NJPW New Japan Cup 2020
Night 2 – Round 1
Event Date: June 17, 2020
aired live on NJPW World
#njcup
City: Tokyo, Japan
Venue: ?
Attendance: empty arena
Series: New Japan Cup 2020
Commentary (Japanese): Milano Collection AT, Yuichi Tabata (1, 4), Shunpei Terakawa (2, 5), Kazuki Kusanagi (3), Toru Yano (5)
Ring Announcer: Kimihiko Ozaki (1 – 3), Makoto Abe (4, 5)
Video
A brief look at this year’s New Japan Cup featuring heavyweights, juniors, and young lions.
Ring Area
Kimihiko Ozaki is in the ring, and he announces tonight’s matches.
Match 1
New Japan Cup First Round Match
Gabriel Kidd vs Taiji Ishimori
(referee: Kenta Sato)
Result: Taiji Ishimori wins via submission with the Yes Lock
Time: 8:43
Match Thoughts
Good match. Like most young lions matches, Kidd started off with a burst of energy that kind of surprised Ishimori. Kidd got in some good shots, but it didn’t take too long for Ishimori to gain control of the match. Ishimori more or less dominated Kidd, but Kidd did have a few pretty good counters that forced Ishimori to break a submission attempt or pinfall here and there. Overall though, this wasn’t too difficult of a start to the tournament for Ishimori. It was a good match though.
Match 2
New Japan Cup First Round Match
Yuya Uemura vs Yoshinobu Kanemaru
(referee: Kenta Sato)
Result: Yoshinobu Kanemaru wins via pinfall after Deep Impact
Time: 9:32
Match Thoughts
Very good match. Uemura was ready to attack Kanemaru before he even entered the ring to start the match, but Kanemaru got the first few shots in. Uemura would begin to get the better of Kanemaru early in the match, but some trips out to ringside put the match solidly in Kanemaru’s favor. Back in the ring though, Uemura kept pushing forward and put together a very good sequence of offense that had Kanemaru looking to cheat to turn things back around. Shenanigans ensued, and that led to a fun finish.
Match 3
BUSHI (NEVER 6-Man Champ) & Shingo Takagi (NEVER 6-Man & Openweight Champ) & SANADA & EVIL (NEVER 6-Man Champ) vs Roppongi 3K (IWGP Jr. Tag Champs) & YOSHI-HASHI & Hirooki Goto
(referee: Marty Asami)
Result: Hirooki Goto pins BUSHI after GTR
Time: 12:15
Match Thoughts
Very good match. BUSHI got beat up a lot (which is fun), Shingo and Sho had a very nice sequence where they slammed each other with lariats (which is also fun), and LIJ got better with their teamwork as the match went on (which is always fun). SANADA and EVIL looked particularly good working together as well. Over on the other side, Goto seemed to have the strongest individual performance. Goto was hard to stop late in the match. Overall, this was a lot of fun and a good preview of some of the upcoming tournament matches.
Video
Way to the Grand Master is coming.
Ring Area
The commentators talk as the ring is sanitized during a brief intermission.
Match 4
New Japan Cup First Round Match
Minoru Suzuki vs Yuji Nagata
(referee: Marty Asami)
Result: Yuji Nagata wins via pinfall with a backdrop driver hold
Time: 20:35
Match Thoughts
Great match! This was absolutely a strong style battle. Suzuki and Nagata were throwing hard shots in their tag match last night, and they started this match doing the same thing. Then they kept throwing hard shots, and they never really stopped. Both men tried to strike each other down, both were staggered more than a few times, and by the end of the match neither man was completely steady on his feet. It was strike after strike after strike with a few moments of ringside violence or in-ring slams to break up the beatings. I enjoyed this a whole lot!
Match 5
New Japan Cup First Round Match
Gedo vs Kazuchika Okada
(referee: Red Shoes Unno)
Result: Kazuchika Okada wins via submission with a modified Cobra Clutch
Time: 15:30
Match Thoughts
Very good match. I thought this was going to be fifteen minutes of Okada beating up Gedo, but it turned out to be about thirteen minutes of Gedo cheating in every way humanly possible with a couple minutes of Okada fighting back. It was a lot of fun, mostly just from seeing what Gedo was going to try next. You know how in movies they’ll portray alcoholics as having bottles hidden all over the place in the most ridiculous spots? That’s how Gedo was with weapons tonight. It was great!
Show Impressions
This was another fun show. I’m still looking forward to the next show the most during the first round, but a few of tonight’s matches really did surprise me. Actually, most of them surprised me at least a little. I enjoyed this show more than I thought I would overall. I figured I’d like it fine, but it was really quite entertaining.
Match of the Night
Minoru Suzuki vs Yuji Nagata
This was great. This is the match to beat so far in the New Japan Cup 2020.
Official Results (Japanese): https://www.njpw.co.jp/tornament/248163?showResult=1