[Spoilers] NJ Cup Night Six (3/15) Results– Quarterfinals, WHC match
YOSHI-HASHI, Tomohiro Ishii def Hartley Jackson, Ryohei Oiwa — (5:18, Vertical Drop Brainbuster)
Aichi is both Oiwa and YH’s home prefecture and both are over here as a result. They start the match.
Ishii’s ending brainbuster had some stank on it.
Post-match, Oiwa and Ishii have a brief staredown. Chris Charlton “foreshadows” that we’ll see that singles match and then Oiwa challenging TAKESHITA for the NEVER.
Jakob Austin Young, Callum Newman, TJP, Great-O-Khan def Boltin Oleg, Toru Yano, Hiroshi Tanahashi, El Phantasmo[w/Jado] — (6:26, Hurricanrana [into a pin])
We are free of the Tana/Goto/etc vs Kojima/Nagata/etc tags. They weren’t bad, the novelty just wore off after the first one IMO.
Tana and GOK elect to start. One of the Young Lion attendants Tana has had in recent decades was Tomoyuki Oka, who NJPW traded to RevPro in exchange for Great-O-Khan.
Eventually we get ELP and TJP in. Chris Charlton “foreshadows” to us that TJP is going to pin ELP so he can get a shot at the TV title. TJP then pins ELP.
GOK, who pinned ELP in the Cup, comes in and hugs his stablemate. They both stare down ELP.
But it’s TJP who takes the title out of ELP’s hands, and he pushes GOK out of the way so he can pose with the Lion Mark. GOK lurks in the background.
On his way out, TJP says that most people don’t know what the Lion Mark means, but he (a student of the original LA Dojo under Inoki) was around for “the real thing.”
In his Backstage Comments, ELP says he’ll hold his second open challenge soon and invites TJP, O-Khan, or anyone else to answer it.
Chase Owens, SANADA, Gabe Kidd vs Yoshinobu Kanemaru, SHO, Ren Narita — (2:57, Double Count Out)
While they’re making their entrance, Gabe calls out Narita to come and get some. Ren obliges and we get an outside brawl.
Gabe and Narita end up starting off. They also end up being the ones counted out; there might have been someone else briefly tagged in on HoT’s side but it definitely was all Gabe on War Dogs’.
SANADA walks out the second the ending bell rings, despite Gabe still being attacked by HoT. No idea where Chase is.
Gabe and Ren brawl their way out the building for the second night in a row.
BUSHI, Tetsuya Naito[full suit t-shirt Naito version], Yota Tsuji def Dick Togo, Yujiro Takahashi, EVIL — (7:19, Gene Blaster)
Yujiro wants Naito to start, and Naito obliges. EVIL and Dick jump Naito from behind, but El Ingobernable is able to fend them off.
Post-pin, EVIL attacks but Tsuji rocks him with a kick and he bails out the ring. They jaw-jack, then EVIL takes some cheap shots at Yasuda on the outside and leaves. Charlton’s crystal ball, which has a high but not 100% accuracy rate, says EVIL is going to lose his imminent Global title match and that may be the end of HoT.
Either Tsuji legitimately forgot again that he was supposed to start the post-win fistbump, or this is something I need to start paying more attention to.
NJ Cup Quarterfinal: Shingo Takagi def Drilla Moloney — (11:08, Burning Dragon)
Shingo jumpstarts the match, but in a clean way.
Great match, just like their first, with both guys being very over with the crowd.
Post-match, Drilla and Shingo heatedly but relatively respectfully have words.
This next match determines Shingo’s semifinals opponent for the 17th.
NJ Cup Quarterfinal: Shota Umino def Jeff Cobb[w/JAY] — (10:25, Second Chapter)
Still the same new Shota.
Umino does directly acknowledge the fans for the first time (that I recall) post-reboot, while he’s taking off his hoodie and there’s calls of both his and Cobb’s names. Some of the Cobb fans are quite loud but it’s not a blowout, maybe 70/30 in Cobb’s favor.
This was probably the best New Shota match so far but that’s a very low bar to clear. Nothing notable in the post-match.
I know the English commentary says Second Chapter is a Northern Lights Bomb, but Tokyo Sports pointedly calls it a Modified Fisherman Buster and I think that’s an important distinction because I assume it’s a reference to the late Kuniaki Kobayashi, who invented the Fisherman Buster and was a mentor of Shota’s.
Umino has a record of 1-1 against his semifinals opponent Shingo, but Shota does have the advantage since he won their most recent match in last year’s G1 and his loss was when he was a Young Lion.
NJ Cup Quarterfinal: David Finlay[w/Gedo] def Yuya Uemura[w/TAKA Michinoku] — (15:01, Overkill)
The second Yuya steps in the ring, he and Finlay get right in each other’s faces. Yuya steps away to pose and Finlay lets him.
Clean start, but Finlay does work heel here.
Excellent match, Yuya has continued right where he left off before his injury and his pure babyface fire is the type of opponent who Finlay works best with IMO.
As Finlay and Gedo are leaving, SANADA walks out in street clothes. He goes right past them and into the ring. SANADA tells TAKA to leave and then helps Yuya up… and hits him with Deadfall.
Finlay and Gedo laugh and leave up the ramp. SANADA leaves out the side aisle. Yuya is helped out by YLs and TAKA.
Tomorrow Finlay faces the winner of this next match.
NJ Cup Quarterfinal: Zack Sabre Jr. def Taichi[w/TAKA Michinoku] — (26:27, European Clutch)
Pre-lockup, Zack starts hyping up a hesitant Taichi, which gets the crowd chanting for the Holy Emperor.
There’s a few moments early in the match where Taichi starts to/teases reverting to old Suzukigun tactics; I would think because he’s not confident he could beat Zack without them.
I think this ended up being very good, but the “Taichi gets his groove back” aspect colored it heavily so your enjoyment level will depend on how you feel about that.
Post-match, Dangerous Tekkers chat and embrace. Zack leaves the ring to Taichi, who has hopefully regained his confidence even in defeat. Taichi bows to all four sides of the crowd before leaving the ring.
Zack is 1-0 against tomorrow’s semifinals opponent Finlay, having beaten him in the quarterfinals of the TV title tournament in 2022.
IWGP World Heavyweight Title: Hirooki Goto[c][w/YOSHI-HASHI] def Yuji Nagata[w/Yusei Nagata, Satoshi Kojima] — (17:38, GTR)
After the excellent pre-match video, we get the extended Nagata theme intro. He comes out with his 15 year old son Yusei and Kojima.
Extended into for our Champ Goto as well. I mentioned yesterday during the multiman tag that I thought it was funny YOSHI-HASHI was announced as being part of Bishamon but Goto was not; Goto was announced as part of Bishamon here.
Pre-lockup crowd poll is roughly 60/40 in favor of Goto, to my ears.
Legend’s Dreams Killer has been a great slant to Goto’s first defenses, and his opponents have risen to the occasion.
Post-match, Goto offers his hand to help Nagata up. After a moment Nagata accepts, then bows to Goto and goes outside to shake his son’s hand before leaving.
Basic victory promo from Goto, including mentioning his next challenger is whoever wins the Cup. The G in IWGP stands for Goto.
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