Written by: Super Mastodon (@SuperMastodon)
Before New Japan returns with more NJ Cup action on July 1st, let’s take a recap at the concluding stages of the 1st Round of the tournament. Going to be reviewing each match and see who advances in hopes to face Tetsuya Naito for the Double IWGP Championship at Dominion.
Day 3 – Round 1
Date: June 22, 2020
SANADA def. Ryusuke Taguchi
Match Time: 15:47
Now I’m usually a SANADA fan but I do understand that the common criticism for him is that he doesn’t have a “shining” personality if you will, he’s a really reserved guy right now, even more Tranquilo than Naito and when that becomes the focal point of a match plus you add the fact there is no audience, it creates for a boring match even Taguchi’s antics couldn’t save it to be entertaining. I want to like this match because I know there’s potential there for it to be a decent technical bout but it really was almost a snoozefest for most of it until the finishing sequence. Taguchi’s near falls were the saving grace as it made me think he did have a chance at potentially an upset. There were a lot of submission back-and-forth and without a crowd to play off to this match suffered badly. Taguchi escaped the attempts of SANADA at fully locking in the Skull End but the LIJ member still got the win in the end with a sneaky bridging pin. It wasn’t a “bad match” per se, just entirely underwhelming in my opinion.
SHO def. Shingo Takagi
Match Time: 17:06
From a dud match we go to quite possibly the best match of the New Japan Cup 1st round and may just go down that way for the entire tournament and my personal favorite match of this so-called “COVID era” too. We already know both men are capable of high quality matches as evident of their past encounters before but they just seem to up their performances all the time. The first time these two have faced one on one was Shingo going for a flawless sweep in his first Best of the Super Juniors tournament and one of the men he defeated was SHO but it wasn’t an easy victory as they stole the show then and once again they did it this time too. The narrative seems be though that Shingo always had the upper hand on SHO and ever since then he moved up to the heavyweights while SHO is still a junior and in fact 1/2 of the reigning tag-team champs of that division right now. But the tides have turned here as after a hellacious match, with a lot of back-and-forth nonstop high intensity action, from lariats to elbows, signatures moves, and everything else in between, SHO managed to execute the Shock Arrow on his opponent and take the surprise win, advancing him to the tournament! I for one am shocked too but I didn’t put it into consideration that they wouldn’t just give out SANADA vs. Shingo first time in front of no audience so it makes sense for SHO to win here plus now they make it seem like he’s on equal footing when it comes to Shingo, adding fuel to their rivalry. Amazing match from top to bottom, go out of your way to see it! If Wrestle Kingdom didn’t happen earlier this year, then this might just be my MOTY for the company.
Kota Ibushi def. Zack Sabre Jr.
Match Time: 15:15
If there are two people that have the chance in going after the previous match and outshine it then it’s these two, their long history with one another by this point makes them really familiar opponents but unfortunately, at least to me, this didn’t live up to the hype. Ibushi and ZSJ’s matches in the past have all been wonderful which is why this match felt a little disappointing because we know they are capable of the best. Maybe the factor of not having a crowd playing off on their classic babyface-heel antics didn’t help? Once again it’s not a bad match but in comparison to their outings before, it’s not on par. A lot of stalling and back-and-forth technical bouts, sprinkled in with a few brawling here and there. Things didn’t really heat up on the second gear until the finishing sequence but even then the match still felt like it lacked something, especially with such a high energy match that they followed. Ibushi advances by taking the win, knocking the Submission Master out with a Kamigoye.
Taichi def. Hiroshi Tanahashi
Match Time: 21:51
Sit down Tanahashi, we have a new ace in town! Okay in all seriousness though, I thought this match was okay. No Miho Abe so even more of a letdown but I digress. Tanahashi has new cool entrance gear at least. As for the match itself, a traditional Suzuki-Gun shenanigans infested match with Taichi doing everything he can to cheat his way through a win and even had DOUKI around for some interferences on his behalf. An old school booking of the sneaky heel against the righteous babyface and who could be more of a face than Tana? If I’m being honest though the first half of this match wasn’t all that interesting to me, I get that these two are feuding along with the aforementioned guys for the tag titles but there’s not enough heat for me to be really invested yet. When Taichi moved up to the heavyweights I believe it was last year he faced Tana and that was a better match than this one and he proved then that he’s capable of having good bouts himself, this one needed a crowd badly. Nothing out of the ordinary, you know The Lord Emperor winning over the former 8x IWGP Heavyweight Champion. A big win for Taichi and he advances to face Ibushi. I saw a comment stating that we’re at the point where Tanahashi is being relegated into the “New Japan Dad” position as in with his seniors: Nagata, Tenzan, and Kojima and I can’t help but to agree. He’s still one of the top stars of the company and a great ambassador for them but booking wise, I think we’re past the point of peak Tanahashi now but we’ll see where it goes from here.
