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NJPW Best of the Super Junior 2018


Raziel

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For last 5 or so minutes I was marking out like little kid. Honestly I'd prefer if Hiromu cut back some of his crazy stuff like that spot on the stairs that can't be good for his health, but what can you do. Man is crazy and I enjoy watching him destroy himself and his opponent simultaneously.

And I think Ishimori deserves some props here too. While he had somewhat underwhelming tournament he did bring it for the finals and I probably wouldn't have been very mad if he won after such match. But still, person who needed to win won.

 

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The state of Ishimori's hair from bell to bell tells a story all by itself. Hiromu was crazy over with the crowd but Ishimori deserved that final chant as he was rolled out. I'm also glad that the rest of the LIJ came out to "celebrate" the win.

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Hiromu is a madman, crazy good finals, and yeah, maybe he should tone some stuff down, but he's so exciting to watch and so willing to go to the next level of crazy to give the fans something memorable. Easily one of my favourite wrestlers in the world right now.

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47 minutes ago, alstein said:

Ishimori deserves better than the Bone Soldier gimmick.  I don't think he fits Bullet Club at all.

Using the gimmick as a lampshade to hide his signing worked well, but that should have been the end of it. Though as others have noted, there are reasons he doesn't work perfectly as a heel, I think he could perhaps do better with a totally fresh start; additionally I can see why New Japan would want to bring him in as such, with perhaps some hint of promotional treachery heat, combined with the money first ethos BC has always had.

Anyway this show ruled, even if the tournament was... just ok, and a bit aimless. ACH was fun, as was Naito's reaction; Ospreay's been after an Ibushi match for ages, so although Kota shouldn't drop back down a weight class, it was fun to see them mix it up; and yeah, Hiromu is the guy.

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His last match against Yoh was also better than his starting matches in my opinion. Maybe he needs babyface or popular guy to work against or maybe he just started figuring out how to properly do his act towards the end of the tournament. Time will tell.

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I'd say he's still figuring it out. He's Bullet Club, so he can technically work tweener. His moveset these days allows him to work from the top and set up his submission if he wants, but he's definitely gonna be an effective face-in-peril in BC multimans. He's a vet, he can do both.

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Fwiw, he was more of a cocky ace in NOAH for the past few years, so the transition to the other side of the tweener coin shouldn't be that hard. He first gained internet fame as a flippy underdog, as an accessory to the KENTA/Marafuji feud, but he hasn't been that guy in a long time. (Ibushi was around for that, too.)

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That final was indeed spectacular.  Hiromu is going to be crippled by 30, but it's going to be a glorious run until then.  He 1000% justified this win with a run of balls-out great performances.  My only quibble with the final is that I hated Hiromu burned that crazy headdrop that he literally just debuted to kill Kushida the night before.

Taiji looked great here, too, but I'm not sure that absolves him of the way he coasted between Ospreay and Hiromu.

If Hiromu and Desperado were the clear MVPs, I think the most disappointing guy was probably Marty Scurll.  I can't think of one memorable match he had after the opener with Hiromu.  I mean, Chris Sabin had a pretty non-descript tournament, but I dont' think anyone had any expectations of him.

I also think this tournament proved that Sho and Yoh have been accurately slotted as tag guys right now.  Yoh is great at selling a beating and making comebacks, but lacks the size or moveset to take a match to the next level on his own.  Sho has the body and the moves to pop the crowd and play Serious Puro Guy but doesn't have the inbetween stuff figured out yet.  They're perfect for each other.

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SHO + YOH = 4ever(ish)

Will Ospreay acknowledging his place as Ace makes him *much* more tolerable. He looked mean, and he's only getting older. The Flip match was an exercise in both engaging a crowd and indulging in bad habits, but how often did he yelp like an idiot? That and nixing the Oscutter as a finish is half the battle as far as far as I'm concerned.

More importantly - how many people's best match is vs. Hiromu Takahashi? Dragon Lee, El Desperado, KUSHIDA, and Taiji Ishimori, at least. He's been back in New Japan for a whopping year and a half. Dude is putting forth a resume that eventually gets guys best-in-the-world talk. He's doing this with a proper GIMMICK that doesn't get lost in big matches. He's doing this while adding layers to the gimmick with storytelling devices like the big book - that's the kind of thing that WWE undercard guys do to get noticed, Hiromu's doing it despite probably knowing he was gonna win the tournament since the IWGP Junior Tag Title loss. Keep yr tailbone intact, kiddo!

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3 hours ago, EVA said:

If Hiromu and Desperado were the clear MVPs, I think the most disappointing guy was probably Marty Scurll.  I can't think of one memorable match he had after the opener with Hiromu.  I mean, Chris Sabin had a pretty non-descript tournament, but I dont' think anyone had any expectations of him.

I know one, I liked that in match against Taguchi he lost his boot. But yeah, thats a bit little for a guy who for last 8 or so months was one of the top 4 juniors.

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In addition to the two previously mentioned, I also really enjoyed Marty's match with Sho.  In fact, Sho and Yoh's matches were the highlights of the block finals night for me.  

Regarding Ishimori, I couldn't help but think, with a wide grin,  while watching last night's match with Hiromu, "in case there was still any doubt, THAT'S why they hired Ishimori!"  After so many years of watching him in NOAH, one thing I can say for sure is that Ishimori is so physically gifted he actually has to tone things down, so to speak, in mid-card matches.  When he's in a semi-main or main event and can go all out, it's always been off the charts.  Hiromu is a guy willing to do anything, and Taiji is a guy capable of doing anything.  As I had hoped, it turned out completely insane.  

 

 

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16 hours ago, EVA said:

 My only quibble with the final is that I hated Hiromu burned that crazy headdrop that he literally just debuted to kill Kushida the night before.

 

That was my only problem with the final. That butterfly head drop driver is a crazy awesome move and it sucks that it was used like it was. If that spot was was switched out with the Time Bomb and the head drop was was used as the pin, the match would have been a hair better. But it was an amazing match andboth men came out looking great. I was worried that Ishimori was going to win to establish himself more but I was so glad that Hiromu won I was marking out (at my desk at work luckily I have my own office so no one knew :ph34r:). Really look forward to his match with Osprey at Dominion. 

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Meltzer said he would have rated Ishimori vs. Takahashi 6 stars but he didn’t want to reward such a dangerous match too much.

People already picking apart this reasoning and pointing out how before he never had problems with people doing dangerous stuff.

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14 hours ago, Archibald said:

People already picking apart this reasoning and pointing out how before he never had problems with people doing dangerous stuff.

As they should. I'm generally heck of pro Meltzer even though I disagree with his fascination with movez but he's been insufferable the past few weeks. He's been saying the same shit about Ospreay and saying "what can you do? It sucks they're killing themselves" as Alvarez says a match takes a hit in his book because of the dangerous stuff. Meltzer's absolutely an enabler for guys like Ospreay. 

Friend and I watched the finals last night so I missed all the context had we seen all the group matches. I knew about the new head drop and the triangle though. We both thought it was pretty great but nothing we'd remember by the end of the year, especially after Dave blurted out it was one of the top 10 matches he'd ever seen. It's not the best Hiromu match I've seen, though it's up there. It's probably a fringe top 10 match of the year contender and I've not even watched the past month and a half or so of NJPW. We both agreed the KUSHIDA/O'Reilly final was better, but we both are KOR fanboiz. The one thing the match had going for it was the fantastic struggles during each of their finishers, particularly Ishimori's crossface. I also love how he applies it like it actually makes sense with how the arm is laced between his legs.

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my favourite BOSJ in a long time. knew that YOH and SHO would be great ballast for the blocks, but Hiromu was great, Ishimori looked at home, Desperado stepped up, Scurll did less bullshit, fuck, even Tiger Mask had some good showings. Great final, of a standard of the last 4 or 5.

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