The New Japan Cup kicked off today at the NJPW 52nd Anniversary show. The three cup matches on the card saw YOSHI-HASHI defeat KENTA, Toru Yano eliminate Yujiro Takahashi and in his NJPW debut, Jack Perry knocked off Shota Umino.
The main event was a special singles match with the IWGP World Heavyweight Champion, Tetsuya Naito defeating the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Champion, SHO.
This match began as Naito was making his entrance, SHO attacked him from behind before dragging him into the ring. In the ring, Naito quickly bounced back with a leg sweep and dropkick. He then brought him to the floor to throw him into the steel barricades before choking him with a cord. SHO went after Naito’s knee to get back into the match, he hit a leg DDT on the floor. He then began driving Naito’s knee into the mat before locking in a kneebar, but Naito reached the ropes.
A pop-up low blow. Credit: NJPW
Naito came back at SHO with a running hurricanrana, an arm drag, a back elbow and a sliding dropkick. He then dropped SHO with a reverse DDT onto his knee and a neckbreaker followed by a hip toss onto his knee. To regain momentum SHO shielded himself with the referee before sending Naito into him. With Red Shoes down, SHO hit Naito in the knee before grabbing a steel chair. He drove that chair into Naito’s knee and then wrapped Naito’s knee around the ring post to hit him with the chair again. The chair attack continued with three more shots to the knee and SHO then woke up Red Shoes to get him to start counting.
Naito somehow beat the count, but he walked into another knee bar from SHO. Once again Naito reached the ropes, but this time the submission did some damage. SHO then hit a powerbomb backbreaker combination, a clothesline and the cross-arm piledriver. He now went for Shock Arrow, but Naito blocked and hit an enzigiri followed by a Destino. Naito now began driving elbows into SHO’s head and he then placed SHO on the top rope to deliver an avalanche hurricanrana.
Naito powers his way to victory. Credit: NJPW
The next form of attack was a tornado DDT, but SHO then pushed Naito into Red Shoes again. With Red Shoes down SHO hit Naito with a low blow and House of Torture then charged the ring to attack Naito. However, they could not get much of an attack as LIJ rushed the ring to save Naito. With all this chaos going on, SHO tried to use his wrench, but he instead ran into a pop-up low blow from Naito. He then spit on SHO’s wrench, hit the Valencia and then finished him off with a Destino to get the victory.
NJPW 52nd Anniversary Event Results
United Empire (Great-O-Khan & Jeff Cobb) vs. Tanga Loa & Tomoaki Honma
Cobb defeated Honma with a Tour of the Islands.
Winners: United Empire (Great-O-Khan & Jeff Cobb)
TMDK (Mikey Nicholls & Zack Sabre Jr.) vs. Guerrillas of Destiny (El Phantasmo & Hikuleo)
Nicholls beat ELP with a Mikey Bomb and TMDK has knocked off the former tag champs.
Winners: TMDK (Mikey Nicholls & Zack Sabre Jr.)
Los Ingobernables de Japon (BUSHI, Hiromu Takahashi, Shingo Takagi & Yota Tsuji) vs. CHAOS (Hirooki Goto & Tomohiro Ishii), El Desperado & Oleg Boltin
In what seemed like a botched finish, El Desperado stole a win from BUSHI with a roll-up.
Following the match, Ishii was attacked from behind by Chase Owens and hit with a Package Piledriver.
Winners: CHAOS (Hirooki Goto & Tomohiro Ishii), El Desperado & Oleg Boltin
United Empire (Callum Newman, Francesco Akira & TJP) vs. Bullet Club War Dogs (David Finlay, Gabe Kidd & Gedo)
Catch 2/2 defeated Gedo after hitting him with a 2×2.
Winners: United Empire (Callum Newman, Francesco Akira & TJP)
Just 5 Guys (DOUKI, SANADA, Taichi & Yuya Uemura) vs. House of Torture (Dick Togo, EVIL, Ren Narita & Yoshinobu Kanemaru)
Uemura hit Togo with a diving crossbody followed by a Deadbolt Suplex to get the victory.
Winners: Just 5 Guys (DOUKI, SANADA, Taichi & Yuya Uemura)
New Japan Cup 2024 First Round Match: Yujiro Takahashi vs. Toru Yano
This brawl ended up on the outside with Takahashi trying to handcuff Yano on the outside. However, Yano battled him off and ended up zip-tying Takahashi to the timekeeper before rolling back into the ring to win by countout and eliminate Takahashi.
Winner: Toru Yano
New Japan Cup 2024 First Round Match: YOSHI-HASHI vs. KENTA
KENTA had HASHI reeling following a running knee and he got HASHI up for a GTS, but HASHI reversed into a crucifix bomb to steal the victory and advance. Following the match, HASHI tried to show respect, but KENTA hit him from behind before walking off.
Winner: YOSHI-HASHI
New Japan Cup 2024 First Round Match: Jack Perry vs. Shota Umino
SCAPEGOAT. Credit: NJPW
There was a lot of animosity heading into this match, Perry entered NJPW by attacking Umino and now this is his first match. It seemed like Umino was going to get the victory, but Yoshinobu Kanemaru of House of Torture distracted the referee. As the ref had his back turned Ren Narita rushed into the ring hitting Umino with a pipe and a Double Cross. Perry followed all that with a running knee to steal a victory and advance to round two of the New Japan Cup.
Following the victory, the House of Torture all joined Perry in the ring and EVIL offered a shirt to Perry to join the faction. Perry happily put on the shirt and he has officially joined the House of Torture!
