NJPW Best of the Super Juniors XXIV: Day 13
Going into tonight everyone in B Block has exactly six points, so the possible combinations of tie-breakers that will determine a winner are WAY too time-consuming to list here.
Last night these dastardly heels cut Liger's hair and mutilated his iconic mask and suit… but I guess he's not that mad about it because he is just letting the young-boy start the match. He doesn't even look like he's trying to get in there and get at the heels as they (especially Taichi) beat the sh*t out of Kawato.
Ah. Here comes Liger, finally running in to make the save… and now LIGER IS BEATING UP HIS OWN YOUNG-BOY. WHAT THE F*CK? Between Liger here and Juice Robinson at Day 11, the main roster guys seem to have to no respect for Kawato whatsoever.
The heels won and Kawato got beaten up after the match. Liger then finally made nice to him and showed him some respect. Taichi threw a guardrail at them. It was much lamer than it sounds.
Now we've got non-Taguchi babyfaces doing the "ass to the head" strike. We then had the heels make the babyfaces look like total goofs for a bit. We finally got some good action (aside from an atrocious-looking nudo to Dragon Lee where it was clear that he wasn't close to being stuck.
Rather than all coming out together like Bullet Club has in similar situations in the past, Suzuki-Gun came out separately, TAKA with El Desperado and Kanemaru with Taichi. The two seconds actually did interfere in the match for their respective guy. A lot. There were also weapons used. This had dam well better lead to some sort of Suzuki-Gun break-up. Some of it was even right in front of the referee and there was no disqualification… but he did try to take the chair away from Taichi at one point because I guess you're not allowed to use the chair, but the referee won't do anything to you if you do. The referee was shoved and there was no DQ. We also got more of this "grab the ref's arm to stop him from counting three" bullsh*t. El Desperado eventually hit not only Kanemaru and Taichi with a chair but he even his TAKA- his own second- as well. Kanemaru eventually won by count-out.
THIS SUCKED! It was guys in a stable picking sides to interfere in a match for no reason and then using weapons on each other for no reason, all in front of the referee, who didn't call for a DQ also for no reason. Then it ended with a completely pointless count-out. At the end there was a brief tease of El Desperado leaving Suzuki-Gun, which would be a nice idea if he hadn't spent the whole tournament trying to cheat his way to victory and other such heat-getting heel shenanigans. But it was just a tease and they're all friends again before they even leave the ring, because that's what always happens in these situations in Gedo's New Japan. And I know that that's what always happens because we had major in-fighting in a stable that should have led to at least one person leaving the stable in the last two G1s and we already had it earlier on in this tournament- with Suzuki-Gun, no less- and they were just friends at the end all of those times, too. Because doing anything else would require shaking things up a bit and Gedo actually putting some effort into thinking of new ideas, and that would get in the way of him flying over to the US to sixty-nine Delirious or whatever it is that those two instead of putting some actual effort into booking their respective companies.
Do you know who I want to see book New Japan? JIM CORNETTE. If Corny was booking you could be certain that none of this bullsh*t with the non-DQs would be allowed to happen, and that if you saw guys in a stable going this sort of sh*t to each other it would actually LEAD TO SOMETHING.
ACH punching Taguchi in the balls right in front of the referee with no DQ also makes me wish Jim Cornette was booking New Japan. I should start some sort of petition. The match was fun, aside from that, and even that spot built to an innovative spot later on. Taguchi helped wrap ACH's injured knee after the match, which is quite the courtesy to show to someone who punched you in the testicles in an attempt to cheat you out of a very important wrestling match.
During Tiger Mask's entrance they zoomed in on these two kids in Tiger Mask masks right by the guardrail and Tiger Mask came out and they reached for their hero… and he walked right by them. Whoops.
Tiger Mask worked the shoulder, BUSHI worked the knee and also engaged in some illegal weapon use, which allowed him to prevail in the end. Awesome match.
Awesome junior heavyweight action. KUSHIDA makes his big comeback and wins the block by having the tie-breakers over the other three men who won tonight.
Final Thoughts
A very good top of the card from New Japan, and even a pretty good show overall if not for the DUD.
JUSHIN "THUNDER" LIGER & HIRAI KAWATO vs. SUZUKI-GUN (TAKA Michinoku & Taichi) - 2/10
Last night these dastardly heels cut Liger's hair and mutilated his iconic mask and suit… but I guess he's not that mad about it because he is just letting the young-boy start the match. He doesn't even look like he's trying to get in there and get at the heels as they (especially Taichi) beat the sh*t out of Kawato.
Ah. Here comes Liger, finally running in to make the save… and now LIGER IS BEATING UP HIS OWN YOUNG-BOY. WHAT THE F*CK? Between Liger here and Juice Robinson at Day 11, the main roster guys seem to have to no respect for Kawato whatsoever.
The heels won and Kawato got beaten up after the match. Liger then finally made nice to him and showed him some respect. Taichi threw a guardrail at them. It was much lamer than it sounds.
DRAGON LEE, JUICE ROBINSON, & RICOCHET vs. LOS INGOBERNABLES DE JAPON (Hiromu Takahashi, EVIL, & Sanada) - 4.25/10
Now we've got non-Taguchi babyfaces doing the "ass to the head" strike. We then had the heels make the babyfaces look like total goofs for a bit. We finally got some good action (aside from an atrocious-looking nudo to Dragon Lee where it was clear that he wasn't close to being stuck.
WAR MACHINE & DAVID FINLAY JR. vs. BULLET CLUB (Bad Luck Fale & the Guerrillas of Destiny) - 4/10
CHAOS (Kazuchika Okada, Will Ospreay, & Gedo) vs. BULLET CLUB (Kenny Omega, Marty Scurll, & Yujiro Takahashi) - 6.75/10
BLOCK B MATCH: El Desperado (w/TAKA Michinoku) vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaru (w/Taichi) - DUD!
Rather than all coming out together like Bullet Club has in similar situations in the past, Suzuki-Gun came out separately, TAKA with El Desperado and Kanemaru with Taichi. The two seconds actually did interfere in the match for their respective guy. A lot. There were also weapons used. This had dam well better lead to some sort of Suzuki-Gun break-up. Some of it was even right in front of the referee and there was no disqualification… but he did try to take the chair away from Taichi at one point because I guess you're not allowed to use the chair, but the referee won't do anything to you if you do. The referee was shoved and there was no DQ. We also got more of this "grab the ref's arm to stop him from counting three" bullsh*t. El Desperado eventually hit not only Kanemaru and Taichi with a chair but he even his TAKA- his own second- as well. Kanemaru eventually won by count-out.
THIS SUCKED! It was guys in a stable picking sides to interfere in a match for no reason and then using weapons on each other for no reason, all in front of the referee, who didn't call for a DQ also for no reason. Then it ended with a completely pointless count-out. At the end there was a brief tease of El Desperado leaving Suzuki-Gun, which would be a nice idea if he hadn't spent the whole tournament trying to cheat his way to victory and other such heat-getting heel shenanigans. But it was just a tease and they're all friends again before they even leave the ring, because that's what always happens in these situations in Gedo's New Japan. And I know that that's what always happens because we had major in-fighting in a stable that should have led to at least one person leaving the stable in the last two G1s and we already had it earlier on in this tournament- with Suzuki-Gun, no less- and they were just friends at the end all of those times, too. Because doing anything else would require shaking things up a bit and Gedo actually putting some effort into thinking of new ideas, and that would get in the way of him flying over to the US to sixty-nine Delirious or whatever it is that those two instead of putting some actual effort into booking their respective companies.
Do you know who I want to see book New Japan? JIM CORNETTE. If Corny was booking you could be certain that none of this bullsh*t with the non-DQs would be allowed to happen, and that if you saw guys in a stable going this sort of sh*t to each other it would actually LEAD TO SOMETHING.
BLOCK B MATCH: ACH vs. Ryusuke Taguchi - 6.75/10
ACH punching Taguchi in the balls right in front of the referee with no DQ also makes me wish Jim Cornette was booking New Japan. I should start some sort of petition. The match was fun, aside from that, and even that spot built to an innovative spot later on. Taguchi helped wrap ACH's injured knee after the match, which is quite the courtesy to show to someone who punched you in the testicles in an attempt to cheat you out of a very important wrestling match.
BLOCK B MATCH: Tiger Mask IV vs. BUSHI - 8/10
During Tiger Mask's entrance they zoomed in on these two kids in Tiger Mask masks right by the guardrail and Tiger Mask came out and they reached for their hero… and he walked right by them. Whoops.
Tiger Mask worked the shoulder, BUSHI worked the knee and also engaged in some illegal weapon use, which allowed him to prevail in the end. Awesome match.
BLOCK B MATCH: Volador Jr. vs. KUSHIDA - 8.25/10
Awesome junior heavyweight action. KUSHIDA makes his big comeback and wins the block by having the tie-breakers over the other three men who won tonight.
Final Thoughts
A very good top of the card from New Japan, and even a pretty good show overall if not for the DUD.