Csonka’s NJPW BOTSJ (Night 10) Review 5.28.17

Csonka’s NJPW BOTSJ (Night 10) Review 5.28.17

OFFICIAL RESULTS
– Ricochet defeated TAKA Michinoku @ 7:42 via pin [***]
– Dragon Lee defeated Jushin Liger @ 7:54 via pin [***½]
– Taichi defeated Will Ospreay @ 10:08 via pin [**]
– Hiromu Takahashi defeated Marty Scurll @ 13:07 via pin [***½]

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* Csonka’s Top 5 Omissions From The 2017 BOTSJ.
* Csonka’s Top 5 Potential BOTSJ Winners.
* Csonka’s NJPW BOTSJ (Night 1) Review 5.17.17.
* Csonka’s NJPW BOTSJ (Night 2) Review 5.18.17.
* Csonka’s NJPW BOTSJ (Night 3) Review 5.20.17.
* Csonka’s NJPW BOTSJ (Night 4)Review 5.21.17.
* Csonka’s NJPW BOTSJ (Night 5) Review 5.22.17.
* Csonka’s NJPW BOTSJ (Night 6) Review 5.23.17.
* Csonka’s NJPW BOTSJ (Night 7) Review 5.25.17.
* Csonka’s NJPW BOTSJ (Night 8) Review 5.26.17.
* Csonka’s NJPW BOTSJ (Night 9) Review 5.27.17.

– These are block A matches today, no commentary, single camera shoot.

Ricochet vs. TAKA Michinoku: TAKA doesn’t look impressed with Ricochet. They grapple a bit to begin Ricochet then picks up the pace, hits a dropkick and sends TAKA to the floor. Ricochet chased, and when he came back in TAKA tried to kick the ropes into his balls, but he’s seen that already and avoided it. TAKA then took Ricochet down, stomping at his face and then following with a corner knee strike for a near fall. He then locked in the crossface. Ricochet would escape, and they traded strikes. Ricochet then stunned TAKA off the ropes and hit the neck breaker; the running shooting star press got 2. TAKA went back to the crossface, but Ricochet made the ropes. TAKA then hit a superkick, but Ricochet avoided the Michinoku driver, laid in a series of kicks and picked up the win with the benadryller. Ricochet defeated TAKA Michinoku @ 7:42 via pin [***] This was short, but it featured clean and strong work throughout, with an invested crowd. This style of match is perfect for TAKA right now, short and to the point, with him subtly trying to use his heel tactics and experience to out-do the youngsters.

Jushin Liger vs. Dragon Lee: Despite the fact that the booking shit all over Liger’s final BOTSJ, the crowds still love him so much. Thy do some mat work early, with Liger taking the advantage and forcing Lee to back off. Liger then took it back to the ground, looking to keep this fast little fucked down, but Lee made the ropes. They both fired up and traded chops, with Lee then sending Liger to the floor and following with a tope. This led to the Gedo special countout tease on Liger. Lee then laid the boots to him, and hit the hesitation dropkick in the corner. Liger then hit a shotei on then apron and then monkey flipped Lee to the floor and followed with the cannonball. Back in Liger hits the shotei and Liger bomb for a great near fall that fans bought. Lee picks up the pace, hitting a knee strike and basement dropkick, and covering for 2. Liger then decapitated Lee with a shotei, scoring the near fall. Liger then made the mistake of setting le up top and following him, they traded strikes and Liger visited the tree of WHOA and ate a hanging double stomp and then a regular double stomp for good measure. Dragon Lee defeated Jushin Liger @ 7:54 via pin [***½] For as much as I enjoyed the opener, I thought that this match was very good and a better match overall. In many ways this is what the Liger tournament matches should have been throughout, well executed sprints with Liger running wild, hitting his signature shit and constantly teasing neat falls before falling to the younger/faster juniors. I also love that Lee did the double murder death kill finisher, almost out of respect for Liger, knowing that he needed more than the garden variety finisher to put the legend away.

Will Ospreay vs. Taichi: Desperado & Kanemaru are with Taichi, young William has no friends. Taichi attacked during the introductions, and then took Ospreay to the floor for some brawling, IN A SUZUKI-GUN MATCH? YOU DON’T FUCKING SAY? THAT SEEMS FRESH AND ORIGINAL. Back in, and Ospreay looks to fire back with forearms, but Taichi rakes his eyes. He teased a dive, but Desperado tripped him up and then Kanemaru and he beat on Ospreay on the floor. Taichi joined in, we got a countout tease, and then back in the ring Kanemaru & Desperado took the ref, allowing Taichi to attack Ospreay with the bell hammer. This allows Taichi to then walk around and do nothing before deciding he wants to his some strolling corner clotheslines. Ospreay fires up and hits a jumping kick to the face, uppercuts follow and then the hesitation dropkick. Ospreay then takes out Desperado, and hits suicide dives on Kanemaru and Desperado; the Sasuke special followed on Taichi. Back in and Ospreay hits the springboard forearm, and running shooting star press for 2. Taichi fires back with kicks, covering for 2. Ospreay avoids the superkick, they counter back and forth and then Ospreay heads up top and hits the shooting star press for 2. Ref bump, Desperado and Kanemaru lay the boots to Ospreay, but Ospreay fights them off and hits a head kick and then the tornado kick. Taichi cuts off the OsCutter with a superkick, covering for 2. Kanemaru takes the ref, mic stand shot by Taichi and he hits the last ride for the win. Taichi defeated Will Ospreay @ 10:08 via pin [**] This begrudgingly gets **, only because Ospreay put on a great athletic display wrestling himself. While “fuck Taichi” is always the safe option, it’s now to the point where it is “fuck Suzuki-gun,” because they are taking matches that should be good, or at the very least enjoyable and ruining them with the completely unnecessary overbooking. You can pretty much plot out 90% of the match before it even hits the ring, it’s sad, it’s lazy and CHAOS is a shit stable because no one came out to hell young William. Outside of the booking of Liger’s final run, Suzuki-gun has been the worst part of the tournament.

Marty Scurll vs. Hiromu Takahashi: These two faced off at RevPro Epic Encounter in a pretty great match. Both men are careful early, with Scurll looking for a cradle and Takahashi kicking out. Scurll they busts out some world of sport like grappling and lays in chops. Takahashi teased the sunset flip bomb to the floor, but Scurll fought him off and they brawled on the floor, which due to the single camera was hard to see at times. Back in with Scurll taking full control and starting to target the arm. Good focus by Scurll here, but Takahashi picks up the pace and hits a RANA, sending Scurll to the floor. Takahashi followed with a running dropkick off the apron, and then back in the ring, covered for 2. Takahashi then hit a pop up powerbomb, which got a near fall. Scurll countered the time bomb into a cradle for 2. Scurll then fired up and beat down Takahashi in the ropes, but Takahashi got pissed answering back with rapid-fire strikes; but Scurll cuts him off with the last shot. Takahashi rolls to the floor, and Scurll follows with the apron superkick and then a second. Takahashi won’t stay down so Scurll hits a third. Back in they go, they trade strikes and clotheslines; they trade superkick and then Scurll puts an end to that, piledriving Takahashi for 2. Scurll then charges Takahashi but runs into an overhead toss into the buckles. The time bomb follows, but Scurll kicks out at 2, not a fan of that. Scurll fights off another time bomb, locks in the chicken wing but Takahashi escapes. Scurll kills him with knee strikes, but pops up and hits the corner DVD. Scurll uses the finger break spot to counter the time bomb, breaks them again and locks in the chicken wing. Takahashi then powers out, hitting the time bomb and picking up the win. Hiromu Takahashi defeated Marty Scurll @ 13:07 via pin [***½] This was a very good match and a good choice for the main event, but the one thing I hated was that another person kicked out of the time bomb. While it makes Scurll look good, one thing NJPW has been really good about is protecting finishes and saving the kick outs for major matches/major shows. Having people kick out during the tournament is not a good idea. With that out of the way, I really enjoyed this match. While not quite as good as their RevPro Epic Encounter, I do feel that they learned from that meeting and made good adjustments to streamline things and I believe down the line they have a great match in them. Takahashi’s win puts us at five men with 8 points.

BLOCK A STANDINGS
– Taichi: (4-2) 8pts.
– Will Ospreay: (4-2) 8pts.
– Dragon Lee: (4-2) 8pts.
– Hiromu Takahashi: (4-2) 8pts.
– Ricochet: (4-2) 8pts.
– Marty Scurll: (3-3) 6pts.
– TAKA Michinoku: (1-5) 2pts.
– Jushin Liger: (0-6) 0pts.

BLOCK B STANDINGS
– ACH: (3-2) 6pts.
– Desperado: (3-2) 6pts.
– Yoshinobu Kanemaru: (3-2) 6pts.
– Ryusuke Taguchi: (3-2) 6pts.
– Tiger Mask: (2-3) 4pts.
– BUSHI: (2-3) 2pts.
– Volador Jr: (2-3) 2pts.
– KUSHIDA: (2-3) 2pts.

– End scene.

– Thanks for reading.

“Byyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyye Felicia!”

7.0

The final score: review Good

The 411

Night 10 was a good show overall, with Liger vs. Lee & Takahashi vs. Scurll being the matches you need to see if you are cherry picking the best of each day.