wrestling / TV Reports

Csonka’s NJPW New Japan Cup Quarterfinal Round Review

March 8, 2015 | Posted by Larry Csonka
Image Credit: NJPW
7.4
The 411 Rating
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Csonka’s NJPW New Japan Cup Quarterfinal Round Review  

Introduction
As a reminder, this will not be another traditional recap, but instead it will be a mash up of the Rs, Instant Analysis and my usual Twitter ramblings I would do during the shows; completely uncensored and as the ideas flow unfiltered to the old keyboard. Remember, this is a review; and I am here to review the show. As always, I encourage discussion and even disagreement, just do so in a respectful manner. I will be doing the review for Raw and most PPVs and iPPVs going forward.

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NJPW New Japan Cup Quarterfinal Round 3.08.15

OFFICIAL RESULTS
~ YOSHI-HASHI defeated Jay White via pin [**]
~ Satoshi Kojima, Tiger Mask, Manabu Nakanishi, Ryusuke Taguchi & Mascara Dorada defeated Captain New Japan, Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Tomoaki Honma, KUSHIDA & Jushin Liger via pin [***]
~ Yohei Komatsu & Hiroshi Tanhashi defeated Sho Tanaka & Yuji Nagata via submission [***½]
~ Shinsuke Nakmura, Kazuchika Okada, Tomohiro Ishii & Kazushi Sakuraba defeated Cody Hall, Karl Anderson, Doc Gallows & Tama Tonga via pin [***]
~ New Japan Cup Quarterfinal Match: Togi Makabe defeated Yujiro Takahashi via pin [**¾ ]
~ New Japan Cup Quarterfinal Match: Kota Ibushi defeated Toru Yano via pin [*]
~ New Japan Cup Quarterfinal Match: Tetsuya Naito defeated Bad Luck Fale via pin [**½]
~ New Japan Cup Quarterfinal Match: Hirooki Goto defeated Katsuyori Shibata via pin[****]


YOSHI-HASHI defeated Jay White: This was a solid, but unspectacular opening match. They worked a very basic match, with White playing the babyface role well. The crowd was into what they were doing enough to make this feel as if it didn’t last too long, and HASHI won with the senton. It was fine, but forgettable.

Satoshi Kojima, Tiger Mask, Manabu Nakanishi, Ryusuke Taguchi & Mascara Dorada defeated Captain New Japan, Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Tomoaki Honma, KUSHIDA & Jushin Liger: This was a good recovery after the first match, the work was better and I felt that the crowd was into it more as well. KUSHIDA and Dorada working together was a lot of fun, and Dorada continues to have a good run here. He keeps making me look forward to his year with the company. I could have done without Taguchi’s ass offense, but that’s a personal thing, I’m just not much of a fan of the guy. Dorada hit a wild moonsault to the floor and wiped out most of the crew, and then Captain New Japan made the mistake of getting a near fall on Kojima, so Kojima laid him out with the lariat for the win. Kojima and Tenzan had a pull apart post match to help set up their NWA Title match. This was a fun little tag and I appreciate the build to the future title match.

Yohei Komatsu & Hiroshi Tanhashi defeated Sho Tanaka & Yuji Nagata: So far, this was the best thing on the show. I love the ability to see more Tanaka and Komatsu, thanks to New Japan World and having access to all of these shows. I felt that the work between Nagata and Tanahashi was a lot of fun, and while they did their thing I came away with the feeling that Tanaka and Komatsu got the chance to shine more here, which is exactly what a match like this should have been in my opinion. Use the star power involved to get the attention and allow the others to shine. This had a great crowd, a really fun vibe and in the end Komatsu tapped to Tanaka to finish things off. The show is certainly heading in the right direction.

Shinsuke Nakmura, Kazuchika Okada, Tomohiro Ishii & Kazushi Sakuraba defeated Cody Hall, Karl Anderson, Doc Gallows & Tama Tonga: Going into this match, the pros are Shinsuke Nakmura and Kazuchika Okada. The cons are Cody Hall and Tama Tonga. Just let it soak in for a moment that Cody Hall is about to work Nakamura and Okada. Ok, so I had some worries, but this ended up being another quality match. I haven’t seen a lot of Cody Hall so far and he didn’t work a lot here, so I don’t have a concrete opinion on him at this time. He’s certainly still green but he didn’t shit the bed. We’ll see how he evolves if they keep him around. They worked a really solid match; it had a good crowd and a good home stretch with Okada and Nakamura getting to run wild towards the close that really spiced up the overall match. Young boy Cody Hall ate the bome ye from Nakamura and was pinned.

New Japan Cup Quarterfinal Match: Togi Makabe defeated Yujiro Takahashi: So we finally got to the tournament matches. On one hand I appreciate them stacking the matches towards the end to make them feel important, but I also feel that they could have spread them out a bit to break up the tag matches. But that’s just me. Overall I liked a lot of the work, and I am not always a fan of Takahashi matches as he’s way too hit or miss for me. The match was laid out well, the work was generally clean and they had a good crowd. I really hated that HASHI kicked out of the Miami Shine on the first night. I felt that the finish should have been protected more so that tonight when he hit it people would have really bought it as a near fall. He did it tonight, Makabe kicked out, and the reaction was poor. You have to be careful with the finishes. This was solid, but not as good as some of the previous matches.

New Japan Cup Quarterfinal Match: Kota Ibushi defeated Toru Yano: There is nothing that can stop Kota Ibushi from having good matches, except for Toru Yano. I appreciate the commitment to the gimmick of being a sneaky heel and trying anything and everything to cheat and get quick roll up wins, but with that being said, Yano isn’t here for good matches. Bullshit, bullshit, bullshit, rollup, water, exposed buckle, yadda, yadda and yadda. Ibushi won with the sunset flip. All I have to say is that if Ibushi ends up winning the whole thing, a match and win over Tanahashi would have been much better for his stock. Moving on.

New Japan Cup Quarterfinal Match: Tetsuya Naito defeated Bad Luck Fale: I liked this match more than Fale’s work with Okada on night one, but it was rough and sloppy at times. The story of the match was that Naito was able to constantly escape and or counter the Bad Luck Fall attempts by Fale. The finish saw Naito counter the Bad Luck Fall with a RANA into a pin. Naito worked really hard here, and it wasn’t bad but under delivered as the co-main event. The good news is that the right guy won.

New Japan Cup Quarterfinal Match: Hirooki Goto defeated Katsuyori Shibata: Thankfully the main event of the show delivered, as Hirooki Goto defeated Katsuyori Shibata in a really good match. It wasn’t as good as some of their past outings, but the work and everything they did made this match feel important. The style they work is so physical and feels real as they did some early mat work, submission work (both men trying to take out an arm from the other) and of course stiffed the shit out of each other. Goto had a great counter out of the GTS when he grabbed the knee to block and then hit the discus punch, but Shibata said fuck that and kicked out at 1. That was a cool segment and got a great crowd reaction. Goto finally hit the Shouten Kai for the win, and Shibata showed respect post match. Night one of the Cup ended up hurt by the final two matches (in my opinion) but on this night, the co-main was solid and the main delivered like you’d hope. This was a great way to end the show.

* End scene.

* Thanks for reading.

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“Byyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyye Felicia!”

7.4
The final score: review Good
The 411
I felt that night one in some ways was a good card, but was held back by some of the booking, the poor final two matches and the general bi-polar feel of the event. Today’s quarterfinal event felt like a more cohesive effort, with Ibushi, Goto, Naito and Makabe being a very strong semifinal round for this year’s tournament. The quarterfinal matches were a bit rough outside of the main event, but I felt that the three undercard tag matches more than did their job of providing enjoyable wrestling, helping to add heat to the upcoming NWA title match and possibly even giving a preview of what’s to come in the BOTSJs with Dorada and KUSHIDA getting to face off and provide some great action. I think it’s easy to say that the odds have to be on Ibushi (for the Nakamura rematch) or Makabe (to challenge for the NEVER Title he never lost) to win the cup. This gets an easier recommendation than the first night, if anything you can skip the opener (fine but forgettable) and Ibushi vs. Yano (too much bullshit).
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