wrestling / TV Reports
Pantoja’s NJPW New Japan Cup 2024 Night 3 Review
Image Credit: NJPW
Loading...NJPW New Japan Cup Night 3
March 8th, 2024 | Aimesse Yamanashi in Kofu, Yamanashi | Attendance: 696
I’ve been a bit slow on these reviews since I’ve been watching a lot of college basketball (gotta love March) and there are some notable STARDOM shows on the horizon. I’ll do my best though.
New Japan Cup First Round: Hikuleo vs. Oleg Boltin
Maybe I should’ve waited to start reviewing these after the opening round. Given Boltin’s size, it makes sense that this was booked as two big guys colliding. They opened by just trying to overpower the other with shoulder blocks and it was Oleg who won out, sending Hikuleo to the mat. Once we got past that though, there had to be an actual match and that’s where this struggled. Oleg, as a Young Lion, is still very green and learning but Hikuleo isn’t in a position where he should be leading a match so a lot of this was kind of just there and rather bland. In fact, I’d say Oleg is probably better than him at this point. Hikuleo survived a Boston Crab and some suplexes before winning with a chokeslam at the 9:21 mark. Inoffensive but also not very good. [**]
New Japan Cup First Round: Callum Newman vs. Gabe Kidd
We haven’t gotten a ton of Kidd singles matches but he did have the outstanding outing against HENARE recently. That said, this is a totally different kind of match. I really dug how this started. Callum kind of riled up Kidd (not hard to do since he’s always a bit unhinged) only to goad him into a quick rollup. It’s simple but I like guys, especially underdogs, trying to find a flash win in a tournament setting. Callum also threw a pretty nice dropkick outside. Unfortunately, once Kidd took over, this lacked a bit. He’s typically a guy who brings high intensity to his performances but he seemed kind of subdued here and it meant the action suffered. I also think they leaned way too hard into the “Callum is Ospreay’s mentee” thing. I get being influenced by him but he was kind of just copying him to less successful results. As is always the case with this company, things picked up a bit late but it wasn’t quite enough. Kidd won with a Cradle Piledriver in 14:10. Solid yet unspectacular. [**¾]
New Japan Cup First Round: Shingo Takagi vs. Yuya Uemura
This tournament has been painfully mediocre so far but this is the kind of pairing that could change that. Judging by the opening 8 or so minutes here, Yuya is going to do just fine in New Japan. He delivered a fundamentally sound but pretty dull opening exchange. That’s what Gedo loves. Yuya focused on the arm, looking to set up an armbar while also taking away Shingo’s ability to throw lariats. Good, sound strategy. I liked how he’d do stuff like that only for Shingo to run him over or just run through him. He had the power to negate the hard work Yuya was doing. Yuya used his quickness to his advantage, avoiding lariats and snapping off suplex variations to really put Shingo in trouble. Down the stretch, things picked up as you’d expect and Yuya was throwing everything he had at Shingo but it was a case of the established veteran just being too much for him. Shingo put him down with Last of the Dragon after 23:22. Easily the best match of the tournament. That said, it wasn’t anything I’d call great. Yuya has the basics down but he still lacks the charisma and moveset to really stand out. Very good and it gives me hope because it sets up Shingo/Kidd, which should be great. [***½]
