NJPW (Discussion)

[Frank Olson]

It's obviously not going to be to everyone's taste, but I really enjoyed the Cabana vs. Yano match. I wouldn't want a whole show full of matches like this, but a little variety is nice, especially in a long tournament like this one. The only problem I had was that I happened to turn on the live feed right as Cabana was getting his hand raised, so that obviously took some of the unpredictability out of this. Interesting that Cabana is the one moving on. I wouldn't have predicted that he or YOSHI-HASHI would make the Quarterfinals (I also didn't have Ishii going this far in my bracket, but him being there is a lot less shocking than the other two).

SANADA/Suzuki was fundamentally strong, with a good and very focused story surrounding Suzuki's efforts to decimate SANADA's knee. Even the crowd brawling sequence, an inevitable part of every Suzuki match that I've grown bored with, played directly into the story here. I do have some issues with the execution of the story, though, and it's pretty much all on SANADA's end. He's an incredibly gifted athlete who can adapt to almost anybody's style, but I just find it hard to get invested in him as a performer. SANADA is totally stone-faced and his charisma only really comes out in comedy matches. So while intellectually I can see that these two put together a very solid story of one man attempting to overcome the abuse of his knee, I just couldn't get emotionally wrapped up in watching SANADA fight back. It also looked kind of silly when SANADA spent an eternity climbing the top rope for the moonsault at the end and Suzuki didn't get out of the way. That said, SANADA has tons of crowd support, so clearly there are many people who don't have the same issues with him as a performer that I have.

I thought that ZSJ/Ibushi was clearly the standout match of Round 2, with Ospreay/Archer and Ishii/Taichi (despite a very boring first 5-10 minutes) being the other really strong bouts from this phase of the tournament. The Quarterfinals look strong, although I wish that Chase was in YOSHI-HASHI's position. Okada/Ospreay and Tanahashi/ZSJ should both be excellent.

[Empiresk]

Apologies if posting in the wrong thread, but has anyone got experience in buying tickets outside of Japan via Lawson/Loppi?

I will be in Japan for BOSJ Finals and Dominion and I am going to try my best to guarantee tickets when they are available on general sale before I fly out. Going to try my luck with other shows buying at the Box Office.

[rollup]

Apologies if posting in the wrong thread, but has anyone got experience in buying tickets outside of Japan via Lawson/Loppi?

I will be in Japan for BOSJ Finals and Dominion and I am going to try my best to guarantee tickets when they are available on general sale before I fly out. Going to try my luck with other shows buying at the Box Office.

unfortunately most of the sites need a japanese phone number for authentication to register . Usually since New japan tickets sell very well i would recommend using the ticket services like buysumotickets etc if you are not a njpw fan club member to ballot , and royals seats are usually taken by the fan club ballot

the dates you need to take note when they go on general sale is :

BOSJ : April 9
Dominion : May 12

any other promotions you will usually be able to tickets from the loppi machine or at the venue itself unless its all japan or DG korakuen which usually tends to sell out

[Empiresk]

Apologies if posting in the wrong thread, but has anyone got experience in buying tickets outside of Japan via Lawson/Loppi?

I will be in Japan for BOSJ Finals and Dominion and I am going to try my best to guarantee tickets when they are available on general sale before I fly out. Going to try my luck with other shows buying at the Box Office.

unfortunately most of the sites need a japanese phone number for authentication to register . Usually since New japan tickets sell very well i would recommend using the ticket services like buysumotickets etc if you are not a njpw fan club member to ballot , and royals seats are usually taken by the fan club ballot

the dates you need to take note when they go on general sale is :

BOSJ : April 9
Dominion : May 12

any other promotions you will usually be able to tickets from the loppi machine or at the venue itself unless its all japan or DG korakuen which usually tends to sell out

Thank you very much. I have been recommended buysumotickets as well last night so I will go through them for New Japan and I have already emailed Jae about a DG Korakuen.

[Frank Olson]

Ishii vs. YOSHI-HASHI was solid. The best thing I can say about it is that there were a few times where they convinced me that YOSHI-HASHI had a chance of winning. He looked a lot more fired up here than he has in most of his matches this year. My only issue is that it seemed like whenever the match was really picking up steam, then YOSHI-HASHI would slap on his terrible looking Butterfly Lock, although at least in this case it seemed like he was using that logically to build up to Karma.

Okada vs. Ospreay was really good, although not quite the barn burner I was expecting. I really have no complaints about the wrestling, which was very high level throughout. But there was just a lack of drama with Okada's win never really being in doubt, and with these two being on friendly terms. Good action but missing the intensity to put it over the top.

[Frank Olson]

SANADA vs. Cabana was a weird match. As with all of Cabana's matches in this tournament I enjoyed it but I don't know how much I can really defend it. It seems like they couldn't decide if they wanted to do a technical wrestling match or a comedy match, and it just didn't seem like the two were particularly comfortable working together. But I like Cabana's unorthodox offense, and as a Midwesterner who is mostly familiar with him from his appearances at small local shows I thought it was pretty cool to see him get so surprisingly far in the New Japan Cup.

Tanahashi vs. ZSJ was really good, and my favorite match of the Quarterfinals. Having Tanahashi trap Sabre with a very Sabre-like bridge was a perfect way to end the British Champion's streak of domination in this tournament, and Zack is just phenomenal at selling his frustration and disbelief after the loss. This was definitely the most dramatic of the Quarterfinals matches too, as it seemed like the only one where either man could realistically win.

Okada/Ishii and Tanahashi/SANADA should be incredible Semifinals matches. I don't think we've seen either of those matchups since 2016 (in the incredible G1 match between Okada and Ishii, and the great G1 and Power Struggle matches between Tanahashi and SANADA) so they both feel really fresh.

[Danwaka]

Definitely feels like Cabana slotted into Berretta's spot. I wonder why they didn't flip him and Owens for slots, and give Owens a bit more of a run.

[Frank Olson]

Okada/Ishii was one of the best matches of the tournament. They called back to a lot of spots from their outstanding 2016 G1 match. While in some ways today's match suffers by comparison to that one (and is also hurt somewhat drama-wise by the inevitability of Okada's victory), they did a really good job of telling the story that Okada had learned from many of the mistakes he had made in his previous loss to Ishii. Between the Nagata match (which in hindsight is probably my favorite of the tournament, or at least the one that has stuck with me the most), the Taichi match, and today's match I think that Ishii has to be considered the MVP of this year's New Japan Cup. (The YOSHI-HASHI match was good too, but on a lower level than the others).

SANADA/Tanahashi was very good but felt like a step down to me from their 2016 matches. There's been a lot of debate lately about SANADA's viability as a main eventer. While I think the J-Cast guys are underrating SANADA's in-ring abilities somewhat (I can point to those two previous Tanahashi matches as well as last year's G1 matches with ZSJ and Naito as great SANADA performances) I do agree with them that he seems to be missing that x-factor that would make him more than a talented midcarder. He's clearly very over with the crowd, but I personally find it hard to get invested in his matches, because more often than not there's just no fire or personality there. That's how I felt with today's match, which was technically very impressive (these two have great in-ring chemistry) but a little tough to care about.

Okada vs. SANADA isn't a finals match that I'm overly excited about. Their previous matches together have all been good but none of them have been particularly memorable. Also it feels like there is a 0% chance that Okada loses (which has been an issue with his matches throughout the tournament).

[benjaminkicks]

I thought Okada vs. Ishii was the perfect sequel to their scorcher from the 2016 G1. Was absolutely dripping with callbacks to that match, which worked wonders because so many of the spots in that match were so memorable. Particularly loved Okada anticipating Ishii to chop him during the Rainmaker pose this time. I liked how they went through the finishing sequence of the previous match almost beat-for-beat, but instead of Ishii hitting the brainbuster this time Okada countered out of it. And then the match just continued to build from there! Ishii pulling out stuff reminiscent of Shibata, with the Rainmaker no-sell, as well as their CHAOS buddy Nakamura, with the desperation armbar as a callback to when Nak made Okada tap to the same move.

The first half of this reminded me Ishii's match with Tanahashi in the 2016 G1 as well, as both matches were built around Okada/Tanahashi trying to prove that they could work Ishii's bruiser style. In their previous match, Okada got blitzed early by Ishii and was never really able to truly recover, but in the strike exchanges that buoyed the first part of the match here, Okada was not only able to wither the storm, but prove that he could stand up to Ishii in a battle of strikes. Okada looked like a badass, dominant ace here by powering through the beatings that Ishii was giving him, and Ishii as always looked super credible as the guy who will always take his opponents to the absolute limit, even if he can't always put them away. I also like how Okada has slowly built up an arsenal of different Rainmaker variations (backslide, spinning, and the German-into-Rainmaker), and he had to throw out all of them before he could finally get the win.

I'd go 5-stars on it and it has edged out Omega vs. Tanahashi as my current MOTY

[mlev76]

I think I've seen enough singles Sanada to tide me over for the foreseeable future during this tournament. He is much better in tags with Evil and his match with Okada, while not a complete carry job by Okada, was further proof he has a ceiling in terms of what he can do. Skull End is a visibly bad looking finisher and I went from thinking they were just shooting it from a bad angle to thinking it just looks bad.

So, I get to see Okada/White in 13 days, a reality I never thought I'd ever see at the Garden. And given how much I liked him the last time I saw him live (right down the street at Hammerstein), can't believe how much I am not looking forward to seeing White. Maybe he'll be better than I imagine live. I have faith in Okada. Less so in him.

[Ckkj14]

I absolutely loved the first White v Okada match. Went ****3/4 on it. This one has the potential to beat it

[monster mafia]

IWGP Heavyweight Title
White (c) vs. Okada

Ladder for the ROH Word Title
Lethal (c) vs. Scurll vs. Taven

IWGP IC Title
Naito (c) vs. Ibushi

RPW British Heavyweight Title
ZSJ (c) vs. Tana

IWGP and ROH Tag Titles
GOD (c) vs. VE (c) vs. Briscoes vs. LIJ

IWGP Jr Heavyweight Title
Ishimori (c) vs. Bandido vs. Lee

WOH Title
Mayu (c) vs. Klein

Rush vs. Castle

NYC Street Fight
Bully vs. TBA

ROH TV and NEVER Titles
Cobb (c) vs. Ospreay (c)

Pre-Show Honor Rumble
Liger vs. 29 other wrestlers

[OptionZero]

Okada vs. Ospreay was really good, although not quite the barn burner I was expecting. I really have no complaints about the wrestling, which was very high level throughout. But there was just a lack of drama with Okada's win never really being in doubt, and with these two being on friendly terms. Good action but missing the intensity to put it over the top.

Had to think about why Ospreay/Okada wasn't the next level match it could have been:
There was no heat. It was worked, at least mostly, as a friendly competition.
Okada and Ospreay hit pretty much EVERY signature spot on each other - how the heck does that make sense? They've wrestled twice before and they're in the same faction, they should literally have every move scouted and a counter ready.

The closing stretch was good, they're too talented not to produce there

But there is a match with these two that is a surefire 5 star battle, we just won't see it until the time comes for Ospreay and Okada to be more than big-bro/little-bro. It doesn't need to be a heel-turn for one guy, but there will be a point when Ospreay simply needs to beat OKada or die trying to get to where he wants to go, and then they can take the kid gloves off and light each other up for real

[Frank Olson]

I had to rewatch the Okada/SANADA New Japan Cup finals match, because it didn't make a big impression on me yesterday, and then later in the day I saw a bunch of Match of the Year level praise for it. And on a second watch it still didn't do a ton for me. Pretty much nothing happens in the first 10 minutes (this is a common complaint about Okada matches that I usually don't agree with, but I think it does apply here) and while the pace does eventually pick up with some pretty cool counter sequences (including the expected strong closing stretch) I ultimately thought it was a fairly unremarkable match. Having said all that, the crowd was certainly very into it the whole way through, so I guess this is just a me thing, but the match didn't really connect with me despite a few nice moments.

I came away disappointed with the US Title match as well. I really like Chase Owens and consider him last year's MVP of the multiman tag matches, but I was not impressed by his longer singles matches that he had on this tour. I guess that old-fashioned Southern style just isn't my thing. The Jado interference, the Bad Luck Fale run-in, and the powder in the eyes all just seemed excessive and silly to me.

Having said all that, I did really enjoy the New Japan Cup tour overall this year. The 32-man format had its drawbacks (the inclusion of guys who aren't ready yet like Hikuleo and others who probably shouldn't be wrestling singles matches anymore like Nakanishi, Tenzan, and Honma) but I think the expansion was ultimately worth it for showing off the depth and variety of the roster, and for making winning the tournament feel like a more epic achievement than it did in the past. I haven't rewatched anything other than the finals, but off the top of my head I would say that my favorite matches were Ishii/Nagata, Okada/Ishii, Ibushi/Naito, and ZSJ/EVIL, probably in that order.

[Buzz Sawyer]

AXS TV is showing the NJPW/ROH MSG show in 2 parts starting April 12th and on April 19th.