Tiger Mask vs. BUSHI – Best of the Super Juniors (Block A)
Well, this certainly was a wrestling match between Tiger Mask and BUSHI. Not bad or anything, but it was mostly both guys just running through their spots under the watchful eye of a single house show camera. Tiger’s top-rope double-arm suplex never fails to light up a crowd, I’ll give him that. **1/2
ACH vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaru – Best of the Super Juniors (Block A)
Leave it to my man ACH to get the best Kanemaru match out of the tournament so far. Super effective, wrestling 101 dynamic: Kanemaru in full heel mode attacking at the bell and going after the shoulder injury, ACH selling his ass off and turning into a mega crowd favorite by the end of this thing. ACH purposefully blew a cartwheel early in the match to put over his shoulder injury and that is just an incredible thing. Meanwhile, say what you want about Kanemaru, but he’s a guy that can convincingly stomp the shit out of a dude and then randomly pull off some cool shit like a tilt-a-whirl DDT. ACH’s comebacks were awesome and he stayed committed to the shoulder selling all the way ‘till the end, even getting his bad arm up on a German suplex near-fall to minimize the damage. Seeing the crowd deflate after ACH destroyed himself by missing a 450 splash was a testament to how well this match was worked. They knew he was fucked. GOOD WRESTLING! ***1/4
Taiji Ishimori vs. Flip Gordon – Best of the Super Juniors (Block A)
Flip’s most convincing performance of the whole BOSJ up to this point. Just a fun sprint with both guys hitting all of their spots with the utmost CLEANLINESS. Flip’s leg slapping is a little out of control but he managed to get over big time with this crowd. I can say with confidence that Taiji’s sliding German suplex is my new favorite spot in wrestling, and the setup for it in this match was particularly clever. Smart finish too – if you’re gonna have Bone Soldier Taiji job to Flip Gordon, this was the right away to do it. ***
Will Ospreay vs. YOH – Best of the Super Juniors (Block A)
This was Will Ospreay carrying YOH’s green ass to a high-level Will Ospreay main event spot-fest and it was a lot of fun but I didn’t fully buy YOH as a guy that could (or should) be working an Even Steven match with the IWGP junior champ. The kid has a lot of cool ideas, but like his dojo buddy Jay White, the execution is a little lacking. The opening Nakamura-tribute clean break taunt into Sailor Moon Pose was just awkward, his Dragon Gate/Naito slingshot spots still don’t seem 100% on point and then there was that blown Superplex. But the little guy knows how to emote and connect with the crowd, as they were all pulling for him by the end of the match. Ospreay tried to make the best of his opponent’s neck work (by screaming as LOUDLY AS POSSIBLE, of course) and popped the crowd non-stop with his usual cool shit. I dug YOH going back to the injured neck late in the match with that big-time German suplex and very cool Final Cut counter to the Oscutter. Will floating right into the Stormbreaker like it was the easiest thing ever for the finish completely blew my mind. A flawed but fun crowd-pleaser that successfully checked off a lot boxes on the US indie dream match checklist. ***1/2
