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RADICAN’S 2020 NJPW CUP FINAL REPORT
JULY 11, 2020
OSAKA-JO HALL
OSAKA, JAPAN
AIRED LIVE ON NJPW WORLD
(1) GBH (Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma) beat Yuya Uemura & Yota Tsuji in 9:15.
(2) TenKozy (Satoshi Kojima & Hiroyoshi Tenzan) beat Gabriel Kidd & Hirooki Goto in 10:00.
(3) Master Wato beat Douki in 7:50. Douki tried to jump Wato, but Wato cut him off. They battled on the floor a short time later and Douki hit Wato with his staff. The action was solid and Wato mounted a comeback late and hit Douki with the alley oop and a twisting splash off the top for the win. (**3/4)
After the match, Yoshinobu Kanemaru attacked Douki, but Tenzan made the save.
(Radican’s Analysis: The action was solid, but I wasn’t super impressed with Wato. The crowd seems into his gimmick and it’s a plus to know that, as without an audience, I don’t think this match would have been a good viewing experience.)
(4) Bullet Club (Taiji Ishimori Yujiro Takahashi) beat LIJ (Bushi & Sanada) in 9:30.
(5) Suzuki Gun (Taichi & Zack Sabre Jr. & Bushi & Yoshinobu Kanemaru) beat Hiroshi Tanahashi & Kota Ibushi & Ryusuke Taguchi & Yuji Nagata in 12:45. ZSJ and Taichi worked together to go after Tanahashi’s leg during the early going. Not much to this one. At one point, Taichi threw himself out of the ring when they were doing a brawl to the floor segment after Tanahashi fell down while trying to throw him to the outside. Tanahashi and Ibushi wiped out Sabre after the match with a double slingblade.Bushi ended up getting the pin on Taguchi after hitting Pinche Loco. (**)
(6) LIJ (Shingo Takagi & Hiromu Takahashi & Tetsuya Naito) vs Chaos (Sho & Tomohiro Ishii & Toru Yano) in 15:00. The crowd really fired up for a late hot tag to Sho and Shingo Takagi. They built to a big strike exchange and the fans really fired up. Shingo ended the exchange with a big lariat and both men were down. What a sequence! Naito pinned Yano with his jackknife pinning combo. (***)
Sho and Shingo had words after the match.
(7) Evil beat Kazuchika Okada in the 2020 NJPW Cup Finals in 32:00. Evil hit Darkness Falls early, but Okada blocked EIE and went for the Cobra Clutch. Evil shook him off quickly. Evil wrapped Okada’s arm in a chair and tossed him into the guardrail on the floor. The ref warned Evil, but he shoved the ref away. He then hit his baseball swing chair shot and the fans applauded. Evil continued to target Okada’s arm.
Okada mounted a comeback and drop kicked Evil off the top to the floor. He hit a tombstone and applied the Cobra Clutch, but Evil got his foot on the rope. Evil threw Okada into the ref and then nailed him with a low blow. Evil hit Darkness Falls onto a pile of chairs and the fans fired up. Evil got rid of the chairs and the ref recovered, but Okada managed to kick out of the cover at two.
Okada hit a drop kick and applied the Cobra Clutch later in the match and the fans really fired up. Evil got out of it, but Okada hit another tombstone and applied the Cobra Clutch. Okada let go and hit a Rainmaker. He held on to Evil’s wrist and hit a big Rainmaker. He then applied the Cobra Clutch. The ref was checking Evil when Gedo came out. Yujiro Takahashi came out and wiped out Okada. Wow! Evil took a long time to recover and hit a lariat for a near fall. Okada blocked EIE and got the Cobra Clutch. Evil drove Okada into the ref again. Okada got the Cobra Clutch and Evil hit a low blow. He then spread Okada’s legs on the mat and kicked him in the nuts. Evil then hit EIE for the win. What a match! (****3/4)
(Radican’s Analysis: Just an incredible piece of business to get Evil over as a main event heel. He cheated every step of the way and got some help from Bullet Club as well. What’s he going to when he faces Naito? Wow!)
Naito came down to the ring after the match with the IC and IWGP Hvt. Titles. He put the belts down next to the NJPW Cup. Naito offered a fist and Evil raised it but then hit the Too Sweet and hit EIE on Naito.
Bullet Club then came out to celebrate. They all hit the Too Sweet over Naito and then Evil put the boots to him. Takahashi and Sanada came out to make the save.
Contact Sean at radicansean@pwtorch.com. Follow him on Twitter @SR_Torch
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