Pantoja’s NJPW New Japan Cup 2024 Night 5 Review

NJPW New Japan Cup Night 5

March 11^th, 2024 | Item Ehime in Matsuyama, Ehime | Attendance: 668

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.

A pretty bad opening round was capped with a pretty great match so that could bode well. However, the cards for these shows aren’t exactly confidence boosting.

New Japan Cup Quarterfinals: Jack Perry vs. Toru Yano

The one good thing about the House of Torture is that they’re so bad, I’ve decided not to give them in-depth reviews. It’s more because of how redundant their matches are but still, my point stands. So, I don’t have too much to type here. Jack Perry attacked during the introductions and then got help from both Yujiro Takahashi and Yoshinobu Kanemaru. While we got the expected shenanigans here, Yano’s antics allowed for a handful of enjoyable moments that kept this from being awful. Perry used a low blow and running knee to advance in 8:28 to a subdued reaction from the crowd. Ho-hum. [*¾]

New Japan Cup Quarterfinals: SANADA vs. YOSHI-HASHI

This is one of those pairings that I feel New Japan diehards love and I just can’t bring myself to care about either guy. That’s not to say this was a bad match because it wasn’t, it was just one that kind of existed and didn’t do much more. It followed the old Okada formula of dragging for the opening portions before picking up down the stretch. SANADA really holds the torch now. Once it got going, they had some good back and forth including a running powerbomb, some Skull End attempts, and HASHI getting the knees up on SANADA’s moonsault. I still don’t understand why SANADA releases a submission to try a top rope move. It makes no sense. The crowd popped for a forearm exchange that lasted about a minute or so, which was impressive. Both men were down around the 20 minute mark before HASHI got going with things like a Brainbuster. It takes more than that to beat a former IWGP Champion though as SANADA turned the tide and hit Deadfall to win in 23:51. A good match but it certainly had no business going 24 minutes. [***]

5.0

The final score: review Not So Good

The 411

Well, the second round isn’t off to a strong start.