New Japan Cup Days 1 & 2

NJPW New Japan Cup 2020 - Day 1: El Desperado vs. Tomohiro Ishii

I can appreciate Ishii's (always tbh) extremely good selling, and the legwork did give the match some charm & identity, but as an overall package, it didn't do a whole lot to me. Felt like a generic Ishii match with a different opponent, BUT to immediately backtrack that statement a little bit, as mentioned, the legwork did somewhat freshen things up & there was one genuinely fantastic moment in the match in Ishii's comeback when he just ran through Desperado with that shoulder tackle, making this definitely not a COMPLETELY dull & forgettable affair all in all. **1/2

NJPW New Japan Cup 2020 - Day 2: Minoru Suzuki vs. Yuji Nagata

First of all, a big shout-out in order is for that finishing sequence - loved how out of the nowhere the urgency rose & just like that the match was over. Totally caught me off guard in the best way possible. That was the highlight of the entire match for me I think. Didn't care for the (thankfully pretty brief) stuff on the outside w/ Minoru's chair-shtick & that classic NJPW count-out tease, but all in all, this was a pretty fun match. They sure brought out the hard hits for this one as one would expect, and as one would also expect, every strike looked & sounded pretty nasty. I do think there were points where the action wasn't quite compelling at all though, and as a summary I would say that if you'd trim the fat in this, it would be a very, very good to borderline great smackfest, but as it is, it's a _good_ smackfest. ***1/4

NJPW New Japan Cup 2020 - Day 2: Gedo vs. Kazuchika Okada

I would say that this was the most fun & intriguing looking match-up on paper from the entire round 1. At best, this could've been pretty amazing. Sadly it wasn't nowhere near that, and actually really goddamn boring. Gedo's heel shenanigans didn't translate well into the empty arena setting, and Okada's reactions to those weren't complimentary at all, thus making all of it feel just.. bad. Gedo actually controlled most of the match, and oh boy was it boring as hell + Okada continued that trend of this match being boring in his comeback bits, as he didn't bring any fun energy into the thing either. Such a disappointing match. *