Cero Reviews NJPW Best of the Super Jr. 25 - 5.19

[cero2k]

NJPW Best of the Super Jr. 25 - 5.19
May 19, 2018
Korakuen Hall, Tokyo, Japan

Shota Umino vs Yota Tsuji - 6.5/10
A really hard hitting match, Tsuji does't hold back and Umino decided to give it up as he was getting it. Given that I think these guys were shooting on each other, I don't know if he was really in pain, or if Yota has an amazing selling face. Tsuji submitted to the protocol Boston Crab, but not before a GREAT near fall. I love Young Lions.

Tiger Mask, ACH, & Tomoyuki Oka vs CHAOS (Will Ospreay, YOH, & YOSHI-HASHI) - 7/10
When Oka and YOSHI both got in the ring, it was Oka that got the most chants. Match saw the CHAOS team get heat on Oka for the first half of the match, Tiger Mask was the one with the hot tag and built his thing with YOH. ACH and Ospreay did the same. And there was even a small Tiger vs Ospreay run that gives me hopes for their impending match. Last two in were Oka and YOSHI, Oka beat the shit out of YOSHI again until he turned it around and submitted Oka with the Butterfly Lock. Good well-wrestled match, a lot of action.

Toa Henare & Flip Gordon vs Minoru Suzuki & Yoshinobu Kanemaru - 6/10
Flip now has a taped up shoulder coming out of his match with ACH, so that should play out throughout the whole tournament. Match was the usual SZKG match with some great stuff inside the ring, but chaos and brawling outside of it. During the match, Suzuki worked a lot over Gordon's shoulder with an awesome looking Kimura Lock. Suzuki won with a Gotch Style Piledriver over Henare. If these two keep going all of the tournament, Henare won't have a neck by the time the finals come.

Liger and Suzuki have also been getting face to face a lot, not that they'll fight, but I'd LOVE to see that.

BUSHI & SANADA vs Taiji Ishimori & Chase Owens - 6.5/10
BUSHI started the match and kept control of the Bullet Club for much longer than these matches tend to give, but after a bit, Owens turned it around and him and Ishimori were finally able to cut the ring in half for BUSHI. It didn't take long for SANADA to get in. There was a funny spot with Owens trying to get the Paradise Lock on SANADA, but he didn't know the move, so Milano Collection AT on the commentary table was trying to teach him. Owens tapped to the Skull End for the LIJ win. I believe that Ishimori vs BUSHI has the potential to steal the show.

Best of the Super Jr 25 Block B Match
Dragon Lee (0) vs SHO (0) - 8.5/10
This was a really competitive back and forward match between two guys that aside from Lee's high flying, they have a really similar style inside the ring. They didn't particularly dissect a limb since they were just hitting each other with everything they had, but at times we did see SHO work over Lee's arm. This was got to a point where I figured they were about to close it out, but they kept going, and in a good way, the match got more and more intense. At the end, Dragon Lee pinned SHO after a driver. This match was awesome.

Best of the Super Jr 25 Block B Match
El Desperado (0) vs Ryusuke Taguchi (0) - 6.5/10
Match started with Taguchi dominating Desperado using only his smarts, but then the whole match devolved into Desperado cheating left and right, using weapons, trying to sodomize Taguchi, and while the ref did a some points try to stop Desperado, the cheating never stopped. In addition to that, Desperado worked over Taguchi's left leg.

Towards the end, Taguchi made a strong comeback not really selling none of the work that Desperado had done in neither the butt or leg. Taguchi was running around and hitting a lot of butt attacks. Taguchi's no selling bothered me more than Desperado's cheating to be honest, I can reason the ref allowing Desperado to cheat, but not Taguchi being good all of the sudden and then starting to sell again later on. Finish saw Desperado push the ref, low blow Taguchi, and roll him up for the pin.

This could had been one of those great Taguchi matches if they have kept Desperado's cheating to a minimum and if Taguchi's selling mid match had been better. The last minutes of the match were pretty good.

Best of the Super Jr 25 Block B Match
Chris Sabin (0) vs KUSHIDA (0) - 8/10
Another competitive back and forward match, this time both men worked on each other's arms, though Sabin also worked KUSHIDA's legs from time to time while transitioning submissions. As it usually happens with babyface matches, what started as a submission based competitive match, it turned into a strike fest and a race to trying to break each other's limbs. KUSHIDA kicked out of the Cradle Shock, so Sabin dropped him with the All Hail Sabin for the clean win. Given the match and finish, Sabin looked stronger than KUSHIDA.

Best of the Super Jr 25 Block B Match
"Timebomb" Hiromu Takahashi (0) vs "The Villain" Marty Scurll (0) - 8/10
From the get go, Takahashi is playing around with Scurll via mannerisms, and Scurll repays him by working his right arm. Hiromu made a comeback soon after and started working over Scurll's back. There was a long build to Hiromu finally hitting the Sunset Flip Powerbomb, which he got to around half way through the match and it we got a close countout out of it. Back in the ring, both men started trading finishers, but neither man would stay down. Marty was able to lock in the Chickenwing, but Hiromu survived, then Hiromu locked in the 'D' and choked out Scurll for the win. Overall a good match, but not the best of today.

There was a really ugly spot with Hiromu going for a senton from the apron to Scurll that was on the floor, but Scurll powerbombed him instead, except he didn't fully catch Hiromu and so, Takahashi hit the floor pretty bad.

Post-match - Among ovations, Hiromu says that between him and everyone else, they'll make everyone say that this year's BOSJ is better than the G1 Climax.

OVERALL THOUGHTS
A good show overall, some of the undercard stuff wasn't that good, but the tournament matches really made this show worth checking out before going into the non-televised shows of the series. I have to say that I really expected a lot more from KUSHIDA vs Sabin, but given the surprise of Dragon Lee vs SHO, I can close the show with satisfaction.

Block A:
Taiji Ishimori - 2
Tiger Mask - 2
ACH - 2
YOH - 2

Block B:
Dragon Lee - 2
Ryusuke Taguchi - 2
Chris Sabin - 2
Hiromu Takahashi - 2