Csonka’s NJPW BOTSJ Night Seven Review 5.26.18

Csonka’s NJPW BOTSJ Night Six Review 5.25.18

OFFICIAL RESULTS
– Block A Match: Flip Gordon defeated Tiger Mask @ 11:35 via pin [**¾]
– Block A Match: ACH defeated Yoh @ 12:08 via pin [**¾]
– Block A Match: Yoshinobu Kanemaru defeated Taiji Ishimori @ 15:10 via pin [**]
– Block A Match: BUSHI defeated Will Ospreay @ 17:56 via pin [***]

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– You can read my night one review at this link.
– You can read my night two review at this link.
– You can read my night three review at this link.
– You can read my night four review at this link.
– You can read my night five review at this link.
– You can read my night six review at this link.

THIS IS A SINGLE CAM, NO COMMENTARY SHOW

Flip Gordon vs. Tiger Mask: They lock up and work to the ropes. Clean break and Gordon quickly counters out, but Tiger grounds the action. Gordon fights to his feet and they work to he ropes and break. They work into some back and forth, and Tiger cuts him off with a back breaker. Tiger grounds things, working a head scissors. Tiger then works a skull fucker, and then lays the boots to him. The camel clutch follows, Gordon fights and escapes. He follows with strikes and kicks, and the standing moonsault gets 2. Gordon now lays in forearms, but Tiger cuts him off with kicks. Gordon hits an enziguri and slingshot sling blade. He heads up top, but Tiger cuts him off, follows him up and Gordon fights him off and knocks him to the mat. Tiger quickly back up and hits the butterfly superplex for 2. The arm bar follows, but Gordon manages to make the ropes. Gordon follows with a dropkick, and then does the deal with a falcon arrow for 2. They trade strikes, Tiger follows with kicks, but runs into a superkick. Gordon hits Samoan pop and a running shooting star press; Tiger counters into a kimura and then transitions into an arm bar. Gordon makes the ropes. The tiger driver follows for 2. Tiger now looks for a tombstone and hits it, and he heads up top. The flying head butt misses. Gordon fires up and hits a knee strike, Gordon counters a German and hits a superkick. He follows with kinder surprise, and a springboard 450 for the win. Flip Gordon defeated Tiger Mask @ 11:35 via pin [**¾] With Tiger Mask starting off 3-0, and Flip beating Ishimori, the win comes off as big for Flip as he suddenly takes control of the block as he holds the tiebreaker over Tiger Mask at this time. They had a pretty good match, with old man Tiger Mask making Gordon work for every thing he got before finally falling and taking his first loss.

ACH vs. Yoh: They lock up and work into some counters, and end in a stand off. Yoh attacks, looking to slow things and then hits a shoulder tackle. ACH picks up the pace, trips him up and hits a double stomp; the sliding dropkick follows for 2. ACH then lays in chops, and works over Yoh in the corner. The German follows for 2. ACH lays the boots to him, and then lays in more chops. Yoh tries to fire up, but gets cut off. Yoh hits an enziguri and double stomp, covering for 2. ACH fights off the suplex and lays in chops. Yoh counters back with a dropkick and superkick, and then heads up top. He hits a high cross but ACH rolls through and into a DVD for 2. Yoh fights off a German as ACH is starting to have issues with his previously injured arm. Yoh then hits a final cut for 2. He heads up top, avoids the ACH kick and the swanton then eats knees. ACH heads up top, rips off his shoulder tape and Yoh cuts him off with a superplex and then does the deal, rolling into a falcon arrow for 2. Yoh’s fired up, but ACH cuts off the dragon suplex. Yoh lays in kicks and strikes, and follows with a superkick. ACH levels him with a lariat and knee strike. The cradle DDT finishes it. ACH defeated Yoh @ 12:08 via pin [**¾] This was another pretty good match, with Yoh being positioned as a resilient babyface and wiring hard, but ultimately failing. They worked hard, but it just didn’t have much drama to it or anything to really pull you in and get emotionally invested.

Yoshinobu Kanemaru vs. Taiji Ishimori: Ishimori attacks before the bell and here we go. Ishimori keeps the pace fast and hits the seated senton. He then lays the boots to Kanemaru, and they trade strikes. Kanemaru cuts him off and they brawl to the floor. Lazy Kanemaru crowd brawling follows. They work back into he ring as Kanemaru takes the heat, choking out Ishimori. Kanemaru then hits a draping DDT on the floor. This leads to a countout tease. Ishimori back in and Kanemaru keeps control, hitting a belly to back suplex for 2. He then works a camel clutch, grounding Ishimori. Kanemaru keeps cutting Ishimori off until Ishimori hits the back handspring kick. Kanemaru rolls to the floor and Ishimori hits the golden triangle moonsault to the floor. The sliding German follows. Back in and Kanemaru hits a tornado DDT and we get a double down. They fight to their feet and work up top, but Kanemaru hits the implant DDT off the ropes. Ishimori then counters the inverted DDT into he powerbomb into the lung blower for 2. Kanemaru bumps the ref, and the whiskey mist and brainbuster gets a good near fall. Kanemaru up top and flies into a code breaker. Kanemaru looks for bloody cross, but Kanemaru rolls him up for the win. Yoshinobu Kanemaru defeated Taiji Ishimori @ 15:10 [**] I absolutely hate that Kanemaru beat Ishimori here. I get the Gordon win, they have plans for him and wanted to set him up to take the lead of the block. But Kanemaru is just such an uninteresting player and I don’t think that he deserved a win over Ishimori, especially while they are trying to establish Ishimori. This was ok at best, with too much down time (that really could have been cut) and felt very flat and like a waste of an Ishimori match. Also, bullshit ref shenanigans that are completely played out.

BUSHI vs. Will Ospreay: BUSHI attacks before the bell and starts laying the boots to young William. He chokes out Ospreay with his own coat and they work into some counters as Ospreay takes him to the floor. BUSHI rakes the eyes, but Ospreay dumps him again. BUSHI cuts off the dive and hits an apron DDT. BUSHI then lays in chair shots and chokes out Ospreay with the chair. BUSHI rolls back in and relaxes, waiting on Ospreay as we get a count out tease. Back in and BUSHI attacks the neck, hitting a neck breaker. The head scissors follows, as BUSHI grounds things. Ospreay makes the ropes for the break. They trade chops; BUSHI rakes the eyes and hits a dropkick for 2. BUSHI now locks on the STF, but Ospreay makes the ropes. BUSHI continues to attack the neck, hitting a draping dropkick for 2. Ospreay fights back to his feet, but BUSHI cuts him off and misses a charge, allowing Ospreay to hit the back handspring kick. Ospreay hits an enziguri and 619,and then the springboard forearm for 2. BUSHI counters back and hits the missile dropkick for 2. Ospreay fire up with strikes and kicks, and hits an enziguri and BUSHI rolls to the floor. The Sasuke special connects for Ospreay. They brawl on the floor, and Ospreay suplexes BUSHI onto the apron. Back in and Ospreay looks to finish things off, BUSHI counters the storm breaker, and uses the ref as a shield (leading to a ref bump) and mists Ospreay, cradling him for 2. Ospreay counters MX with a head kick, tries to fire up, and they trade strikes. BUSHI hits a rebound enziguri, but Ospreay counters the code breaker and hits an inverted suplex for 2. The Robinson special follows, but BUSHI counters the Oscutter into a backstabber. The enziguri and destroyer follows for a good near fall. BUSHI now hits MX and picks up the huge upset win to get on the board. BUSHI defeated Will Ospreay @ 17:56 via pin [***] This was an overall good match, with the story being that Ospreay is tired and that his style and schedule are finally catching up to him. This was largely fun and entertaining, and they had some good ideas, but far from the usual high quality Ospreay main event match. Also, I am just completely over ref bumps and all of that similar such bullshit. It’s completely lazy and rarely adds anything of note to a match.

BLOCK A:
* Flip Gordon: (3-1) 6pts.
* Tiger Mask: (3-1) 6pts.
* Kanemaru: (2-2) 4pts.
* Taiji Ishimori: (2-2) 4pts.
* Will Ospreay: (2-2) 4pts.
* ACH: (2-2) 4pts.
* YOH: (1-3) 2pts.
* BUSHI: (1-3) 1pts.

BLOCK B:
* Dragon Lee: (3-0) 6pts.
* SHO: (2-1) 4pts.
* Desperado: (2-1) 4pts.
* Hiromu Takahashi: (1-2) 2pts.
* Marty Scurll: (1-2) 2pts.
* Chris Sabin: (1-2) 2pts.
* Ryusuke Taguchi: (1-2) 2pts.
* KUSHIDA: (1-2) 2pts.

– End Scene.

– Thanks for reading.

“Byyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyye Felicia!”

6.0

The final score: review Average

The 411

While the standings got more interesting, night seven of the 2018 NJPW BOTSJ was an average and forgettable show, with nothing must-see or even worth cherry picking.