NJPW: Best of the Super Juniors 29 Night Four Review - May 19th, 2022

NJPW Best of the Super Juniors 29

Night Four 

May 19th, 2022

Hachinohe, Aomori, Japan

1) Taka Michinoku & Yoshinobu Kanemaru vs. YOH & Hiroyoshi Tenzan 

Kevin Kelly says YOH has the best poker face in wrestling. That’s fair. YOH is 1-1 in the tournament, rebounding the night before this with a victory. The Suzuki-gun boys charge YOH & Tenzan at the bell. This is all about previewing YOH/Kanemaru which happens in a few days. This is pretty lifeless, though. Like there’s nothing WRONG with it but yeah. YOH wins with the direct driver. 

Match rating - *1/2 

2) Alex Zayne, Clark Connors, Jado, & Ryusuke Taguchi vs. Dick Togo, SHO, Gedo, & Taiji Ishimori 

This surprised me. There was actually some fire behind some of this. Since I’m behind, I’ve heard that Zayne & Ishimori have a really good match coming up and based off their interactions here, I can definitely see the chemistry. Even Clark Connors looked good here off a tag cleaning the apron of his opponents. Togo & Taguchi had some fun exchanges as well. Just a good time here. The faces win, but Ishimori attacks Zayne after the bell to further that story. 

Match rating - **1/2

3) Shingo Takagi & Hiromu Takahashi vs. Ace Austin & Tiger Mask 

NJPW: Best of the Super Juniors 29 Night Three Review - May 18th, 2022

NJPW Best of the Super Juniors 29 

Night Three

May 18th, 2022

Sendai, Miyagi, Japan

BLOCK A REDEEMS ITSELF ~!

1) Tiger Mask & Yuto Nakashima vs. Kosei Fujita & Ryohei Oiwa

Enjoyed the heck out of this little thing. Just simple wrestling with the young lions & Tiger Mask. Much better than the stupid House of Torture openers from the last two nights. Tiger Mask hits the Tiger Driver for the win a few minutes after he’s in and the young lions had done their thing for a few. 

Match rating - **1/2

2) El Phantasmo, Dick Togo, & Gedo vs. Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Master Wato, & Jado

NJPW: Best of the Super Juniors 29 Night Two Review - May 17th, 2022

NJPW Best of the Super Juniors 29

Night Two 

May 17th, 2022

Sakata, Yamagata, Japan

At the Sakata City Gymnasium for the first night of B Block action. This is a little nostalgic cause it instantly reminds me of 2018-19 when I watched the BOSJ shows as they happened. 

1) Hiroyoshi Tenzan, YOH, & Yuto Nakashima vs. Clark Connors, Kosei Fujita, & Ryohei Oiwa 

YOH and Connors begin. They face on night three so it’s an understandable way to start this off by teasing that match. They’re the real focus and story of this similar to how Yuta/Eagles was last night in the opening eight man except it’s not nearly as good. Sorta lifeless. Connors gets the pin in 10 minutes or so. 

Match rating - **

2) Ace Austin & Tiger Mask vs. Taka Michinoku & Yoshinobu Kanemaru (Suzuki-gun) 

Kanemaru charges Austin at the bell. They face off in singles tomorrow so naturally that’s the whole reason this is happening. This was just like the opener.. fine, but just a house show effort for six minutes. Austin gets the pin on Taka for the victory for he & Tiger Mask.

Match rating - *3/4

3) Dick Togo, SHO, & Taiji Ishimori (BULLET CLUB) vs. Alex Zayne, Ryusuke Taguchi, & Jado 

It sucks that everything House of Torture almost has a **1/4 ceiling because of the incessant foul play. This had some good action in its short time with Alex Zayne hitting his first exciting move of the tournament. But they still had to go the weapons route for SHO to tap out Jado. Sigh. Fun while it lasted before that, atleast. 

Match rating - **

4) DOUKI (Suzuki-gun) vs. El Lindaman (STRONGHEARTS) - Block B Tournament Match 

NJPW: Best of the Super Juniors 29: Night One Review - May 15th, 2022

New Japan Pro Wrestling

Best of the Super Juniors 29

Night One - Block A

May 15th, 2022

Nagoya, Aichi, Japan

Commentators - Kevin Kelley & Chris Charlton

Japanese Commentators - Milano Collection AT & Toru Yano 

1) Wheeler Yuta, Kosei Fujita, Ryohei Oiwa & Yuto Nakashima vs. Robbie Eagles, Tiger Mask, Master Wato, & Hiroyoshi Tenzan

I unexpectedly am hyped about this opener before it even begins. Yuta teaming with the young lions and looking like a star leader as he backs them out to the apron, volunteering to start first was so cool. Plus hearing commentary talk about Yuta’s mentor being Regal and his history was nice. Okay and yeah, the match RULES. Yuta begins with Eagles and that’s the thread that comes back into play throughout the match. They end up linking back up a number of times during this and it’s definitely the highlight. All of the lions get time to shine and particularly are able to beat up on Master Wato a good bit by isolating him. Fujita in particular stood out with a set of AWESOME dropkicks. Like.. damn. Wato ends up recovering and getting the win for his team after about 10 minutes. This was great and a blast. 

Match rating - ***1/4 

After the match, Wheeler Yuta & Robbie Eagles come face to face again outside. Eagles grabs a commentary headset and says 

NJPW: Windy City Riot Review - April 16th, 2022

NJPW Windy City Riot

April 16th, 2022

Chicago, Illinois 

NJPW Strong Openweight Champion - Tom Lawlor (since 4/23/21)

IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Champions - Jeff Cobb & Great O' Khan (since 4/9/22)

Commentators - Kevin Kelly & Matt Rehwoldt

1) Yuya Uemura, Clark Connors, & Karl Fredericks vs. QT Marshall, Nick Comoroto, & Aaron Solow

This was a decent enough opener. The feed was cutting in and out and actually cut out completely for a minute or so. For this reason, I don’t want to comment too much, but everything about this seemed super solid so YEAH. Good kick off, technical issues aside. 

Match rating - **1/4

2) Chris Dickinson, Fred Rosser, Ren Narita, Josh Alexander, & Alex Coughlin vs. Team Filthy (JR Kratos, Danny Limelight, Black Tiger, Royce Isaacs, & Jorel Nelson)

Welll god damn. I didn’t expect to enjoy this so much. But holy shit it ruled. All the preliminary action is just fine with everyone getting a chance to shine then shit breaks down. JR Kratos and Alex Coughlin have an awesome back & forth before Kratos completely steals the show with a fucking dive over the corner top rope onto everyone else on the outside. Truly fucking insane shit. Between this and the Bloodsport match with Thatcher a few weeks ago, I’m fully on board with Kratos. This leads to Rosser and Black Tiger showing out in the final moments with Rosser tapping out Black Tiger for the victory. 

Match rating - ***1/4

After the match, Tom Lawlor comes down to help his team assault Rosser following the loss. This leads to Yuji Nagata coming out for the save and demanding their match be made a title match. Andddddd here we go!!!

3) Tom Lawlor (c) vs. Yuji Nagata - NJPW STRONG OPENWEIGHT TITLE MATCH

NJPW: Wrestle Kingdom 16 Night One Review - January 4th, 2022

New Japan Pro Wrestling

Wrestle Kingdom 16 - Night One

January 4th, 2022

Tokyo, Japan

1) Sho (w/ Dick Togo) (BULLET CLUB) vs. YOH (CHAOS)

This is a story that I missed unfolding for the most part. Sho turned heel on his Roppongi 3k partner because he felt like Yoh wasn’t pulling his weight. Yoh made it to the Best of the Super Juniors finals late last year which really proved that point wrong. Sho obviously is pissed about this which adds to the heat of this one. This opens the show which is a nice change of pace because most WK’s I’ve watched in recent years have opened with a tag of some sort so getting a nice little juniors grudge match was a fun change of pace. It’s really a simply worked match, nothing crazy, but good for what it is. Sho works super well as the heel aggressor and Yoh sells his ass off underneath. The finish is really well done with YOH selling the fuck out of SHO’s submission, looking like he’s about to go out, only to escape and score a flash pin for the victory. Good likeable babyface shit using some sly tactics to outsmart the sneaky heel. 

Match rating - **3/4

2) Hiroshi Tanahashi, Rocky Romero, & Ryusuke Taguchi vs. KENTA, El Phantasmo, & Taiji Ishimori (BULLET CLUB)