Wednesday, November 25, 2020

NJPW: Best of the Super Juniors 2020 Night Four Review - November 23rd, 2020

NJPW BOSJ 27 Night Four
November 23rd, 2020

We're now in what some call the dull stretch of the BOSJ as they are running in their smaller house venues. None the less.. we are here and let's get into it.

1) Tomoaki Honma & Satoshi Kojima vs. Yuji Nagata & Gabriel Kidd

These matches are getting slightly repetitive, but it's still harmless run of the mill stuff. Kojima pins Kidd with a lariat. Not nearly as much urgency or drama as some of the prior meetings, it just felt like a foregone conclusion that Honma & Kojima were winning. 

Match rating - *3/4

2) Taiji Ishimori (4 pts) vs. Yuya Uemura (0 pts) - Best of the Super Juniors Tournament Match

Huge match and opener here for Uemura. The entire tournament is huge for him, but this may be the biggest match of all against the current junior champion. They start working holds on the mat and grappling for an advantage. Ishimori starts working the arm and goes heavy on it from there for a while. This turns into a fucking great match. Uemura sells the arm so well, even when he's locking in the crab on Ishimori as he's only able to do a single crab instead of a full. Ishimori was so vicious and precise in his work on Uemura's arm, hitting a nasty shoulder breaker at one point. Uemura fires up and hits some AWESOME stiff slaps to the face of the champion and is filled with desperation the whole match. God, this was so much fun. Ishimori's tourney has been boring aside from the night one match against Hiromu, but this.. this rocked and I didn't want it to end as quickly as it did, but booking wise it made sense. Yuya is still young, but spurts like this show that the future is bright. 

Match rating - ***1/4

3) BUSHI (2 pts) vs. Robbie Eagles (4 pts) - Best of the Super Juniors Tournament Match
BUSHI is coming off a loss in a fun main event against stable mate Hiromi Takahashi. Now, he's facing someone that has been called the MVP of the tourney so far -- Robbie Eagles. Admittedly, I kinda back this claim, his matches have been so enjoyable every night and his match with SHO on the show before this ruled. Here he dropkicks BUSHI off the top rope in the middle of his entrance and looks to start this one wild, only for BUSHI to cut off a dive attempt and hit one of his own to gain control of things. Eagles moves out of the way of a leg drop attempt and hits the flying drop kick to BUSHI’s leg. He works that for a little. They go back and forth and it’s pretty good, BUSHI busts out a damn Canadian destroyer for a two count on his way to eventually putting away Eagles which is an outcome I wasn’t expecting! I like it though, match was fun and BUSHI seems fired up coming off his loss to Hiromu. 

Match rating - ***

4) Hiromu Takahashi (4 pts) vs. DOUKI (0 pts) - Best of the Super Juniors Tournament Match

DOUKI starts this shit with a fucking huge sit out plancha thing onto Hiromu to the floor. This begins what turns out to be a pretty awesome spotfest. Hiromu delivers as always and DOUKI continues to impress. These two tore the house down and I loved every second of it. That’s all I can say, definitely check this one out! One of my favorites of the whole tournament so far.

Match rating - ****

5) Ryusuke Taguchi (4 pts) vs. SHO (4 pts) - Best of the Super Juniors Tournament Match  

I liked this a lot more than any of Taguchi’s other matches in this tournament so far. The tomfoolery was still there, but it worked here and we still got some good action down the stretch. Hell, Taguchi even went back for the leg/ankle a time or two before locking SHO in the ankle in the final few minutes so that was a nice touch. So yeah, fun match with some jokey stuff, but an all around good time. SHO wins! Yay!

Match rating - ***

6) El Desperado (4 pts) vs. Master Wato (4 pts) - Best of the Super Juniors Tournament Match 

This is a big match for both of these guys. They have the main event spot over guys like Ishimori (Junior champion) and Hiromu. Plus, they both are tied at 4 points. Despy starts from the bell jawing with Tenzan who is at ringside with Wato. This lures him onto the apron leading to Despy shoving Wato into him and the veteran crashing into the railing. This sent Despy into his game plan of the match as he taunts Tenzan as he wears down Wato with holds and strikes. They worked a simple formula here and didn’t go for an epic or drawn out main event and I respect that. Wato’s comebacks are fun and they have some great exchanges in the final few moments. Wato gets what I think is a huge surprise victory with a bridging pinning combination. Very suffice main event on an all around pretty great show. 

Match rating - ***1/4 

UPDATED STANDINGS AFTER THIS SHOW:
Hiromu Takahashi - 6 pts
Taiji Ishimori - 6 pts
Master Wato - 6 pts
SHO - 6 pts
BUSHI - 4 pts
Robbie Eagles - 4 pts
Ryusuke Taguchi - 4 pts
El Desperado - 4 pts
DOUKI - 0 pts
Yuya Uemura - 0 pts

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