Andrew’s New Japan Cup Results & Match Ratings 6.16.20: Day 1

Now after their Together Project show, we understand that they really are just dipping their toes back into the water. This isn’t really a loaded show, but for a kickoff day; we get to see a few veterans or lower card guys who don’t get much shine.

Hiromu has to be an early favorite to get to at least the semi-finals while Makabe is poised nicely to get one more encounter with Tomohiro Ishii. Yes, the New Japan Cup is notorious for upsets, but if we get deprived of another Makabe versus Ishii…I’m gonna be a little mad.

So let’s see how things play out!

Ratings:

• Yota Tsuji vs Togi Makabe: Makabe wins via German Suplex Hold @8:40 – *** ¼
• Jado w/Gedo & Yujiro Takahashi vs Toru Yano: Yano wins via Rollup @9:05 – ½
• Suzuki-Gun (Minoru Suzuki, Yoshinobu Kanemaru, Taichi & Zack Sabre Jr) vs Hiroshi Tanahashi, Yuji Nagata, Kota Ibushi & Yuya Uemura: Suzuki wins via Gotch Style Piledriver @13:30 – *** ½
• Tomoaki Honma vs Hiromu Takahashi: Hiromu via Time Bomb @18:45 – *** ¼
• El Desperado vs Tomohiro Ishii: Ishii wins via Vertical Drop Brainbuster @20:15 – *** ¾

Results:

Yota Tsuji vs Togi Makabe

Yota thrusts himself into a Spear immediately at the bell for an early 2 count. Strike exchange, and then Yota with a big Shoulder Tackle for another near fall causing Togi to powder. Yota is on top of it though and follows for more strikes before Togi eventually counters the Irish Whip into the barricade.

It’s not often that people take the fight to the Unchained Gorilla, so Makabe slides back in to gather himself and wait for the Young Lion to answer the count. Yota still brings some fight, but Makabe slows down the pace and starts controlling the match. Sleeper Hold and Half Boston Crab send a message to the energetic young wrestler, but another burst gives Yota some hope.

Great fire continued to drive Yota as he hit a Splash, another Spear and even tried to finish Makabe with a Boston Crab of his own. Makabe wasn’t going to be insulted though, and after a quick exchange where Yota thought he had the advantage, he hits the ropes, Togi turns him inside out with a Lariat and ends the match with a German Suplex Hold. Much more competitive than I expected from Yota.

Jado w/Gedo & Yujiro Takahashi vs Toru Yano

Yano’s tron has clips of his YouTube and calls him “YouTuber Toru Yano”, ending with Please Subscribe of course. This match takes an expected…yet too damn long turn.

Weapons, interference, Yano starting a chant, Jado telling him no one’s here, but then Jado starting a chant with Yano telling him he’s dumb cause it’s empty arena. Yujiro and Gedo interfered on Jado’s behalf often, Jado took the Triple H bump, where he walked around the ring dazed after eating a turnbuckle pad, and then Flair flopped.

This was miserable since Jado shouldn’t be in a ring and Yano didn’t feel like being serious. Ugh…definitely in contention for worst match of the year.

Suzuki-Gun (Minoru Suzuki, Yoshinobu Kanemaru, Taichi & Zack Sabre Jr) vs Hiroshi Tanahashi, Yuji Nagata, Kota Ibushi & Yuya Uemura

Ahh the time honored tradition of the Suzuki-Gun mugging before introductions are done. Surprisingly Uemura gets the best of Kanemaru and quickly tags in Tanahashi who calls out Taichi. Tanahashi comes out hot, but Suzuki-Gun and ZSJ turn the tide. Most notably, Taichi holds Tanahashi and Zack insults the Ace by performing a Dragon Screw Leg Whip and Reverse Dragon Screw. Working the legs, the pride and the history of the Fujinami Dragon style.

With that, Suzuki comes in and applies the Kneebar that is reminiscent of how he won the Intercontinental title off of Tanahashi two years ago. This match turns into everyone beats the hell out of the Ace. Referee distractions, chairs, knee focusing…just tearing Tanahashi apart. He eventually manages to Dragon Screw ZSJ for some space and some vengeance, bringing Ibushi in for the foreshadowing.

Nagata and Suzuki have a great moment, Taichi goes after Tanahashi and ZSJ’s interactions with Ibushi are just perfect. This was a great hype match. Three big matches, with different styles, stories and personalities. After Suzuki pins Uemura, the future opponents each have their own moments. Taichi has Tanahashi in the Stretch Plum, Nagata goes in to slap box with Suzuki and Sabre and Ibushi are just jawing playfully. It’s not until Taichi interjects himself with Ibushi that they finally lay out Kota. Great story telling and personality shown during and after. Ibushi is helped up after Suzuki-Gun snickers off, and he runs after them.

Tomoaki Honma vs Hiromu Takahashi

This may be the first time…in a long time that I’ve heard Honma’s personal theme. Part of the story here really could be that they both came back from serious neck injuries. Hiromu seemingly better thanks to his youth, but this is interesting. Honma is never really considered even upper mid card, but he’s solid and looking to use his size advantage.

Commentary made this match much better than it should’ve been (yes even in Japanese). Hiromu toyed with Honma early since he’s the lovable loser, but that made his hope spots even more exciting. Commentary went crazy at the prospect of Honma pulling off the win. A tease for a top rope to the outside Kokeshi was surprising, a few short range and falling Kokeshis gave Honma a good bit of near falls, but Hiromu prevailed in the end. Definitely sounded like Hiromu insulted Honma to the effect of “and this is a heavyweight”, so I’d hope this is a small chance for Honma to prove himself through the rest of the year and not just raise Hiromu up by making the lower card look even worse.

El Desperado vs Tomohiro Ishii

So even though we just saw a Junior versus a Heavyweight, this is a completely different story. Ishii is held very highly in the minds and hearts of fans, where Desperado is mostly a decent worker in the Junior division.

The story here was Desperado reminding us that Ishii’s left knee was giving him issues before the quarantine, and pulling out every heel tactic he knew. Eye poke, ref shields, low blows, exposed turnbuckles, referee as a weapon…sheesh. Ishii sold wonderfully and there was even a great spot where he was going to Powerbomb Despy, but his knee gave out so he just kind of flipped Despy and fell backwards into the ropes. Botch or good sell work, it was a nice touch and no one landed funny so it added to Desperado’s chance to win.

Despy pulled out most of his signature finishers except for Pinche Loco. So while it was a pretty solid story and well enough wrestled, Despy’s constant reliance on heel tactics got a little old.

Overall Score: 7.25/10

This day didn’t really have a lot of big players except for in the non-tournament tag match. The work was fairly consistent, even with the Jado match, and it was nice to see Honma get a chance to shine. Given who was involved, it wasn’t a bad show and again, the hard work was very obvious. Day 2 will bring us two bigger matches, with Okada finally getting to beat the hell out of Gedo for everything that went on and Nagata versus Suzuki…that will be special.

Just to keep everyone on the same page, after today’s matches here’s how round 2 will play out for this quadrant.

Togi Makabe vs Tomohiro Ishii (lots of history here, some great NEVER championship matches)

Hiromu Takahashi  vs Toru Yano ( crazy like a fox facing stupid like a fox…who knows what we get here)