New Japan Cup night five results: The second round begins

The second round of the New Japan Cup began this morning at Okayama at the ZIP Arena. By the end of the night, we had our first quarterfinal match set. Here are quick results for the undercard:

– Bad Luck Fale, Taiji Ishimori and Hikuleo defeated Juice Robinson, Tomoaki Honma and Yuya Uemura

Ishimori submitted Uemura with the bloody cross.

– Togi Makabe, Hiroyoshi Tenzan and Satoshi Kojima defeated Manabu Nakanishi, Toa Henare and Yuji Nagata

Makabe pinned Nakanishi after the king kong knee drop.

– Tetsuya Naito, BUSHI and Shingo Takagi defeated Michael Elgin, Shota Umino and Ren Narita

Takagi pinned Narita with the noshigami.

– SANADA and EVIL defeated Minoru Suzuki and Davey Boy Smith Jr.

SANADA pinned Davey Boy Smith with a O’Connor roll.

– Hirooki Goto, Will Ospreay and Kota Ibushi defeated Taka Michinoku, Lance Archer and Zack Sabre Jr.

Goto defeated Michinoku with the GTR.

– Mikey Nicholls, Ryusuke Taguchi and Colt Cabana defeated Kazuchika Okada, Hiroshi Tanahashi and Toru Yano

Nicholls pinned Yano with the Mikey bomb.

New Japan Cup results:

YOSHI-HASHI defeated Chase Owens

This was fine. It built slow, but by the end it got to be a pretty good bout. Not anything special by New Japan standards, though.

Things start out evenly until Jado distracted YOSHI-HASHI, allowing Chase to get the heat.  YH cut him off and took him to the top rope, but Owens shoves him down in a tree of woe position and hits a double foot stomp.

Owens wears down YH with a sharpshooter, using the ropes for leverage. YH manages to grab the rope as Owens dragged him to the apron. Owens went for the package piledriver, but instead YH countered with a back body drop.

YH went for karma but grabbed the referee. This let Jado come in and strike YH down with the kendo stick. Owens hit a bicycle knee and went for the Jewel Heist but YH countered with a lariat. Owens ended up taking a kendo stick shot by Jado by accident which gives YH the opportunity to hit the butterfly lock.

Owens manages to escape, but YH cut him off before he could do anything and pinned him with karma for the win.

Tomohiro Ishii defeated Taichi

This was a good match, picked up majorly by the last few minutes. I’m not going to say I’m the biggest fan of Taichi but he knows his spots, and knows how to execute them at the right moments to get heat or for a great near fall.

Taichi, naturally, took his time getting rid of his gear and stalled. After entering the ring to a 17 count, Ishii had enough and took him to the floor. Taichi found his opening by throwing a chair at Ishii as he was arguing with the referee.

Taichi continued to dominate, striking him with kicks and remained on the offensive until Ishii laid him out with a brainbuster. Taichi cuts him off with an enziguri and a big boot, but Ishii no sold his offense and started to chop Taichi. Taichi landed a giant Saito suplex, sending Ishii to the ground hard.

Ishii kicked out of a buzzsaw kick Taichi went right back at it with a piledriver attempt. Ishii have him a back body drop. He followed that with a big last ride powerbomb, but somehow Taichi kicked out. Taichi blocked a sliding D as he shoved Ishii into the referee.

Taichi grabbed the microphone stand as Ishii gets up, daring him to attack him with it. Taichi opts to brawl with Ishii, attacking him with kicks and lays out Ishii with an enziguri. He hits his own last ride, but Ishii kicked out. Taichi went for black mephisto, but Ishii countered with a piledriver…only for Taichi to immediately get back up and strike Ishii down with a knee before collapsing.

Ishii hit two lariats and went for a brainbuster, but Taichi escaped, distracted the ref for a low blow and used the Gedo clutch, but somehow Ishii kicked out. Ishii hit an enziguri of his own and hit a sliding D, then finished off Ishii with a brainbuster.

That makes the first quarterfinal match YOSHI-HASHI vs. Tomohiro Ishii, which will take place on 3/20.