Category: Japan

(Photo credit New Japan Pro Wrestling/TV Asahi)

By Bryan Rose, WrestlingObserver.com

Last week, we saw Dragon Gate wrestler Ricochet defeat Kushida in the finals of the Best of the Super Junior tournament to become the 21st winner of the Best of the Super Juniors tournament. Now we move on to Dominion, New Japan’s annual June PPV in which Ricochet challenges Kota Ibushi for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight championship. Will Ricochet win once again, or will Kota Ibushi prove that he’s the best junior heavyweight in New Japan?

This event took place June 21, 2014 at the Osaka Prefectural Gymnasium, or the Bodymaker Colosseum.

Mauro Ranallo on commentary points out that this is the first of three episodes to cover the 2014 Dominion event.

Young Bucks versus Timesplitters first took place, and man what a match. From start to finish, this was an explosive 16 minute tag team match. I believe a few minutes were cut since it went to commercial around the 11 minute mark, but regardless this was a hell of a match. What struck me the most is the great tandem work by both teams. Everything just clicked here and it turned out to be a hell of a match. Kushida ended up picking up the win for his team, getting the hoverlock submission on one of the Young Bucks.

Kushida thanks Shelley for being his tag partner, then says that he won’t let anyone talk about the Super Junior tournament lightly. He promises that the Super Juniors won’t be a supporting role in New Japan.

Takashi Iizuka and Minoru Suzuki took on Toru Yano and Kazushi Sakuraba. These teams faced off countless times in 2014, so much I don’t remember individual matches. At least it makes sense in the face that Toru Yano & Takashi Iizuka have a beef, and Suzuki and Sakuraba were starting to build their match at the Tokyo Dome with this never ending tag series. Match was about what you’d expect- Suzuki and Iizuka would do their worked shoot style when in the ring and Iizuka and Yano would use weapons and brawl on the outside. This was a lot better than I remembered, with Yano being laid out with a chair, Iizuka’s iron fingers of death, then the Gotch piledriver by Suzuki for the win.

Suzuki promised he’d fight Yano and Sakuraba if they wanted to again, then called the press underlings. I’m very glad I can see Suzuki’s promos translated because they’re awesome.

Ibushi is interviewed. He said when he saw Ricochet he saw him as bigger and stronger, and that he had a similar moveset to him. He felt a bit threatened after seeing him in the finals. He felt more scared than excited before the match took place. He was imagining what the match would be like with fear in his mind.

The Junior Heavyweight championship match took place. This was as great as I remember it being. What stood out on a second watch is the performance of Ricochet. If anyone made the BOTSJ tournament mean something last year, it was him. He outshone Kota Ibushi here, and it’s amazing as Ibushi so far is in the running for many Observer awards this year if he has a great a year as he has in the first six months of this year. Ricochet was amazing, hitting a somersault tope through the ring post to the floor, one of the most amazing moves of 2014 anywhere, and landed on his feet after Ibushi hit a super hurricanrana off the top rope. Ibushi, however, pins him with a phoenix suplex, trapping him in a pinning position. Just a hell of a match and something that

Ricochet says he was the better man today, but he wants a rematch. Ibushi said he was truly amazing in his technique and learned a lot about him. Back to the post match interview, he says Ricochet’s resilience was abnormal- he’s like an animal. He was afraid during the match, but after words he realized he had fun. He used the phoenix suplex because it can’t be dodged, and that’s why he chose it. He saw it in a magazine where Kent Kobashi did a powerbomb with a jackknife hold. He got the names mixed up for a while and though he threw his opponent backwards, so he did it that way for a while and started to use it.

Overall, a fantastic show with two great matches, highly recommended viewing. New Japan Pro Wrestling on AXS TV might have dated footage, but in terms of storytelling and match quality, there’s few wrestling shows in 2015 that’s able to match it on a weekly basis.

by Bryan Rose, WrestlingObserver.com

Day 5 of the Best of the Super Juniors tournament took place early Wednesday morning. With Shelley out, there were only three matches.

Yohei Komatsu vs. Kyle O’Reilly

O’Reilly overpowered him early with some mat wrestling. Komatsu made the comeback on the outside and tried for a half Boston crab but O’Reilly got out of it. He counters with the armbar, but Komatsu reaches the ropes. The two exchange some great nearfalls, including a phantom cradle by Komatsu and a super stiff lariat by O’Reilly. But the latter prevailed, getting the win after a brainbuster. This was short, but pretty good.

Tiger Mask vs. Mascara Dorada

Tiger Mask played subtle heel in this match, working over Dorada, mostly on the arm. Dorada blindsided him with a dropkick and on the outside, did a huge ropewalk crossbody to the floor. He went for a moonsault, but Tiger Mask got the knees up. Dorada kicked out of the tiger driver and hit his finish, a variation of the Michinoku driver. Solid with a couple of fun spots by Dorada.

Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Chase Owens

There’s no love lost between these two rivals as Owens jumps him on the outside to start. Liger comes back with his rolling senton on the outside and applied a surfboard. Owens came back and used the referee a few times to distract Liger, including putting him in a leglock. Liger reversed a cradle piledriver attempt into a cradle, and when Owens got up laid him out with a palm strike. Owens came back once more, hit the throwback and finished Liger with a cradle piledriver. Short, but got the job done, nothing more.

Current Standings:

Block A:

Kyle O’Reilly (6)

Babaro Cavernario (4)

Gedo (4)

Ryusuke Taguchi (4)

Jushin Thunder Liger (2)

Beretta (2)

Chase Owens (2)

Yohei Komatsu (0)

Block B:

Tiger Mask IV (6)

Kushida (6)

Mascara Dorada (6)

Bobby Fish (6)

Nick Jackson (4)

Rocky Romero (4)

Alex Shelley (2) (Out of tournament due to injury)

David Finlay (0)

And here are recaps of the previous shows for quick reference:

Day 1: Gedo vs. Ryusuke Taguchi

Day 2: Kushida vs. Nick Jackson

Day 3: Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Kyle O’Reilly
Day 4: Ryusuke Taguchi vs. Beretta

By Bryan Rose, WrestlingObserver.com

Day 4 of the Best of the Super Juniors tournament took place early Tuesday morning in Yamagata. Here is a full report of the matches as well as the current standings.

Gedo vs. Barbaro Cavernario

Cavernario won after Gedo submitted with the la cavernia. This was pretty fun. Gedo controlled the first portion of the match, then Cavernario came back, hitting his big turnbuckle suicide dive. He aimed to go for his big splash off the top rope to the floor, but Gedo moved out of the way. He game back after posting Cavernario and looked to get the win after a superkick and a Gedo clutch attempt. Cavernario blocked it, however, and then submitted him. Crowd was into it and helped it become a pretty good match, though they were rooting for Gedo the whole time.

Kushida vs. David Finlay

Basic match with Kushida winning with the hoverboard lock. Finlay controlled him early, but Kushida made a comeback on the ropes. Finlay made one last comeback with a stiff looking European uppercut, but Kushida made the comeback once more and submitted him. Everything worked really well, but was just a match.

Nick Jackson vs. Rocky Romero

This was one of the longest matches so far on the tour. Pretty good match, however, as it was a lot back and forth between the two and they gel well. Jackson goaded him to punch him but Romero raked his eyes instead. He went for a sliced bread but Jackson tried to counter into a tombstone, then a rollup for a near fall. Romero made a comeback and pinned Jackson with a spinning tombstone.

Ryusuke Taguchi vs. Beretta

Taguchi tried his hip attacks early but Beretta laid him out and took him into the crowd to brawl, playing the heel in this match. Beretta worked on his hip (read: butt), but Taguchi made a comeback with his hip attacks. Beretta comes back with a belly to belly suplex off the top rope and hits a running knee strike for a nearfall. Taguchi comes back and hits the dodon for a nearfall, then gets the win with a sliding dropkick. This was fine, though Taguchi’s new gimmick turns a lot of his matches into goofy comedy.

Current Standings:

Block A:

Babaro Cavernario (4)

Gedo (4)

Kyle O’Reilly (4)

Ryusuke Taguchi (4)

Jushin Thunder Liger (2)

Beretta (2)

Chase Owens (0)

Yohei Komatsu (0)

Block B:

Tiger Mask IV (6)

Kushida (6)

Bobby Fish (4)

Nick Jackson (4)

Mascara Dorada (4)

Rocky Romero (4)

Alex Shelley (2) (Out of tournament due to injury)
David Finlay (0)

By Bryan Rose, WrestlingObserver.com

Here are night three of the Best of the Super Junior results, held earlier this morning in Niigata. Before going on, I should note that Alex Shelley is officially out of the tournament, suffering ligament damage in a match with David Finlay. Thus, all of his matches will be considered forfeit wins.

Beretta vs. Chase Owens

Solid match. Owens blindsided Beretta after spitting in his hand and was in control most of the match. Beretta made a comeback, but Owens laid him out with a package piledriver on the apron, which did not look like fun times at all. Beretta then came back, took out Owens and laid him out with an Omori driver into a pin for the win.

Mascara Dorada vs. David Finlay

This was good, but there wasn’t much heat. Finlay stood out for me in this match as he played the heel, and was pretty good at it. He controlled the match, mostly with mat wrestling, until he got up to the top rope and tried a springboard, but missed and connected with Dorada’s feet. He followed that up with a rope walk senton then followed with a Michinoku driver pinning combination.

Tiger Mask vs. Bobby Fish

Tiger Mask won with a rollup out of nowhere. A lot of this was Fish working over Tiger Mask, though at one point he missed a superkick and it landed on the ring post. They took turns working on each other’s legs until Tiger Mask got the phantom roll up. I found this to be dull in parts but it was solid overall.

Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Kyle O’Reilly

O’Rilley submitted Liger with an armbar in an upset. This was the best match of the night; nothing blow away, but worth watching as the last few minutes were pretty great. It started off slow, with O’Reilly working over Liger, but Liger made his comeback including the rolling senton to the floor. They had a back and forth match after this. Liger hit a hurricanrana off the top rope, but O’Reilly countered it into a sunset flip for a nearfall. He followed that with a tornado DDT into a brainbuster and when that didn’t work he applied the armbar and submitted Liger. Last few minutes were great.

By Bryan Rose, WrestlingObserver.com

Day 2 of the Best of the Super Juniors has been uploaded on New Japan World’s website. The full show didn’t air; rather it was just the three BOTSJ matches that took place on the show. It was a hard camera, no frills sort of setup.

Alex Shelley was scheduled to face Rocky Romero on this card, but suffered what appears to be an injury to his heel during his bout with David Finlay and thus wasn’t able to compete here. It seems like they’re postponing the match until they can determine if Shelley will be able to compete or not.

Gedo vs. Yohei Komatsu

This was fine, nothing noteworthy. Gedo took control of most of the match and threw Komatsu around the outside. Komatsu made a comeback, including sinking in the rolling boston crab, but Gedo was able to escape. Gedo caught Komatsu off guard with the complete shot out of nowhere and pinned him with the Gedo clutch. This got enough time and the pacing was good enough for it to be the best match on the card, though it wasn’t anything blow away.

Ryusuke Taguchi vs. Barbaro Cavernario

Comedy spots start this one out, with Taguchi coming to the ring wearing Cavernario’s bone on his head and both of them doing Taguchi’s poses. Cavernario took out one of the turnbuckles and did Sami Zayn’s suicide dive through the corner. Taguchi comes back with a big tope con hilo. Then he just picked up a win out of nowhere with a seated butt attack. You heard me right. Not that good, just goofy comedy with one or two good spots.

Nick Jackson vs. Kushida

Decent back and forth match. Nothing wrong with it all, but wasn’t there much in terms of heat, though eventually they got into Kushida. He was in control until Jackson kicked him and landed a 450 splash for the win. Not much else to it and the finish felt pretty anticlimatic.

By Bryan Rose, WrestlingObserver.com

After roughly a month of downtime, tonight New Japan Pro Wrestling on AXS TV returns for a second season. Last night, we kicked off this years Best of the Super Juniors tournament, so how fitting tonight we’ll take a look at last years Best of the Super Junior semifinals and finals! Taichi, Kushida, Ricochet and Ryusuke Taguchi have all made it to the semifinals, and on tonight’s show we’ll be seeing not only who advances to the finals, but who takes the whole tournament.

This took place June 8, 2014 at the Yoyogi National Gymnasium in Japan.

First up we have Taichi versus Kushida in the semifinals. Originally it was supposed to be Shelley taking on Kushida in a battle of tag team partners, but unfortunately Shelley injured his arm and was put out of the standing. Having not seen Taichi in months due to Suzukigun invade NOAH months ago, it was refreshing to see Taichi’s heel tactics. Say what you want about him, but he’s a terrific midcard heel in this division and is a perfect foil for Kushida. Their seconds, Shelley and Taka Michinoku, freely interfered throughout the match, but it fails for Suzukigun as Shelley wipes them both out with superkicks and Kushida taps out Taichi with the hoverboard lock (kimura). Not a blow away match by any means, but it told a nice story.

The next semifinal is Ricochet taking on Ryusuke Taguchi. This was cut due to time constraints, but what was shown was a great showcase for someone who’s never seen Ricochet before. The dude is straight up incredible. He not only has some great high flying moves, but the way he controls himself in the ring, his presence, his precision ON TOP of his ability is something to witness. He wins the match with the Benadryller (fireman’s carry into a roundhouse kick).

Kushida is interviewed for the main event segment. He started using the hoverboard lock from Kazushi Sakuraba. He recalls using the move on Liger in a singles match and getting the win. After the match, he told him to become the leader of the tournament. He remembers beating Ricochet with the move during the regular season as well. He says he is ability is incredible and he felt like he was facing an olympic level wrestler. He knows he has to show him something different from last time.

The main event aired. It started out slow, but by the end this became a really well done worked match. Lots of crazy spots including Kushida unleashing a big tope con hilo from the turnbuckle to the floor. Ricochet hit the Benadryller and a 630 splash but Kushida managed to kick out and actually get the hoverboard lock in at one point. Kushida fighting desperately out of a second Benadryller was a highlight of the closing moments of the match as well, but unfortunately for him he couldn’t avoid it after a roundhouse kick by Ricochet. He landed the Benadryller for the second time and pinned Kushida to win the Best of the Super Juniors tournament.

After the match, Kushida was upset about the outcome. He questioned what he lacked to win it all. He said he’d be back on top soon.

In in the ring, Ricochet cut a promo thanking the fans. He also challenged Kota Ibushi to a match. He came out and they had a staredown. After Ibushi left, Ricochet celebrated as confetti emerged.

Kushida reflects on the match. He really wanted to win, so it hurt him to lose. He had to meet the crowd’s expectations so he had to prove himself to the fans and tho the wrestlers. He said he’d like to bring the tournament back to the Ryogoku Kokugikan arena. He’ll continue to do what he does to show everyone the future of pro wrestling.

A terrific hour of wrestling, probably one of the best that have aired so far on AXS. It might not be running first run content, but New Japan on AXS is quickly shaping up to be one of the best wrestling television shows around. Next week on the show we’ll have the big Junior Heavyweight match between Ricochet and Kota Ibushi, the Young Bucks taking on the Time Splitters for the Junior tag titles and Minoru Suzuki & Takashi Iizuka face Toru Yano and Kazushi Sakuraba in their best of ten million series.

By Bryan Rose, WrestlingObserver.com

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. 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

Tiger Mask vs. Nick Jackson 

Nick spent most of the opening minutes of the match telling Tiger Mask to suck it. He retorts by telling him to suck it, then they go at it. 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.

David Finlay vs. Alex Shelley

Another solid bout. Finlay 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. Finlay eventually falls to the automatic midnight by Shelley.

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.

Ten Man Tag: Hiroshi Tanahashi, Hirooki Goto, Tomoaki Honma, Katsuyori Shibata and Togi Makabe vs. Toru Yano, Shinsuke Nakamura, Kazushi Sakuraba, Tomohiro Ishii & Yoshi Hashi

This was your usual house show tag match, 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, etc. Big ending to the match was between Yoshi Hashi and Hirooki Goto. Hashi laid out Goto with a lariat for a nearfall, then rolled him up for another great nearfall. He walks into Goto’s neckbreaker, however, and when Shibata enters he hits the penalty kick and Goto lands the shouten kai for the win.