Puro Fury: Super J Cup 2016 Finals

NJPW Super J Cup

 

August 21 2016

 

BUSHI, Gurukun Mask & Kaji Tomato vs. Eita, David Finlay & Yuma Aoyagi

Most of these guys lost in the first around. I cannot comprehend why you would book Eita and job him in the first round. Kaji looks happy to be here. BUSHI does excellent work in not caring about anyone, both tag partners included. Eita and Gurukun Mask work together effectively but Eita is clearly displeased with being an opening match guy. BUSHI is too but he channels that into the match. He gets the pin by murdering young boy Finlay with the diving MX. BUSHI, heel wonder, mists Tomato and rips off Gurukun Mask’s mask after the match because he’s a tremendous asshole. He is Ingobernable!

Final Rating: **1/4

 

Super J Cup Quarter Final

Jushin Liger vs. Taichi

On one side of the ring you have an all-time great at cruiserweight level. A contender for the greatest ever and a legend in the business. Across the ring is Taichi, who sucks. Absolutely sucks. He has two good moves and one of those is taking off his stripper trousers. Taichi’s entrance is getting ridiculously long too. Like three times longer than the Undertaker long. In an attempt to convey this in Muta-esque blading scale his entrance here is a 1.3 Taker. I have not missed Taichi since he got loaned to NOAH. As far as I’m concerned he can fucking stay there. In typical garbage Suzuki-gun fashion El Desperado just gets in the ring and attacks Liger. This gets Liger seriously fired up and beats the shit out of Desperado and a couple of young boys for good measure. Taichi takes Liger into the crowd and Desperado holds him out there for the count out. What the fuck is this bullshit? The referee ignores blatant interference and calls it a count out. The worst part is now we have another fucking Taichi match! A contender for Worst Match of the Year and on SummerSlam weekend too. It shouldn’t be legal.

Final Rating: -**

 

Super J Cup Quarter Final

Kenoh vs. KUSHIDA

These boys drag me back into the show by working mat excellence into their opening exchange. It makes me want to walk away from the show a lot less. Interesting that we have NJPW vs. NOAH in this match and there’s a tiny ripple of the same hate that occurred during the G1 Climax finals. There’s no hate in the ring though. It’s pure grappling. They work up towards that with little bits of provocation before unloading with strikes. It builds nicely and all the work is crisp. It’s a shame the crowd aren’t into it. It’s going to be a long night. Kenoh gets trapped in an armbar, rather than the Hoverboard Lock, and taps out. This was rock solid mat grappling followed by a reasonably hot finish. Crowd was a bit deflated after the Taichi win and these two had to pull them back in. I like KUSHIDA establishing a second submission here too.

Final Rating: ***1/4

 

Super J Cup Quarter Final

Ryusuke Taguchi vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaru

This is an odd booking choice. Taguchi is a goofball, although solid when he takes matches seriously. Kanemaru is a reliable heel who grinds through matches. I’m not sure what the end game is. Taguchi tries to goof around a bit but gets shut down and the match grinds along, like all Kanemaru matches when he can’t be bothered. Kanemaru works over Taguchi’s money-maker but it doesn’t stop the Gooch firing back with “hip attacks”. Kanemaru gets the job done with his twisting brainbuster called Touch Out and Taguchi’s presence here was utterly pointless. At least he took a pin to strengthen Kanemaru’s claims to J Cup glory.

Final Rating: **1/4

 

Super J Cup Quarter Final

Will Ospreay vs. Matt Sydal

This has a genuine shot at stealing the show due to their chemistry and past matches. The matches in Rev Pro are astonishing work and Ospreay has gotten a lot better since then. It was working Sydal that got him pushed up the card because he delivered there and moved up. Their chemistry is there for all to see in their opening counters sequence. It’s joyous grappling with flips a plenty. The time flies by and we’re up to five minutes rapidly. Sydal takes over on the mat where he’s severely underrated but Ospreay comes firing back with yet more flips including the Sasuke Special. Somebody had to do the Sasuke Special. It’s the J Cup! These lads show off their ability to counter ridiculous moves like a rana out of a brainbuster before Sydal scores the big upset win. This was a step below their work in Rev Pro, due to the time limit, and Sydal winning, while an upset, helps to protect Ospreay in the long run. Another match with KUSHIDA at this point would just equate to another loss. The title change is being held off until Wrestle Kingdom, if they do it at all. The protection here includes Ospreay taking a brutal reverse super rana before falling prey to the SSP.

Final Rating: ***3/4

 

Euforia, Gran Guerrero & Ultimo Guerrero vs. Caristico, Titan & Volador Jr.

Everyone is masked, which makes it very hard to follow considering only a few of these guys have wrestled in Japan with any regularity. I’m not a lucha libre guy and luchadores in general struggle to stand out when in the midst of other luchadores. Ultimo helpfully takes his mask off, seeing as he lost it a few years back. Volador Jr. follows suit as he lost his mask a few years ago too. Now it becomes easier to tell people apart. The action is exciting but it’s mess. If any of the workers are great it doesn’t show. There’s too much set up where guys are just standing around discussing spots. However when the match kicks into the spots it’s really good. I’d quite happily watch lucha heavily edited into a highlight reel. Volador’s ridiculous diving rana to the floor is absolutely stunning for example. The match would be better delivered in a series of GIF’s. When the match is a total spotfest it works better and Volador wins with a typically nutty Spanish Fly.

Final Rating: **1/2

 

Super J Cup Semi Final

Taichi vs. KUSHIDA

Taichi, running a slightly shorter entrance (about a 0.6 Taker), jumps KUSHI during his entrance. Just because you overran on your entrance, doesn’t mean you can cut other peoples short! Also, this is already a really long show, speed up your entrances, dude. The referee seems to have learned nothing from earlier and allows Desperado to interfere and Taichi to pull his valet in the way of stuff. You know Taichi is going to cheat. He cheated earlier. Why continue to allow it? Taichi removes his stripper trousers in the matches high spot. Taichi taps out to the Hoverboard Lock while Desperado cheats again to distract. Why allow this? There’s a massive hole in the logic. Taichi gets a few near falls courtesy of unprotected chair shots (in 2016, for shame) and his powerbomb. KUSHIDA straight up punches him in the face and gets the roll up win. I’m not a fan of ‘distraction’ crap and some of the stuff in this match was the pits. Still the right guy won and I bit on the near falls, even if the set up for them was garbage.

Final Rating: *1/2

 

Super J Cup Semi Final

Yoshinobu Kanemaru vs. Matt Sydal

It seems the booking is heading towards Kanemaru vs. KUSHIDA as Kanemaru is the GHC Junior champ. Sydal would also make sense due to him asking KUSHIDA for a title shot a while back. It’s perhaps not the match that people were hoping for, either way, when this tournament was announced. The overall booking of the tournament has been a disappointment. It can be rectified in spectacular fashion if the whole thing exists to set up more NJPW vs. NOAH action like at the G1 Finals. Sydal had the tougher route to get here so Kanemaru rather dominates the action, and does so without breaking a sweat. Sydal throws it all out there, hoping to be the tournament’s MVP and get a title shot that way. He won’t by winning this tournament because Kanemaru beats him with the Touch Out. This was fine but the tournament is really lacking in top end matches and they’ve put all their eggs in the KUSHIDA-Kanemaru basket.

Final Rating: ***

 

GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship

Momo No Seishun Tag (c) vs. ACH & Taiji Ishimori

ACH has been shining bright during guest spots in NOAH. Momo No Seishun are a contender for the best tag team of the year. This could be a big showstealer. The Super J Cup would have worked better for me, booking wise, if Harada was in Kanemaru’s spot. Then you’d have NJPW vs. NOAH in the final, instead of the shaky NJPW vs. Suzuki-gun, who happen to be in NOAH storyline. Basically the company is bringing in other companies to get its own company over instead of putting on a good show. With nothing at stake for New Japan it frees these lads up to do whatever the fuck they want. It’s a freedom I’m sure they appreciate in front of the larger NJPW audience. ACH provides some fresh spots to combat the familiarity of seeing Ishimori, Harada and Kotoge mix it up. He slots right in there and looks great. Of course he’s had this junior tournament over recent weeks to get him acclimated and this team worked Momo No Seishun Tag twice during the tournament. The timing of everything is good, even if the crowd don’t care. Ishimori gets battered and Harada pins him with the German suplex. Solid but unspectacular match up to showcase the NOAH juniors.

Final Rating: ***1/2

 

Post Match: Momo No Seishun Tag call out Gedo and Jado. They’re next in line for the GHC junior tag shot. Are Gedo and Jado going to book those belts onto themselves? Time will tell.

 

IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship

The Young Bucks (c) vs. Motor City Machine Guns

I should be hyped up for this but it arrives three hours into this show, which would be fine if the wrestling had been fantastic but it hasn’t. The Bucks debut new gear here. It has hundreds of pictures of Dave Meltzer’s face on them. Shelley is fairly over but mainly because of the Time Splitters. Shelley peaked by teaming with KUSHIDA. In Japan, anyway. Both teams are famous for innovative double teams but they avoid those to begin with. The crowd doesn’t seem too excited and in general this show has underwhelmed the live audience it seems. Sabin has lost a step since I last saw him but the Bucks are nice to him. They know they’ll look better if the MCMG look good. The Bucks end up the far more exciting team, once they get into hitting their stuff. It’s much snugger and tidier. The Machine Guns may have helped to innovate the style but the Bucks are one of the best teams at it because they incorporate that Japanese hard-hitting mentality. MCMG’s stuff is all fluffy and light by comparison. Both teams run big finisher sequences and again the Bucks are crisper and quicker to the punch. Shelley gets killed off with the Meltzer Driver on the floor, as a tribute to the tights, and another Meltzer Driver, in the ring, beats Sabin. The Bucks were good value for their win here and outshone a team from the past.

Final Rating: ***3/4

 

Post Match: The Bucks lay down a challenge for the IWGP Tag straps. The main heavyweight belts. Suitably hyped to see what they can do in that situation, having worked every conceivable angle over the last two years. Like Kenneth Omega, they’ve trolled the internet into thinking they were WWE bound but they’re not.

 

Super J Cup Final

KUSHIDA vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaru

This is not the match I had in mind when they named names for this years J Cup. I was not expecting to see Kanemaru this deep into the tournament and suspected that KUSHIDA would get knocked out in a shock to set up his next title defence. Luckily Kanemaru can actually hang with talented juniors and has done for years and years and years. It’s easy to forget that given his spots in recent years, where he’s been put in with losers to make them look better. The usual Suzuki-gun shit kicks in but Liger and Taguchi know about that and are out here to watch KUSHIDA’s back. Kanemaru is a wily veteran, at almost 40 years young, but he’s a very good wrestler and always has been. Meanwhile KUSHIDA is one of the best anywhere in the world, at any weight, and demonstrates that with varied tactics. From mat grappling to strikes to flying. KUSHIDA has that range of skills and he’s really great at all of it. KUSHIDA goes after the arm and Kanemaru does wonderful work in defending himself. It’s like a shoot. KUSHIDA’s ability to make everything so realistic and yet entertaining makes him a stand-out. The prospect of him stepping up to face the heavyweights next year has my mouth watering. Imagine the matches, especially if they put him in the G1. With the Bucks going after the heavyweights and Omega stepping up it’s already all changing. KUSHIDA is the logical conclusion of that. Taichi, enormous piece of shit that he is, runs in during the match and they bump the referee. It was such a good match until all this nonsense too. Luckily they treat this like a big deal and KUSHIDA keeps kicking out. KUSHIDA’s mates eventually subdue all the Suzuki-gun bullshit and Kanemaru gets trapped in the Hoverboard Lock. KUSHIDA wins the Super J Cup. Deservedly so. Great match, bar all the extracurricular twaddle.

Final Rating: ****1/4

 

 

6.5

The final score: review Average

The 411

The tournament was underwhelming throughout, not delivering from a booking or a quality stand-point. Some of the wrestling was decent but it didn’t have the urgency or excitement that you’d expect from a major tournament and the Suzuki-gun boys wrecked the final night. However when it came down to the final match the quality was brilliant and the right man won. KUSHIDA is the outstanding junior in the world, not just in New Japan.