The New Japan Cup has provided some great matches and upsets so far. Today we have a less action-packed card as two of the tournaments comedy acts look to make it into the second round:
Results:
Suzuki-Gun (Yoshinobu Kanemaru & El Desperado) def. Ren Narita & Rysuke Taguchi
Bullet Club (Bad Luck Fale, Tanga Loa & Yujiro Takahashi) def. Yuji Nagata, Tetsuhiro Yagi & Shota Umino
Los Ingobernables de Japon (Tetsuya Naito & BUSHI) def. Suzuki-Gun (Zack Sabre Jr. & TAKA Michinoku)
Suzuki-Gun (Minoru Suzuki, Lance Archer, Taichi & Takashi Lizuka) def. Taguchi Japan (Hiroshi Tanahashi, Juice Robinson, David Finlay & Toa Henare)
CHAOS (Kazuchika Okada & Tomohiro Ishii) def. Kota Ibushi & Chase Owens
New Japan Cup 1st Round Match: Toru Yano vs Davey Boy Smith Jr.
A roll-up attempted early by Yano. He quickly removes the padding from the post. Swings and misses then fails an attempted low blow. Smith has him in the corner and runs straight into the exposed post, this leads to another roll-up attempt. We head into the crowd for the trademark Suzuki Gun crowd brawl. Yano just barely beats the 20 count. Smith makes Yano’s hand tap and tries to claim the win but the referee is having none of it. Smith controls the match until Yano pulls the referee into Smiths path allowing him to get some shots in. Irish whip into the exposed post. He gets a chair and charges at Smith who kicks it into his face. Smith sets up the chair in the corner and Yano runs into it. Backdrop for 2 and we have a crossface locked in. Yano gets out and hits a slingshot into the exposed post. The referee blocks an attempted low blow. Which leads to Yano hitting one anyway and cradling Smith for 2. Yano runs into a bodyslam and both men are down. Yano drapes Smith on the top rope and gets some tape from under the ring. He attempts to tape Smith’s legs together but gets kicked away. Thye action spills outside as the referee starts counting. Yano is sent into the guardrail. Smith misses a big boot attempt and is crotched by the guardrail. Yano shakes it to add some insult to injury and rolls in for the countout victory. Yano works better in small doses and this one was just a tad too long but had an enjoyable ending
Winner: Toru Yano Rating: 4 out of 10
New Japan Cup 1st Round Match: Chuckie T. vs SANADA
Very good back and forth early with Chuckie T impressing. The fight spills outside and SANADA attempts the paradise lock but is kicked away. They brawl in the crowd Taylor claims to be a “deathmatch legend ” and that he will kill SANADA. He gets a table from under the ring. We get a table tease but SANADA brings it back inside and works over Taylor. We get another table tease on the apron SANADA has a few attempts at putting Taylor through the table. SANADA gives up on the table and goes back to working over Taylor. Taylor hits a powerslam and makes a comeback, he hits a falcons arrow for 2 and locks in a figure 4. SANADA hits a dropkick and follows up with his lovely over the rope body drop. We get back in and Taylor sends SANADA out and hits a Tope Con Gilo. He sends SANADA over the guardrail and hits another insane Tope over the rail. He bodyslams SANADA onto a pile of chairs. He attempts a springboard move off the guardrail but SANADA stops him and powerbombs him right through the table. We move back inside and SANADA looks to put Taylor away but he counters with a nice kick to the face. Taylor starts showing the effects of the powerbomb as his back gives out a few times. Manages to hit a falcon driver for 2. Moonsault attempt fails, a series of reversals follow until SANADA hits a TKO for 2. SANADA attempts a moonsault and also misses. Taylor gets him up top for his finsher but is too close to the ropes. The time taken to drag SANADA’s prone body allows him to kick out at 2. Series of reversals again and SANADA locks in Skull end. Taylor reverses into a schoolboy for 2, cradles for 2. SANADA looks for Skull End again as these two are frantically trying to win the match. SANADA lets go of the Skull end and hit a moonsault for the win. 20 minutes of action that surpassed any expectations.
https://twitter.com/MrLARIATO/status/973170946256310272
Winner: SANADA Rating: 7 out of 10
We won’t be getting Taylor vs Yano but we do have a fantastic lineup in the quarter finals. New Japan returns on the 14th as we see Hiroshi Tanahashi vs Bad Luck Fale and Michael Elgin vs Juice Robinson