NJPW : New Japan Cup 2023 “Night 9” (03.17.2023) (Wrestling Review)

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