NJPW Best of the Super Jr. 26
Night 4 – B Block
#njbosj
Event Date: May 16, 2019 (19:00 JST)
aired live on NJPW World
City: Aomori, Aomori, Japan
Venue: Aomori Industrial Exhibition Hall
Attendance: 1,403
Series: Best of the Super Jr. 26
Commentary (English): Kevin Kelly, Caprice Coleman
Commentary (Japanese): Haruo Murata, Milano Collection AT, Taichi (4)
Ring Announcer: Kimihiko Ozaki (1 – 4), Makoto Abe (5 – 9)
Video
The competitors in B Block of this year’s Best of the Super Jr. Tournament are briefly profiled.
Match 1
Gedo & Taiji Ishimori vs Yuya Uemura & Titan
(referee: Kenta Sato)
Result: Gedo pins Yuya Uemura with a schoolboy (and a handful of tights) after a punch
Time: 8:18
Match Thoughts
This was a pretty good opener. Uemura began and ended the match for his team, and he was mostly paired up with Gedo. Titan and Ishimori had a segment in the middle of the match that served as a preview for their upcoming tournament match, but they ended up fighting out at ringside while Gedo and Uemura finished the match in the ring.
Match 2
Brody King & Marty Scurll (ROH 6 Man Tag Champs) vs Yota Tsuji & Tiger Mask
(referee: Kenta Sato)
Result: Brody King pins Yota Tsuji after the All Seeing Eye
Time: 9:46
Match Thoughts
Good match. The big story here seemed to be Tsuji trying to fight King the entire match. King dominated when he was in the ring, and he was in the ring a fair amount of time. Scurll and Tiger Mask gave a little preview of their upcoming match, but this was mostly about King and Tsuji.
Match 3
Toa Henare & Jonathan Gresham & Sho (IWGP Jr. Tag Champ) vs Shota Umino & Juice Robinson (IWGP US Champ) & Dragon Lee (IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Champ)
(referee: Kenta Sato)
Result: Toa Henare pins Shota Umino after the Toa Bottom (standing side slam)
Time: 6:30
Match Thoughts
This was pretty good. The video Juice has been seeing every night played before the match, and that seemed to draw a lot of energy out of the ring. It took a while for Juice to get involved in the match, and his involvement was fairly brief. Sho and Dragon Lee picked up pretty much where they left off last night though, and Umino and Henare had a decent segment towards the end of the match.
Match 4
TAKA Michinoku & Yoshinobu Kanemaru w/ Taichi (NEVER Openweight Champ) vs Tetsuya Naito & Shingo Takagi
(referee: Marty Asami)
Result: Tetsuya Naito pins TAKA Michinoku after Destino
Time: 7:29
Match Thoughts
Good match. I really like how Naito handles himself in situations like this. He’s one of the biggest starts in New Japan, but since Shingo is in the tournament, Naito lets Shingo be the main focus. Naito began and ended the match, allowing Shingo to dominate the middle of the match and give a small preview of his next A Block match. Naito struggled to overcome lengthy double teams from TAKA and Kanemaru, but he’s always just a move or two away from taking over any match.
Ring Area
After the match, Kanemaru hits Shingo’s knee with a chair. Kanemaru gets another shot in before Naito chases him away.
Match 5
Best of the Super Jr. 26 B Block Match
Robbie Eagles (1-0-0: 0) vs Ren Narita (0-1-0: 0)
(referee: Marty Asami)
Result: Robbie Eagles wins via pinfall after the Turbo Backpack
Time: 9:18
Match Thoughts
Very good match. Eagles dominated this match quickly by focusing almost exclusively on Narita’s knee. For a while, every attack Eagles was doing was centered on causing more damage to the knee. I really like that sort of focus and storytelling. Narita was in his hometown though, and his fighting spirit pushed him to mount a very convincing comeback. As the crowd became more excited, I really felt like Narita was on the verge of a victory. This was very fun to watch.
Match 6
Best of the Super Jr. 26 B Block Match
Bandido (0-1-0: 0) vs Yoh (0-1-0: 0) (IWGP Jr. Tag Champ)
(referee: Marty Asami)
Result: Yoh pins Bandido with a bridging dragon suplex
Time: 13:06
Match Thoughts
Very good match. This started with both men showing their agility and quicklness. They were evenly matched, so Yoh attacked Bandido’s legs to slow his opponent down. Yoh’s plan worked. Bandido was slowed considerably, and Yoh started to take over. Bandido pushed past the pain though, and he took to the air with some spectacular dives that turned the match in his favor. Bandido couldn’t put Yoh away quickly though, and the two men battled to a very nice and close finish. I was a little surprised by how this ended. I liked it, I was just a little surprised.
Match 7
Best of the Super Jr. 26 B Block Match
El Phantasmo (1-0-0: 2) (RPW British Cruiserweight Champ) vs BUSHI (0-1-0: 0)
(referee: Red Shoes Unno)
Result: EL Phantasmo wins via pinfall after CR II (arm-trap kneeling facebuster)
Time: 10:31
Match Thoughts
Good match. This one felt fairly methodical. BUSHI had a difficult time figuring out how to handle El Phantasmo. EL Phantasmo picked BUSHI apart, and though BUSHI did hit a few fairly high-impact moves, El Phantasmo took a few shortcuts to stay a few steps ahead. I like El Phantasmo, but he’s very easy to dislike. I kind of want him to lose even though I enjoy watching him.
Match 8
Best of the Super Jr. 26 B Block Match
Rocky Romero (0-1-0: 0) vs Will Ospreay (1-0-0: 2)
(referee: Red Shoes Unno)
Result: Will Ospreay wins via pinall after Stormbreaker
Time: 25:45
Match Thoughts
Great match! It felt like Rocky had something to prove tonight. Rocky battled his Chaos stablemate with everything he had, and it was super fun and exciting to watch. They were fairly even to start, but after a while Rocky saw that Ospreay’s arm was hurting. Rocky focused on Ospreay’s arm while still doing everything he could to avoid Ospreay’s combination of flying and power. I think the power moves and strikes Ospreay has added to his arsenal really helped him tonight. I also think the final few minutes of this match were some of the most exciting so far in the tournament. They pulled me in, and even though I really like both guys, I started pulling for Rocky one hundred percent.
Match 9
Best of the Super Jr. 26 B Block Match
Douki (1-0-0: 2) vs Ryusuke Taguchi (1-0-0: 2) (NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Champ)
(referee: Red Shoes Unno)
Result: Ryusuke Taguchi wins via submission with Oh My & Garankle (ankle lock)
Time: 21:22
Match Thoughts
Very good match. After the excitement of the previous match, it felt a bit like this match took a little while to get going. Douki attacked Taguchi before the bell, and he continued to dominate Taguchi for the first part of the match. Taguchi had some bursts of offense, but Douki did a good job of keeping Taguchi from getting much sustained offense. Taichi also had a large impact on this match, though his involvement really just pushed the crowd to support Taguchi even more. I think the final few minutes of the match were quite good. There were some shenanigans involved, but this is a Taguchi match, so it worked very well in context.
Show Impressions
I definitely think I enjoyed this round of B block matches better than the first night. Not that I didn’t enjoy the first night of B block, but I think the matches were better overall tonight. Also, the Romero versus Ospreay match is the best B block match so fa r in the tournament.
Match of the Night
Rocky Romero vs Will Ospreay
I hope Rocky does well in the tournament. I don’t expect him to win, but I’ love for him to have a great showing in the standings. He’s already been impressive in the ring.
Standings After Night 4
Block A
| Wrestler | Win | Loss | Draw | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Shingo Takagi | 2 | 0 | 0 | 4 |
| Taiji Ishimori | 2 | 0 | 0 | 4 |
| Tiger Mask | 2 | 0 | 0 | 4 |
| Dragon Lee (Jr. Heavyweight Champ) | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| Jonathan Gresham | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| Marty Scurll (ROH 6 Man Champ) | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| Titan | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| Sho (Jr. Tag Champ) | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| TAKA Michinoku | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| Yoshinobu Kanemaru | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
Block B
| Wrestler | Win | Loss | Draw | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| El Phantasmo (RPW British Cruiserweight Champ) | 2 | 0 | 0 | 4 |
| Robbie Eagles | 2 | 0 | 0 | 4 |
| Ryusuke Taguchi (NEVER Openweight 6 Man Tag Champ) | 2 | 0 | 0 | 4 |
| Will Ospreay | 2 | 0 | 0 | 4 |
| Douki | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| Yoh (Jr. Tag Champ) | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| Bandido | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| BUSHI | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| Ren Narita | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| Rocky Romero | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
Official Results (Japanese): https://www.njpw.co.jp/tornament/186474?showResult=1