NJPW New Japan Cup 2020, Day 2

New Japan Cup First Round Match
Taiji Ishimori vs Gabriel Kidd - 5/10

Ok opener, Ishimori did quick work over Gabriel, who got some offense, but no big near falls or anything, it was more Ishimori showing off. Ishimori won via submission with a Omoplata Crossface.

New Japan Cup First Round Match
Yuya Uemura vs Yoshinobu Kanemaru - 6.5/10

This was more of a brawl than your usual YL match. Uemura tried to catch Kanemaru early before the usual SZKG jump attack. Uemura actually got some nice offense early on, he was on his toes reversing Kanemaru and being one step ahead, but once back in the ring, Kanemaru gained control and started working over Uemura.

At the end, Uemura made a great comeback, getting some near falls after a Swan Dive and a Suplex, forcing Kanemaru to pull the ref in for protection and go for the Whisky bottle. Kanemaru won with Deep Impact.

CHAOS (Hirooki Goto, YOSHI-HASHI, & Roppongi 3K) vs Los Ingobernables de Japon (EVIL, SANADA, BUSHI, & Shingo Takagi) - 7/10

You wouldn't believe who was cut off from their corner and worked on. No, none of the Jr. Heavyweights, it was obviously YOSHI-HASHI. The rest of the match was just their pair ups, YOH vs BUSHI was better than I expected it, SHO and Shingo always deliver. Goto won with the GTR over BUSHI.

My biggest take was that as much as I expect and want to see EVIL vs SANADA in the tournament, I really wouldn't mind a SANADA vs Goto match.

New Japan Cup First Round Match
Minoru Suzuki vs Yuji Nagata - 8.5/10

Well, as expected, these two hit each other a lot, and in a silent venue, you could really hear the slaps quite loud. They started with about 5 minutes of slaps before Suzuki transitioned for the leg work. There was a brawl outside with weapons where Suzuki gained control, followed by some really stiff work by Suzuki. Nagata eventually recovered and also went stiff with kicks on Suzuki, going after the arm. The rest mostly revolved around Suzuki chasing the GSP, Nagata blocking, a HELL of another slap exchange, that led to what will be a upset win for the tournament, Nagata pinned Suzuki with a Backplex after countering the Sleeper Hold.

Overall, this was exactly what I wanted and expected from these men. Two old timers that I knew would beat the shit out of each other. Nagata seemed to have taken the hiatus really good, he looked fresher and recovered from that last time he was in the ring, where age had started to show.

I rarely say this because to me it is irrelevant, but this would had been super heated with fans in attendance. Nagata got his lip busted open. I hope they bring Nogami for Nagata's next match.

New Japan Cup First Round Match
Kazuchika Okada vs Gedo - 6.5/10

Gedo came out with his arm on a sling, saying that he couldn't wrestle tonight. Okada was like I don't give a fuck, but Gedo was like c'mon old friend. Eventually Gedo revealed that he had a spray and tried to attack Okada, but was caught. Gedo offered Okada to just pin him and get it over with, but once again Gedo acted to early and went for the Small Package. At this point Okada just started attacking him, pulling out all the gimmicks from Gedo's pockets, teased using the Brass Knucks, but all the distraction did allow Gedo to pull out a wrench and attack Okada.

The rest was a lot of Gedo using weapons on Okada while he had him down, Red Shoes giving zero fucks about weapon use, and eventually, Okada recovered, fought through the work done on his leg and from the cheating, and won with the Tombstone and the Deep In Debt. Gedo did have an amazing near fall after using the knucks and the Gedo Clutch for the pin, especially since we had just seen an upset before.

If anyone came to this match expecting a clean fight without a ton of shenanigans, I don't know what you were thinking, you should know better. I really have to give props to Gedo tho, to have a 15 minute match, mostly by himself, it's not something we see from him.

OVERALL THOUGHTS

Decent show, but nothing out of this world, this bracket had two YL matches and a Gedo match, I think it was as good as we could hope for, but it's the first round with a lot of filler guys, we know the best is yet to come. I know Okada is the top dog, but Suzuki vs Nagata was the real main event of the night.

Next round, we get Okada vs Nagata and Ishimori vs Kanemaru.