Kevin’s NJPW New Japan Cup Finals 2021 Review

NJPW New Japan Cup Finals

March 21st, 2021 | Xebio Arena Sendai in Sendai, Miyagi

It seemingly took forever but we’ve finally reached the finals of the NJPW New Japan Cup 2021. The matchup is the one almost everyone expected, though there were some surprises on the road there. I’ll be reviewing the entire show since it is the last one.

Before the action began, YOH made his return. He announced that he would be back for Sakura Genesis on April 4th and challenged Kanemaru and Desperado for the Tag Titles that night.

DOUKI, Taichi and Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Gabriel Kidd, Yota Tsuji and Yuya Uemura
The Young Lions did the jump start, which was surprising but a fun twist. I am here for that. They were out to pull off the upset and that’s the kind of shit I love. Of course, Suzuki-Gun turned it around due to their experience. I’ve grown to really like them in recent months. Suzuki, Sabre Jr., Taichi, and Desperado are all really fun to watch and DOUKI is inoffensive. Kanemaru is still the pits though. Like in the tournament, the Kidd/ZSJ exchanges ruled. They even pulled out a SummerSlam ’92 finish spot but it was only for a near fall. Big effort from the Young Lions as always but Taichi put down Tsuji with the Dangerous Backdrop Driver at the 10:39 mark. A quality opener with lots of energy and some fun back and forth. [***]

The Great-O-Khan and Jeff Cobb vs. Satoshi Kojima and Tomoaki Honma
Man, TenKoji looks a lot different. Or would they be TomKoji? HonKoji? Honestly, I’ve come around on The Great-O-Khan. He still needs a lot of work but he’s so goofy that I can’t help but enjoy him. Like, watching him do a fun pose before hitting a throat thrust is too hilarious. New Japan needs more of that. As for the match itself, it was everything you’d expect. Honma missed Kokeshi, he got isolated, and then Kojima got the hot tag before Honma fell to the Tour of the Islands in 8:58. Fine enough for what it was. [**½]

EVIL, KENTA and Yujiro Takahashi vs. SHO, Toru Yano and YOSHI-HASHI
I dig this CHAOS trio because it’s different from what we typically get. EVIL was nice enough to jump Yano only after his introductions were done. What followed was the standard and serviceable six-man tag. SHO looked good in there against the heavyweights, which was welcome. KENTA and EVIL seemed to take the night off, which is understandable. The finish saw Dick Togo get involved and use the walking stick on YOSHI-HASHI. That set up Yujiro to hit Pimp Juice and win in 9:24, which should make for a KENTA/EVIL/Yujiro vs. Goto/Ishii/HASHI title match. The match was fine. [**¼]

Post-match, the Bullet Club beat up CHAOS, who got no help from anyone else in the stable.

David Finlay, Juice Robinson and Toa Henare vs. BUSHI, SANADA and Tetsuya Naito
This is an interesting one. It’s basically two babyface teams going at it. Finlay continued to sell the leg in this one. Naito started with Finlay, which was a bad move for the non-LIJ team. Finlay immediately got his leg targeted and it put him in trouble. He got isolated quickly, which is a different start than a lot of these matches. Once he made the tag, Juice did better. The interesting thing about this match was Toa Henare. He has been struggling and can’t seem to grapple with how to fix things. Once he entered, he ended up losing to a SANADA pinning combination after 10:10. A step up from the previous two matches, mostly due to Finlay’s selling and Naito being a total prick. [**¾]

While FinJuice talked smack with Naito and posed with their titles, a frustrated Henare threw a fit.

Bad Luck Fale, Chase Owens and Jay White vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi, Kazuchika Okada and Kota Ibushi
First of all, poor Jay White is stuck with the bottom of the BC against this absolute All-Star team. Alas, there is intrigue here as Okada and Ibushi didn’t get along yesterday with some tag issues and Ibushi hogging the spotlight. Okada was made about it because he’s been Gedo’s golden boy and doesn’t know how to handle it. There’s also Tanahashi not liking Ibushi’s move to unify the belts. As much as I love Jay and Tanahashi, the rest of this match was kind of just there. They seem to building towards another match between the two, so their interactions were strong. Anything Fale did looked bad, Owens tried but didn’t shine, Ibushi was kind of a jerk, and Okada seemed to be biding time until he could go home and heal. Ibushi won with Kamigoye in 11:31. An underwhelming match and show so far. [**½]

NJPW New Japan Cup Finals: Shingo Takagi vs. Will Ospreay
Willy won their 2019 BOSJ Finals that many called MOTY but I felt had clear flaws (****¼) and Shingo beat him in the g1 last year (****). Needless to say, I enjoy their work together but not as much as others. They opened this by not being able to get a clear advantage over the other, meant to display how evenly matched they are. Will would do despicable things (it’s in his nature) like pull Bea in the way of a Shingo dive so he’d stop in his tracks. They had some really cool ideas but some stuff looked too phony. Like the spot where Will flipped out of the Pumping Bomber without selling it right into an Oscutter. It’s athletically impressive but is illogical in a match. It’s one of those things that takes you out of the action and reminds you that this is all staged. A lot of this kind of just felt like moves for the sake of it without much rhyme or reason or story behind it. Will won with Stormbreaker in the end after 30:because tone deaf New Japan decided to reward bad people. A big disappointment. Even if I didn’t love their matches as much as others, I expected more than this. A highlight reel of it would look awesome but as a whole, it didn’t fully work for me. [***½]

I know people wanted me to be furious about Ospreay winning but I expected it. NJPW has been pretty tone deaf about this stuff. Between this and WWE giving a title to Riddle and putting Jordan Devlin on a major TakeOver, wrestling rewards bad humans.

As for the post-match segment, it’s absurdly bad and indefensible. I’ve seen the “well it’s good heel heat” take and that’s garbage. What does this add to Ospreay or the match with Ibushi? He was already detestable and nothing about this makes me want to see the Ibushi match more. It’s a bad person with a poor history with women hitting his real-life girlfriend, which has some piss poor optics. I don’t dislike Will anymore because of it but I do dislike NJPW more.

5.5

The final score: review Not So Good

The 411

A wildly average show. The main event was underwhelming and the best thing on the card besides it was the Young Lions opener. That’s not a good thing. Throw in a lame duck closing segment and you’ve got a disappointing show.