New Japan Pro Wrestling
Best of the Super Juniors – Day 7
May 30, 2015
Tokyo, Japan – Korakuen Hall
Watch: NJPWWorld.com

Here we are, Day 7 of the Best of the Super Juniors! Everyone’s here and accounted for…except Alex Shelley, who is injured and out of the tournament for like the third year in the row. It’s a very sad situation, but what can you do. Regardless, it’s been…a tournament so far, with a few good matches but nothing really standing out other than Liger/Komatsu. Hopefully today’s show will offer some good matches. It certainly has the potential to do so!

Sho Tanaka and Yohei Komatsu vs. Tomoaki Honma and David Finlay: This is like the  battle of the losers since none of these guys ever win matches. But they’re the greatest losers around, I’ll tell you that one. Honma and Finlay played the heels here, working over Tanaka and Komatsu whenever possible. Komatsu made a hot comeback and hit a senton on a standing Finlay for a nearfall. He tried for the half crab but Finlay escaped. Honma makes a comeback but misses the kokeshi headbutt. Tanaka makes a comeback and goes for the half crab but Tanaka won’t give up as both of the young lions apply half crabs, but they’re both broken up. Tanaka hits a great deadlift German suplex for a nearfall. Tanaka hits the ropes but walks into a torpedo kokeshi, then Honma hits the top rope kokeshi for the pinfall. A fantastic opener and easily the best match of the tour thus far. The last few minutes in particular was pretty damn awesome. ****

Tiger Mask IV and Jay White vs. Barbaro Cavernario and Chase Owens: There was comedy early as White complained that Cavernario smelled after locking up. Cavernario then proceeded to do gross out humor such as grabbing his armpit then wanting to tag in Owens. Yes, this was stupid, but for whatever reason it worked. Maybe I’m just too forgiving on New Japan, I dunno. Tiger Mask made the hot tag for his team and took out Cavernario with the tiger driver. Owens then made the comeback for his team as Cavernario hit a huge dive wiping out Tiger Mask and Owens hit the package piledriver on White for the pinfall. These guys worked together better than you’d think and was a good match. ***

Kazuchika Okada and Roppongi Vice vs. Cody Hall, Yujiro Takahashi and Nick Jackson: After the usual feeling out process, the babyfaces made fun of Nick after Okada did the “suck it” sign and injured his foot kicking the announce table. Yujiro made the comeback for his team and worked on Romero. He tags in Okada, but he gets cut off after Cody Hall is tagged in. Soon breaks out into a melee after Okada hits a back body drop on Hall, with bodies flying everywhere. When the dust settles, it’s Hall and Okada, and the latter soon takes out Hall, does the rainmaker pose, then hits the rainmaker on Hall for the win. Good match. ***

For whatever reason, Beretta and Romero, mostly Beretta, were arguing about Romero tagging in Okada to finish the match. A win is a win, dude.

Shinsuke Nakamura, Kazushi Sakuraba, Yoshi Hashi, Tomohiro Ishii and Toru Yano vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi, Hirooki Goto, Togi Makabe, Captain New Japan and Katsuyori Shibata: If I never have to see another huge ten man New Japan tag where everyone’s rival squares off I’ll be fine. The thing with it is that, when you separate these into singles matches, Shibata/Sakuraba, Nakamura/Goto, Ishii/Makabe and Yano/Tanahashi seem fine and refreshing. But when you put them all together in a tag it feels like I’ve been watching the same match for months. This started off like every ten man tag NJPW does: everyone paired off based on who they were feuding with. Ishii and Makabe went at it and Makabe was alid out. He was worked on until he finally was tag to tag in Goto, who ran wild. Sakuraba and Shibata go at it for a while, with Sakuraba throwing in some stiff offense. Tanahashi is eventually tagged in, and eventually gets his hands on Yano. He makes a tag to Captain New Japan who, despite doing a fine comeback, falls to a low blow by Yano after Yano pulls his costume over his head. I liked the finish and overall it was better than most New Japan house show main events. ***1/4

Shibata and Sakuraba, as well as Ishii and Makabe, went at it after the match and eventually had to be separated, I guess building tension toward the Dominion show.

Gedo vs. Jushin Thunder Liger: These two worked a slower match than usual. Gedo took control of the match early and after some work on the outside, took Liger back in and worked on a leglock for a good while. Liger eventually reverses. Good back and forth action from here. Liger does the Thesz press and the palm strike for near falls, then hooks Gedo’s legs with his own and pins him. Different than the usual matches we’ve seen thus far, but I liked this. **3/4

Ryusuke Taguchi vs. Kyle O’Reilly: Okay, this is weird. As some of you know, a very large earthquake hit Japan during this match. But I never saw them momentarily stop the match, and I have no idea why. Wasn’t like I was picking my nose and not paying attention. I guess I must have been writing or looking at my notes when it happened. Regardless, this turned out to be a pretty good match. There was less of Taguchi’s goofy mannerisms and O’Reilly was super awesome here. He dominated the first half, but eventually it became a back and forth match. Taguchi made a comeback with the hip attacks and landed the three amigo suplexes. O’Reilly made a comeback including hitting a cool back bridge suplex for a nearfall. Tauchi catches him in an ankle lock but O’Rilley reverses into a sharpshooter. Taguchi hits the Dodon for a nearfall then comes back to the ankle lock, which gets him the win. Really good back and forth match. ***1/2

Bobby Fish vs. Kushida:  Thought this was an extremely well worked match. Fish worked on Kushida leg early on in the bout and that became part of the overall match. Fish hit a giant Michinoku driver off the top rope for a great nearfall that people popped huge for when Kushida kicked out. Crowd REALLY got into this one, and I have to credit them they did not care one bit that a giant earthquake just happened there, they want to see WRESTLING. Kushida went for a sliced bread #2 to honor Shelley but Fish tried to counter, only for him to get locked into the hoverboard lock. Fish tries desperately to escape, but eventually has to tap. ***3/4

Final Thoughts: Overall, a really great show. The opener and the main event delivered, plus everything else was pretty good. So far I thought the tournament has been pretty middling, with only a few matches standing out and everything else seemingly being pretty basic. But everyone steps it up a notch for Korakuen Hall, and this show was a great example of that.

 

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