Rants

NJPW Best of the Super Juniors XXIII: Day 6

By Ioan Morris on 27 May 2016

May 27th, 18:30 from Korakuen Hall, Tokyo

Ricochet vs. Will Ospreay headlines and we’re live, baby!

The story so far:

B Block – Current Standings

Ricochet – 4
Jushin Liger – 4
Barreta – 4
Volador Jr. – 2
Chase Owens – 2
Tiger Mask – 0
Bobby Fish – 0
Will Ospreay – 0

Here we go…

Michael Elgin & Matt Sydal vs. Rocky Romero & YOSHI-HASHI

Big Mike has joined the tour and Korakuen Hall were very pleased to see him. Midway through the match he hit a double powerslam on Romero and Yoshi-Hashi, the force of which was so great it knocked his own tag partner off the apron! He and Yoshi then had a hot exchange, during which Yoshi knocked Elgin to the mat with a lariat, much to the crowd’s amazement. In the closing stages, Elgin delivered a cannonball from the apron to Yoshi on the outside, and Sydal went for the Shooting Star Press, but it missed the mark. The referee was alert to Romero grabbing the ropes off a victory roll, but it mattered not, as he used the devastating school boy roll-up to pin Sydal moments later. **1/2

Yuji Nagata, Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Manabu Nakanishi, Kyle O’Reilly & David Finlay vs. Katsuyori Shibata, KUSHIDA, Ryusuke Taguchi, Juice Robinson & Jay White

There are few things I enjoy in pro-wrestling more than watching a pissed-off Shibata go at it, and since losing the NEVER title to Yuji Nagata several weeks ago, the man known as The Wrestler has been one surly bastard. That feud was the focus of a match that otherwise featured BOSJ A Block competitors pairing off in various combinations, and somehow I’m now intrigued to see O’Reilly vs. Taguchi later this week. New Japan does multi-man tag matches better than anyone. ***

Best of the Super Juniors – B Block

Tiger Mask vs. Chase Owens

Tiger was attacked before the bell and as Yujiro Takahashi carried the masked veteran to the back Owens tried to convince the referee to give him the countout win. Funny stuff. When Tiger arrived back in the ring, Owens took control. Tiger fought back with a high kick and Tiger Bomb for a two-count, then grabbed a heel hook from which Owens quickly escaped to deliver a fireman’s carry gutbuster then an Irish Curse backbreaker for a near-fall. Takahashi took out the referee, and despite some miscommunication, Owens was able to low blow Tiger. With the referee back in, Tiger countered the Package Piledriver to a pin and got the three-count. Typical Bullet Club shenanigans. **

Best of the Super Juniors – B Block

Bobby Fish vs. Baretta

Fish got the better of the opening exchanges and stayed on top with a slingshot senton and back suplex, but Baretta fired up the strikes to get back into it and hit a tornado DDT and crossbody from the top (from which he tweaked his knee) for a two-count. A vertical suplex over the top rope had both men spilling to the outside, and when Baretta attempted a suicide dive Fish caught him with a Northern Lights suplex onto the floor. Back in, Fish connected with another Northern Lights into the turnbuckle, but the seldom-seen moonsault hit the knees. Fish quickly regained the advantage by attacking the leg of his opponent, but an attempted heel hook was countered by Baretta to a roll-up for two. Baretta then connected with a couple of Busaiku Knees for a near-fall, then headed up top, only to get caught with a superplex. Baretta kicked out, but Fish immediately transitioned to heel hook once more for the tap out victory. Tiger Hattori seemed to get knocked silly off that final reversal and was slow to call for the bell. Anyway, this was decent, started slow but picked up steam. ***1/4

***INTERMISSION***

Satoshi Kojima, Captain New Japan & Yoshi Tatsu vs. Kenny Omega, Bad Luck Fale & Yujiro Takahashi

Kojima replaced Tanahashi on the tour following Omega’s attack on the latter last weekend. Bullet Club wisely isolated Captain, whose attempts at a comeback were laughed off by Kenny and Co. His did eventually make the tag after knocking down Takahashi (who else), and Yoshi Tatsu ran wild with his Triple H tribute act comeback. Tag made to Kojima, who unleashed machine gun chops to Omega, but with the referee distracted, Omega used a trash can lid then hit a middle-rope moonsault for a two-count. A back-and-forth strike battle led to a Koji Cutter, then Captain was tagged back in and our heroes beat up on Kenny. The match broke down, leaving Captain and Omega alone, and Captain succeeded in getting a couple of near-falls. Fale tipped the balance, however, and Omega connected with the Sling Blade and High Fly Flow for the three-count, the cheeky devil! Solid effort from Omega and the face team, but good lord, Fale and Takahashi are phoning it in in the most obvious way. Sadly, it’s actually dragging down what looked to be Kenny’s breakout year. He deserves better than to be associated with these dolts. **1/4

Kazuchika Okada, Hirooki Goto, Tomohiro Ishii & Gedo vs. Tetsuya Naito, EVIL, SANADA & BUSHI

Evil’s laser light show is embarrassingly low rent, but he gets away with it because he’s part of the hottest faction in wrestling. Milano Collection AT made himself scarce as Naito entered, and as Naito ran his mouth at Kushida, Okada attacked him – finally! Los Ingobernables cheated to get on top – you’d expect nothing less – while a big brawl got started on the outside, with Naito taking on all-comers, even the cameraman. In the ring, Evil worked over Ishii, then tagged in Naito to carry on with the beat down. Sanada was next in, and delivered his leapfrog-into-dropkick with aplomb. Ishii eventually made the tag to Goto, whose mini-match with Evil culminated in him being flattened with a lariat. Then it was time for Okada and Naito. Okada hit a DDT and the jumping uppercut, before LIJ once again made the numbers count. Gedo was left in with Sanada, and a Gedo Clutch very nearly got the win. Chaos ensued (no pun intended), with every man hitting a signature move, and a TKO from Sanada brought a near-fall, before the Dragon Sleeper forced Gedo to tap out. More brawling after the bell, as Yoshi-Hashi tried to interfere, but was choked out by Naito. Crazy heat here, as when these two teams meet there’s a genuine sense of mayhem – something you rarely feel in wrestling these days. ***1/2

Best of the Super Juniors – B Block

Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Volador Jr

I liked this one. At a shade under ten minutes, this was wrestled at a good pace, with Liger in particular seeming motivated (as he has the past few months). He even pulled out a crossbody from the top rope to Volador on the floor, and I can’t remember the last time I saw something like that from him – not even in the recent title match against KUSHIDA. It was Volador who took the win with a C4 from the top rope – another man-sized bump by the 51-year old Liger. He seems to have slotted in seemlessly amongst the regular roster, which doesn’t tend to be the case with lucha guys. ***1/2

Best of the Super Juniors – B Block

Ricochet vs. Will Ospreay

Seems futile to try and recap even half of the things that went on in this match, so I’ll give some thoughts instead. In short: it was very good, and included some truly spectacular sequences that I dare say no two other wrestlers in the world could execute. State of the art stuff, and I felt a nice balance was struck between a self-aware contest of one-upmanship and a genuine fight borne out of frustration that the other man wouldn’t stay down (at one point they resorted to a slugfest of hard elbows straight out of the heavyweight playbook). Among the impressive/scary spots were a corkscrew Sasuke Special, a reverse hurricanrana on the floor, as well as Ospreay’s springboard cutter, which was the move that won the match for the Essex youngster at 17 minutes. Truth be told, it went a little long. Whereas last week’s excellent O’Reilly/Kushida match could’ve done with a few minutes more, this reached a fever pitch at around the 13-minute mark then sort of kept going until the end – sometimes less is more. Still, I thoroughly enjoyed it, and provided “flippy shit” doesn’t offend your sensibilities, I think you will too. ****1/2

B Block standings after Round Three

Ricochet – 4
Jushin Liger – 4
Barreta – 4
Volador Jr. – 4
Chase Owens – 2
Tiger Mask – 2
Bobby Fish – 2
Will Ospreay – 2

A Block standings after Round Three

Kyle O’Reilly – 6
Ryusuke Taguchi – 6
Rocky Romero – 4
Matt Sydal – 4
Gedo – 2
KUSHIDA – 2
BUSHI – 0
David Finlay – 0

Final thoughts: If you’re only keeping up with the tournament (and even if you’re not) then of course the main event is the one to watch; two of the best flyers in the world went out and delivered an excellent main event. Skip Owens/Tiger Mask and the other two tourney matches are worth your time too. The CHAOS/LIJ 8-man was also good, especially if you like some good old fashioned hatred in your pro-wrestling. Thumbs up all round.

A Block have a live show on Sunday featuring O’Reilly vs. Sydal and KUSHIDA vs. Taguchi. See you then.