Andrew’s New Japan Cup Results & Match Ratings: 3.16.2021

We have to take a hard look at today’s Cup shows. EVIL vs Yano – I bet you 3 donuts and a cheeseburger that many people will hate it. BUT HEY! We get a KENTA vs Shingo main event! Surely, that’s a good one. Right?

These quarter finals are a weird combination of personas and wrestling styles, but we’re through most of the dark times.

Let’s just get to the action!

Ratings:

• TenCozy & Yuji Nagata vs Gabriel Kidd, Yuya Uemura & Yota Tsuji: Nagata wins via Nagata Lock #2 @10:08 – ** ¼
• Bullet Club (Jay White, Chase Owens & Bad Luck Fale) w/Gedo vs FinJuice & Toa Henare: Fale wins via Grenade @10:46 – ** ½
• The United Empire (Jeff Cobb & Will Ospreay) w/Bea Priestley vs LIJ (SANADA & BUSHI): Cobb wins via Tour of the Islands @8:34 – ** ¼
• NJC: EVIL w/Dick Togo vs Toru Yano: EVIL wins via Everything is Evil @7:54 – ** ½
• NJC: KENTA vs Shingo Takagi: Shingo wins via Last of the Dragon @23:47 – ****

Results:

TenCozy & Yuji Nagata vs Gabriel Kidd, Yuya Uemura & Yota Tsuji

You know, even though I’ve complained about predictable worthless undercard tags, this was so normal, I’m not mad. We’ve all grown accustomed to either Vet vs Young Lion, or Young Lion vs Young Lion, that sometimes the mixed stuff they did previously was just insulting. This is always nice as a proving ground for the younger wrestlers.

So this checked all the proving ground boxes, Gabe and Tsuji had the best moments, but we all knew it wasn’t meant to be for the Young Lions. Not to be redundant, but I am happy Gabe has gotten so much better over this weird Pandemic year.

Bullet Club (Jay White, Chase Owens & Bad Luck Fale) w/Gedo vs FinJuice & Toa Henare

While this wasn’t insanely impressive, it did show very quickly in this match that Finlay was more of a threat to Jay than he expected. Jay retreated often, showed slight concern for his aches and pains before trying to brush him off arrogantly. Breaking the 12 match streak may be more in reach than expected.

FinJuice’s team had their usual fun loving flamboyance, Henare had a few solid power spots, but honestly, kinda nice to see Fale get a win. I just haven’t type those words in a while with him grabbing the pinfall victory. I almost forgot what the Grenade was called.

The United Empire (Jeff Cobb & Will Ospreay) w/Bea Priestley vs LIJ (SANADA & BUSHI)

Ospreay continues from his post-match promo yesterday where he commented that his nose was legit broken and was going to request a Gentleman’s Agreement from SANADA. SANADA agrees, but also feigns going after the nose to get out of an Arm Wringer. Ospreay plays cowardly heel well here, eventually even getting the advantage and going after SANADA’s face telling the camera “it’s not about his nose, my nose is most important”.

Things were a little basic, but the level Ospreay went to in selling the nose and the angry yet cowardly aspect was amusing. Cobb of course threw BUSHI around like a bag of flour, and toward the end SANADA did manage to get a hold of Will’s nose, but BUSHI fell victim to a Tour of the Islands.

After the match Ospreay tried to berate SANADA and SANADA responded by flipping Will off. It was pretty fantastic honestly.

NJC: EVIL w/Dick Togo vs Toru Yano

Okay my rating is mostly for the finish. This was a typical Yano screams screwball match, lots of heel tactics, rocket launchers into expose steel and weapons – BUT – Dick Togo finally did something clever. Yano got a hold of the garrote, choked out EVIL, rolled in for the Count Out victory…but at 18, the lights went out.

When they came back on, EVIL was behind Yano, Everything is Evil and we’re bound to get a solid match regardless of if KENTA or Shingo win (prolly Shingo since BC vs BC seems unlikely). But the fact that Dick Togo walked back in from the hallway was great since it showed he was the one who shut off the lights and it wasn’t Undertaker powers.

So that little cheating wrinkle was very cool to me, felt like something that would be done in the 70s.

NJC: KENTA vs Shingo Takagi

KENTA started in his usual backed off, powdering, “back him up” style of heel. Shingo played along well, and this was a great match to help show Shingo’s ability to add different beats into his matches. KENTA came into this match a little banged up naturally with his shoulder, and after messing with Suzuki the last 3 shows, it helped and hurt.

Shingo is a well-known powerhouse and KENTA’s NJPW hasn’t been nearly as aggressive as when he was NOAH’s Ace. Between Suzuki and this match we saw more glimmers of old KENTA. Great strike exchanges that he flourished with the Kobashi Spinning Back Chop, he even pulled off a Tiger Suplex…which…I don’t remember the last time I saw him do that. Shingo laughed during strikes, and they had such great fun building the match. Even though it was over 20 minutes, it didn’t feel like it.

When we got to the point where Shingo blocked Go 2 Sleep, hit a Death Valley Driver, and even ends up hitting Last of the Dragon almost suddenly. The match was good, but felt short; it felt like if we see a rematch we could get a 40 minute match that just feels perfect. This was very enjoyable.

Overall Score: 7.25/10

Again, we see the glory of NOT HAVING A 4^th WORTHLESS UNDERCARD MATCH. The shows are about 20 minutes shorter, the mediocrity is less obtrusive and even something inane like a Yano match has a little more charm. Yes, I also realize my ratings on Yano matches are higher than many, but that’s because wrestling isn’t all just workrate; and if you think about it, the crowd is always happy and laughing, so he’s doing something right. If you don’t get it, that’s cool. But not understanding it and it being objectively bad are two different things.

As for the main event, it was a little low compared to a Shingo match, but for the story and build and the entertaining quips between the two, this was fine. I hope it leads to more. When Shingo gets the chance to carry one of the major singles belts again, I would really like a serious rematch with KENTA. KENTA has been doing pretty good work since winning the New Japan Cup USA, and he finds good ways to mix his NJPW persona with his old NOAH striking habits.

Shingo vs EVIL is set for the semi-finals. Can the newest member of LIJ avenge the club on the first betrayer?