Andrew’s New Japan Cup Results & Match Ratings: 3.6.2021

Another day of New Japan Cup, and this time with 3 Cup matches! Less undercard means a bigger focus on the tournament, so I’m always a fan of that.

Tomoaki Honma is on the way back and it’s great to see. Before quarantine he was very aware that his injury made him slower and he felt like he was dead weight. Between all of his interactions teaming with Golden Ace, facing different Los Ingobernables members, and this current build with Minoru Suzuki; it really feels like Honma is returning to form. Let’s hope it continues!

The main event has most people abuzz because of the quality of both first round competitors. Kazuchika Okada versus Shingo Takagi is a big match, most years it’s a shame to get it over with in the First Round, but very recent news may have explained why. Assuming it’s not slightly kayfabed, Okada has a back injury, so this could be a good way to eliminate him early to allow him time to recuperate while giving a win to someone very much deserving of the push.

Let’s see if the dirt sheet news was true!

Ratings:

• Bullet Club (Chase Owens, Taiji Ishimori & Jay White) vs David Finlay, Toa Henare & Yuya Uemura: Ishimori wins via Bloody Cross @9:38 – ** ½
• The United Empire (Great O-Khan, Will Ospreay & Jeff Cobb) w/Bea Priestley vs LIJ (BUSHI, Tetsuya Naito & SANADA): Cobb wins via Tour of the Islands @10:55 – ** ¼
• New Japan Cup: Tomoaki Honma vs Minoru Suzuki: Suzuki wins via Gotch Style Piledriver @14:54 – *** ¼
• New Japan Cup: Juice Robinson vs KENTA: KENTA wins via Game Over @17:16 – *** ½
• New Japan Cup: Kazuchika Okada vs Shingo Takagi: Takagi wins via Last of the Dragon @23:58 – **** ½

Results:

Bullet Club (Chase Owens, Taiji Ishimori & Jay White) vs David Finlay, Toa Henare & Yuya Uemura

Nothing inherently wrong with this match, and driven mostly on the Henare versus Jay first round match up, but it didn’t add nearly as much as yesterday’s undercard matches. Jay called Henare out to start, and actually locked up, but he did his best Yano impression by sitting between ropes and calling for breaks, until the referee was out of position and Bullet Club could start some tactics.

One funny part was when Jay tagged out to Ishimori, Henare shrugged off Ishimori and kept going at Jay. So later in the match, Ishimori took cheap shots on the outside and you could hear Jay telling the referee “Hey remember when I wasn’t legal and you didn’t stop that”. Which oddly enough seemed to appeal to the referee and he waited for Ishimori to have his fun and dump Yuya back in.

The Young Lion eats the pin here since he’s one of two no in the tournament, so it was written in the stars. Not a bad match, just a very basic opener with Jay White driving most of the entertainment.

The United Empire (Great O-Khan, Will Ospreay & Jeff Cobb) w/Bea Priestley vs LIJ (BUSHI, Tetsuya Naito & SANADA)

Well this was different since Naito is already eliminated, and the Empire made sure to rub it in during entrances and then attacked Naito as soon as he got into the ring. Naito went back to going after O-Khan’s hair, walked him around like a dog in the ring to get control and then LIJ went into some organized attacks.

Generally speaking, this was more basic than the first match. Bea tried to pull ropes away, Ospreay sideswiped BUSHI with a Pip Pip Cheerio, Cobb then caught BUSHI in midair, flipped him around for a Suplex and then hit the Tour of the Islands. Cobb has done a good job in 2021 so far, but this was a generally uninspiring match.

New Japan Cup: Tomoaki Honma vs Minoru Suzuki

We start off right where these two left off, exchanging chops and strikes, trying to out tough guy the other one. Early on Suzuki seemed to be toying with Honma a bit trying to get something out of him that we haven’t seen in a while. An early GSP attempt resulted in Honma blocking and starting to put together some offense. Short range lariats, Kokeshis from different angles, and we had the lovable underdog that people appreciated from a few years ago.

This match was the best Honma’s looked in a long time, hell he attempted the STF when a middle rope Kokeshi didn’t finish Suzuki and even pulled out the old Turmeric Clutch, which I haven’t seen him do since his All Japan days.

Everyone probably penciled in Suzuki as the winner immediately, but this is the Honma we all remembered and loved from the stacked NEVER years with Makabe and Ishii at the top. Very nice effort, and Suzuki helped to make Honma look good as well.

New Japan Cup: Juice Robinson vs KENTA

We saw a lot of elements of KENTA’s personality in this match. Early on he rolled out, grabbed the ring bell, and hit Juice when Juice grabbed through the ropes to try and retrieve him. However, I’m pretty sure Juice got clipped by a corner there since he was really holding the side of his face and it left a noticeable welt as the match went on.

It took a little time to pick up, but both men had great flurries with signatures. Juice’s Cannonball Spot, Punch Combination, hell he even countered the Kobashi style Spinning Back Chop into the Juice Box. KENTA hit the Green Killer, pulled off the hesitation Dropkick, but every time he went for Go 2 Sleep, Juice had a way around it. So as both were jockeying for position, juice kept going for Pulp Friction, but KENTA spun out, after enough stand up attempts, KENTA spun out, but twisted the arm and drove Juice down. KENTA locks in Game Over in the middle of the ring, and after a little bit of a struggle, Juice finally submits.

New Japan Cup: Kazuchika Okada vs Shingo Takagi

Well it looks like Takagi was paying attention to the preliminary matches and saw the news report that came out a little before the match that Okada had two herniated discs in his back. Everything Shingo did either focused damage on the back, or forced Okada to have to contort in a way to strain the injured area.

Shingo added his arrogant flair to a lot of things in this match, including the Rainmaker pose that Japanese Commentary called the “Pumping Steel Maker”, which also worked well when Shingo countered the Rainmaker with his own Pumping Steel Maker. Even injured this was a great slugfest between the two. Okada still hit a good number of his classics, but he was visibly hampered as the match wore on. Shingo managed to escape the Money Clip twice, which was an important element since Shingo passed out to the Money Clip in the G1.

Superplex, Noshigami, Made in Japan and an Uranage Backbreaker were some of the bigger moves towards the end that swayed the momentum for Shingo. Shingo went for Last of the Dragon a few times, but Okada usually had an answer. At the end, Okada slips behind the Last of the Dragon, winds up the Rainmaker, but Shingo ducks it and continues the momentum to lift Okada to his shoulders and finally hit his finish to win the match!

Overall Score: 8/10

You may be asking yourself; “How did this score higher than yesterday with overall lower match score” – I will explain. This show flowed better, felt like a real tournament show where the undercard didn’t last very long and the main event was the big thing to build towards. Also should be noted, that we didn’t have to sit through a typical Yano tournament match as well.

Honma did a great job proving that he’s at least back to where he was a few years ago when GBH was a solid tag team and he had a few notable matches in the NEVER division. KENTA getting past Juice is good since that sets up a single match nearly 16 years in the making. Last time KENTA fought Suzuki one on one, was 2005 in NOAH. Suzuki was the murderous free agent, KENTA was still young and full of fire, yet to find his stride, so Suzuki took advantage of the young wrestler in a rather lackluster match. I doubt KENTA has forgotten that match, and expect him to try to exact a measure of revenge.

Shingo getting past Okada is beautiful for multiple reasons. Okada can get his injury tended to, it evens up their singles record; so Okada has a tangible thing to fight for in their next meeting and we get a Hirooki Goto vs Shingo Takagi rematch next round! Shingo having to work through another member of CHAOS adds to the weight in that match, but the potential of Shingo vs Suzuki again or Shingo vs KENTA is just one of those magical match ups assuming no shenanigans go on.

The show ended great, the build was fun and everyone in the Cup over performed given the stagnant vibe that New Japan has fallen into lately. Good stuff.