Final Standings:
Los Ingobernables de Japon (Shingo Takagi and BUSHI) – 10 pts.
Suzuki-gun (El Desperado and Yoshinobu Kanemaru) – 10 pts.
Roppongi 3K (SHO and YOH) – 10 pts.
Bullet Club (Taiji Ishimori and Robbie Eagles) – 6 pts.
Super 69 (Ryusuke Taguchi and ACH) – 6 pts.
Time Machine (KUSHIDA and Chris Sabin) – 6 pts.
Jyushin Thunder Liger and Tiger Mask – 4 pts.
Team CMLL (Volador Jr. and Soberano Jr.) – 4 pts.
When the dust settled, three teams emerged as finalists from the Super Junior Tag Team Tournament this year – Los Ingobernables de Japon, Suzuki-gun, and Roppongi 3K all tied on 10 points. A final day victory for Roppongi 3K over the team of KUSHIDA and Chris Sabin brought them level with LIJ and Suzuki-gun and now means that we are looking at a triple threat match at Power Struggle for the final of the tournament and the chance to challenge for the Junior Heavyweight Tag Titles at Wrestle Kingdom. Which somewhat defeats the purpose of having the Tag League, but Gedo clearly loves triple threat tag matches, so here we are again. My pick is still LIJ, although Roppongi 3K could come full-circle and win the tournament again to go to Wrestle Kingdom as the challengers. The situation is also complicated by the fact that Suzuki-gun beat LIJ in the tournament, but lost to Roppongi 3K, who in turn lost to LIJ. As long as the match at Wrestle Kingdom isn’t a triple threat I’ll be happy.
This year’s tournament was invigorated by both LIJ and Roppongi 3K, who have really had the opportunity to show off their ability in the tag team format. Shingo has proved to be a good addition to the LIJ fold, and BUSHI has looked more motivated lately, along with the fact that the tag team format hides his more obvious deficiencies. SHO and YOH are both great singles wrestlers, but they too look very motivated to be back together as a team, and the match they had against Super 69 at Korakuen Hall was fantastic. Of the three teams in the final El Desperado and Kanemaru are my least favourite – they are a good foil for a babyface team but I find their matches to be underwhelming when they aren’t up against a really good opponent. Nonetheless, the Suzuki-gun vs. LIJ match at Korakuen Hall on October 27th was excellent, and the ending of Desperado unmasking BUSHI before pinning him was a powerful image considering that Hiromu unmasked Desperado in their Best of the Super Juniors match earlier this year.
Of the teams that didn’t make it into the final this year, Super 69 has been a standout in the tournament, particularly ACH. I raved about the performance of ACH in the first tag league review that I wrote, and both he and Taguchi continued to deliver strong performances until the end. Their match against Roppongi 3K at the October 26th show at Korakuen Hall was excellent, and I really expected that they would lose given their overall tournament trajectory. I was genuinely surprised when Taguchi finally hit a Korakuen Suplex Hold to pin YOH, but happy for both members of Super 69 who got their big show victory before finishing in the middle of the pack. The Korakuen crowd was really behind ACH when he hit a tope con giro to SHO and YOH on the outside, adding more fuel to my belief that he needs to be given more of a chance by New Japan, either in next year’s Best of the Super Juniors or at a US show.
HUGE tope con giro from @GoGoACH!! #NJPW #njpst https://t.co/4ULitIni5Z pic.twitter.com/hRqzjCK0Ok
— LARIATOOOO!! (@MrLARIATO) October 26, 2018
Taiji Ishimori and Robbie Eagles finished with a slightly disappointing 6 points, given the pre-tournament hype, but losses to the CMLL team and all three finalists took them out of the running. Their most notable win came over KUSHIDA and Chris Sabin, when Ishimori pinned the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion, a development that surely foreshadows a match at Wrestle Kingdom (although Ishimori is now out of Power Struggle with an ankle injury). Eagles proved to be a solid addition to the junior division, although his constant screaming was reminiscent of a younger – and more annoying – Will Ospreay. Time Machine also finished with a more middling score than expected, although as the Junior Champion KUSHIDA had a very low chance of winning the tournament. Sabin ended up taking most of the pins during the tournament, which made Ishimori’s pin over KUSHIDA even more notable. I enjoyed seeing this team perform though, and hopefully Sabin sticks around in New Japan for a few more tournaments. His performances, and chemistry with KUSHIDA, have really won me round since Best of the Super Juniors. Even if KUSHIDA ends up moving up to heavyweight, as the rumours have suggested, I could see this team reborn for the World Tag League in the future.
Finally, the teams of Liger and Tiger, and Volador Jr. and Soberano Jr. rounded out the tournament. After a strong start, Liger and Tiger faded and didn’t pick up any more wins, which was about what I expected. They’re a fun team of grumpy veterans, but they just had a title shot at King of Pro Wrestling and were never likely to trouble the final. The CMLL team was really the only team that I was underwhelmed by in this tournament, particularly Soberano Jr., who didn’t do much for me. Volador Jr. can be a good wrestler, but he wasn’t helped by the fact that they were clearly in the tournament to take lots of pins, although they did pick up a win over Bullet Club to derail their momentum. After not seeing Volador Jr. in Best of the Super Juniors it was good to see him back in New Japan for this tournament.
The biggest story of the undercard matches from the Road to Power Struggle was the growing relationship between Hiroshi Tanahashi and Kazuchika Okada. Tanahashi came out to save Okada from a beating at the hands of Bullet Club at King of Pro Wrestling, and this happened again at the Korakuen Hall show on October 27th. This time, Tanahashi and Okada exchanged a handshake afterwards, potentially foreshadowing a team of two of the greatest rivals in recent New Japan history. Given that Tanahashi is facing Kenny at Wrestle Kingdom, I imagine this is planting the seeds for a storyline in 2019. If I was to fantasy book a little, assuming Kenny is staying in New Japan and wins the Wrestle Kingdom match, a team of Tanahashi and Okada taking on Bullet Club would allow Naito to move back into the main event scene, along with Ibushi, to challenge Kenny before next year’s G1 Climax.
One last point about the Road to Power Struggle, which has to be made, is the fact that New Japan debuted a new English commentary team at the Korakuen Hall shows on the 26th and 27th of Mavs Gillis and Lanny Poffo. They were easily the worst commentary team I have ever heard, and the addition of Chris Charlton for the show on the 27th was barely able to raise the quality of commentary. Picking two people off the street in Tokyo would have raised the level of commentary. I generally listen to Japanese commentary, but I understand the appeal of English commentary to any international fans, and having such a terrible commentary team is not a good look for a company that is increasingly marketing itself to international audiences.
Overall, the Super Junior Tag League was a decent tournament, with some very good matches, but a lot of pretty middling matches. I appreciated the round-robin format, since it allowed teams like Super 69 to shine, even though they were never going to win. I don’t really understand the final being a triple threat match, but that’s been the trend in tag team matches over the past year in New Japan. All I ask is that the World Tag League doesn’t end with a triple threat as well.
