Previously on NJPW: Roppongi 3K got their groove back, Shingo Takagi was definitely in the wrong weight class but we love him anyway, and Tanahashi saved Okada but it wasn’t a big deal, you guys, stop making a big deal about it, jeez.
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And now, the best and worst of… remember how during Best of the Super Juniors they filmed the tournament matches from the untelevised shows on the tour and uploaded them to New Japan World later? This is the best and worst of the Super Junior Tag League matches filmed like that from the October 19 show in Hiroshima and the October 20 show in Uwajima.
I thought the matches from these shows were mostly that mid-tier level of good match I mentioned when writing about the first round of Super Junior Tag League in my last column. This tournament is full of good wrestlers, the thirty-minute limit gives then enough time to have matches with substance without going too long, and the round robin format allows for some surprising match results. But also, none of these matches were on live New Japan shows; they were the only filmed matches on otherwise house shows and were never the main event of these shows, so it’s not shocking they didn’t have the same urgency of the main and semi-main event tag matches from the bigger deal Road to Power Struggle events.
Best: Crouching Tiger, Heavyweight Dragon
The October 19 venue, Hiroshima Green Arena, had a higher production value look than the various gyms at which the untelevised BOSJ matches were filmed. Also classing up the joint: after Bushi and Shingo Takagi enter for their match against Tiger Mask and Jushin Thunder Liger, TETSUYA NAITO jumps out from behind the curtain in his full big match suit. This dude just traveled to Hiroshima to support his pals from ringside at a house show for which he was not booked, and the audience loves it.
Tiger and Liger show a lot more attitude in this match than in their last two, seemingly inspired by Los Ingos. Liger and Bushi incorporate some tumbling as they open the bout, and the longer Takagi vs. Tiger Mask sequence is more straightforward and hard-hitting. Like all recent matches involving this team of legends, it’s slower paced than what we normally see in the junior heavyweight division. Still, the skill of everyone in the ring and the new combination of characters keep the match interesting. The match also continues a theme we’ve been seeing in Takagi’s first few NJPW matches of his opponents targeting one of his limbs to compensate for his size and power advantages, and he’s been selling this stuff enough that it at least somewhat slows him down.
It looks like an L.I.J. win is inevitable until Tiger Mask, after an enziguri from Bushi, looks like he’s going for a crucifix, but ends up basically rolling up his opponent for the three count. It’s a surprising result, but not an exciting finish at all. Tiger Mask looks really beat after this and Liger checks on him, and Tiger walks out of the ring while Liger is still thanking the crowd. Uemura replaces Tiger on the October 20th show, but he was back for his next league match on the 22nd.
Backstage, we get a good look at Bushi’s Halloween gear and learn that while Takagi’s red eyeliner looks pretty badass during his entrance, it makes him look like he has severe hay fever when it’s all smudged after a match.
Best/Worst: Pain Plus Comedy Equals A Title Shot
The following ACH and Taguchi vs. El Desperado and Kanemaru is a solid ninety percent cheating and butt stuff, just like my ex-wife!
The people of Hiroshima are hyped for Taguchi and love the rugby entrance, which Super 69 really have down at this point. There’s a nice moment of dramatic irony when the camera angle lets us see Suzukigun running up behind our heroes as they toss the ball back and forth. Things start looking pretty bad for the good guys when Despy and Kanemaru hit them with the whiskey bottle, stomp them, and target Taguchi’s butthole with the rugby ball.
The crowd is very charmed by ACH taking Taguchi’s place in his signature Funky Weapon spots, and then almost dead silent when the champs again gain the upper hand and start beating them up outside the ring. After a hot tag from Taguchi, ACH takes the match up several notches in terms of cool moves, but pays for it by holding his ribs, breathing hard. The teams go back and forth until Taguchi rolls up Desperado after a massive atomic drop for a patented ridiculous Taguchi win.
ACH and Taguchi do the former’s “super” pose together on the turnbuckle, but ACH has to drop his arm down quickly to hold his ribs.
Backstage, Taguchi asks for their earned title shot. ACH smiles and does peace signs, but also holds an ice pack over his midsection and appears to be in so much pain he can hardly stand up. I hope this is really good, very dramatic selling, but I’m thinking this dude is pretty seriously banged up with like two weeks of a tour to go.
Intermission: Backstage CommentMania
New Japan is uploading all the backstage comments with subtitles from all the matches on the Road to Power Struggle/Super Junior Tag League, even from the matches we can’t watch from the untelevised shows! Here are the notable things from those promos not directly after league matches.
On October 19, Sabin cuts a very earnest promo about how the next day’s match is the most important of the tournament for them and Kushida speaks English some more. These guys are adorable and I love them so much already.
Also on the 19th, Beretta and Chuckie T declare Jado is a snake and “we’re gonna cut Jado’s head off.” On the 20th, the former Chuck Taylor adds Gedo to the list of snakes who will be decapitated. Tama Tonga also cuts a pretty fire promo about the “grit work” the G.o.D. put in to be four-time IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Champions.
Backstage on the 20th, ACH doesn’t look like he’s dying! Maybe he’s healed up or maybe he just took it easy like a smart person during his multi-man tag. Coach Guchi drops some wisdom.
Suzuki is real mad at Ishii, who beat him to win back the RPW British Heavyweight Championship at Global Wars in the match after the one where Will Ospreay got injured. He shows how much he wants his rematch by beating up poor, poor Tsuji. The following night, Suzuki basically calls Ishii a coward for waiting for the wrestling company to approve his challenge. After this show, it was announced they’ll have their title match at Power Struggle and I am very hyped.
Naito came to this Uwajima show too! He was not booked and his L.I.J. boys just had a house show tag match against Young Lions, but he accompanied them to the ring in his full big match suit! This is pretty rad, but also… why is he doing this? This dude has kids and stuff in real life. Naito, go home!
Jay White says re: when he’s going to finish Okada, “I have a day in mind, but these people don’t deserve it. I have a special date in mind.” Could this special date be JANUARY 4, 2019??? He also claims to have someone working for him on the inside of Chaos, and I cannot even guess who this could be. (If it’s Yoshi-Hashi, just throw Bullet Club in the garbage.) (I kind of hope it’s Goto?) (Okay, my official guess is Ishii.)
The next night, Switchblade denies that he is the new leader of the Bullet Club and cuts one of his most sincere-sounding promos ever. He calls Tama Tonga, Tanga Loa, and Bad Luck Fale, whose names he takes care to pronounce as correctly as he can, “the three most dangerous men in this business” and he would have to be stupid to think he could tell them what to do. And being equals with/the frontman of the most dangerous men in this business seems to satisfy him, at least for now!
When Jay White first returned from excursion as the knife pervert, he felt like a kid trying super hard to be this scary tough guy. He’s grown into and developed the Switchblade character more now. He’s mean and a dickhead and has had some good matches and scored some high-profile Ws, but Switchblade is not the same type of heel originally advertised. Now that he’s with the BC OGs, I feel like that tryhard aspect of his character is emerging again as he tries to fit in with a different kind of bad guy. It’s kind of endearing, although does not make me want to see Okada kick his ass any less!
Bonus: Have you seen the new Soul Caliber IV commercial in which Naito has a sword???
What do you think are the chances Naito brings the sword to the Tokyo Dome?
Best/Worst: Spiritual Sweet Sixteen
The October 20th Uwajima show takes us back to that classic NJPW house show gym setup. Watching two luchadors wrestle two short guys with a sci-fi gimmick in this mundane setting really took me back to most of my indie wrestling-watching experiences! But this match is very much big leagues quality wrestling, outside of some awkward spots that looked very consensual and took me out of things.
Even at the beginning of the match, Kushida looks way less uptight and like he’s having way more fun than usual, and shows off his acrobatics when he’s tagged in against Soberano Jr. But interestingly, the Tag Team of the Future uses more traditional heel team tactics, targeting their high-flying opponents with fireworks-preventing technical wrestling and keeping Soberano in their corner. Volador Jr., after a hot tag, takes out both opponents, and the CMLL team hits their Doomsday Crossbody on Kushida. Sabin and Kushida eventually win with Outatime, the Time Splitters falling neckbreaker/moonsault combination finishing move, and it looks great.
Backstage, Kushida thinks they’re such a good tag team because of how they’re the fusion of the Motor City Machine Guns and the Time Splitters, and “Maybe 16 years – we work 16 years tag team. You know?… Your combination, our combination mix.” Sabin responds with “The triangle. The triangle is complete. The geometry is solid.” They guys are huge dorks and so good at wrestling. I love them. They’re going to lose so much in this tournament.
Best: Shometown Hero
Roppongi 3K keeps their positive momentum going when they defeat Robbie Eagles and Taiji Ishimori. Both of these teams consist of a twink and a twunk, but with opposite attitudes towards the rules of sports. They both get some crowd love in the form of signs from the group of people in the audience I initially thought were CMLL fans, but were revealed to have brought signs for everyone. These exceptionally positive wrestling fans also did not know how to spell Eagles’ first name.
Uwajima hometown boy Sho starts the match against Eagles, who I appreciate sells in a way that doesn’t look cool at all, though his character definitely thinks he’s super cool. Shades of Ric Flair, etc. Ishimori tags in against Sho for a showdown of two triangle-torso, somewhat orange guys. After Yoh deals with both heels for a while, Sho, understandably the main focus of this match, is soon tagged back in. After a spot I really liked in which he struggles to land a German suplex, it’s double teamwork and nearfalls until Rocky’s boys land the 3K for the win.
Our winners high-five people for so long that we get that rare listen of the bridge of their theme song, and Sho does an extra bow to the crowd right before he exits. I enjoy how New Japan almost always lets people go out victorious heroes in their hometown, which is a very positive experience to watch.
Here’s how the Super Junior Tag League points stand after these shows:
2 points – 1-2 – Suzukigun, Super 69, The Tag Team of the Future, Team CMLL
4 points – 2-1 – Tiger Liger, L.I.J., Roppongi 3K, BCOGs
That characteristic New Japan tournament logjam has begun! Nobody is undefeated and nobody is only defeated! I’ll see you back here later to this week after we find out if this tournament stays this competitive, and if Suzuki will blow a gasket before he can win back his title.
