Pantoja’s NJPW New Japan Cup 2022 Night Two Review

NJPW New Japan Cup Night Two

March 6th, 2022 | Big Palette Fukushima in Minami, Fukushima | Attendance: 653

As usual, for the duration of this tournament, I will only cover tourney matches. That means three today only.

New Japan Cup First Round: Aaron Henare vs. Yuto Nakashima

I like the idea here of a current Young Lion facing a guy who was one for a while and then got stuck as a guy in peril for a long time before joining The Empire. Commentary harped on how Henare dominated Nakashima in the build-up tags and he kind of kept doing that here. Of course, New Japan doesn’t really do squash matches so Nakashima got in some stuff and continued the trend of Young Lions throwing themselves into everything. It’s wild to think that Henare hasn’t won a singles match in over a year. Nakashima traded blows with Henare late but ate a boot and then fell to a spear tackle after 8:40. A perfectly acceptable match featuring a limited wrestler and a guy who hasn’t totally shined yet. [**½]

New Japan Cup First Round: Ryohei Oiwa vs. Zack Sabre Jr.

Another Young Lion! Also, ZSJ won the tournament in 2018 with four submission victories. Where the last match saw a roster member dominate with his size and strength, this one saw ZSJ do it with his technical acumen. You could tell that he was in complete control throughout. He also made sure to talk trash and berate Oiwa with slaps in between picking him apart. Some of the work he did to Oiwa’s arm was great and Oiwa did his best to sell it and fire up. The double leg slam was a nice bit of fire from him. Oiwa did his best but he obviously had to submit, doing so when trapped in a Heel Hook after an enjoyable 10:35. Better than the previous match and booked how it should be, though too one-sided to be really good. [**¾]

New Japan Cup First Round: BUSHI vs. Will Ospreay

I suddenly remember one of the main reasons why I stopped watching New Japan in the first place. Anyway, I’ve seen all of their prior matches at Global Wars UK in 2016 (***¼), BOSJ 2018 (***¼), BOSJ 2019 (***¼), and Power Struggle 2019 (****). BUSHI opened with a huge dropkick and then a dive that sent Ospreay over the guardrail. 10/10 match if it ended there via countout. Alas, it kept going as Ospreay is too big these days to get truly overwhelmed by a junior heavyweight. He turned the tide quite handily soon after. BUSHI still managed to get in some hope spots and had the crowd behind him though nobody really ever expected he’d win. Ospreay’s spinning backbreaker is the kind of move that really showcase how much he’s bulked up. BUSHI pulled the referee in the way of the Oscutter leading to bad acting SHOCKED FACE by Willy that was straight out of a bad WWE match. Since Gedo can’t help himself, we got a second ref bump as well. To top that off, we then got a third ref taking a mist spot and a bump. Then, BUSHI kicked out of the Oscutter, which should’ve been the finish. It might not be Willy’s main finisher these days but it should be enough to finish off a junior. Finally he won with Hidden Blade after 12:48. That match started fine and was to be another 6/10 match or so from them but then it got bogged down by pointless overbooking. Why are we doing ref bumps here? Shouldn’t former the World Champ be able to beat BUSHI clean? [**]

4.0

The final score: review Poor

The 411

Kind of a waste of a show. If you’re going to do a tournament this large, at least space out some of these matches. This was three bouts where the outcome was never in doubt and that main event had potential but was wasted by horrible booking decisions.