Cero Reviews NJPW Best of the Super Jr. 25 - 6.3

[cero2k]

NJPW Best of the Super Jr. 25, Day 13
June 3rd, 2018
Korakuen Hall, Tokyo, Japan

Best of the Super Jr 25 Block A Match
Tiger Mask (6) vs ACH (4) - 6.5/10
ACH came out wearing a Tiger Mask mask, dude is literally Black Tiger and yet he came out wearing the Tiger Mask. There wasn't much to this match, Tiger did all his usual stuff we've seen from the tournament, the only difference is that ACH was going for a lot of Tiger Mask's moves. Finish saw ACH counter a Tiger Suplex into a roll up for the win. Tiger didn't have a chance to win, but this is now the official elimination. If anything else, I liked that this match made Tiger looked vicious when ACH pissed him off. ACH cried after the match and both men embraced.

Best of the Super Jr 25 Block A Match
BUSHI (6) vs Yoshinobu Kanemaru (4) - 6.5/10
BUSHI is in the same place as Tiger Mask as with him not really being able to qualify, and Kanemaru is already eliminated, so this match is just for the formality.

BUSHI tried jumping Kanemaru, but Kanemaru dodged him outside the ring and used Young Lions as weapons against BUSHI. Kanemaru worked BUSHI for a long while, teasing to tear off the mask. They started going back and forward working each other's heads, including a botched Tornado DDT. Finish saw both men go for their mists, BUSHI landed his first as a counter to Kanemaru, he went for a backslide for a near fall, but since Kanemaru still had the Whisky in his mouth, he sprayed BUSHI and hit the Deep Impact for the win. This match was arguably the worst wrestled match of the tournament since it had several botches, but this also felt really rushed as in maybe they had their time cut and they just went 100mph.

Best of the Super Jr 25 Block B Match
Chris Sabin (6) vs Ryusuke Taguchi (6) - 7/10
Similar to yesterday's Taguchi match, this saw a lot of comedy with Sabin getting the better of Taguchi with lots of comedy until Taguchi finally caught Sabin off and got some offense in. Latter part of the match was back and forward. Finish saw Sabin go for the All Hail Sabin, but Taguchi countered, they exchanged some Magistral Cradles, and Taguchi locked in the Ankle Lock for the submission win. Ok match.

Best of the Super Jr 25 Block B Match
El Desperado (2) vs Dragon Lee (6) - 8/10
Lee came out with a Shibata t-shirt and towel, he has been doing the Shibata soccer kick all tournament. Desperado upon seeing this, takes the towel away and disrespects Lee, and so Lee retaliates with a HELL of a dive pair.

Match saw a lot of Lee kicking Desperado's ass, but Desperado would ask for mercy and then use the distraction to attack Lee, this lead to Despy having the upper hand and working over Dragon Lee's leg for a while. As Desperado's offense went on, he got more vicious, ripping off the mask, this ended up firing off Lee and the match itself got a lot hotter and aggressive, to the point that Lee himself ripped Desperado's mask so much that we had a quick glimpse of his face. This botch fucked up the rest of the match since now Despy couldn't let go of his mask, but in a way, it also gave it a real sense of realism because Lee is winning thanks to Desperado's effort to not show his face. Finish saw Lee escape a Stretch Muffler only to be hit in the balls behind the ref's back for the roll up loss. Great match that had to work with a distraction and managed to make it work with tons of suspense.

Last minutes of the match, Desperado pretty much fought without a mask on, but since his hair is so long, his incognito was somewhat saved. After the match Desperado got a replacement mask, but did rip off Lee's mask for good measure.

Tomoaki Honma Returns! The man with the deepest voice in wrestling said that he is coming back to the ring on June 23.. He's walking funny, he may or may not be drunk.

Best of the Super Jr 25 Block A Match
"Aerial Assassin" Will Ospreay (8) vs Flip Gordon (6) - 9/10
British Will Ospreay vs US Ospreay. Only thing here is that Gordon can play tournament killer for Ospreay with a win. If Ospreay wins, he still needs to wait for the Ishimori match to know his future.

Match started with a lot of the flippy shit sequences a la Ricochet vs Ospreay, with Flip actually getting an equal if not better showing than the champ himself. So in a fight were Ospreay is being out-flown, he resorts to what he learned from his LDRS 2000 teammates and starts working Gordon via submissions. After a bit, Gordon got out of the submissions and they went back to the normal speed at 100mph, going back and forward.

They did tons of moves, not all flippy, but definitely showy, and the level went up and up as the match went on with tons of near falls, Ospraey hit the Robinson Special, the Essex Destroyer, a Shooting Star Press, only landing near falls. At the end, both men are fighting in the top rope ending with Ospreay hitting a top rope Os Cutter and following it up with the Storm Breaker for the win. Great match!

Best of the Super Jr 25 Block A Match
"Bone Soldier" Taiji Ishimori (8) vs YOH (6) - 9.25/10
It all comes down to this, the result of Block A, Ospreay, and Ishimori, all comes down to this match, and in the middle of it all, there is YOH. The dynamic of this match was amazing. Ospreay is out there to witness first row if he is indeed going to the finals or not, but it happens to be that the men that can give him the ticket there is a CHAOS teammate, so there is also a bias there to support his teammate over the guy that has been pissing off Ospreay since Sakura Genesis.

The match itself had the same plan we've seen all of tournament for YOH, in which he is the underdog and has strong comebacks towards the end, sometimes he wins, sometimes he loses. This was the same, except now we have Ishimori being slightly more aggressive and antagonistic since this beat up also antagonizes Ospreay outside. The big part of the match came until the end when the now obvious stronger Ishimori is looking for the submission via Crossface, YOH is doing everything he can to not submit, and Ospreay has gone from an spectator to a full on second for YOH. YOH manages to get out of the first Crossface and land himself a pair or near falls, but Ishimori re-locks the Crossface and this time, as YOH reaches for Ospreay, he has no other option than submit.

There was just soo much emotion in those last seconds. After the match they just annouce that Ishimori is indeed going to the finals and you have an awesome visual of Ishimori celebrating inside the ring while Ospreay is outside disappointed. Only thing I would have done differently was give Ishimori a pin win or ref stopping, to avoid the idea that YOH had to submit in front of Ospreay, I think that there is more tension if we see Ishimori completely take out YOH and even keep the submission on after the ref stoppage and have Ospreay come in to care for YOH. You can still have the awesome visual of Ishimori celebrating with Ospreay disappointed there, but the tension between them could had skyrocketed.

Best of the Super Jr 25 Block B Match
"The Villain" Marty Scurll (8) vs SHO (4) - 8/10
Another Bullet Club vs CHAOS match, but this one didn't have the same drama to it. Marty needs to win this in order to stay in the tournament and hope that Hiromu and KUSHIDA tie.

Match saw a really smart wrestler in Scurll work over a slightly more naive wrestler, but with a lot of strength and willpower to not give up, SHO. From the get go, Scurll was in control, he worked SHO's head throughout the match. SHO eventually got out of being under and the match found a balance between the two. SHO's offense was mostly strikes at first, going for the Shock Arrow from early on, but later on, he started going for more power moves like germans. Finish saw Scurll lock in the Crossface Chickenwing, but SHO overpowered himself out of it and turned it into the Shock Arrow for the win. Scurll is officially now of the tournament, it's all now between Takahashi and KUSHIDA.

Best of the Super Jr 25 Block B Match
Hiromu Takahashi (8) vs KUSHIDA (8) - 9/10
This match had a slow pace for the first half. There was an interesting dynamic between the two, where they were always at the same level, but sometimes, KUSHIDA made Hiromu look like an underdog, and sometimes, Hiromu came off as more of a willing fighter than KUSHIDA, it was all in the mannerisms on how each guy carries themselves.

KUSHIDA worked over Hiromu's arm really from the start, while Hiromu worked over KUSHIDA's head and trying to take KUSHIDA's breath away, both building up towards the D. It was about the middle of the match that both men started going for their signature submissions, but neither could properly lock it in. There was an awesome near fall with KUSHIDA locking in the Hoverboard right in the middle of the ring, but Hiromu who could barely move rolled it into Dynamite Plunger, but he couldn't even follow up at this point.

Last minutes, both men are equally exhausted, but they get into a short striking battle that ends with Hiromu reversing a lariat into the D. KUSHIDA gets out of it, but Hiromu immediately lands a piledriver and locks the D again for the submission. Pretty awesome match. I personally wouldn't have minded letting Scurll win and push this match towards the time limit for the drama, but nonetheless, this was awesome.

Post-match - Hiromu is announced as the winner of Block B. Hiromu is cutting a promo laying on the mat, as he is talking, Ishimori stands on the top rope ready to plunge, but Hiromu gets away. They have a small face-off before Ishimori leaves.

Hiromu goes back to the mic and says that himself and Ishimori are going to have a hell of a ball and he better have something ready for tomorrow, but at the end, he'll win!

OVERALL THOUGHTS
Great close to the blocks of the BOSJ 25. They managed to hit all the spots, great wrestling, drama, and all. The first half of the show was good, but aside from the Desperado situation, it's skippable, but the second half is definitely a must check out.