We’ve got a few Cup matches that should be decent today! Yuji Nagata facing SANADA is a nice generational war. Ospreay and Sabre get to add another chapter to their BritWres rivalry. Will Sabre get a win and maybe a shot back at the British Heavyweight title?

Since the only things that really matter are the Cup matches, let’s not waste time waxing poetic about undercard tags that probably won’t add much.

Let’s get to the good part!

Ratings:

• CHAOS (Toru Yano, YOSHI-HASHI & Tomohiro Ishii) vs Yuya Uemura, Yota Tsuji & David Finlay: Ishii wins via Lariat @10:57 – ** ¾
• Bullet Club (KENTA, Chase Owens & Bad Luck Fale) vs Suzuki-Gun (Minoru Suzuki, DOUKI & Taichi): Chase wins via Package Piledriver @7:24 – ** ½
• LIJ (BUSHI, Tetsuya Naito& Shingo Takagi) vs CHAOS (Hirooki Goto, SHO & Kazuchika Okada): SHO wins via Shock Arrow @10:02 – ***
• Bullet Club (Jay White, EVIL & Yujiro Takahashi) w/Gedo & Dick Togo vs Hiroshi Tanahashi, Toa Henare & Juice Robinson: Tanahashi wins via High Fly Flow @13:41 – ** ¼
• NJC: SANADA vs Yuji Nagata: SANADA wins via Moonsault @18:18 – *** ¼
• NJC: Zack Sabre Jr vs Will Ospreay: Ospreay wins via Stormbreaker @21:23 – **** ¼

Results:

CHAOS (Toru Yano, YOSHI-HASHI & Tomohiro Ishii) vs Yuya Uemura, Yota Tsuji & David Finlay

As we all know, when the match has a dynamic like this, the result is pretty obvious. I’ll give this match credit though; Tsuji came out looking really good. After a Small Package reversal and Spinning Powerslam gave Tsuji really good near falls, for a second, I was thinking they might do something fun.

But then we got the typical clear the ring, people pair off to occupy one another and then Ishii showed his veteran status countering the Spear with a Kitchen Sink and absorbing a desperation Dropkick from Tsuji just to take his head off with a Lariat.

Good fight, notably from Tsuji, but still predictable.

Bullet Club (KENTA, Chase Owens & Bad Luck Fale) vs Suzuki-Gun (Minoru Suzuki, DOUKI & Taichi)

The fun thing is this match was KENTA and Suzuki continuing…whatever it was exactly…that they started yesterday. Maniacally laughing during exchanges, general goading, like Sadistic Slapstick.

Aside from seeing more KENTA and Suzuki, this was rather unimpressive with DOUKI being the usual fall guy. Sure, it was nice to see Chase or Fale pick up the win instead of the tournament participant, but still, nothing surprising.

LIJ (BUSHI, Tetsuya Naito& Shingo Takagi) vs CHAOS (Hirooki Goto, SHO & Kazuchika Okada)

Shingo and Goto still aren’t done with one another, but Okada is tapping into balloon mode a little. At some point he calls for the triple drumming hammerfists spot that CHAOS likes to do, and then starts clapping and saying “Encore” so they do it again, then he tries one more and Marty Asami finally tells him to stop and go back to the corner. Okada looks offended.

Aside from just fun action with Naito focusing Okada’s back, Shingo and Goto doing Shingo and Goto things; we actually got tangible growth on the possible Junior feud. BUSHI looks to have things locked up, goes for the La Magistral that won him the pinfall over SHO a few days ago, but SHO counters it into his own near fall. Naito breaks SHO’s German Suplex Hold, Okada clears Naito and then SHO hits Shock Arrow. So in the last 2 weeks, that gives SHO 3 visible pinfalls and BUSHI only 1. Plus the fact SHO already showed a counter for La Magistral shows that BUSHI will have to be coming up with new tactics.

Bullet Club (Jay White, EVIL & Yujiro Takahashi) w/Gedo & Dick Togo vs Hiroshi Tanahashi, Toa Henare & Juice Robinson

I suppose stuff happened in this match, but did it really matter? Jay continued to body shame Tanahashi, which in context is chiding and not cruel. I mean Tanahashi takes his jacket off for the ladies, used to pride himself on his physique, especially when NJPW themselves runs a “best body” contest. So it’s more of a heel commentary since I think Tanahashi placed higher than Jay the last 2 years and well…it’s a travesty.

Either way, typical BC stuff, Jay is amusing, Tanahashi is proving his not fat and washed up, but it’s been the same story the last few shows. Very glad tomorrow is the Cup match with Jay and Tanahashi.

NJC: SANADA vs Yuji Nagata

With Nagata as an old guard from the 3^rd generation who can still do well in the ring, it’s nice to see him in this position; but come on now. SANADA has been on well, a sort of ascent, over the last few years, so this was academic.

Nagata did keep it close for a while, a big Avalanche Exploder, signature kicks and attempts at various Nagata Locks did give SANADA a few moments of danger, but nothing to really be concerned about. The match was solid and a great testament to Nagata’s conditioning and athletic ability, but as soon as SANADA sunk in Skull End and went for the Moonsault, the match just felt like chalk.

Again, a solid match in a vacuum, but the suspension of disbelief wasn’t really ever there.

NJC: Zack Sabre Jr vs Will Ospreay

Things started off quickly given their familiarity. Many counter holds, a few signature attempts, submission/cradle attempts from ZSJ, it was hectic but fun and they had one of those smirking beak points.

We then hit a big slow point in the match, where I understand it was building, but I felt it went too long. ZSJ losing the outside the ring scuffles, getting tossed around and Ospreay imposing his power for a while, was weird. You know what’s also amusing/annoying? Ospreay pulled out a Modified Emerald Flowsion, he adopted the Hook Kick from Marufuji, uses a Rolling Elbow similar to NOAH born, Kawada kicks are of course a Kawada thing, but also something Marufuji has used for a while, and both he and Bea adjust their color schemes to green. So I’d like to know what Ospreay’s big love for NOAH is when he hasn’t been there. Zack Sabre Jr however, spent a decent amount of time in NOAH, so I wonder if some of it was to antagonize.

When things sped up, we saw a great rolling counter that went from ZSJ submissions, into Ospreay trying to power out, then an early Zack Driver for a 2 count! As the match got cooking, it looks like something went marginally awry since Ospreay’s nose got busted. Not sure if it’s broken or just bloodied, but the color in the match helped Ospreay look more resilient. ZSJ had a great moment where it looked like the Jim Breaks Special was going to win him the match, but Ospreay’s toes managed to find the ropes.

Both had great near falls and hope moments, Ospreay powered through the busted nose with an Avalanche Oscutter and then hit a Stormbreaker to pick up a very hard fought victory.

Overall Score: 6.75/10

The main event was really damn good and did save the day from being a total waste. Which isn’t to discredit Nagata and SANADA, but when it was hard to buy the fact that Nagata had a snowball’s chance in hell, that takes away from the match. Honestly, I wished there was a big upset on some of these dynamic shifts. O-Khan was the biggest upset and he lost to shenanigans from Yano. But if Kojima won, or Nagata, or Gabe or even Henare won their damn match it could’ve been interesting. Matches have been a bit easy to guess, but at least the ones that should’ve been quality, showed up.

This has been a weird New Japan Cup. Like I said before, I think the event has too many wrestlers that don’t matter, and it’s just painful when you get to the unimportant corner or a lopsided matchup where we’re supposed to pretend there’s a shot. This ain’t the NFL, “any given Sunday” doesn’t really apply in predetermined sports. So I really hope New Japan pays attention, and if we’re not out of the woods with restrictions come Cup time next year, we don’t have so damn many people.

At least this ending strong and in retrospect the other stuff wasn’t insufferable, but this tedium is starting to really build up.