BOSJ Night Three – Kira Messe Numazu, Shizuoka
Tiger Mask def. YOH
Flip Gordon def. Yoshinobu Kanemaru
Taiji Ishimori def. BUSHI
Will Ospreay def. ACH
Night three was the first show that wasn’t live, but rather the tournament matches were released as VOD with no commentary and largely a single hard-camera shot. Tiger Mask defeated YOH with a Tiger Suplex, who looked better in this match than he did against BUSHI. Flip defeated Kanemaru with a 450 splash after a fun little match, in which Kanemaru attempted to ground the high-flying American with his heel tactics, and even broke out a moonsault of his own. Ishimori defeated BUSHI in the semi-main event in what was a decent match. BUSHI hit his big spots, including his new move of crotching his opponent on the top rope and then hitting a Frankensteiner from the turnbuckle, but Ishimori picked up the win with the Bloody Cross. The main event saw Ospreay defeat ACH with a Storm Breaker in a good match that went just over fifteen minutes. Ospreay controlled the majority of this match, and targeted ACH’s left arm, which he had injured against Flip Gordon on night one. ACH did a great job selling, and once again managed to pull off an impressive one-armed deadlift German suplex. The main event was the clear best match on this show, but nothing was absolutely must-see.
BOSJ Night Four – Korakuen Hall, Tokyo
SHO def. Chris Sabin
Dragon Lee def. Ryusuke Taguchi
KUSHIDA def. Marty Scurll
El Desperado def. Hiromu Takahashi
Back at Korakuen Hall for a live show, and night four did not disappoint. SHO continued to impress against Chris Sabin, who performed better than his opening match, although he still didn’t get much of a crowd reaction. Dragon Lee and Taguchi put on a fun comedy match that allowed Dragon Lee to show off his high-flying ability. The final two matches on this show were absolutely excellent, must-see matches. KUSHIDA defeated Marty Scurll in a technical classic full of chain-wrestling and submission psychology. Marty came close to getting a win again, but KUSHIDA managed to battle through the chickenwing and hit the Back to the Future for a victory. The main event of El Desperado and Hiromu Takahashi was an all-out war, as both men tried to end each other with vicious moves on the outside. Desperado’s mask was ripped around one of the eyes at some point in the match, which made him look even more wild. I expected Hiromu to come out victorious in this match, but it was Desperado who pinned him after the Pinche Loco. This will surely be one of the matches of the tournament, it was as close to a blood feud as we have seen since Chris Jericho took on Kenny Omega at Wrestle Kingdom 12. This show was also noticeable for a video promo from Chris Jericho that played after Naito’s tag match, and featured Jericho in topless in a field, swearing a lot and comparing Naito to a tortoise.
BOSJ Night Five – Ukaru Chan Arena, Shiga
Tiger Mask def. BUSHI
Yoshinobu Kanemaru def. ACH
Flip Gordon def. Taiji Ishimori
Will Ospreay def. YOH
Another A Block VOD show, this time on the road from Shiga. Tiger Mask defeated BUSHI in an underwhelming match, which featured BUSHI in control for too long, and a surprise win for Tiger Mask with the Tiger Suplex. Who would have thought Tiger Mask would be the first to get to six points in A Block! Kanemaru defeated ACH with a diving DDT in a good match. Kanemaru is a really solid, not flashy heel, and ACH has been selling his injured shoulder extremely well throughout the tournament. He continued to do so on this show, while still managing impressive feats of athleticism like a one-handed cartwheel. Flip Gordon picked up a shock win over Taiji Ishimori after a roll up in a fun match. Despite not finding any food he could eat in Osaka, Flip has impressed in his first BOSJ and Ishimori looks like a star already. The ending of this match seemed almost like it was a botch, and Ishimori just didn’t kick out in time, but presumably that was part of the story that Flip stole a win. Will Ospreay defeated YOH in a good main event to draw level with Ishimori and Flip on four points, two behind Tiger Mask. This was YOH’s best match in the tournament so far, although he still had a few noticeable botches. After a hard fought contest Ospreay won with Storm Breaker, and cut a promo praising YOH and promising to go to the final again this year.
BOSJ Night Six – Osaka Municipal Central Gymnasium, Osaka
Marty Scurll def. Chris Sabin
Ryusuke Taguchi def. KUSHIDA
SHO def. El Desperado
Dragon Lee def. Hiromu Takahashi
This was a boisterous B Block VOD show from Osaka, and the first match saw Marty Scurll pick up his first points of the tournament with a win over Chris Sabin after he hit an inverted bainbuster. This was Sabin’s best match of the tournament so far, and the crowd loved Scurll’s antics. Taguchi stole a win after 90 seconds with a quick roll up on KUSHIDA to win his first points of the tournament. SHO continued his impressive showing in the tournament by defeating El Desperado with his devastating looking cross-arm package piledriver. I’ve been impressed by both SHO and Desperado this tournament, they’ve put on some excellent matches. In the main event Dragon Lee defeated Hiromu Takahashi in another excellent match, which took him to six points. These two have such great chemistry, and this match was full of hard-hitting strike exchanges and very near falls. I just wish that it had been on a live show with full commentary and camera angles, because it deserved a bigger stage. This was another highlight of the tournament by Lee and Hiromu who have delivered excellent matches thus far.
BOSJ Night Seven – Nagoya Congress Centre Event Hall, Aichi
Flip Gordon def. Tiger Mask
ACH def. YOH
Yoshinobu Kanemaru def. Taiji Ishimori
BUSHI def. Will Ospreay
This was the first of two shows from Nagoya over the weekend, and for some reason during the first VOD match there was a block of empty chairs right at ringside in front of the hard camera. Not a great look. Flip Gordon handed Tiger Mask his first defeat of the tournament in the opening match after hitting his springboard 450 splash off his knees. Flip has definitely gotten over with the crowd during the tournament, and he pulled off some impressive looking moves, but he had a few moments of hesitation that were more noticeable tonight than previously. The ringside fans returned to their seats for the second match, which saw ACH defeat YOH in a good match. ACH has really impressed with his power moves, and his commitment to selling his injured left arm. Yoshinobu Kanemaru picked up a second consecutive victory after a roll-up on Taiji Ishimori. This was another good match – Ishimori and Kanemaru faced each other a lot in Pro Wrestling NOAH – but Ishimori really needs to watch out for the quick roll-ups, apparently that’s his biggest weakness. In the main event BUSHI handed a surprise loss to Will Ospreay for his first points of this tournament, and what was probably the best BUSHI performance yet. BUSHI wrestled the entire match in his LIJ t-shirt, which was slightly weird, and pinned Ospreay with an MX from the turnbuckle.
BOSJ Night Eight – Nagoya Congress Centre Event Hall, Aichi
Marty Scurll def. El Desperado
Chris Sabin def. Dragon Lee
KUSHIDA def. SHO
Hiromu Takahashi def. Ryusuke Taguchi
Another night in Nagoya and once again there were some empty seats in the front row opposite the hard camera. I guess the Nagoya fans just weren’t as interested in the first tournament match as other cities’ fans were. Marty Scurll picked up another victory with the crossface chickenwing after a hard-fought match against El Desperado. Both guys have impressed so far in BOSJ, and this moved Marty to four points, level with Desperado. Chris Sabin defeated Dragon Lee in match two with the Cradle Shock after a good match between the two. Sabin has improved as the tournament has gone on, but his best matches have been against non-Japanese wrestlers so I’m interested to see how he fares against Hiromu on night ten. Sabin’s win means that Dragon Lee stayed top of the block with six points, while Sabin moved up to four. Next up KUSHIDA and SHO put on a twenty minute technical wrestling clinic, which ended with the first pin of the match when KUSHIDA hit the Back to the Future. This was a match filled with great chain wrestling and mat work, and SHO continued to demonstrate his technical skill and ability. Go out of your way to watch this match. In the main event Hiromu defeated Taguchi with the triangle choke that he used to beat Marty on night one, which he has apparently called “D.” This was another good match, although it lacked the intensity of the previous Hiromu main events. With this win Hiromu moved up to four points, and Taguchi remained bottom of the standings on two points.
Standings After Night Eight
A Block B Block
Flip Gordon – 6 points Dragon Lee – 6 points
Tiger Mask – 6 points KUSHIDA – 4 points
Taiji Ishimori – 4 points Chris Sabin – 4 points
Will Ospreay – 4 points Marty Scurll – 4 points
Yoshinobu Kanemaru – 4 points El Desperado – 4 points
ACH – 4 points Hiromu Takahashi – 4 points
YOH – 2 points SHO – 4 points
BUSHI – 2 points Ryusuke Taguchi – 2 points
After eight nights both blocks are finely poised for the last three block matches. Seeing Flip Gordon and Tiger Mask at the top of A Block is a surprise, but I doubt they will last since they both face Will Ospreay, and Tiger Mask still has to face Ishimori. I expect that Ishimori will end up winning A Block, and he has a slightly easier run-in than Ospreay, but it’s still wide open. B Block is even closer than A Block, with only one competitor having two points, but Dragon Lee is also a surprising earlier front-runner. I have a feeling it will all come down to the KUSHIDA vs. Hiromu match on the final night, although I could see Dragon Lee having a decent chance to win the block. Taguchi, BUSHI, and YOH are all but eliminated from contention now, so it’s very unlikely they’ll do anything but spoil other people’s chances. Night nine promises to clarify some things as Ishimori takes on Tiger Mask and Ospreay takes on Kanemaru, then on night ten Dragon Lee faces Scurll, KUSHIDA faces El Desperado and Sabin takes on Hiromu. The blocks will start to become clearer now that we’re entering the final stretch, and hopefully the match quality will continue to be high.
