Cero Reviews NJPW New Japan Cup 2022, 3.6

[cero2k]

NJPW New Japan Cup 2022, Day 2
March 6th, 2022
Big Palette Fukushima, Koriyama, Japan

Yuji Nagata vs. Kosei Fujita - 6.5/10
Good solid match, nothing out of this world, just good basic wrestling from both men. Fujita has tons of energy, which balances out nicely with Nagata's, who is more of the old man that takes your shit and then sits you down the hard way. Nagata tapped out Fujita for the win.

Great Bash Heel (Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma) & Tiger Mask vs. BULLET CLUB (Chase Owens, El Phantasmo & Gedo) - 4.5/10
The confusion on where the Too Sweet is supposed to go continues. This seems to imply that White and Gedo have stayed in contact with each other.

Whatever match. Heat on Honma, Makabe took the hot tag, Honma came back for some Kokeshis, and at the end, took the loss after an ELP plancha. ELP still shows lack of confidence in her superkick.

Six Or Nine (Master Wato & Ryusuke Taguchi) & Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. House Of Torture (EVIL, SHO & Yujiro Takahashi) (w/Dick Togo) - 5/10
This was kinda all over the place. It had some early comedy with Taguchi, I actually enjoyed it, but then HoT took control of the match for a bit. Wato and SHO paired up for some good stuff, and at the end, Yujiro and Tana were trading low blows until Tana rolled up Yujiro for the win. Not great, but there were things here and there that I enjoyed.

Post-match - Taguchi and EVIL were brawling on the ramp during the finish, but it was Taguchi who ended with the final laugh when he locked an Ankle Lock on EVIL and had him tapping out.

CHAOS (Kazuchika Okada, Tomohiro Ishii, Toru Yano & YOH) vs. Los Ingobernables de Japon (Hiromu Takahashi, SANADA, Shingo Takagi & Tetsuya Naito) - 7/10
Only thing being built here is Ishii vs Shingo for tomorrow night, but talk about an all-star match here. Match saw LIJ isolate YTR after Hiromu cut him off. Naito and Okada paired up for the hot tag and half of the meat of the match, the other half being Ishii and Shingo. At the end, SANADA got the win over YOH with the Skull End. Overall good, there wasn't a combo that didn't deliver quality.

YOH vs SANADA is a match I really wouldn't mind watching.

BULLET CLUB (Bad Luck Fale & Taiji Ishimori) vs. United Empire (Great-O-Khan & Jeff Cobb) - 6.5/10
ON paper, I wasn't all that impressed by this match, but I never realized how much I wanted Cobb vs Fale and how well Ishimori and O-Khan paired up. We didn't get as much of the former, but at least GOK vs Ishimori was fun. Finish saw Fale, surprisingly pin O-Khan after the Grenade.

For those keeping track, Fale and Ishimori both Too Sweet "down under". I think it's clear that we're getting the "Up" western Bullet Club and the "Down" Pacific Island Bullet Club separation soon.

New Japan Cup 2022 First Round Match
Aaron Henare vs. Yuto Nakashima - 7.5/10
This was surprisingly great, all things considered. It had a bit of a UWFi feel with tons of striking. Obviously, Henare beat Nakashima easily, but the latter had some good fire and comebacks here and there.

SANADA vs Henare for the second round. This one could be interesting.

New Japan Cup 2022 First Round Match
Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Ryohei Oiwa - 7/10
So pretty much what I said about Nakashima vs Henare, but instead of striking, it was Sabre stretching poor Oiwa, who looked good, but this was a sparring session for Sabre and nothing more.

Sabre faces his stablemate and friend DOUKI in the next round, which could had been a good match to main event TAKATAICHIMANIA 2.5.

New Japan Cup 2022 First Round Match
BUSHI vs. Will Ospreay - 7/10
Really interesting booking for this match. On paper, this was as one-sided as the Young Lion's matches, so they relied on booking about five accidental referee bumps in order to give Ospreay speedbumps. They never cheated during the bumps, nor was there any interference, they were just bumps that meant that Ospreay either got distracted allowing BUSHI to get offense in, or bumps that meant that Ospreay couldn't get the win he already had in his hands. At the end, Ospreay won nonetheless.

Post-match - Ospreay said that he's going to be back-to-back winner and told ELP that he's next.

OVERALL THOUGHTS
Tough card, they only had three tournament matches, two of them being Young Lion matches, and the main event a match so unbalanced that required unorthodox booking. Nothing was inherently bad, but this was most definitely a completionist's show.