Sunday, December 6, 2020

NJPW: Best of the Super Juniors 2020 Night Seven Review - December 2nd, 2020

NJPW: BOSJ 27 Review

December 2nd, 2020

1) Tomoaki Honma & Satoshi Kojima vs. Gabriel Kidd & Yota Tsuji 

Stoked they are switching things up here with this opener pitting both young lions together against the veterans. One thing that doesn’t change however is the lariat of Kojima being the final blow for the young lions. 

Match rating - **1/4 

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

Both men are mathematically eliminated from this tournament as they have no victories, but that makes this all the more fun as neither man wants to go out of this thing at zero points. DOUKI’s only victory last year came against a young lion so you know he’s frustrated being in that same position and the struggle Uemura gives him considering that adds a lot of drama. Really fun match that got the crowd believing in the false finishes and the possibility of a Uemura upset. 

Match rating - ***1/4 

3) Robbie Eagles (4 pts) vs. Ryusuke Taguchi (6 pts) - Best of the Super Juniors Tournament Match 

Eagles is another man who is technically out of this tournament and it’s a damn shame because he's delivered every night. This is an enjoyable little addition to his tournament though and he gets the victory over a former junior champion in Taguchi for the second year in a row!

Match rating - **1/2

4) Master Wato (8 points) vs. BUSHI (6 pts) - Best of the Super Juniors Tournament Match

This was a pretty fun match. Albeit the two people in this tourney I’ve been least interested in, they still did a good job here and kept it straight to the point. BUSHI looked somewhat motivated and delivered a pretty action packed match, and as a result, gets the victory. I have no clue how Wato has made it to 8 points anyway. 

Match rating - **3/4 

5) Taiji Ishimori (10 pts) vs. El Desperado (8 pts) - Best of the Super Juniors Tournament Match 

I’ve seen a lot of conflicting reviews leading up to this. Some loved it, some were disappointed, I fall somewhere in the middle! This was largely a submission based match which I appreciated because it wasn’t an epic attempt or spotfest. It was calculated and saw both men stretching the other with their signature submissions and working the entire match with that game plan in mind. They break down into some signature New Japan style strikes before Despy busts out a spin out powerbomb for a two count. Ishimori hits his knee busting lung blower thing but it may have just done more damage to the knees Despy has been working on. So, no capitalization or pin attempt there which allows Despy to fire back. The ref gets knocked down and Despy tries to use the belt but Ishimori catches him with a knee instead. Ishimori then goes to use the belt and the ref sees him and tries to take out which allows Despy to sneak one after a low blow. Ahh.. okay I see some of the hate now. 

Match rating - **3/4 

6) Hiromu Takahashi (10 pts) vs. SHO (8 pts) - Best of the Super Juniors Tournament Match 

WOW. We got a banger here y’all. I’m sure everyone expected that, though considering these two are both maniacs and this is a main event. SHO shows up with his neck taped up so it’s not looking good for him. SHO attacks Hiromu at the bell, but pays for it as he ends up getting slung around the outside railing doing more damage to his back and neck. To top that, Hiromu hit his flying powerbomb on SHO off the apron to the floor and HOLY FUCK I POPPED SO HARD FOR THAT. I think because he never lands it, it made it even more nuts when he did. They sold the count out well as the ref got to 19.5 before SHO was able to roll back in. As y’all know, I kinda don’t care for Kevin Kelly on commentary but his call here had me cracking up. As SHO rolled back into the ring following that insane move and count, he goes “... and the fool gets to his feet and rolls underneath the bottom rope” to break the count. The delivery was just hilarious and he followed it up with “I mean that in the most loving way possible” lmao. The two then go into straight throwing bombs territory. Lariats and Germans and fighting spirit spots. We love that. Just awesome shit and everything I wanted out of this match which I have been looking forward to since the cards were announced. SHO wanted this win and refused to die. He fought through the pain of his injured neck/back and pins Hiromu Takahashi to move to 10 points. This race is getting tight now with 4 guys at 10 points!!

Match rating - ****

UPDATED STANDINGS AFTER THIS SHOW:

SHO - 10 points

Hiromu Takahashi - 10 points 

El Desperado - 10 points 

Taiji Ishimori - 10 points

BUSHI - 8 points 

Master Wato - 8 points 

Robbie Eagles - 6 points

Ryusuke Taguchi - 6 points 

DOUKI - 2 points 

Yuya Uemura - 0 points 

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