Pantoja’s NJPW Best Of The Super Juniors X World Tag League 2021 Finals Review

NJPW Best of the Super Juniors/World Tag League Finals
December 15th, 2021 | Ryogoku Kokugikan Sumo Hall in Tokyo, Japan | Attendance: 3,215

So I have been tuned out of NJPW for the longest and have ignored most of the BOSJ for the first time since I started regularly watching. That being said, I am giving the finals a chance even if the match for the World Tag League sounds dire.

By the way, for those who follow my reviews, the AEW Winter is Coming one will likely be late since I’m spending Thursday out as I go see Spider-Man: No Way Home. Also, this review is going up today in place of NXT 2.0 as I don’t have time for both.

DOUKI, Minoru Suzuki and TAKA Michinoku vs. Kosei Fujita, Ryusuke Taguchi and Yuto Nakashima
Apparently, Suzuki and TAKA finished 0-11 in the WTL, so he was pissed as his junior heavyweight buddy. What better way to take out your frustrations than on Young Lions? He did a bit of that early before Taguchi worked over TAKA with stuff like the Three Amigos and Buma-Ye. DOUKI ended up in trouble from a slew of offense at the hands of Young Lions, including struggling to survive a Boston Crab. Whenever they mention the DOUKI CHOKI finisher, I pop. It makes me laugh because I’m apparently a simple guy. That move was enough to get the win in 6:09. That was a New Japan opener. Maybe I’m a bit nicer to it since I haven’t seen them as much in 2021. [**½]

El Phantasmo and Taiji Ishimori vs. Ryohei Oiwa and Tiger Mask IV
Former Jr. Heavyweight Tag Champions against a Young Lion and a New Japan Dad. WAIT! I had no idea Tiger Mask IV was a Jr. Tag Champion. What even is this company? This was kept way shorter than usual. Oiwa planned for the Boston Crab but ate Sudden Death from ELP, ending this in 2:32. Mostly a squash. [NR]

Post-match, Robbie Eagles saved Tiger Mask IV from a beatdown but also got jumped until Taguchi’s ass made the save. SWERVE! Taguchi then took out both Tiger Mask and Eagles before posing with the Tag Titles and doing a Rocky Romero “Azucar” dance. The champs kind of sent him away, likely setting up a three-way tag at some point.

The Dangerous Tekkers, El Desperado and Yoshinobu Kanemaru vs. Great Bash Heel, Master Wato and Toru Yano
Other than Kanemaru, I adore this Suzuki-Gun team. On the other side, I only like Yano. Speaking of Yano, we got some of his usual antics at the start of this before more folks got involved. The jump start that we’ve come to expect in Suzuki-Gun matches happened here and Makabe did his ten punches and other typical stuff. A lot of this was paint-by-numbers. That said, I did enjoy a few interactions like Sabre Jr. going up against Master Wato. It felt different and fun. The most interesting thing in this match though is that it seemed to set up Yano against Kanemaru for the KOPW trophy gimmick. That’s not the most exciting of matchups but again, it’s different and that’s the kind of stuff this company is in dire need of. As Sabre Jr. trapped Honma in a submission to win, Kanemaru spat whiskey at Yano. The whole thing went 9:18 and was decent enough. [**½]

Bad Luck Fale, Chase Owens and The Guerrillas of Destiny vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi, TenKoji and Yuji Nagata
I haven’t seen Fale in forever. Apparently, Tanahashi wants the US Title back but KENTA is basically like, “Nah.” We got a lot of the teams pairing off with TenKoji battling GOD and Fale/Owens against Tanahashi/Nagata. I actually have to commend Tanga Loa here as after eating some machine gun chops from Kojima, he responded with a ridiculously long series of slaps of his own. The crowd didn’t really pop for it though. Kojima actually took most of the heat before a hot tag went to Nagata, who kicked ass. Tanahashi came in next but didn’t fare as well for a while though he ultimately picked things up. He missed the High Fly Flow and it looked like we might get a repeat of the G1 when Chase Owens beat him. However, Tanahashi pulled him into a rollup to win in 9:25. Another solid little match. Owens was in talks for a US Title shot it seemed but Tanahashi has likely launched over him now. [**½]

KENTA appeared on screen to say that his back was still hurt so he didn’t want to fight Tanahashi but offered a title shot under No DQ rules, which Tanahashi accepted.

Now it’s time to hear the highly anticipated Katsuyori Shibata announcement. He said that he promised he’d be back and he will indeed be in action in the Tokyo Dome at Wrestle Kingdom. Well, I now have one reason to see one of those three shows.

The Great-O-Khan and Jeff Cobb vs. SANADA and Tetsuya Naito
From what I’ve read, O-Khan dissed SANADA for letting Naito do most of the work in the tournament, seemingly trying to drive a wedge in the LIJ bond. Most of this was kind of what you’d expect from these teams on a finals show. They hit their signature stuff and put on a solid match but you could tell they weren’t going as hard as they would in an important match. It seemed like it was here to build to O-Khan/SANADA and maybe Cobb/Naito. I don’t know. After almost ten minutes of solid wrestling, the finish surprised me. Naito caught Cobb with a rana as a counter to the Imperial Drop and won in 9:30. Cobb hasn’t lost often so this was kind of big and I’m intrigued at where it goes. [***]

Post-match, Naito escaped a beating and then as LIJ went through the curtains, Cobb and O-Khan met them for more fighting.

BUSHI and Shingo Takagi vs. Kazuchika Okada and Robbie Eagles
This was meant to be a preview of Shingo/Okada, which is set for the Dome due to the G1. Again, this was in line with what you’d expect if you watch enough NJPW. The heavyweights did battle for a bit to tease the title match but never too much. That meant Eagles/BUSHI happened a lot as well as pairings that mixed the weight divisions. This worked better than the last match though because of who was involved. Okada/BUSHI didn’t do much for me but I’m all about Eagles and Shingo going at it. They could have a fun match if given the chance. Things broke down a bit late and Okada trapped BUSHI in the Money Clip. Shingo broke it up only to be sent outside by Eagles. That left BUSHI alone to fall to the Rainmaker in 11:32. A very god match that previewed something major down the line. [***¼]

World Tag League Finals: EVIL and Yujiro Takahashi vs. Hirooki Goto and YOSHI-HASHI
Yuck. Gedo booking this is almost like he’s trolling us. Remember when some dubbed him a “genius booker” like this isn’t the kind of stuff he has done for years? Anyway, commentary kept harping on that Yujiro didn’t belong here and that these guys cheated a lot. Dick Togo got involved, causing Kevin Kelly to say something about Goto and HASHI whacking Dick. He said it, not me. Also, with no PIETER out here, why should I care about Yujiro? Anyway, this match was filled with more House of Torture shenanigans as Goto and HASHI had to play the underdogs. I don’t think Goto is great at that role but it works for HASHI. When they seemed to have this won, Togo pulled the referee out of the ring to the groan of everyone. EVIL started using a chair, only for Tomohiro Ishii to rush out and help his NEVER Tag Title buddies. Once he evened the odds, it allowed the CHAOS boys to hit a tandem Shouten Kai, winning in 19:57. A good match though overbooked at points. Still, a lame ass ending to an already lame tournament. [***]

Best of the Super Juniors Finals: Hiromu Takahashi vs. YOH
For the most part, BOSJ Finals deliver. Check it:

2014: Ricochet/KUSHDIA (****¼)
2015: KUSHIDA/O’Reilly (****½)
2016: Ospreay/Taguchi (****)
2017: Ospreay/KUSHIDA (****¼)
2018: Hiromu/Ishimori (****¾)
2019: Ospreay/Takagi (****¼)
2020: Hiromu/Desperado (****¾)

There’s a built-in story here since YOH lost the opening match of the tournament to Hiromu in a mere three minutes. YOH also started 0-4 before reeling off 7 straight wins to make the finals. The match got off to a great start, with Hiromu Takahashi kind of taking YOH lightly since he beat him so handily before. Of course, YOH wasn’t going out like that again, giving it his all and being very competitive, including going toe to toe with Hiromu in a huge exchange of strikes and chops. As this progressed, they went into bigger moves like a DVD onto the apron. YOH really got going with a tope con hilo at around 20 minutes but then out came SHO. Pissed that he’s not in the finals, SHO beat up Young Lions, the referee, and both competitors. He declared the match a no contest but Red Shoes didn’t agree. It took a while but both men got up after Goto and HASHI chased SHO away. Once he was gone, these guys were rejuvenated a bit and continued with the wild pace of huge offensive moves. They hit the typical NJPW issue of simply going too long. Even some of the good stuff done late felt like overkill. Hiromu kept managing to get past the Five Star Clutch but YOH also kicked out of Time Bomb. Hiromu survived Five Star clutch and won with Time Bomb after 38:30. This company literally keeps just setting records for longest tournament finals and matches and it’s all so pointless. The match itself was great with back and forth action, high drama, and the performances of both men but it did drag a bit and that SHO section was rough. [****¼]

7.0

The final score: review Good

The 411

It wasn’t enough to reignite my interest in the company but this was a good show. Nothing was bad, there was a great main event, and they set up at least one interesting thing for the Tokyo Dome.