Cero Reviews NJPW New Japan Cup 2021 Finals

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cero2k
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Cero Reviews NJPW New Japan Cup 2021 Finals

Post by cero2k » Mar 21st, '21, 20:03

NJPW New Japan Cup 2021 Finals
March 21, 2021
Sendai, Japan

YOH Returns - Show opened with YOH coming out and saying that Roppongi 3K want to challenge for the Jr. Heavyweight tag titles. I'm really glad he's back, and I hope they get some tag matches out of their system, but I really hope for him and SHO to chase the singles title separately for a while.

Gabriel Kidd, Yota Tsuji & Yuya Uemura vs. Suzuki-gun (DOUKI, Taichi & Zack Sabre Jr.) - 6.5/10
This was great, one of those where all the Young Lions team up and get a ton of offense over their opponents because they become a pack of hungry wrestlers. Tsuji has been hoping to make it to Mexico soon, and it showed, he was pulling out some armdrags in this match, he still needs some work, he botches an assisted springboard, but at least managed to turn it into a weird plancha. Taichi won with the Axe Bomber and Backdrop Suplex combo on Tsuji.

Satoshi Kojima & Tomoaki Honma vs. The United Empire (Great-O-Khan & Jeff Cobb) - 6/10
These teams or combinations of them have been feuding for a while, so they already know each other well, and as usual, Kojima had to carry the team. Honma was the babyface in peril and Kojima got the hot tag, and at the end, Cobb got the win as usual with Tour of the Islands.

SHO, Toru Yano & YOSHI-HASHI vs. BULLET CLUB (EVIL, KENTA & Yujiro Takahashi) (w/Dick Togo) - 4.5/10
Not much to this match, but it seemed to set up this BC trio as potential contenders for the NEVER 6-Man titles. The only notable thing about this match was a little story that after Yano removed the corner pad, it ended up playing against SHO, who kept getting whipped or tricked into it by the BC guys. At the end, Yujiro of all people, pinned YH with Pimp Juice.

David Finlay, Juice Robinson & Toa Henare vs. Los Ingobernables de Japon (BUSHI, SANADA & Tetsuya Naito) - 6.5/10
Good match. Two things going on here, one was obviously the continuation of Henare's decent into madness as he keeps losing matches and taking pins and submissions, I don't know when it will happen, but the writing is there already, it's been weeks of losses, promos, and now tantrums. The other was Finlay selling the damage done from yesterday's match with Ospreay.

The match was like watching FinJuice vs LIJ, with Henare just coming in at the end to pair up with SANADA and getting pinned with the O'Connor Roll. Naito mocking Juice was great, while Juice hitting his dumb senton was annoying.

Post-match - Henare had a meltdown at ringside. At this point, he better hope that Tongan's offer to join them is still on, or he better start asking Yosuke Okada how he made it to DDT.

Hiroshi Tanahashi, Kazuchika Okada & Kota Ibushi vs. BULLET CLUB (Bad Luck Fale, Chase Owens & Jay White) (w/Gedo) - 6.5/10
Ok, so these three teamed up again and the combined power didn't create another earthquake, so I guess there is the possibility that yesterday's wasn't caused by the sheer power of the TanaKadaBushi team. The match was virtually the same idea as yesterday's, but with Fale and Owens, with the teases of dislike between Okada and Ibushi, and the respectful rivalry that could be brewing with Tana and Ibushi. Match was fun, we got Fale vs Okada, White vs Tana, and at the end, Ibushi pinning Owens with Kamigoye.

The one thing that really took me out of this match was knowing that Okada's lower back is shut, and here he was doing scoop slams on Fale.

Post-match - Okada, like yesterday, just took off because he doesn't care about celebrating with Ibushi and Tana, who actually seemed to set up a NEVER title match with White. Don't know when, but when Okada finally comes after Ibushi, it'll be good, seeds are being planted.

New Japan Cup 2021 Final Match
Shingo Takagi vs. Will Ospreay (w/United Empire) - 9.75/10
I'm having an interesting experience with this match. I thought it was better than their BOSJ 26 finals that I gave a perfect 10, but different from that match, I didn't feel the 'perfect 10' after watching this one. Nonetheless, this was amazing.

This was a combined story of both men's path to the finals. On one side, Shingo, a man who goes all out regardless, seeking to fight the top man in the promotion. He is coming in with a bad back after the matches he had, especially the EVIL match. Then we have Ospreay, who still has a big chip on his shoulder ever since betraying Okada and losing to him at Wrestle Kingdom. He promised that the United Empire would show that they were a force to reckon with, and here he was, obsessed with winning the World Championship. Ospreay is coming in with a bad shoulder and nose, that Sabre injured, and SANADA and Finlay exacerbated. Different from those matches though, Shingo gave no fucks about using Ospreay's nose as a means to get offense. SANADA and Finlay used it to stop Ospreay's momentum, but Shingo straight up used it to mock Ospreay.

The match itself had a bunch of crazy spots, Ospreay landed a 450 to a table on the floor, he hit an Os Cutter to the floor too; Shingo was out there doing Poisonranas and going all Terminator against Ospreay's strikes. They managed to really escalate the intensity as time went on, and make good use of Bea Priestley as a distraction for Shingo. Last couple of minutes were great, after Shingo had made his Terminator comeback, he dominated for a bit, but Ospreay woke up, countered some Bombers, spammed elbows, including a Hidden Blade, and finished him off with a Stormbreaker.

Post-match - Ospreay called in Ibushi to the ring and told him that he agreed with Ibushi's unification idea, he didn't care for history, but he cared about the world championship, which was more important than anything and anyone in his life, and out of nowhere dropped Bea with a cutter, to show that he would stop at nothing to win the title. Hell of an angle to set up Sakura Genesis and put some heavy heat to it.

Backstage, Ospreay cut another great promo.

OVERALL THOGHTS
This was a really lightweight New Japan Cup finals show, some previous tend to have a secondary top match before the finals, but this was just all tag matches, and thus, this was totally a one-match show. Amazing match though, and totally worth your time.
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