Week two of Best of the Super Juniors saw four shows that featured cards composed entirely of junior heavyweight matches, which I believe is the first time that this has happened during a BOSJ. Three consecutive nights in Korakuen Hall were followed by a show in Chiba as the tournament starts its western leg. The shows in Korakuen Hall were a clear step up in terms of quality and big match feel \u2013 Korakuen looked like it was sold out every night and the crowd was red hot, which really added to the atmosphere. The juniors have really had a great tournament and I hope that this gives New Japan the confidence to trust in the junior division more going forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Results<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Night Seven – Korakuen Hall<\/p>\n\n\n\n Night Eight – Korakuen Hall<\/p>\n\n\n\n Night Nine – Korakuen Hall<\/p>\n\n\n\n Night Ten – Makuhari Messe, Chiba<\/p>\n\n\n\n A Block<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Shingo Takagi 14 pts.<\/strong>\n\u2013 The Dragon remains undefeated on top of A Block, and it really looks like\nhe\u2019s going to be the block winner, unless Ishimori can stop him on the final\nnight of A Block. Shingo beat Scurll, Dragon Lee, TAKA, and Tiger Mask this\nweek and his matches overall were good, although seeing Shingo selling for\nScurll\u2019s antics was a bit much. While he\u2019s clearly a very good wrestler I\u2019m not\nsure that the junior division is the best place for Shingo, so if he wins this\ntournament I\u2019m interested to see what the plan is for him next. A run with the\njunior title until Hiromu returns and then a move up to heavyweight perhaps?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Taiji Ishimori 12\npts.<\/strong> \u2013 Ishimori is keeping pace with Shingo, and provided he wins his match\nagainst Tiger Mask in Aichi the final night\u2019s match against Shingo will\ndetermine the winner of the block. I think Ishimori improved this week in his\nmatches against TAKA, Kanemaru, Gresham, and SHO (incidentally they are some of\nthe best performers in this tournament). His loss to Kanemaru was certainly a\nshock, but it keeps things interesting for the last week of shows. I still\nthink that Shingo will win the block, but Ishimori will push him all the way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dragon Lee 10 pts.<\/strong>\n\u2013 Lee can\u2019t win A Block now, thanks to his loss to Shingo, but he had some very\ngood matches this week against The Dragon, Titan, and Tiger Mask. His match in\nChiba against TAKA was cancelled due to an injury to TAKA so Lee picked up two\npoints by forfeit. I expect Lee to beat Kanemaru and Scurll on the last two\nnights and end with a respectable fourteen points. His opponent at Dominion\nwill probably end up being Shingo \u2013 is it possible that Lee will get his win\nback in Osaka?<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jonathan Gresham 8\npts.<\/strong> \u2013 It\u2019s been good to see Gresham pick up some wins this week, and the\ncrowd at Korakuen Hall seemed to really be behind him. Gresham beat Titan,\nTiger Mask, and Kanemaru, and lost to Ishimori, which tells you where he is in\nthe block. Gresham\u2019s wrestling continued to be amazing, and his matches are all\nworth going out of your way to watch. He may well end up on 8 points after the\ntournament finishes \u2013 he almost certainly won\u2019t beat Shingo and his final match\nagainst SHO will be tough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Marty Scurll 8 pts.<\/strong> \u2013 I will grudgingly admit that Scurll improved this week, particularly in his match against Kanemaru, which was good fun. As expected Scurll lost to Shingo and SHO, but beat Kanemaru and Titan. TAKA is now out of the tournament with an injury, so he’s guaranteed two more points, but he’ll almost certainly lose to Dragon Lee on the final night, ending in the top half of A Block. Hopefully we at least get to see more Brody King after this tour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n SHO 6 pts.<\/strong> \u2013 SHO\nhas had a mixed tournament so far, unable to beat Shingo and Dragon Lee in his\nfirst two matches, and then suffering a shock count out loss to Kanemaru on the\nfirst night in Korakuen Hall. He recovered from that loss to beat Scurll and\nTiger Mask, but lost to Ishimori in Chiba. SHO is clearly seen as a huge future\nstar but at this point he\u2019s not being booked to consistently beat the top guys\nin his block. Maybe a junior tag title challenge could come from one of his losses\nhere, Bullet Club could be a good direction if Ishimori doesn\u2019t make it to the\nfinal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Titan 4 pts.<\/strong> \u2013 Titan has continued to have a solid, if unspectacular, tournament and he picked up his second win over TAKA this week (with a botched pin at the end). His loss to Dragon Lee was probably the best match of the tournament, although he had a good showing in defeat against Gresham. Titan almost definitely won\u2019t beat SHO, but he might pick up a win over Tiger Mask on the final night.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Tiger Mask 4 pts.<\/strong> \u2013 After starting off quite hot Tiger Mask has been taking pins all throughout the second week of the tournament, but he continued to put in good performances as a grumpy veteran. His match against Gresham was a real highlight of the week. I expect Tiger will be taking more pins in his final two matches against Ishimori and Titan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yoshinobu Kanemaru 4 pts.<\/strong> \u2013 The Heel Master had two amazing wins at Korakuen Hall \u2013 beating SHO by shoving a Young Lion into him as SHO tried to avoid a count out, and then a cheeky roll up on Ishimori. He was out cheated by Scurll and out grappled by Gresham, but it promises to be an interesting week for Kanemaru. He has a main event coming up, and while I expect he\u2019ll lose to Dragon Lee he’s guaranteed two more points now that TAKA is out of the tournament. A shame, since Suzuki-gun matches are usually a lot of fun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n TAKA Michinoku 0 pts.<\/strong> \u2013 TAKA continued to wrestle really good matches and take pins on every night at Korakuen Hall. Unfortunately it was announced today that TAKA, who already missed the Chiba show with an injury, is out of the tournament so his final two matches against Scurll and Kanemaru will be forfeited.<\/p>\n\n\n\n B Block<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n El Phantasmo 10 pts. <\/strong>\u2013\nB Block is crowded on top, with four wrestlers all on ten points. El Phantasmo\nbeat Ospreay in something of an upset, but then lost consecutive matches to\nRocky and YOH. I think I\u2019ve realised my problem with Phantasmo is that he has a\nseries of spots that he goes through almost regardless of match, which doesn\u2019t\nfeel as organic as a lot of the other wrestlers. The crowd was really into both\nhis matches against Ospreay and Rocky but they haven\u2019t been my favourite\nmatches. ELP takes on Taguchi and then Douki for control of the block, and I\nthink that he\u2019s probably going to win B Block to set up a clear heel vs. face\nfinal with Shingo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Robbie Eagles 10 pts.<\/strong>\n\u2013 Eagles has come back from a slow start to beat Taguchi, BUSHI, Douki, and\nOspreay and reach ten points this week. His match against Ospreay in Chiba was\nnotable for El Phantasmo interfering and hitting Ospreay with a chair to help\nEagles win. The Australian seems to be quite conflicted with his fellow Bullet\nClub member\u2019s outright heelish behaviour, possibly foreshadowing a split from\nthe heel faction. His win over Douki was also very good, and notable for Eagles\nbleeding hard way after a chair bump, which looked even more badass. Eagles has\nhis final matches against Bandido and YOH, and I think he\u2019ll drop points to\nfinish just behind the block leaders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Will Ospreay 10 pts.<\/strong>\n\u2013 Losses to El Phantasmo and Eagles set Ospreay back this week, and means that\nEagles and ELP both have to drop points for Ospreay to win the block. His match\nagainst Narita was excellent, and he also beat Bandido in a solid match. Will\nseems determined to have really long matches, perhaps as preparation for when\nhe becomes a heavyweight, but my favourite match of his was against Narita\nwhich was under ten minutes. Ospreay finishes the tournament against Douki and\nTaguchi, and I think he\u2019ll finish level on points with ELP but lose out on head\nto head record.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ryusuke Taguchi 10 pts.<\/strong> \u2013 Taguchi has kept pace with the block leaders, despite losing to Bandido and Eagles. He\u2019s kept putting on really good matches, especially against Narita and Eagles. The matchup between Taguchi’s rugby style and Rocky’s basketball style was also pretty great. Given that Taguchi\u2019s final two matches are against fellow block leaders El Phantasmo and Ospreay I expect that he probably won\u2019t be picking up anymore points, unless he pulls off an upset victory to spoil the tournament for one of them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n BUSHI 8 pts.<\/strong> \u2013\nThe Los Ingobernables de Japon representative in B Block recovered from a slow\nstart to beat Douki, Eagles, YOH, and Bandido this week. In his first week\u2019s\nlosses he wasn\u2019t able to hit the MX, but this week he\u2019s successfully beaten all\nof his opponents with it. BUSHI finishes the tournament against Rocky and\nNarita, so he\u2019s sure to pick up at least one more win before the end of BOSJ.<\/p>\n\n\n\n YOH 8 pts.<\/strong> \u2013 YOH\nhas continued to put on very good matches this week, with wins over his mentor\nRocky, Douki, and El Phantasmo, and a loss to BUSHI. YOH has been getting a bit\nmore of a push than SHO, although they will probably end up on a similar points\ntotal by the end of the tournament. This year YOH has been incorporating a\ndragon suplex into his moveset as a new finisher, which I like as an\nalternative to the five star clutch. His final matches are against Narita and\nEagles, and I have a sneaking suspicion he might win both matches.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Rocky Romero 6 pts.<\/strong>\n\u2013 Rocky proved that he\u2019s definitely not in the tournament to make up the\nnumbers by beating El Phantasmo in his first ever Korakuen Hall singles match,\nand he beat Douki in Chiba to keep his score respectable. The crowd were really\ninto the ELP match, but like many New Japan main events it just went too long\nfor my taste. Rocky is out of the running for B Block, and with final matches\nagainst BUSHI and Bandido I fear he may not pick up another win.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Bandido 6 pts. <\/strong>\u2013\nBandido has impressed me on his first BOSJ and I hope that he returns to New\nJapan if they plan to do another junior tag league this year. He\u2019s clearly had\na mixed tournament in terms of results, and is out of the running to win B\nBlock, but he\u2019s had some very good matches. His 21 Plex finisher looks really\ncool, but it\u2019s got a bit of a ridiculous setup since the opponent has to be\nbending over holding the ropes. His final matches against Eagles and Rocky\nsound like a loss and a win to finish off a good debut in BOSJ.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Douki 2 pts.<\/strong> \u2013 A\nlast minute replacement for El Desperado, Douki has been really good as a heel\nwrestler who can put everyone else over. His match against Eagles at Korakuen\nHall was a real highlight, since Eagles bled the hard way and made Douki look\neven more vicious than normal. With matches coming up against Ospreay and El\nPhantasmo it looks very unlikely that Douki will get any more points, but I\nhope we see more of him in NJPW.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ren Narita 0 pts.<\/strong> \u2013 For me, Narita has been the MVP of B Block. He\u2019s taken his chance as a last minute replacement and absolutely killed it in every match he\u2019s been in. He\u2019s probably going to end up on zero points, but the crowd at Korakuen was hugely invested in every match he was in, and he has amazing underdog babyface fire. His suplexes are so good. Narita\u2019s excursion must be close and I wonder where they\u2019ll send him. Hopefully not ROH, since that company does not look good right now, but Mexico could be a good fit for him. His final matches are against YOH and BUSHI, so he probably won\u2019t pick up a win in either match, but I\u2019ll be rooting hard for him to finish the tournament with at least two points in his final match.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Week two of Best of the Super Juniors saw four shows that featured cards composed entirely of junior heavyweight matches, which I believe is the first time that this has […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":12582,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2,204,37,22],"tags":[373,387,44],"class_list":["post-12636","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-featured","category-njpw","category-njpw-reviews","category-reviews","tag-best-of-the-super-juniors","tag-bosj","tag-njpw"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9jnWd-3hO","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/86c5d-15561015844227-800-1.jpg?fit=800%2C611&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12636","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12636"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12636\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12644,"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12636\/revisions\/12644"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12582"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12636"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Taiji Ishimori def. TAKA Michinoku<\/td><\/tr> Bandido def. Ren Narita<\/td><\/tr> Jonathan Gresham def. Titan<\/td><\/tr> YOH def. Rocky Romero<\/td><\/tr> Dragon Lee def. Tiger Mask<\/td><\/tr> BUSHI def. Douki<\/td><\/tr> Yoshinobu Kanemaru def. SHO
<\/td><\/tr>Robbie Eagles def. Ryusuke Taguchi<\/td><\/tr> Shingo Takagi def. Marty Scurll<\/td><\/tr> El Phantasmo def. Will Ospreay<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table>\n\n\n\n El Phantasmo def. Ren Narita<\/td><\/tr> Titan def. TAKA Michinoku<\/td><\/tr> BUSHI def. Robbie Eagles<\/td><\/tr> Jonathan Gresham def. Tiger Mask<\/td><\/tr> YOH def. Douki<\/td><\/tr> SHO def. Marty Scurll<\/td><\/tr> Ryusuke Taguchi def. Rocky Romero<\/td><\/tr> Yoshinobu Kanemaru def. Taiji Ishimori<\/td><\/tr> Will Ospreay def. Bandido<\/td><\/tr> Shingo Takagi def. Dragon Lee<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table>\n\n\n\n SHO def. Tiger Mask<\/td><\/tr> Will Ospreay def. Ren Narita<\/td><\/tr> Marty Scurll def. Yoshinobu Kanemaru<\/td><\/tr> Robbie Eagles def. Douki<\/td><\/tr> Shingo Takagi def. TAKA Michinoku<\/td><\/tr> Bandido def. Ryusuke Taguchi<\/td><\/tr> Taiji Ishimori def. Jonathan Gresham<\/td><\/tr> BUSHI def. YOH<\/td><\/tr> Dragon Lee def. Titan<\/td><\/tr> Rocky Romero def. El Phantasmo<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table>\n\n\n\n Ryusuke Taguchi def. Ren Narita<\/td><\/tr> Jonathan Gresham def. Yoshinobu Kanemaru<\/td><\/tr> Rocky Romero def. Douki<\/td><\/tr> Marty Scurll def. Titan<\/td><\/tr> BUSHI def. Bandido<\/td><\/tr> Shingo Takagi def. Tiger Mask<\/td><\/tr> YOH def. El Phantasmo<\/td><\/tr> Robbie Eagles def. Will Ospreay<\/td><\/tr> Taiji Ishimori def. SHO<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table>\n\n\n\n