New Japan’s Best of the Super Juniors Night’s 9 & 10

Round five of the Best of the Super Juniors tournament had a lot of fun matches and some standout performances. Bobby Fish finally arrived, Kyle O’Reilly is losing momentum, and KUSHIDA is just a Hoverboard locking machine.  

• Night 9 Block A (Fifth Round) Green Arena – Hiroshima

Ryusuke Taguchi (2) defeated Kyle O’Reilly: O’Reilly showed some personality when he purposely oversold almost being taken over by a sunset flip. O’Reilly went for a leg sweep but Taguchi jumped it and landed a dropkick on the way down. The finishing sequence was a beautiful display of reversals and counters with O’Reilly playing defense. O’Reilly kicked out of the Dodon and Taguchi snatched up his leg for the ankle lock to forced the tap.

Matt Sydal (2) defeated Rocky Romero: I could watch these two wrestle each other all day. Romero hit Sydal with a crazy looking sliced bread on the floor while running up the ring post. How do you run up the ring post?!? The end came when Sydal delivered a hurricanrana and hit a shooting star press for the win.

KUSHIDA (2) defeated Gedo: The crowd really enjoyed this match. It was really good. So good, that I was totally sucked in and believed that Gedo was actually going over here. The story of the match was KUSHIDA going for the arm while Gedo was on the offensive. After many attempts, KUSHIDA got the Hoverboard Lock. Gedo rolled around in an effort to reverse the hold but KUSHIDA just wouldn’t let go, which earned him the submission.

BUSHI (2) defeated David Finlay: Even though it’s mathematically impossible for Finlay to win the tournament at this point, he still shows an intense will to win during his matches. BUSHI was shocked that Finlay kicked out of a facebuster of sorts. He followed it up with a codebreaker from the top rope to seal the deal.

• Night 10 Block B (Fifth Round) Aichi-Nagoya International Event Hall 

Ricochet (2) beat Trent Baretta: After getting the better of Baretta in the early exchanges, Ricochet paid for his celebratory handspring backflip with a clothesline. Ricochet took an insanely high backdrop that he will feel in the morning. There was a lot of great action from both men that hit a fever pitch when Ricochet kicked out of the Dudebuster. Ricochet rolled up Baretta for a crucifix after being hit with a running knee for the pin.

Jushin Liger (2) defeated Tiger Mask: 1:12 was all that Liger needed to catch Tiger Mask coming off the ropes with an abdominal stretch roll up for the pin. There was no need to have a long drawn out match here. They’ve wrestled and teamed with each other multiple times over the years. Both men went for the kill right away and Tiger Mask drew the short straw.

Volador Jr. (2) defeated Chase Owens: Volador hit a suicide dive and followed it up with a smooth as silk crossbody off the top rope. Owens cut him off with a slingshot belly to backbreaker, took off Volador’s canary yellow mask and wore it until Volador made his comeback. Standing top rope hurricanrans always scare me, and this one was no different as Volador delivered one for the win.

Will Ospreay (2) beat Bobby Fish: Ospreay tweaked his left knee early but still managed to do some high spots until Fish cut him off with a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker. Fish wrestler like a man who needs some much needs points to stay alive in his block. Fish delivered a T-bone suplex to Ospreay on the floor. This match told the story of striker versus high flyer with Fish playing his part very well. Osprey hit the springboard RKO for the 1,2,3.

Current Scores

Final Thoughts: This tournament is picking up steam as it heads into the second to last round. I’m surprised there hasn’t been a draw yet. Each wrestler only receives one point for such a result, which could mean all the difference in the world near the top of the leader board.

I’m glad to see that Bobby Fish has a good match this time around. Before this round, he was the only wrestler in the tournament that hadn’t had a standout performance of some kind. On to round 6!