Best of the Super Jr. – Final: KUSHIDA vs. Will Ospreay (6/3/17)
You’re always guaranteed a hot crowd / Big Fight Feel for New Japan tourney enders, outside of some of that weird G1 Tag shit they were pulling for a while. So much cool stuff here, liked parts but but didn’t love it. Ospreay works like a guy who watched a lot of wrestling and goes, I’m gonna do it better and cooler, but didn’t pick up on the credibility that all his favorites exuded. Matwork, endless rope-running, strike exchanges, limb work – this is New Japan junior heavyweight wrestling. All pretty spectacular though.
Good start, solid finish, weak middle. Like, they were selling limbs and shit, but didn’t feel very tight, just kind of threw out some shit they thought would be interesting. Lots of tuff that probably sounded cool but was just kind of… I dunno, lame, like Ospreay powering out of KUSHIDA’s triangle choke with a buckle bomb, or Ospreay’s Shooting Star to KUSHIDA draped over the ropes which probably looked real cool in Will’s head.
Lots of fun counters towards the end, the roll-through by KUSHIDA into a Dragon suplex was wild. Taguchi waving a towel over KUSHIDA to wake him was awesome. Ospreay’s front flip DDT was some STUFF, man. Nice intensity the last few minutes, both guys throwing Kawada kicks and slapping the shit out of each other, KUSHIDA throwing a straight fist to Ospreay’s NECK, Ospreay’s repeated superkicks while KUSHIDA was stuck upside down in the turnbuckle. A big top rope fisherman’s buster & roll through into another gets KUSHIDA the win, and then he has everybody (including LIGER) do the wave, and then he calls Liger into the ring and thanks him (this was his last BOSJ), and I had a pretty good time but it never got great. ***1/4
