For anyone who somehow missed it yesterday; this is technically the first show of the tour because they had to cancel all of yesterday’s matches due to a broken ringpost.
Pre-Show: Katsuya Murashima def Daiki Nagai — (8:03, Boston Crab)
Tiger Mask, Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Satoshi Kojima, Yuji Nagata def Tomoaki Honma, Toru Yano, Hiroshi Tanahashi, Hirooki Goto — (7:56, Backdrop Hold)
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This is the first match since all of these guys got folded into Hontai, disbanding CHAOS and Great Bash Heel.
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Goto starts the match with his challenger a week from today, Nagata.
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Later in the match we see a preview of Kojima vs Tana, a special singles on the 20th.
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Post-match, Nagata briefly taunts Goto.
Jado, El Desperado, El Phantasmo def Jakob Austin Young, Jeff Cobb, Great-O-Khan — (10:13, Numero Dos)
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After persuading Despe to give him a kiss on the cheek, ELP starts the match with O-Khan; who he faces in the Cup tomorrow. ELP tries to get a kiss from GOK but instead gets grabbed by the hair. Phantasmo retaliates by grabbing GOK’s nipple, which only serves to arouse the Horniest Khan in Professional Wrestling. But a double nipple pinch is too much for GOK.
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Immediately post-pin, Despe gets hugpiled on by Jado and ELP, along with a couple more cheek kisses from Phantasmo.
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During the winner’s announcement, the lights go out and we get a video from Clark Connors, accepting Despe’s recent challenge for a singles match. Clark agrees with Despe’s proposal that it’ll be a Jr. title match with no opportunity for DQ (he nominated Clark because he was unsatisfied with how their last singles match ended in a DQ), but wants to take it a step further and make it a Hardcore match.
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When the video ends, Despe agrees to Clark’s terms.
Francesco Akira, Callum Newman def BUSHI, Tetsuya Naito[casual entrance jacket t-shirt Naito version] — (8:43, Inside cradle)
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Callum has remixed (in my opinion more generic) music. He’s also back to a very Ospreay-esque entrance jacket.
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Chris Charlton reveals that Callum’s injury was a dislocated kneecap, and also that HENARE’s on the same night was a broken kneecap. I believe this is the first time the specifics of at least one of those injuries has been made public.
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Naito is playing mind games with Callum ahead of their Cup match tomorrow, among them taking forever to come to the ring. But he’s much quicker to oblige when Callum asks him to start the match instead of BUSHI.
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Callum’s knee is a target during the match, and he continues selling it during the post-match; noticeably limping as he gets in Naito’s face to taunt him.
NJ Cup First Round: Yuya Uemura [w/TAKA Michinoku, Taichi] def SANADA [w/Taiji Ishimori] — (15:48, Superman pin)
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I’d like to note that Yuya won the Japanese fan poll for Tournament winner picks, with 951 of the 6,335 total votes.
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SANADA is wearing a shirt that says in mixed Japanese and English “上村[Uemura] MOTHER FUCKER 優也 [Yuya]… still a Young Lion”.
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The match starts off clean and technical, until Yuya gets the upper hand and SANADA bails out of the ring. Yuya goes out to chase him, and when he’s coming back in SANADA kicks the ropes for an indirect nut shot. He takes Yuya outside for a brief beatdown and count out tease.
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Eventually Yuya overcomes his fear and goes to the top turnbuckle to try the crossbody (which is how he hurt his arm), but SANADA pulls the ref on top of himself and Ishimori pushes Yuya off. Ishimori attacks TAKA but Taichi grabs a chair and gets the upper hand, and he and TAKA chase Ishimori to the back.
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This win means Yuya will now face YOSHI-HASHI in the Second round on the 11th. TAKA and Taichi come back out to celebrate.
NJ Cup First Round: EVIL def Yota Tsuji — (4:53, EVIL)
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Dick Togo jumps Tsuji from behind during his entrance, leading to a two-on-one beat down that goes from the outside to in the ring. But Tsuji manages to misdirect Dick and use him against EVIL, and the match officially starts.
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In the ending stretch, Tsuji goes for Gene Blast, but Dick pushes the referee in the way and poor Marty Asami gets blasted instead. Togo then throws powder in Tsuji’s eyes, then a dick punch and EVIL finishes him off.
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Post-match, EVIL gets a mic and laughs at last year’s Cup winner getting eliminated in the first round. He boasts that he’s on a completely different level than Tsuji.
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The Bullet Club warfare will ramp up, as EVIL now faces David Finlay on the 11th.
NJ Cup First Round: Ryohei Oiwa [w/Hartley Jackson] def Chase Owens — (9:40, Arc Clutch)
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During his entrance, Chase reminds us that six years ago today he beat Juice Robinson in the first round of the Cup.
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Oiwa wins a fairly clean match. Chase Owens did not destroy this sub’s dreams, as Oiwa is moving on to face his TMDK Senpai Zack Sabre Jr on the 11th.
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Post-match, Chase blames his loss on a lack of a warm-up match yesterday, which was canceled due to the broken ring. He takes a cheap shot at a Young Lion and taunts some fans on his way out.
NJ Cup First Round: Gabe Kidd def Ren Narita
— (22:16, Drill a Hole Piledriver [x2])
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Ren tries to jump Gabe from behind during his entrance, but Gabe catches him and takes him down. He gets a mic and says “this is New Japan motherfucker, Narita meet me in the ring like a man.”
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New trunks for Gabe, which have the kanji for Tokon/Fighting Spirit on the back.
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I want to mention that Gabe came in second in the Japanese fan poll, with 784 votes. The fans are similarly very much behind him here.
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At one point Gabe’s newfound conscience costs him, as him asking the ref to check on a possibly knocked out Ren gives Narita an opportunity to pull the ref in the way and taken out by a Gabe clothesline.
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With the ref down, Narita gets a hit on Gabe with his new steel push-up bar, and SHO and Yujiro come out for an extended three-on-one beatdown.
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Eventually Drilla and Ishimori come out for the save, and bring SHO and Yujiro to the back.
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This is a must-watch, not just due to being a great match but also due to Gabe’s continued character development.
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Post-match, Gabe gets a mic. He apologizes for not knowing enough Japanese, but everyone will understand this: “Fuck House of Torture.” Gabe is the future, not anyone else. He bleeds for this company, he lives for this company. Fuck AEW, fuck WWE, Shin-Nihon ichiban. He is your New Japan Cup winner. Taichi had better be ready (second round match on the 12th).
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To close out his Backstage Comments, Gabe uses Shibata’s signature “ijo,” and then adds on (in Japanese) “Katsuyori Shibata, I’m waiting.”
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by EffingKENTA