It’s been a minute since New Japan’s junior heavyweight division felt very distinctive from the New Japan heavyweight division — or any division, really — but each year remains a tournament to determine the Best of the Super Juniors.
For the 29th edition, New Japan hit the gas pedal on participation from outside talent for the first time since lockdown and it resulted in a 50/50 split between NJPW Regulars and Guys We Don’t See All That Often: GLEAT’s El Lindaman, CMLL’s Titan and TJP all returned while AEW’s Wheeler Yuta, LA Dojo’s Clark Connors, AJPW’s Francesco Akira, Impact’s Ace Austin, and Alex Zayne (Ari Sterling for a bit) all worked New Japan for the first time.
It all ended at Budokan Hall in early June before 3,500 still-silent fans.
1. Tomoaki Honma vs. Ryohei Oiwa
Juice Robinson fell ill and was replaced with young lion Ryohei Oiwa, who threw a nice dropkick or four (including one to the back) before running into a Honma headbutt, as we all do. *1/2
2. El Lindaman, Ace Austin, Wheeler Yuta & Alex Zayne vs. Robbie Eagles, YOH, Titan & Clark Connors
Team Yoots has music that sounds like it’s about to burst into the WCW Nitro theme song any second, while Team Eagles goes with an epic symphony of screams. This match was the showcase of some of the guys who didn’t make it to the finals, or whatever any of the eight can manage in under seven minutes. Yuta and Robbie shook hands, Lindaman’s speed got pops, Austin did a move, Titan was impressive, Connors got fired up.. then, dives! Everybody’s moves! Zayne won with a corkscrew senton dubbed the Cinnamon Twist. Oh, YOH was there too! **3/4
3. Ryusuke Taguchi & Master Wato vs. TJP & Francesco Akira
Francesco Akira comes to New Japan from All Japan by way of Italy. He seems solid, but based on this match he’ll be paired with TJP for a run at the junior tag titles and it probably won’t do much for giving the junior heavyweight division the aforementioned “distinctive feel.” **3/4
4. Zack Sabre Jr. & Yoshinobu Kanemaru vs. EVIL & SHO
Kanemaru emerged from the curtains looking particularly disgusted with something, then immediately got attacked from behind by EVIL, SHO and a Dick Togo. He spent the next five minutes getting beat up by EVIL before a tag, hard liquor and botched interference won the day. There’s just a better way to utilize some of these guys sometimes I think. *1/2
5. Bad Luck Fale, Chase Owens & El Phantasmo vs. Jeff Cobb, Great-O-Khan & Aaron Henare
The New Japan Bullet Club and United Empire both have done a decent job of being unappealing bad guys after an era where all bad guys were cool for a bit, but that creates a problem when they’re put in a 6-man tag against each other. There were claps for Fale vs. Cobb, claps for Henare and his scowls, and claps for ELP pinning Henare after interference from new Bullet Club member Ace Austin. **
Hey, SANADA’s back.
6. Tetsuya Naito, Shingo Takagi & BUSHI vs. Taichi, TAKA Michinoku & DOUKI
BUSHI and DOUKI did some cool stuff, then Taichi did some eye stuff and Shingo did some Shingo stuff. It was all just enough to get this match to “pretty good.” ***
7. Kazuchika Okada, Toru Yano, Tama Tonga & Jado vs. Jay White, Doc Gallows, Taiji Ishimori & Gedo
Karl Anderson was out like Juice Robinson, but jet-setting Jay White had a surprise: KENTA’s back! “I’m back!” said KENTA, with a smirk. Then he stood on the outside as everybody else wrestled. Tama Tonga continued his transformation into viable and likable main event guy; otherwise, man: Jado, Gedo and Luke Gallows in the same match is a stretch. Anyways, Okada wrestled a little. **1/2
8. Best of the Super Jr. – Final: Hiromu Takahashi vs. El Desperado
Hiromu Takahashi and El Desperado have a special chemistry I yapped about when they wrestled in the BOSJ 2020 Finals and during the BOSJ 2021 that’s allowed them to stand pretty head-and-shoulders above the rest of the division for the last few years. Hiromu beat YOH to win last year’s BOSJ while Desperado lost the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Title to Taiji Ishimori a couple months ago.
Here, they found themselves together again for half an hour — and New Japan junior O.G. Tatsumi Fujinami was watching at ringside. As Desperado spent much of the half-hour targeting and wearing down Hiromu’s leg — or knee— I thought it might be the right time to talk about The 5 Stages of Selling the Leg: attacking, selling, checking in, going beyond, and conclusion.
Stage #1 is The Attacking – the “meet cute,” if you will. After some headlocks and a tease of Desperado’s Stretch muffler finish (on the leg!), Despy made the first move with a knee-crusher which, officially, began the Leg Work. Hiromu established his leg was hurting by doing things like not following through with an Irish whip and wincing in pain after a dropkick off the apron (though he did still do it).
Stage #2 is, well, Selling the Leg. Does that wing actually seem damaged!? Was there wincing? Visible pain? Did it affect the performance enough, and did it affect anything more than being a loose thread to follow for a modern audience? Hiromu grabbed at his leg in agony a few times, and his sunset flip powerbomb was thwarted by his ailing leg — the momentary pause led to a big dive and momentum for Desperado, too.
Stage #3 is Checking In – not how the leg was sold early on, but how often or efficiently both participants returned to the leg to ensure that the effects of leg work were actually conveyed to the viewer throughout. It doesn’t even have to be more than twice, really — just make it important. Desperado charged with a spear that Hiromu slickly caught with a triangle choke, only for Desperado to escape and quickly chop block him — on the leg! For a brief second after Desperado escaped, too, Hiromu grabbed at his leg in pain — you can see.
Stage #4 is Going Beyond – beyond the selling, beyond the wincing, beyond the early Irish whip that didn’t work. As Hiromu threw superkicks and lariats late in the match, did he use his injured leg? Not really! But sometimes. As both stood and threw strikes late in the match, was the leg sold? Hiromu grabbed it a little. When Desperado finally got the Stretch Muffler locked on, was the crowd convinced that it was the thing that would end Hiromu? Well – not really, to be honest.
Stage #5 is The Conclusion, the clearest point of whether we can see if the Leg Work has been actually useful. If it was sold previously and it is still being sold here, then you have a special amount of leg work and leg selling going on. Alas: was it sold at the end!? Not really, to be honest, but enough to know that Hiromu knows. By the end of the match it felt like Desperado had tried everything to end Hiromu (with the exception of another leg submission), while his kickout of the TIME BOMB might have invented a new friction of time.
Epic performers, great match, and good leg selling. If they really wanted to take this to the tippy-top, though, then they should’ve really sold that leg. ****1/4
Happy Thoughts: Even with the (likely exhausted) BOSJ crew, one of the dirt worst New Japan undercards in a little while. Regardless, the actual final match between Hiromu and Desperado is worth a watch — not their best, but up there. 3.0 / 5.0
