Andrew’s New Japan Cup Results & Match Ratings: 3.18.2021

So there’s history and a decent story in today’s New Japan Cup episode! Finlay and White go back to their Young Lion days where Jay holds the advantage 12-1. Ospreay and SANADA have a much easier story though. Ospreay broke his nose against ZSJ, and SANADA doesn’t care. Do we get any interesting wrinkles today?

Finlay needs a good outing here. Given that FinJuice are prominent in New Japan of USA and the Impact Wrestling relationship, this feels like a big upset alert. Ospreay however, I mean he’s been my pick, and SANADA doesn’t need to make it further in the Cup again until he gets a solid win or singles title.

Is SANADA capped? Is it still the New JAYpan Cup? Let’s find out!

Ratings:

• Gabriel Kidd vs Yuya Uemura: Kidd wins via Double Arm Suplex @7:22 – ** ¼
• United Empire (Jeff Cobb & Great O-Khan) vs Yuji Nagata & Yota Tsuji: O-Khan wins via Eliminator @11:58 – **
• Bullet Club (KENTA & Bad Luck Fale) vs Toa Henare & Juice Robinson: Fale wins via Grenade @8:37 – ** ½
• LIJ (Shingo Takagi, BUSHI & Tetsuya Naito) vs Bullet Club (Taiji Ishimori, EVIL & Chase Owens) w/Dick Togo: Naito wins via Roll Through Double Leg Cradle @10:12 – ** ½
• NJC: Jay White w/Gedo vs David Finlay w/Juice Robinson: Finlay wins via Acid Drop @19:26 – *** ¾
• NJC: SANADA vs Will Ospreay: Ospreay wins via Stormbreaker @18:55 – **** ¼

Results:

Gabriel Kidd vs Yuya Uemura

A very basic outing from the two, but that’s not a bad thing in all honesty. I enjoy when the Cup shows have pivoted to the more traditional opening match, and Yuya and Kidd had a solid, just not flashy match.

Yuya held onto a Side Headlock coming off the ropes, and it was a fairly even battle. Gabe has a little more size and that looked to help him out, and when Yuya got rocked in the strike exchange, the Double Arm Suplex was all that Gabe needed to finish the match.

Also nice to see old school moves used as finishers for the Young Lions. It’s a fun throwback feel at times.

United Empire (Jeff Cobb & Great O-Khan) vs Yuji Nagata & Yota Tsuji

Tsuji does look excited to mix it up with former Young Lion O-Khan. Not gonna lie, I felt like I fell asleep on my feet during this match. Not because it was terrible or anything either, but it’s just color by numbers. Tsuji got to cut his teeth a little against main power guys, Nagata tried to equalize at times, but Tsuji being the weak link means he eats the pin.

Tsuji had his moments, so it wasn’t without some points to build on. This entire tour has just had entirely too many obvious “random Lion” or “Junior on the team” matches where you knew who was losing for me to get invested here.

Bullet Club (KENTA & Bad Luck Fale) vs Toa Henare & Juice Robinson

While this does check similar boxes to the previous match, there’s more suspension of disbelief that Henare gets a surprise win since he gets start and stop “test the waters” types of pushes. KENTA and Juice interacted a decent bit, which had Juice taking…a lot.

Mitchell said it on Facebook, and I agree, Juice just tries too damn hard. I don’t know if he’s trying to be funny, or if he thinks it’s entertaining, but sometimes less is more. You can’t be a rolling donut in a clown car constantly, and then expect people to take you seriously.

Henare had a few power hope spots against Fale, but Fale’s size was Henare’s undoing. Not terrible, just nothing that needs to be watched.

LIJ (Shingo Takagi, BUSHI & Tetsuya Naito) vs Bullet Club (Taiji Ishimori, EVIL & Chase Owens) w/Dick Togo

Part of the amusement here was that Shingo proved to be a wrecking ball, and EVIL could only get an advantage with teammate help or outside interference. Dick Togo grabbed Shingo’s leg at different points, Taiji made a lot of saves; but generally speaking EVIL was outclassed in power and intensity.

This will probably play a little bit of a role in their Semi-Finals match, but Shingo looks like a house, makes some remarks to Chase about the Texas Heavyweight title and looks to be a favorite going in. Naito picking up the win over Chase is fine since Naito has had a very quiet Cup tour since being eliminated in the first round.

NJC: Jay White w/Gedo vs David Finlay w/Juice Robinson

We got most of the story when Jay beat Tanahashi, that this rivalry that started when they were Young Lions has been pretty one sided. With Jay winning the previous 12 straight singles matches, it was hard to foresee an upset.

Jay did much like the math showed, and took Finlay a little lightly, and tried to get him to fire up at different points while they went back and forth. Juice however, did the smartest thing, and just grabbed Gedo and walked to the back with him over his sounders. From that point forward, Jay seemed a little distraught, even talking to no one on the outside, trying to imagine Gedo calling for the Kiwi Krusher.

Things start to pick up when Jay starts losing control on the match and his mental stability. There’s a lot of finish/signature blocking. Finlay tried Prima Nocta a few times, but Jay shrugged it off, Jay hit the Blade Buster and a few variations of suplexes, but never his patented Sleeper Suplex. Also unless I blacked out, Jay never really had a chance to attempt the Blade Runner. Finlay kept countering, dodging and trying to catch Jay, and finally did with Acid Drop!

When he came to, Jay was confused and stunned. He couldn’t fathom that Finlay won, you can even see him confirming with Gabe on the way back as Gabe helped him to the presser area.

NJC: SANADA vs Will Ospreay

Even though Ospreay is turning into Kenny Omega Jr but this time with an accent; at least he never tried to portray himself as likable. So the dumb over dramatic heel actually works for him.

Things are off quick with SANADA sending Ospreay out, and Ospreay gets a small advantage and starts yelling at the crowd that they should be rooting for him. Ospreay did a good job taking shots at SANADA and then showing he was okay with a Count-Out.

SANADA really pushed the not caring about the nose aspect, even going as far as to position Ospreay in the corner with the Paradise Lock, but positioning his face into the turnbuckle pad. So when SANADA hit the Dropkick, he rammed his face into the turnbuckle pad as well. After Ospreay fought back a bit, we get to a bunch of great counter spots.

Slipping out of the Stormbreaker, SANADA hits a Jumping Sole Butt, then flips back into Dragon Sleeper, locks the Skull End for a little, goes Moonsault…but Ospreay gets the knees up. Things continue to be quick, Hidden Blade from Ospreay, attempts at Oscutters, but SANADA dodges. Then SANADA goes for the Pop-Up Cutter, but Ospreay turns in mid-air for the Poison Rana! Oscutter gives Ospreay the near fall, but we keep going. Great fighting, big attempts from both, but Ospreay finally lands the Stormbreaker and moves on.

Overall Score: 7.5/10

Even though I figured that Finlay was getting the on paper upset, given Jay’s brash attempt to mask his breakdown after Wrestle Kingdom and keep up the façade during the New JAYpan Cup was great to watch crumble after his loss. Between his psychosis when Gedo left and then the lost aspect after his lost was quite amusing.

Ospreay’s promo at the end was funny, since he took a nice jab at Jay White losing to David Finlay and got across more of his douchey whining. This also really helps my pick of Ospreay to make it at least to the finals. It’s hard to imagine a world where David Finlay beats Will Ospreay and Jay White in the same tournament.

So a decent day, capped with an upset I kinda saw, and a solid main event with some funny beats between great athleticism for both. All in all, hard to complain.