Voices of Wrestling NJPW 2017 Year in Review by VoicesofWrestling.com

Author:VoicesofWrestling.com
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: VoicesofWrestling.com
Published: 2018-01-03T08:00:00+00:00

New Japan Cup 2017

March 11, 2017

Aichi Prefectural Gymnasium

Aichi, Japan

By Joe Lanza

TAKA Michinoku & El Desperado def. Ryusuke Taguchi & Hirai Kawato

I don’t think he’ll ever be a star, but Hirai Kawato is coming along quickly and has become a guy that you can’t skip because you might miss a man die in the ring. This kid (as in, a literal teenager, as he still hasn’t celebrated his 20th birthday) bumps like a complete lunatic, and this roster of veterans, in this case noted sadistic young boy torturer TAKA Michonoku and stiffer than a dead body El Desperado, love to beat the every loving shit out of him. If my rating looks too high, I assure you it isn’t. Taguchi took the night off and stayed out of the way while Kawato had a few months shaved off of his career by two men that should probably be brought up on assault charges. Great opener. ***1/4

Satoshi Kojima, Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Jushin Thunder Liger def. Manabu Nakanishi, Tiger Mask, Tomoyuki Oka

This average as fuck match was rolling along, doing average things and being average, when out of nowhere Kojima took Oka’s head off with the strongest arm and spared us a few extra minutes of mediocre. Kojima is over. I mean, guys like Kojima and Tenzan are always over to a degree, but lately Kojima is over more than usual. He can still go, and if they wanted to, they could totally give him a legit singles push and it would work. Nothing wrong with this, but it was just a match. **1/2

Kenny Omega & Yujiro Takahashi def. Tomohiro Ishii & YOSHI-HASHI

YOSHI-HASHI has been scoring so many falls lately that I was convinced Yujiro would take the L here, so the result surprised me a little. This was t-shirt Kenny, but he worked harder than he usually does when it’s a t-shirt match. YOSHI-HASHI sold the One Winged Angel like absolute death, above and beyond what you normally see for a finish, which I don’t think was happenstance. They are setting that move up to produce a huge moment, either as the downfall of Okada, or for a memorable kick out. ***1/4

Tetsuya Naito, SANADA, Hiromu Takahashi, BUSHI def. Katsuyori Shibata, Juice Robinson, KUSHIDA, David Finlay

This opened up with an odd spot. Hiromu was either still selling the leg from the Taguchi match, or slipped coming off the ropes and just went with it as if it was on purpose. Either way, KUSHIDA went along with it too, so it all ended up working out. This wasn’t bad, but unless I’m just getting tired of these, it was the worst LIJ muti-man tag I can recall. SANADA was the clear standout (including a very tasty sequence with Shibata), and won it with the dragon sleeper on Finlay. **3/4

Kazuchika Okada, Hirooki Goto, Gedo, Jado def. Minoru Suzuki, Takashi Iizuka, Yoshinobu Kanemaru, Taichi

This was pretty damn great when Okada was in with Suzuki, and pretty damn awful when Taichi was doing anything aside from being hit with the match ending Rainmaker.

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