NJPW
New Japan Cup
Toyko, Japan
March 17th, 2023
A rather uneventful opening match. ZSJ usually impresses but it feels like he didn’t do much here. The action never picked up or had a good pacing either.
2 / 5
When the action finally picked up it started to get solid but the first half or so was more on the slower and boring side.
2 / 5
Another match that just never picked up or stayed exciting really. Nothing horribly but decent at best.
2 / 5
A solid match here with Lio Rush coming off as the star. His bursts of action here had the crowd going and were a high point of this match.
3 / 5
A competitive match with the highlight being between Suzuki and Kenta. Outside of that this had good action and was a decent match.
3 / 5
A really good match in sections that got bogged down at the end. It was a massive amount of interference that lasted way too long. It had a solid pacing before that started then once it became an interference fest it was sort of hard to keep it going.
3.5 / 5
A really hard fought match here. Sanada has it to where he could be champ one day and Naito showed why he is able to help carry NJPW. A bit slower in parts but that’s to be expected here. Still a great main event.
4 / 5
