New Japan Pro Wrestling 3/26/2022 New Japan Cup Day 14

New Japan Pro Wrestling 3/26/2022 New Japan Cup Day 14

Just covering 3 matches here as most of these are pointless multi-man tags. 

Hirooki Goto, Tiger Mask & Tomoaki Honma vs. STRONGHEARTS (CIMA, El Lindaman & T-Hawk) (w/Issei Onitsuka)

There's a lot of arguing and holding back early to decide who gets in. Tiger hits kicks and Linda comes back with forearms. Tiger then tilt-a-whirl backbreakers him. Linda and Honma battle and Honma shoulders him down. Linda then takes a Goto hiptoss but avoids a Honma falling headbutt. Cima tries some punches on Honma but hurts his hand on his hard head.

Honma gets out of a 1v3 and hits a combo ddt/flatliner on Cima and Hawk. Goto gets in and runs over Hawk with a shoulder then spin kicks and backdrops Cima for 2. Cima hits a step up enzugiri and Goto gets behind Hawk while running the ropes and lariats him.

Tiger top rope crossbodies Hawk then puts him in a deep armbar but Cima breaks it up. Honma bulldogs Hawk then is helped with falling headbutting Hawk. Cima iconoslams Tiger then him and Linda double basement dropkick Tiger. Linda then tope con hilos Honma and Goto outside while Hawk hits a reverse sitout slam on Tiger for 2. Hawk then hits a reverse sitout razor's edge on Tiger to win.

This was really short and didn't have much to it. Basically it was a waste of everyone and wasn't too special.

New Japan Cup 2022 Semi Final Match - Shingo Takagi vs Zack Sabre Jr.

ZSJ locks some holds on early. He hits a face kick then gets shouldered over. Shingo hits some corner shots then takes a neck twist with ZSJ's feet. ZSJ hits a bunch of euro uppercuts outside and tells Shingo to bring it on the inside after another euro. ZSJ hooks onto Shingo and is thrown overhead. Shingo then hits a nice senton and he hits a top rope back elbow but it gets turned into an armbar which Shingo rope breaks for. ZSJ then does a hard leg twist on Shingo's arm.

Shingo comes back with a nice ddt at 10 minutes. ZSJ takes control for a bit then takes a pop-up death valley driver. Shingo then superplexes him. ZSJ comes back and dragon suplexes him then PK's him for 2. ZSJ hits a front kick then Shingo hits a Made in Japan for 2. They trade forearms for slaps then Shingo hits an sliding D to the back of the head then a lariat. ZSJ triangles him then jumps on his back for a sleeper. Shingo climbs up the ropes and drops him backwards but Zack holds on and wins it with the sleeper.

This was a good one. They treated it like an actual competition and hit a lot of shots that looked like they connected. Zack was good with the submissions as usual and him getting essentially an upset win here made it better than Shingo winning.

New Japan Cup 2022 Semi Final Match - Tetsuya Naito vs Kazuchika Okada

They get off to a slow start and go to the mat. Naito hits an armdrag and a headscissors at 5 minutes. Naito foot chokes him and sits up top then is dropkicked to the  floor. Okada then throws him into the rails and kicks him over the rail. Okada then ddt's him on the floor as he hangs from the rail. Naito's out there for at least a minute yet doesn't get counted out.

Okada chinlocks him and Naito knee dropkicks him. Naito then hiptosses him into a dropkick in the back. Naito puts Okada's leg around the rail outside then dropkicks it. Naito then puts his legs around Okada's neck and pulls on the arms and Okada has to ropebreak but Naito won't let go. Okada implant ddt's him for 2. Okada tries for a back body drop of some sort but Naito armdrags him and neckbreakers him.

Naito goes for his leg sweep/slingshot dropkick combo but Okada turns it into a neckbreaker over his knee. Okada hits a big dropkick then puts him in the money clip. Okada top rope elbows Naito then takes a version of the lightning spiral. Naito hits a tornado ddt then hurricanrana's him off the 2nd rope. Naito hits a bunch of back elobows in the corner then diamond dusts him. Naito hits destino for 2. He koppo kicks Okada then misses a corkscrew moonsault. Both men are down for a little then Okada hits a great john woo dropkick.

Okada hits some short arm lariats then a big dropkick. Naito step up enzugiri's him and rolls him up for 2. Okada tries a pin attempt then Naito hooks both his arm and rolls him up for the win.

This was fine but really nothing special and certainly not either guys best work. Nothing was really wrong with it but they weren't real creative here and didn't do anything out of the norm.