New Japan Pro Wrestling

Best of the Super Juniors: Night 1

May 22, 2015

Korakuen Hall – Tokyo, Japan

Watch: NJPWWorld.com

Since this is the opening show for the Best of the Super Juniors tournament, and it’s live in Korakuen Hall, surely there’s a blockbuster main event that will set the tone for the rest of the tournament, right? Well, if you think that Ryusuke Taguchi taking on Gedo is a main event in any arena, then my word are you ever correct! I’ll just get this out of the way now: I am not very happy that this is headlining while Kushida and Mascara Dorada are in the co-main (and, spoilers, their time was gimped). Gedo is one of the most underrated guys on the New Japan roster right now, and Taguchi…um, he’s not…terrible. At least it’s not another house show main event tag, which thankfully I won’t be seeing for a while…except later on tonight when there’s a big heavyweight ten man tag. Sigh.

Yohei Komatsu vs. Jushin Thunder Liger: Komatsu immediately jumped Liger at the bell, before he could even take his cape off. Liger made a comeback, took him to the outside and laid him out with a brainbuster. Komatsu actually did a great job doing the count out tease, slipping out back to the floor at 18 and sliding right back in at 20. This dude is such a natural at this stage of the game. Liger stretched him for a while with submissions until Komatsu went to the ropes. Liger tries a palm strike but Komatsu rolled him into a half boston crab. Liger caught him off the top rope with a palm strike then followed with another for a nearfall. He then hit a third one and a brainbuster for the pinfall. This was short, but really damn awesome while it lasted. ***½

https://twitter.com/SenorLARIATO/status/601685478702751744

Tiger Mask vs. “SLICK” NICK JACKSON: That was the nickname they gave him in the opening video. Slick Nick spent most of the opening minutes of the match telling Tiger Mask to suck it. Tiger Mask retorts by telling him to suck it as well, which got a pop from the crowd. Solid match with some fun stuff throughout. Nick goes for a 450 but misses, Tiger Mask comes back with a tiger driver then wins after the tiger suplex. Solid match with Nick doing the usual Young Bucks offense and Tiger Mask doing his usual stuff. Cody Hall got involved on the outside at one point, with Nick hitting a superkick aimed at Tiger Mask but instead hitting Hall. **3/4

https://twitter.com/SenorLARIATO/status/601689006884151296

David Finlay vs. Alex Shelley: Another solid bout. I don’t know about Finlay’s choice of back tattoos here, but who am I to judge? He was fine, but didn’t stand out much in this initial outing. A lot of the match was Shelley, with Finlay getting a few spots here and there. He eventually falls to the automatic midnight by Shelley. **1/2

https://twitter.com/SenorLARIATO/status/601691633491398656

Chase Owens vs. Barbaro Cavernario: This was alright, but kind clunky at times, felt like there was a styles clash during spots. Owens did a tope suicida on the outside at one point and Barbaro did a big dive off the top rope. Owens teased the package piledriver, but Barbaro escaped, rolled over him and applied the la Cavernaria submission (seated surfboard) for the win. **½

https://twitter.com/SenorLARIATO/status/601694726388117504

Hiroshi Tanahashi, Hirooki Goto, Tomoaki Honma, Katsuyori Shibata and Togi Makabe vs. Toru Yano, Shinsuke Nakamura, Kazushi Sakuraba, Tomohiro Ishii & YOSHI-HASHI: Yup, this was your usual house show tag match, just with better heat in a bigger arena. You can guess who paired off with who here, as Shibata paired off with Sakuraba, Ishii with Makabe, Tanahashi and Yano, and so on. Just generic stuff until the finish. The big ending to the match was between YOSHI-HASHI and Hirooki Goto. Of course, Hashi did his damndest to get the win here, laying out Goto with a lariat for a nearfall, then rolled him up for another great nearfall at 2.999. People freaked out over this kickout. Sadly, he walks into Goto’s neckbreaker, and when Shibata enters he hits the penalty kick and Goto lands the shouten kai for the win. ***¼

Bobby Fish vs. Rocky Romero: Initially the match started with some comedy, with Fish taking Romero’s eye patch and Romero poking him in the uncovered eye to get heat. Romero at one point did a big dive to the outside and into the crowd as well as a standing Sliced Bread #2. Fish makes a comeback, works over Romero’s leg with a half boston crab, and eventually Romero submits to a leg lock in a pretty good match with some solid heat. ***1/4

https://twitter.com/SenorLARIATO/status/601704871981686784

O’Reilly and Beretta, who were at ringside, entered the ring after and it became a brawl, immediately leading to the next match.

Beretta vs. Kyle O’Reilly: O’Reilly spent the first part of the match working on Beretta’s arm, but when O’Reilly caught him with a waist lock submission, lifted him and took him out of the floor. O’Reilly got the heat back after introducing Beretta with a chair and doing a huge running kick off the apron to the seated Beretta. He makes a comeback with a big belly to belly suplex off the top rope, and they have some good back and forth for a while until a kick out by Beretta allows O’Reilly to sink in an armbar that makes Beretta tap out. Another good match. ***1/4

https://twitter.com/SenorLARIATO/status/601710158637637633

Mascara Dorada vs. Kushida: Sad, disheartening news to report. They changed Mascara Dorada’s awesome dubbed music. It’s either new incredibly bland music or new incredibly bland dubbed music. This is such a terrible mistake. I LOVED THAT MUSIC. Even more than Liger’s goofy Super Nintendo theme. So, SO disappointed in this. It was so great, it reminded me of fun Gamecube-era games like Pokemon Colosseum. Like, those console RPG Pokemon games weren’t awesome, but they had fun music. MUCH LIKE MASCARA DORADA’s OLD MUSIC THEY GOT RID OF FOR NO REASON. Sigh.

Started off slow, with Kushida working over Dorada for a bit until he manages to take him to the outside. First big spot in the match was Dorada hitting a huge ropewalk asai moonsault. Kushida follows that with a big dive to the floor. Dorada went for a flip springboard on the ropes but as he hit the ropes Kushida hit him with a baseball slide then submitted him with a kimura. This was great while it lasted, but it was way too short given the kind of match they could really have. ***1/4

https://twitter.com/SenorLARIATO/status/601714596815228928

Gedo vs. Ryusuke Taguchi: Your main event, folks. Gedo immediately jumped Taguchi at the bell and laid him out with a draping DDT on the outside. He worked him over for a good part of the match, with Taguchi getting a couple of hope spots in between. The crowd were chanting for Gedo and were totally into him. He’s booked himself as a great babyface, that’s for sure. Taguchi started to make his comeback, using his new butt offense, which includes running the ropes and smashing his butt in Gedo’s face. Great near fall as Taguchi comes back with an ankle lock, then follows with a Dodon but Gedo kicks out. Taguchi went for the ring bell hammer, but Gedo moves out of the way. As they make their way back in the ring, Gedo is able to low blow him, lay him out with an STO and roll him up with the Gedo clutch for the surprise win. A lot better than you would think, mostly due to the layout of the match and the work of Gedo. He’s criminally underrated and I think that’ll show in this year’s tournament. ***¼

https://twitter.com/SenorLARIATO/status/601719203796754432

Final Thoughts: Nothing blow away, but mostly everything was pretty damn good. The opener’s intensity was great, some of the spots in the co-main were cool, RPG Vice and reDragon had some great battles and it was capped off with a very fun main event mostly thanks to the great Gedo, my new favorite wrestler right at this very moment. And no, it’s not because he beat Ryusuke Taguchi. Though, it helps immensely.

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