{"id":12715,"date":"2019-06-05T22:14:16","date_gmt":"2019-06-05T21:14:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/?p=12715"},"modified":"2019-06-05T22:14:31","modified_gmt":"2019-06-05T21:14:31","slug":"njpw-best-of-the-super-juniors-26-final-review-5-6-19","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/2019\/06\/05\/njpw-best-of-the-super-juniors-26-final-review-5-6-19\/","title":{"rendered":"NJPW Best of the Super Juniors 26 Final Review, 5\/6\/19"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\" style=\"text-align:left\">In recent years Best of the Super Juniors finals have been held at Yoyogi Gymnasium, but for the 26<sup>th<\/sup> BOSJ Final New Japan moved to the bigger venue of Ry\u014dgoku Sumo Hall.\u00a0 Riding a wave of surging popularity this seems to be the year that NJPW is getting bigger \u2013 the G1 Climax starts in Dallas, Texas and there are two Tokyo Dome shows planned for the upcoming Wrestle Kingdom.\u00a0 As well as running a bigger venue, NJPW also announced a headline grabbing US Championship match, as Jon Moxley made his New Japan debut fresh off his appearance at All Elite Wrestling\u2019s Double or Nothing.\u00a0 The show was headlined by a match between Shingo Takagi, winner of this year\u2019s A Block, and Will Ospreay, winner of this year\u2019s B Block.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-twitter wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"ja\" dir=\"ltr\">\u3010\u4e21\u56fd\u5927\u4f1a\u7d42\u4e86\u3011\u672c\u65e5\u3082\u6ca2\u5c71\u306e\u304a\u5ba2\u69d8\u306b\u3054\u89b3\u6226\u3044\u305f\u3060\u304d\u8aa0\u306b\u3042\u308a\u304c\u3068\u3046\u3054\u3056\u3044\u307e\u3057\u305f\u3002\u6b21\u671f\u30b7\u30ea\u30fc\u30ba\u300cKIZUNA ROAD 2019\u300d\u306f\u30016\u670814\u65e5(\u91d1)\u9759\u5ca1\u30fb\u30ad\u30e9\u30e1\u30c3\u30bb\u306c\u307e\u3065\u306b\u3066\u958b\u5e55\uff01\u7686\u69d8\u306e\u3054\u6765\u5834\u3092\u304a\u5f85\u3061\u3057\u3066\u304a\u308a\u307e\u3059\u3002<br>  <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/njbosj?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#njbosj<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/njpw?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#njpw<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/hrhXRM4q3k\">pic.twitter.com\/hrhXRM4q3k<\/a><\/p>&mdash; \u65b0\u65e5\u672c\u30d7\u30ed\u30ec\u30b9\u30ea\u30f3\u30b0\u682a\u5f0f\u4f1a\u793e\u55b6\u696d\u90e8 (@njpw_nyao) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/njpw_nyao\/status\/1136269705302253574?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 5, 2019<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<table class=\"wp-block-table\"><tbody><tr><td>Dragon Lee, Titan &amp; Shota Umino def. Bandido, Jonathan Gresham &amp; Ren Narita<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>El Phantasmo, Taiji Ishimori &amp; Robbie Eagles def. SHO, YOH &amp; Ryusuke Taguchi<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>YOSHI-HASHI, Toru Yano, Tomohiro Ishii, Jyushin Thunder Liger &amp; Toa Henare def.     Suzuki Minoru, Zack Sabre Jr., Taichi Yoshinobu Kanemaru &amp; Douki<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>EVIL, SANADA, BUSHI &amp; Tetsuya Naito def. Kota Ibushi, Togi Makabe, Tomoaki Honma &amp; Toa Henare<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Kazuchika Okada &amp; Rocky Romero def. Marty Scurll &amp; Brody King<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Jay White def. Hiroshi Tanahashi<\/td><\/tr><tr><td><strong>IWGP US Title Match:<\/strong> Jon Moxley def. Juice Robinson<\/td><\/tr><tr><td><strong>Best of the Super Junior 26 Final: <\/strong>Will Ospreay def. Shingo Takagi<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The announcement of Moxley appearing for the first time in New Japan threatened to overshadow the BOSJ final, but Takagi and Ospreay were given plenty of time to go out and demonstrate why this year\u2019s tournament has been talked about as one of the best ever. As an aside Ospreay looked incredibly cringeworthy bringing a sword to the ring with him, I hope that doesn\u2019t become a regular thing. I think the talk of Ospreay as best in the world is highly overrated, but I\u2019ll admit that he had good chemistry with Shingo in this match. Part of that probably has to do with the fact that Shingo really isn\u2019t a junior and doesn\u2019t wrestle a \u201ctypical\u201d junior style, and Ospreay has always been good at working with a bigger opponent, especially with his increasingly heavyweight moveset. I expected Takagi would win here and move on to challenge Dragon Lee at Dominion, but this match was much more evenly balanced, with Ospreay managing to keep The Dragon on the backfoot for long stretches of the match with his high flying offence. \u00a0Shingo survived an Os Cutter, but Ospreay was also able to absorb a Made in Japan and a Pumping Bomber, and he reversed a Last of the Dragon into a huricanrana to keep his chances alive. Ospreay ultimately had to hit Takagi with a Hidden Blade, Os Cutter, and a Storm Breaker to win his second BOSJ tournament. This was definitely a good final match, and if you like Ospreay matches then you will probably love this one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-twitter wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"ja\" dir=\"ltr\">30\u5206\u8d8a\u3048\u201c\u8d85\u7d76\u201d\u30d0\u30a6\u30c8\u306b\u4e21\u56fd\u5927\u71b1\u72c2\uff01<br>\u9df9\u6728\u3092\u6483\u7834\u3057\u305f\u30aa\u30b9\u30d7\u30ec\u30a4\u304c\u300eSUPER Jr.\u300f2\u5ea6\u76ee\u306e\u5236\u8987\uff01<br>\u306a\u3093\u3068\u65e5\u672c\u3078\u306e\u201c\u5f15\u3063\u8d8a\u3057\u201d\u3082\u5ba3\u8a00!!<br>\u26066.5\u4e21\u56fd\u5927\u4f1a\u3092\u65b0\u65e5\u672c\u30d7\u30ed\u30ec\u30b9\u306e\u30b9\u30de\u30db\u30b5\u30a4\u30c8\u3067\u72ec\u5360\u8a73\u5831\u4e2d\uff01<br>\u21d2<a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/fdIy3WSEry\">https:\/\/t.co\/fdIy3WSEry<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/njbosj?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#njbosj<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/njpw?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#njpw<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/754WLTnTXs\">pic.twitter.com\/754WLTnTXs<\/a><\/p>&mdash; \u65b0\u65e5\u672c\u30d7\u30ed\u30ec\u30b9\u30ea\u30f3\u30b0\u682a\u5f0f\u4f1a\u793e (@njpw1972) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/njpw1972\/status\/1136269837338996736?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 5, 2019<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u00a0The semi-main event match, Moxley vs. Juice was very different to the main event, ending up being a vicious brawl of a match that involved a lot of weapons and fighting in the crowd. The occasion itself felt like a really big deal \u2013 who would have thought even a few years ago that Dean Ambrose would appear in a New Japan ring? \u2013 and the Japanese commentary team made repeated reference to Moxley\u2019s past as the match began. The occasion slightly overshadowed the match itself, which dragged in places but had a hot finish. Moxley had said before the match that he would be bringing a brawling style with him, which makes sense given his pre-WWE background, and this was probably the best way for him to standout in his debut match with NJPW. Juice seemed to be very up for the challenge as well, and he didn\u2019t shy away from taking some nasty bumps. Both men went through a table at various points during the match, and Juice ended the match bleeding from the forehead. Juice is a great babyface and spent a lot of this match fighting from underneath, with the crowd willing him on every step of the way. Ultimately it wasn\u2019t enough however, and Moxley hit a double-arm DDT followed by a double-arm brainbuster to put Juice down for the three count and become the new US Champion. The result wasn\u2019t surprising, but it will be interesting to see how New Japan books the US Title going forward given that Moxley isn\u2019t a full time wrestler in the company.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-twitter wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"ja\" dir=\"ltr\">BEST OF THE SUPER Jr.26 \u6700\u7d42\u6226\uff01\u7b2c7\u8a66\u5408IWGP US\u30d8\u30d3\u30fc\u7d1a\u9078\u624b\u6a29\u8a66\u5408\u3001\u30b8\u30e5\u30fc\u30b9\u30fb\u30ed\u30d3\u30f3\u30bd\u30f3 VS <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/JonMoxley?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@JonMoxley<\/a>\uff01\u4e21\u8005\u3044\u304d\u306a\u308a\u30d5\u30eb\u30b9\u30ed\u30c3\u30c8\u30eb\uff01\u30b8\u30e5\u30fc\u30b9\u304c\uff14\u5ea6\u76ee\u306e\u9632\u885b\u3092\u679c\u305f\u3059\u304b\u2049\ufe0e\u305d\u308c\u3068\u3082\u30e2\u30af\u30b9\u30ea\u30fc\u304c\u521d\u51fa\u5834\u521d\u6234\u51a0\u3092\u679c\u305f\u3059\u304b\u2049\ufe0e<br>\u767b\u9332\uff06\u8996\u8074\u25b7<a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/50Bnu2aFAM\">https:\/\/t.co\/50Bnu2aFAM<\/a><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/njpw?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#njpw<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/njbosj?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#njbosj<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/njpwworld?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#njpwworld<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/OBeAw1i5IL\">pic.twitter.com\/OBeAw1i5IL<\/a><\/p>&mdash; njpwworld (@njpwworld) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/njpwworld\/status\/1136248285750894593?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">June 5, 2019<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The third big singles match on this show featured the Hiroshi\nTanahashi making his return from a bicep injury that had kept him out of action\nsince the New Japan Cup. His opponent was Jay White, who had interrupted\nTanahashi\u2019s promo at Wrestling Dontaku to inform him that White was next in\nline for an IWGP Heavyweight Title shot. Both White and Tanahashi had been\nabsent from the Best of the Super Juniors tour, and it was interesting to see\nthat White has started growing facial hair that makes him look even more like a\nslimy heel than he did before. This match was my favourite of the Tanahashi-White\nseries that they\u2019ve been having since Jay\u2019s return from excursion, especially\nsince they cut down on a lot of the more outrageous reversal sequences this\ntime around. I fully expected Tanahashi to win here, not least because the last\nmatch they had was when White beat him for the IWGP Heavyweight Title. It looked\nlike he might do it as well, until White won with a quick rollup following a\nseries of low-blows between the two when Red Shoes was distracted by Gedo. Neither\nman hit their finisher in this match, so the Blade Runner is still heavily protected,\nand it\u2019s interesting to see Tanahashi lose his return match. White is clearly still\ngoing to be in the main event scene going forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The undercard for this show was the usual set of tag team matches, but they were enjoyable overall and set up some interesting future storylines. El Phantasmo pinned SHO in the Bullet Club vs. Taguchi 3K six-man tag match, and post-match ELP and Ishimori laid out a challenge to R3K. The Suzuki-gun vs. CHAOS tag match furthered the feud between Taichi and Ishii, and Suzuki and Liger, as well as seemingly setting up a British Heavyweight Title match between ZSJ and YOSHI-HASHI. And Chris Jericho appeared in another on screen promo following Okada and Rocky Romero\u2019s win over Villain Enterprises, to hype his IWGP Title match at Dominion on June 9<sup>th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Overall, this was another strong show from New Japan. The Best of the Super Juniors tour was very good, especially the shows at Korakuen Hall, and this was a fitting ending for all the participants. Hopefully this gives NJPW the confidence to run shows headlined by the junior division in the future. The decision to give Ospreay his second BOSJ win \u2013 which brings him level with people like Jyushin Thunder Liger, Tiger Mask IV, and Prince Devitt \u2013 was somewhat surprising to me, especially since there is a sense that he is on his way out of the junior division. Maybe the plan is to give him a final run with the title, and then have him lose to Hiromu Takahashi when he is cleared to return to action. Ospreay and Hiromu have lots of history together, so it would be a good story to tell. It\u2019s also worth noting that when Prince Devitt appeared in both BOSJ and the G1 Climax in 2010 he also won BOSJ and the Jr. Heavyweight Title that year. It would not surprise me if Ospreay does the same this year. Jon Moxley\u2019s NJPW debut was exciting and his victory means that New Japan have the chance to try and redeem the US Title now. Juice is a good wrestler but they did not book him well as champion. It will be interesting to see what happens surrounding Moxley and the G1 this year \u2013 now that he\u2019s the US Champion it\u2019s quite possible that he will be in the tournament. Even without a formal working arrangement with AEW two of their biggest stars will have appeared for New Japan this year (and Kenny before he joined them of course). This show was a good lead in to Dominion on June 9<sup>th<\/sup>, and hopefully this summer\u2019s G1 will be able to match the level of BOSJ 26. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In recent years Best of the Super Juniors finals have been held at Yoyogi Gymnasium, but for the 26th BOSJ Final New Japan moved to the bigger venue of Ry\u014dgoku [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":12716,"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],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12715","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-featured","category-njpw","category-njpw-reviews"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9jnWd-3j5","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/0-7.jpeg?fit=797%2C449&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12715","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=12715"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12715\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12723,"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12715\/revisions\/12723"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12716"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}