NJPW Best of the Super Juniors Preview: A Block

Beginning this Saturday, May 21st, New Japan Pro Wrestling will begin their annual Best of the Super Juniors Tournament, which started way back in 1988. Two blocks of eight wrestlers compete in a series of singles matches. The top two competitors from each block advance to the Semi-Finals and face off, before the winners of those matches meet in the finals. The winner of the entire thing earns himself a shot at the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Championship. This year's tournament runs from 5/21 until 6/7.

BUSHI

BUSHI has quickly become my second favorite Japense junior heavyweight, behind only KUSHIDA. His recent role with Los Ingobernables de Japon has led to him being involved in some very high profile matches, with the highlight being a great Jr. Heavyweight Title match against KUSHIDA back at the New Beginning in Osaka. This will be his fourth BOSJ as he missed last year's with an injury. He ranked towards the bottom in previous years, but I'm picking him to make a marked improvement. Like his profile itself, BUSHI will make a leap in points and I believe he'll be one of the two semi-finalists to come out of this block.

Prediction: 10 points

David Finlay

A late addition to the tournament is the young lion, David Finlay. He replaces Matt Jackson since both Young Bucks are out with injuries. I don't think this injury will change that much. The Young Bucks don't usually rack up many singles wins and Finlay himself won't get many, if any. The young lions always lose and Finlay is the young lion that always loses to other young lions. That doesn't equal a recipe for success. It will be his second BOSJ run and he went 0-7 last year. Unfortunately, I sense more of the same this time around.

Prediction: 0 points

Gedo

NJPW's resident booker man and CHAOS member, Gedo, enters his tenth BOSJ. While he has been a runner up in the past, his more recent years have seen him as more of a jobber. He's never really a threat to any titles, which is fine at this point of his career. However, he can still be entertaining at times, especially when he yells obscenities at his opponents, making for some fun TV. I can see him putting on some solid matches, especially against the top guys of the block, but not really amass many wins. Expect him at the bottom of teh standings.

Prediction: 4 points

KUSHIDA

The crown jewel of the New Japan juniors division. I've made note of my disappointment in most of the division, but none of that applies to KUSHIDA. On my "Top 100 Matches of 2015" list, KUSHIDA appeared in every Jr. Heavyweight match. He is undoubtedly the best they've had for a while. He enters his sixth BOSJ and does so as not only the defending tournament winner, but also as the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Champion. Despite these accolades, I don't see him in the final four. I have him tied for second place, but losing the tiebreaker with BUSHI and not making it. He'll watch on the sidelines as some new challengers rise.

Prediction: 10 points

Kyle O'Reilly

Last year, Kyle O'Reilly made his BOSJ debut. He promptly impressed, reeling off a hot streak and making it to the finals. While he lost to KUSHIDA, it was a fantastic match that I rated at ****1/2. It was a solo coming out party for one half of reDRagon and solidified him as a threat to the title. While he spent the rest of 2015 competing for the Jr. Heavyweight Tag straps, I'd like to see him focus on the singles belt this year. He, along with KUSHIDA, Will Ospreay, BUSHI and a few others, could lead a resurgence for the division. I'm picking Kyle to finish first in the standings and then to go on and win the entire block. Picking a winner of the whole thing is tough, but if he beats KUSHIDA on day one (which I'm predicting), he could win it all and give us the rubber match (not counting their RPW outing) at Dominion.

Prediction: 12 points

Matt Sydal

Matt Sydal enters his first BOSJ as one half of the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Champions. Unfortunately, the atrocious booking of that division renders that relatively meaningless. He's really only worked tag matches since coming to NJPW, losing in his only singles performance against Kenny Omega last year. Despite that, he's been booked rather strongly in tag matches and I get the sense that he does rather well in the tournament. I could see him just finishing above .500. He might have done better if he didn't share a block with O'Reilly and KUSHIDA.

Prediction: 8 points

Rocky Romero

Another member of Chaos appears here. Rocky Romero, one half of Roppongi Vice, steps into his seventh BOSJ. He had two appearances in the mid-2000s before making each one since 2012. He has a career record of 22-23-1 in the tournament and mostly finishes around the middle of the standings. I suspect more of the same. He's pretty much a fixture in the tag ranks and hasn't been a threat to the singles title. I don't expect that to change after all these years. Get ready for some fun matches, but not many wins from Rocky.

Prediction: 6 points

Ryusuke Taguchi

I do not like Ryusuke Taguchi. He is only ahead of the Young Bucks and Yujiro Takahashi when it comes to acts in wrestling that I dislike. Last year, he nearly made the finals and now enters his eleventh tournament. More impressively, it's his tenth in a row! Taguchi should fill a similar role to Gedo this year. He'll work some undercards and do his usual stuff, but not pick up many wins. That's fine as he's past the point of his career where he should be a viable contender. He fills his role as a comedy act and that's fine for him.

Prediction: 4 points

Lucha Underground 5/18/16 Review

This week's episode begins with a recap of everyone winning their Gift of the God's Aztec Medallions.

Cage enters Dario Cueto's office and is pissed about Chavo Guerrero stealing his medallion. Dario says that if Chavo puts the medallion in place, he will be in the match and not Cage. Cage joins him in the ring to stop Chavo from doing so. Dario brings out everyone with a medallion. His response of "spooky" at the sight of Siniestro de la Muertes is priceless. They all put the medallion in the title and leave. Chavo is last with the medallion and a steel chair. Cage dares him to enter the ring and when he does, Cage beats his ass. He takes the medallion and pulls it out of the bag, but IT'S A FAKE! Chavo nails him with a chair and puts the real medallion in place. he eats a nasty discus clothesline for his troubles.

Daga def. Argenis, Kobra Moon and Mascarita Sagrada w/ Famous and Brenda in 4:57
Famous B stops Melissa Santos' introductions, puts his arm around her and says that "he's got this" before introducing his client, Mascarita Sagrada. It's awesome that Sagrada is now from "Little Hollywood". Sagrada started hot, which was great because Famous B got to get in some fun comments on the outside. Most of the action is fast paced, but featured a few sloppy moments. Daga was the star, though Famous B was excellent at ringside. I love that he's mic'ed up. Kobra Moon hit Sagrada with Emerald Fusion and backed off so Daga could win. She clearly had the hots for Daga and that angle means I get more Daga, which is welcome. **3/4

Returning from break, we see Killshot getting ready in the back. Marty Martinez is a creep and comes up to him before saluting and saying that he's reporting for duty. Marty makes some more soldier references and points his fingers at Killshot's head like a gun. Killshot kicks his ass and takes him down. He rubs the bullseye on his mask and points at Marty with a "bang". Marty lays on the ground laughing because he's weird as fuck.

Killshot def. Marty Martinez in 7:08
Marty again creeped on Melissa during the introductions. He also took off his shirt and did a dance towards her. He nails his character. Despite that, the story of the match was Killshot. He's easily one of the more underrated guys in Lucha Underground. He nailed a Death Valley Driver on the apron, which along with a sweet fosbury flop, where the highlights of this. Marty got two on a Curb Stomp that would anger Seth Rollins. Killshot won with the storm cradle driver but Marty attacked after the bell and beat him up outside. He stole Killshot's dog tags and hit a second Curb Stomp. Good start to the feud as the match really picked up near the end. ***

Gift of the Gods Championship Match: Chavo Guerrero def. Aerostar, Joey Ryan, the Mack, Sexy Star, Siniestro de la Muerte and Texano in 8:31
The original Gift of the Gods Title match at Ultima Lucha last season was really good. Early on, we got fun moments from Joey Ryan as he tried to make out with Sexy Star just moments after shoving her to the mat. Sexy and the Mack continued their friendship with stereo flying headscissors before going at it themselves. Then everybody just goes at it while Sexy Star sells a leg injury outside. She then knocked Joey off the top before diving out onto everyone else. I believe Texano's new gimmick is just him yelling obscenities in Spanish. Chavo got a lot of "chickenshit" chants throughout. He found himself surrounded by everyone, who all got their shots in. I'm talking a Codebreaker from Sexy, Stunner from Mack, Texnano bomb and two springboard dives from Siniestro and Aerostar. Cage then showed up to get some, but instead went after the other six competitors. He took them all out, saving Joey for last with a screwdriver. He put Chavo on Joey and the three was counted. The match was solid but not on the level of last year's. ***

After the match, Cage handed Chavo the belt. Chavo scurried away as Cage got a microphone. He says that Dario Cueto agreed to defend the belt if he won it, which Chavo denies. Next week, Chavo defends against Cage.

Overall: 7/10. All in all, a pretty good episode. Even on weeks where there are no real standout matches, like this one, the show flows smoothly and they manage to advance the storylines and angles well. The matches were all fun and entertaining, making for an enjoyable hour.

If you do want to check out Lucha Underground, which you absolutely should, and don't get El Rey Network (like me), you can sign up for the streaming service Fubo.TV. It's a great way to support the company and channel while streaming the show online. You can sign up and get Lucha Underground right here with Fubo.tv!

Raw History: Episodes #37-39

Raw History
Episode #37
October 25th, 1993 | Mid-Hudson Civic Center in Poughkeepsie, New York

Due to the close of last week’s episode, Randy Savage is not on commentary. We see a recap of Crush and Yokozuna’s attack.

Crush w/ Mr. Fuji vs. Phil Apollo
Crush is in his new goofy purple and black gear along with the stupid face paint. To be fair, it’s still a better look than his face gear from earlier in the year. Crush dominates in his typical boring fashion and wins with the coconut crush, which I assume has a new name.

Winner: Crush in 2:48
Crush pretty much is incapable of having an interesting math. This was a dull squash with the only good thing being Bobby Heenan making fun of Randy Savage on commentary. ¼*

Johnny Polo calls Marty Jannetty and the 1-2-3 Kid losers, saying he could beat both with his hands tied behind his back.

1-2-3 Kid vs. Marty Jannetty
This should be pretty good if Marty Jannetty is on form. They start with some good old fashioned WRESTLING! They work some quick stuff, ending with stereo nip ups. STANDOFF! As they continue to work at a fun, fast pace, Johnny Polo shows up at ringside. He trips up Jannetty, giving Kid a near fall. Kid then misses a somersault from the top, giving Jannetty a near fall. Polo now trips up Kid. Jannetty gets mad, but still goes for a pin which made me chuckle. Jannetty nails a snap suplex but his next move is countered into a German suplex. Kid’s offense was far different from most of what the roster was doing at the time. We get a ref bump before Kid kicks the hell out of Marty. He goes for a dive outside but Polo shoves Jannetty into the ring post and Kid hits the mat hard. This leads to a double countout.

Double countout in 10:40
I actually enjoyed this match. It was a bit disappointing considering the two guys in the ring but overall, it was fun. They had a good series of counters though I could have done without the Polo side stuff. ***

After the match, both guys get Johnny Polo and beat him up. No help from the Quebecers for him.

Time for another Jeff Jarrett vignette, where he puts down country singers and says that he’s the best. He calls out the Steiners, Mr. Perfect and the Undertaker. That’s like, four of the five guys I wouldn’t call out on the current roster.

Ludvig Borga vs. Mike Bucci
Ludvig Borga attacks before the start and dominates. He slams Bucci down and drops an elbow, while jawing with the fans in between. He does hit a decent looking shoulder block before using the torture rack to win.

Winner: Ludvig Borga in 3:45
While he dominated, it wasn’t what I want to see from a badass heel in a squash. There was too much downtime and talking with the fans. He should have just abused this guy. ½*

Ludvig Borga gets interviewed by Bobby Heenan about being undefeated. Borga challenges Tatanka and promises to end his streak.

Men on a Mission w/ Oscar vs. Steve Greenman and Tom Mata 
Surprisingly, Men on a Mission is over as hell. Mo starts with Greenman, who looks like Danny McBride. Mo hits an ugly second rope clothesline while commentary tells us that they have a Tag Team Title shot this weekend. Tag comes to Mabel who plods through his offense. The fans chant “hey ho” and “womp there it is”. Outside of that, everything going on is bland. Mabel squashes Mata to end the pain.

Winners: Men on a Mission in 5:32
This sucked hard. Men on a Mission were both so bad and this somehow lasted half as long as Jannetty vs. Kid. Awful. DUD.

We get the Survivor Series Report, telling us of the double main event that was announced last week. They add Bigelow, the Headshrinkers and Bastion Booger take on four Doinks. Riveting. The other new match does sound good though as Razor Ramon teams with the 1-2-3 Kid, Marty Jannetty and Mr. Perfect to take on IRS, Diesel, Rick Martel and Adam Bomb.

Diesel vs. Dan Dubiel
The Diesel push is beginning. With Shawn Michaels gone, he’s getting some in ring time to shine. He seems to forget what move he’s trying and just awkwardly tosses Dubiel. Much like the Ludvig Borga squash, this has some stalling as Diesel can win within a minute but stretches this out. After a while he nails the big boot and Jackknife for the 1-2-3.

Winner: Diesel in 4:02
Another squash match that was uninteresting due to them dragging it out. Blah. ¼*

The battle of undefeated streaks between Tatanka and Ludvig Borga will take place on Superstars. Normally, I’d be upset that I’ll miss a match between two undefeated guys, but it’s Tatanka and Borga, so I’m not fussed.

Overall: 3/10. There is a good match on this show between the 1-2-3 Kid and Marty Jannetty. The problem is that everything else around it sucks something fierce. When the four other matches can’t combine to equal one star, you know there’s a problem.

---

Raw History
Episode #38
November 1st, 1993 | Mid-Hudson Civic Center in Poughkeepsie, New York

The show opens to the awful sight of Bastion Booger eating a ton of raw food as Bobby Heenan tries to interview him. Get it? Raw food? Because this show is called Raw?

Non-Title Match
Bastion Booger vs. Razor Ramon
The theme music of Bastion Booger is nothing but fart sounds. Vince McMahon and his love of gross out comedy has never been more evident. He splashes Razor and then does the Friar Ferguson dance. Razor gets pissed that he would remind us of that gimmick and sends him outside. They fight out there for a bit as the crowd tries to rally Razor. Booger applies the bearhug because he’s already blown up. He actually gets a near fall on another splash. Since he has no other offense, Booger goes back to a bearhug. Even Vince calls the match lethargic. Razor finally is able to slam him and calls for the finish. He can’t hit it because Bastion is too fat. When he sits on Razor, the Champion flips it over and scores the win on the rollup.

Winner: Razor Ramon in 7:10
Far too long for a Bastion Booger match. Razor Ramon did the best he could, but there’s nothing positive you can do with Bastion. Not good. ¼*

The Survivor Series Report now airs, led to Todd Pettengil and while I never liked him, he is better than the random guy we had last time. We see a clip from Superstars and the epic clash between Tatanka and Ludvig Borga. With a distraction from Mr. Fuji and the help of a steel chair, Borga ended the undefeated streak of Tatanka. Yokozuna and the Foreign Fanatics attacked and even beat up Lex Luger when he tried to make the save.

Vince McMahon is now in the ring to conduct an interview with the Foreign Fanatics. Jim Cornette handles the talking for his team, which is best considering the cast of characters on this team. They announce that Ludvig Borga will face Scott Steiner next week. They run down Scott before Cornette puts over everyone on the team. Honestly, he’s the only good thing about this entire segment.

Mr. Perfect vs. The Executioner
Man, the WWF really ran the Executioner character for years huh? Mr. Perfect went from hot face at the start of the year to midcard face with no direction. Executioner actually gets in a solid looking hip toss, but he misses a corner splash and Perfect kicks him in the guy, field goal style. He goes into some of his trademark offense for a bit. Vince say something about “has the foot” and it sounds like “how the fuck?” The Perfectplex connects to end this.

Winner: Mr. Perfect in 4:52
Not the best Mr. Perfect squash as it lasted a bit too long, but it was still kind of fun to see him twist the Executioner around like a pretzel at times. *

We get another Jeff Jarrett vignette, where he runs down Billy Ray Cyrus, Razor Ramon, 1-2-3 Kid and Men on a Mission. He promises to send Men on a Mission back to homelessness. Ouch. That’s “J-E’DOUBLE F J-A-DOUBLE R-E-DOUBLE T”.

The Smoking Guns vs. Well Dunn w/ Harvey Wippleman
Well Dunn’s attire looks like they’re wearing g strings. This is interesting since it shouldn’t be an actual squash match considering Well Dunn is a rather legit team. Billy and Bart trade getting in offense and hit a suplex/cross body double team that Timothy Well breaks up. Thanks to some interference from Harvey, Well Dunn is able to work a heat on Bart. When Vince gets mad at them trying a move from the top, Heenan responds with “when the Steiners take a man to the top and throw him into the balcony” nobody says anything. Classic. He also tries to make a joke about “well done” being on “raw”, but it goes WAY over Vince’s head. Billy gets the mild tag and takes out both guys. Harvey ends up causing the DQ to save his boys.

Winners via disqualification: The Smoking Guns in 7:55
Technically, this was fine. They did standard tag formula and worked it well. The heels had the cheap heat from the manager and the crowd was behind the Guns. **

Macho Man calls in as Bobby Heenan makes fun of the fact that he bit his tongue. Macho Man returns to commentary next week.

Adam Bomb w/ Harvey Wippleman vs. Virgil
When the hell does Virgil’s contract finally run out? Vince McMahon always tried to hype Virgil as a threat but he isn’t. He does cause Adam Bomb to regroup for a bit outside. His flurry doesn’t last long as Adam is back on offense. He starts to throw Virgil around, dominating. Virgil tries to rally with a cross body but Adam kind of just avoids it and he crashes. A powerbomb follows to seal the deal.

Winner: Adam Bomb in 5:24
I don’t mind this going five minutes as it wasn’t a total squash and Virgil got in some offense. Still, it’s Virgil and it isn’t very good. *

Overall: 4/10. While the last episode had a higher ceiling, this one was overall slightly more enjoyable. The Booger/Razor match was bad, but everything else was at least watchable and they did a decent job of building towards Survivor Series.

---

Raw History
Episode #39
November 8th, 1993 | Fernwood Resort in Bushkill, Pennsylvania

This is the first ever Raw in the state of Pennsylvania. There is a hype video to open things for the Scott Steiner/Ludvig Borga match. It features the side profile short promos and Vince McMahon’s voiceover work. 

Ludvig Borga vs. Scott Steiner
In typical Ludvig Borga fashion, he attacks before the bell. He hits a second rope flying clothesline but doesn’t cover, since his goal is to eliminate Scott before Survivor Series. Scott comes back with an impressive show of strength and has the crowd roaring. The fans are eating this up as once Borga works a chinlock, they go right into “USA” chants. Scott just belly to belly suplexes Ludvig because he was a beast. He mostly whiffs on a dropkick, marking the first thing he’s done that doesn’t look good. The Quebecers show up leading into the commercial. Rick comes out to make sure nothing happens while his brother continues to beat Ludvig down. Scott gets multiple near falls while busting Ludvig’s nose open. Ludvig brings Rick in the ring, leading to a giant brawl that ends things.

Winner via disqualification: Ludvig Borga in 10:31
I guess Ludvig Borga wins because, even though he brought in Rick, he ended up eating a suplex. The match itself was solid until the finish, mainly because Scott was being all kinds of awesome. **¼

Another Jeff Jarrett vignette airs.

Men on a Mission w/ Oscar vs. Steve Smith and Cory Student
Mabel starts and dumbass Steve Smith tries to attack. The dude is 500 pounds and you’re a jobber. This won’t end well. Oh my goodness, Men on a Mission do a double dropkick. Mo goes through his atrocious offense before Mabel plants Cory with a DDT. Mo then pushes Mabel onto Cory for the win. That’s it.

Winners: Men on a Mission in 3:35
At least this was shorter than their previous terrible squash. It still sucked though. ¼*

Cut to Todd Pettengil for the Survivor Series Report! Tatanka is kayfabe injured and needs to be replaced. That replacement will be announced on Superstars. Bret Hart cuts a promo on how Jerry Lawler and his Knights will go down. We also see clips of the Headshrinkers getting ready for a match on Superstars when multiple Doinks appeared on the screen. They announce one of the weirdest matches in WWF history, as the Smoky Mountain Tag Team Titles will be on the line when the Rock n Roll Express take on the Heavenly Bodies.

Rick Martel vs. John Paul
This is just being lazy with the jobber names. Rick Martel takes this lightly and for good reason as he pretty much dominates. He wins with the Boston Crab.

Winner: Rick Martel in 2:52
Standard squash. It was kept short and Rick Martel did it right. *

Knowing that Crush is coming out, Macho Man goes nuts and has to be held back by Vince McMahon. Savage shoves McMahon to the ground and attacks Crush. A bunch of officials have to run out to make the save but they continue to brawl until a commercial.

Barry Horowitz vs. Bob Backlund
Both of these guys would actually be headed towards pushes over the next two years. While they work some ground based stuff, macho Man comes back to a massive pop. He threatens Heenan but doesn’t beat him up. Clearly the match doesn’t matter as we see Crush burst out of his locker room and Macho Man runs to the back to attack him. They don’t even bother to show us a finish to the match.

They hype next week’s episode as this one ends.

Overall: 2.5/10. Even though the opener wasn’t anything special, it was a solid start with some fun Scott Steiner work. After that, show fell off a cliff. Men on a Mission suck, the Martel squash was there and the last match didn’t even have a finish.

Fave Five 5/9/16-5/15/16

1) Matanza Cueto: A relatively slow week is headlined by a good episode of Lucha Underground. A few weeks ago, the "Monster" Matanza Cueto and Mil Muertes went to war and ended in a no contest after falling through the roof of Dario Cueto's office. This week, they met in "Graver Consequences", which was Lucha Underground's second ever casket match, only with more caskets and the Lucha Underground Championship being on the line this time. These two had a battle once again, with some of the coolest and most brutal casket match spots I've ever seen. Matanza was able to retain in a really good match, sending back the only challenge that has actually looked like a threat in his career so far.

2) Dragon Azteca Jr., Prince Puma and Rey Mysterio Jr.: The Trios Champions make the list once again. I couldn't find any pics/gifs from this week. In their first title defense, Dragon Azteca Jr., Prince Puma and Rey Mysterio Jr. successfully sent back the challenge of two-thirds of the former champions. Due to the injury to Angelico, Dario Cueto gave Ivelisse and Son of Havoc a new partner in Johnny Mundo. The new trio didn't work well together, allowing Azteca, Puma and Mysterio to do their thing and retain the belts. I love the chemistry between the champions and seeing Mysterio tag Puma to get the finish in a bit of a passing of the torch moment was great.

3) The Addiction: After a piece of shit PPV ending, I'm mostly done following ROH outside of the occasional match. Still, in a slow news week, one of the bigger stories was the Tag Team Title change. The Addiction (Christopher Daniels and Frankie Kazarian) won back the belts from War Machine at a show in Dearborn, Michigan. I am confused by the change. The Addiction haven't really been doing too much of note, while War Machine was really picking up steam, especially after beating the Briscoes in the best match at Global Wars. Oh well, Daniels and Kazarian are champions again.

4) Dana Brooke: When I first heard that Dana Brooke debuted on Raw, I was petty much against the idea. She is the definition of someone that needed more seasoning in NXT. She nails her gimmick but the ring work isn't there. She's like, the opposite of Apollo Crews in that sense. However, the more I think about, I love the idea of Emma mentoring her on the road. After attacking Becky Lynch in her debut on Raw, Dana then defeated the "Lass Kicker" in her first main roster match on Smackdown. It wasn't the most impressive of wins, but a 1-0 start is still pretty damn good.

5) Drew Galloway: Successfully retained the TNA Championship this week.

G1 Climax 23 Night Three Review

G1 Climax 23 Day Three
August 2nd, 2013 | Aichi, Japan

The second night of the tournament picked things up, so hopefully this show can continue the momentum. I’m going to try more of a recap style instead of a play-by-play review here and see how it goes.

Block B
Karl Anderson (4) vs. Kota Ibushi (4)
I was surprised to see this opening things as both guys are not only really good, but they’re leading their block. Karl Anderson held an early advantage with power and having a lot of Kota Ibushi’s moves well scouted. Anderson tried to put away Ibushi several times, but he was always resilient and ended up being able to hit moves that Anderson had avoided earlier in the match, like his moonsault to the outside. Ibushi continued to bust out some of his aerial offense. Anderson was ready for most and came close to winning after a running kick and powerbomb. They went into an exchange of strikes, which is common in most of these G1 matches, before Ibushi hit the Phoenix Splash and scored the pinfall.

Winner: Kota Ibushi (6) in 9:52
I found that to be a really enjoyable opening contest. It got the crowd going with two notable names and a good back and forth match. Anderson was good at having Ibushi scouted, while Ibushi was a great resilient babyface. Smart, compact and well done by both men. ***½

Block B
Shelton X Benjamin (2) vs. Yujiro Takahashi (4)
Here we have a guy that I like in Shelton Benjamin against one of my least favorite guys in Yujiro Takahashi. Takahashi did well in his role here, going outside to talk to the ladies he brought to ringside. Shelton went after him and then flirted for a bit too. Taka Michinoku had to remind Shelton that fun comes after the match. Inside, Shelton stayed in control, showing that he was still very athletic, while also being one of the stronger men in the tournament. Takahashi surprised me by hitting a suicide dive, which is more than he does in recent shows. They continued to go back and forth, with some of it being good, but some being a bit off. At one point, Shelton clearly whiffed on the dragon whip but made up for it with a nice blockbuster. Takahashi ended up taking his third straight with Tokyo Pimps.

Winner: Yujiro Takahashi (6) in 7:58
That was better than expected. While I still don’t think he’s that good, Takahashi was much more tolerable in 2013 than he has been in recent memory. The early stuff with the girls was fun and the end result was a decent showing. **¾

Block A
Prince Devitt (2) vs. Tomohiro Ishii (2)
This is one of the matchups I was most looking forward to when I saw the blocks. Right off the bat, they played into the Devitt is small role, with Ishii just running him over. He just destroys him with some of the shots he hits. Like a smart, smaller heel, Devitt played the cat and mouse game, allowing Bad Luck Fale to take out Ishii outside. Again, I don’t mind the interference here since it makes sense given Devitt’s role in the tournament. There is a point where it’s clear the official could see and hear what Fale was doing, but he did a poor job of looking away. It just takes you out of the match. Ishii did a goddamn somersault onto both men outside which was nuts. Ishii continued to impress with a deadlift second rope suplex. Devitt is able to score on a Brainbuster before going up top and hitting the diving double foot stomp for a near that I totally bit on. They went with a ref bump and Devitt used a chair but still had to survive a lariat. Finally, it took a belt shot from Fale and two Bloody Sundays to win.

Winner: Prince Devitt (4) in 10:28
Okay, I know I said I didn’t mind the interference earlier but they ended up doing too much stuff here. A bunch of Fale, the ref bump and the chair was overdoing it. Outside of that, they had a really good match with some great false finishes. ***¼

Block B
Hiroyoshi Tenzan (0) vs. Minoru Suzuki (2)
They started this by doing their typical stuff. Tenzan got in the Mongolian chops and Suzuki did his rope armbar. Suzuki was his usual relentless heel self, as he threw Tenzan around outside. There are a lot of strikes thrown here, but none of them seem to have the impact that the best strike throwing matches have. To be fair, Suzuki’s shots seem much harder. Suzuki looked for the Gotch piledriver but Tenzan was ready with a counter. The highlight of the match comes when try reverse the Anaconda Vice to an armbar and back, which results in Tenzan just simply releasing the hold. Tenzan scored with a moonsault shortly after to get his first two points.

Winner: Hiroyoshi Tenzan (2) in 11:46
Yea, I liked almost none of that. None of what they did ended up being bad, but it was just so boring. Things picked up slightly near the end, but not enough to save it for me. *¾

Block B
Tetsuya Naito (0) vs. Yuji Nagata (4)
Man, you can tell that the “A” Block is the stacked one since the “B” Block keeps getting put early on in the card. Their early feeling out process is fun as Nagata stole Naito’s trademark eye taunt. As a response, Naito slapped Nagata shortly after, leading to a battle of them and then Nagata just taking every slap like it was nothing before unleashing some on Naito. That is kind of a trend for the match as old man Nagata takes Naito to the woodshed. Naito did his best to match Nagata’s strikes but he just kept firing up. Nagata hit a second rope exploder for two, which was pretty cool. Nagata ended up targeting the knee. There is another battle of strikes before Nagata hit the backdrop driver for two. Naito started a rally before picking up his first win of the tournament with the Stardust Press.

Winner: Tetsuya Naito (2) in 11:40 
Considering the old man kicking the brash youngster’s ass stuff was so good, this got off to a great start. Then the ending stretch came. Naito had his leg worked on nearly all match long, only to forget to sell it during his comeback, which is always irritating to me. With some better selling, this would have ranked much higher. ***¼

Block A
Kazuchika Okada (0) vs. Lance Archer (4)
Coming into this, I did not expect these two to have the records they currently hold. Early on, Kazuchika Okada frustrated Lance Archer and dove out onto him. Archer has been booked like a pretty big monster heel though, so he turned that around and beat up Okada outside. Archer just continued the assault in the ring, making it look like the IWGP Heavyweight Champion was in grave danger of falling to a dreadful 0-3. Okada got in somewhat of a babyface rally before Archer stifled it. Surprisingly, he called for the Rainmaker and it wasn’t after the diving elbow. Okada tried the Red Ink submission and did a good job of showing ho tough it was against an opponent of Archer’s size. Archer came back with some big offense, nearly picking up what would be the biggest win of his singles career. Okada is able to persevere and score with the Rainmaker to finally get on the board.

Winner: Kazuchika Okada (2) in 11:26
Lance Archer has kind of been one of the models of consistency in this tournament so far. All three of his matches have had very well done big man/little man dynamics. This was more of the same as he dominated at times but Okada, being the Champion, was able to outclass him and win out. ***¼

Block B
Shinsuke Nakamura (0) vs. Toru Yano (0)
These men are part of the same stable, Chaos. They opened with a feeling out process and it was kind of clear that this was going longer than most Toru Yano matches. They fought outside where Yano had no problems hitting his buddy with a steel chair which led to a countout tease. It’s a smart technique because Yano knows that he isn’t in Nakamura’s league and resorts to whatever possible to beat him. Nakamura started to come back with some of his signature stuff including the corner running knee lift. Yano being Yano, almost steals the win with some flash pins. He’s like, the master of the rollup. Yano avoided the Boma Ye and nearly stole the match again. Nakamura then wrapped it up with the Boma Ye.

Winner: Shinsuke Nakamura (2) in 11:36
Whenever Toru Yano does actually have relatively lengthy matches with the top guys, they seem to work a good performance together. This was no different. Yano had to be extra smart and cunning against someone like Nakamura and it played off well as Nakamura had to fight from behind. ***
Block A
Satoshi Kojima (4) vs. Hirooki Goto (2)
These guys hold wins over Okada and Tanahashi in the tournament so far. Just by the way this started, I knew we were in for a manly fight as they just hammered away on each other. They managed to slow the pace a bit after the rapid start and gave us a countout tease following Kojima hitting an apron DDT. Goto got his mouth busted open at one point. Once back inside, they battled with slaps, which Kojima won out since Goto was clearly in some pain. Goto ends up doing that sunset flip bomb off the top but it doesn’t come off looking as good as it could have. Kojima just absolutely walloped him with a massive lariat to the back of the head and both men went down. As this winded down to the finish, it picked back up to the pace it started with, full of big shots and offensive bursts. Goto connected on Shouten Kai to score the victory.

Winner: Hirooki Goto (4) in 13:07
On a night filled with mostly good matches, this was probably the best so far. They started fast, slowed it at a smart time and then picked back up right as things were getting near the climax. It was hard hitting, featured some false finishes and just a really fun match. ***¾

Block A
Katsuyori Shibata (2) vs. Togi Makabe (2)
I’ve seen these two go at it before and it’s usually a good old fashioned fight. That seemed to be the case in the early goings here. They just kick, slap and lariat each other for most of the match. There literally isn’t that much to really comment on since it was just two guys beating each other up without using many wrestling moves until the end. Shibata hit a release German that Makabe got right up from to hit one of his own and then a lariat. Makabe went into his bag of tricks with a Death Valley Driver and powerbomb, but Shibata would survive. Shibata blocked another lariat and busted out the Go to Sleep. The Penalty Kick put the final nail in Makabe’s coffin.

Winner: Katsuyori Shibata (4) in 7:23
Fine little match here but they’ve had better. The short burst should have worked better for them because they could have had a great, compact war, but it just never reached that level for me. It was good though it never reached anywhere near great. ***

Block A
Davey Boy Smith Jr. (2) vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi (0)
Yea, I was pretty sure who the winner of this would be from the moment I saw the card. In about a year, Smith would ruin Tanahashi’s chances at making the finals, beating him on the last day. They worked an early test of strength and played into the fact that Smith, like his daddy, is a powerful dude. They ran with the “Tanahashi is overmatched” stuff for most of the match. Smith has become quite good in that role and showed off some cool spots like a body slam on the edge of the guardrail. I like Tanahashi fighting from behind, but I was surprised to see Smith get so much offense. Tanahashi did what we’ve come to expect as his standard comeback and won with the High Fly Flow.

Winner: Hiroshi Tanahashi (2) in 14:35
Not quite as good as their match a year later but still a serviceable main event. Smith was very impressive as the powerful heel and Tanahashi is almost always a good babyface. The crowd was very into his rally, making this fun. ***½

Overall: 7/10. Like the first night of the tournament, this was a really solid wrestling show. Only one match on the card was bad and everything else was good. Nothing was must-see, but it’s a solid way to spend three or so hours, with some diverse matches which are mostly all entertaining.

Block A Standings
Hirooki Goto 4 points
Satoshi Kojima 4 points
Lance Archer 4 points
Prince Devitt 4 points
Katsuyori Shibata 4 points
Kazuchika Okada 2 points
Tomohiro Ishii 2 points
Hiroshi Tanahashi 2 points
Davey Boy Smith Jr. 2 points
Togi Makabe 2 points

Block B Standings
Kota Ibushi 6 points
Yujiro Takahashi 6 points
Karl Anderson 4 points
Yuji Nagata 4 points
Shelton X Benjamin 2 points
Minoru Suzuki 2 points
Shinsuke Nakamura 2 points
Tetsuya Naito 2 points
Hiroyoshi Tenzan 2 points
Toru Yano 0 points