Super Jr. Tag Tournament – Final: Roppongi Vice vs. Taiji Ishimori & ACH (11/5/16)
Oh man Ishimori was THE BEST 10 years ago. He is still SOOO fast and pretty great, and this was a good solid match. A bunch of fun spots – RPG teasing dissension when Trent? refuses a hug and apologizing/bowing to each other when they get the better of their opponents, Rocky Romero doing a random Nakamura tribute, Ishimori/ACH’s double 450s, RPG’s wild finish. Total Non-Stop Action, as someone might say, though the editing probably helped. Impressive stuff, and fun post-match promo by RPG – “We’re buddies again!” ***
NEVER Openweight Title: Katsuyori Shibata [c] vs. EVIL (11/5/16)
EVIL beat Shibata in the G1, so we’ve got this match. This is a good slugfest, as physical as you’d expect from these too, and just as good as the fun G1 match. They do an amazing tease of EVIL losing off a Shibata sleeper hold, and the crowd is buzzing like crazy for the finish. ***1/4
IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Title: BUSHI [c] vs. KUSHIDA (11/5/16)
I like BUSHI and all, but there’s something about his big singles matches that just don’t hit like you’d hope. Fun little things, absolutely, but nothing epic or even nothing that puts a big ol’ stupid wrestling smile on your face. He’s got a great tope, I dig the masked heel shtick, but it rarely connects. Liked a lot of parts of this though – KUSHIDA kicks some ass early, a great stiff slap exchange towards the end. The crowd was booing KUSHIDA’s open-palm strikes and fists which was interesting – this American fella has not picked up if he has a Cena thing going on, or maybe this was BUSHI’s hometown, or maybe LiJ are getting over as faces, I dunno. An absolutely DISGUSTING Hoverboard Lock ends it. ***1/4
Best part of the whole show is Time Bomb reveal. The countdown appears on-screen post-match and out comes the returning Kamaitaichi, now back to his real name – Hiromu Takahashi. And JESUS CHRIST is this whole thing awesome. Great mystery and presentation for the countdown, and out comes Takahashi with his cool-ass jacket and dyed hair, swaggering like the biggest rock star on the planet. Guy looks AWESOME. He confronts KUSHIDA and LICKS HIS BELT and the Tokyo Dome show now has a massive Jr. Heavyweight Title match. JR and Barnett cracking jokes as he enters is the absolute worst, but this is the coolest god damn thing and the emergence of a guy who over the last year has become a real superstar.
