Cero Reviews NJPW Best of the Super Jr. 26, 5.19

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Cero Reviews NJPW Best of the Super Jr. 26, 5.19

Post by cero2k » May 21st, '19, 21:49

NJPW Best of the Super Juniors 26
May 19, 2019
Yamagata, Japan

SHO, Titan, & Yota Tsuji vs Jonathan Gresham, Shota Umino, & Yuya Uemura - 5.5/10
They're building Gresham vs Titan, and while SHO is here, they still gave the win to Umino over Tsuji. Uemura got worked on until Gresham and Titan had their time together. At the end it was Umino and Tsuji going at it with the former using a Fisherman Suplex bridge for the win. After the match, SHO teased Uemura with the Jr. tag title and kept eyeing each other. Uemura is going to be a superstar.

Tiger Mask & Juice Robinson vs Dragon Lee & Toa Henare - 5/10
This was nice short match with babyfaces. The stuff with Tiger and Dragon was slow and conservative, but promising for a solid match. Juice pinned Henare with Pulp Friction. I don't know if they played the video, or just the song of Time's Up, but the lights were on and the screen looked blank, either way, Juice didn't even wait to see it.

Suzuki-Gun (TAKA Michinoku, Taichi, & Yoshinobu Kanemaru) vs Bullet Club (Taiji Ishimori, Jado, & Gedo) - 4/10
Yesterday we got Jado vs Gedo, and tonight we get a blast from the past, Jado and Gedo teaming up! I increasingly enjoyed and marked out a bit at heel Jado and Gedo teasing and talking shit to Suzuki-Gun. I would thoroughly enjoy a feud with these two stables soo much.

I don't really know who jumped who, but they went into a brawl to start the match. They eventually got back and it was BC working over TAKA. Eventually they turned the match around and now it was Ishimori being kept apart from his corner. The match obviously built to a mic stand vs kendo stick fight with the former prevailing. Finish saw Taichi superkick Jado for the pin, but Jado took so long to get up that I thought someone was going to sneak and take the win from Taichi. Bad, but fun match.

Villain Enterprises (Marty Scurll & Brody King) vs Los Ingobernables de Japon (Tetsuya Naito & Shingo Takagi) - 7/10
There is no combination here that I wouldn't be interested in, but unfortunately, we didn't have enough time for them all. Marty initially went after Shingo's hurt knee and arm, he had the technical advantage, but Shingo could overpower him. Brody King tortured Naito and at one point even overpowered him and Shingo together.

There was an incredible near fall with VE hitting a bunch of tag moves on Naito and King pinning Naito with a Piledriver. Naito would come back with two Destinos to pin King. I seriously started thinking of ROH's schedule to see where King could get a one-on-one with Naito if he pinned him. Scurll vs Shingo should be really good.

Best of the Super Jr 26 Block B
Ren Narita (0) vs Rocky Romero (0) - 8/10
Rocky worked over Narita's arm for the whole match. Eventually, Narita made his usual Dropkick comeback and got some good offense in and a good near fall after reversing La Magistral. Narita managed to roll over and lock his new Narita Special, but Rocky made the ropes easily. Romero tapped Narita out with an armbar after hammering his head over and over again. Great match!

This was a great showing for Narita, this kid now has signature moves and a finisher. This kid is about 5 minute from being cooked in the oven. Moreover, if you had told me a month ago that Rocky Romero would become one of the best matches of both blocks, i'd be weary, but he is a guy who's matches I've just enjoyed so much so far.

Best of the Super Jr 26 Block B
Douki (2) vs Bandido (0) - 7.5/10
The thing to know here is that Douki is a Japanese wrestler made in Mexico. Most if not all Japanese wrestlers that train and work in Mexico tend to play the Rudo side and thus, they learn to become proper bases for the Tecnico's flying moves. This match had a lot of Bandido diving on Douki for that same reason, he is a guy that wrestles the lucha style of Bandido.

The wrestling inside the ring was good and fast paced, a lot of counters and reversals. Bandido won with the 24PLEX and finally got himself some points. This was my favorite Bandido and Douki match so far in the tournament.

Best of the Super Jr 26 Block B
Robbie Eagles (4) vs El Phantasmo (4) - 8/10
Code of Honor followed. For a second I thought they were gonna troll us and have the cleanest, most sportsmanship match of the tournament, but quickly enough, Phantasmo cheap shot'd Eagles. At one point early on, Phantasmo went to bully Kevin Kelly, and Eagles actually made the save, only for Phantasmo once again taking advantage of Eagle's trust.

They managed to turn this into a babyface/heel dynamic, with Phantasmo working over Eagles for a while with some high impact moves. It wasn't until Phantasmo chased the CR II that Eagles made a comeback. Eagles got close to the Turbo Backpack, but Eagles escaped, pulled down Eagle's bandana over his eyes, hit the Canadian Revolution II and picked up the win. Wrestling purist can't complain about this one, it was a BC vs BC match and we got a good clean match with a clear winner.

Post-match - Robbie was pissed at Phantasmo, and it almost seemed like they were going RevPro challenges, but they Two Sweeted at the end. Phantasmo called out Ospreay for their upcoming main event match. Phantasmo took a kid with ID's cap and threw it away, you could see he thought about it and still did it. He lives the heel lifestyle.

Best of the Super Jr 26 Block B
Will Ospreay (4) vs YOH (2) - 9.5/10
You gotta be kidding me, once again Taguchi is going to main event the show!? Is he retiring this year? does he have cancer? Why is Taguchi main eventing over Ospreay vs YOH!?

Match saw YOH invoke the power of the Dragon Fujinami and work on Ospreay's legs with Dragon Screws. On the other hand, Ospreay worked over YOH's back, chasing the Stormbreaker. There was a really awesome spot with YOH dodging a 450, forcing Ospreay to land on his feet and his knee completely buckling under the impact, setting him up for YOH' submission. The final minutes with YOH chasing the Dragon Suplex and Ospreay the Stormbreaker were great, and unfortunately for YOH, Ospreay got there first. Match of the night.

Best of the Super Jr 26 Block B
BUSHI (0) vs Ryusuke Taguchi (4) - 7.5/10
Anyone that reads my NJPW reviews knows that I don't exactly dislike Taguchi's butt stuff, I think it's a fair and credible weapon, but I've seen it main event three times now and a lot of it becomes frustrating in the main event because we know that Taguchi will eventually chase the Ankle Lock or Dodon, and BUSHI would eventually target the head, and so all the butt stuff we see we know it won't necessarily lead to the finish. It's like we have to wait for the real offense to kick in for us to know that the end is coming.

Like I mentioned, the match was a lot of butt stuff until BUSHI chased MX and Taguchi the Ankle Lock. At the end, there was a ref bump that allowed BUSHI to hit the green mist. Finish saw Taguchi not only counter MX into an ankle lock while being blind, but hit a Dodon and followed with another ankle lock for the submission win WHILE BLIND! WHY IS TAGUCHI THE ACE OF THE TOURNAMENT!? Way to make BUSHI look like a geek.

I don't think the match per say is bad, it's just not what I'd have for the main event.

Post-match - Taguchi made the fans laugh telling them they still had 3 more hours and that BUSHI gave him a facial and that is better to spit than swallow. He said that he'll finish the tournament strong. He then danced.

OVERALL THOUGHTS
A better show for Block B, it went by fast. The pair ups tonight really worked well together, and while once again the order of matches leaves a lot to desire, I guess there's no point in complaining anymore.

POINT CARDS
Block A
Block B
Marty Scurll [4]
Bandido [2]
Shingo Takagi [6]
BUSHI [0]
Taiji Ishimori [6]
Douki [2]
Tiger Mask [4]
El Phantasmo [6]
Titán [2]
Ren Narita [0]
Dragon Lee [4]
Robbie Eagles [4]
Jonathan Gresham [2]
Rocky Romero [2]
SHO [2]
Ryusuke Taguchi [6]
Taka Michinoku [0]
Will Ospreay [6]
Yoshinobu Kanemaru [0]
YOH [2]
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