NJPW Super J-Cup 2016 Finals

NJPW Super J-Cup 2016 FinalsNJPW Super J-Cup 2016 Finals

By Big Red Machine
From August 21, 2016
Discussion

NJPW Super J-Cup 2016 Finals (8/21/2016)- Tokyo, Japan

EITA, YUMA AOYAGI, & DAVID FINLAY JR. vs. BUSHI, GURUKUN MASK, & KAJI TOMATO- 5.5/10
At the beginning of the match BUSHI just plopped himself down in a chair at ringside and let his teammates do all the work. At one point he wasn’t happy with their performance so he tripped up his own teammate and then tagged himself in. At a later point, when one of his teammates was going to tag in the other, he pulled the other guy off of the apron, then tagged himself in again.
Aside from BUSHI’s antics, the match had some nice dives, but other than that it was pretty forgettable.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- much less forgettable!
To commemorate their win, Kaji Tomato presented his teammates with stuffed tomatoes (as in stuffed animals, not as in tomatoes stuff with some sort of food filling). Gurukun Mask accepted this gift, but BUSHI violently rejected it, then blew mist in Kaji Tomato’s eyes. Gurukun Mask objected to this, so BUSHI attacked him and then ripped his mask off!

SUPER J CUP 2016 SECOND ROUND MATCH: Jushin “Thunder” Liger vs. Taichi (w/Ofune?)- no rating, decent segment.
I’m pretty sure Taichi’s valet is his wife, Ofune. Whoever she is, she was hot. During their entrance they went over to the announcers and asked one of them to take a picture with them. In the picture, she put her hands all over the announcer, who was clearly not willing at all, but Taichi attacked him anyway because these two know how to be heels. When they got to the win she gave Liger a nice face-full of multiple parts of her body, but Liger no-sold it. I guess he got his fill of boobs from that face-full of Maria Kanellis’ that he got last year and is just over them at this point.
He took forever hugging her in the ring when everyone else was ready for the match to start, so the referee went over to hurry them up. When he did, Taichi puts his hands on the referee’s shoulders and started to hug him… and while this was happening El Desperado jumped Liger from behind. The referee saw this and chased Desperado away, but didn’t call for a DQ because I guess the bell hadn’t rung yet. Taichi tried to take the mask off of the weakened Liger, but the referee stepped in to stop this. Then Taichi asked the referee to ring the bell and he did, even though Liger clearly wasn’t ready.
Next we got Desperado distracting the ref while Taichi restrained Liger so that his valet could slap him. Liger eventually fought back and fought through a bunch of young boys/security to get at El Desperado and beat him up a bit, but this let Taichi once again attack Liger from behind.
Liger made a quick comeback and dragged Taichi all the way to the barricade that separates the ground floor section of fans from the first set of elevated seats and tossed him into it. El Desperado tried to help his buddy out but Liger tossed him into it, too. Liger then went to put Desperado down with a brainbuster, but Taichi saved him. Taichi nailed Liger with a superkick while El Desperado hid. Then Taichi ran back to the ring to beat the count-out while El Desperado restrained Liger and the referee, who couldn’t see it because he was in the ring counting the count-out, awarded Taichi the win via count-out. Liger angrily threw things at the heels as they retreated up the ramp, including a chair that apparently caught El Desperado in the leg. A fine segment that could lead to any number of things, both later tonight (Taichi having an advantage over his next opponent because he is much fresher) or later down the line (Liger coming to NOAH to or a Suzuki-Gun show to get revenge on Tachi and El Desperado).

SUPER J CUP 2016 SECOND ROUND MATCH: Kenoh vs. KUSHIDA- 6.5/10
They did stuff. Kenoh took most of the match. The little bits of offense KUSHIDA did get were all targeting the arm, and KUSHIDA eventually got the win via armbar.

SUPER J CUP 2016 SECOND ROUND MATCH: Ryusuke Taguchi vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaru (w/TAKA Michinoku)- 5/10
They started off with Kanemaru working over Taguchi’s butt, and them Taguchi making a butt-based comeback. Then they went into some false finishes that, while good, would have meant a lot more if they had spent the first few minutes working over each other’s heads instead doing stuff with Taguchi’s butt.

SUPER J CUP 2016 SECOND ROUND MATCH: Will Ospreay vs. Matt Sydal- 7/10
The match was great and all, but still disappointing because you know this was just a fraction of the match they could have had, but they had to tone this one down because one of them would have to wrestle at least once more tonight.

CARISTICO, TITAN, & VOLADOR JR. vs. ULTIMO GUERRERO, GRAN GUERRERO, & EUFORIA- 7.75/10
I don’t usually watch Lucha Libre so maybe this stuff if commonplace, but I was quite wowed by a lot of the stuff these guys did. Crazy athleticism.

SUPER J CUP SEMI-FINAL MATCH: Taichi vs. KUSHIDA- 7/10
Taichi hid behind the ramp and used his microphone stand to attack KUSHIDA when KUSHIDA came out. KUSHIDA eventually made a comeback but El Desperado and Taichi’s gal-pal came out for more dog and pony show stuff that let Taichi get back in control of things. They had a lot of great nearfalls based on this, and KUSHIDA eventually got the win by reversing a small package but got assaulted after the match.

SUPER J CUP SEMI-FINAL MATCH: Matt Sydal vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaru (w/TAKA Michinoku)- 7.75/10

GHC JR. HEAVYWEIGHT TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: Atsushi Kotoge & Daisuke Harada(c) vs. Taiji Ishimori & ACH- 8.25/10
Awesome Jr. heavyweight action!

IWGP JR. HEAVYWEIGHT TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: The Young Bucks(c) vs. Motor City Machine Guns- 9/10
Yeah… go out of your way to see this one. It was fantastic. Hopefully this match will remind Gedo what this division can do if given the proper time.

YOUNG BUCKS PROMO- awesome
They’re sick of just being Jr. Heavyweights. They’re five-time champions. Now they want to prove that they are the best team in the world by winning the IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Titles!

SUPER J CUP 2016 FINALS: Yoshinobu Kanemaru (TAKA Michinoku & El Desperado) vs. KUSHIDA (w/Ryusuke Taguchi & Jushin “Thunder” Liger)- 8.75/10
Lots of great nearfalls hear, as well as a story of KUSHIDA having to fight against the odds and overcome those cheating Suzuki-Gun bastards.

This was an awesome show (mostly on the strength of the top three matches), but I can’t help but be disappointed by the outcome. I love KUSHIDA and all, but I was really hoping this tournament would be used to make a new star, or elevate a guy like Matt Sydal or Taichi to that next level. Instead we got the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Champion vs. the GHC Jr. Heavyweight Champion in the finals with the New Japan guy winning. It really feels like a wasted opportunity.

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