Pantoja’s NJPW New Japan Cup 2024 Night 6 Review

NJPW New Japan Cup Night 6

March 12^th, 2024 | Uwajima City Gymnasium in Uwajima, Ehime | Attendance: 838

NOTE: For anyone following all of my reviews, my WrestleMania Series is still ongoing. It’s something I’m doing in my free time though so reviews from 2024 (like this one) take precedence.

Ah, I’ve been so busy that I’m falling behind on reviews so these won’t be the most in-depth but we’ll cover the basics here.

New Japan Cup  Second Round: David Finlay vs. Tanga Loa

So there’s reason for aggression here given what Finlay has done in the past to Tanga Loa’s brother. That’s likely the reason Tanga made the second round. If Gedo even considers things like that and isn’t just throwing stuff at a wall at random. Anyway, this kicked off with a brawl that included fighting outside and Tanga getting thrown into a row of chairs. The problem was that this couldn’t keep up that intensity level and as it neared the 10 minute mark, you could really feel that they didn’t have a ton of ideas. Tanga rallied with things like a uranage and powerbomb, yet there wasn’t much fire behind it all. The two traded near falls on big moves late before Finlay, as expected, advanced with his knee strike finisher in 16:42. This Finlay heel run hasn’t been clicking but in there against singles Tanga Loa was a recipe for this kind of result. [*½]

New Japan Cup Second Round: Chase Owens vs. Hirooki Goto

Chase Owens is one of those guys who is competent in the ring, which means the likes of Ishii, Tanahashi, Okada, etc. can get something good out of him. 2024 Hirooki Goto isn’t one of those guys. They had a match that followed a basic structure. Owens was the heel controlling things and on offense for a lot of this before Goto made his attempt at a fiery comeback. The crowd just wasn’t feeling it, likely because Goto vs. Owens is a ballsy thing to book as a main event. Goto’s rally included a DVD and inverted DDT before Owens responded with an enziguri and some V-Triggers. Of course, he wasn’t advancing and he fell to GTR in 21:36. Not offensively bad but they really had no business headlining or going more than 20 minutes. [**]

3.0

The final score: review Bad

The 411

Any hope for the second round has gone out the window. To be fair, there’s an interesting match in the next set of matches but one really missed the mark.