New Japan Pro Wrestling 3/6/2024 NJPW 52nd Anniversary Event & New Japan Cup 2024 Day 1

New Japan Pro Wrestling 3/6/2024 NJPW 52nd Anniversary Event & New Japan Cup 2024 Day 1

I skipped 2 matches:

CHAOS (Hirooki Goto & Tomohiro Ishii), El Desperado & Oleg Boltin vs. Los Ingobernables de Japon (BUSHI, Hiromu Takahashi, Shingo Takagi & Yota Tsuji)

Ishii and Yota trade chops and shoulder battle. Ishii shoulders him over. Oleg is tagged in and throws Yota around. Yota suplexes Oleg. Hiromu chops Oleg then stomps his toes. Hiromu corner lariats him and basement dropkicks him. Oleg is stomped by Shingo and Hiromu.

Oleg double shoulders over Shino and Hiromu. Gota comes in and takes down 2 people then spinning heel kicks Shingo. Goto backdrops Shingo for 2. Shingo and Goto trade forearms then they lariat each other. Shingo hits a punch and lariat and both go down.

Despy backdrops Bushi for 2. Despy takes a triple basement dropkick for 2 then Bushi dropkicks Despy. Bushi is thrown into Ishii and Ishii shoulders him over. Yota superkicks Ishii then Oleg shoulders Yota and Shingo over. Bushi pulls Oleg over the top.

Bushi rewind kicks Despy then Despy crucifixes him to win it.

It was a short 8-man here. Everyone got a quick segment in and they went to the finishing stretch. It was short and rushed. They did what they could with it but there were too many people and not enough time.

Chase Owens beats up Ishii after and package piledrivers him.

United Empire (Callum Newman, Francesco Akira & TJP) vs. BULLET CLUB War Dogs (David Finlay, Gabe Kidd & Gedo)

 

4 of the 6 fight outside to start. DF misses a shilelagh shot and TJP misses red mist. DF's shilelagh goes into the crowd when he gets dropkicked then TJP dropkicks him through the ropes.

DF sentons TJP then TJP facewash kicks Kidd. Kidd takes a double basement dropkick. Newman gets on the 2nd rope and is pushed over. DF stomps on Newman outside. DF throws Newman on a suplex then NEwman is sent into the rails outside.

Gedo rakes on Newman's eyes and Kidd asks Akira and TJP where Will Ospreay is. Newman runs the ropes fast an face kicks Kidd. Akira jumps off of Kidd's back to dropkick DF. Akira leg lariats Kidd then corner lariats him.

Kidd takes a spin kick from TJP then Akira top rope crossbodies Kidd for 2. Kidd drops Akira with a slap. DF gordbusters Akira. TJP hits a thesz press on DF then double stomps him. Akira hits some kind of overshot move on Gedo then Gedo takes a sandwich basement flying knee and is pinned.

It was a short but aggressive and fun match. They went at each other hard here and showed some hatred, backpacking off the cage match they had.  

House Of Torture (Dick Togo, EVIL, Ren Narita & Yoshinobu Kanemaru) vs. Just 5 Guys (DOUKI, SANADA, Taichi & Yuya Uemura)

 

Yuya has short dyed red hair now.  Douki takes a 2v1 to start and does a headscissors + headlock takeover combo. Douki does a double springboard back elbow. Sanada paradise locks Kanemaru. Most of wrestlers fight outside and Evil chokes Sanada with a towel.

Kanemaru back elbows Sanada then Evil chokes Sanada with the towel again. Evil fisherman suplexes Sanada. Sanada is group stomped then he dropkicks his way out of it. Taichi is tagged in and face kicks Ren. Taichi back enzugiri's Evil then side kicks Ren.

Ren eye rakes Taichi then they face kick each other. Ren grabs the ref to stop a move then he exploders Taichi. Togo hits shots on Taichi then Taichi chops him. 

Yuya armdrags Togo then hiptosses him. Yuya hits a nice dropkick on Togo. Yuya chops Togo in the corner then backdrops him. Yuya takes corner attacks then Togo 2nd rope chops Yuya in the nuts.

Taichi helps out Yuya and double clotheslines his opponents. Sanada plancha's outside then Yuya top rope crossbodies Togo. Yuya top rope crossbodies Togo then hits his front suplex to win it.

Like the matches before it, it was a shorter tag with everyone having limited time here. They did what they could with the limited time they had. Yuya showed a little energy here.

New Japan Cup 2024 First Round Match - Toru Yano vs. Yujiro Takahashi

Yano gets jumped before intros are done. Yujiro hits him with a turnbuckle pad and Yano is sent into the exposed buckle. Yano is sent into the rails then Yano is handcuffed to the rails. Yano is able to get out though, beating the countout. Yano throws Yujiro into the rails then handcuffs Yujiro around someone at ringside. Yujiro then gets counted out.

Thankfully, they kept this short. It was all shenanigans from the start. 

New Japan Cup 2024 First Round Match - KENTA vs. YOSHI-HASHI

Kenta nails Yoshi from behind and drops him. Yoshi sends Kenta into the rails and tries a baseball slide but completely misses. Kenta just ignores it. Yoshi tries to get in but is knocked off the apron. They trade shots outside and Kenta is pushed into the post. Yoshi is then sent into the rails.

Kenta neckbreakers him and hits kicks to the back. Kenta eye rakes him then Yoshi suplexes him. Kenta is laid over the top rope then dropkicked. Yoshi then baseball slides him. Yoshi headhunters him then hits a sitout powerbomb.

Yoshi hits lariats on Kenta then Kenta corner dropkicks him. Kenta hits a top rope double stomp for 2. Yoshi cradles him for 2 and Kenta slaps him. Kenta hits a busaiku knee for 2. Yoshi crucifix bombs him off a fireman's carry and wins it.

The first half of the match was the usual lame Kenta stuff with nothing happening. He actually picked things up a little near the end though and showed some signs of the old Kenta. Yoshi then picked up the win soon after, sadly. 

They shake hands after then Kenta nails him from behind.

New Japan Cup 2024 First Round Match - Jack Perry vs. Shota Umino

AEW be like "I'll give you Jack Perry. In return, you give me Will, Okada, Shibata and Jay. Deal?". Perry came out in a goat mask. I don't know what Shota's doing with his hair today, but it looks awful.

They hockey fight to start then trade forearms. Shota basement dropkicks him and does some weird dance. Jack corner lariats him and back elbows him. Jack baseball slides him in the back of the neck. Jack hits mounted forearm shots then chokes him in the corner.

Jack neckbreakers him for 2. Shota armdrags him then is put in an STF variation. Jack bridging ddt's him on the floor. Shota running forearms him then fisherman suplexes him for 2. Jack hits a bad dragon suplex then Shota jumps over the top and ddt's him over the 2nd rope onto the apron. Shota does a near coast to coast dropkick on Jack then does a high reverse ddt for 2.

They trade shots. Jack hits a posionrana then takes a hidden blade from behind. Shota hits a mcgillicutter for 2. Shota lifts him and hits a ddt for 2 then Yoshinobu Kanemaru comes out. Ren Narita hits Shota with his push up board and face busters him. Jack hits a running knee and wins it.

Jack joins House of Torture after.

It wasn't that good. They did their moves fine and didn't botch anything, but the crowd didn't care and there wasn't any special logic to it. Outside of the opening, there didn't seem to be any extra hatred despite Shota getting attacked by Jack.

Tetsuya Naito vs. SHO

Naito gets jumped from behind during his entrance. Sho eye rakes him in the ring and takes a baseball slide. Naito sends Sho into the rails then chokes him with a belt outside. Sho begs off and Naito stomps on him. Naito's arm is dropped over the top rope then his leg is banged off the apron.

Sho stomps on Naito's leg then ddt's it into the ring. Sho leglocks him. Naito double boots him out of the corner and flying hurricanrana's him. Naito armdrags Sho then baseball slides him in the back of the neck. Naito puts him on the 2nd rope then drops his neck down on his knee. Naito then hits a neckbreaker.

Sho grabs him by the hair, puts the ref in his way, then Naito hiptoss neckbreakers him on the knee. Sho pushes the ref into Naito then pretend that Naito low blowed him. The ref doesn't go for it and Sho throws Naito's leg into the ref, knocking him down. Sho grabs a chair and hits Naito in the leg with it. Sho chairs Naito's knee around the post.

Sho chairs Naito's knee then leglocks him. Sho powerbombs him on the knees then running lariats him. Sho hits a shock arrow for 2 then Naito hits destino. Naito hits back elbows then gets his knee stomped. Naito 2nd rope hurricanrana's him.

Naito hits a tornado ddt and is pushed into the ref. Sho low blows him and sends him into the ref again. The House of Torture come to beat up Naito then LIJ comes in to fight HoT. Sho grabs a wrench and Naito low blows Sho. Naito hits valencia/northern lights bomb and hits destino to win it.

This was mostly knee work on Naito for the first half of this. Then the 2nd half was marred with HoT interference, ref bumps and cheating from the heels. LIJ saved Naito then Naito got the win. It was your usual HoT BS and wasn't that good. 

Naito gets on the mic after. He said LIJ leads the way into its 53rd year and says he will face the winner of the NJPW Cup. He said the NJ Cup final should come down to Shingo and Yota.

Overall thoughts: It didn't look like a good one and it wasn't. The main had the usual House of Torture nonsense. Jack Perry and Shota was nothing special but Jack joined HoT after. Kenta/Yoshi was dull early and then Kenta showed some signs of old Kenta...but then the match ended right after. Yano/Yujiro was nonsense but some of the undercard matches were okay.