Shota Umino vs. Yota Tsuji
Tsuji proved his heel potential here by going for Umino’s hair right off the bat. Total dick. In all seriousness, I’m getting a non-disfigured Young Yoshihiro Takayama vibe from this kid and I think he could turn into something special. His forearm strikes need work but he chops really hard and the crowd loved watching him crawl out of Boston crabs. Quality young lion wrestling. **1/4
Will Ospreay, YOH & YOSHI-HASHI vs. ACH, Tiger Mask & Tomoyuki Oka
Much like the Dragon Lee 6-man tag from yesterday, a completely random-looking trios match that turned out to be super fun thanks to the gaijin wrestlers turning it up a notch. Ospreay and ACH have some insane chemistry together and weren’t afraid to put it all on display. Oka seems to be trying some new moves lately, which is part of young lions growing into ADULTHOOD. He tried to take YOSHI’s neck off with a nasty cross-legged camel clutch and later on pulled off a sweet Giant Baba-style running neckbreaker drop. YOH keeps on making not much of an impression, but him and Tiger seem like a good enough match. ***
Flip Gordon & Toa Henare vs. Minoru Suzuki & Yoshinobu Kanemaru
This wasn’t grabbing me too much at first but everything fell into place once Suzuki started torturing Flip with wrist-locks. Flip’s leg-slap heavy indie style was a weird fit for Suzuki-Gun, so using him as a face in peril was a smart move. My Dream Beef between Henare and Suzuki kept escalating as they worked a freaking glorious finish together, trading shots furiously until Suzuki got tired of the heavyweight upstart and just slapped him dead. I need more Suzuki/Henare in my life stat. **3/4
SANADA & BUSHI vs. Chase Owens & Taiji Ishimori
The heavyweights ended up stealing the show in this one as everything came off as completely flat until SANADA and Owens tagged in and woke up the crowd with a bunch of quality comedy wrestling. Owens failing to put on the Paradise lock and looking at Milano for advice was tremendous, as was SANADA’s rolling cradle and Chase’s ensuing FLAIR FLOP sell. I came out of this dreading the upcoming BUSHI/Taiji match but weirdly craving a 10 minute singles match between SANADA and Chase Owens. **1/2
Dragon Lee vs. SHO – Best of the Super Juniors (Block B)
This was a lot of fun but my expectations were so high that I ended up nitpicking the whole thing because it wasn’t exactly the match I had in mind for SHO and Dragon Lee. I’m a terrible wrestling fan. SHO seemed nervous/tentative at first and the opening lucha salvo came off like a slow-motion version of Dragon Lee/Hiromu with SHO carefully telegraphing all the action. Then they took the baffling decision of working a DUELING LIMBWORK storyline, which is not something I ever want to see again in a Dragon Lee match because you know the selling won’t be there. Some of SHO’s arm work was cool, some of it felt a little uninspired – using basic-ass arm wringers as a late-match submission spot was weird as hell.
HEY! They did plenty of cool shit too. The endless forearm exchange was rad, as was SHO’s new GNARLY-AF Powerbomb/backbreaker combo. Dragon Lee literally broke SHO in half at some point with a tree-of-woe double foot stomp. And you know what, despite all of my wrestling nerd whining, the crowd got way into this. It was SHO’s first try at a Big-Time singles match, and for a kid that’s still figuring shit out, he did good. ***1/4
Ryusuke Taguchi vs. El Desperado – Best of the Super Juniors (Block B)
Here’s the hottest take you will read all day: this was a better wrestling match than SHO vs. Dragon Lee. Of course it was, these two are total pros and have been working together forever. The transition from Comedy Taguchi to Serious Taguchi in the space of a 13 minute match was great fun and I liked a bunch of stuff from both sections. Desperado chairshotting another chair DEEP INSIDE Taguchi’s ass and Taguchi’s ensuing reaction was absolutely incredible. Then you had Taguchi’s big babyface comeback, chaining together all of his dives and springboards as the Korakuen fans were losing their shit. Dug the submission battle between the Numero Dos and Taguchi’s ankle lock, dug all the late-match reversals and teasing around Despy’s Guitar Del Angel, dug Despy being such a heel all the way through. This is how my weird wrestling brain works. Taguchi and Despy aimed lower than SHO and Lee but ended up with a smarter, more cohesive match. ***1/2
KUSHIDA vs. Chris Sabin – Best of the Super Juniors (Block B)
Wow, this didn’t work for me. Sabin spent most of the match on offense, effectively draining all of the crowd heat from the building with aimless limb work and boring submission segments. The guy has about as much personality as a wet blanket and the crowd reacted with apathy to most of what he did. There were a few cool counters here and there, and KUSHIDA kicking people right in the arm is always fun, but that’s about it. As flat as it gets. **1/4
Hiromu Takahashi vs. Marty Scurll – Best of the Super Juniors (Block B)
One of the less grating Marty Scurll matches I’ve seen in a while. Hiromu was the most over human being in Korakuen Hall on this night (Pervmaster Taguchi being a close second), so the match had a clear heel/face dynamic. They didn’t waste too much time with the awkward faux-Johnny Saint Brit-wres and Marty went to work on Hiromu right away, doing a good job playing off the crowd chants. Hiromu brought the explosive comebacks, killing himself for your viewing pleasure with flying dropkicks off the apron and constantly teasing the crowd with sunset-flip Powerbomb attempts.
Meanwhile, Marty’s a guy that is definitely suffering from Michael Elgin/Kenny Omega syndrome, as he feels the need to get in ALL OF HIS SHIT in every match. This often takes his matches straight to Overkill City, and this one was no exception (Hiromu takes a Powerbomb on the floor, Tombstone on the apron, all the superkicks, the chickenwing, the finger break spot, death stomp to the head, everything). BUT, I liked how they (sort of) worked the overkill into the finish, Hiromu being unable to hit the Timebomb due to the accumulated damage and just choking out Marty with whatever fighting spirit he had left. A flawed but entertaining match with Hiromu once again being a total star. ***1/2
Another fun BOSJ show with a breezy junior-centric undercard. Nothing must-watch from the tournament matches, but everything except the Chris Sabin match was a good time.
