Puro Fury: Super J Cup 2016 Day 1

NJPW Super J Cup 2016 Day 1

 

July 20 2016

 

This is Stage One of the latest Super J Cup, with invitations having gone out to an assortment of companies including ROH, CMLL, NOAH, AJPW, Dragon Gate, Kaientai Dojo and individuals from various New Japan factions. The names involved and the matches for tonight are surreal. It’s unfortunate that some of the talent on tonight’s show are going out in the first round but they had to put on a big show here to draw people into Korakuen Hall. I’m very excited at the prospect of the entire tournament and that may rise based on the booking of this show. Or the opposite may happen. Accusations have already been made that Bushiroad has set this show up to eliminate the wrestlers from other promotions.

 

Kaji Tomato vs. Matt Sydal

Tomato represents K-Dojo. Sydal actually represents ROH because that company doesn’t have much of a cruiserweight division. ACH would have been nice but he’s busy unfortunately. Kaji is very protective of the two plush tomatoes he brings with him. It’s a delightful character trait. Tomato looks really happy to be there and I can feel his joy. Sydal counters Tomato’s happiness with mat grappling. Every time I see Sydal I forget how accomplished he is at the scientific aspects of wrestling. It makes Tomato look like the exciting one, which is quite deliberate. I love Tomato’s fluke roll ups and the crowd get very excited at his near falls and the prospect of an upset. Tomato also gets lots of love for desperation last gasp kick-outs. It’s a good way to start the show. SSP sees Sydal progress. Tomato got to showcase K-Dojo and his offering of a plush tomato to Sydal was touching.

Final Rating: ***1/4

 

Gurukun Mask vs. Kenoh

Gurukun Mask (GM) is representing an exotic promotion (Ryukyu Dragon Pro Wrestling) that I’ve never even heard of, which is wonderful for pro-wrestling. I love the masks and banners in the crowd. Kenoh, from NOAH, is accompanied by Hajime Ohara. They’re both incredibly talented juniors. Kenoh gets a bit confused by GM’s weirdness and Ohara brings the NOAH heel work with the cheeky Kendo stick shot. Kenoh is probably better as a tweener leaning towards comedy cheating and here he plays the role as sinister. Ohara plays it with more comedy and it allows GM to fight from underneath. GM manages a spectacularly reckless dive that kills one of the young boys. That’s what I expect from my junior matches! When Kenoh is in charge he dominates and focuses on the leg. GM spends an eternity in the heel hook, which wrecks the match for me as he doesn’t bother selling afterwards. It’s shit psychology. GM even gets into a kick duel with Kenoh who kicks way harder. It all makes no sense. They never should have done the heel hook spot. Kenoh continues to destroy GM with strikes to try and get me back into it. The crowd certainly respond. Kenoh wins. I could have seen either guy progressing but Kenoh will have better matches later in the tournament. Better than this.

Final Rating: **1/4

 

Yuma Aoyagi vs. Taichi

I’ve not missed Taichi in NJPW. It’s weird seeing an All Japan wrestler in New Japan but AJPW have pretty deliberately sent a young guy over. Aoyagi is good but he’s no Aoki. All Japan doesn’t have a good cruiserweight division. Taichi brings the sordid Indie slime entrance complete with replacement Mao. Milano Collection AT takes a photo of her arse on his phone, the massive pervert! By the time Taichi hits the ring the crowd is left in no doubt as to which of these men is a star. Taichi, like Kenoh, brings support in the form of El Desperado. I’d much rather see him wrestle than Taichi but Taichi’s presence is amazing. He’s a total scumbag. You want to see him get his ass kicked. Aoyagi doesn’t have to do much to get the fans to cheer and Taichi spends ages stalling. It makes him stand out but not in a good way. His bullshit with the ring bell hammer is intolerable. He doesn’t even use it properly. The referee distraction is garbage. Bottom rung, worst shit ever, garbage. The match is abysmal, which is not a surprise for Taichi but it’s a pity for Aoyagi. He gets good reactions for his comebacks but by then the match is dead in the water. Some of the botches are horrific. Aoyagi makes an arse out of an SSP and Taichi completely blows a clothesline of all things. Aoyagi making a hash of the bump. Taichi kicks him in the head for it. Taichi nails down his big spots; taking off his stripper trousers, the superkick and a foldover powerbomb. This sucked. Taichi needs to go back to fucking NOAH and stay there forever.

Final Rating: ½*

 

Eita vs. Jushin Liger

When they released tonight’s card this match stood out. Eita is one of the best Dragon Gate guys, regardless of weight limit and the crowd are excited to see him. He dropkicks Liger out of the ring to start with and hits a crazy tope to follow up. Eita means business! Liger is really into the prospect of working with Eita and that translates well onto tape. Eita manages to bust his eyebrow open on the ring post by getting carried away and pisses blood all over the place. It’s death match levels of bloodshed. Liger promptly kills him with a brainbuster on the floor. It’s already far superior, in terms of moves and atmosphere, than anything else on the card. Eita’s bleeding allows Liger to beat the shit out of him. Eita does wondrous stuff from underneath. His bumps off the shotei are fantastic. Liger actually shocks me by winning with a brainbuster. I had Eita as progressing deep into the tournament. It’s weird to call Liger beating a Dragon Gate guy an upset but who else is going on a run outside of the Bushiroad guys now?

Final Rating: ***1/2

 

Titan vs. Will Ospreay

This is a really exciting way to kick off the second half. Ospreay has vocal English language support in the crowd and there are Union flags too. The Japanese have taken to young Will. Titan is an ideal opponent for Ospreay if you love the flips. They both break out early flip gimmicks. Ospreay’s are more aerial in nature whereas Titan can walk on his hands, which is pretty damn cool. Will refuses to be outdone and hits a Shooting Star Press to a standing Titan off the apron. Ospreay makes the impossible look exceptionally easy. It’s not just flips from Ospreay though. He throws a mean elbow and his technical work in this match is strong. He has a lot more to his game then crazy high spots. The crowd get really into this and I love the little middle-aged Asian ladies going nuts for Titan’s insane mid-rope moonsault to the floor. Titan goes from acrobatics to working a leg match and Ospreay screaming in pain sells the hold in a way that Gurukun Mask could only dream of. He even stops off to pay it service afterwards…before hitting a multiple flips Sasuke Special, ripping off AJ Styles to perfection and finishing with the Fade Cutter. This was on its way to great until being gypped for time. The last minute felt like it was on fast forward. The announcer reminds us that puts Ospreay against Matt Sydal in the next round. If you’ve never seen them work together, you’re in for a treat. They had a legitimate ****3/4 match in Rev Pro in 2015.

Final Rating: ***3/4

 

BUSHI vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaru

This is one of the big heavyweight contests for this show. Kanemaru has been everywhere, done everything, got the t-shirt. He’s in Suzuki-gun so he might reappear in New Japan at some point. He’s a surly veteran and capable of holding anything together. He’s a useful guy to have in a tournament. However BUSHI is one of the hottest acts New Japan have so it’d be a shock for him to lose in Round One. This immediately becomes a bid to out-heel one another. This doesn’t make for the best in-ring, mainly because they go all over the building. BUSHI definitely gets the babyface reactions due to Kanemaru working such a deliberately bullshit style as part of Suzuki-gun. I hate that stable. At least when BUSHI cheats he does it with charisma instead of resorting to generic tactics. They start to get something going but botch a counter and that derails the match again. The mist misses and Kanemaru finishes with Touch Out. That was a minor surprise although Kanemaru is a handy guy to have due to his experience and skill. He can beat anyone, he can lose to anyone. I can see why he’s still alive in the tournament. The match wasn’t very good though.

Final Rating: **1/2

 

Daisuke Harada vs. Ryusuke Taguchi

Harada is NOAH’s junior ace, their version of KUSHIDA. He’s an exceptional wrestler and one of my favourite workers anywhere. Taguchi comes out wearing sunglasses. There are only two kinds of people who wear sunglasses indoors; blind people and assholes. At least that’s the extent of his goofy gimmickry. The crowd are hugely into Taguchi because of his personality and his recent work in Best of the Super Juniors. He’s proven he’s not just a goofball and I wish he took more matches seriously. When he does, he’s more entertaining. Harada, the consummate grappling pro, takes everything in his stride and calmly controls at all times. For someone with a butt of steel, Taguchi sells his posterior an awful lot. The butt stuff keeps sneaking into the match, dragging the level of competitiveness down. I’m normally into Harada matches but this one makes me sleepy due to Taguchi’s weirdness. It gets to the point where the crowd are jeering Harada for cutting off Taguchi’s Nakamura tribute spots. They get into some terrific back and forth with heavy bombs into the stretch. The match has significant pick up in the later stages. This includes some fantastic near falls like Harada shooting a shoulder up at the last moment after a Dodon. Bizarrely Taguchi wins and another guy I had down for the semi-finals is out in the first round. When this match picked up it was really good but the booking is mystifying me.

Final Rating: ***3/4

 

KUSHIDA vs. Taiji Ishimori

Given the booking on this show Ishimori has zero chance of winning. KUSHIDA is probably the tournament favourite and almost all the NJPW guys have won. Ishimori is an entertaining and talented junior but on almost every level and skill KUSHIDA is better. Ishimori may be the slightly better flier but even that is in doubt. KUSHIDA controls whenever he can set the pace, which is often. He routinely cuts off Ishimori’s flippiest ambitions and upstages them with super flips of his own. It should be a dream match but it’s not. Ishimori ends up downtrodden and decimated throughout. It’s fair enough that KUSHIDA is the golden boy for the New Japan juniors but a more competitive match would have been better. The match is at its best when they’re trading on strikes and they come across as even. Although it’s important to note that the crowd only pops for KUSHIDA. Some of the countering down the stretch is special with Ishimori finally being able to hang with KUSHIDA at his best. This ends abruptly with KUSHIDA getting the Hoverboard kimura and tapping the NOAH junior out.

Final Rating: ***1/2

6.5

The final score: review Average

The 411

Booking on this show was a puzzle. Why even do a massive inter-promotional tournament if you’re just putting your guys over in virtually every match. Eita and Harada were especially confusing and now Bushiroad is just booking all their guys against each other. You can do that whenever the fuck you want. Why book a tournament with outsiders and then job them all out? Now the Super J Cup is just another New Japan show and there’s nothing special about it at all. The matches will probably be good in the final but it’s lost all of the intrigue that the tournament started with. Of the eight quarter-final participants five are under New Japan contract. The other three represent NOAH, which NJPW basically owns too and the most talented NOAH guy is already out. This is the first time in recent years that I’ve been really disgruntled with New Japan’s approach to tournament booking. The New Japan Cup is sometimes a let down but that’s ok because it’s not a tournament with a lot of prestige and history. This one is and to see it treated this way is very disappointing. Like I said earlier, the matches in the final should be good but the booking is constrictive. We will only see New Japan guys in the big matches. Part of the excitement of a J Cup is the potential for different match ups. That’s now gone.