One dozen days of determined junior heavyweights have come and gone, as New Japan Pro Wrestling’s (NJPW) annual tournament heads to it’s final few stops. The penultimate four matches from the Best of the Super Juniors 25 B Block are here, and they are:
– Chris Sabin vs El Desperado
– Ryusuke Taguchi vs Marty Scurll
– SHO vs Hiromu Takahashi
– KUSHIDA vs Dragon Lee
[Please note: to save myself a bit of time, I am only reviewing the tournament matches. There are potential spoilers here from all earlier days of tournament matches.]
[Also please note: I am so far behind, and by the time you read this the tournament will be over. I don’t know any spoilers, but even if you do, some of these matches may have slipped your mind.]
+ KUSHIDA vs Dragon Lee (B Block Match): it was always going to be hard following the SHO/Takahashi, but these guys did a really good job. It wasn’t quite as good, but lots of clever reversals and some spots where I genuinely felt the match was done, only to be pleasantly surprised it was not were great to see. I really liked this match.
+ SHO vs Hiromu Takahashi (B Block Match): this was a wild sprint, almost comparable to Takahashi/Dragon Lee in its style. I loved this match, and would put it easily on par with either man’s best int he tournament so far. This SHO kid is going to be huge, much like his tag team partner YOH, but Takahashi is just on awhole other level as of late. This was fantastic
+ Ryusuke Taguchi vs Marty Scurll (B Block Match): this was roughly 3/4 comedy, but damn if it wasn’t good comedy. The quarter of the match that was wrestling was great, and the shenanigans only added to it. Scurll can really hang with Taguchi when it comes to the comedy stuff, ad both guys can wrestle when they want to. This was really good
+ Chris Sabin vs El Desperado (B Block Match): unless they are done really well, I’m not a fan of the 19-count spots that have plagued this tournament. I can’t believe the amount of damage these two were putting themselves through for such a small crowd, but I guess that’s why they wrestle, and I just write about it. I enjoyed this significantly more than I thought I would
Should you watch this event: It feels really good to say, for the first time in at least a few shows, that you should definitely go out of your way to watch a match: SHO versus Takahashi was bloody incredible. The rest of the matches were good as well, and this was probably the best overall day of the tournament.
MoshFish Reviews 