wrestling / Columns
Csonka’s 2015 BOTSJ Breakdown
WELCOME
Welcome one and all! The 2015 Best of the Super Juniors tournament is done, and KUSHIDA is our winner. The tournament took place over a total of 13 shows, breaking up the tournament with three to four tournament matches on most shows. This year, thanks to the glory of New Japan World, I was able to cover all of the action and have decided to take a final look back at the tournament. Below there will be a break down of all of the matches, from worst to best. If you click the match rating, you will be able to go and read the review of that particular show. From there we will look at the average star ratings of the performer (for their tournament matches) and then I will wrap things up with my final thoughts. This will include some tournament awards and overall thoughts on this year’s Best of the Super Juniors tournament. Thanks for joining me for the column, and an extra special thank you if you followed along with the reviews…
THE MATCHES!
– Night Two: Ryusuke Taguchi defeated Barbaro Cavernario [½*]
– Night One: Alex Shelley defeated David Finlay [**]
– Night Four: Ryusuke Taguchi defeated Beretta [**]
– Night Eight: Chase Owens defeated Gedo [**]
– Night Ten: Beretta defeated Gedo [**]
– Night Ten: Ryusuke Taguchi defeated Jushin Thunder Liger [**]
– Night Twelve: Tiger Mask IV defeated David Finlay [**]
– Night Three: Mascara Dorada defeated David Finlay [**¼]
– Night Five: Mascara Dorada defeated Tiger Mask IV [**¼]
– Night Eleven: Bobby Fish defeated David Finlay [**¼]
– Night One: Tiger Mask IV defeated Nick Jackson [**½]
– Night One: Barbaro Cavernario defeated Chase Owens [**½]
– Night Two: Nick Jackson defeated KUSHIDA [**½]
– Night Three: Tiger Mask IV defeated Bobby Fish [**½]
– Night Six: Chase Owens defeated Yohei Komatsu [**½]
– Night Six: Nick Jackson defeated David Finlay [**½]
– Night Six: Rocky Romero defeated Tiger Mask IV [**½]
– Night Eight : KUSHIDA defeated Tiger Mask IV [**½]
– Night Nine: Ryusuke Taguchi defeated Yohei Komatsu [**½]
– Night Eleven: Kyle O’Reilly defeated Chase Owens [**½]
– Night Seven: Jushin Thunder Liger defeated Gedo [**¾]
– Night Nine: Bobby Fish defeated Mascara Dorada [**¾]
– Night Eleven: Barbaro Cavernario defeated Yohei Komatsu [**¾]
– Night Twelve: Mascara Dorada defeated Rocky Romero [**¾]
– Night One: Bobby Fish defeated Rocky Romero [***]
– Night One: KUSHIDA defeated Mascara Dorada [***]
– Night One: Gedo defeated Ryusuke Taguchi [***]
– Night Three: Beretta defeated Chase Owens [***]
– Night Four: KUSHIDA defeated David Finlay [***]
– Night Four: Rocky Romero defeated Nick Jackson [***]
– Night Nine: Rocky Romero defeated David Finlay [***]
– Night Twelve: Chase Owens defeated Ryusuke Taguchi [***]
– Night Two: Gedo defeated Yohei Komatsu [***¼]
– Night Three: Kyle O’Reilly defeated Jushin Thunder Liger [***¼]
– Night Seven: Ryusuke Taguchi defeated Kyle O’Reilly [***¼]
– Night Nine: Kyle O’Reilly defeated Barbaro Cavernario [***¼]
– Night Eleven: Mascara Dorada defeated Nick Jackson [***¼]
– Night Twelve: Jushin Thunder Liger defeated Barbaro Cavernario [***¼]
– Night One: Kyle O’Reilly defeated Beretta [***½]
– Night One: Jushin Thunder Liger defeated Yohei Komatsu [***½]
– Night Four: Barbaro Cavernario defeated Gedo [***½]
– Night Five: Kyle O’Reilly defeated Yohei Komatsu [***½]
– Night Five: Chase Owens defeated Jushin Thunder Liger [***½]
– Night Eight : Jushin Thunder Liger defeated Beretta [***½]
– Night Ten: KUSHIDA defeated Rocky Romero [***½]
– Night Twelve: Bobby Fish defeated Nick Jackson [***½]
– Night Six: Beretta defeated Barbaro Cavernario [***¾]
– Night Seven: KUSHIDA defeated Bobby Fish [***¾]
– Night Twelve: Beretta defeated Yohei Komatsu [***¾]
– Night Twelve: Kyle O’Reilly defeated Gedo [***¾]
– Night Thirteen: KUSHIDA defeated Kyle O’Reilly [****½]
Performer Star Rating Average
– The following performer averages only include matches that were part of the Best of the Super Juniors tournament. They are as follows…
* Kyle O’Reilly — 3.44 (8 matches)
* KUSHIDA — 3.25 (7 matches)
* Jushin Thunder Liger — 3.11 (7 matches)
* Yohei Komatsu — 3.11 (7 matches)
* Beretta — 3.07 (7 matches)
* Bobby Fish — 2.96 (6 matches)
* Rocky Romero — 2.96 (6 matches)
* Gedo — 2.9 (7 matches)
* Nick Jackson — 2.86 (6 matches)
* Bárbaro Cavernario — 2.79 (7 matches)
* Chase Owens — 2.71 (7 matches)
* Máscara Dorada — 2.71 (6 matches)
* David Finlay — 2.43 (7 matches)
* Tiger Mask IV— 2.38 (6 matches)
* Ryusuke Taguchi — 2.31 (7 matches)
* Alex Shelley — 2.0 (NOTE: Only wrestled one match)
FINAL THOUGHTS
To close out my look at the 2015 Best of the Super Juniors tournament, I wanted to give out some awards to some of the performers. They are…
Tournament MVP – Kyle O’Reilly: While he did not win the tournament, when all was said and done, Kyle O’Reilly is my tournament MVP. He worked the most matches in the field, and had the best matches overall. O’Reilly looked motivated the whole tournament, and while some guys were taking nights off on some of the smaller shows, O’Reilly was working hard and making the most of this opportunity. His performance during this tournament was excellent, and he sent a message to the NJPW higher ups that he was here to stay. I honestly would not be surprised this time next year to see O’Reilly winning the tournament, setting up a rematch with KUSHIDA for the title. The bottom line is that Kyle O’Reilly made this tournament his bitch.
Biggest Disappointment – Alex Shelley: Alex Shelley gets this unfortunate distinction, not due to poor performance, but due to his unfortunate injury. This was a case of another Super Juniors and another injury for Shelley. The injury came early this year, leaving him only wrestling one time and then having to forfeit the remainder of his matches. Shelley looked good last year and I was personally looking forward to his run this year. We didn’t get to see that, and while fans were disappointed, no one was more upset about the situation than Shelley himself.
The Dirty Bastard Award – Gedo: Gedo wins this one for two different reasons. First of all, during some of these matches when he was working the hard heel role, this dude had the sleaze turned up to about 14. This is a compliment, Gedo does all of those little things to make you hate him when the time comes, and I respect that. But the other reason is that this bastard booked the tournament and had me convinced that Taguchi and his ass attacks were going to the finals of this thing, and it drove me insane. But it was all a ploy by the booker man to create the final day drama, which was done well. Well played sir, well played.
Surprise Performer – Beretta: If you have read my reviews in the past, you would already know that I have been a big fan of Beretta since his WWE release. He has done a lot of good work on the WWNLive events, and has now hit Japan on a more fulltime basis as part of a tag team with Rocky Romero. He got a run in the 2013 BOTSJ tournament, but this year I felt he really stood out. Beretta worked hard, delivered good matches and worked himself into the upper tier of the average star ratings for the performers. Beretta has shown that if you’re willing to evolve, and work hard, that there is life after WWE for even the lower card guys.
The Jushin Liger Is Much Better Than You Award – Jushin Liger: A lot of people feel that Jushin Liger, at the age of 50, isn’t good anymore. They see him on a lot of these major shows in the throw away multi-man tags and think that he’s past his prime and has nothing left to offer, but I have disagreed with this for a long time. I have said that when called upon for singles matches, and with a motivated opponent, Liger not only and still brings it, but also helps these young performers. Old Man Liger is a guy I still enjoy watching in singles matches, and he brought his “A-Game” for this year’s tournament. Liger was easily one of the best performers in all of the tournament this year, played his role perfectly and the tournament wouldn’t have been as enjoyable without him. WAR OLD MAN LIGER!
Who to Watch Out For – Komatsu: For those that do not follow NJPW, you may feel that it is odd for a man that went 0-7 in the tournament to be my guy to look out for. Komatsu is a “young lion,” he works opening matches all the time and is there to learn and take losses. But he has steadily improved and grown as a performer, his performances in the tournament were overall very good and in the upper tier of all performers. I have said it before and will say it again, the guy is ready to move on from young lion status and needs to be elevated into the regular rotation of juniors.
The Guy I Want to Watch More Of Going Forward – Bárbaro Cavernario: HE’S A LUCHA CAVEMAN AND IS AWESOME! Seriously, I love this wacky bastard and am glad he was brought into the tournament.
And there we have it, the 2015 Best of the Super Juniors tournament is done and in the books. As a tournament, the booking ended up being good as we got the right finals match, good drama to get there and overall the matches were good. I was personally hoping a higher overall match quality because of the level of talent involved and because a lot of the matches (while fine) really could have been so much more. But that is what can happen in the tournament environment, especially when a lot of the shows were the single camera house show deals. Some guys just won’t work as hard and while there was only one stinker of a match, a lot of the tournament felt as if the guys were on cruise control. I will say that I had a good time covering the overall tournament. The G1 is reportedly being spread over more days this year, so if the format is similar to the BOTSJ tournament, I will likely cover it the same way.
* End scene.
* Thanks for reading.
