NJPW BOSJ Final Review

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By Tokyo Wrestling Fan @twf87

This year’s 25th Best of the Super Juniors tournament has been one of the best, and the juniors’ matches have been given more time and greater prominence on the shows.  The finals were normally held at the Yoyogi National Gymnasium, but they are currently undergoing repairs for earthquake proofing, so the finals were held at Korakuen Hall.  The final tonight between Taiji Ishimori and Hiromu Takahashi was the first final to feature two Japanese wrestlers since 2011, and featured two of the best competitors of this year’s tournament.

 

Flip Gordon and Chris Sabin vs. Tiger Mask and Shota Umino – This was a fun match that featured three of the BOSJ competitors and one of the Young Lions.  Chris Sabin had a decent tournament run that improved as it went on, and Flip Gordon definitely wowed the Japanese crowds with his high-flying abilities.  I’m not convinced that Sabin will be back in New Japan aside from some tag team work if Motor City Machine Guns come back, but Flip will almost certainly be back again.  Tiger Mask had a good BOSJ run as well, and he looked a lot more motivated in the tournament matches than he had recently.  This match was a good opener to pop the crowd, who showed their appreciation for all of the effort the juniors put in.  Flip secured a win for his team after hitting Umino with the Four Flippy Splash.

Winners: Flip Gordon and Chris Sabin, 6:32

YOSHI-HASHI, Toru Yano, and Tomohiro Ishii vs. TAKA Michinoku, Minoru Suzuki, and Takashi Iizuka – With the majority of the BOSJ shows being single camera shows which only featured the tournament matches I’ve gotten out of the habit of seeing the multi-man heavyweight matches, and honestly I didn’t miss Iizuka one bit.  This match had all the shenanigans of a lower card Suzuki-gun match, although Minoru Suzuki lifts the quality of any match he’s in.  Hopefully this is setting up some kind of match featuring Suzuki, Ishii, and Yano at Dominion.  Yano was able to out-cheat Suzuki-gun and score a pin after hitting TAKA with a low blow.

Winners: YOSHI-HASHI, Toru Yano, and Tomohiro Ishii, 10:01

Taichi, Yoshinobu Kanemaru, and El Desperado vs. Roppongi 3K (SHO and YOH) and Hirooki Goto – SHO and YOH had some breakout performances in this year’s BOSJ, and El Desperado really showed off his skills in some of the matches, particularly his match against Hiromu.  Unfortunately YOH kept his BOSJ gear for this match, which still looks diabolical.  Goto and Taichi are facing each other at Dominion along with Michael Elgin in a triple threat for the NEVER title, so this match was a set up for the title match on Saturday.  There was plenty of brawling on the outside in this match as well, but some good stuff in ring between Roppongi 3K and the Suzuki-gun juniors, and YOH finally got a win with his Five Star Clutch.  Post-match Suzuki-gun continued to beat down on the CHAOS members.

Winners: Roppongi 3K (SHO and YOH) and Hirooki Goto, 11:44

Tanahashi Hiroshi and Toa Henare vs. Marty Scurll and Yujiro Takahashi – Marty had another good showing in the BOSJ tournament this year, getting eliminated on the last day with a loss to SHO.  He’s really mastered a blend of comedy and seriousness, and the Japanese crowds really like him.  As Marty made his entrance there were two people in the audience in full Villain costumes who he two-sweeted.  He also flipped off a Jyushin Thunder Liger lookalike in the audience, and the real version who was on commentary.  Scurll and Yujiro worked over Henare for a lot of this match, although when Tanahashi was tagged in he held his own against the Bullet Club duo.  After seeing their interactions in this match I would like to see Scurll and Tanahashi go at it one-on-one, as unlikely as that is.  Yujiro picked up a victory after hitting Pimp Juice on Henare.  After the match, Scurll and Yujiro beat down Henare, then Scurll caught Tanahashi in the chickenwing until Liger ran in to make the save.  Liger then issued a challenge to Scurll on behalf of himself, Tanahashi, and Rey Mysterio for Dominion!

Winners: Marty Scurll and Yujiro Takahashi, 13:17

ACH, Dragon Lee, Ryusuke Taguchi, and KUSHIDA vs. BUSHI, SANADA, EVIL, and Tetsuya Naito – The four BOSJ competitors got a big pop when they entered, particularly ACH who was singing along to KUSHIDA’s theme song.  When Naito’s music hit for the Los Ingobernables de Japon entrance ACH started dancing in the ring and the Naito chants transformed into ACH chants.  He really needs to be in New Japan more frequently – he’s been great in the ring this tournament and is clearly over with the fans.  Naito was clearly amused and when got to the ring he asked ACH to show him the dance, then proceeded to kick him in the back.  When the match started Dragon Lee hit Naito with his own corner dropkick to loud cheers from the crowd.  He’s another guy that should be in New Japan more often than just once a year.  SANADA won the match for LIJ with a Skull End that forced ACH to tap out.  After the match finished another Chris Jericho promo video played, taunting Naito about the fact that Jericho vs. Omega was the real main event of Wrestle Kingdom 12 and promising to make him a star with their match at Dominion.  After the video finished Naito took the microphone and questioned why Jericho was so famous but still recording his own selfie videos, and then promised that he would beat Jericho at Dominion.

Winners: BUSHI, SANADA, EVIL, and Tetsuya Naito, 8:09

Kazuchika Okada and Will Ospreay vs. Kota Ibushi and Chase Owens – This match is a set-up for the Okada vs. Omega title match at Dominion, and at one point Ibushi hit the Cross Slash on Ospreay and pointed at Okada, who followed up by hitting Owens with a V-Trigger.  This was a good tag match, and Ospreay and Ibushi had one amazing sequence of fast paced moves, which ended with the aforementioned Cross Slash.  A singles match between those two would be amazing to see as well.  Owens also performed well – he’s really improved this year and I always enjoy him in these tag match spots – and the crowd got excited when he nearly hit Okada with a package piledriver.  Okada finally won with a Rainmaker to Owens, and then cut a promo saying that he would beat Kenny at Dominion and bring the belt back to Tokyo with him.

Winners: Kazuchika Okada and Will Ospreay, 13:02

 

Best of the Super Juniors Final

Taiji Ishimori vs. Hiromu Takahashi – Ishimori won A Block after beating Will Ospreay on night one and then drawing with him on ten points.  Hiromu won B Block by defeating KUSHIDA on the final night, which meant he finished top of the block with ten points.  This was a first time match between the two, which would also result in a first time winner of the tournament.  This was an absolutely amazing match between two competitors who seemed determined to prove that the juniors were able to put on a main event as good as the heavyweights.  Ishimori had a really good tournament this year – his first as Bone Soldier, but not the first time he had appeared in a BOSJ – and Hiromu was the standout competitor in my opinion.  This match was high-intensity, including a section of brawling in the stands during which Hiromu hit a vicious dropkick on Ishimori onto the concrete.

Both competitors attempted to lock in their submissions that had proved so effective during the tournament, particularly Hiromu’s triangle choke.  Both men were able to escape from their opponents’ submissions, but both came close to tapping out, and the crowd were on the edge of their seat throughout.  There was one particularly vicious segment that saw Ishimori hit Hiromu with a reverse hurricanrana, to which Hiromu immediately got up and hit his own reverse hurricanrana.  The crowd was firmly behind Hiromu, despite a few holdouts who were supporting Ishimori, and when he eventually hit a Time Bomb for a three count Korakuen Hall absolutely erupted.

After the match Hiromu celebrated in the ring with his trophy, before Will Ospreay came out to tell Hiromu that he would retain his championship at Dominion.  They had a face-off with the title and the BOSJ trophy, then Ospreay left the ring and the rest of Los Ingobernables de Japon came to celebrate with Hiromu.

Winner: Hiromu Takahashi, 34:09

 

Final Thoughts

This was a really good show, with a really hot crowd and a lot of multi-man matches that allowed the BOSJ competitors to enjoy their last evening working together.  The main event was one of the best matches of the year, and confirmed that Ishimori and Hiromu are top-level juniors.  Ishimori seems to have been a great addition to the division and Hiromu is a bona-fide star in New Japan, who delivered excellent performance after excellent performance this year.  I expected Ishimori to get the win today, but the decision to go with Hiromu has the potential to be even better, since the upcoming match between Will and Hiromu at Dominion should be excellent, and Ishimori is still in with a shot with his tournament victory over Will.

Looking ahead to Dominion, the card is absolutely stacked.  SHO and YOH are taking on El Desperado and Kanemaru for the Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Championship; Goto, Elgin, and Taichi have a match for the NEVER Openweight Championship; SANADA and EVIL take on the newly heavyweight Young Bucks for the Tag Team Championship; Ospreay and Hiromu go head to head again; Tetsuya Naito faces Chris Jericho with the Intercontinental Championship on the line; Kazuchika Okada takes on Kenny Omega again in a two-out-of-three falls match with no time limit.  Adding in to that mix is David Finlay and Juice Robinson taking on YOSHI-HASHI and Jay White, Toru Yano and Tomohiro Ishii taking on Zack Sabre Junior and Minoru Suzuki, as well as Hiroshi Tanahashi, Jyushin Thunder Liger, and Rey Mysterio against Marty Scurll, Hangman Page, and Cody.  This should be a great event, although the main event having no time limit means does raise questions over just how long the event will last.  Last year saw a sixty minute time-limit draw between Okada and Omega, so who knows how long two falls will take?  My head says that the time is perfect for Omega to win, especially given the upcoming event in San Francisco, but my gut says that Okada is never dropping the title.  Whatever the final result, the spectacle should be amazing.

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