Cero Reviews NJPW New Japan Cup 2022, 3.17

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Cero Reviews NJPW New Japan Cup 2022, 3.17

Post by cero2k » Mar 18th, '22, 11:20

New Japan Cup 2022, Day 10
March 17, 2022
Twin Messe Shizuoka, Shizuoka, Japan

Tiger Mask & YOH vs. BULLET CLUB's Cutest Tag Team (El Phantasmo & Taiji Ishimori) - 4.5/10
ELP customized his entrance light-bright vest to honor Scott Hall.

Match was simple and good, the only thing that I don't get is why the need to want to give Tiger Mask the hot tag and not YOH. At least Mask took the loss to a Sudden Death from ELP, who is now doing it again after he did it during the big Bullet Club angle from a couple of days ago. I went back to watch all his post-match promos since, but all his promos are all ramblings to really make up what the story was, and I am not gonna go and listen to the English VODs. Only thing is that he did imply that he hasn't used the superkick because people suspect he's still loaded and doesn't want to get DQ'd like when they lost the titles.

Six Or Nine (Master Wato & Ryusuke Taguchi) vs. Suzuki-gun (El Desperado & TAKA Michinoku) - 6/10
This was a match that made me want to see a proper title match between these teams, and not Bullet Club. Desperado and Wato mostly came in and out, while Taguchi and TAKA did a lot of submission work until Taguchi tapped out TAKA.

Post-match - ELP and Ishimori jumped 6||9, who managed to clear the ring, but then the whole Bullet Club jumped them until G.O.D. and Jado made the save. The brawled bled into the next match.

Guerrillas Of Destiny (Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa) & Jado vs. BULLET CLUB (Bad Luck Fale, Chase Owens & Gedo) - 4/10
Match was meh, built around having Gedo and Jado face off. Jado was cut off from the start, and when he finally made a comeback against Gedo, he didn't tag out, rather he survived getting hit by the brass knucks, only to get a low blow and knee from Owens for the pin.

Hiroshi Tanahashi & Tomoaki Honma vs. United Empire (Aaron Henare & Jeff Cobb) - 6.5/10
Even though we're getting Cobb versus Naito in the next round, I'm actually now interested in watching a proper match with Tanahashi and either Henare or Cobb, both guys are so different from Tana right now, that the matches could be quite good.

Match was ok, enjoyed all the Tana stuff, but it was short, Honma was the babyface in peril and the ending sequence, so he took most of the match. Finish saw Henare get the win with the Streets of Rage.

Los Ingobernables de Japon (BUSHI, Hiromu Takahashi, Shingo Takagi & Tetsuya Naito) vs. House Of Torture (Dick Togo, EVIL, SHO & Yujiro Takahashi) - 7/10
Match was good, lost of action between both teams. The build is for Hiromu and EVIL, so they had their time together. Yujiro got the win over BUSHI, which I guess is ok since they wanted Bullet Club to stand tall at the end.

Post-match - EVIL and Hiromu faced off, but Togo attacked Hiromu from behind. Shingo made the save, but his next opponent Owens ran down, attacked him from behind, and hit a Package Piledriver on a chair.

CHAOS (Hirooki Goto, Kazuchika Okada & YOSHI-HASHI) vs. Suzuki-gun (DOUKI, Minoru Suzuki & Taichi) - 7/10
Fun match. We got a ton of Goto versus Suzuki and Taichi versus Okada, with a good performance of DOUKI in there two before he took the pin after a Bishamon Shoto.

New Japan Cup 2022 Third Round Match
Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Great-O-Khan - 9/10
This was a grapplefuck festival. The match started with some great back and forth grappling between the two, up until they both locked in knee bars and rolled out of the ring. On the floor, O-Khan injured Sabre's leg, and from there on, he worked the knee. Sabre made a comeback and the match turned into a strike exchange right before the went back to grappling, now with Sabre working O-Khan's arm. Finish saw O-Khan go for the Eliminator, but Sabre turned it into an arm bar, O-Khan tried to powerbomb Sabre off, but Sabre dropped his weight and it hyper extended O-Khan's arm for the submission. Great match.

New Japan Cup 2022 Third Round Match
SANADA vs. Will Ospreay - 9/10
Match was really good, but the finish was scary, and it ending with a referee stoppage is suspect that it may had been an audible. They went back and forth for most of the match, just going from reversal to reversal. Ospreay had his back hurting, but as the match went on, he also started selling his leg.

Finish was rough, and I don't know how much of it was an audible. Some minutes before the finish, Ospreay escaped a Skull End and landed a standing Shooting Star Press, landing knee first into SANADA's eye, breaking his orbital bone. SANADA recovered enough to hit a moonsault that Ospreay blocked, but at that point, SANADA took a hidden blade, followed by some elbows to the neck, and from there on SANADA didn't move and Ospreay kept doing it until the referee stop.

Ospreay versus Sabre quarter final, let's go!

Post-match - Ospreay cut his winner's promo. Reminded Sabre that last year, he broke his nose, but now he'll break Sabre's face.

OVERALL THOUGHTS
Good show, really fun second half with some good quality wrestling. The scary situation in the main event did leave me a bit worried, so hopefully it's not that bad.
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