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NJPW Best of Super Juniors 26


Raziel

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BLOCK A: 

Shingo Takagi (Los Ingobernables de Japon) - 4

Taiji Ishimori (Bullet Club) - 4

Tiger Mask - 4

Dragon Lee (CMLL) - 2

Jonathan Gresham (RoH) - 2

Marty Scurll (RoH) - 2

Titan (CMLL) - 2

SHO (CHAOS) - 0

TAKA  Michinoku (Suzuki-gun) - 0

Yoshinobu Kanemaru (Suzuki-gun) - 0

 

BLOCK B:

DOUKI (FREE) - 2

El Phantasmo (Bullet Club) - 2

Robbie Eagles (Bullet Club) - 2 

Ryusuke Taguchi (Taguchi Japan) - 2

Will Ospreay (CHAOS) - 2

BUSHI (Los Ingobernables de Japon) - 0

Ren Narita - 0

Bandido (RoH) - 0

Rocky Romero (CHAOS) - 0

YOH (CHAOS) - 0

*as of 5/16

 

Best of Super Junior 26 Finals

6/5 - Ryogoku Kokugikan, Tokyo

MAIN EVENT: Best of Super Junior 26 Final Match: WINNER BLOCK A vs. WINNER BLOCK B

 

Special Singles Match

Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. "Switchblade" Jay White (Bullet Club)

 

 

Edited by Raziel
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The "mystery entrant" is El Phantasmo.  Guess it's just a mystery because he hasn't debuted yet.

Wow, I guess that leaked poster was accurate.  Really bloated field.

I kind of assumed when it looked like they were bumping Ospreay back down to junior for this that Hiromu wasn't going to be good to go.

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Looking forward to Shingo lariating people, both members of RPG3K hopefully taking a step, and Despy getting his yearly "actually, this guy's really good" stage. (Although three SZG members means we're probably getting some tedious shenanigans.)

Mostly, it feels like Ospreay has to win this, but that he also has to move past being a junior. It's hard to reconcile both of those.

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I don't really see how Hiromu not being in this requires Ospreay to be in it. That being said he kinda has to get to the finals now, does he not?

Overall I'd probably would have preferred smaller field with Rocky, Taka, Ospreay and Flip not being in this. Heck, I could do without Marty and Eagles as well.

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Depending on when Hiromu is ready I think Dragon Lee is definitely a possible winner, with Hiromu coming out at the end setting up Dragon Lee picking him as his opponent for Dominion. But I think Shingo has a big chance of winning it all, he's been super protected and I actually could see him running through with a perfect record. Shingo, Ospreay and Dragon Lee are all real possible winners and I think Bandido could have a crack at it also. Marty could win too if NJPW wants to get one more title match out of him before his likely signing to AEW.

I agree that they could have made the field a little smaller but I'm interested in seeing the blocks. There aren't any wrestlers I don't like watching (at least from the ones I'm familiar with), Rocky and Taka aren't the guys they used to be but they can still do good things, I'm not a Flip fan but he's far from the worst guy I've watched

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I'm not sold on Hiromu being the Dominion challenger, as he's coming off a major neck injury and I'd think they'd want to ease him back in with a bunch of tags and lower stakes singles matches before throwing him into a title match.  But then again, this is Hiromu and he's never not going 100 mph so you never know.

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As an aside, out of 20 people, 12 (probably 15 if you really want to be techincal and count Taguchi Japan and the RoH stables) are in factions.  I'm almost getting to the point where I think NJPW should pull a DGate/Stardom and do a faction draft.

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3 hours ago, Archibald said:

I don't really see how Hiromu not being in this requires Ospreay to be in it. That being said he kinda has to get to the finals now, does he not?

Because without Hiromu, there is no money draw in this field.  They needed Ospreay, who’s pretty hot again right now, to fill seats.  He will definitely be in the finals.

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1 hour ago, EVA said:

Because without Hiromu, there is no money draw in this field.  They needed Ospreay, who’s pretty hot again right now, to fill seats.  He will definitely be in the finals.

Eh, I'm not sure if Ospreay really draws that much Japanese fans. I think that Shingo and Taiji are above him.

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4 hours ago, Sublime said:

But I think Shingo has a big chance of winning it all, he's been super protected and I actually could see him running through with a perfect record.

I do wonder about this, since--if I'm not mistaken--Shingo hasn't dropped a fall yet in New Japan. Usually tournaments have upsets, but it stands to reason his first loss will occur on a big stage.

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They are running 15 shows with 10-man blocks, this means that likely 4 shows will have 10 singles matches or that it will spread out thru the shows so that they have 5-7 singles matches. Point is that if Shingo is in block A then they don't really have to deliver intriguing main event every show, block B can take care of that. So if they wanted they could have Shingo win all matches in his block without hurting the business much.

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I'm pulling for a big Shingo win but I could see him going out in the semis. I'm also a little confused why Ospreay is in this especially since the field could use some trimming. Gordon, Phantasmo, and Eagles is at least two flippy white guys too many for my liking but hey, if any of them are going to step up this is time to do it. Should be a fun tournament!

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As for the finals, I'm going to assume Shingo vs. Ospreay is indeed the most obvious...and the most awesome!  No problem with that if that's where they're going.  

Gresham clearly has the interest from New Japan, so I expect some breakout matches for him.  At least, he will continue to impress.  

Titan is one of CMLL's real standouts this year, so they're catching him at a truly pivotal moment in his career.  Matches with either Ishimori or Dragon Lee (or both, thank you very much) would likely be incredible.  

Maybe this tournament is finally Marty's proper send-off?  He came in this way, goes out the same way.  Makes sense.  

 

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1 hour ago, sevendaughters said:

I hope that this tour is all juniors and the top-line heavyweights get some time off. I never liked having them jerk the curtain on BOSJ. No need. They've a heavy load off the back of this.

That said I like this field a lot.

I like that idea. Pad out the non-competing juniors with the young lions, throw in 1-2 faction dudes and you could give almost the entire heavyweight roster the month off.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Blocks and cards were released:

Well, I was wrong, last few shows are single block shows so they are probably not going to sneak anything in. Overall A block looks much stronger than B block, kinda how last G1 had much stronger B block.

For A block obvious semi-final looks like Shingo/Ishimori. B Block is more interesting, Ospreay sounds like easy pick, but his final match is against Taguchi. Can't see Taguchi being alive on last day so it looks like he is in position to screw Ospreay with a roll up or something like that. So I think that B Block semi-final might be ELP/Desperado? ELP is new guy and he is going to get a push, Desperado shined last year + had long Jr. tag run + is moving merch from what I have seen/heard + can bring heat against Dragon Lee and Hiromu. So is it a time for big Desperado win? With Kushida gone, Ospreay and Shingo likely moving to heavyweights after this tournament they need to establish new top guys in Jr. scene. I think that Dragon Lee and Taiji are almost there, if Desperado wins whole thing and has great match at Dominion he might get elevated to that status as well. Then add returning Hiromu and you got decent Jr. "main event" scene.

Bonus thing: Jay White/Tanahashi will happen on BotSJ finals day. I'm sure they'll help to sell tickets, but it is interesting that it is happening now since they'll probably then just have a tag-team rematch at Dominion.

Another bonus thing, as I understand finals is where TIMES UP wrestler will make an appearance to directly challenge Juice.

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1 hour ago, Horangi said:

Read that apparently Brody King will be working the undercards. No matches announced though

He's working either the opening match against Uemura or teaming with Marty Scurll against various opponents on any of the shows where there aren't like ten BOSJ matches.

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Looks like they're reasonably serious about resting the heavy lads. Good.

I think this BOSJ looks great and will check here for recommendations as I don't have time to watch it. I will obviously check night 1 out as Shingo-SHO and Dragon Lee-Ishimori is one hell of a giveaway.

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