#feud: moxley vs despy

[allelitewrestlings]

Jon Moxley & El Desperado at NJPW Strong Independence Day, July 4, 2023 — photo by @takobue_pw on twitter

[puroresu-musings]

NJPW NEW YEAR DASH!! 2024 Review (Jan 5th, Sumida Ward Gymnasium, Tokyo)

NJPW World TV Championship - Hiroshi Tanahashi (c) vs. Ryusuke Taguchi **1/2

Hirooki Goto & YOSHI-HASHI vs. Kaito Kiyomiya & Ryohei Oiwa ***

El Phantasmo & Hikuleo vs. Yuto Nakashima & Oskar Leube **1/2

Tama Tonga, Shota Umino, El Desperado, Master Wato, Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma vs. EVIL, Ren Narita, Yoshinobu Kanemaru, SHO, Yujiro Takahashi & Dick Togo *1/2

Will Ospreay, Jeff Cobb, HENARE, TJP & Frencesco Akira vs. David Finlay, Gabe Kidd, Alex Coughlin, Clark Conners & Drilla Moloney ****

Tetsuya Naito, Shingo Takagi, Yota Tsuji, Hiromu Takahashi & BUSHI vs. SANADA, Taichi, Yuya Uemura, DOUKI & TAKA Michinku **1/4

KOPW 2024 Championship ~ Pinfall Only 10 Minute Sprint - Toru Yano vs. Great-O-Khan vs. YOH vs. Taiji Ishimori *1/2

Kazuchika Okada, Bryan Danielson, Jon Moxley & Tomohiro Ishii vs. Zack Sabre Jr., Mikey Nicholls, Shane Haste & Kosei Fujita ***3/4

Photos.

This was your typically fun, brisk NEW YEAR DASH!! show, that was as always was more about the angles and story progressions into the year ahead (or indeed, lack there of) as opposed to great matches or anything. Debuting in the Sumida Ward Gym, the show was a mystery card, with the matches only becoming apparent once the participants entered. Things kicked off with Tanahashi defending the World TV Title against Ryusuke Taguchi, in an inoffensive, but totally superfluous opener. It only went 5:40, and was pretty much all your typical Taguchi comedy bout, which Tana obviously won with a cradle. The post match was eventful as a video aired of none other than Matt Riddle challenging Tanahashi, so that's certainly an interesting development. Tana claimed to have no idea who Riddle was. Next up, NOAH Ace Kiyomiya and NJ Young Lion Oiwa put in a losing effort against former tag champs Bishamon. This was a nice little match which saw Goto pin Oiwa after the Shoto in 7:40.

The next outing was Young Lion's Nakashima and Leube's official last match before their excursion. They took on the new Tag Champs, ELP and Hikuleo in a standard tag match. Phantasmo pinned Yuto at the 8 minute mark with Thunder Kiss 86. After bidding the Young Lions farewell, Chase Owens attacked the champions, and announced himself and KENTA as their next challengers. Fab. It was 12 man tag action next as the entire House of Torture took on the New Japan Babyface All-Stars. This was pretty bad, and devolved into the usual HoT nonsense. Umino pinned Togo in 8 minutes after a Death Rider, then the heels beat everyone down in the post match. Narita focussed on Shota, so their feud continues, Kanemaru laid out Despy with a whiskey bottle, so there's his next Jr. Title challenger, and EVIL laid out Tama, cut his hair, and posed with the NEVER Title, which he then stole. I can't possibly pretend that any of these pairings interest me in the slightest, but if there's one positive, it's that at least EVIL isn't anywhere near the main event scene.

United Empire battled the Bullet Club War Dogs next in a 10 man. This was all excellent. The match itself only went 5:10, but it was all-action and super intense; they brawled around the building, Akira hit a balcony dive, Connors Speared and beatdown the referee, Gabe Kidd juiced a gusher after hitting the exposed buckles, the War Dogs all threw chairs and guardrails from the crowd into the ring, and the match was thrown out, ruled a No Contest. There was a crazy post-match beatdown, which included the heels trying to gouge Akira's eye out with a metal object, and he juiced too. Just when it looked like they were done, the UE fought back and cleared house, only for Gedo to blindside Ospreay with a lowblow. They were about to take him out when TJP made the save by Misting Finlay, and Ospreay hit Gedo with a running Powerbomb through an upright table in the corner. Ospreay then said his last night in New Japan is New Beginning in Osaka on February 11th, and challenged all 5 guys to 10 man war fare, and he'd let Finlay choose the stipulation. The new Global Champion chose a Cage Match, so that should be outstanding stuff. This was the highlight of the show by far.

LIJ and Just Five Guys faced off next in a total House Show affair. It wasn't bad, but certainly wasn't good, and the post match didn't fill me with much excitement. TAKA scored his first win in maybe 15 years when he pinned BUSHI with a Michinoku Driver II at 8:47. The post match saw SANADA challenge Naito to a rematch (meh). I'd much rather someone else challenge for the World Heavyweight belt at this point, maybe even Taichi, but this was the inevitable issue with putting the belt back on Naito. There just aren't many/any fresh matches for him. The 2024 KOPW Champion was decided in the next match, which was a pinfalls only 10 minute sprint. This sucked, the crowd was dead, the action uninspired and even though it only went 10 minutes, it felt 30. After O-Khan pinned everyone, Ishimori snuck in, stole a pin, then ran away to beat the clock and win the Championship. Whatever. I think this belt is way past its Use By date now.

And then it was main event time, as the Dream Team of Okada, Ishii, Mox and Danielson took on the TMDK guys. This was lots of fun, everyone looked great and all the individual stories made for a compelling watch. Ishii tore the house down every time he got in there, and Danielson and ZSJ's exchanges were the best wrestling on the show. Obviously. The finish saw Haste and Nicholls put Ishii away with the Tank Buster whilst Sabre had Danielson tied up in a Manjigatame at the 13:50 mark. The post match saw Zack challenge Danielson (now THAT'S a rematch I can get behind!), with both guys promising to tap each other out (despite all the talk of submissions, their last match ended in a pinfall), then Fujita said he, Nicholls and Haste were next for the NEVER 6 Man Titles. Okada was very annoyed at this, saying Fujita was in no way ready to face him, then they stared down Tanahashi on commentary to end and eventful show.

NDT

[wrestlingisfake]

NJPW 52nd Anniversary preview

Tetsuya Naito vs. SHO - Naito is the IWGP world heavyweight champion, and Sho is the IWGP junior heavyweight champion. Neither title is at stake in this match--it's just a tradition to have the top heavyweight face the top junior on the anniversary show.

Naito's next title defense will be in Tokyo on April 6 in Tokyo, against the winner of the New Japan Cup tournament. Whether he keeps the title or not, his next scheduled match will be April 12--in a real city, Chicago, Illinois--against Jon Moxley. I'm excited.

I think everybody was expecting El Desperado to bring the junior title to this match. Instead Sho defeated him on February 23, when Ren Narita crawled out from under the ring to hold Despy down until he was counted out. I'm actually okay with the idea that titles can change hands via count-out, but obviously the point of such a rule should be "the champion can't run away" not "we can do more flavors of fuck finishes." I know it's supposed to put heat on Sho, but it just cheapens the title win, the title itself, and this match.

Look, I appreciate that House of Torture's shenanigans are aimed at the Japanese ticketholders. If they boo and chant "go home" at the heels, that's enough to call it a success, apparently. New Japan really doesn't care if I, an American streaming these shows overseas, am bored with this crap. I'm not their priority, that's their prerogative.

But I can't believe anybody, in Japan or elsewhere, wants to pay to see Naito pretend to be in danger of taking the biggest bullshit upset loss of his career. We know Naito will win, we know none of the run-ins are going to lead to the finish, we know if they tease a count-out Naito will get back in the ring at nineteen. I could deal with all that if it was entertaining, like when Toru Yano does it. But Sho's actively trying not to be entertaining.

This is going to suck. Listening to Chris Charlton act like he's "pulling back the curtain" to explain why it sucks, for the whole match, will make it even worse.

I think I've talked myself into skipping this. Anyway, Naito has to win. Stay healthy for Mox, champ.

Shota Umino vs. Jack Perry - This is a part of the first round in the New Japan Cup tournament. Perry debuted with New Japan on January 13, when he appeared in the crowd disguised as a fan and attacked Umino out of nowhere.

This is Perry's first match since he lost the FTW belt to HOOK in Wembley Stadium. About five minutes after that, he had a backstage face-off with CM Punk, which led to Punk being fired and Perry being suspended. I guess they weren't sure how to bring Perry back without making it about Punk, so he's doing this New Japan run where he can talk about being a "scapegoat" without getting into who is assigning blame to him, or for what, or why it's not really his fault.

I figured they'd set up a singles match for this feud, but I didn't expect it to be in the opening round of this tournament. I'm curious to see if Perry is just flying in for a one-and-done, or if he'll stick around for the whole tour. I don't see him booked for any undercard tag matches, which suggests he'll just lose here and head home. But I suppose there's a chance he'll stick around.

If Jack wins, I'd say he's the favorite to reach the quarterfinals, probably in a Forbidden Door rematch against SANADA. That could be pretty damn interesting...but we're getting ahead of ourselves here. It's just too early to try to guess where things are going with Perry's scapegoat gimmick. He needs a win, but I'm not confident he's going to get one tonight.

KENTA vs. YOSHI-HASHI - Another first-round match in the New Japan Cup. The winner of this match will face Sanada on March 11 in the second round, since (as a former New Japan Cup winner) he qualified for a first-round bye. Kenta is 4-0 in singles matches against Yoshi.

Yoshi's career highlight is being a 3-time IWGP heavyweight tag champion, but he and Hirooki Goto lost that title in January. Kenta and Chase Owens are the current tag champs. So this is really less about who advances in the tournament (neither of them are going to get far) and whether Yoshi can pin Kenta to get back into contention for the tag title. If Kenta wins, though, I'd say that puts Yoshi and Goto in the back of the line...which could be interesting, because there aren't a ton of other teams to put ahead of them.

I get the feeling Kenta will win to make sure Sanada has an expendable heel to beat in the second round. But it's not a lock--I'd go maybe 60/40 Kenta wins here.

Toru Yano vs. Yujiro Takahashi - Yet another New Japan Cup match. The winner here will meet the winner of Umino vs. Perry in the second round, on March 11.

When it's one-on-one, Yano is 6-1 against Yuj. But I'm guessing most of those matches were before Yujiro went super-duper mega-cheap heel with the House of Torture. Yano will have his hands full trying to stay ahead of all the House of Torture guys running in, I'm pulling for Yano, but he's definitely beatable here.

SANADA & Taichi & Yuya Uemura & DOUKI vs. EVIL & Ren Narita & Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Dick Togo - This is basically a preview of Taichi vs. Narita on March 10. Sanada, Evil, and Uemura are also in the New Japan Cup. We already saw Just 5 Guys and House of Torture feud back in the fall, and I'm over it. The only new wrinkle here is that I think this is the first time we'll see Uemura since he had to cut his hair after losing to Yota Tsuji a couple of weeks ago. Kanemaru or Togo should probably lose the fall, so maybe Uemura can get back on the winning track.

David Finlay & Gabe Kidd & Gedo vs. TJP & Francesco Akira & Callum Newman - Finlay vs. TJP is scheduled for March 7; Kidd vs. Newman is set for March 8. Finlay's War Dogs pretty much destroyed the United Empire in the big cage match last month, and now they're just facing the three weakest guys in the United Empire. I think TJP is angling to be a bigger wheel in the faction now that Will Ospreay's gone, but I don't really think that's going to work. Finlay's team is gonna murder these poor guys.

Shingo Takagi & Hiromu Takahashi & Yota Tsuji & BUSHI vs. Tomohiro Ishii & Hirooki Goto & El Desperado & Boltin Oleg - The heavyweights in this match--Shingo, Tsuji, Ishii, Goto, and Oleg--are all in the New Japan Cup, but this match doesn't really preview their first-round bouts. We could get Goto vs. Ishii on March 12, but only if Ishii beats Chase Owens on March 7. Oleg is still a Young Lion, so you know he has to lose the fall.

Hikuleo & El Phantasmo vs. Mikey Nicholls & Zack Sabre Jr. - ELP and Hiku are the STRONG tag team champions, but the title isn't at stake here. This match is mainly about previewing Phantasmo vs. Nicholls on March 10. Hikuleo and Sabre are also in the tournament, but in different parts of the bracket. Feels like the best move here is for Nicholls to get a pin to set up a STRONG title shot for him and his regular tag partner, Shane Haste. Actually, I'm kinda surprised Haste isn't on this show.

Jeff Cobb & Great-O-Khan vs. Tanga Loa & Tomoaki Honma - Khan vs. Loa will be on March 7. Cobb is also in the tournament. Honma didn't make the cut, which kind of tells you who's losing the fall in this match.

[wrestlingisfake]

Wrestling Dontaku night 1 preview

Nic Nemeth vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi - Nemeth is defending the IWGP global title. This is his third major league title bout in three weeks--on April 20 he failed to capture the TNA men's world championship in Las Vegas, but on April 27 he won the vacant AAA mega championship in Monterrey. Since New Japan has an exclusive partnership with AAA's rival promotion, CMLL, I don't expect them to even acknowledge Nemeth's new belt, and it certainly won't be involved in this match.

The global title was created earlier this year, when New Japan wanted to replace their US title with something more international, without actually calling it a world title. David Finlay became the first titleholder in January, and Nemeth unseated him in February. Almost immediately thereafter, Nemeth issued a challenge to Tanahashi, but the match had to wait until Tana recovered from an ankle injury.

At this stage in his career, Tanahashi still has the aura of a top guy, but without the protection that usually comes with that aura. They want Nemeth to look like a big deal who can beat big names, but they're not about to put him over Tetsuya Naito, Jon Moxley, or SANADA, so just give him Tanahashi. In light of that, I think Nemeth has to be the clear favorite here; I just don't see a reason for Tana to win unless Nic is finishing up with the company, which I doubt. Champ retains.

David Finlay vs. Yota Tsuji - Finlay was forced to withdraw from the 2024 New Japan Cup tournament due to illness, creating a bye for Hirooki Goto, who went on to the final and lost to Tsuji. So it's natural to wonder what would have happened if Finlay stayed in the tournament, and if he'd reached the final instead of Goto.

I said my piece last month about how I didn't think Tsuji should have been booked to win the Cup unless he was going to win the world title. If he's going to lead New Japan into the future--and they've already insisted that he will--he needs to look indomitable, but in the past year he's choked in two world title bouts. If they want to fix that in a hurry, step one is beating Finlay. I don't think they care about fixing it in a hurry, though, so I'm picking Finlay to win.

Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Jeff Cobb - This is for Sabre's NJPW World television title, so there is a fifteen-minute time limit. In singles matches, Sabre is 3-1-1 against Cobb, but within New Japan it's more like 1-1-1, so you could argue this is a rubber match.

I was surprised Sabre lost the TV title in January, and more surprised when he regained it in April. At this point I'm not sure what the plan is for him or the belt. Listening to Zack himself, you'd think he's on his way to the world title picture, but he's been talking like that for years. My preference here is for Sabre to get off the treadmill of beating midcarders in short matches, and for Cobb to get off the treadmill of being a cool dude who never wins anything important in this company. So yeah, I'm picking Cobb to win the title.

Jon Moxley & Shota Umino & El Desperado vs. Ren Narita & EVIL & Yoshinobu Kanemaru - This is a preview of Moxley vs. Narita for the world title tomorrow night. The winner of that match will defend the belt against Umino on May 11. The House of Torture has been feuding with Shota and Despy for months, and when Moxley tried to set up a match between himself and Shota, Narita attacked the champ. I figure Moxley's team will pick up the win, although I suppose Narita might pin Despy to pick up some momentum heading into tomorrow.

Tetsuya Naito & Shingo Takagi & BUSHI & Hiromu Takahashi vs. Gabe Kidd & Clark Connors & Drilla Moloney & Gedo - Takagi vs. Kidd is scheduled for tomorrow night. Hiromu and Bushi faced off against Connors and Moloney on April 29. Naito didn't have a specific rival in this LIJ vs. War Dogs feud until Jake Lee did a run-in on April 23. I'm not sure if that makes Lee an official War Dog or not. In any case, I'm surprised he hasn't replaced Gedo in this match. As it is, Gedo is the weak link, so I have to assume he'll be the one to get pinned.

Hirooki Goto & YOSHI-HASHI & Tiger Mask vs. KENTA & Chase Owens & Taiji Ishimori - This is a preview of Goto and Yoshi vs. Kenta and Owens tomorrow night, for the IWGP heavyweight tag title. Tiger is an old-timer at this point, so I expect he'll lose the match for his team.

Shane Haste & Mikey Nicholls & Kosei Fujita vs. El Phantasmo & Hikuleo & Jado - Haste and Nicholls won the STRONG tag title from ELP and Hiku a few weeks ago. I assume they'll do a rematch at some point, but to my knowledge nothing's been scheduled yet. This is a little interesting since I think the designated job guys for each team--GoD's Jado and TMDK's Fujita--cancel each other out, and either side is beatable. I'd give the win to TMDK, personally.

Yuya Uemura & Taichi vs. Great-O-Khan & Callum Newman - Originally this was a trios match, but SANADA is sidelined, so Francesco Akira has been pulled from Khan and Newman's team to make things even. Uemura won the KOPW belt from Khan on April 27, so we're just kinda winding down that little feud. Newman will probably do the job in this match.

SHO & Yujiro Takahashi vs. DOUKI & TAKA Michinoku - Sho retained the IWGP junior title against Douki on April 29, so I suppose Douki has a chance here for some payback. Sho's team should probably win, but it doesn't make much difference.

Togi Makabe & Katsuya Murashima vs. Boltin Oleg & Shoma Kato - At first glance this looks like Makabe and three Young Lions. However, Oleg recently won the NEVER trios title (alongside Hiroshi Tanahashi and Toru Yano) so I think that automatically means he's graduated. So does Makabe's side have the edge, because he's a living legend? Or would they give the win to Oleg's team, because he's a champion right now? I can't come up with an answer, so I guess we'll see.

[allelitewrestlings]

Jon Moxley faces El Desperado at NJPW: Music City Mayhem (2022) — photographed by Will Henderson

[wrestlingisfake]

G1 Climax final preview

Man, New Japan likes making me wait super-late before they post the card for this show!!

Kota Ibushi vs. SANADA - This is the final match in the G1 Climax tournament.  Ibushi won A Block on October 16, and Sanada won B Block on October 17.  There is no time limit; there must be a winner.  Whoever wins this match will get a trophy, a neat flag, and a briefcase containing a contract for a title match in the main event of Wrestle Kingdom 15 in the Tokyo Dome.

This is the third year in a row that Ibushi has advanced to the final; he lost in 2018, he won in 2019, and he’s looking for a back-to-back win here.  He’s declared his intention to be capital-g God, and I feel like that’s not the kind of thing you say in a wrestling promo if you’re going to come up short.  In contrast, Sanada is the shy, quiet one in Los Ingobernables de Japon, and he’s been humbly building momentum over the past year to break through from the midcard.  A month ago I was unsure who could win this thing, but when I saw people suggesting Sanada I was like “wait, really?”  But now he’s made it.

The psychology of this match has been defined by the bizarre war Ibushi fought with Taichi on 10/17.  Lots of New Japan matches feature spots where two guys dare each other to stand in the middle of the ring taking elbows to the neck for a couple of minutes.  But Taichi and Ibushi exchanged kicks, and almost nothing but kicks, for seventeen minutes.  I’m not some shootfighting expert who can tell you if these kicks were stiff or if they were super good at selling.  All I know is that, at least in kayfabe, Ibushi’s right thigh is thrashed from doing kicks, and his left thigh is thrashed from taking kicks.  Basically, Sanada's not going into this match and working over the arm, unless he’s stupid or something.

I have no idea how they’re going to lay out a match where one guy can barely walk.  Then again, Ibushi is known for a) insisting that some scary landing didn’t actually hurt at all and b) hulking up during matches and playing like nothing hurts him.  So he might come to the ring limping or acting like everything is A-OK.  However, I am very confident Ibushi can get in some kind of offense that levels the playing field.  Just one crazy spot that absolutely wrecks a body part on Sanada would make it feel plausible that the match could go either way.  Or maybe Kota will just challenge Sanada to another kicking contest, because he’s nuts.

I could see either of these two going on to challenge Naito for the title at the Tokyo Dome, but given the choice I think Sanada is a more interesting challenger.  That doesn’t mean he has to win, but I think the stars are lining up for him.  But he’s in for the fight of his life against one weird-ass son of a bitch.

Tetsuya Naito & BUSHI vs. EVIL & Yujiro Takahashi - Evil failed to make it to the G1 finals, but at least he won his block match with Naito, which puts him in line for a title shot.  Naito lost a total of three matches during the tournament, setting up three potential challengers, but I get the feeling Evil is first in line.

In the back half of the tour, Evil and Jay White started making all these weird comments towards one another in their backstage post-match comments.  That’s pretty unusual, since they weren’t scheduled to face one another, and now we know they weren’t even booked to meet in the final.  It feels like the destination is a Bullet Club vs. Bullet Club feud, but somebody has to make the first move on that.  I don’t know why it’d happen here, but it’s got to start somewhere.

Assuming Evil is getting the next title shot, he should win here, probably by pinning Bushi.  Then again, I suppose if Naito pins Evil, maybe that would avenge the earlier loss without the need for a title match, and he could move on KENTA or something.  We’ll see what happens.

Kazuchika Okada & SHO vs. Will Ospreay & Great-O-Khan - So the big angle on the October 16 show was that Ospreay turned heel on Okada and aligned with O-Khan.  Obviously Okada is looking for some payback.

O-Khan was once Tomoyuki Oka of the Young Lions until 2018, whereupon he went on excursion in the UK, where he became “The Great O-Kharn.”  I’m not sure they’ve settled on the official English spelling of this gimmick, but the website says “Great-O-Khan” right now.  I haven’t seen much of his current character, but I expect we’ll get showcase when he tags in. 

It would be fairly shocking if Ospreay defected to one of the heel factions (Bullet Club or Suzuki-gun) but the possibility that he’s just going to build a new one from the ground up raises a lot more possibilities.  Ospreay would almost certainly have to recruit turncoats from one or more existing factions.  He might very well start with Sho, during this match.  There are a lot of ways this could go, and this match is our first chance to start to find out more.

Assuming they don’t do some big angle or clusterfuck run-in at the end, I’m thinking O-Khan gets to show off some cool finisher and pin Sho.  Or, if New Japan really wants to make a statement, he’ll just pin Okada.

Hiroshi Tanahashi & Jeff Cobb & Juice Robinson & Master Wato vs. Jay White & KENTA & Taiji Ishimori & Gedo - White’s team represents Bullet Club, whereas Tana’s squad are all from Hontai, the babyfaces who are too purehearted to join a real faction.  All of these guys were on the rest of the tour except Wato and IWGP junior heavyweight champion Ishimori.  Could Wato pin Ishimori and turn around his rather disappointing first few months back from excursion?  I won’t hold my breath.

Honestly the most interesting thing about this match is the possibility that some important angle could happen near the finish, or afterwards.  Like, what if the tension between Jay White and Evil causes the Bullet Club team to come to blows?  Or what if they air a video from Jon Moxley vowing to come to Japan and give Kenta his shot at the US title?  I probably shouldn’t get my hopes up for stuff like that, but it could happen.

Regardless, I’m thinking White and Gedo are having some problems, and that will cost them the win here.

Minoru Suzuki & Yoshinobu Kanemaru vs. Shingo Takagi & Hiromu Takahashi - Suzuki is the NEVER champion and Takagi just pinned him the other night, so they’re on a collision course.  I don’t expect much of anything to get settled in this one, so look for Kanemaru to do the job to one of the LIJ guys.

Zack Sabre Jr. & Taichi & El Desperado & DOUKI vs. Toru Yano & Tomohiro Ishii & Hirooki Goto & YOSHI-HASHI - Sabre and Taichi are the IWGP heavyweight tag team champions.  Despy is one of the junior tag champions.  Douki ain’t got shit.  Yano is the provisional KOPW champion and his partners are the NEVER trios champions.  So there’s a lot of hardware in this one, even before you get into all the pipes, microphone stands, staffs, and spray bottles these guys lug to the ring.  The finish of this match could be used to set up a title match for the next tour, but it might just as easily be a lot of nothing.

Okay, I gotta talk about Taichi.  Like, that kicking contest with Ibushi was weird and didn’t make a ton of sense, but it reminded me of that deal where the ECW fans didn’t accept Tommy Dreamer until he took a zillion cane shots from the Sandman.  It’s like, on some level Taichi is trying to prove he’s done with the cheap heat stuff from a year or two ago, and even if he’s still a heel he’s a legit heel now.  Like, he gained Ibushi’s respect and stuff.  I dig that kinda stuff.  Anyway, I sure hope Taichi gets to just sit in the corner for most of this match.  But either way, his team’s at a prety big disadvantage (aside from just having Douki there).

[wrestlingisfake]

Best of the Super Jr. 29 Day 2 preview

You know the drill from the A Block matches on Day 1. This show features the first round of B Block matches. The show will be streaming live on NJPW World on Tuesday morning at 5:30am EDT, but it'll also be available on-demand afterwards.

Each block match is for two points--the winner gets 2, the loser gets 0, or each wrestler gets 1 apiece in a draw. After the block matches are completed, whoever has the highest score in each block meets in the BOSJ final on June 3.

Titan vs. El Desperado - Titan is the CMLL world welterweight champion, but no championships are at stake during this tournament. This appears to be his first match in Japan since January 2020, right before the pandemic shut everything down. Before that, BOSJ used to regularly feature several luchadors from CMLL. Nowadays it's easy to forget that the NJPW/CMLL alliance ever existed at all, so that's an attitude Titan is here to change.

Despy lost the IWGP junior heavyweight champion just a couple of weeks ago. So he had been coming into this tournament as the guy to beat, but now he's looking to reclaim what he once had. I didn't expect Despy's push in 2021 to go as hard as it did, which leads me to believe they're going to keep him strong in this tournament whether he wins or not. On this particular night, though, I think it makes sense for Titan to get a bit of an upset to re-establish him for the Japanese audience.

Master Wato vs. TJP - Wato is one of the IWGP junior tag team champions, along with Ryusuke Taguchi. I really think they fumbled the ball with Wato when he returned from excursion in 2020. The gimmick of being a "grandmaster" makes no sense unless he's pushed as an unbeatable fighting machine, but New Japan immediately had him struggle in his early feuds. Even now as a tag champion there's a sense that he can only excel when latched onto a more effective performer.

TJP, otherwise known as TJ Perkins, has worked for New Japan on and off for decades, although he's probably best known for winning the WWE cruiserweight title back in 2016. This tour is his first time working for NJPW in Japan since 2019. In the meantime he's primarily appeared on NJPW STRONG, which I haven't paid much attention to. I keep having to remind myself that he turned heel and joined the United Empire. I don't expect TJP to finish near the top of the block, but I do think he should at least be able to polish off Wato.

Wheeler YUTA vs. Robbie Eagles - Yuta is the ROH pure champion, though the title is not at stake and pure rules are not in effect. I think Yuta is the very wrestler under contract with AEW has wrestled in a New Japan ring in Japan since the pandemic. Of course, he's made lots of appearances on NJPW STRONG over the past year. But now we're dealing with a Wheeler Yuta who got the rub of being recruited into William Regal's Blackpool Combat Club, alongside Jon Moxley and Bryan Danielson. He doesn't have to smoke everybody in the block, but he needs to kick a lot of ass to live up to that storyline. And frankly, Eagles is a good place to start--he's been in New Japan for a while, but despite winning the junior title he hasn't really broken out as a top guy yet.

BUSHI vs. El Phantasmo - Bushi was the designated junior heavyweight in Los Ingobernables de Japon...for about a year, until Hiromu Takahashi joined the group. Since then he hasn't been much of a threat in this tournament or the junior title picture. Phantasmo, on the other hand, is still on the rise and could easily overtake the other juniors in Bullet Club pretty soon. This is ELP's match to lose.

EL LINDAMAN vs. DOUKI - Lindaman is appearing courtesy of GLEAT, where he is the, uh, G-Rex champion. He's not defending the title in this tournament, but in an unusual arrangement he's booked to defend the title during this tournament, on a GLEAT show 24 hours after this one. If this was real, that'd be kind of a dumb move. Not that he has much to worry about from Douki, who was brought in as a last-minute replacement for the 2019 BOSJ and has generally been the bottom bitch of the division ever since. Douki could get a push someday, but I don't expect it to start here.

Taiji Ishimori & SHO & Dick Togo vs. Ryusuke Taguchi & Alex Zayne & Jado - This is a preview of two A Block matches for May 18, Ishimori vs. Taguchi and Sho vs. Zayne. Togo and Jado are evently matched, except Togo is a lot more effective at cheating for his team, so I expect the Bullet Club side to win here.

Ace Austin & Tiger Mask vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaru & TAKA Michinoku - Another preview of a May 18 match, Austin vs. Kanemaru. The interesting wrinkle here is that Austin is a heel and probably won't get along well with Tiger Mask. Austin is on a different level than the other three, so he should be able to pull out a victory unless things break down between him and his partner.

YOH & Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Yuto Nakashima vs. Clark Connors & Ryohei Oiwa & Kosei Fujita - Yoh vs. Connors is set for May 18. This time around one side has two young boys and the other has one, which is still pretty lopsided. Yoh's team has a clear advantage.