{"id":9231,"date":"2018-05-28T19:00:47","date_gmt":"2018-05-28T19:00:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/?p=9231"},"modified":"2018-05-28T14:01:25","modified_gmt":"2018-05-28T14:01:25","slug":"njpw-best-of-the-super-juniors-week-one-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/2018\/05\/28\/njpw-best-of-the-super-juniors-week-one-review\/","title":{"rendered":"NJPW Best of the Super Juniors Week One Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

BOSJ Night Three<\/strong> \u2013 Kira Messe Numazu, Shizuoka<\/p>\n

Tiger Mask def. YOH<\/p>\n

Flip Gordon def. Yoshinobu Kanemaru<\/p>\n

Taiji Ishimori def. BUSHI<\/p>\n

Will Ospreay def. ACH<\/p>\n

Night three was the first show that wasn\u2019t live, but rather the tournament matches were released as VOD with no commentary and largely a single hard-camera shot.\u00a0 Tiger Mask defeated YOH with a Tiger Suplex, who looked better in this match than he did against BUSHI.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Ishimori defeated BUSHI in the semi-main event in what was a decent match.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 The main event saw Ospreay defeat ACH with a Storm Breaker in a good match that went just over fifteen minutes.\u00a0 Ospreay controlled the majority of this match, and targeted ACH\u2019s left arm, which he had injured against Flip Gordon on night one. \u00a0ACH did a great job selling, and once again managed to pull off an impressive one-armed deadlift German suplex.\u00a0 The main event was the clear best match on this show, but nothing was absolutely must-see.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

BOSJ Night Four<\/strong> \u2013 Korakuen Hall, Tokyo<\/p>\n

SHO def. Chris Sabin<\/p>\n

Dragon Lee def. Ryusuke Taguchi<\/p>\n

KUSHIDA def. Marty Scurll<\/p>\n

El Desperado def. Hiromu Takahashi<\/p>\n

Back at Korakuen Hall for a live show, and night four did not disappoint.\u00a0 SHO continued to impress against Chris Sabin, who performed better than his opening match, although he still didn\u2019t get much of a crowd reaction.\u00a0 Dragon Lee and Taguchi put on a fun comedy match that allowed Dragon Lee to show off his high-flying ability.\u00a0 The final two matches on this show were absolutely excellent, must-see matches.\u00a0 KUSHIDA defeated Marty Scurll in a technical classic full of chain-wrestling and submission psychology.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Desperado\u2019s mask was ripped around one of the eyes at some point in the match, which made him look even more wild.\u00a0 I expected Hiromu to come out victorious in this match, but it was Desperado who pinned him after the Pinche Loco.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 This show was also noticeable for a video promo from Chris Jericho that played after Naito\u2019s tag match, and featured Jericho in topless in a field, swearing a lot and comparing Naito to a tortoise.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

BOSJ Night Five<\/strong> \u2013 Ukaru Chan Arena, Shiga<\/p>\n

Tiger Mask def. BUSHI<\/p>\n

Yoshinobu Kanemaru def. ACH<\/p>\n

Flip Gordon def. Taiji Ishimori<\/p>\n

Will Ospreay def. YOH<\/p>\n

Another A Block VOD show, this time on the road from Shiga.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Who would have thought Tiger Mask would be the first to get to six points in A Block!\u00a0 Kanemaru defeated ACH with a diving DDT in a good match.\u00a0 Kanemaru is a really solid, not flashy heel, and ACH has been selling his injured shoulder extremely well throughout the tournament.\u00a0 He continued to do so on this show, while still managing impressive feats of athleticism like a one-handed cartwheel.\u00a0 Flip Gordon picked up a shock win over Taiji Ishimori after a roll up in a fun match.\u00a0 Despite not finding any food he could eat in Osaka, Flip has impressed in his first BOSJ and Ishimori looks like a star already.\u00a0 The ending of this match seemed almost like it was a botch, and Ishimori just didn\u2019t kick out in time, but presumably that was part of the story that Flip stole a win.\u00a0 Will Ospreay defeated YOH in a good main event to draw level with Ishimori and Flip on four points, two behind Tiger Mask.\u00a0 This was YOH\u2019s best match in the tournament so far, although he still had a few noticeable botches.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

BOSJ Night Six<\/strong> \u2013 Osaka Municipal Central Gymnasium, Osaka<\/p>\n

Marty Scurll def. Chris Sabin<\/p>\n

Ryusuke Taguchi def. KUSHIDA<\/p>\n

SHO def. El Desperado<\/p>\n

Dragon Lee def. Hiromu Takahashi<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0 This was Sabin\u2019s best match of the tournament so far, and the crowd loved Scurll\u2019s antics.\u00a0 Taguchi stole a win after 90 seconds with a quick roll up on KUSHIDA to win his first points of the tournament.\u00a0 SHO continued his impressive showing in the tournament by defeating El Desperado with his devastating looking cross-arm package piledriver.\u00a0 I\u2019ve been impressed by both SHO and Desperado this tournament, they\u2019ve put on some excellent matches.\u00a0 In the main event Dragon Lee defeated Hiromu Takahashi in another excellent match, which took him to six points.\u00a0 These two have such great chemistry, and this match was full of hard-hitting strike exchanges and very near falls.\u00a0 I just wish that it had been on a live show with full commentary and camera angles, because it deserved a bigger stage.\u00a0 This was another highlight of the tournament by Lee and Hiromu who have delivered excellent matches thus far.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

BOSJ Night Seve<\/strong>n \u2013 Nagoya Congress Centre Event Hall, Aichi<\/p>\n

Flip Gordon def. Tiger Mask<\/p>\n

ACH def. YOH<\/p>\n

Yoshinobu Kanemaru def. Taiji Ishimori<\/p>\n

BUSHI def. Will Ospreay<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0 Not a great look.\u00a0 Flip Gordon handed Tiger Mask his first defeat of the tournament in the opening match after hitting his springboard 450 splash off his knees.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 The ringside fans returned to their seats for the second match, which saw ACH defeat YOH in a good match.\u00a0 ACH has really impressed with his power moves, and his commitment to selling his injured left arm.\u00a0 Yoshinobu Kanemaru picked up a second consecutive victory after a roll-up on Taiji Ishimori.\u00a0 This was another good match \u2013 Ishimori and Kanemaru faced each other a lot in Pro Wrestling NOAH \u2013 but Ishimori really needs to watch out for the quick roll-ups, apparently that\u2019s his biggest weakness.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 BUSHI wrestled the entire match in his LIJ t-shirt, which was slightly weird, and pinned Ospreay with an MX from the turnbuckle.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

BOSJ Night Eight<\/strong> – Nagoya Congress Centre Event Hall, Aichi<\/p>\n

Marty Scurll def. El Desperado<\/p>\n

Chris Sabin def. Dragon Lee<\/p>\n

KUSHIDA def. SHO<\/p>\n

Hiromu Takahashi def. Ryusuke Taguchi<\/p>\n

Another night in Nagoya and once again there were some empty seats in the front row opposite the hard camera.\u00a0 I guess the Nagoya fans just weren\u2019t as interested in the first tournament match as other cities\u2019 fans were.\u00a0 Marty Scurll picked up another victory with the crossface chickenwing after a hard-fought match against El Desperado.\u00a0 Both guys have impressed so far in BOSJ, and this moved Marty to four points, level with Desperado.\u00a0 Chris Sabin defeated Dragon Lee in match two with the Cradle Shock after a good match between the two.\u00a0 Sabin has improved as the tournament has gone on, but his best matches have been against non-Japanese wrestlers so I\u2019m interested to see how he fares against Hiromu on night ten.\u00a0 Sabin\u2019s win means that Dragon Lee stayed top of the block with six points, while Sabin moved up to four.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 This was a match filled with great chain wrestling and mat work, and SHO continued to demonstrate his technical skill and ability.\u00a0 Go out of your way to watch this match.\u00a0 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 \u201cD.\u201d\u00a0 This was another good match, although it lacked the intensity of the previous Hiromu main events.\u00a0 With this win Hiromu moved up to four points, and Taguchi remained bottom of the standings on two points.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Standings After Night Eight<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

A Block\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 B Block<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Flip Gordon \u2013 6 \u00a0points\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Dragon Lee \u2013 6 points<\/p>\n

Tiger Mask \u2013 6 points\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0KUSHIDA \u2013 4 points<\/p>\n

Taiji Ishimori \u2013 4 points\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Chris Sabin \u2013 4 points<\/p>\n

Will Ospreay \u2013 4 points\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Marty Scurll \u2013 4 points<\/p>\n

Yoshinobu Kanemaru \u2013 4 points\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0El Desperado \u2013 4 points<\/p>\n

ACH \u2013 4 points\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Hiromu Takahashi \u2013 4 points<\/p>\n

YOH \u2013 2 points\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0SHO \u2013 4 points<\/p>\n

BUSHI \u2013 2 points\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Ryusuke Taguchi \u2013 2 points<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

After eight nights both blocks are finely poised for the last three block matches.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 I expect that Ishimori will end up winning A Block, and he has a slightly easier run-in than Ospreay, but it\u2019s still wide open.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Taguchi, BUSHI, and YOH are all but eliminated from contention now, so it\u2019s very unlikely they\u2019ll do anything but spoil other people\u2019s chances.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 The blocks will start to become clearer now that we\u2019re entering the final stretch, and hopefully the match quality will continue to be high.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

BOSJ Night Three \u2013 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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":9178,"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":[204,37,22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9231","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-njpw","category-njpw-reviews","category-reviews"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9jnWd-2oT","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/05\/serveimage-1.jpeg?fit=650%2C400&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9231","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=9231"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9231\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9232,"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9231\/revisions\/9232"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9178"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}