New Japan Pro Wrestling 3/20/2022 - New Japan Cup Day 12

New Japan Pro Wrestling 3/20/2022 - New Japan Cup Day 12

I am just doing the top three matches here. I am so behind on this.

Suzuki-gun (DOUKI, Taichi & Zack Sabre Jr.) vs. United Empire (Aaron Henare, Great-O-Khan & Will Ospreay)

Khan puts on his mongolian hat and starts dancing. Taichi has enough of it and goes to choke him. Khan hits some mongolian chops. Will starts beating up on ZSJ outside and throws him into rails while Khan chokes Douki with his cane. Henare then chokes Taichi with his feet. Will does a spinning backbreaker on Taichi. Taichi has 3 people on him in the corner and Will is grabbing Taichi's crotch while Khan chokes him.

ZSJ and Will go at it. Will tries a handspring enzugiri but gets caught and put in an STF. Will suplexes ZSJ. Henare and Douki get in and Douki top rope shoulders Denare then double stomps him for 2. Douki then top rope double stomps Henare for 2.

Douki hits some lariats on Henare then gets spinebustered. Henare then hits a fisherman's buster and wins it.

This really wasn't anything special mostly due to the limited amount of time it got.

Will and ZSJ went at it after and argued.

New Japan Cup Quarterfinal Match - Tetsuya Naito vs Jeff Cobb

Jeff shoulders him out early and teases a dive but does the Naito pose instead. Naito sees it though and baseball slides him for it. Naito headscissors Cobb and Cobb comes back with a nice fallaway slam. Naito goes out and gets rammed into the rails. Cobb squats on a delayed suplex on Naito then just throws him. Cobb does Naito's leg sweep + slingshot dropkick in the corner then does his pose. Cobb then lariats him and misses a standing moonsault.

Naito comes back with some offense and neckbreakers him. Naito then does his leg sweep + slingshot dropkick combo on him. They trade strikes, then Naito hits an enzugiri but takes a lariat after. Jeff nearly deadlift superplexes Naito from the apron in. Cobb then standing moonsaults him for 2. Naito then comes back with a run of the ropes tornado ddt. Naito then hits a diamond dust and tries for Destino and gets suplexed.
 
Naito hits a nice flying forearm then Cobb hits a nice gutwrench powerbomb. Cobb goes for his spinning slam but Naito reverses it. Naito then goes for destino, but Cobb goes for his tour of the islands slam and Naito rolls him up out of it to win it.

I liked this one. These two really worked together and played up the hoss vs flyer match well. They kept it moving and it was action packed. There were lots of counters and reversals here and I thought they put in a good effort.

New Japan Cup Quarterfinal Match - Kazuchika Okada vs CIMA

They go to the mat early and Okada baseball slides him outside. Cima pulls Okada's neck down over the top then twists his neck with his feet. Cima throws him into the rails then ddt's him on the floor. He then meteora's him from the apron. Cima works the neck more then gets flapjacked. Okada then ddt's him for 2 and ddt's him on the floor. Okada then runs around the ring and basement dropkicks him outside.

Cima dropkicks him from the 2nd rope. Cima gets more offense in then is dropkicked. Okada top rope elbow drops him and Cima comes back with a straightjacket backcracker then springboard double knee's him in the back of his neck. He tried for another springboard double knee but Okada moved and spinning tombstoned him. Okada is put on the 2nd rope and Cima backcrackers him then springboard dropkicks him as he is on all fours.

Cima then top rope meteora's him and misses a 2nd attempt. Okada hits some short arm lariats then hits a sitout driver. He then does basically a rainmaker and wins it.

It was okay but not great. I liked it when Cima was working the neck more here but he gave that up eventually and the match lost any chances at a bigger story that it it had.