NJPW Best of the Super Juniors Tournament Day 1 Review
It's that time of the year again, NJPW annual Super Juniors tournament. The best Junior Heavyweight wrestlers in the world converge on Japan to take part in the tournament. Tournament rules are simple 16 wrestlers broken down into 2 groups of 8 compete in a round robin format, competing against every other person in their group. The top 2 from each group will then compete in the knockout stage, 2 semifinals. The winner of the tournament will receive an IWGP Junior Heavyweight title match against champion Kota Ibushi.
The participants in this years tournament are below in their respective blocks (groups)
Block A:
Jushin Liger
KUSHIDA
Bushi
Masacara Dorado
Ricochet
Alex Koslov
Taka Michinoku
Matt Jackson
Block B:
Alex Shelley
Kenny Omega
Taichi
Tiger Mask IV
El Desperado
Nick Jackson
Rocky Romero
Ryusuke Taguchi
Day 1 is already behind us and I’ll be reviewing the entire event, match by match, and giving my match rating.
The opening match of the tournament saw Taka Michinoku taking on CMLL representative Mascara Dorado, from block A. Going in its quite clear, Dorado wants to fly and Taka wants this to stay grounded. Japanese crowd clearly behind Dorado for this one. Dorado got the crowd off their feet with consecutive suicide dives to Taka waiting outside. The finish saw Taka landing the super kick on Dorado after Dorado tried a springboard elbow, Taka followed that with a Michinoku Driver to get the pin. Taka receives his and the tournaments first 2 points. A decent opener with a couple of spots and Taka playing up the heel role.
3.5/5
The second match of the night was the first match from block B, Forever Hooligans and Chaos member Rocky Romero against Tiger Mask IV. Rocky brought his own version of the Tiger Mask and is wearing it. I don’t see either of these 2 getting out of their block but they both will put on good matches throughout the round robin. First spot went to Rocky who landed a running knee on the apron, while Tiger mask was on the outside. Tiger Mask had enough of being mocked and eventually ripped the fake Tiger mask off Rocky Romero. Ref bump prevented Tiger Mask from getting the 3 count, you don’t usually see those in Japan. Tiger Mask was able to land the Tiger Suplex and get the pin on Romero to get his and his blocks first 2 points
3.7/5
The opening day matches rolled on with our second representative of Suzuki-gun Taichi. Taichi took on El Desperado. Taichi does what the Suzuki-gun do and attacks Desperado with a chair as he's getting into the ring, and in prototypical heel fashion began to try to take Desperado's mask off. Desperado fought off both Taichi and his tag partner Taka, throughout the match. Desperado's mask was ripped pretty good, you can see half his face. Another ref bump, Desperado checked on the ref and gets hit with Taichi microphone, that lead to Taichi getting the pin in what wasn’t much of a match. Both members of Suzuki-gun got the 2 points.
3/5
In the second match of Block A, the living legend Jushin Liger took on Bushi. Liger has competed in every Best of the Super Junior’s tournament except for 2! That is incredible, they’ve been doing this tournament for north of 20 years! Liger also is tied for most tournament wins with 3. Bushi however doesn’t seem to care about any of that because he took it to Liger from the firs ring of the bell. Bushi tried to make a name for himself by defeating Liger. Liger knew this and stretched Bushi all match, applying stretch hold after stretch hold. Surprisingly this match turned out very physical for the 2. Liger even suplexed Bushi onto the floor. Liger and Bushi showed they really want this, Bushi even kicked out of the Liger Bomb. Bushi is able to bridge Liger and get the 3 count. Both guys shake hands after. A veteran move Bushi pulled on the ultimate Veteran. It's amazing how well Liger can still go in the ring.
3.8/5
They took a break from the tournament with a 10 men tag team match. Chaos being represented by Kazuchika Okada, Shinsuke Nakamura, Tomohiro Ishii, Jado and YOSHI-HASHI battled Bullet Club who were represented by Tama Tonga, Karl Anderson, Doc Gallows, Yujiro Takahashi and Bad Luck Fale. Ishii and Takahashi started in the ring but Takahashi didn’t want any part of Ishii so he tagged in Fale, Ishii in turn tagged in Nakamura and the match started. I’m still not entirely sure what Tama Tonga’s face paint is supposed to be. The match didn’t take long for it to spill to the outside and a brawl to break out. For a majority of the first part of the match Bullet Club was able to isolate and put a beating on Jado until Jado was able to get the hot tag to Okada. The crowd was extremely mixed except for 2 guys, they loved them some Okada and Nakamura. That match has to headline the January 4th card. It just has to, it would equal to Warrior vs. Hogan at WrestleMania 6. Ref had no control over this as it was basically a brawl through out. The ending saw Doc and Anderson landing the Magic Cutter followed by Takahashi hitting the Miami Shine on YOSHI-HASHI to get the win. Bullet Club dominant run continues. They are owning Chaos.
3.7/5
The 10 man took us into intermission, on the other side of intermission we jumped right back into the tournament. Alex Koslov the other half of Forever Hooligans took on Dragon Gate representative Ricochet. Big fan of Koslov and I haven’t really seen a lot of Ricochet, was looking forward to this one. Koslov is pure entertainment in the ring, not just his wrestling, Alex makes sure the crowd is entertained in his matches. Koslov does a top rope senton onto a standing Ricochet and clearly does something to his shoulder. Koslov’s shoulder popped out and doctor was at ring side trying to pop it back in but Koslov continued the match, what a trooper. Match turned into a ground match, that had to be due to the Koslov shoulder injury, which I don’t think is kayfabe, it was really hanging and Koslov wasn't using it at all. Ricochet landed an amazing twisting dive to the outside on Koslov. Koslov injured his shoulder again landing on his feet from a top rope maneuver and the ref stopped it. What a performance from Koslov, very gutsy. Ricochet gets the win and 2 points. The injury took away from what could’ve been a great match.
3.4/5
Injury or not the show must go on, and it did when Nick Jackson representing Bullet Club took on Alex Shelley representing the Time Splitters. Shelley is one of my picks to get out of Block B. As a matter of fact I see both members of Time Splitters getting out of their blocks. It was hard for me to get into this one honestly, not much happened, Jackson hit Shelley with a pretty good tornado DDT on the arena floor. The crowd was really behind Shelley though. Jackson did very well playing the heel. Shelley was able to bridge Jackson to get the pin. Matt jumped Shelley afterwards and KUSHIDA came to his partner’s aid. This was the segway into the next tournament match. KUSHIDA and Matt Jackson
3.5/5
The Matt Jackson and KUSHIDA match started off a lot better and with a lot more heat than their respective partners match. Nick and Shelley stayed in the corners for this match. The match slowed for a while with Matt Jackson grounding KUSHIDA. Nick attacked KUSHIDA every time Matt threw him to ringside, Bullet Club going to Bullet Club. Man, KUSHIDA is quick, once he gets going it’s a beauty to watch. KUSHIDA has a great chance of winning this whole thing, don’t be surprised to see him in the final. This match was a lot better than the previous one. Both Matt and KUSHIDA kept me entertained. KUSHIDA hit a nasty Reverse Frankensteiner on Jackson, but Nick pulled the referee out of the ring and Super Kicked him and Alex Shelley. How does Bullet Club never get DQ'd? Bucks hit a running spiked piledriver on KUSHIDA, on the floor. The Young Bucks rolled KUSHIDA in the ring to attempt the More Bang For Your Buck but KUSHIDA got the knees up on the 450 and Moonsault. KUSHIDA then applied a Kimura Lock that Matt Jackson tapped out to. Both Time Splitters got the 2 points.
3.7/5
We were headlined by the last day 1 tournament match, Ryusuke Taguchi and Kenny Omega. Kenny Omega is representing DDT. Taguchi is a favorite to win the whole thing, he advanced all the way to the final last year before getting injured and wasn't able to compete in it. Both men wore very similar colored tights, it looked like a tag team fighting each other. There was no feeling out process in this one as both men went right to work. Omega and Taguchi kept this one in the ring for the most part. Taguchi was able to land a Plancha to the outside on Omega, though. Then Omega returned the favor with the same move on Taguchi. Watching this tournament gives you a better appreciation of how quick these guys are, they move in the ring. We saw Omega hit the Croyt’s Wrath to get the win and the 2 points. Very entertaining main event. I would say match of the night.
3.8/4
I don’t see how Koslov can continue on with the tournament, NJPW will most likely have to bring in a replacement, or Koslov forfeits all of his matches.
Leaders after Day 1:
Block A:
Bushi 2 points
KUSHIDA 2 points
Ricochet 2 points
Taka Michinoku 2 points
Block B:
Alex Shelley 2 points
Kenny Omega 2 points
Taichi 2 points
Tiger Mask IV 2 points
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