Junior league returns to Korakuen
Best of the Super Junior 28 continues on Wednesday November 24, and the league returns to Korakuen Hall for a night that will see a theme of tag partners doing battle with one another!
Watch LIVE or in English on demand on NJPW World!
Main event: BUSHI (2-2) vs Hiromu Takahashi (2-1-1)
BOSJ record: 1-0 Hiromu
Headlining in the Hall, Hiromu Takahashi goes head to head with LIJ cohort, BUSHI. This is only the second singles encounter between the two men since Hiromu’s 2016 return from excursion, and only the third singles match between the two overall. An intense bout in last year’s BOSJ saw Hiromu pick up the victory as he continued his campaign toward his final against El Desperado. That’s a final Hiromu wants run back in 2021, but after a mixed start, BUSHI wants to build up more steam, and after enduring the full thirty minutes in ring against Despe in Aichi this Sunday, the Time Bomb could be vulnerable to an upset from hsi regular tag partner tonight.
6th Match: Taiji Ishimori (3-1) vs El Phantasmo (1-3)
BULLET CLUB’s Cutest Tag Team implodes? Unlikely, but it’s also unlikely to expect either one of Ishimori or Phantasmo to lay down for the other as both enter a critical phase of the league. With two Super J-Cups under his belt, ELP was earmarked as a favourite pre-tournament, but has had a rough start at 1-3, and a loss to Robbie Eagles in a violent war in Aichi has not helped his point score. Meanwhile Ishimori has shot to 3-1, with only old enemy Yoshinobu Kanemaru providing a blotch on his record. The Bone Soldier wants to pick up another win to help solidify himself as a top runner, while Phantasmo needs a win to avoid slipping toward the elimination bubble.
5th Match: El Desperado (1-2-1) vs DOUKI (2-2)
Singles record: 1-0 Desperado
Two more teammates collide as El Desperado faces DOUKI. Since DOUKI entered NJPW substituting for Desperado in the 2019 Best of the Super Jr., Desperado has taken a big brotherly stance toward the lucha expert, and media and backstage comments have shown hints of the IWGP Junior heavyweight Champion try to mould DOUKI as a talent. Yet, at 1-2-1 after four matches, Desperado has been forced to confront himself, asking ‘what kind of champion am I?’ This match could be a chance for Desperado to reassert himself, or it could be a chance for DOUKI to truly spread his wings as his own man. Add in the Mexican influenced stylings of both men, and this is definitely a match to keep a close eye on.
4th Match: Yoshinobu Kanemaru (3-1) vs SHO (4-0)
Singles record: 1-0 Kanemaru
SHO has only had one main event to date in this year’s Best of the Super Junior, but he has remained rooted at the top of the table, four wins putting him at eight points. Every one of those gains has been decidedly ill gotten, and there is no doubt that the days of hard fighting babyface SHO are long behind us. Yet here he faces the Heel Master in Yoshinobu Kanemaru, and someone who has forgotten more devious tactics than most can ever possibly begin to learn. Indeed, it was two years ago in this tournament, and in the same venue of Korakuen Hall that Kanemaru stole a win over SHO with the aid of a stray Young Lion and a twenty count on the floor from the referee. Every SHO match will require opponents to have eyes in the backs of their heads for HOUSE OF TORTURE. This time though, SHO will have to have the same.
3rd Match: Robbie Eagles (2-2) vs YOH (0-4)
BOSJ record: 1-0 YOH
Going back to intra factional derbies, this all CHAOS battle sees Robbie Eagles go up against YOH. Eagles’ 2-2 record isn’t exactly what the former IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion would have hoped for, but the Sniper of the Skies received a confidence boost Sunday in Aichi when he defeated arch rival El Phantasmo for the first time.
On the exact opposite of the confidence scale lies YOH, who fell to his fourth defeat this league to Ryusuke Taguchi at the weekend. With only ‘I knew it,’ being left for comment, YOH’s crisis of confidence, which led to a rift with former partner SHO, and has seen him handed defeat after defeat continues. YOH hasn’t been in the win column for four months, and hasn’t won a singles match since June 3 2019.
That win was against Robbie Eagles. Could Robbie be the key to restoring YOH’s Direct Drive? Time will tell.
2nd Match: Ryusuke Taguchi (2-2) vs Master Wato (1-3)
BOSJ record: 1-0 Taguchi
Rounding up the night’s tournament matches, Team Six or Nine partners Ryusuke Taguchi and Master Wato face off. Wato has made great strides over the last year, but his critics will always repeat that the blue haired prodigy has a hard time with stepping out from the shadows of his many mentors. Even in this tournament, that mentality has seen Wato try repeatedly for Hiroyoshi Tenzan’s TTD, only to see it countered each time. Could this match see him step from the shadows of his partner Taguchi, or will he be eclipsed by a steely moon?
1st Match: Ryohei Oiwa (0-0-5 this tour) vs Kosei Fujita ( – – this tour)
Singles record: 0-0-6
Ryohei Oiwa and Kosei Fujita face off for their sixth respective matches, and the seventh time against one another. Smart money may be on another draw, but could lucky number seven be the key for one or the other?
