Cero Reviews NJPW New Japan Cup 2022, 3.7

[cero2k]

NJPW New Japan Cup 2022, Day 3
March 7, 2022
Ota City General Gymnasium, Tokyo, Japan

Great Bash Heel (Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma), Hiroshi Tanahashi & Ryohei Oiwa vs. United Empire (Aaron Henare, Great-O-Khan, Jeff Cobb & Will Ospreay) - 6/10
Fun match once Tanahashi got in the match, but it was kinda weird this pair up, Tana is not exactly close to wrestling anyone but Cobb, and he still needs to go over Naito to do so, so it was an interesting tease here with Tana and Ospreay. Oiwa lost to Henare.

BULLET CLUB (El Phantasmo, Taiji Ishimori & Yujiro Takahashi) vs. Los Ingobernables de Japon (BUSHI, SANADA & Tetsuya Naito) - 6.5/10
It was kinda weird seeing Yujiro with the Bullet Club now, while never actually leaving the group, the House of Torture feels so distant now that I wasn't considering them as Bullet Club anymore. And then, add the dissension between Ishimori and ELP who have been bumping heads after they lost the titles due to ELP's loaded boot being exposed and him losing confidence in using the superkick again.

ELP still got the win after some miscommunication with Ishimori, by hitting the CRII on BUSHI. The match itself had been ok, ELP and Ishimori working on Naito was enjoyable.

CHAOS (Hirooki Goto, Kazuchika Okada, Toru Yano, YOH & YOSHI-HASHI) vs. Suzuki-gun (DOUKI, El Desperado, Taichi, Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Zack Sabre Jr.) - 7/10
Fun match, we had some good pair ups here. Okada vs Despy is great, Taichi worked over Yano, Bishamon vs DOUKI/Kane, and at the end, Sabre and YOH had a pair up that I wish we would get a full match out of, even if we already saw YOH tap out to Sabre's stretches.

New Japan Cup 2022 First Round Match
Jado vs. Chase Owens - 4/10
Bad match, Jado can't move well, but they at least try to make something out of it by having Jado be the babyface who have to deal with the cheating Owens, by being the babyface that hulked up and gave up the kendo stick when he could had used it to take out Owens. Not saying this is productive booking, the other way around really, but at least there was something. Owens won with a knee to the face after a low blow. After the match, Owens did help Jado up and to the back.

Owens vs Tiger Mask on round two, so probably another skippable match.

New Japan Cup 2022 First Round Match
Ryusuke Taguchi vs. EVIL (w/Dick Togo) - 6/10
Mocking EVIL, Taguchi came out dressed as the old old EVIL after he debuted. The match was all comedy with Taguchi getting his ass handed to him, but then he actually got some decent offense towards the end, even countering Togo's interference, but in such a distraction, EVIL dropped him with an EVERYTHING is EVIL out of nowhere for the win. I would have loved for five more minutes after Togo was taken out.

EVIL vs Tama Tonga in the next round, on another low key match that I'm looking forward to, particularly because it'll be the first Tama Tonga match in proper NJPW after being kicked out of the Bullet Club, and against EVIL, he'll be a babyface.

New Japan Cup 2022 First Round Match
Hiromu Takahashi vs. SHO - 7/10
I loved the start of the match, it's not all that unique, but it is something that NJPW doesn't often do, at least not this way. Hiromu was set to come out first, but suddenly, the one to cross the curtain was SHO, with a chair and dragging Hiromu. They got to the ring and SHO threw in Hiromu, but he stalled enough that Hiromu was able to recover enough to catch SHO with the sunset powerbomb from the apron and cut off SHO before he could capitalize on the backstage attack. Eventually, after some offense by Hiromu, SHO had to rely on cheating with the timekeeper's hammer to take out Hiromu again and take control of the match.

The rest of the match was really good, but it also was a HoT SHO match, where he will rely on cheating in order to regain control after losing it to a natural Hiromu comeback. At the end, Hiromu had taken a low blows, wrench strikes, and even Yujiro's interference, but when SHO went for the Shock Arrow, Hiromu held on and brought SHO down with a roll up for the pin.

It'll be Hiromu versus Suzuki! Oh dear.

New Japan Cup 2022 First Round Match
Tomohiro Ishii vs. Shingo Takagi - 9.25/10
Shingo has joined this new Inoki/Fujiwara traditional robe look, and he looks awesome. Ishii as usual, gives zero fucks and didn't even wear a t-shirt to the ring.

This was a Shingo vs Ishii match, not as great as their 2021 G1 opener match, which I came close to giving a perfect 10, but surely as good as the other matches these two have had in the last couple of years after Shingo became a heavyweight. There was one scary spot in this match though, when Shingo dropped Ishii right on top of his head with a Made in Japan, and like Bryan Alvarez would say, I thought he was dead. Ishii kicked out, but was quickly taken down by the Last of the Dragons.

Shingo vs Tanga Loa in the next round, and while Shingo should have it in the pocket, it could be a sleeper of a hoss fight.

OVERALL THOUGHTS
A show with many ups and downs, the ups were high, especially the main event, but the lows like Jado versus Owens were definitely a snore, and of course, some people out there have a serious problem with cheating, and we had three of those matches tonight. If anything, go watch the main event.