Andrew’s New Japan Cup Results & Match Ratings: 3.20.2021

Well we’ve reached the Semi-Finals of the New Japan Cup! Shingo v EVIL & Ospreay v Finlay! Do we get more upsets? Do we get EVIL running it back? Do we get a BOSJ rematch? Let’s find out!

So my hopes are that Shingo and Ospreay make it to the Finals. Not because Finlay can’t deliver, but because I think his underdog story ends here and EVIL is a trash can in black mascara. I just want a Finals that will actually be a good match and not trying to tolerate over booked heel crap interspersed with a move or three.

Let’s pray we get something cool here!

Ratings:

• Juice Robinson & Yuya Uemura vs United Empire (Jeff Cobb & Great O-Khan): Cobb wins via Tour of the Islands @8:44 – **
• Bullet Club (Jado, Bad Luck Fale & Chase Owens) vs CHAOS (SHO, Toru Yano & YOSHI-HASHI): Yano wins via Low Blow/School Boy @7:58 – * ½
• Suzuki-Gun (Taichi, ZSJ & DOUKI) vs LIJ (Tetsuya Naito, SANADA & BUSHI): SANADA wins via Skull End @11:19 – ***
• Hiroshi Tanahashi, Kazuchika Okada & Kota Ibushi vs Bullet Club (KENTA, Jay White & Yujiro Takahashi) w/Gedo: Ibushi wins via Kamigoye @10:26 – ***
• NJC: Will Ospreay w/Bea Priestley vs David Finlay: Ospreay wins via Stormbreaker @21:04 – **** ¼
• NJC: EVIL vs Shingo Takagi: Shingo wins via Last of the Dragon @22:43 – *** ½

Results:

Juice Robinson & Yuya Uemura vs United Empire (Jeff Cobb & Great O-Khan)

Do I need to say it anymore? Young Lion = Pinfall. This was a fine basic match to show how far the Young Lion has come, and Juice added his obnoxious charm I suppose, it just wasn’t anything that needs to be watched.

At least Yuya got a few surprising power moves on Cobb, so it tried to show off he’s not just a generic Junior.

Bullet Club (Jado, Bad Luck Fale & Chase Owens) vs CHAOS (SHO, Toru Yano & YOSHI-HASHI)

Okay so this is match has a level of possible doubt. Yes, you might think SHO or Jado will eat the pinfall, but we could always see Fale pin Yano as payback for the Cup the loss and an excuse to challenge for the KOPW trophy. Not a ton to exactly sink your teeth in, but at least it’s plausible.

Yeah – even if I tried to suspend some disbelief it still went the usual way and it was…not really great as it went on. Jado is decent in his limitations, but he’s so limited its rough at times. Fale is…well…Fale. Either way, end is a shmoz, we see a bunch of signatures, Fale almost captures Yano, the referee takes the kendo stick from Jado tho, so Yano hits Low Blows on Fale and Jado, rolls up Jado, and Sublime Master Thief wins!

Suzuki-Gun (Taichi, ZSJ & DOUKI) vs LIJ (Tetsuya Naito, SANADA & BUSHI)

Taichi and Naito continue their playful hatred of one another, Naito asks Taichi to hold the ropes for him and Taichi does for a moment; then when Naito swings a leg in he just walks away. They also trade choke holds during the match, so there’s that sibling style rivalry that they have. ZSJ and SANADA continued their master classes in wrestling. Great counter wrestling with one another for a while and then we get some tags for the Juniors.

BUSHI and DOUKI were the obvious fall guys, but the rest of the team members carried the amusement in this match. Also with how much Taichi and ZSJ interacted with Naito and SANADA, we could be seeing a tag match in the near future. SANADA finished with DOUKI and DOUKI didn’t really stand a chance. There were fun locomotion cradle attempts, DOUKI’s Daybreak and almost Suplex de la Luna, but SANADA or LIJ had counters ready. DOUKI went to sleep with the Skull End, and Taichi and Naito were demonstrating their versions of chokeholds to one another…on Gabriel Kidd.

This was fun, and could build something with Taichi and Naito or a tag situation.

Hiroshi Tanahashi, Kazuchika Okada & Kota Ibushi vs Bullet Club (KENTA, Jay White & Yujiro Takahashi) w/Gedo

Early on Ibushi starts with Jay, Jay tries to take his frustrations out on Ibushi; but Ibushi catches him with a kick and brings him to his corner. Tananhashi raises his hand waiting for a hand to hand tag, but Okada just smacks Ibushi on the back to bring himself in. After getting a few shots in on Jay, Okada tags out normally to Tanahashi. So we’re getting an interesting undercurrent on the Ace team.

Bullet Club starts coming back on Tanahashi, Jay throws him out and distracts the referee, KENTA and Yujiro attack the Ace and then – OH – An Earthquake. A legitimate earthquake, so we get an unexpected pause in the show.

After about a 20 minute break, Bullet Club comes back out and Jay is draped in all of the belts, they mouth off to the Ace team who stuck around to calm the crowd, rally them and just be babyface support. As soon as Bullet Club gets in, the Aces attack!

I was considering not rating the match because the big earthquake break hurt the flow, but the story that Ace team was telling, was worth the rating. Okada seems to hate Ibushi. Okada respects Tanahashi, with normal tags and Okada even pushing Tana out of the way to protect him, but Okada did nothing to help Ibushi. Tanahashi tried a little to assist Ibushi, but generally speaking, Ibushi’s different perspective has ruffled feathers, so Okada and Tanahashi are making it obvious that they disagree and don’t care about a loss if the “GOD” can’t figure it out.

NJC: Will Ospreay w/Bea Priestley vs David Finlay

Finlay started off quickly which had Ospreay reeling a little. The irony here was that Finlay increased the speed and used Planchas and early Junior style attacks to try and keep Ospreay off balance. We actually see Ospreay try to slow things down with Headlocks and general wrestling moves that he’s incorporated more in the past year since putting on some size.

Ospreay had the control in a lot of this match, but Finlay did a great job at making opportunities. A few quick near fall attempts, Trash Panda, Blue Thunder Bomb and the 360 Backdrop, all gave Finlay great hope moments. Ospreay threw Finlay to the floor to counter an Acid Drop, which had Finlay sell an ankle injury.

As Finlay barely beats the 20 count, Ospreay locks in a Figure Four and even removes the boot to take away any support to wrench more on the injure area. Ospreay looked to be toying with his food here, and it almost caught him. Oscutter, got countered into Prima Nocta, quick attacks, a near Acid Drop had Ospreay desperate. Finlay took the fire, hit a Hurricanrana, but Ospreay kicked out, then Ospreay’s power advantage played to his favor as he blocked Finlay’s next attack, turned it into a high stack Powerbomb, then the Stormbreaker, so Ospreay barely escaped the wounded Finlay.

Finlay looked great, even the almost throw in the towel moment for Juice helps their tag team/friendship dynamic to come through. Very probably David Finlay’s best match to date.

NJC: EVIL vs Shingo Takagi

The story played out much like many expected. I appreciated Chris Charlton’s assessment of Bingo Card EVIL and the fact that he pulled out every trick to try and get one over on Shingo.

Dick Togo took the turnbuckle pads off and Shingo tried to avoid them, but eventually got drop toe holded into them. Togo came into play multiple times with trips, the garrote and assisting in a Magic Killer. Shingo was basically in a handicap match most of the time, and it just adds to the story of him having to go through a murderer’s row to make it to the finals.

The fact Shingo was able to absorb as much as he did, neutralize Togo and still put EVIL away is great. It probably indicates Shingo will lose due to the damage catching up to him, but this was a great hero moment, even though the ring work was typical EVIL garbage, it was really just driven by Shingo’s story.

Overall Score: 7/10

Let me lead with the fact that I’m glad the earthquake didn’t affect the people in attendance much. A small stop just to check everything is more than acceptable, and I think that helped the crowd to be more grateful and receptive for the effort the wrestlers were putting in. So thankfully for an EVIL main event, the earthquake I think may have softened some bad feelings in the building.

But back to the show, the undercard with Taichi & Naito is a fun build; Okada and Tanahashi respecting one another but not caring for Ibushi right now is a fun spot. We finally got normal undercard matches that build forward instead of filling time for the sake of an overblown tournament. Finlay also really showed up and showed out, he played a great underdog story, had awesome hope spots and put on a show.

Now, not to bury the lead, Shingo versus Will Ospreay is great. The rubber match, the first ever BOSJ rematch in the New Japan Cup, just awesome. Ospreay has been my pick and with the level of opponent Shingo has faced, if Ospreay wins it could easily get chalked up to quality of opponent. Ospreay had Tenzan and Finlay during this tournament, where Shingo had all former New Japan Cup winners (KENTA won the NJP Cup USA last year). So I expect Ospreay to win because even with a broken nose, he should be in better shape.

This show was decent, EVIL will always bring feelings down, but there was enough fun stuff to enjoy and a Finals to look forward to!