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NJPW Best Of The Super Juniors XXIV

7K views 67 replies 28 participants last post by  Mordecay 
#1 ·


Starting today, Let the discussion begin.
 
#12 ·
Dave Meltzer's NJPW Best of Super Juniors Day 1 report and star ratings

Source: Wrestling Observer Newsletter

Dragon Lee gave IWGP jr. champion Hiromu Takahashi his first loss since returning to Japan to open up the 2017 Best of the Super Juniors tournament on 5/17 at Korakuen Hall.

The first of four Korakuen Hall shows in 12 days, the only show that features everyone in the tournament in a singles match, drew a sellout of 1,729 fans.

Every match was good, although only two–the two expected beforehand, hit great, as an opening night they brought in just about the best in-ring regular U.K. feud as Marty Scurll debuted beating defending champion Will Ospreay, and the best in-ring Mexico feud of recent years with Lee and Takahashi in the main event spot.

The match was great, but very different from their previous matches. It was smarter worked and better paced. With no ramp and stage, a lot of their Arena Mexico spots can’t be duplicated in Japan. Unlike their match earlier this year when it appeared their goal was to make sure they weren’t wrestling by the age of 30, this toned way down on dangerous spots and was paced a little slower. It still had some crazy stuff and the chemistry these guys have is among the best in wrestling. Really, with the exception of Tanahashi vs. Okada, which is the rivalry of the generation, and Kevin Owens vs. Sami Zayn, these two probably have had as good a long-term singles feud as there’s been in pro wrestling in the last decade.

Lee beating Takahashi was predictable since Takahashi beat him to defend his title earlier this year and Gedo likes to book attention getting upsets on the opening night of his tournaments. Scurll beating Ospreay made sense since it was Scurll’s debut.

The big surprise, which again shows how small the world is, is that a lot of the crowd knew Scurll and did the “whoop, whoop” for him from when he came out, and many others did before the match was over. A lot of the crowd knew the chicken wing submission and the breaking fingers spot, and he was over from the moment he came out.

New Japan put the show up live for free, although didn’t advertise that until several hours before the show, in an attempt to get both Japanese and foreign fans into the tournament so they’d be interested and want to subscribe.

There were no other major stories on the first night, which opened with Jushin Liger, who probably got the biggest reaction in his final tournament, losing to Taka Michinoku. That doesn’t preclude Liger being a major part of the tournament, but one of the big keys in the 1996 G-1, Riki Choshu’s final tournament, which was so big mainstream was because he beat IWGP champion Shinya Hashimoto on the first night.

1. A block: Taka Michinoku pinned Jushin Liger in 8:33. Liger did a flip bodyblock off the apron. Michinoku did a long crossface submission spot and Liger did a tremendous job teasing tapping. He was tapping in the air but since his hand never hit the mat it didn’t count. He finally made the ropes. Liger’s selling in this match was incredible. Michinoku kicked out of a Liger bomb and won with an eye poke and a cradle. ***

2. B block: Volador Jr. pinned Tiger Mask in 9:48. Volador did a running flip dive early in the match and looked to have hurt his left elbow and shoulder. He does that move constantly in Mexico and never gets hurt and on the opening day of the tour after a couple of week vacation, he got hurt on it. You could see in his face how mad he was. Tiger reversed an armdrag off the top rope and got a near fall with a Tiger driver. Tiger did a tombstone, but missed a diving head-butt. Volador won with a top rope Spanish fly. He was holding the left shoulder and elbow after the match. ***1/4

3. A block: Ricochet pinned Taichi in 8:56. Taichi stalled for several minutes like he was Larry Zbyszko’s son. Ricochet finally had enough of it and hit a tope about two minutes in. Miho Abe, Taichi’s groupie, distracted the ref and Taichi was choking Ricochet with his mic stand and threw Ricochet into the post. The crowd was strong into Ricochet’s comeback. He won with a jumping kick and a shooting star press. **3/4

4. B block: ACH pinned Bushi in 10:47. Bushi opened strong with a plancha into a huracanrana. Bushi did a DDT on the apron. Bushi used a backstabber off the ropes and then came off the top rope into a dropkick by ACH. ACH won with a hard lariat and the Midnight driver, which is like a Michinoku driver. ***1/4

5. B block: Desperado pinned Kushida in 11:43. Kushida came out with the ROH TV title belt. This match started out hotter than anything up to this point. Desperado did a tope con giro and threw Kushida into chairs and jabbed a pen into his brain. Kushida, who technically has to be one of the top wrestlers in the world, looked so good in his comeback. Desperado used a submission which was a standing stretch muffler with double armbars. Kushida made the ropes. They were trading elbows while sitting on the top rope. Both ended up standing on the top rope and Kushida took him off the top with a tremendous flying armbar. Desperado made the ropes. The finish took it down a notch. Kushida finally got the hoverboard lock but there was a ref bump. Desperado was tapping like crazy but there was no ref. Kushida went to help up the ref. Desperado got the ROH TV belt and went for a belt shot, but Kushida ducked and hit a Pele kick. But Desperado came back and used a pedigree on the belt. Kushida kicked out of that, but Desperado followed with his usual finisher, the Guitarra del Angel, and got the pin. ***1/4

6. A block: Marty Scurll beat Will Ospreay in 12:11. Just super while it lasted. Ospreay went for a shooting star but Scurll got his feet up. Scurll superkicked him off the apron. They went back-and-forth with elbows. Scurll body slammed Ospreay into the ropes and he landed almost on his head. Scurll went for the chicken wing but Ospreay escaped, went for a standing shooting star, but Scurll got his knees up. Ospreay used a flip into a stunner and a space flying tiger drop. Scurll did the broken fingers spot. Scurll clotheslined Ospreay, who did the spin bump but landed on his feet and hit the spinning kick. Ospreay did Randy Orton’s RKO pose and actually tweeted Orton a few hours before the show to tell him to watch this match. Somehow I’m guessing Orton didn’t do that. He went for the Oscutter, but Scurll moved and caught him in mid-air with the chicken wing for the submission. ****1/4

7. A block: Ryusuke Taguchi pinned Yoshinobu Kanemaru in 11:27. Taguchi did a lot of his usual early comedy. He did the triple leapfrog and drop down spot. He did a spot where he kept running the ropes until he got exhausted and collapsed. Then he did it again. Kanemaru was kicking Taguchi’s ass, which takes away his big weapon. Taguchi still came back with the hip attacks. Kanemaru is one of those guys who is technically excellent but lacks charisma, so people don’t notice him, like Brad Armstrong or Fit Finlay used to be. He did a great tornado DDT, followed by a reverse DDT and finally came off the top rope and gave Taguchi a DDT. His timing was perfect on everything. Taguchi got Kanemaru in the ankle lock. Michinoku jumped on the apron and distracted the ref and Kanemaru broke the ankle lock with a low kick. But as Taguchi fell backwards from the low blow, he landed on Kanemaru’s groin so both were down. Taguchi kicked Kanemaru into Michinoku, knocking him off the apron and Taguchi got the pin with a small package. The finish got over great. After the match, Tomoyuki Oka was told to put the ice pack on Taguchi’s groin since he was still selling the low blow. The crowd laughed at that one. ***1/4

8. A block: Dragon Lee pinned Hiromu Takahashi in 18:56. Very intense excellent main event. Both started by chopping the hell out of each other forever. Lee finally got the better of that. Lee did the spot where he went from the ring, jumped over the top rope, gave Takahashi a huracanrana while Takahashi was on the apron, sending him to the floor. He followed with a running flip dive over the top. You could see that they toned everyone down on dives as there were way less on the show than you’d think. The crowd was going crazy for Lee. Takahashi used an overhead belly-to-belly into the turnbuckles and then went after Lee’s mask. Lee did a sunset flip power bomb to the floor. I’m not a fan of that spot because of the high concussion risk, but that said, Lee flew so high in doing it that it looked great. Lee did a power bomb for a near fall but missed the Del Rio double foot stomp spot. Takahashi then set Lee up for the Del Rio spot but Lee did the sit up from that position and Takahashi missed. Then they traded German suplexes. They traded six straight German suplexes until both were knocked loopy. When they recovered, they went back to trading hard chops. Lee did the Del Rio double foot stomp but Takahashi was in a backwards position draped off the top rope so he nailed him in the back and not the chest for a great near fall. Takahashi did a Death Valley bomb into the corner and went back after the mask. They traded some more moves and got lost at one point. But they got it back together and Takahashi used a Canadian Destroyer off the top rope that Lee kicked out of. Takahashi did another Death Valley bomb into the turnbuckles and a wheelbarrow German suplex. Lee finally hit a Death Valley bomb into the turnbuckles of his own and got the pin with a Phoenix plex. Lee then closed the show with an interview in Spanish where he vowed to win the tournament. ****1/4
 
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#15 ·
In order of my preference:

My favourite match was Liger/Hiromu, but thats partially because I really love both of them.
Taichi/Taka was unique. You are either going to love it or hate it.
Ospreay/Ricochet was better than their last year match, but I'm not very fond of their style so it might be your MOTN or even MOTY if you love these two.
Scrull/Dragon Lee I liked better than the one with Ospreay (I guess I'm not too big a fan of his), but had lots of crowd pandering and it dragged the match down a bit for me.
LIJ vs Taguchi Japan was what can be expected from them by this point thou Naito went extra mile with his dislike of IC belt.
ACH/Volador vs Kanemaru/Desperado was okay, I liked Volador here better than in his match with Tiger Mask.
Opener with young lions was bad even by young lions standards.
 
#52 ·
With the finals tomorrow, here are my rankings of every tournament match from best to worst:

]KUSHIDA vs. Ryusuke Taguchi - ****1/2 (Day 11)
Dragon Lee vs. Hiromu Takahashi - ****1/2 (Day 1)
Jushin Liger vs. Taichi - ****1/2 (Day 12)
Jushin Liger vs. TAKA Michinoku - **** (Day 1)
Hiromu Takahashi vs. Jushin Liger - ***3/4 (Day 2)
Ricochet vs. Will Ospreay - ***3/4 (Day 2)
El Desperado vs. KUSHIDA - ***3/4 (Day 1)
KUSHIDA vs. Volador Jr. - ***3/4 (Day 13)
ACH vs. Volador Jr. - ***3/4 (Day 11)
ACH vs. Ryusuke Taguchi - ***3/4 (Day 13)
Tiger Mask vs. Volador Jr. - ***3/4 (Day 1)
Taichi vs. TAKA Michinoku - ***3/4 (Day 2)
ACH vs. Tiger Mask - ***1/2 (Day 5)
BUSHI vs. El Desperado - ***1/2 (Day 3)
KUSHIDA vs. Tiger Mask - ***1/2 (Day 3)
TAKA Michinoku vs. Will Ospreay - ***1/2 (Day 4)
BUSHI vs. KUSHIDA - ***1/2 (Day 5)
KUSHIDA vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaru - ***1/2 (Day 9)
Marty Scurll vs. Ricochet - ***1/2 (Day 12)
Hiromu Takahashi vs. Taichi - ***1/2 (Day 6)
Hiromu Takahashi vs. Ricochet - ***1/2 (Day 4)
Ricochet vs. Taichi - ***1/2 (Day 1)
Jushin Liger vs. Ricochet - ***1/2 (Day 8)
Hiromu Takahashi vs. TAKA Michinoku - ***1/2 (Day 8)
Dragon Lee vs. Will Ospreay - ***1/2 (Day 8)
El Desperado vs. Ryusuke Taguchi - ***1/2 (Day 5)
Dragon Lee vs. Ricochet - ***1/2 (Day 6)
El Desperado vs. Tiger Mask - ***1/2 (Day 11)
Dragon Lee vs. TAKA Michinoku - ***1/2 (Day 12)
BUSHI vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaru - ***1/2 (Day 11)
BUSHI vs. Tiger Mask - ***1/4 (Day 13)
Jushin Liger vs. Will Ospreay - *** (Day 6)
Ryusuke Taguchi vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaru - *** (Day 1)
Ryusuke Taguchi vs. Tiger Mask - *** (Day 9)
Dragon Lee vs. Jushin Liger - *** (Day 10)
ACH vs. KUSHIDA - **3/4 (Day 7)
ACH vs. BUSHI - **3/4 (Day 1)
Tiger Mask vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaru - **3/4 (Day 7)
Ricochet vs. TAKA Michinoku - **3/4 (Day 10)
Jushin Liger vs. Marty Scurll - **1/2 (Day 4)
Hiromu Takahashi vs. Will Ospreay - ** (Day 12)
Ryusuke Taguchi vs. Volador Jr. - ** (Day 3)
Volador Jr. vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaru - ** (Day 5)
Marty Scurll vs. TAKA Michinoku - ** (Day 6)
Marty Scurll vs. Will Ospreay - * (Day 1)
ACH vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaru - * (Day 3)
Dragon Lee vs. Taichi - * (Day 4)
El Desperado vs. Volador Jr. - * (Day 7)
ACH vs. El Desperado - * (Day 9)
Taichi vs. Will Ospreay - * (Day 10)
Hiromu Takahashi vs. Marty Scurll - * (Day 10)
BUSHI vs. Volador Jr. - * (Day 9)
BUSHI vs. Ryusuke Taguchi - * (Day 7)
El Desperado vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaru - * (Day 13)
Marty Scurll vs. Taichi - DUD (Day 8)
Dragon Lee vs. Marty Scurll - DUD (Day 2)

Really good tournament. Hope the finals in KUSHIDA vs. Ospreay deliver - loved their match from Invasion Attack last year.
 
#54 ·
Made somewhat sense for Kushida to win so they can continue with the whole "can he complete his redemption next week at Dominion". I probably would have gone for Ospreay too but i understand why they went with Kushida in the end.

As for the match itself it was good but I feel Osprays poor selling hurt it a lot. There was so much focus in the first 10 mins or so about Kushida working over Ospreay's body and sysmatically taking out his arms and legs so that he couldn't do all those flips and shit and yet five minutes after working them all down Will was fine and jumping all over the place without even limping :lol. awful selling and stopped a good match from becoming a great match in my opinion.
 
#3 ·
Will Ospray vs Time Bomb could be spectacular if they have the right chemistry.

Osrpay vs Tiger Mask should be good as well if that match happens.

Get the old has-beens like Richochet and Thunder Liger out of the tournament ffs
 
#7 · (Edited)
Lot of surprises in the first day.
ACH over Bushi
Scurll over Ospreay
Dragon Lee over Hiromu
El Desperado over KUSHIDA

Still quite a few neat upcoming matchups too.

Seems like Marty Scurll could be the gaijin darkhorse here. Don't know if he's planning to work Japan more soon, but he just dropped the ROH TV title and joined Bullet Club. I feel like he could be in line for an IWGP JHC push. Ospreay would prob be the best match for Hiromu at Dominion though imo.
 
#11 ·
Wasn't surprised that ACH and Scrull won since it was their debut and it probably would hurt them long term if they lost their first matches while Bushi and Ospreay will recover easily from this.

As for Scrull, maybe they'll do Scrull vs Hiromu for the G1 Special?
 
#17 ·
Day 2

Taichi had his first 5 star match. :)

Scurll vs Lee was fun match. Nothing special. Clearly taking it easy.

Liger vs Hiromu was the best match of the card.

Ricochet vs Ospreay was fine. Not my favorite style, but I'm not going to knock the match. IT was way less of gymnastics routine compared to last year. Probably could have been shorter.
 
#23 ·
Just caught up today with all the action. Gotta say if I’m having a hard time keeping track of all this, I can’t even imagine how I will keep for my first G1, lol.

Anyways, I’d say my top 2 favorite matches so far are Ricochet vs. Ospreay and just recently Kushida vs. Bushi. Ricochet vs. Ospreay, while they did all of their flippy stuff, also took their time this time and I really liked the beginning with Ricochet in control. And Kushida vs. Bushi just flowed really well from beginning to end.

I got to say so far one unsung hero so is El Desperado. I had never really seen anything from him before this tournament since before he was just in Suzuki Gun tag matches that I didn’t care for. But I like how well, IMO, he’s played the heel role. Winning one match by removing Bushi’s mask and winning another by removing his own mask. I dig it.
 
#25 · (Edited)
I haven't watched a day since day two, just don't see the point of watching a show if I'm only really half interested in one or two matches on the card only. Well this is often true of me with New Japan shows but at least I know the last couple of matches are gonna take up about two hours on a proper show, these matches are like fifteen minutes with entrances. Plus half these shows have had zero production quality with no commentary and hard cam set ups which are a real love hate thing of mine with New Japan. I do plan to follow along with the tournament but I'm definitely going to wait for more meaningful shows/match ups before I start putting time into this again.

Two favourite matches from the show so far both featured Ospreay, first was his day one match against Scurll for that British Pride marking out. The crowd was red hot for this which helped, you don't normally get a crowd like that for a NJPW show but Ospreay also balanced out how sloppy Scurll has been in the ring for this tournament so far, even if it looked like he almost killed himself in the process.

Then the second of course being his match against Ricochet, not as special as people want to make it out to be, there is a ceiling on these performance piece wrestling matches in my books, especially with the few blown spots and Ospreay's awful "acting" but it still was, overall, hell of a lot of fun thanks to its unrelenting pace.
 
#27 ·
Really enjoyed it so far. Skipped DAy 3, but I'm seen most of day 4 and 5. Nothing mind blowing yet, but all the guys have delivered.

Guchi vs Despy was a standout.

Kushida vs and off the wall winner for Block A. Should have known better than to think that it would be an easy pick. Hell it may end up being Desperado.



Two Wrestlers in character making a moment. Also since they wrestled the next day it was probably just a little something to lead into it.
 
#28 ·
Source: Wrestling Observer Newsletter

Six shows into the 2017 New Japan Best of the Super Juniors tournament seems to indicate two things–the parity booking looks to be the rule, and that they completely dropped the ball on Jushin Liger.

Liger, who has gotten the biggest reaction on almost every show, after announcing this would be his last Best of the Super Juniors tournament, has gone 0-4 and after just six days is mathematically eliminated from contention.
 
#29 ·
I gotta say that that the BOTSJ tournament does really expose one of NJPW's biggest tropes. And that's when they fight out into the crowd and one guy leaves the other guy for dead in the crowd hoping to get them counted out but the guy always makes it back at the count of 19. Now, in real life this would be a good strategy. But when it never works, it becomes a trope.

Anyways, my bitching aside, Day 10 IMO was home to 2 of the best matches so far in Scurll vs. Takahashi and Lee vs. Liger. I'd actually put those 2 in my top 5 so far which includes:

1. Kushida vs. Bushi
2. Ospreay vs. Ricochet
3. Scurll vs. Takahashi
4. Kushida vs. ACH
5. Lee vs. Liger
 
#30 ·
I gotta say that that the BOTSJ tournament does really expose one of NJPW's biggest tropes. And that's when they fight out into the crowd and one guy leaves the other guy for dead in the crowd hoping to get them counted out but the guy always makes it back at the count of 19. Now, in real life this would be a good strategy. But when it never works, it becomes a trope.
It doesn't help that this happens in, I think, every Suzuki Gun match. I understand that we are supposed to really, really hate them, but it would be better if they mixed it up a bit since they can get rather boring.
 
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