by Daniel Johnson
Masato Tanaka vs. Hirooki Goto
For the past few years the NJPW New Japan Cup has blessed audiences with some great matches in the springtime. While a lot of the bouts wrestled in the New Japan Cup over the years have been great technical showcases, the tournament is no stranger to more hardcore wrestling. As such it is not a complete surprise when Masato Tanaka comes out with a kendo stick. Within minutes of the match starting, Tanaka has used the kendo stick on Hirooki Goto, but not before powerbombing Goto through a table!
Outside of using a kendo stick and a table, Tanaka’s offense mostly relies on strong style punishment because after all the guy lives strong style. Tanaka’s attacks are so aggressive that after a running clotheslines and some strikes, Tanaka starts sucking wind hard. Tanaka decides to rest with a chinlock, but by that point Tanaka is so worn out that he is making noises that sound like a cross between a horse neighing and something out of a bad porno flick.
Looking at the psychology of the match Tanaka plays right into Goto’s hands by tiring himself out. After a series of brutal strikes, Tanaka appears more beaten up than the man he was just pummeling, which gives Goto room to hit a Karl Gotch quality German suplex. Just a few minutes later Goto puts Tanaka away with a shouten, which is a vertical suplex into a side slam.
Goto would go onto win the New Japan Cup in 2010 after defeating Togi Makabe in the finals.
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