Cero Reviews NJPW Best Of The Super Juniors 24: Final Day

[cero2k]

NJPW Best Of The Super Juniors 24
June 3rd, 2017
Yoyogi 2nd Gymnasium, Tokyo, Japan

place tonight looks like a ROH show, the set looks like an old ROH set.

Yuji Nagata, Tomoyuki Oka, and Shota Umino vs Manabu Nakanishi, Katsuya Kitamura, and Tetsuhiro Yagi - 5/10
Tetsuhiro Yagi is debuting tonight, he is the greenest of the green, but just now I feel he has a brighter future than Umino and Kawato. Everything between Kitaruma and Oka was awesome, and everything with Nakanishi sucked. Finish saw Oka submit Yagi with a boston crab. Not sure if new, but Kitamura is starting to develop some kind of vampire gimmick.

CHAOS (Tomohiro Ishii, Toru Yano, and Jado) vs G.H.B. (Togi Makabe, Hiroyoshi Tenzan) and Hirai Kawato- 6/10
It feels like forever since I've seen Tenzan and Makabe wrestling. Kawato went straight and started pushing Jado, this kid really wants to be sent to his incursion on a wheelchair if he keeps messing around with the big guys, does he not realize Jado is teaming with Ishii tonight? Yano removed the turnbuckle without even getting in the fight.

At one point, Kawato did his warm tag against Ishii and went all forearms on Ishii, he even managed to put him down and two occasions, but Ishii just came back and killed the poor young lion. There was a great nearfall with Kawato rolling up Ishii. I'm really starting to love Kawato's gimmick, I've seen him get his ass kicked by Suzuki-Gun, LIJ, and CHAOS. Fale has to be next, right!?

Suzuki-Gun (Yoshinobu Kanemaru, Taka Michinoku, and Desperado) vs Volador Jr, Jyushin "Thunder" Liger, and Tiger Mask IV - 5.5/10
If only for this match, Volador should have used an amalgamation mask of his, Liger, and Tiger's mask. The babyfaces really tried to keep things fair and respect tags, but with Suzuki-Gun, things went into chaos really quickly and everyone was fighting everyone. Volador defeated Taka with a spanish fly from the top rope. Ok match, short and chaotic. Tiger Mask was awesome.

Bullet Club vs War Machine, ACH, and David Finlay - 6.5/10
Yujiro's girls are back! GoD, Bad Luck Fale, and Yujiro representing BC. It's funny how War Machine and Finlay all wear battle paint and heavy looking attires, and ACH is wearing his Majin Boo vest. Finlay is starting to look more and more like Chris Hero.

Finally, a match without Finlay starting. This match was a lot better than the ones from the previous days. BC worked ACH for a long while, then the hot tag and wrestling all over the place. Hanson at one point did a top rope spot that I think should have been save for next week's Dominion show. Finish saw Yujiro pin Finlay after the Pimp Juice.

CHAOS (Hirooki Goto and YOSHI-HASHI) vs Suzuki-Gun (Minoru Suzuki and Taichi) - 7/10
Kanemaru and Desperado as seconds. Suzuki-Gun jumps CHAOS before introductions, Suzuki goes for Goto, YOSHI-HASHI battles Taichi inside the ring.

Match kinda had three parts, one part was Suzuki-Gun getting heat on Yoshi-Hashi, then after the tag on Goto, Suzuki and him had a long

Post-match - Suzuki-Gun are attacking YOSHI-HASHI, Goto makes the save, pissed off Suzuki kills two young lions.

Taguchi Japan vs Los Ingobernables de Japon - 7/10
Taguchi Japan is Kojima, Robinson, Dragon Lee, Taguchi, and Ricochet tonight. I'm probably the only person that thinks this, but Takahashi is kinda starting to feel like a bigger star than most of LIJ, maybe just slightly underneath Naito, but that's still saying A LOT. During LIJ's entrance, Taguchi Japan were all dancing to their song, it was weird. Naito teasing Liger with the IC title, Liger vs Naito is gonna be amazing when it happens!

Match got a good amount of time, everyone in the match had their chance to shine. There were some great match ups like always, and some great team moves. Finish saw LIJ take out Kojima, ending with Destino for the 1-2-3. They didn't really work any personal feuds here since Naito is going for Tanahashi, Takahashi is waiting on tonight's winner, and the trios titles are interchangeable anyway.

Post-match -Naito starts to cut a promo, and silently Tanahashi comes out and makes his way to the ring, looking dapper. Naito actually tells LIJ to stand aside. Pretty much Naito calling out Tanahashi for missing out the show, Tanahashi saying he feels great and WILL be at Dominion. Naito throws the title, Tana grabs it and helds it high with pride.

Bullet Club (Kenny Omega and "The Villain" Marty Scurll) vs CHAOS (Kazuchika Okada and Gedo) - 7/10
Scurll getting to work with Okada and Omega straight up on his first tour, good for him! Match started between Okada and Omega, they had a quick exchange trying to hit each other's finisher maneuvers, but both failing. BC later worked on Gedo for a long while, which actually consisted of mostly comedy spots and cheap heat. There was a second Omega vs Okada segment with more teases, but no finishers. Finish saw Scurll snap Gedo's finger and follow up with the Crossface Chickenwing for the submission win. Okada's team once again lost, but this time Okada definitely took more punishment.

Best of the Super Juniors 24 Finals
"Time Splitter" KUSHIDA vs "The Aerial Assassin" Will Ospreay - 9.5/10
Ricochet, Taguchi, Tiger Mask, Volador, ACH, and Dragon Lee are all ringside watching the match, I love these little things that make a match seem a lot more important, seeing these guys react to move and spots is a great visual. I do have to mention that it's a bit one sided since they're mostly Taguchi Japan guys, so I have to wonder they're cheering for their team mate.

Ospreay had a busted lip; in addition, KUSHIDA worked Osprey's arm. There was a really scary reverse-rana where KUSHIDA spiked himself on the apron, later followed by the Essex Destroyer, again, spiking himself on the head. Tehre was an AWESOME Kawada kicks spots, foreams, and KUSHIDA went fully American Dragon on Ospreay. Towards the end, the match was super heated, some great great nearfalls and close tap outs. Finish saw KUSHIDA hit a Super Back to the Future and a a following Back to the Future for the win. KUSHIDA wins the Best of the Super Juniors. Ospreay unfortunately can't become the second man to be back to back BOSJ.

Post-match, Ospreay is helped to the back, crying. KUSHIDA's crowing ceremony and promo. KUSHIDA started a wave with the crowd, it actually looked cool because of the camera angle. KUSHIDA thanked the whole juniors roster out there with him and made a especial thing for Liger. This was a really feel good moment that does warrant giving KUSHIDA the win as he further cements himself as the greatest Junior Heavyweight ever, except he now must face the one man that has his number, Himoru Takahashi.

OVERALL THOUGHTS
Awesome ending to one of the best Super Juniors tournament in recent memory. There were some good matches leading up to the main event, but KUSHIDA vs Ospreay alone warrants watching this one match show.