wrestling / Columns

Csonka’s NJPW BOSJ 26 Finals Preview

June 4, 2019 | Posted by Larry Csonka
NJPW BOSJ Final Top

WELCOME back to column time with Larry! Today, I am going to discuss and preview the NJPW BOSJ 26 Finals event. The BOSJ final between Ospreay & Shingo headlines the show, along with Juice vs. Moxley for the US Title, and Tanahashi vs. White. Feel free to make your picks in the comment section. Thanks for reading! It’s wrestling, we love it and will disagree. The only rules are “have a take, be respectful, and don’t be a dick.”

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Shota Umino, Titan, and Dragon Lee vs. Ren Narita, Jonathan Gresham, and Bandido: There’s nothing really attacked to this one in terms of storylines here, it’s a just a match to feature a bunch of the BOSJ performers and to give Dragon Lee a light night of action ahead of defending his championship at Dominion. With the talent involved here, this should be and likely will be a fun opener and there’s nothing wrong with that. As for the winners, it feels like a real coin flip and either team winning wouldn’t surprise me here. WINNERS: Shota Umino, Titan, and Dragon Lee

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SHO, YOH, and Ryusuke Taguchi vs. Robbie Eagles, El Phantasmo, and Taiji Ishimori: Not only is this a BOSJ all-star tag, you’d have to think that if Bullet Club pins one of Roppongi 3K, that they will be in line for a tile shot and bring us new challengers to he junior tag titles. It’s also a smart way to get Ishimori on the card following his injury issues as he cab work the light-hearted portions with Taguchi to take it easy. The interesting thing will be, if Bullet Club wins, which two will challenge for the titles? ELP & Eagles seem like the obvious pairing, but with the teases of Eagles turning face, maybe he’s the odd man out and that adds to he build for that potential face turn. WINNERS: Bullet Club

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DOUKI, Taichi, Yoshinobu Kanemaru, Zack Sabre Jr, and Minoru Suzuki vs. Big Tom Ishii, Toru Yano, YOSHI-HASHI, Jushin Thunder Liger, and Tiger Mask: This tag match serves two purposes, one being to build to Big Tom vs. Taichi at Dominion and the second to continue the build to Suzuki vs. Liger, which has been great so far. Those feuds will carry the match as well as bringing ZSJ back into the fold after some time off. I feel that Suzuki-gun wins here to get the unit some momentum following a disappointing BOSJ for them. WINNERS: Suzuki-gun

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Tetsuya Naito, EVIL, BUSHI, and SANADA vs. Toa Henare, Tomoaki Honma, Togi Makabe, and Kota Ibushi: This tag is all about the final build to the third Ibushi vs. Naito match taking place at Dominion as well as working EVIL & SANADA back into the regular mix. LIJ thrives in these multi-man tags, and it is their teamwork that should give them the advantage in the match and should lead to their win. I am really looking forward to the Ibushi vs. Naito interactions here. WINNERS: LIJ

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Kazuchika Okada & Rocky Romero vs. Marty Scurll & Brody King: This looks like a really fun tag match as CHAOS battles Villain Enterprises. Okada always has fun in these matches, and is more laid back while Romero is coming off of an extremely strong BOSJ run. Marty had a good BOSJ run, and King made his NJPW debut on the tour and not only performed well but impressed the crowds. Obviously Villain Enterprises could use a win here as it would be huge for them, but I feel that it’s really unlikely. With Okada in a major match on Sunday, I think that he picks up the win here, finishing Marty while King likely gets to impress overall. I am really looking forward to the Okada vs. King interactions as they may be a ton of fun. WINNERS: Kazuchika Okada & Rocky Romero

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Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Jay White: The rise of Jay White initially stated with his WrestleKingdom loss to Hiroshi Tanahashi. The loss, followed by an invite to join Bullet Club led to him joining CHAOS, where he broke things down from within. White picked up wins against Okada & Tanahashi in the G1, and then the big reveal came, White was Bullet Club, and this united Okada & Tanahashi for the first time ever. White continued to roll, beating Okada at WrestleKingdom and then beating Tanahashi for the IWGP championship. 2019 started of well for Tanahashi, winning the IWGP title, but then quickly fell to shit. He lost the title; he lost in the NJ Cup, and then lost to ZSJ at G1 Supercard and on top of that, had to take time off for surgery. So when he appears to announce his in ring return, who is there to ruin it? Captain Asshole, the OG Knife Pervert, Jay White. And that is what leads to this match, a feud with a deep history over the last two years, and taking place prior to the G1. The play is either Tanahashi gets a big rebound win, or White overcomes the still recovering Tanahashi and gains momentum; the argument can be made that both men need the win here. I think that either way can work, but I will go with the ace picking up the win here. WINNER: Hiroshi Tanahashi

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IWGP US Champion Juice Robinson vs. Jon Moxley: This one is interesting on a few different levels. It’s Moxley’s first post WWE match, so we’ll get a sense of how he’s going to work in the ring and how different it may be. It may also be another indication that NJPW will be looking to work with AEW in the future instead of ROH. The knife pervert video was great as no one expected it to be Moxley, Juice has wanted a new challenge and Moxley surely fits the bill. Juice is all fired up for this, it’s a huge match for him and Moxley will be out to quiet doubters in the first post WWE outing and also looking to impress the NJPW brass. With this being Moxley’s NJPW debut and rumors of more shows and appearances to come (there are a lot of rumors that he’s working the G1), I think they keep it simply and he wins in his debut, taking the title from Juice. WINNER: Jon Moxley

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BOSJ 26 Finals: Shingo vs. Will Ospreay: The NJPW BOSJ 26 field was absolutely loaded, and when all is said and done it may have been the best BOSJ of all time. It was certainly the best one I’ve covered. The field was awesome and you could have gone a lot of different ways for the final, but sometimes, the simplest booking and is for the best. When the competitors were announced, I think that the final that jumped of the pages for almost everyone was Shingo vs. Ospreay, two of the best in the world and two men who are likely working their last BOSJ. I am beyond excited for the match, because both guys are banger machines and also because Ospreay is one of the few guys that believably feels like he can beat Shingo, which should add a lot to the match. The dynamic should be great here, and I anticipate an electric crowd for this big time match. I want this match, I need this match, and I think that it certainly has MOTY potential. Ospreay will bring the fight, he will take it to Shingo, and it will likely be a lot closer than some think, but I see Shingo winning ahead of him winning the title from Dragon Lee, but I don’t see him in the juniors division for too long or in LIJ for too long either as a heavyweight run will eventually happen and he’s too much of a front runner to stay part of the group mentality; he’s going to be a big star. WINNER: Shingo

– End Scene.

– Thanks for reading.

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The 411 on Wrestling Podcast returns to the 411 Podcasting Network for episode 25. On the show, the good brother, Jeremy Lambert, joins 411’s Larry Csonka; the guys will discuss whether or not Jon Moxley is the biggest star in wrestling, break down NXT Takeover 25 and then preview the show that will allegedly be equal to or greater than WrestleMania, WWE Super Showdown 2019. The show is approximately 123-minutes long.

* Intro
* Is Jon Moxley The Biggest Star in Wrestling Right Now?: 2:20
* AEW Double or Nothing Does 98,000 Buys: 22:10
* The Most Frustrating Aspect of an NXT Takeover Special: 28:30
* WWE Counter Programming All Out & NJPW in London: 50:30
* NXT Takeover 25 Review: 55:35
* WWE Super Showdown 2019 Preview: 129:15

You can subscribe and listen to the 411 on Wrestling Podcast via the above player on Transistor, or on the following platforms:

* iTunes
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