Pantoja’s NJPW New Japan Cup 2025 Night 2 Review

NJPW New Japan Cup 2025 Night Two
March 9^th, 2025 | Baycom Gymnasium in Amagasaki, Hyogo | Attendance: 2,412

This is a pretty strong attendance number for a New Japan Cup card that doesn’t sound too exciting. Side note, I’d love to start reviewing the Cinderella Tournament but STARDOM only has night two up and not the PPV night one so I must wait.

New Japan Cup First Round: Bad Luck Fale vs. Boltin Oleg

Did I just step into a time machine to 2016? Bad Luck Fale in big 2025? His grey beard is wild. The idea here is two big guys going at it. We can’t get around it so we should just talk about it. Fale was limited physically when before he left for a few years and that has only gotten worse. He’s moving slower than ever and it’s not a recipe for something good. If he has to be around, he should be limited to multi-man tags and such. Oleg kept struggling to pick him up or really get anything going while the Fale heat segments were a struggle because of his limitations. Of course, he eventually managed to hit an impressive Kamikaze and win in 7:11. Not good but still better than EVIL on night one. And Moxley/Cope. [*¼]

New Japan Cup First Round: El Phantasmo vs. The Great-O-Khan

“You know what ELP stands for? It’s Spanish for ‘the P.’” Someone get TJP off commentary. I forgot ELP was the TV Champion. The action here opened with a feeling out process as these two took to the mat. It’s the kind of thing that is much more in line with O-Khan’s game than ELP’s. I respect that O-Khan has a move where he just sits on a dude in the corner. I live for lazy offense like that. It’s relatable. ELP went the opposite route, going big for a tope suicida. Unfortunately, this match committed a big sin in that it was just kind of boring. Nothing they did was terrible outside of ELP botching the 20 count by overselling and not getting in the ring in time, causing the announcer to awkwardly pause after 19. O-Khan survived ELP’s biggest shots before winning with the Eliminator in 13:58. Like I said, it wasn’t offensive or anything like that, it was just rather dull. They didn’t click as well as you’d like. [**¼]

New Japan Cup First Round: Drilla Moloney vs. Tomohiro Ishii

Now we’re cooking because Drilla is one of those guys who is doing his best to break out and Ishii is usually a safe bet for something good. The early stages were traditional Ishii fare. Two guys just trading shots and beating the hell out of each other. It’s something we’ve seen a lot but it does work so I get it. I thought it was good to see Drilla showcase more of his power game as this progressed. It’s not his most notable trait and Ishii is a solid boy so watching him suplex the former NEVER Openweight Champion was impressive. The same went for Drilla being able to trade lariats with Ishii, who we know hits hard as hell. Ishii sold a piledriver like death and bumped like hell on a Drilla Spear. Dude is seriously the most underrated seller I’ve ever seen. They started trading shots again until Ishii avoided the Drilla Killa and delivered a running headbutt. Alas, the Drilla Killa got hit and Ishii was put down in 14:06. Up there with Kidd/Narita as the best match of the tourney so far. That one was better overall but got bogged down by the ending while this was just some good old fashion, hard hitting wrestling. [***½]

New Japan Cup First Round: Callum Newman vs. Tetsuya Naito

These two surprisingly met twice last year and neither really got me interested in a third meeting. So, it quickly became clear that this shouldn’t have happened. It has been discussed often how Naito is broken down and can’t go the way he used to. That’s understandable given his age and the wear and tear on his body. In a tournament where you give “random” byes, not booking Naito to get a bye is wild. He looked slow out there, struggling to keep up. Meanwhile, Callum is still having trouble connecting since he’s kind of just cosplaying as a lesser Will Ospreay rather than doing his own thing. This just never really clicked. Naito worked the leg and I do think Callum did well to sell it. The finish was also messy as Callum looked like he got hit with a DDT but popped up to try an Oscutter only for Naito to slowly move out of the way. They then awkwardly got together for an inside cradle that got Naito the win in 11:07. Naito from 2015-2018 was one of the best wrestlers I’ve ever seen but we’re a long way from that and Callum isn’t the guy to get him to something good. [**]

3.0

The final score: review Bad

The 411

If it wasn’t for Drilla/Ishii, which was very good but still not great, this would’ve been a dire show. A middling ELP/O-Khan match, a lame main event, and a terrible opener is a bad sign for the rest of this tournament.