NJPW Best of the Super Jr. 2019 Final
June 5th, 2019
Tokyo Ryogoku Kokugikan
Bandido, Jonathan Gresham, & Ren Narita vs Dragon Lee, Titan, & Shota Umino - 6.5/10
Finally, some Bandido vs Titan and Lee action. This was a fun match and you could tell they were trying to steal the show, at least Bandido and Titan. Shota and Umino were solid keeping up with these guys trying to go 60mph.
There was a spot that I swear Lee got two concussions. Narita held Lee on the ropes for Bandido to do a 450 on him, but Narita dropped him to take the hit and it kinda looked like Bandido landed knee first on top of Lee's head. Then Gresham hits a SSP and fell elbow first on Lee's head. It may had just been the camera angle that made it seem like that since Lee seemed ok afterwards, but the spot look kinda brutal. It was a heel of a near fall tho.
Titan also hit an Asai Moonsault and his foot seemed to get caught in the guardrail.
Bullet Club (El Phantasmo, Robbie Eagles, & Taiji Ishimori) vs Ryusuke Taguchi & Roppongi 3K - 7/10
This was a lot of comedy, and a lot of great wrestling too. This Bullet Club trio looks legit. The match was quick, had little time, but it was pretty much BC getting heat on Taguch, and then R3K vs Phantasmo and Eagles, leading to BC winning over SHO when Eagles hit the Turbo Backpack and Warp 4.5, and a CR II when Phantasmo stole Eagle's pin. Obviously this bothered Eagles.
Post-match - During the celebration, Phantasmo grabbed the tag titles to celebrate, but he gave one to Ishimori instead. Eagles got pissed, pushed Phantasmo, talked shit on the mic, and walked out on the BC. I think it's totally plausible that Eagles jumps to CHAOS soon.
CHAOS (Tomohiro Ishii, YOSHI-HASHI, & Toru Yano), Tiger Mask, & Jyushin "Thunder" Liger vs Suzuki-Gun (Minoru Suzuki, Taichi, Yoshinobu Kanemaru, Zack Sabre Jr, & Douki) - 6/10
It feels like forever since I've seen Suzuki and Sabre, I missed them. Suzuki shaved his head again by the way. This is obviously to build up Taichi vs Ishii, who was really heated to start the match, he wanted first dibs, but instead Douki called out Liger and the match was on. Let me confirm that this did not start with SZKG jumping their opponents, and the outside brawl was pretty much just a spot for Douki to dive into no one because no one caught him. Douki must really miss Mexico every time he dives.
Suzuki and Liger went at it again, so we may still be getting that match, hopefully for Dominion. Taichi and Ishii also did their thing. YOSHI and Sabre paired up for what I'm hoping never develops into an actual feud. Douki and YOSHI were the final two with Douki kicking YOSHI's ass until everyone saved him and hit KARMA for the win. I wonder if YOSHI-HASHI has ever considered moving to the Jr Division.
Post-match - Unfortunately, Sabre teased YOSHI with the RevPro title and so they may end up feuding. Ishii and Taichi eyed each other. Suzuki and Liger brawled into a pull apart and Liger wanted more, so they brawled to the back. I need Liger vs Suzuki!
Los Ingobernables de Japon vs Kota Ibushi, Togi Makabe, Toa Henare, & Tomoaki Honma - 6/10
This really felt like a big match, seeing Naito and Ibushi on opposite corners really got the crowd in the game. They had a really great yet short go towards the end of the match. This match also built LIJ to challenge for the Never Openweight 6-Man titles, EVIL, SANADA, and BUSHI all worked on their trios combo on Henare, building to the finish of the match when EVIL hit Everything is Evil.
Post-match - Naito beat up Ibushi against the guardrail, then they faced off at the ring. There wasn't any proper challenge for the 6-Man titles, but neither have anything going on for Dominion, so they may as well just add the match.
CHAOS (Kazuchika Okada & Rocky Romero) vs Villain Enterprises (Marty Scurll & Brody King) - 7/10
This was a really good match, they actually gave a lot to Scurll and King, which serves the purpose giving Okada a strong win before his big defense against Jericho. Story of the match was that Brody was too big, especially for Rocky, and so it was just a constant battle to bring him down. King actually got a great near fall on Okada after a piledriver, but Okada came back and won with the Rainmaker.
Post-match - Lights went out and they played a video sent by Jericho, saying that PainMaker vs RainMaker at Dominion. When the lights went on, Okada immediately turned around to look for Jericho since he usually sneaks up after these videos. Okada then cut a promo saying he'll win.
Hiroshi Tanahashi vs "Switchblade" Jay White w/Gedo - 9/10
Jay White has grown a beard during his absence, I didn't know he had that ability. Tanahashi on the other hand, seems to have found Omega's missing wing and placed it on his shoulder.
White jumped Tanahashi during his entrance and early on, Tanahashi's arm was hurt. White went after that arm viciously outside the ring, to the point that he pulled off the referee to stop the count so he could work on it more, and then when he was done, get the ref to count again. It wouldn't be about half way through the match that Tanahashi would get his first Dragon Screw in and start a small comeback, but would only push White for bigger moves. The last few minutes were great with Tanahashi making a proper comeback and getting close to the win, if not for Gedo's distractions. Finish saw Tanahashi hit a Dragon Screw and go for the Sharpshooter, but White would reverse it into a roll up with a Kimura and pin Tanahashi.
IWGP United States Championship Match
"The Flamboyant" Juice Robinson (C) vs "Death Rider" Jon Moxley - 9/10
This is it Moxley, let's see what you got, there ain't no exploding monitors in this joint. The build up video actually compiled most of Juice's reactions to the Time's Up video to really build his frustration. They also used Mox's prison video for his entrance video and promo. Moxley came out through the crowd, and right from the start, his wrestling attire is just a pair of black trunks. It's old school FCW Ambrose, but he looks weird after so long. He's definitely a superstar with the crowd.
OH SHIT! Juice Robinson cut his hair off!! I'm all for changing your look, but that hair was glorious and prime for a hair vs hair match.
This was a brawl, they managed to build a heated brawl without these men ever talking to each other. From early on, they brawled into the crowd, they brawled into the entrance where Juice did a stage dive and landed on his ass and started limping from there on. Once they made it back to the ring, Moxley went after Juice's leg that got hurt during the dive and a rolling cannonball to the rail that missed.
Juice would go and get some good offense in on Mox until a table and a chair came into play and Mox did the old Cactus Jack chair drop on to the table. It's a Japanese table so it obviously didn't break, and so Mox suplexed Juice into it instead. Moxley at one point did the ring post Figure 4 and was going to Pillmanize Juice's leg, but the ref tried to stop him, distracting him enough for Juice to escape and use the chair instead.
There was a second horrible looking cannonball from Juice that looked stiff as fuck. Mox set up a table on the guardrail and Juice is going for the Cannonball there, but he jumps enough to avoid Mox's head and goes hip first into the table RIGHT over the guardrail. It was like hitting a brick wall. Juice would end up powerbombing Mox there since the table didn't break on the first spot.
This match also had some gratuitous blood with Juice getting busted open right on top of the left eyebrow. I wasn't sure when it happened other than it was after the dive and before the cannonball.
Moxley would end up hitting to Double Underhook DDTs to win the IWGP US Championship. This wasn't the prettiest match, but it was fucking awesome. These guys went to war.
This was Moxley's first match out of WWE and not just back in the indies, but at a high performance level like New Japan. There were points that he seemed slow, that he seemed gassed trying to keep up with the sprints that these matches are. There are many spots that we constantly see here like the strike exchanges, that they never do in WWE, and so he'll need to get accustomed to those.
Best of the Super Junior 26 Final
Block A Winner Shingo Takagi vs Block B Winner Will Ospreay - 10/10!
If at this point of the tournament you don't think this is a dream match, you haven't been paying attention. By the time Shingo came in to NJPW, Ospreay was playing around with the NEVER title and hadn't really crossed paths at all, not even the hint of anything, and it wasn't until both men started running through the competition in their respective blocks, that the idea of Shingo vs Ospreay came up.
Ospreay brought a fucking Katana to the match. Even for relaxed rules, that's a bit too much.
This was fucking incredible, The last 30 minutes were awesome. Speed and power from both fronts, clashing over and over again. They hit each other with everything they had and both men kinda merged their styles in the middle, they actually worked really well together. They kicked out of their finishers at some point, they countered everything they have, and hit everything they had. Finishing sequence was a race to hit finishers with a million strikes in between until Ospreay hit Hidden Blade and Stormbreaker for the win. Shingo's streak is over, but with a match at this level and against Ospreay, there is really no complaining.
When you can make people cry of happiness in the crowd out of wrestling, you know you have something special.
Post-match - Ospreay got his (newly designed) BOSJ trophy. Ospreay thanked the crowd, thanked Shingo. The thanked everyone that has paved the way and said that this was the best BOSJ tour of the year. He brought up Hiromu's name since I think everyone was hoping he'd be here.
He announced that he is moving to Japan to ease the the travel. Crowd popped huge for that. He said that he wants to fight in both the Heavyweight and Jr. Heavyweight divisions.
Backstage, CHAOS greeted him to celebrate with some beer. He challenged Dragon Lee for the championship at Dominion. Ospreay looks to slay his second Dragon. Ospreay said that he has hopes that one day, the Jr Division can main event the Tokyo Dome.
OVERALL THOUGHTS
Awesome show by NJPW. Great matches top to bottom, really emotional show, and the build to Dominion too. It always feels good getting to the finals of a long tour like the BOSJ of the G1, and this was one of those shows that they and I feel like this voyage is done.
Cero Reviews NJPW Best of the Super Jr. 2019 Final
Re: Cero Reviews NJPW Best of the Super Jr. 2019 Final
Ospraey winning was something of a disappointment for me. I get that Ospreay is in line for a big push, so it makes sense for him to win, but If Hiromu coming back is in the cards, it would've been great to have Shingo face off with the OG he replaced after a loss to Dragon Lee (or a win for that matter) with a Hiromu/Lee match down the line.Backstage, CHAOS greeted him to celebrate with some beer. He challenged Dragon Lee for the championship at Dominion. Ospreay looks to slay his second Dragon. Ospreay said that he has hopes that one day, the Jr Division can main event the Tokyo Dome
NWK Reviews is closed for business for now.
Re: Cero Reviews NJPW Best of the Super Jr. 2019 Final
I feel there is more story with either Lee who has been waiting for him for months, or Ospreay, who he's always had a story. I personally don't really see Shingo as replacing Hiromu, at least they've never allured to that idea. Plus New Japan rarely does inter-stable matches.NWK2000 wrote: ↑Jun 5th, '19, 14:26
Ospraey winning was something of a disappointment for me. I get that Ospreay is in line for a big push, so it makes sense for him to win, but If Hiromu coming back is in the cards, it would've been great to have Shingo face off with the OG he replaced after a loss to Dragon Lee (or a win for that matter) with a Hiromu/Lee match down the line.
In addition, we don't know where Ospreay will be next year, so at least for 2019, we'll get the 'Can Ospreay win both the BOSJ and G1 in the same year?" story going forward. It takes a lot to build someone with the credible record to achieve both
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