

By Corey Collins

NAGAOKA,JAPAN - MARCH 23: SANADA celebrates the victory in the Semi Final bout during the New Japan Cup of NJPW at Aore Nagaoka on March 23, 2019 in Nagaoka, Japan. (Photo by Etsuo Hara/Getty Images)
NAGAOKA,JAPAN - MARCH 23: SANADA celebrates the victory in the Semi Final bout during the New Japan Cup of NJPW at Aore Nagaoka on March 23, 2019 in Nagaoka, Japan. (Photo by Etsuo Hara/Getty Images) /
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5. Shota Umino vs Hiroshi Tanahashi, Round 1

If you’ve been watching New Japan regularly for the past year, you’ve taken notice of Shota Umino. The current batch of Young Lions is an incredibly impressive one and I’m excited to see each of them head out on excursion so they can come back and rise up the ranks of the NJPW roster.

Shota Umino is something special though, and the New Japan offices clearly see that. He became the first Young Lion to ever enter the New Japan Cup, and he was served with a brutal welcoming committee in the form of the former IWGP Heavyweight Champion Hiroshi Tanahashi.

This wasn’t your typical Young Lion/Veteran match-up. With the way the New Japan crowd has taken to Umino, it wasn’t so far-fetched that he could make it past the first round in the New Japan Cup.

On the other side of the coin, with the way Tanahashi has fallen from grace since The New Beginning, it wasn’t out of the realm of possibility to see the most accomplished name in the Cup fall to the least-experienced.

Although Umino has already made a name for himself in New Japan, this match felt like a massive coming out party for the Young Lion. He held his own against Tanahashi for every bit of their near 17-minute match including a particular near fall toward the end of the match that had everybody in the arena buying the idea that he was about to pin The Ace of the Universe.

In the end, we’d see Tanahashi come away with the victory – but he had to change his own game plan to do so. Rather than winning with his usual High Fly Flow, Tana resorted to the Texas Cloverleaf submission to tap out young Umino.

Having to change his regular style not only due to the condition of his knees, but also to stay head of his younger opponent, proved that Umino is no ordinary rookie. He battled Tanahashi with gusto and had the crowd eating out of the palm of his hand with each near fall.

Whenever Umino breaks free of the Young Lion moniker and can begin to blaze his own path, he’ll be a force to be reckoned with.

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