Cero Reviews NJPW World Tag League 2020/BOSJ 27 Day 1

[cero2k]

NJPW World Tag League 2020/BOSJ 27 Day 1
November 15, 2020
Nagoya, Japan

World Tag League 2020 Match
CHAOS (Tomohiro Ishii & Toru Yano) vs. BULLET CLUB (Bad Luck Fale & Chase Owens) - 6.5/10
This wasn't particularly good, but it had several hints of greatness. There was a lot of brawling, Yano comedy, but not gimmicky, and a lot of bad communication between Fale and Owens, which was for the most part the reason they lost. Ishii in there was great, but I also enjoyed Yano's pair up with Fale as he tried to slam him. At th end, Yano pinned Fale after an assist from Ishii and putting Owens' body on top as extra weight.

Best Of The Super Junior XXVII Match
Master Wato w/Hiroyoshi Tenzan vs. Yuya Uemura - 5.5/10
Short match, but all action, it was a sprint. Uemura tried to get a quick win with a Crab, but Wato escaped, came back, and won. I can't imagine Uemura will get a single win in the tournament, but he has a chance to have great performances with everyone.

World Tag League 2020 Match
Hiroshi Tanahashi & Toa Henare vs. The Empire (Great-O-Khan & Jeff Cobb) - Squash
The reveal that everyone knew was coming, Jeff Cobb has turned heel and joined The Empire. I'm personally all in on this team, they looked like two big hosses. In addition, GOK has changed his attire, he no longer looks Mongolian and he no longer walks like a possessed and/or drunk man. Huge improvement.

This was less than 3 minutes from where The Empire jumped Tana and Henare, and until Cobb hit the Tour of the Islands on Henare for the pin, while Tana was taken out of commission outside the ring after a Dominator by GOK. No, they're not building to GOK vs Tanahashi, don't stop complaining already, but they sure as hell are doing whatever possible to establish The Empire as a strong stable going into 2021.

My take? The Empire replaces Suzuki-Gun in 2021.

Best Of The Super Junior XXVII Match
Robbie Eagles vs. DOUKI - 7/10
This was way longer than I expected, I figured they'd just have Eagles run over DOUKI in a showcase for the re-introduction, but they instead got a lot of time for a full fledge match. Only thing I wasn't big fan off was the finish, Eagles spammed about 4 finishers just to end with a leg submission. If your submission is good, you don't need to hit a top rope 450 before it.

World Tag League 2020 Match
Dangerous Tekkers vs. CHAOS (Hirooki Goto & YOSHI-HASHI) - 8.5/10
This was great, I know they're saving the semi-main spot for the big returns, but given the teams, the championships involved, and the quality of the match, this should had been the semi. Surely it wasn't as great as their previous 30 minute match, but it was good now that they've developed some chemistry.

They had Goto work the babyface in peril spot, but it went by quick and before you knew it, they were already going crazy all over the place. Finish saw Sabre roll up YH while Taichi held Goto in the corner, but it gave me the impression that it wasn't a strong win to allow Goto/YH to come back and chase the titles some more.

Best Of The Super Junior XXVII Match
BUSHI vs. SHO - 7/10
Maybe it was me, but it felt like SHO ran over BUSHI. He was just super dominant, but the match was great nonetheless. SHO went after BUSHI's arm, while BUSHI's moves seemed to target the head mostly, even if a lot of the moves felt like reactionary. SHO won with a Shock Arrow at the end.

World Tag League 2020 Match
BULLET CLUB (EVIL & Yujiro Takahashi) w/Dick Togo vs. Los Ingobernables de Japon (SANADA & Shingo Takagi) - 8/10
I swear this match was a rib on the ring announcer, he was thrown off his table on several occasions, always going head first into the rail behind him.

I really liked this match, I don't know if it's SANADA and EVIL's slower pace, but they made Yujiro look more alive than in any of his G1 Climax matches. Shingo paired up nicely with EVIL, and SANADA and EVIL already have some chemistry there. It did feel like they wanted to keep Shingo off the match as much as possible, he wasn't in there as much as SANADA, and I take it that SANADA and EVIL have bigger things to tease right now than Shingo who is likely heading into a different program towards WK.

The match was mostly LIJ working against BC's cheating approach, until it was too much and SANADA, fighting off Togo and Yujiro, got low blowed and EIE from EVIL for the loss.

Best Of The Super Junior XXVII Match
Ryusuke Taguchi vs. El Desperado - 8.5/10
This was a great match that sometimes lost me because of Taguchi's selling, but only early on, once they started hitting it home, it was just awesome. Desperado worked over Taguchi's leg towards the Numero Dos. Taguchi did a lot of his butt arsenal, mostly working towards Dodom. I can't say that this was a main event performance by either, but it was pretty close to it. Finish saw Despy reverse Dodom into a roll up, only to get reversed himself for the pin.

World Tag League 2020 Match
Guerrillas Of Destiny w/Jado vs. FinJuice - 8.5/10
I'm gonna be honest, I can't remember the last time that the Guerrillas were so motivated to work. Maybe it's the new aerodynamic Boricua POP-star haircut that Tama Tonga has.

This was good, a lot of action. Both Juice and Finlay got cut off at different points of the match. Guerrillas's double team game was great, they hit a bunch of moves, including two versions of Magic Killer, but they just couldn't keep FinJuice down, and not even with Jado's help, were they able to survive FinJuice who won with a Doomsday Device.

FinJuice are indeed the defending champions of last years World Tag League, and given the field, I wouldn't be surprised if they could win it again, or at least be in the finals.

Best Of The Super Junior XXVII Match
Taiji Ishimori vs. Hiromu Takahashi - 9/10
They had a really scary action packed match. A lot of spots on Hiromu's head and neck that looked really scary, which I wouldn't had minded so much if not for one particular one, a piledriver on the apron, that in my opinion, should have turned the whole match around, but instead, it was just another spot that Hiromu recovered quickly from and went back into taking on Ishimori. Given how brutal that move looked, it should had started Ishimori's heat, but that wouldn't come into play for a couple minutes later. That aside, it was a great match. Everything they did looked super impactful and big. Hiromu won with the Time Bomb.

Post-match - Hiromu cut his winner's promo saying he just beat the champion and he wants that title. He won the first main event of the BOSJ. He put over the crowd for being energetic after 10 matches, but that in the next days, they're going to give us so much great wrestling, that we're all going to be exhausted at the end.

OVERALL THOUGHTS
This was really packed and because of that, some matches didn't do much, but for the most part, every match delivered quality wrestling. I'm not planning on watching every single show, but I wanted to see this one to get a feel of how everyone will be doing, and for that matter, I'm now more interested in the WTL than before. I really expected that the BOSJ would be the thing to follow, but with The Empire, LIJ's team, FinJuice, Goto/YH, and Dangerous Tekkers, I'm now more curious to see the Tag Leauge.

[Big Red Machine]

The last thing this promotion needs is another heel stable that cheats in every match

[NWK2000]

World Tag League 2020 Match
Hiroshi Tanahashi & Toa Henare vs. The Empire (Great-O-Khan & Jeff Cobb) - Squash
The reveal that everyone knew was coming, Jeff Cobb has turned heel and joined The Empire. I'm personally all in on this team, they looked like two big hosses. In addition, GOK has changed his attire, he no longer looks Mongolian and he no longer walks like a possessed and/or drunk man. Huge improvement.

That's crazy ballsy, squashing the Ace like that.

[cero2k]

That's crazy ballsy, squashing the Ace like that.

They arguably squashed Henare, but I was indeed surprised they did it. When i talked about it on the podcast, I was thinking that given the team, Tanahashi is likely to take a LOT of losses in this tournament via Henare