[Spoilers] NJ Cup Night Five (3/14) Results

Toru Yano, Tomohiro Ishii, Satoshi Kojima, Yuji Nagata def Katsuya Murashima, YOSHI-HASHI, Hiroshi Tanahashi, Hirooki Goto — (7:36, Nagata Lock II)

• They announced YH as from Bishamon and then immediately after announced Goto without mentioning Bishamon, which made me laugh

• Goto and Nagata start us off, their WHC match is tomorrow. Yes tomorrow and not at the end of the tour, I do not want to hear y’all be surprised that you missed it.

• This is the fifth time we’ve seen a variant of this same match; though at least Yano was here to do some Yano stuff and Bishamon did some of their tag spots.

• Post-match, Tana and Kojima have a brief standoff on the outside. There are still three more shows until that match, so we may not be free of this GroundDad Day situation just yet.

• Goto’s team forgets that with this setup they only have one entrance gate so the losers are exiting out the side, and are shepherded in the correct direction by the infamous Kikuchi.

Jado, El Phantasmo, Shota Umino def Jakob Austin Young, Callum Newman, Great-O-Khan — (6:26, Spinning Backbreaker)

• Babyface ELP has been one of Shota’s bros for a long time, and has always been just as happy to participate in Umino’s brand of fanservice as he is to lead his own. If this match took place on the Rt New Beginning tour, they would’ve all come out through the crowd to Shota’s music. Instead ELP and Jado come out through the gate first to Headbanga, and the new stoic Shota comes out after to his own music.

• This crowd doesn’t seem to know what to make of the new Shota, and is silent during his entrance and very tepid for his announcement.

• Shota elects to start the match and is jumped by O-Khan; but quickly gets the advantage back and then tags in Jado.

• In the closing moments, Shota comes in and pushes a double-teamed ELP out of the way of getting hit by a move in order to hit some lariats to help even the odds. ELP then pushes Umino out of the way of a move in order to counter it and win the match. Shota doesn’t seem upset, but it was an interesting interaction.

• Post-match, Shota is back to staring down O-Khan. He gets his hand raised along with his partners, but then leaves the ring alone instead of accepting a handshake from ELP.

• In the immediate future Shota has his eyes on the main event of Naito vs Cobb, the winner of which he faces in the quarterfinals tomorrow.

• United Empire also needed to be herded to the correct exit pathway.

Chase Owens, Bad Luck Fale, SANADA, Gabe Kidd def Yoshinobu Kanemaru, SHO, Yujiro Takahashi, Ren Narita — (0:23, DQ)

• War Dogs jump HoT during their entrance; with Gabe leading the charge, targeting Ren who screwed him out of the Cup on our last show, and SANADA in the back going to menace at SHO. Gabe is wearing his casual all-black streetwear look that he and Drilla recently used to jump HoT from the crowd during another tag match.

• After a brief outside brawl Gabe and Narita make it to the ring to start, with Kidd in control. This lasts for less than a minute until EVIL and Dick appear on the outside, with EVIL grabbing Gabe’s leg and Dick coming up on the apron to choke him. The ref is right there watching, and calls for the DQ.

• Finlay and Gedo are out almost immediately, making EVIL and Dick retreat. All of the War Dogs get in the ring.

• Gabe gets a mic. He asks “these pussies” HoT if they forget where we are? This is Osaka, this is War Dog country (where the group debuted). They’re not going to let the House escape, he’s not going to let “that prick Narita” escape. He proposes a six on six match instead of the second of the two separate matches we had scheduled.

• HoT jump into the ring and then everyone goes to the outside to brawl again.

Dick Togo, EVIL vs Gedo, David Finlay

Dick Togo, Yoshinobu Kanemaru, SHO, Yujiro Takahashi, Ren Narita, EVIL def Gedo, Chase Owens, Bad Luck Fale, SANADA, Gabe Kidd, David Finlay — (6:56, Magic Killer)

• Gabe and Narita brawl all the way out of the building.

• Eventually Dick and Gedo get in the ring, with Dick on top. After a few minutes Finlay and Gedo briefly regain the advantage, but can’t overcome the House shenanigans.

• SANADA once again did not really get involved beyond what was absolutely necessary. Chase and Fale also were not involved in anything other than the outside brawl. Ren and Gabe did not reappear after leaving the building.

• Post-match, HoT laugh at Finlay as he leaves.

• David has to wrest his focus away from the House and to Yuya Uemura tomorrow.

Hartley Jackson, Ryohei Oiwa, Zack Sabre Jr. def TAKA Michinoku, Yuya Uemura, Taichi — (8:02, THE GRIP)

• TAKA and Zack in the ring to start, ZSJ wants Taichi ahead of their match tomorrow but the Dangerous one seems hesitant. TAKA decides that Taichi needs to start, and tags him in unprompted.

• Zack lets the Tekkers out, taunting Taichi until he snaps and starts showing some fire. But then Zack going for an Axe Bomber trips him up and he’s back to being hesitant.

• Yuya and Hartley in next. TMDK cycle through tags and multiman moves, including Zack knocking Taichi off the apron. This gives Taichi the motivation to negate ZSJ from being involved in another team-up spot, though it’s not enough to get TAKA the win.

• Post-match, Dangerous Tekkers stare each other down on the outside, then have some words. I can’t make out what’s being said, but it is mainly Zack talking to Taichi so I assume it’s him telling his former partner to get his shit together.

• TMDK pose on the apron before leaving.

NJ Cup Second Round: Drilla Moloney def TJP^{[facepaint Aswang version]} — (15:05, Drilla Killa)

• TJP does the blood spit during his entrance. His facepaint makes him look like the vampire teddybear from Nightmare Before Christmas.

• IMO this was fine. TJP seemed kind of off, which could have been intentional for the story but could have been legit just an off night.

• Post-match, TJP spends a while selling the Piledriver like he’s been injured but eventually gets up and leaves under his own power, after staring at the Lion Mark for a long time. It would be funny to me if the Cobb to WWE “leak” was a red herring to make it more surprising when TJP’s the one to go.

• As he’s leaving, Drilla briefly abducts two kids that are holding War Dogs shirts and poses with them. He teases giving one a Drilla Killa as he’s helping them back to their seats.

• Drilla’s quarterfinal match tomorrow will be a hard-hitter against the winner of this next match.

NJ Cup Second Round: Shingo Takagi def Boltin Oleg — (18:16, Burning Dragon [wrist-clutch Death Valley Driver instead of a wrist-clutch Samoan driver, was called Legend Falconry in DG])

• To me this was very good and worth watching, but not great.

• Post-match, Shingo gives Boltin some encouragement and a fistbump.

• The Drilla vs Shingo rematch is now set.

NJ Cup Second Round: Jeff Cobb^{[w/Callum Newman]} def Tetsuya Naito^{[full suit version]—} (15:04, Tour of the Islands)

• As usual for big match Naito, he takes his time getting into the ring and disrobing, to try and throw off his opponent.

• Pre-lockup popularity contest is solidly in favor of Naito, though a handful of Cobb fans tried very hard to make themselves heard.

• As one would expect Cobb did a lot here but Naito was able to hold his own pretty well.

• Post-match, Cobb gets the mic and tells the Young Boys to get Naito out of the ring. He asks the fans who thought Naito was gonna beat him, the fans applaud politely because the majority of them did not understand what he said. He chides “the internet” for thinking he wasn’t going to beat Naito. Shota, “you bald bitch,” tomorrow you have a date with destiny.

• He then does a really crappy and out-of-order United Empire ripoff of the LIJ rolecall to end the night.

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