NJPW Best of Super Juniors Night 2 Review 5/18/17

The Notorious Dar back here again with night 2 of the Best of Super Juniors and another review for you guys. Let’s not waste anymore time and get right into it

Tiger Mask IV, Tomoyuki Oka & Hirai Kawato vs. Tetsuhiro Yagi, Shota Umino & Katsuyori Kitamura

The show starts off with non tournament action and a young lion’s exhibition. Tiger Mask is here with the young boy’s here and this wasn’t really anything special. It was pretty boring and nothing much impressed me besides on of the young lion’s, Katsuyori Kitamura. The dude is jacked as all hell and is strong as an ox. I think if he stays down and develops a bit more he can be something special for NJPW. Tiger Mask and the young boys take the W in this one.

Match Rating: **

ACH & Volador Jr vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaru & El Desperado

This was a pretty solid non-tournament tag match between tournament competitors. ACH and Desperado continue to impress big for me. Volador seemed lost out there at times and a bit botchy on some of his spots. Hopefully he can shake out these bugs and really make a splash in the tournament. Kanemaru and Desperado come out with a sneaky victory to gain some traction moving forward.

Match Rating: **1/2

Hanson, Ray Rowe & David Finlay vs. Bullet Club (Tanga Loa, Tama Tonga & Yujiro Takahashi)

This was a really good non-tournament 6 man with lots of offense from all. My favorite part is David Finlay going all in wearing the war paint alongside War Machine. This was really just used to build up G.O.D for their future title match against War Machine at Dominion in June. All around a solid match that did it’s job. Bullet Club take the win after an awesome Stun Gun by Tama Tonga catching David Finlay in mid air.

Match Rating: ***

Satoshi Kojima, Juice Robinson, Ryusuke Taguchi & KUSHIDA vs. Tetsuya Naito, SANADA, EVIL & BUSHI

(Just quick note because of Hiroshi Tanahashi’s injury he will be off the rest of the BOSJ tour and replaced with Satoshi Kojima)

Another solid 6-man non-tournament match-up here. I know I probably sound like a broken record but there was a lot of tag matches on this card haha. This actually is the last one and it was good. The action starts off here before the bell even rings with Naito disrespecting the belt as usual but this time slamming it so hard against the steps that it actually got dented. Only Naito could do something like that and still be cheered. This match was what you expected with the people involved some good hearted fun from Taguchi-Japan and LIJ being the party crashers.

Match Rating: ***

TAKA Michinoku vs. Taichi

Another day of BOSJ and another shitty Taichi match. At least I could watch the last one without wondering why i’m watching this. It was so damn bad it almost made me turn off the whole show. They stalled and didn’t even touch each other to what felt like an eternity but in real time was like 5 minutes. Then they went into a shitty exchange where they tried to attack each other because they actually remembered they were in a wrestling match. All around a horrible match, If I was asked to watch this or Roman Reigns promos for the rest of my life, i’d go with the Big Dog. What makes this even worse is that Taichi wins over TAKA who just the night before beat Jushin Liger. That makes that win mean basically nothing now/

Match Rating: 1/2

Marty Scurll vs. Dragon Lee

Thank goodness! This is exactly what I needed after the previous mess of a match. Marty and Dragon Lee really turned it up here and had a really good match here. It was a very good back and forth match, with both men working hard and doing a great job of keeping the crowd interested the whole time. Marty continues to look like a star in NJPW and shows he can get over with any audience in the world. Dragon Lee also continued to look like a strong contender to win the A Block as he is the only undefeated man in the tournament. Of course it is still early on but he could take it all.

Match Rating: ***3/4

Hiromu Takahashi vs. Jushin Thunder Liger

This was a nice case of old school vs new school as Liger is one of the best Super Juniors if not the best of all time. And Hiromu Takahashi has burst onto the scene ever since he returned from his excursion in Mexico with the CMLL promotion. This match showed Liger do everything he could to put away the younger Takahashi including a palm strike, two brain busters, and a Liger bomb. In the end it just wasn’t enough and Liger rides off into the sunset in his last performance in the BOSJ at Korakuen Hall.

Match Rating: ***1/2

Will Ospreay vs. Ricochet

This is the rematch from last year’s BOSJ that set the wrestling world ablaze even including a disgruntled Vader who wasn’t very fond of it, in particular a certain William Ospreay. Now I am not big of an Ospreay fan myself but I have to admit this match was incredible. It had everything you want in a Super Jr.’s match; the high flying, drama, near falls, and storytelling. This definitely topped last year’s match in my opinion and so far has been my match of the tournament. The thing liked more about this was the intertwinement of their past encounters. They really told a good story and I highly recommend you go out of your way to check this match out.

Match Rating: ****3/4

This show was alright, not better than the first one but had some solid tag matches. The last three matches are where it’s at though so if you are trying to catch up just skip to that. Also fuck Taichi. Until next time, Peace out.