NJPW - Best of the Super Juniors Discussion Thread

[Seth]

As promised, I'm starting this forum off with a NJPW thread!, a discussion thread for the Best of the Super Juniors Tournament! This tournament begins May 21st. Last year's ended with an amazing final, Kyle O'Reilly vs KUSHIDA, one of my favorite matches of the year and really underrated. How will this year go? Let's look at the participants!

Block A
Bushi
David Finlay
Gedo
KUSHIDA
Kyle O'Reilly
Matt Sydal
Rocky Romero
Ryusuke Taguchi

Block B
Bobby Fish
Chase Owens
Jushin Liger
Ricochet
Tiger Mask
Volador Jr.
Will Ospreay

The Young Bucks were supposed to be in opposite blocks but were replaced due to injury by Chase Owens and David Finlay.

This is a Round Robin tournament, so each wrestler in each block faces each other in one on one matches, and whoever ends up with the most points of each block faces one another in the finals.

Not sure what to predict here. I hope Taguchi loses every single one of his matches because he's my least favorite wrestler in NJPW right now - he's stolen/adopted many of Nakamura's mannerisms and most of his offense is ass-based - think Naomi.

For A Block, I don't know if there is any one clear favorite. Bushi and Los Ingobernables are on fire, but both O'Reilly and KUSHIDA seem likely to advance to the finals. Either way looking forward to their rematch from last year.

For B Block, Ricochet and Will Ospreay are the lock. Will Ospreay is shiny and new and everyone loves him, but he's not unbeatable - he just lost to KUSHIDA. I would about to type "Ricochet is one of the best in the world" but that goes for about half this tournament!

It is worth noting that the winner of this tournament gets a shot at the Junior Heavyweight Champion - which is KUSHIDA himself.

I guess my official prediction is that we get Ospreay vs KUSHIDA in the finals - a rematch from their last big event - where Ospreay gets his win back. They face off at Dominion for the tiebreaker.

How can you watch these shows? Well, if you don't already know about NJPWWorld, it's New Japan's version of the WWE Network. There are also plenty of illegal streams that air New Japan shows live - though not all of these matches are aired live IIRC. I'm going to likely do my best to watch as many of these matches as I can and I'll see if I can post any really great/notable matches I come across.

So anyway, not sure how much discussion I'll get out of this so feel free to talk about past tournaments or any of the participants!

[Seth]

www.dailymotion.com/video/x40q9yd_kyle-o-reilly-vs-kushida-with-english-commentary_sport

Here is last year's final I was raving about, with english commentary!, by none other than JR himself!, along with Josh Barnett. It comes with some story segments leading into the match.

[Nathan "Perfection" Chambers]

They showed that on AXS TV too last week.

[Ultimate destroyer]

ive wondered why wwe never promoted with the jap feds really ..... I know wcw did but that's because of terry funk and muto pushed it

[That Brad Kane Guy]

Anyone but those piles of shit known as reDragon. Personally I'd like to see Ricochet win it again as I am a huge mark for him. But Ospray is that NBT name right now. So I can see him winning too.

[Seth]

I work late tomorrow night and was considering staying up to watch the first show, but it only starts at 5:30 AM my time so I'm not gonna be able to do that. Plus, the openers are a bunch of six man tags*. Everyone here knows how much I hate those!

That said, it features the OReilly/KUSHIDA rematch I'm so hyped about. None of the other matches are really blockbusters to me though, besides being interested in how David Finlay is going to fare.

*Upon further review, the undercard is two six mans and one eight man tag! WCF! WCF!

[Deleted]

May 20, 2016 0:21:07 GMT -5 Ultimate destroyer said:

ive wondered why wwe never promoted with the jap feds really ..... I know wcw did but that's because of terry funk and muto pushed it

Because Vince is racist? He does nothing with Mexico, as well. My only theory on the matter, and its an extreme theory. But the only one I can draw.

[Mikey eXtreme]

May 21, 2016 16:14:49 GMT -5 @game said:

May 20, 2016 0:21:07 GMT -5 Ultimate destroyer said:

ive wondered why wwe never promoted with the jap feds really ..... I know wcw did but that's because of terry funk and muto pushed it

Because Vince is racist? He does nothing with Mexico, as well. My only theory on the matter, and its an extreme theory. But the only one I can draw.

I always assumed it was because Vince hates acknowledging other companies, unless it is him buying the company.

But racism could also fit.

[Stuart Slane]

May 20, 2016 0:21:07 GMT -5 Ultimate destroyer said:

ive wondered why wwe never promoted with the jap feds really ..... I know wcw did but that's because of terry funk and muto pushed it

Because

[That Brad Kane Guy]

May 20, 2016 0:21:07 GMT -5 Ultimate destroyer said:

ive wondered why wwe never promoted with the jap feds really ..... I know wcw did but that's because of terry funk and muto pushed it

Casuals won't know who the hell it is. No money in it.

[Seth]

I finally watched the first night after trying in vain to stay up to do it live, pretty good show. Nothing groundbreaking with the big tag matches, but the KUSHIDA/OReilly rematch was sick.

That has my favorite moment of the match, just insane.

[Ultimate destroyer]

well once on CRN's wrestling show they used ot have every Friday they had one of the gurreros and I called him in and asked wht didn't the lucha feds didnt have a English commentarty show and his response was "non latinos wouldn't understand the cultural references and such " me and the host at the time mike llano argued with him for 2o minutes on what bs that was

considering wcw was half of aaa and emll and promo Azteca and tennay was doin g a weekly thing on it explaining it very well ..

(id like to inquire as to his thoughts on lucha underground)...... when I met tennay who I was acquainted with because of the same show ( we met at halloweene havoc in vegas) he said he  heard it and just chuckled and  said eddie was the brightest gurrero they've had in 20 years .....

But I think that's part of vinces thinking is no one knows the japan guys are .... maybe with the BC in nxt going over that might change

[Seth]

Spoilers should go without saying at this point -

I can't believe Taguchi made it this far, but he was impressive during the finals. I was pretty ignorant of him and didn't really know what he could do, and he did well, though I still hate his butt offense and his Nakamura taunt stealing shit.

Congratulations to Ospreay, though, I think he's guaranteed the victory when he gets his Title shot.