NJPW Best of the Super Juniors XXI: Day 8 - Finals
NJPW Best of the Super Juniors XXI: Day 8- Final (6/8/2014)- Tokyo, Japan
BUSHI, SATOSHI KOJIMA, HIROYOSHI TENZAN, & KENNY OMEGA vs. MASCARA DORADA, MASCARA DON, TIGER MASK IV, & JUSHIN "THUNDER" LIGER- 6.75/10
Mascara Don is Manabu Nakanishi under a mask. The match was fun and fast-paced. Mascara Dorada particularly stood out, which made it a bit more of a shame when he and Omega screwed up going for the finish.
KOTA IBUSHI & EL DESPERADO vs. GEDO & ROCKY ROMERO (w/Alex Koslov)- 5/10
HIROOKI GOTO & KATSUYORI SHIBATA vs, YUJI NAGATA & CAPTAIN NEW JAPAN- 6/10
Is it bad that I really, really, really wanted Captain New Japan to get the pin? He was such a great underdog here.
BEST OF THE SUPER JUNIORS BLOCK B FINALS: KUSHIDA vs. Taichi (w/TAKA Michinoku)- 6/10
Taichi ambushed KUSHIDA with a chair on his way down to the ring, just like he has done to his opponents throughout this tournament. KUSHIDA'S tag team partner Alex Shelley came out to break it up, but TAKA and Taichi used the chair to attack Shelley's injured shoulder. Once the match started, TAKA distracted the ref so Taichi could be the crap out of both Time Splitters with the timekeeper's hammer. He then dismissively slapped KUSHIDA across the face and started taking pages out of the Bryan Danielson playbook, blatantly locking on an illegal hold, breaking at four, then going right back to the same illegal hold right in front of the referee; rinse, wash, and infuriatingly repeat. He used the Eddie Guerrero "HE HIT ME WITH A WEAPON! DQ HIM!" spot (TAKA verified this from the outside as well. The referee didn't BOlieve them, but while his back was turned he gave KUSHIDA a low blow and rolled him up with the Gedo Clutch (which was the finish of his match on day one against El Desperado) for a nearfall.
We then got a ref bump, which allowed TAKA to attack KUSHIDA. TAKA held KUSHIDA's arms behind his back and Taichi got his cane to hit KUSHIDA with... but Alex Shelley made the save, then superkicked TAKA and KUSHIDA countered Taichi's finisher into the Kimura and made him tap out and I popped HUGE because THAT CHEATING MOTHERF*CKER FINALLY GOT WHAT HE DESERVED!
Off of this tournament alone, Taichi already has my vote for Best Heel of the Year.
BEST OF THE SUPER JUNIORS BLOCK A FINALS: Ryusuke Taghuchi vs. Ricochet- 4.25/10
Well... that was short.
CHAOS (Toru Yano & Jado) vs. SUZUKI-GUN (Minoru Suzuki & Takashi Iizuka)- 4/10
Went on WAY too long. Suzuki and Jado were decent, but I just don't five a sh*t about Yano and Iizuka, and I never will. Suzuki, Iizuka, and TAKA Michinoku beat Yano down after the match, but Kazushi Sakuraba came out to make the save, almost trapping Suzuki in an armlock.
HIROSHI TANAHASHI, TETSUYA NAITO, & TOMOAKI HONMA vs. THE BULLET CLUB (Tama Tonga, Doc Gallows, & "Machine Gun" Karl Anderson)- 6.75/10
Heels got the heat on Tanahashi, Naito got the hot tag and did an awesome job running wild. The babyfaces got the win after Honma and then Tanahashi hit their big flying finishers on Tonga. The heels beat Tanahashi down after the match, but Makabe made the save
CHAOS (Shinsuke Nakamura, Kazuchika Okada, Tomohiro Ishii, & YOSHI-HASHI) vs. THE BULLET CLUB (Bad Luck Fale, Yujiro Takahashi, & the Young Bucks)- 7.75/10
More random no-selling by Ishii. Seriously. He no-sells two hard forearms to the head, then gets floored by a slap? He also had one of the worst kickouts I have ever seen in my life. He didn't even get his shoulders off the mat. It actually looked like Yujiro just stopped covering him. Other than Ishii, everyone was very good.
BEST OF THE SUPER JUNIORS XXI TOURNAMENT FINALS: Ricochet vs. KUSHIDA (w/Alex Shelley)- 9/10
HOLY SH*T that was awesome... and that finishing stretch? UNREAL!
Another great show from New Japan, but mostly because of the main event.
BUSHI, SATOSHI KOJIMA, HIROYOSHI TENZAN, & KENNY OMEGA vs. MASCARA DORADA, MASCARA DON, TIGER MASK IV, & JUSHIN "THUNDER" LIGER- 6.75/10
Mascara Don is Manabu Nakanishi under a mask. The match was fun and fast-paced. Mascara Dorada particularly stood out, which made it a bit more of a shame when he and Omega screwed up going for the finish.
KOTA IBUSHI & EL DESPERADO vs. GEDO & ROCKY ROMERO (w/Alex Koslov)- 5/10
HIROOKI GOTO & KATSUYORI SHIBATA vs, YUJI NAGATA & CAPTAIN NEW JAPAN- 6/10
Is it bad that I really, really, really wanted Captain New Japan to get the pin? He was such a great underdog here.
BEST OF THE SUPER JUNIORS BLOCK B FINALS: KUSHIDA vs. Taichi (w/TAKA Michinoku)- 6/10
Taichi ambushed KUSHIDA with a chair on his way down to the ring, just like he has done to his opponents throughout this tournament. KUSHIDA'S tag team partner Alex Shelley came out to break it up, but TAKA and Taichi used the chair to attack Shelley's injured shoulder. Once the match started, TAKA distracted the ref so Taichi could be the crap out of both Time Splitters with the timekeeper's hammer. He then dismissively slapped KUSHIDA across the face and started taking pages out of the Bryan Danielson playbook, blatantly locking on an illegal hold, breaking at four, then going right back to the same illegal hold right in front of the referee; rinse, wash, and infuriatingly repeat. He used the Eddie Guerrero "HE HIT ME WITH A WEAPON! DQ HIM!" spot (TAKA verified this from the outside as well. The referee didn't BOlieve them, but while his back was turned he gave KUSHIDA a low blow and rolled him up with the Gedo Clutch (which was the finish of his match on day one against El Desperado) for a nearfall.
We then got a ref bump, which allowed TAKA to attack KUSHIDA. TAKA held KUSHIDA's arms behind his back and Taichi got his cane to hit KUSHIDA with... but Alex Shelley made the save, then superkicked TAKA and KUSHIDA countered Taichi's finisher into the Kimura and made him tap out and I popped HUGE because THAT CHEATING MOTHERF*CKER FINALLY GOT WHAT HE DESERVED!
Off of this tournament alone, Taichi already has my vote for Best Heel of the Year.
BEST OF THE SUPER JUNIORS BLOCK A FINALS: Ryusuke Taghuchi vs. Ricochet- 4.25/10
Well... that was short.
CHAOS (Toru Yano & Jado) vs. SUZUKI-GUN (Minoru Suzuki & Takashi Iizuka)- 4/10
Went on WAY too long. Suzuki and Jado were decent, but I just don't five a sh*t about Yano and Iizuka, and I never will. Suzuki, Iizuka, and TAKA Michinoku beat Yano down after the match, but Kazushi Sakuraba came out to make the save, almost trapping Suzuki in an armlock.
HIROSHI TANAHASHI, TETSUYA NAITO, & TOMOAKI HONMA vs. THE BULLET CLUB (Tama Tonga, Doc Gallows, & "Machine Gun" Karl Anderson)- 6.75/10
Heels got the heat on Tanahashi, Naito got the hot tag and did an awesome job running wild. The babyfaces got the win after Honma and then Tanahashi hit their big flying finishers on Tonga. The heels beat Tanahashi down after the match, but Makabe made the save
CHAOS (Shinsuke Nakamura, Kazuchika Okada, Tomohiro Ishii, & YOSHI-HASHI) vs. THE BULLET CLUB (Bad Luck Fale, Yujiro Takahashi, & the Young Bucks)- 7.75/10
More random no-selling by Ishii. Seriously. He no-sells two hard forearms to the head, then gets floored by a slap? He also had one of the worst kickouts I have ever seen in my life. He didn't even get his shoulders off the mat. It actually looked like Yujiro just stopped covering him. Other than Ishii, everyone was very good.
BEST OF THE SUPER JUNIORS XXI TOURNAMENT FINALS: Ricochet vs. KUSHIDA (w/Alex Shelley)- 9/10
HOLY SH*T that was awesome... and that finishing stretch? UNREAL!
Another great show from New Japan, but mostly because of the main event.