NJPW Best of the Super Jr. 25, Day 7
May 26, 2018
Nagoya, Japan

njpwworld didn't upload the prelim bouts:
Shota Umino & Chris Sabin defeated Yuya Uemura & Dragon Lee.
YOSHI-HASHI & SHO defeated Tomoyuki Oka & KUSHIDA.
Minoru Suzuki & El Desperado defeated Chase Owens & Marty Scurll.
Tetsuya Naito & Hiromu Takahashi defeated Ryusuke Taguchi & Toa Henare.

Best of the Super Jr 25 Block A Match
Tiger Mask (6) vs Flip Gordon (4) - 7/10
Well, the Tiger streak is over. Match had a lot of flippy sequences, chain wrestling, and as it went on, Gordon had a chance to get his stuff in and for Tiger to hit all the moves he's been winning with, at least the showy ones like the top rope Double Underhook Suplex he's been doing to set up for the finish, which didn't work out this time and instead, Gordon blocked a Tiger Suplex and hit the Four Flippy Splash for the pin. Good match, I expected less just for the position it had in the card.

Best of the Super Jr 25 Block A Match
ACH (2) vs YOH (2) - 8/10
In case people hadn't noticed that ACH is hurting his shoulder, he had a huge patch tonight. As expected, YOH worked over the shoulder, ACH worked over YOH's neck, both for the most part doing all babyface moves. They went back and forward trading the upper hand and escalating the level of the moves until the finish when ACH hit YOH with a lariat for the win. Good match, crowd was dead for a while but started to get more into it. A lot of women in tonight, so there's a lot of 'YOH' shouts.

Best of the Super Jr 25 Block A Match
"Bone Soldier" Taiji Ishimori (4) vs Yoshinobu Kanemaru (2) - 7/10
If anyone was wondering who is bigger heel, Ishimori jumped Kanemaru, so maybe it's Ishimori. A lot of this match was Kanemaru going for the countout win until Ishimori made a comeback, at which point Taiji started hitting a bunch of his moves and worked over Kanemaru's head/neck for a bit. Last few minutes of the match were all back and forward with Taiji looking for the submission win and Kanemaru started cheating, but both attempts only led to near falls. Finish saw Ishimori counter a Deep Impact, but when he tried to follow up, Kanemaru rolled him up for the win. Probably the cleanest match Kanemaru has had in the tournament.

Best of the Super Jr 25 Block A Match
"Aerial Assassin" Will Ospreay (4) vs BUSHI (0) - 8.5/10
BUSHI jumped Ospreay during the introductions. BUSHI worked over Ospreay's head and neck from the start of the match and kept it for a while actually. Eventually Ospreay did make a comeback, but only managed to even out the odds and go back and forward for the rest of the match. At one point BUSHI hit Ospreay with the mist for a near fall and Ospreay countered a following MX from BUSHI, giving him enough time to get water to wash his face. They started hitting their finishers here, with several counters and near falls each, and most people chanting for BUSHI to win. BUSHI finally hit the MX for the clean win! This is a huge win for BUSHI right now and it actually came long time after the mist spot had passed.

Post-match - BUSHI cut a quick promo saying he has defeated the champion! EN SERIO!

OVERALL THOUGHTS
Ok show, not much to this one, solid inside the ring, but none of the matches are noteworthy, just ranking up points this time.

Block A:
Taiji Ishimori - 4
Tiger Mask - 6
ACH - 4
YOH - 2
Flip Gordon - 6
Will Ospreay - 2
Yoshinobu Kanemaru - 4

Block B:
Dragon Lee - 6
Ryusuke Taguchi - 4
SHO - 4
Chris Sabin - 2
Hiromu Takahashi - 2
KUSHIDA - 2
El Desperado - 2
Marty Scurll - 2

cero2k wrote: ↑May 29th, '18, 16:14 BUSHI finally hit the MX for the clean win! This is a huge win for BUSHI right now and it actually came long time after the mist spot had passed.

Is it, though? The problem with the way Gedo books his round robins is that it totally devalues these upset wins because everyone winds up getting one or two and none of them ever come in spots that feel important or have anything made of them. This felt to me like Tama Tonga beating Tanahashi in the G1 just because it came at a point in the tournament where they needed Tanahashi to lose and the math meant that he couldn't lose to a bigger name or else it would screw up the booking.

Big Red Machine wrote: ↑May 29th, '18, 16:41

cero2k wrote: ↑May 29th, '18, 16:14 BUSHI finally hit the MX for the clean win! This is a huge win for BUSHI right now and it actually came long time after the mist spot had passed.

Is it, though? The problem with the way Gedo books his round robins is that it totally devalues these upset wins because everyone winds up getting one or two and none of them ever come in spots that feel important or have anything made of them. This felt to me like Tama Tonga beating Tanahashi in the G1 just because it came at a point in the tournament where they needed Tanahashi to lose and the math meant that he couldn't lose to a bigger name or else it would screw up the booking.

It all depends on BUSHI getting a title shot after the BOSJ, which may be the case considering Ospreay's post-match promo. If BUSHI can get that match and give out a great performance, it'll help him get out from under, not only Hiromu's shadow, but the whole LIJ. In a stable so small, BUSHI's look is really unique, but he needs to have that outstanding performance to be at the other 4's level. I think pinning Ospreay here could be a proper start to that

cero2k wrote: ↑May 30th, '18, 08:23

Big Red Machine wrote: ↑May 29th, '18, 16:41

cero2k wrote: ↑May 29th, '18, 16:14 BUSHI finally hit the MX for the clean win! This is a huge win for BUSHI right now and it actually came long time after the mist spot had passed.

Is it, though? The problem with the way Gedo books his round robins is that it totally devalues these upset wins because everyone winds up getting one or two and none of them ever come in spots that feel important or have anything made of them. This felt to me like Tama Tonga beating Tanahashi in the G1 just because it came at a point in the tournament where they needed Tanahashi to lose and the math meant that he couldn't lose to a bigger name or else it would screw up the booking.

It all depends on BUSHI getting a title shot after the BOSJ, which may be the case considering Ospreay's post-match promo. If BUSHI can get that match and give out a great performance, it'll help him get out from under, not only Hiromu's shadow, but the whole LIJ. In a stable so small, BUSHI's look is really unique, but he needs to have that outstanding performance to be at the other 4's level. I think pinning Ospreay here could be a proper start to that

I don't think it will let him get out from under Hiromu's shadow because New Japan booking simply doesn't work that way. It COULD be a start to that, but not with Gedo booking.

Big Red Machine wrote: ↑May 30th, '18, 10:17

I don't think it will let him get out from under Hiromu's shadow because New Japan booking simply doesn't work that way. It COULD be a start to that, but not with Gedo booking.

I don't think he'll get over Hiromu's shadow either, Hiromu is number 2 in the stable and leagues away from SANADA and EVIL, but If BUSHI can get a legit breakout to feel at par as SANADA and EVIL when it comes to singles matches, it could really help him towards the future. Not saying he becomes the ace of LIJ, but kinda like SANADA and EVIL that we're now excited for their singles matches, BUSHI should try to get that same reaction out of people.

cero2k wrote: ↑May 30th, '18, 10:23

Big Red Machine wrote: ↑May 30th, '18, 10:17

I don't think it will let him get out from under Hiromu's shadow because New Japan booking simply doesn't work that way. It COULD be a start to that, but not with Gedo booking.

I don't think he'll get over Hiromu's shadow either, Hiromu is number 2 in the stable and leagues away from SANADA and EVIL, but If BUSHI can get a legit breakout to feel at par as SANADA and EVIL when it comes to singles matches, it could really help him towards the future. Not saying he becomes the ace of LIJ, but kinda like SANADA and EVIL that we're now excited for their singles matches, BUSHI should try to get that same reaction out of people.

Personally I'm not excited for EVIL's matches but am for Sanada's because Sanada delivered when given the shots but EVIL really didn't. But either way, the difference is that NJPW has something for EVIL & Sanada to do i.e. chase the tag belts, where they don't actually have anything for BUSHI to do. He'll remain the designated job boy in big tag matches where LIJ has to lose. Even giving him a quick title reign won't change this perception, and I know that because they already did it (and I think that was even before Hiromu was on the NJPW scene) and it didn't do sh*t for him.

Big Red Machine wrote: ↑May 30th, '18, 10:36
Personally I'm not excited for EVIL's matches but am for Sanada's because Sanada delivered when given the shots but EVIL really didn't. But either way, the difference is that NJPW has something for EVIL & Sanada to do i.e. chase the tag belts, where they don't actually have anything for BUSHI to do. He'll remain the designated job boy in big tag matches where LIJ has to lose. Even giving him a quick title reign won't change this perception, and I know that because they already did it (and I think that was even before Hiromu was on the NJPW scene) and it didn't do sh*t for him.

Like i said, he doesn't need to be the ace of LIJ, I don't really care for him to get title shots or anything, but I enjoy BUSHI matches and look forward to them. Kinda like Goto or Ishii, i know they're never gonna be the Ace, but i'm excited for their matches

cero2k wrote: ↑May 30th, '18, 11:14

Big Red Machine wrote: ↑May 30th, '18, 10:36
Personally I'm not excited for EVIL's matches but am for Sanada's because Sanada delivered when given the shots but EVIL really didn't. But either way, the difference is that NJPW has something for EVIL & Sanada to do i.e. chase the tag belts, where they don't actually have anything for BUSHI to do. He'll remain the designated job boy in big tag matches where LIJ has to lose. Even giving him a quick title reign won't change this perception, and I know that because they already did it (and I think that was even before Hiromu was on the NJPW scene) and it didn't do sh*t for him.

Like i said, he doesn't need to be the ace of LIJ, I don't really care for him to get title shots or anything, but I enjoy BUSHI matches and look forward to them. Kinda like Goto or Ishii, i know they're never gonna be the Ace, but i'm excited for their matches

I enjoy BUSHI, too, but unlike Goto or Ishii, Gedo's booking style doesn't have an outlet for him. There is nothing to do in a singles capacity in Gedo's Jr. Heavyweight Division if you're not the ace.