Andrew’s NJPW 49th Anniversary Results & Match Ratings: 3.4.2021

Well now, where to begin. After a disappointing Castle Attack series, I definitely can’t say I’m coming into this show with high expectations.

We get a revenge match of sorts, since El Desperado has an agenda, to try and erase the memories of when he was awful at wrestling. The final defenses of the Intercontinental and Heavyweight championships take place as well. OH – and let’s not forget that the New Japan Cup is officially starting today.

There are enough things here to peak interest, I just have to hope they execute at least half of this well.

Here’s to hoping.

Ratings:

• Suzuki-Gun (Minoru Suzuki, Taichi, DOUKI & Zack Sabre Jr) vs Tomoaki Honma, Master Wato, Gabriel Kidd & Hirooki Goto: Goto wins via GTR @10;39 – **
• Bullet Club (Jay White, KENTA, EVIL, Taiji Ishimori & Chase Owens) w/Gedo & Dick Togo vs Toa Henare, Hiroshi Tanahashi, Ryusuke Taguchi, David Finlay & Juice Robinson): EVIL wins via Everything is Evil @7:39 – * ½
• LIJ (BUSHI, SANADA & Shingo Takagi) vs CHAOS (Kazuchika Okada, SHO & Tomohiro Ishii): SHO wins via Shock Arrow @9:13 – ***
• New Japan Cup: Satoshi Kojima vs Jeff Cobb: Cobb wins via Tour of the Islands @11:50 – *** ½
• New Japan Cup: Great O-Khan vs Tetsuya Naito: O-Khan wins via Referee Stoppage @20:20- *** ¾
• IWGP World Heavyweight Championship Match: Kota Ibushi (c) vs El Desperado: Ibushi retains via Kamigoye @20:36 – **** ¼ – Unification of IWGP Intercontinental & Heavyweight Championship!!

Results:

Suzuki-Gun (Minoru Suzuki, Taichi, DOUKI & Zack Sabre Jr) vs Tomoaki Honma, Master Wato, Gabriel Kidd & Hirooki Goto

So it’s Suzuki-Gun versus a throw together assortment of other people in the New Japan Cup. With that description, it doesn’t seem like the ragtag group has much of a real chance. Honma starts off with Suzuki, which helps to give Honma some quality opponents so far this year. Gabe Kidd wants in to mix it up a bit with Suzuki and then immediately go after ZSJ. The English battle will be a thing in the Cup, but Kidd is a Young Lion so he’s probably not winning much.

So DOUKI and Wato aren’t in the Cup this year, since there are no Juniors, but I suppose we always need fall guys in multi-man matches. Whichever side wins, the Junior will most likely eat the pin. But after a little hectic back and forth, Taichi and Goto finally mix it up with real wrestling moves. Goto tries to work over Taichi, but Taichi gets an advantage and locks in the Stretch Plum for a while.

DOUKI is the legal man though, so he comes back in and starts peppering Goto, but then we have another hectic breakdown, which leaves DOUKI and Goto straight up. Goto hits the Ushigoroshi, then the GTR, and DOUKI eats the pin.

So there we go, the Junior ate the pin, but the thrown together assortment won.

Bullet Club (Jay White, KENTA, EVIL, Taiji Ishimori & Chase Owens) w/Gedo & Dick Togo vs Toa Henare, Hiroshi Tanahashi, Ryusuke Taguchi, David Finlay & Juice Robinson)

This has a similar set up to the first match, however, many of these guys have teamed together before thanks to Hontai allegiances or Taguchi Japan. This will probably be similar where the Junior will eat the pin.

Henare calls out Jay immediately, and Jay doesn’t immediately tag out. He fakes like he will, but then they decide Henare is an easy opponent so Jay starts imposing his will. As soon as Henare almost gets some momentum, Jay runs him around, slides back in the ring and tags in KENTA.

The Hontai group gangs up on KENTA, we get a lot of typical things during this match. Some hectic moments, a lot of quick bursts for feuds and then when Taguchi gets the tag he tells his team to go wipe out the Bullet Club extras. Taguchi goes for a Springboard, but EVIL catches him, hits the Everything is Evil and the match is done.

This suffered from a level of predictability and the fact the design was very similar to the first match. Jay, Juice and a few other personality aspects were cute, but this isn’t really interesting.

LIJ (BUSHI, SANADA & Shingo Takagi) vs CHAOS (Kazuchika Okada, SHO & Tomohiro Ishii)

Shingo and Okada kick the match off, and this is a preview to the opening round match that could easily be a finals to any tournament any year. SANADA and Ishii have a little bit of a back and forth, then the Juniors come in. Even though this will have a similar outcome, it benefits from everyone in this match being an interesting high card draw, so their actions are just easier to get invested in.

Things get a little crazy, then we get back to SANADA versus Ishii and there’s a lot of countering signature moves, which helps to motivate the crowd and sow the seeds for their first round matchup. Ishii gets space with a Vertical Suplex, Okada and Shingo come in for some great foreshadowing. Shingo gets great fire, Okada references how he beat him in the G1 with the Money Clip attempt, and there’s just a lot to like about their interactions. SHO gets tagged in from Okada, so that gives us some glimmers of SHO and Shingo’s past, and now we lead towards the end of the match with both Juniors coming in.

Signature spam, SHO wipes out Shingo with a Spear, focuses on BUSHI and we’re almost done. SHO hits a very Shingo-esque Pumping Bomber to lay out BUSHI, then hits the Shock Arrow, and the CHAOS squad wins!

There is a video announcement of Wrestle Grand Slam in the Tokyo Dome and Yokohama Baseball Stadium in May.

New Japan Cup: Satoshi Kojima vs Jeff Cobb

Cobb and Kojima go after each other in angry power style. Kojima gets a small advantage, but Cobb cuts him off heading for the Elbow, then starts taking over. Cobb pulls out the old Gachmuchi-Sault, then he goes to insult Kojima by hitting Machine Gun Chops, and even motioning to go for the Kojima Elbow.

Kojima fires up, Superplexes Cobb off the top rope and strings some offense together. Cobb does manage to catch Kojima mid plancha and try the power game, but Kojima proves he’s not washed yet and turns the tide rather quickly with a DDT into the apron. Kojima hits his Elbow drop and keeps the momentum rolling.

Cobb has moments to break the momentum with a Deadlift German, and then he blocks Kojima from taking the Elbow pad off for the Cozy Lariat. Spin Cycle from Cobb, Doctor Bomb, and only a near fall for Cobb. Kojima counters the Tour of the Islands, they start swinging Haymakers, Kojima gets mocked a few times from Cobb, Kojima looks to end things with the Cozy Lariat, but Cobb manages to catch Kojima and barely hit Tour of the Islands.

Damn good match.

New Japan Cup: Great O-Khan vs Tetsuya Naito

A fun clash of everything here. Early on Naito mocks O-Khan, even to the point where O-Khan acknowledges the rib and guffaws in a sarcastic way. We get unbridled aggression from O-Khan after that, and Naito is reeling for a while. O-Khan nearly has Naito choked out, but her goes to try and end things with his power, and Naito finally finds a way back in.

Combinacion Cabron, Swinging DDTs, Cravats and Back Elbows gave Naito a brief shining moment, but when O-Khan tosses him, Naito lands on the bad knee, and that becomes O-Khan’s new focus. A Cloverleaf with the ring post, a chairshot and a Kneebreaker on a steel chair gives us a near count out victory for O-Khan. Once Naito limps back in, O-Khan applies the Claw to the bad knee, then lifts Naito up and just drops him like garbage. Another submission attempt by O-Khan as he goes after the bad knee with a single leg scissor.

Naito puts a stop to this when O-Khan tries to lift him and Naito shifts for a DDT. Naito peppers in Elbows in the corner, limps to the middle rope for the Diamond Dust, and tries to get O-Khan up for Gloria, but he gets dropped. O-Khan lands a Reverse Powerslam, attempts the Eliminator, but eats some elbows. Reapplication, Naito kicks away, again an attempt for the Eliminator, but Naito wiggles away and hits Destino, but can’t cover the bigger man.

Naito tries Destino with the Arm Wringer, O-Khan fights, 2 more times same thing, then O-Khan avoids Destino, hits a Lariat and goes for the Knee Bar in the dead center. Gator roll turns into a modified Figure Four, killing the injured knee of Naito as the crowd tries to rally Naito! Every time Naito tries to get out, O-Khan repositions and sinks in deeper. Red Shoes makes the decision to stop the match since Naito couldn’t really move from his spot.

IWGP World Heavyweight Championship Match: Kota Ibushi (c) vs El Desperado

This was a proving ground for Desperado. After his challenge, not only did Ibushi tell him he sucked in their first meeting 7 years ago, he echoed the sentiment; so with Hiromu on the shelf for 6 months, Desperado has something to prove.

Early on, you can see the slight dynamic adjustment where Ibushi takes a bit of Nakamura styles by goading Desperado, kicking at him insultingly and just big brothering him. Despy gets irritated and starts accelerating his aggression. We see Despy dig much deeper into his bag of tricks, a few dives, Guitarra de Angel and Guitarra de la Meurta attempts, he nearly countered a Kamigoye attempt with El Es Culero.

The beauty of the game plan was that Despy went after Ibushi’s legs, mainly because he’s such a great striker, but it of course helps to weaken him for Numero Dos (modified Stretch Muffler). Despy had great spots of anger, Ibushi showed some visible desperation, and the counter roll dodging Kamigoye and locking in Numero Dos looked like a great near fall for Despy. Taichi and Kanemaru also didn’t interfere and played the role of actual seconds.

Ibushi manages to rattle Despy with a normal Kamigoye, and then dropping the kneepad won Ibushi the match. A really good main event after 2 great starting matches to the New Japan Cup.

Overall Score: 7.75/10

The main event left a lot of great questions. Tanahashi being on Japanese commentary, looking disapproving and being genuinely upset with the unification is a great possible story. Ibushi staying next to Despy and having a respectful moment between the two was nice. Taichi being the last one to leave the situation since he went back to get Despy’s belts and glared at Ibushi. Some may be thinking Ibushi-Gun is on the horizon, but I’m hoping this means Taichi could become an IWGP World Heavyweight Champion. Give the Holy Emperor, the number one Black Saint, give him the big belt…cowards.

Other takeaways are obviously O-Khan’s big upset. Naito’s knee injury being Tanahashi levels of debilitating that it costs him a make via referee concern. Cobb barely scraping by Kojima is great to keep Kojima looking like a real threat if he does get on more dance in the G1. Not really sure how to feel about a Cobb versus EVIL match, but it’s good for Cobb to get some forward momentum. O-Khan sets himself up for either Yano or Fale, so that’s another head scratcher depending on who wins on 3.5.

All in all, I’m glad the second half of this show did its job and actually showed some good matches, good story building and psychology. After the terrible Castle Attack, it’s nice to say the New Japan Cup has started off strong at the very least.