Cero Reviews NJPW Best of the Super Jr. 25 Finals

[cero2k]

NJPW Best of the Super Jr. 25 Finals
June 4th, 2018
Korakuen Hall, Tokyo, Japan

Chris Sabin & Flip Gordon vs Tiger Mask & Shota Umino - 5/10
Umino was a dick and didn't shake hands with his opponents like Tiger did, are Young Lions not allowed to shake hands? Match saw Umino be on peril for a bit, then Tiger and Sabin had a great exchange that led to both men having to give a hot tag to their respective partners. Finish saw Gordon win with the Four Flippy Splash. This was one last chance for Gordon to show off. Both men said their goodbyes to the Japanese crowd. Flip is definitely being brought back.

Suzuki-Gun (Minoru Suzuki, TAKA Michinoku, & Takashi Iizuka) vs CHAOS (Tomohiro Ishii, Toru Yano, & YOSHI-HASHI) - 5.5/10
Match started with the usual Jumping of the Bell, but then SZKG just proceeded to beat the shit out of CHAOS bad! I just kept seeing chairs fly, YOSHI-HASHI being tossed around, Suzuki choking people. Back in the ring, YOSHI was still the babyface in peril until Ishii came in with the hot tag, only to be put down when Iizuka bit his boot and he turned it and bit his head.

Ishii kicked ass for a while and tagged in Yano to do his shtick against TAKA. Yano fought off all Suzuki-Gun, low blowed TAKA and roll up for the win. This match is to build the Ishii/Yano vs Suzuki/Sabre match for Dominion, but I think we may get Ishii vs Suzuki for the Kizuna tour.

Suzuki-Gun (Taichi, Yoshinobu Kanemaru, & El Desperado) w/Miho Abe vs CHAOS (Hirooki Goto & Roppongi 3K) - 6.5/10
RPG3K feels so different coming off from the tournament, they now feel like they each have a personality and they're not just the different palette versions of the same guy. Crowd is 90% behind Taichi by the way.

CHAOS team started the match strong, but in a dive to the outside, SZKG turned it around and all six men started brawling around the hall, at one point Kanemaru and YOH brawled to the hallways, Desperado attacked SHO's legs with a chair, and Goto and Taichi battled towards the crowd. Back in the ring, SHO was the babyface in peril until Goto came in and cleaned house. Taichi and Goto did their thing for a while and Taichi actually looked good wrestling, but he's starting to gain mass and a lot of it is going to his belly.

At the end, it was all six men going tornado tag. Outside the ring, Taichi took out Goto with the mic stand, inside the ring, SHO got rid of Desperado, Kanemaru got rid of SHO, and YOH rolled up Kanemaru for the pin.

Post-match - SZKG attacked SHO and YOH some more. Taichi posed with the NEVER title. YOH and SHO got back up and got face to face with Kanemaru and Despy making it obvious that they're coming for the titles come Dominion.

Bullet Club (Marty Scurll & Yujiro Takahashi) vs Hiroshi Tanahashi & Toa Henare - 6.5/10
It's interesting that the big match up here is Scurll vs Tanahashi, good for Scurll really. Match had some comedy at first between Tana and Scurll, but then BC got control of the match and worked over Henare for a while. Henare eventually managed to make the hot tag when ref Tiger helped him get out of an assisted submission. Tana came in and went against Scurll. At the end, Scurll and Tana are fighting outside while in the ring, Yujiro takes out Henare with Pimp Juice for the win. Match got pretty good towards the end, I love the Scurll vs Tanahashi dynamic.

During the match, Scurll kept antagonizing Liger and we got a lot of camera cuts towards him showing concern over Henare.

Post-match - Scurll and Yujiro keep attacking Henare until Tana makes the save, but Scurll attacks him with the umbrella and locks in the Chickenwing. Liger who has been watching all of this finally gets tired and runs in the ring for the save. Crowd goes wild for the Thunder & Ace Connection! Liger challenges Scurll to a match! Dude, Liger took off his shirt and he looked jacked!

KUSHIDA, ACH, Ryusuke Taguchi, & Dragon Lee vs Los Ingobernables de Japon - 8/10
This match was about Dragon Lee at first, he started off the match strong, he was the babyface in peril, he made his own comeback kicking EVIL and Naito's ass, but you eventually need to let other people in. Taguchi got the hot tag and ran wild over EVIL. KUSHIDA came in, but was taken out by BUSHI and EVIL. At the end, KUSHIDA got ACH in, who went against BUSHI and got his ass kicked. All LIJ ganged up on ACH with some cool multi-man moves. Finish saw SANADA and ACH go at it, ACH got some great near falls, but ended up tapping out to the Skull End. Awesome match.

If NJPW is smart, they need to put a contract on Dragon Lee and learn from the mistakes done with Dorada and give this man a push.

SANADA is growing his beard and everyone in the match was mocking him, so don't be surprised if he shaves by Dominion. After they're celebrating, the lights go off again and once again we get another Chris Jericho video.

Jericho talks shit to Naito about the two Naito WK main events, one that was booted out by the fans, and last year, by Jericho himself by overshadowing him. He tells Naito that he's coming for him because he's the best Japan has to offer, but he's not the top, so he is going to make him a favor and bring him to the top. Awesome promo by Jericho. Man, if they make a 'Fuck Face' t-shirt, i'm definitely buy it.

When the lights turned back on, all LIJ was taking a nap in the ring. Naito cut a promo on Jericho afterwards making fun of him.

Kazuchika Okada & Will Ospreay vs Chase Owens & Kota Ibushi - 8.5/10
Needless to say, everything was awesome except when Owens was in there, and not that it was bad, but he was easily the worst of the four. He still had an awesome exchange with Ospreay. Kota vs Ospreay was amazing, and we didn't get a lot of Kota vs Okada, but what we got was great too. Finish saw Okada decimate Owens with Omega's V-Trigger and a Rainmaker for the pin.

Post-match - Okada cut a promo on the Dominion match.

Best of the Super Jr. 25 Finals
"Bone Soldier" Taiji Ishimori vs Hiromu Takahashi - 10/10
This match started off as a brawl by all means, they went fighting around the crowd, Hiromu hit that running dropkick at the top of the rafters, then Ishimori hit a huracanrana down the stairs!

Inside the ring, Ishimori was in control, working over Takahashi's head via drops and submissions. Takahashi was eventually able to make a comeback cutting Ishimori off from a springboard dropkick and hitting his Sunset Flip Powerbomb to the outside. Takahashi started his offense dropping Ishimori with a series of dropkicks outside the ring, also targeting the head. Crowd is super hot at this point.

Ishimori locked in the crossface for a near fall and from here on, they started going back and forward. They got into a strike off, with Ishimori getting the better of it as he counters a lariat into a Mistica and into the LaBell Lock, this is the same finish from last night as he tapped out YOH. Takahashi doesn't give up and manages to reach the ropes for a second time. Fans are going ape shit for Hiromu at this point.

Hiromu makes a comeback after that last submission and finally starts chasing the Dynamite Plunger for a near fall. They trade Reverseranas, one that was slightly botched, but everything seemed ok afterwards. Ishimori wins another strike off. Hiromu kicks out at 1 after a hell of a lariat that folded Hiromu in two. Ishimori hits the Bloody Cross, but doesn't go for the pin, instead he powerbombs Hiromu, but as he's going for a second, Hiromu locks the D. Ishimori straight up powerbombs Hiromu into the turnbuckle to break the hold. Takahashi counters Ishimori's 450 with his knees, Hiromu drops Ishimori with an ugly D-Driver and locks in the D once again, this time Ishimori reaches the ropes to break the hold. They start racing to hit their finishers ending with Hiromu hitting the Time Bomb for the 1-2-3!

A fucking awesome match! This is how you top off a two week long awesome tournament. Crowd is either crying to going wild. Ishimori is an evil motherfucker that really makes you hate him just by seeing him, yet at the end, he got chants by the crowd, out of respect.

Post-match - Hiromu is awarded his trophy. Hiromu says he's going for Ospreay's championship. Ospreay comes out and gets face to face with Hiromu, cocky Ospreay tells him that the title means he's the best super junior, not the cup (not what he said less than a month ago). He says that he's defeated Hiromu before, and in Osaka, he's gonna do it again.

Hiromu responds "Thank you, Meow!"

Hiromu closes out the show with his usual "Let's have fun' stuff. The rest of LIJ comes out to celebrate with him. Hiromu accidentally broke the trophy off at the end.

OVERALL THOUGHTS
Great show, lower card was good enough and everything towards the end was great. Main event a must watch.

[Big Red Machine]

Hiromu going over was definitely the right move for this moment in time, but I'd be very curious to find out if it was actually the original plan or not. If I had to guess I would say that before the tournament started, the goal was probably for Ishimori to go over and then take the belt from Ospreay (with the fact that he beat Hiromu in the finals keeping up the KUSHIDA match-up free for either KOPW or the dome.