New Japan Cup night three results: Tetsuya Naito vs. Zack Sabre Jr.

Night three of the New Japan Cup is now in the books! Here are results from today’s show in Amagasaki:

Prelim results:

  • Yuji Nagata  and Tomoyuki Oka defeated Ren Narita and Tetsuhiro Yagi when Oka submitted Narita with a Boston crab.
  • El Desperado defeated Shota Umino by submission with a stretch muffler.
  • Chase Owens, Yujiro Takahashi, Bad Luck Fale and Tanga Loa defeated Michael Elgin, Juice Robinson, David Finlay and  Toa Henare when Loa defeated Henare with a sitout piledriver.
  • Hirooki Goto, Tomohiro Ishii and Toru Yano defeated Killer Elite Squad and Yoshinobu Kanemaru when Yano defeated Kanemaru following a low blow and a roll up.
  • Taichi and Takashi Iizuka defeated Hiroshi Tanahashi and Ryusuke Taguchi when Taichi defeated Taguchi with a superkick.
  • Kazuchika Okada and Chuckie T defeated SANADA and BUSHI when Okada submitted BUSHI with the cobra clutch.

New Japan Cup matches:

Kota Ibushi defeated YOSHI-HASHI

They started off with some good chain wrestling, with Ibushi dominating. YOSHI-HASHI hit a DDT and gained control. Ibushi fought back and brought YOSHI-HASHI to the apron. YH countered and suplexed him, but Ibushi’s landing was softened by hitting the ropes more than the apron.

YOSHI-HASHI took it to the crowd, where they brawled. Ibushi hit a snap hurricanrana out of nowhere and went into the crowd, jumped on a rafter and hit a giant moonsault to the floor. Back in the ring, the two slapped each other silly. YOSHI-HASHI hit a Canadian destroyer and followed with a German suplex.

Ibushi blocked karma from YOSHI-HASHI but walked right into a lariat. YOSHI-HASHI followed with a running powerbomb then sunk in the butterfly lock. Ibushi gets to the ropes, but YOSHI-HASHI tried to follow with karma…but can’t get it. Ibushi fired back and tried for the kamigoye, but YOSHI-HASHI escapes. Ibushi tries a second time and connects for the win.

A fantastic match, probably the best of the tournament so far. When YOSHI-HASHI is with a great opponent, he’s great too and Ibushi is one of the best in the world. Loved the story of YOSHI-HASHI using everything in the book to finish off Ibushi, yet couldn’t get it done. It’s one of those matches that was extremely well done from start to finish.

Zack Sabre Jr. defeated Tetsuya Naito

They grappled to start things off. Sabre took it to the outside where he started working on Naito’s arms, pulling and stretching them. He used his leg and forced him into a roll up for a two count. Sabre continued to work on the arms until Naito made it to the ropes with his foot.

Undaunted, Sabre followed up with the octopus stretch. Naito came alive after hitting the satellite DDT, but Sabre trapped him with his legs. Sabre shifted his focus to the legs, torquing one of them. Naito hit a German suplex, but Sabre followed with a penalty kick. Naito tried for the koppo kick to thwart him, but Sabre grabbed the leg and sunk in a leg lock in a cool spot.

Naito hit Gloria and trief for the Destino but Sabre escaped. He went for it a second time, but Sabre transitioned beautifully into another leg hold. Sabre wrapped the other knee across the back of his neck. Naito tried to find a way to escape, but could not and submitted in shocking fashion. Another fantastic match. — it was all Sabre looking dominant, derailing Naito every chance he got and looked super strong in submitting him. This was about getting Sabre over as a threat in this tournament and all parties involved did a fantastic job.

Taka Michinoku, who seems to be serving as a mouthpiece for Sabre on this tour, cut a promo hyping up Sabre, giving him a new catchphrase: just tap out. A great show, with the two tournament matches being good enough that you have to go out of your way to see, especially the co-main event.