NJPW Best of the Super Juniors XXIV: Final Day

YUJI NAGATA, SHOTA UMINO, & TOMOYUKI OKA vs. MANABU NAKANISHI, KATSUYA KITAMURA, & TETSUHIRO YAGI - 2.5/10

This was exactly what you'd expect if I told you that these two teams faced off in an eight-minute match.

HIRAI KAWATO, HIROYOSHI TENZAN, & TOGI MAKABE vs. CHAOS (Tomohiro Ishii, Toru Yano, & Jado) - 3.25/10

Yano's stupidity was kept to a minimum. Jado was a huge dick to Kawato after the match for absolutely no reason.

JUSHIN "THUNDER" LIGER, TIGER MASK IV, & VOLADOR JR. vs. SUZUKI-GUN (El Desperado, TAKA Michinoku, & Yoshinobu Kanemaru) - 4/10

The match was decently fast-paced. Dragon Lee got the win, which he should because he pinned Hiromu Takahashi during Best of the Super Juniors so he should be getting a title shot sometime this summer.

The Suzuki-Gun Junior Heavyweights were all working perfectly together even though they were all hitting each other with chairs yesterday, because having them not do so would actually mean that there is some sort of story going on that moves forward over time with events actually having consequences but of course we can't have any of that silliness. This is a professional wrestling company, so that would never work.

WAR MACHINE, ACH, &DAVID FINALY JR. vs. BULLET CLUB (The Guerillas of Destiny, Yujiro Takahashi, & Bad Luck Fale) - 6/10

I'm really not looking forward to this War Machine vs. Guerrillas of Destiny match. ACH might have hurt himself on his dive.

CHAOS (Hirooki Goto & YOSHI-HASHI) vs. SUZUKI-GUN (Minoru Suzuki & Taichi) (w/Yoshinobu Kanemaru & El Desperado) - 6/10

Lots of Suzuki-Gun gang-beatings after a ref bump, but they still lose anyway. I did pop for YOSHI-HASHI getting the win because he deserves a lot more than he gets.

LOS INGOBERNABLES DE JAPON vs. SATOSHI KOJIMA, RICOCHET, RYUSUKE TAGUCHI, JUICE ROBINSON, & DRAGON LEE - 7/10

Naito's belt-throwing antics were great. Also, wouldn't it be an awesome way to set up a title match to have Naito win and throw the belt up after the match and have a babyface catch it and then cut a promo on him for disrespecting the title?

Anyway, they had lots of great action here and a great post-match angle to build up Naito vs. Tanahashi as well.

CHAOS (Kazuchika Okada & Gedo) vs. BULLET CLUB (Kenny Omega & Marty Scurll) - 7/10

Some good work on Gedo's arm, but more importantly, some very good build for next weekend's main event. I am SOOOOO psyched for that match.

BEST OF THE SUPER JUNIORS TOURNAMENT FINALS:
Will Ospreay vs. KUSHIDA - 8.75/10

All of the babyface Junior Heavyweights are at ringside to watch the match. I think Ricochet tried to disguise himself by wearing a Taguchi shirt.

This match was pretty darn awesome, with the excellent work on the arm you'd expect in any KUSHIDA match. KUSHIDA also worked over Ospreay's head by giving him the old Bryan Danielson "kick your f*cking head in" stomps that he would occasionally win via referee stoppage with. The finish actually targeted Ospreay's neck as well as his head, and looked absolutely brutal. Also, speaking of Ospreay's head and neck, the one thing I really didn't like in this match was that big punches spot because it looked too cartoonish and hokey. The replay somehow managed to make it better and worse simultaneously by exposing the fact that KUSHIDA's big punch never even came close to connecting with Ospreay's head, but upon seeing it I immediately shrieked in terror and prayed that no one would ever punch me that hard in the neck. That one bad spot certainly wasn't enough to say that this wasn't an' AWESOME match, and a truly worthy finale for this year's Best of the Super Juniors Tournament.

Final Thoughts
Pretty much a one-match show from New Japan. The two matches before the main event were also worth watching, but the rest of the show wasn't anything there is any reason to watch.