Kevin’s NJPW Best of the Super Juniors XXIV Night Eleven Review

NJPW Best of the Super Juniors XXIV Night Eleven
May 29th, 2017 | Korakuen Hall in Tokyo, Japan | Attendance: 1,311

The B Block gets live treatment again. No single camera, no commentary stuff here. It’s an interesting show because, if results pan out, everyone could end the night tied in points. Time to see how B Block will shape up heading into its final night.

B Block: El Desperado [6] vs. Tiger Mask IV [4]
Desperado started 3-0 but hast lost two straight. Tiger Mask has had quite the impressive tournament. I enjoy Desperado, but he’s not immune to the tired pre-match Suzuki-Gun attack and outside brawl. He focused on Tiger Mask’s knee, and the Tiger Mask sold it well. Desperado went for various submissions and attempted to remove Tiger Mask’s mask. I appreciate that he didn’t completely resort to the same boring tricks like the rest of his stable. Tiger Mask fought from behind and connected on a Tiger Bomb and Tiger Suplex to win in 10:20. A rock solid way to start the tourney matches. Tiger Mask had to overcome a lot and it worked all came together well. [***]

B Block: BUSHI [4] vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaru [6]
One member of an awesome stable (LIDJ) and one member of a lame one (SG). f*** Kanemaru for jumping BUSHI while his dope theme song played. And guess what? It led to a brawl through the crowd. This stale ass stable and their stale ass matches. Like when met Kanemaru, BUSHI kind of played the de facto babyface and it worked. His suicide dive to take out TAKA was great and got a good reaction. Kanemaru used Suzuki-Gun’s dreaded tequila bottle as mist but failed. BUSHI hit MX and picked up the win at 9:27. I dig BUSHI but even he couldn’t overcome the dullness of Kanemaru. Too much of the same old, same old at times. I did like babyface work from BUSHI and that cheating backfired in the end. [**½]

B Block: ACH [6] vs. Volador Jr. [4]
For some reason, ACH didn’t trust Volador to shake hands at the start. Volador has mostly been a babyface so far. I guess he was right because Volador kicked him low once they shook. From there, this was non-stop action and moved at a crazy pace. There wasn’t a ton in the way of psychology or story, just two guys hitting their shit in an effort to win. That’s fine sometimes. I think it worked well here because everything they did felt important. The highlight might’ve been ACH hitting a quartet of suicide dives. He’s been a blast in this tournament. Volador won this insane battle with a massive super rana at 12:02. This wasn’t the kind of match everyone likes, but I had so much fun with it. More of this please. [***½]

B Block: ROH World Television Champion KUSHIDA [4] vs. Ryusuke Taguchi [6]
TAGUCHI JAPAN EXPLODES! They met on this same day last year (***½). Due to their friendship, this was clean from the start, which is a nice change of pace from the past three matches. They worked the expected body parts, and when that didn’t work, they progressed to striking. The exchanges were great, with armbars and ankle locks galore. Though I’m tired of the “desperate come from behind rally” in these tournaments, KUSHIDA has done well with his. He was willing to get a bit dirty when he needed to, but didn’t take it overboard to where he looked like a heel. His rollup attempt out of Dodon felt like a last ditch effort, but he dug deep and hit Back to the Future to earn the victory in 22:53. I thought that when he had the great match with Hiromu, Taguchi was done putting on great performances. I was wrong. This ruled. Their chemistry was top notch and KUSHIDA’s determination was palpable throughout. I liked the little things too, like stealing each other’s moves, as their usual stuff failed. [****]

With everyone tied at six, it can be confusing heading into the final B Block show. Thankfully, my buddy Dante came up with this helpful tweet.

Handy #njbosj B Block scenario post for Thursday pic.twitter.com/polQBMObCo

— Dante, The Voc (@dpvoc) May 29, 2017

 

A Block	Points	B Block	Points
Ricochet	8 (4-2)	El Desperado	6 (3-3)
Will Ospreay	8 (4-2)	Yoshinobu Kanemaru	6 (3-3)
Dragon Lee	8 (4-2)	ACH	6 (3-3)
Hiromu Takahashi	8 (4-2)	Ryusuke Taguchi	6 (3-3)
Taichi	8 (4-2)	Tiger Mask IV	6 (3-3)
Marty Scurll	6 (3-3)	KUSHIDA	6 (3-3)
TAKA Michinoku	2 (1-5)	BUSHI	6 (3-3)
Jushin Thunder Liger	0 (0-6)	Volador Jr.	6 (3-3)

8.0

The final score: review Very Good

The 411

Probably my favorite B Block show thus far. Everything clicked, as even the worst thing (BUSHI/Kanemaru) was still solid. Tiger Mask/Desperado was a fun opener and ACH/Volador felt like a less-hyped version of Ricochet/Ospreay. The main event truly delivered one of the better tournament matches and B Block has an interesting scenario were everyone is tied with six points.