New Japan Pro Wrestling
Best of Super Juniors 27 – Night 7
December 2, 2020
Municipal Central Gymnasium 
Osaka, Japan

Watch: NJPW World

Night 7 of the BOSJ is the penultimate all Juniors show before Saturday. Our main event is Hiromu Takahashi, who is in a hot streak point wise and critically, against the future of the division, SHO. We have El Desperado fighting against the champion, Ishimori, in an interesting match on paper. Another interesting match is DOUKI vs Yuya Uemura in the fight to see who will stay on the last place, since both opponents are at 0. Will Taguchi show his ass this time? Will BUSHI and Wato make me yawn? Keep reading to find out.

Best of the Super Juniors 27
DOUKI (2) Def. Yuya Uemura (0)

DOUKI has been killing it this BOSJ and Uemura has been having great matches with all of the Juniors, and this is no exception to the rule. The opening started with a fast Uemura doing his best to take control of the match until DOUKI threw him into the rail outside a couple of times, hard. Back into the ring, DOUKI was dominating until an Overhook Suplex and a Boston Crab gave the match back to Uemura. For reasons that can only be explained as “because my heart wanted it badly”, I believed that maybe DOUKI was going to tap out on the Boston Crab. Since he is not the Young Lion, he reached the ropes. A Suplex de la Luna later, and DOUKI won his first match in the tournament! This was short, high action, and the perfect opening for the tournament this night. I like Uemura’s intensity and DOUKI impressed me again. I think I should just finally admit that I like DOUKI, when before I just thought of him as the loser goon of Suzuki Gun. ***½

Best of the Super Juniors 27
Robbie Eagles (6) Def. Ryusuke Taguchi (6)

I have been enjoying Taguchi ass antics, my favorite being when he pinned Wato with his bare ass. That was good stuff. He is against Eagles, hot off his match against Hiromu (and you should seriously check out that one). Here we had Taguchi doing his usual butt offense, be it jumping with his ass from the floor, the top rope, in the ring, and Eagles countering it. One of his counters was a 619 against Taguchi’s ass. When Eagles was about to do the 450 on Taguchi’s leg that he has done all tournament long, Taguchi started slowly rolling around the ring to avoid it. Eagles went to stop him, and Taguchi got him on a small package, Eagle kicked out, and Taguchi quickly applied an Ankle Lock. Eagles turned it around with his leg submission and made him tap out.

This was a really fun nice match, and a perfect follow-up to the first one. Eagles matches are just laid out perfectly, and while Taguchi is not as serious as in others BOSJ, he still is doing a great job as the veteran member of the Juniors. ***½

Best of the Super Juniors 27
BUSHI (8) Def. Master Wato (8)

I have to be honest: I don’t like either of these guys. BUSHI, especially in this tournament, feels like he’s not trying, just being lazy to be lazy. Wato has been trying a lot, but it has been a bust. Maybe that’s why I was bored during this match. BUSHI was almost all match long on offense, or maybe I think that because this felt like it lasted forever. Maybe not caring about these guys affected the enjoyment. The match ended with BUSHI doing a Canadian Destroyer and then an MX to beat Wato. My advice with this match is the same with all of BUSHI’s matches in the tournament: just skip it. BUSHI had a boring match against Hiromu, and for that alone, you can just continue skipping his matches. It won’t get better. I’ll give it two stars because at least it was not terrible, just boring. ** 

Best of the Super Juniors 27
El Desperado (10) Def. Taiji Ishimori (10)

After that last match, El Desperado music woke me up and finally got me excited about a match again. Ishimori is a talented wrestler that sometimes just mails it in, but tonight he brought it against Desperado. The match started fast with both men hitting themselves hard and Desperado throwing Ishimori to the rails. After the referee had some kind of control, Ishimori took the advantage by attacking Desperado’s shoulder continuously. The match was basically Ishimori working on Desperado’s shoulder and then Desperado working on Ishimori’s leg. After they failed to submit each other, there was the obligatory ref bump. Ishimori got the belt to hit Desperado, the referee took the belt away, Desperado hit a low blow, punch to the face, Pinche Loco and 1-2-3.

Desperado beat the champion and is closer to the finals. This was a fun match where both men brought it. Maybe I’m used to the ref bump on Desperado’s matches, but this did not bother me, and it was blocking an attempt to steal the match from him anyway. Hopefully, we get a Desperado Junior title match soon. I would be down for a Desperado run with the belt. ***½

Best of the Super Juniors 27
SHO (10) Def. Hiromu Takahashi (10)

The match was so hard-hitting and great that the power went out at my house. Either that of the shitty Puerto Rican electrical system struck again. SHO had a taped-up neck and shoulders, and started the match with Hiromu throwing hard-hitting lariats. SHO was trying to be in control of the match, but Hiromu got the upper hand with a dropkick and killed SHO with the outside rails. Hiromu kept having the advantage due to SHO’s injuries, and I liked the little touches of SHO doing his signature comeback moves and then selling how they were taking their toll on him. After hitting each other hard again with lariat and elbows, Hiromu did the sunset powerbomb to the outside, leaving SHO there until the 19th count. He came back, Hiromu hit the Dynamite Plunger and a running Death Valley, but it was not enough. The match ended with SHO doing three lariats, one piledriver, a two count, and a second piledriver to give SHO the upset win.

This was an amazing main event and a perfect way to end the show. Even the power failure mid-match at my house did not diminish the enjoyment of this, so imagine how better it would be without that. I was not expecting SHO to win, but after it was done it made sense. SHO is slowly getting up as one of the faces of the division alongside Hiromu. As always, Hiromu killed it and I enjoyed his mean streak here with SHO. Match of the night, one of the better matches of the tournament, don’t miss it. ****

Final Thoughts

With an amazing main event and three great matches, this night of BOSJ is worth watching. Just trust me and skip BUSHI vs Wato, or anything involving BUSHI in this tournament. SHO and Hiromu killed it, and I enjoyed immensely the cheater’s match with Desperado and Ishimori, and the losers match between Uemura and DOUKI. Very enjoyable four matches that will get you up to speed for the final nights this weekend.