Fukushima sees Davis, EVIL advance
The New Japan Cup continued on March 8, with Mark Davis facing Toru Yano and Ren Narita meeting EVIL in first round action.
First of the two tournament matches on the night saw Davis and Yano square off. With partner Kyle Fletcher in his corner, Davis was confident while Yano was rather more intimidated; Davis offered to make things a little fairer by inviting him to remove the turnbuckle pad, but would then show extreme disrespect to sponsor Yoshinoya by delivering an elbow drop to the paid-for promotional post protector.
Davis continued to set to work on Yano on the floor, but was countered into the guardrail by Yano, who produced a roll of tape; Fletcher tried to prevent the sabotage but was himself taped to the barriers for his troubles. Yano then fled underneath the ring, with Davis in pursuit; Dunkzilla emerged unscathed, but Yano nearly missed the referee’s 20 count with a bag over his head.
Back inside, Davis set to the temporarily sightless Yano as it seemed each of the Master Producer’s plans had been completely thwarted. In full control, Dunkzilla landed a senton on the outside before removing the remaining three corner pads in the ring. With Yano back inside, the Aussie Open member taped himself to his opponent before driving his CHAOS foe into the exposed steel, but Yano would withstand the punishment before countering and repeatedly driving Davis into the red corner.
Freeing himself, Yano would follow with a belly to belly suplex, but his wrestling would be foiled with a running elbow in the corner. As it seemed Davis’ patience was waring thin, he would be almost caught red handed with Yano’s red chair in hand, Yano taking advantage of the situation by trying to low blow the big man, but it was to no avail, and after a Water Slide from Dunkzilla, the match was over.
Ren Narita set an explosive pace with EVIL and took the fight to the King of Darkness, a one sided clash on the floor followed with a knee bar in ring. It wasn’t long, though until Dick Togo would be involved, and after a yank on the heels, EVIL set to work outside. A parade of illegal offence would follow as the match passed five minutes, but the Son of Strong Style would fire back with a spinning heel kick and started to build momentum.
Narita would do well to keep the fight in the ring, but only up to a point. The HOUSE OF TORTURE side would regain control when Narita was sent tumbling into the timekeeper’s position, and Togo dealt double damage with a steel chair before EVIL got two back inside. Still Narita wouldn’t be broken, and an attempt at Darkness Falls would be met instead with a Narita German suplex; this time though his o0ffense was fleeting as a head to the exposed steel turnbuckle almost set up a three count from Darkness Falls at the second attempt.
Sensing victory, EVIL looked to finish his young foe, but Narita refused to go down to the signature STO variant, before withstanding one lariat and crumbling to a second. Summoning all the Fighting Spirit he could, Narita landed a bridging exploder for two as the crowd chanted his name, before burying three massive closed fist punches to the admonishment of the referee and delight of the fans. Yet the finish wasn’t in sight yet, and nor was the ring as far as official Red Shoes Unno was concerned; EVIL and Togo saw to it that the referee was bowled over before landing a home run chair swing and a Magic Killer.
Narita somehow kicked out as Fukushima urged him to find his feet; he seemed dead weight as EVIL set for the coup de grace, but found enough to counter EVIL into a rear naked choke. With EVIL fading, Narita tried to transition into a Cobra Twist, but Togo would attack from behind with his steel wire. The Son of Strong Style was not to be denied however, and after taking care of Togo, would land a pair of enzuigiri; another Cobra Twist was stopped again with a low blow as the pages of a rule breaker’s handbook were running out. Thankfully for EVIL, this time Narita had taken enough, and EVIL landed the finishing blow to advance.
