Cero Reviews NJPW Best Of The Super Junior 28 & World Tag League 2021 Finals

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Cero Reviews NJPW Best Of The Super Junior 28 & World Tag League 2021 Finals

Post by cero2k » Dec 15th, '21, 13:56

NJPW Best Of The Super Junior 28 & World Tag League 2021, Final Day
December 15, 2021
Ryogoku Kokugikan, Tokyo, Japan

Kosei Fujita, Ryusuke Taguchi & Yuto Nakashima vs. Suzuki-gun (DOUKI, Minoru Suzuki & TAKA Michinoku) - 6/10
Good opener, simples stuff all around. Taguchi and TAKA took a good chunk of the match since Suzuki mostly beat up Young Lions and DOUKI came in for the submission win over Fujita.

Ryohei Oiwa & Tiger Mask vs. BULLET CLUB's Cutest Tag Team (El Phantasmo & Taiji Ishimori) - Dud.
This wasn't bad, but it lasted about 3 minutes. It really was a means to an ends, that end being the post-match beat down of Tiger Mask. Oiwa took the roll up pin.

Post-match - ELP and Ishimori attacked Tiger Mask and Oiwa, took out Oiwa and prepared to take out Mask, but Robbie Eagles ran down for the save. Bullet Club regained some control, but Taguchi ran down for the save and all three had BC running. Taguchi then turned on Mask and Eagles and made his intentions clear, that the coaches are coming for the titles.

Great Bash Heel (Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma), Master Wato & Toru Yano vs. Suzuki-gun (El Desperado, Taichi, Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Zack Sabre Jr.) - 5/10
Ok match. Wato was cut off from his corner, Makabe took the hot tag against Taichi, who managed to hold out until Makabe hit a desperation lariat. FInal two where Sabre submitting Honma after a YOKOZUNA elbow. Yano an Kanemaru just kinda wrestled around the ring and jumped in only for Yano to get Whisky Mist on his face. This was as filler as it gets.

Hiroshi Tanahashi, TenKoji & Yuji Nagata (Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima) vs. BULLET CLUB (Bad Luck Fale, Chase Owens, Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa) - 6.5/10
Another good match, considerably more fun than the previous. Bullet Club controlled the ring after cutting off Kojima. New Japan dads made the comeback and cleaned house until it came down to Tana and Owens, who seemed to have the upper hand on Tana, landing two v-triggers, but as he set himself up to finish Tana, Owens got rolled over and pinned.

Post-match - KENTA appeared on the screen, challenged Tanahashi to a No DQs match for the US title.

Katsuyori Shibata Announcement - As promised, Shibata came out for his announcement. He was tearing up before he came to the ring. He only said "January 4. I have a match". That's all we needed to hear.

Los Ingobernables de Japon (SANADA & Tetsuya Naito) vs. United Empire (Great-O-Khan & Jeff Cobb) - 7/10
Really good match. Maybe because of the Tokyo Spots awards, but O-Khan was given a lot in this match, he was dominant through and through. The match was back and forth, SANADA had been cut off early in the match, but it wasn't long before he made a comeback, attacking O-Khan with Mongolian chops.

The latter part of the match saw all guys come in and out, with a lot of focus between Naito and Cobb, who also had been dominant until Naito caught him with a roll up after a rana and got the snap pin.

Post-match - Naito and Cobb kept going at each other, making me think this could be a program down the line.

Kazuchika Okada & Robbie Eagles vs. Los Ingobernables de Japon (BUSHI & Shingo Takagi) - 8/10
This was really good, it was close to being a singles match, for the longest time, Robbie only came in to give Okada a small breather and set up the second pair up with Okada and Shingo, and the BUSHI only came in for the finishing sequences. Final minutes were all back and forth tornado action, but at the end, Okada hit a Rainmaker on BUSHI and got the win. Good preview for Shingo vs Okada.

World Tag League 2021 Final Match
CHAOS (Hirooki Goto & YOSHI-HASHI) vs. House Of Torture (EVIL & Yujiro Takahashi) - 8.5/10
As is usually my norm with HoT matches, if they cheat and lose because the babyfaces valiantly fought back and overcame, I end up liking those matches waay more than when HoT wins and suck the arena empty.

The match was mostly the trading of momentum, CHAOS would start strong, get cut off, make a comeback, get cut off again by HoT cheating. It all built up to Ishii running out and dealing with Togo and EVIL, right before they went into the ending sequences with tons of near falls.

Best Of The Super Junior 28 Final Match
Hiromu Takahashi vs. YOH - 9/10
This was really really good, great even, I thought the SHO involvement was about to throw everything away, but I ended up liking how it was managed. The story was a good mid-season culmination of YOH's comeback story, and the match itself played into it, with him having the drive to fight back into a comeback but ultimately finding heartbreak in a loss. NJPW hasn't done many stories with the Jr division in a while, but him coming so far to lose to Hiromu, but potentially regaining himself, deal with SHO, and then going after Hiromu once again, maybe getting the title, would be a great story to follow.

Match was good action all around. It took a while, but YOH eventually did focus on his Fujinami arsenal on Hiromu and did most of the damage that way. We had a lot of chopping, YOH's chest was a mess really early on in the match.

At one point, as both guys lay outside, SHO came out and attacked YOH, tried to give Hiromu the win, but Hiromu instead confronted SHO, only to get the very same treatment that he had just delivered YOH. With both men down, SHO tried to get the match thrown out, but instead Red Shoes told him to fuck off as Goto, YH, Naito, and Shingo all ran out to clear the ring from further interference and support their respective stablemates. Since both wrestlers were in the same situation, Red Shoes didn't count for them to return to the ring, and instead they both crawled back.

Back in the ring, they went for another ten minutes, going for near falls and big spots only at this point. YOH got some really good near falls and managed to kick out of the Time Bomb once, but unfortunately for him, lost to a second TB.

Post-match - YOH, crying, was consoled and helped to the back by his CHAOS stablemates.

Hiromu took his trophy, thanked Shingo and Naito for being out there. He told YOH to step up and finally finish off SHO. He said he's going after Desperado. Shingo and Naito taking the trophy away from Hiromu to pose with it was great.

OVERALL THOUGHTS
Good solid show from NJPW. Not an all time great, but as the last final big show before Wrestle Kingdom season, it's always worth watching. I won't take away the quality of the main event though, that was a fantastic match.
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