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Tag: Ricochet

  • New Japan BOSJ results: Chaos vs. Ingobernables eight man; Ricochet vs. Volador Jr.

    Here we go with more Super Juniors tournament action! Today, the B block begins to take shape as we continue on in Gunma.

    Yoshi-Hashi and Rocky Romero vs. Jay White and Ryusuke Taguchi

    Solid match. White and Yoshi-Hashi had a pretty good sequence towards the end of the match, and White even kicked out of YH’s flipping neckbreaker. Yoshi-Hashi applied an arm scissors, however, and picked up the submission instead.

    Romero mentioned post-match that Yoshi-Hashi is looking to kick Sanada’s ass down the line. They’ve been building a program together during this tour.

    Captain New Japan, Matt Sydal, Juice Robinson, Kushida and Katsuyori Shibata vs. Yuji Nagata, Kyle O’Reilly, Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Manabu Nakanishi and David Finlay

    Pretty good match as the juniors busted out some cool offense. Shibata and Nagata zeroed in on one another throughout the match. Towards the end there were a lot of back and forth between Captain New Japan and Tenzan – CNJ even did the Mongolian chops, always a big no no. Tenzan got the last laugh, pinning CNJ with a moonsault.

    Tiger Mask vs. Baretta

    Nice match, though the crowd were quiet most of the time and it felt pretty long for what it was – solid work, just didn’t feel like a hot match at the end. Just okay back and forth. Baretta kicked out of a tiger bomb, but Tiger Mask sinked in the double arm scissors and got the win. The loss cuts Baretta from the finals, and Tiger Mask is already eliminated.

    Will Ospreay vs. Jushin Thunder Liger

    Another pretty solid match. Liger’s good at being the springboard for all of Ospreay’s offense. Ospreay looked pretty good and together they had a very nice match, though nothing too special. The win keeps Ospreay alive but eliminates Liger.

    Chase Owens vs. Bobby Fish

    Nicely worked match. They traded submissions and targeted each other’s legs. The problem was the crowd again as they just didn’t seem to care and just sat there. Fish submits Owens with a leglock. This puts out Owens, but Fish is still in, though it’s a longshot.

    Ricochet vs. Volador Jr.

    This was full of high flying moves, as you’d expect. Volador went for the hurricanrana off the top rope but Ricochet landed on his feel. Volador did an inverted code red. Ricochet went for what looked like an Alabama slam but Volador countered with a hurricanrana and SPIKED him right on the mat for the win. Very cool match, especially towards the end.

    Both are still in the tournament – if Volador beats Ospreay, he wins the block, simple as that. If Ospreay beats Volador, it boils down to how Ricochet vs. Owens goes. Owens pinning Ricochet eliminates him as he’d tie with a winning Ospreay and Ospreay has the tie over him. If Ricochet wins, however, he’d get 12 and beat Ospreay. So still a lot of variables heading into tomorrow.

    Kenny Omega, Bad Luck Fale, Yujiro Takahashi vs. Yoshitatsu, Satoshi Kojima and Michael Elgin

    This got more heat than the other matches for whatever reason. Perfectly fine match, it was all about Elgin looking strong and wanting to get his hands on Omega. Elgin went to use a steel trash can lid on Omega, but he ducked and hit Yujiro instead. He pinned him the sitout powerbomb. He grabbed Omega’s broom after the match and destroyed it, then chased Omega with the trash can lid to the back.

    Kazuchika Okada, Hirooki Goto, Tomohiro Ishii & Gedo vs. Tetsuya Naito, Evil, Sanada and Bushi

    Since Milano wasn’t here today, Naito decided to pick on Yoshi-Hashi, who was doing commentary post-intermission. It never got anywhere as Okada jumped him immediately. It was another good back and forth match that these two teams have had for most of this tour. Okada and Naito worked briefly, which the crowd were very much into. Sanada and Gedo were the ones left in the ring after them and Sanada submitted Geod quickly with the skull end.

    Ingobernables cleared the ring after the match. Yoshi-Hashi tried to make the save but Naito isolated him from the others and dragged him into the ring, but managed to escape. Naito finished the show cutting a promo.

    Not as strong as other shows, but good action overall.

    Block A:

    • Ryusuke Taguchi – 8
    • Matt Sydal – 8
    • Kyle O’Reilly – 8
    • Kushida – 8
    • Rocky Romero – 6
    • Bushi – 6
    • Gedo – 2
    • David Finlay – 2

    Block B:

    • Ricochet – 10
    • Volador Jr. – 10
    • Will Ospreay – 8
    • Jushin Thunder Liger – 8
    • Bobby Fish – 6
    • Baretta – 4
    • Tiger Mask – 4
    • Chase Owens – 2

  • DragonKingKarl Classic Wrestling Show: Ospreay vs Ricochet historically speaking

    Photo of Eddie Guerrero and Jerry “Mr. JL” Lynn by Karl Stern

    Classic wrestling host and wrestling historian Karl Stern takes a look at the recent Will Ospreay vs. Ricochet match from NJPW to see what all the fuss is about.  How does it fit historically?  Is this a bunch of flippy-doos doing something other than pro wrestling or is it a good match?  Are the criticisms of Jim Cornette and Vader valid?

    This leads to a deep discussion of the evolution of the Japanese junior heavyweight styles, and then a talk about the psychology of gimmick matches in the 1970s and 1980s which leads into a heavier than expected examination of society — an amazingly complex question.

    Other topics:

    • Examining historical Japanese Junior matches like Tiger Mask vs Dynamite Kid and the Best of the Super Juniors from the 1990’s with people like Chris Benoit, Eddie Guerrero, and Jushin Liger and seeing what Will Ospreay vs. Ricochet looks like historically.
    • A great listener question about the history of humiliation gimmick matches like strap matches and chain matches that opens a whole can of worms I had never considered before.

    Just a reminder that time is running out to order the giant wrestling history collection on the Super Stern Stick 16gb flash drive. The drive is going to be discontinued soon so if you’ve ever thought about ordering… well… time is running out.

    Right click save

  • NJPW Best of the Super Juniors results: Ricochet vs. Jushin Thunder Liger

    More Super Junior action took place on 5/30 in Tottori as B Block matches commenced:

    Will Ospreay vs. Tiger Mask

    This was really good. Ospreay moved around great and Tiger Mask was the good grumpy veteran who kept things grounded. At one point, Ospreay hit what looked like an inverted phoenix splash but Tiger Mask got the knees up, took him to the corner and hit a butterfly suplex from the top rope. Ospreay kicked out of that, but eventually submitted to Tiger Mask’s scissors armbar.

    Volador Jr. vs. Bobby Fish

    Fish controlled a lot of the match and worked on Volador’s leg near the end. Volador went to do something on the top rope, flipped over to the floor but his leg buckled. That allowed Fish to come in and hit a falcon arrow, but Volador kicked out. Fish followed with an ankle lock and submitted him. Good match.

    Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Ricochet

    Pretty good back and forth match. Liger was very competitive and did all of his big moves, including the shotei and the running senton to the floor. Ricochet made a comeback, hit a big time brainbuster but Liger kicked out. Ricochet followed that with his cobra twist submission for the win.

    Current tallies:

    Block A:

    • Ryusuke Taguchi – 6
    • Kyle O’Reilly – 6
    • Matt Sydal – 6
    • Rocky Romero – 4
    • Kushida – 4
    • Gedo – 2
    • Bushi – 2
    • David Finlay – 2

    Block B:

    • Ricochet – 6
    • Jushin Thunder Liger – 4
    • Baretta – 4
    • Volador Jr. – 4
    • Tiger Mask – 4
    • Bobby Fish – 4
    • Will Ospreay – 2
    • Chase Owens – 2

  • New Japan Best of the Super Juniors Night 2 results: Chase Owens vs. Will Ospreay

    Here’s a recap of the four Best of the Super Juniors B block matches that took place this morning in Shizuoka. Thankfully, New Japan World cut the tag team matches that fill these shows. Not that they’re bad, but they’re super formulaic. Some people get into them, and for the very good ones I can get into them too. Most of the time, I just can’t.

    Chase Owens vs. Will Ospreay

    This was pretty good. Owens is solid. Not flashy like some guys in this tournament, but works really well with a lot of people. Ospreay’s offense was tremendous here, doing everything including the Sasuke special to Owens on the outside. Owens cut him off and pinned him with the package piledriver in a surprise (at least, for me).

    There will probably be many examples like this during the tournament, not just because they want to add an air of unpredictability in the tournament but also because they probably had to change a lot of results due to the Young Bucks being pulled from the tournament.

    Trent Baretta vs. Volador Jr.

    I guess the rule in Japan if you’re a luchador that’s lost his mask is you can wear it for as long as you want, but you have to take it off sometime during the match. The first half of this was okay, nothing special. Volador did a cool dive to the floor. Seems like every time there was a big spot, things would slow down for a while. Things picked up after a while, but the match as a whole was just kind of there save for a few cool spots by Volador. He hit the top rope hurricanrana that won his match on the opening day, but Baretta kicked out. Volador went to charge in the corner, but Baretta lifted up up into the Dudebuster and nailed it for the win.

    Bobby Fish vs. Jushin Thunder Liger

    Both Fish’s theme and Liger’s theme are no longer dubbed over. For some reason, though, Owens’ theme was. Fish smacked Liger’s leg with some kicks early and focused on throse throughout the match. Liger made a comeback and hit the liger bomb for a nearfall. Liger went for a hurricanrana off the top rope but Fish grabbed the ropes, causing Liger to land on his bad leg. Fish kept working on Liger’s leg in a long ankle lock submission. Liger escaped, then managed to hold Fish down long enough by grabbing the ropes t o pick up the sneaky win. Do what you gotta do, I guess.

    Tiger Mask vs. Ricochet

    This was okay for most of it. Nothing bad, but Tiger Mask’s work is always just there, just good enough not to be bad. Ricochet didn’t do anything flashy for this match either and as a result the match in general was just kinda there. Ricochet picked up the submission win with a modified armbar.

    Current tallies:

    Block A:

    • Gedo – 2
    • Kyle O’Reilly – 2
    • Rocky Romero – 2
    • Ryusuke Taguchi – 2
    • Bushi – 0
    • David Finlay – 0
    • Kushida – 0
    • Matt Sydal – 0

    Block B:

    • Baretta – 2
    • Chase Owens – 2
    • Jushin Thunder Liger – 2
    • Ricochet – 2
    • Bobby Fish – 0
    • Tiger Mask – 0
    • Volador Jr. – 0
    • Will Ospreay – 0

  • Evolve 59 iPPV results: Ricochet vs. Will Ospreay; Matt Riddle vs. Zack Sabre Jr.

    Submitted by Pat Laprade 

    – Attendance was at least 1,000 people

    – Drew Gulak & Tracy Williams b Drew Galloway & Johnny Gargano to win the Evolve tag titles. After the match, Galloway cut a promo and turned on Gargano. He got some good heat for that. 

    – Chris Hero b Fred Yehi

    Note: We are almost an hour in and there’s only been two matches.

    – Sami Callihan b Anthony Nese in less than 5 minutes 

    – Ethan Page b Darby Allin in another very short match. 

    – Tommy End b TJ Perkins in the USA vs Europe series. 

    – Matt Riddle b Zack Sabre Jr to even up the series.

    The finish surprised the fans as Riddle won by submission and they were not expecting Riddle to win. Riddle will make it to WWE for sure. He has the look, the shape, the uniqueness, he shows a lot of charisma and he’s already good in the ring. I can see why they are interested. Very good match against Sabre Jr. The only reason why it was not a great match is that they kept it a tad too short, especially compared to the length of the first two matches. I would have took 5 if not 10 more minutes of this match. Liked it a lot. 

    – Marty Scurll b Evolve champion Timothy Thatcher in a non-title match with the chicken wing.

    Good match but again too short compare to the first two matches. After the match, Callihan’s music hit and we only heard an audio of him pretty much challenging Thatcher. 

    – Ricochet b Will Ospreay with the Benadryller.

    Freaking awesome match. Tough to say if it was better than Zayn and Nakamura because it was a different match. Crowd was ecstatic for it. And it’s an understatement. Arguably the best match of the weekend so far, probably with Zayn and Nakamura and with Sabre Jr and Ospreay from Evolve 58. 

    After the match, all the Europeans and Americans involved in the series came to the ring, since the series ended up 2-2, until Kora Ibushi showed up to a huge reaction to build the main-event of the Mercury Rising show presented later tonight.

  • Wrestle Kingdom 10 Preview Series: reDRagon vs. Young Bucks vs. RPG Vice vs. Matt Sydal & Ricochet

    Welcome to our Wrestle Kingdom 10 Preview Series, otherwise known (by nobody) as the #WK10PS! As January 4th nears, I’ll be bringing you previews of all the matches set to take place at the Tokyo Dome. Up first is the obligatory four-way tag team match for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Titles. 

    I have to be honest: I was not looking forward to previewing this particular match. No offense to any of the guys involved as they’re all great! I mean, Rocky Romero is pretty much the best. Trent has great Bill Murray knee pads. The Young Bucks are the Young Bucks. Kyle O’Reilly is awesome and had one of the best matches this year with KUSHIDA. Bobby Fish has a mean moustache. Ricochet and Matt Sydal are a fresh tag team and do an assortment of very pretty flips. With this much talent involved, it’s no doubt going to be a fun, funny, chaotic, fast paced, Dragon Gate style match.

    When I say I’m not looking forward to previewing this match, what I mean is that I’m not looking forward to trying to explain the storyline reason for this match But, before I endeavour to do that, let’s prolong the inevitable/get to know the participating teams a little better.

    reDRagon

    reDragon (Bobby Fish & Kyle O’Reilly) appear frequently in New Japan as part of the ROH/New Japan partnership. Along with being three-time ROH World Tag Team Champs, they are currently in their second run as IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team champs. Their first run came about after winning the 2014 Super Jr. Tag Tournament and going on to defeat the Time Splitters (Alex Shelley & KUSHIDA) for the titles. Their current reign started on August 16 at the G1 Finals when they defeated the Young Bucks. And yeah, they’re pretty great.

    Young Bucks

    The Young Bucks are another team out of ROH that are featured regularly in New Japan. They are also former ROH World Tag Champs and three-time IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Champs. They enjoy doing superkicks and telling people everywhere to suck it. Despite the constant ordering to do so, I’ve never seen any actually take them up on the offer, and I thank the lord for that every day. They’re also in this little group called the Bullet Club. You may have seen their shirts.

    Roppongi Vice, or sometimes, RPG Vice.

    Roppongi Vice are the Forever(ish) Hooligan Rocky Romero and Trent “My Name Is a Question” Baretta. RPG Vice formed after Romero’s Forever Hooligan partner Alex Koslov retired, leaving Romero in need of a new partner. I wouldn’t have minded seeing Romero become a singles wrestler as he’s one of the best and most entertaining juniors on the New Japan roster, but it wasn’t meant to be. It all worked out in the end as the also very talented and underrated Baretta joined Rocky in March this year to form RPG Vice. The duo very quickly captured the IWGP Jr. Tag Team Championship(s?) from the Young Bucks at Invasion Attack in April (They lost the titles back to the Bucks a month later, but who hasn’t?). Their theme music, produced by Romero, is ridiculously catchy and refuses to get out of your head. Furthermore, if they ever produce a line of perfume, it will be called Roppongi Spice.

    Matt Sydal & Ricochet (Air Puma?)

    To enter the 2015 NJPW Super Jr. Tag Tournament, singles stars Matt Sydal and Ricochet joined (air)forces to become…Matt Sydal & Ricochet: Tag Team! The Crown Prince of Boyle Heights and former Evan Bourne defeated the Time Splitters, Young Bucks, and Roppongi Vice in the finals to win the annual tournament. The team has adopted a very effective double team finisher of stereo Shooting Star Presses. Besides making for a great visual, thanks to the pair’s impeccable timing, what I love about it is that it’s a double team move that takes out both opponents. Pretty much every other double team finisher I can think of is done to only one opponent, leaving the other open to make a save. I just think that’s pretty neat. Let’s carry on.

    Well, I guess I’ve avoided this part long enough. So, just how did we get to this quadruple team title match?

    Here goes! To start, reDRagon (Fish & O’Reilly) are the IWGP Jr. tag champs (just like they were this time last year) so obviously they’re in. Sydal and Ricochet earned a title shot by winning the 2015 Super Jr. Tag Team Tournament, so they’re in. Now, this is where it gets a little fuzzy. The Young Bucks felt, and rightly so I suppose, that they deserved their rematch for the titles after losing them to reDRagon back in August, so they’re in. Finally, RPG Vice defeated reDRagon in the semifinals of the 2015 Super Jr. Tag Team Tournament, so they felt they too deserved a shot at the titles, and thus, they’re in. And the rest, as they say, is history. It does make you wonder what the purpose of having a Jr. Tag tournament when 50% of the teams end up in the Wrestle Kingdom title match.

    Of course, the simple version of the story is that four-way tag team matches for the IWGP Jr. Tag titles have seemingly become a traditional Wrestle Kingdom match. The last Tokyo Dome show that featured only two teams fighting for the titles was in 2011 at Wrestle Kingdom VI. Wrestle Kingdom 7 was a three-way, and since Wrestle Kingdom 8, it’s been four-ways.

    Personally, I’d prefer a traditional 2-on-2 tag match for the titles at the Dome. Four-ways are fun, but when it’s teams who’ve faced each other again and again, it’s hard to make the match up feel fresh (at least the new pairing of Sydal & Ricochet help with that issue). They’re always very fast, with a nice mix of athleticism and comedy, and with the level of talent involved, the quality is always top notch. They’re basically a very good Dragon Gate match. I guess the other upside is that eight talented and deserving workers are getting a spot on the card for the biggest show of the year instead of 4.

    Be prepared. There will be flips, splashes, superkicks, forever clotheslines, arm bars, guillotines, back rakes, Indytakers, Meltzer Drivers, Suck Its, and more! And if you blink, you’ll miss all of it.