wrestling / TV Reports
Pantoja’s NJPW New Japan Cup 2024 Quarterfinals Review
Image Credit: NJPW
Loading...NJPW New Japan Cup 2024 Quarterfinals
March 16th, 2024 | Aichi Prefectural Gymnasium in Nagoya, Aichi | Attendance: 1,750
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.
I’ll be covering the quarterfinals in one review even though it took place over two shows. Of note, an injury meant that David Finlay had to forfeit his quarterfinal match with Hirooki Goto, so we only have three matches instead of four.
New Japan Cup Quarterfinals: Jack Perry vs. SANADA
These two met at Forbidden Door last year (***¼) and was exactly the kind of match we’ve come to expect from SANADA. Perry cut a promo before the bell complaining that SANADA tried to make him a joke last year. Not walking out in an Erick Rowan mask and calling yourself a scapegoat. It was the match with SANADA. That was all a ploy anyway to attack SANADA with the microphone and get the jump on him. They had some decent back and forth that never fully grabbed me. Then we got the House of Torture run-ins which prevented this from getting boosted to the next level, even if that would’ve just taken something alright into being pretty good. Perry’s heel offense isn’t convincing yet and SANADA isn’t a babyface who brings fire or excitement so the main crux of the match fell flat. SANADA withstood the interference and when he had Deadfall countered, he found a way to pull Perry into an O’Connor roll to advance in 16:02. At least it wasn’t overly long. [**½]
March 17th, 2024 | Twin Messe Shizuoka in Shizuoka, Japan | Attendance: 1,119
New Japan Cup Quarterfinals: Ren Narita vs. Yota Tsuji
Like Perry/SANADA, we got this pairing last year, just in the G1. It was actually the most disappointing of the matches between these two and Shota (***¼). Add in House of Torture shenanigans and I wasn’t thrilled about this. And guess what? My instincts were right. The actual in-ring stuff was decent enough but it lacked any real energy and Ren’s heat segments are ROUGH. When he was in control, this was dying a slow death. Yota helped boost it with some energy whenever he’d find his way to a hope spot and he’d manage to get the crowd going. They also avoided too much interference and most of the antics were focused on Ren trying to use the push-up bar gimmick as a weapon. When the run-ins did happen, LIJ made the save to level the playing field. Ren still used a low blow and went for his awful X-Factor finisher but Yota rolled him into a pin to steal this in 18:08. That was a match, I’ll say that much for it. [**]
New Japan Cup Quarterfinals: EVIL vs. Shingo Takagi
Oh, look. It’s the House of Torture again. It’s a crime that Gedo still gets to book a major wrestling promotion. Maybe we’re all wrong because the live crowd reacts to House of Torture but I’ve never seen anyone reviewing them have anything good to say. Anyway, this was solid for about half of it as the two big tough guys waged something of a war. It wasn’t overly intense but it had some flashes. Then Dick Togo started to get involved because we can’t have anything nice. Shingo had it won with Made in Japan but the bell rang because of shenanigans, which set up a ref bump and more interference. LIJ showed up again which saw Shingo accidentally get hit with BUSHI’s mist. Because they’re actually the House of Overkill, they also threw powder in his eyes. As if that mattered after the mist. Everything is Evil followed and EVIL advanced, which was telegraphed by Yota winning previously. This went 17:33 and was again, below average at best. [**]
