New Japan Pro Wrestling
Best of the Super Juniors (June 3) – Day 10
June 3, 2015
Nagoya, Aichi – Nagoya International Conference Hall
Watch: NJPWWorld.com
Best of the Super Juniors (A Block) – Gedo vs. Beretta: The sleaze was oozing off of this match as Beretta did everything he could to out sleaze the king of sleaze. The beginning featured a hilarious handshake sequence as both men attempted to jump each other after a handshake. This was played for comedy but certainly worked given the two men in the ring.
There wasn’t much else to this match outside of a hot closing stretch where Gedo attempted to knock over the referee and low-blow Beretta. Thankfully, Beretta knows all the sleazy tricks of the trade, so he blocked the low-blow attempt, hit an Enziguri and planted Gedo with a sickly-looking Dudebuster for the win. **
Best of the Super Juniors (A Block) – Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Ryusuke Taguchi: I’ve been patient with Taguchi and his butt-based offense but this was just too much. I’m glad he’s found something to give him purpose and meaning but it’s really just awful. Anyway, this match featured a bevvy of ass-based offensive attacks including a diving ass-bump from the apron to the outside. The worst part about this ass stuff is nobody cares. He gets like 1-2 laughs from someone in the 19th row of the Nagoya International Conference Hall and that’s it.
Thankfully, Liger hit a spinning backbreaker and the crowd damn near exploded at offense that wasn’t of the ass variety. Liger then got on the offensive hitting a rolling senton to the outside and a running powerbomb. This set the stage for a fairly hot closing stretch that saw the two go back and forth with a series of chain wrestling maneuvers. Amidst the action, Taguchi rolled Liger up and got the pinfall.
This was super slow at the beginning, like painfully slow but the last two or so minutes definitely made up for it. The victory put Taguchi atop the A Block with 10 points. **¼
Best of the Super Juniors (B Block) – KUSHIDA vs. Rocky Romero: Perhaps the best match of the single-camera shows. This one was given a lot of time and the action looked and felt like what’d you get on a major NJPW undercard. The final stretch saw a number of near-falls with the crowd into each and every one. The key here was a KUSHIDA win would give him the outright B Block championship and an automatic bid in the Best of the Super Junior finals (no semifinals this year), so there was added intrigue and excitement in a victory.
The closing saw Romero attempt the Sliced Bread #2, KUSHIDA spun out of it, into a Hoverboard Lock. Romero was able to bridge up and was inches away from the ropes until KUSHIDA rolled him over, re-configured the Hoverboard Lock in the middle of the ring and picked up the victory. ***1/4
Final Thoughts: Definitely check out KUSHIDA vs. Rocky Romero as it’s one of the best matches of the tournament so far. The rest is a mixed bag — kept short and generally inoffensive (outside of Taguchi’s ass-based offense).
