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NJPW Best of Super Juniors 26


Raziel

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Didn't want to fall way behind on this tournament like I did the NJPW so I binged the hell out of it the last four days. All caught up now. SIX THOUGHTS

1. I like a good zensho-yusho story. I liked it when Devitt did it, I appreciated it when Liger did if (not the broader Liger vs. Heavies story that buried the Junior division, though... was that Choshu's fault?), and I'll dig it here if they go for it. Plus! A Hiromu comeback would make it all so much tastier. 

2. Ospreay's going to win the block unless they do some crazy ELP-causes-a-double-countout angle. They should at least tease it - if ELP and Eagles win tomorrow a DCO would create a four-way tie on top with all kinds of wackiness with the tiebreakers. If ELP loses and Eagles wins, a DCO would cause a three-way tie between Ospreay/Taguchi/Eagles that Eagles would win. There's some stories to tell with all of that, particularly ones that may play in to the inevitable Eagles face turn.

3. Big Match Gooch is done. The Taguchi main events vs. DOUKI, BUSHI YOH and ELP were simply not up to snuff. It hurts to say but he needs to be relegated to the veteran with a losing record status next year. I guess it should be noted that all his main events were on smaller shows, but eeeeh.

4. On the flipside, those Rocky Romero main events were the best matches of the tournament and some of the savviest bits of booking I've seen out of this company. Rocky vs. ELP looked like nothing on paper and wound up feeling like as big a deal as Shingo vs. Ishimori, if not bigger. Rocky shined like I would have never believed. Jubilant shit right there, bravo.  

5. The three Korakuen shows were some of the easiest, breeziest wrestling shows I've ever had the privilege to take. World-class audience, Juice goofing it up on commentary, sensible match times and absolutely no filler made that whole stretch incredibly enjoyable. They're something I'll recommend to newbies for awhile, too, just a perfect way to get a snapshot of the entire division. Hope they do it again next year.

6. New Japan tournament booking needs to change. You can determine the winners of so many matches simply by seeing who's matched up on the final days. I understand not wanting to run semis + the finals on the same day, but there's a ton of ways around that. I'd like to point to the 2000 BoSJ as a potential solution - the final day of the tournament saw Block A vs. Block B matches for 3rd, 5th, 7th, etc. place. Run those the penultimate day of the tournament + semi-final matches and see if that doesn't fix everything.

Edited by John E. Dynamite
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That Brody King guy, wow. How long is he under contract to ROH?

Edit: Okay, this is the Moxley that I wanted coming out of FCW. Going back to the tights is a good look. Concerned a bit at the end when Juice kicked out of the “Death Rider”, but nice to see Moxley win a few seconds later with the Implant DDT version of the “Death Rider”.

Edited by LoneWolf&Subs
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Damn. What a final. Did not feel like 33 minutes. A few sloppy spots here and there and it was sort of scary (yet awesome) when Takagi hit that big dive and got his leg caught in the railing. If modern wrestling is a video game, Takagi is a boss who suddenly regenerates all his health and has to be taken down again and again.

Anyway, Ospreay announced at the end that he is moving to Japan and at the presser he challenged Dragon Lee for the title at Dominion.

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Incredible main, though I'd have rather seen Shingo run the table. Still, it's clear what trajectory Ospreay is on, and--no matter how bad he is at twitter--it's hard to say it isn't deserved.

And Moxley in the G1 doesn't sound so bad now, does it? Probably the best singles match I've ever seen from him. Brings a lot of the walk and brawl style Jericho does, but with 20 years less mileage on him. And Juice, unfortunately for him, is just too good at making others look good.

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Really fun show. Better than a lot of G1 final shows in many respects. Top 3 matches were all really good and very different. If pressed I'd say I liked White-Tanahashi the most. Looking forward to more Moxley once he gets into the style some more but a positive, if overdone, start. Main was grand.

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I'm calling Moxley "Ore-Ida" from now on because he brought the potatoes in spades tonight. Poor Juice.

Funny to see Juice coming out all serious while dressed like the bastard stepson of Jimmy "Boogie Woogie Man" Valiant. I also wish they'd built up to him getting the haircut, because I think there could've been some money there.

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17 minutes ago, Pete said:

 

Funny to see Juice coming out all serious while dressed like the bastard stepson of Jimmy "Boogie Woogie Man" Valiant. I also wish they'd built up to him getting the haircut, because I think there could've been some money there.

Too late, Paul Jones died last year. ACH before the WWE snatched could’ve been a modern Pez Whatley in the angle.

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So catching up on the card, looks like they're going to split Robbie Eagles away from Bullet Club, which is OK I suppose.

Also, Gino is not as good of a BC shill as Callis was.

 

EDIT: Gino, Gino dammit.

Edited by Raziel
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2 minutes ago, Raziel said:

So catching up on the card, looks like they're going to split Robbie Eagles away from Bullet Club, which is OK I suppose.

Also, Chino is not as good of a BC shill as Callis was.

I cracked up for Jay two-sweeting Gino after he took out Tanahashi on the floor. Has Gino done anything with BC since they announced him last year? Or is it some weird Australia-only BC?

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1 minute ago, Pete said:

I cracked up for Jay two-sweeting Gino after he took out Tanahashi on the floor. Has Gino done anything with BC since they announced him last year? Or is it some weird Australia-only BC?

He's pretty much filling the Callis "over the top BC shill on commentary" role, but without Callis', well, natural delivery.  Gino comes off as someone trying to hard to be the shill.

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Speaking of factions, I hope they resist the urge to slot Moxley with BC or CHAOS if he sticks around for the long haul. Let him do the lone wolf thing.

I was amused at his intro chyron. Everyone else gets cool nicknames or titles held above their names like SNIPER OF THE SKIES, 100 YEAR ACE, YOUNG LION, HEEL MASTER, JAPONESE DEL MAL (Douki)... and Moxley gets WWE'S DEAN AMBROSE. Nailed it!

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13 minutes ago, Pete said:

I was amused at his intro chyron. Everyone else gets cool nicknames or titles held above their names like SNIPER OF THE SKIES, 100 YEAR ACE, YOUNG LION, HEEL MASTER, JAPONESE DEL MAL (Douki)... and Moxley gets WWE'S DEAN AMBROSE. Nailed it!

They couldn't even put up DEATH RIDER? Weird.

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Still not sold on Moxley being anything more than what he showed in WWE.  This match basically had Juice giving zero shits about his well being and diving full blast into everything, but Mox was kinda just, there.  Perhaps with some more time he might work the WWE off him, but I'm not blowing a G1 spot on him yet.

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1 hour ago, Raziel said:

I gotta check, are we still not accepting that Jay White is actually good?  Because he's actually good.

Who is saying he isn't good here?   He's almost as good as Okada right now.  Liked Jay/Tana more than the two matches after.

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Good lord Juice absolutely killed himself getting the Mox over. I hope it was worth it.

White/Tanahashi was yet another good illustration of just how much Jay has improved and made the Switchblade persona work since that first match against the Ace. Fantastic stuff and really liked the finish.

Ospreay winning surprised me quite a bit as Shingo was just a beast and on such a huge roll. The match was NJPW epic overkill, but I prefer that to NXT's version and I like both of these guys much much more than Cole and Gargano. 

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