Night five of Best of the Super Juniors came from Yamagata Big Wing and featured the stars of A Block in their third league matches as well as an intriguing all Bullet Club tag match.
9th match: Shingo Takagi defeated Yoshinobu Kanemaru via pinfall to move to six points.
Before getting in the ring, Kanemaru whispered something to Taichi commentating at ringside, which provided an ominous hint at things to come. When the match started thoug, Kanemaru attacked Takagi relatively earnestly, if violently outside the ring. The damage done by a steel chair to Shingo’s knee was made all the more painfall when the ‘heel master’ sent Takagi crashing through the timekeeper’s table knees first.
Kanemaru pushed the advantage by stretching Takagi’s knee in ring and around the ringpost, before applying a figure four on Takagi outside the ring that nearly cost the undefeated Shingo the match via countout. Back in ring, Takagi rallied somewhat, with a pop up DVD that drew a ‘Takagi’ chant from the Yamagata crowd. A follow up Pumping Bomber attempt was countered however, and Kanemaru locked in the Figure Four once more.
When another Figure Four attempt saw Takagi kick Kanemaru into the referee, Taichi did indeed get involved in the match, bringing in a steel chair. All this served as was a shield for Kanemaru’s Suntory Surprise, and Takagi would spit whisky of his own before hitting Noshigami, a Pumping Bomber and Last of the Dragon.
8th match: Dragon Lee defeated Jonathan Gresham via pinfall to move to four points.
In deference to Dragon Lee’s hurt right arm following his match with SHO, Gresham instead effectively worked over Lee’s left in the early going. That effectively neutralized Lee’s corner forearms, but didn’t stop his boots in the corner instead as he set up for a Shibata dropkick. The pace quickened with a dazzling sequence of standing switches, but Gresham took control of the match again with a beautiful shot to the arm followed by a Magistral for two.
Gresham showed some impressive power with a powerbomb delivered to the IWGP JuniorHeavyweight Champion, and more spectacular limb work. Before he could get the Octopus Stretch all the way in on Lee, the Dragon showed his own power and stood up out of the predicament. A Desnucadora followed soon after to put Dragon Lee on four points.
7th Match: Taiji Ishimori defeated Titan via pinfall to move to six points.
In the early going, Ishimori tried to remove Titan’s mask, a tactic that seemed to give the CMLL star similar trouble to when Yoshinobu Kanemaru went for the hood in his first match. Titan built up steam however, with a spectacular lariat around the turnbuckle followed by a dramatic feint before a dive to the floor.
Titan couldn’t capitalize in ring however, as a moonsault attempt was met by a pair of boots to the jaw. Ishimori pushed the advantage effectively, but Titan got enough space to hit a stunning shotgun dropkick. Ishimori quickly regained control, however and hit a Bloody Cross for the win.
6th Match: Marty Scurll defeated Tiger Mask via pinfall to move to four points.
Rather than target Tiger Mask’s still hurting knee, Scurll chose to aim for Tiger Mask’s fingers in this match. His traditional finger snap was followed outside with a unique tortuous assist from Brody King, locking Tiger Mask’s fingers inside the turnbuckle and allowing King to tighten the bolt.
A chop from Scurll missed and found the ringpost, creating an opening for Tiger, but his follow up kick hit the steel as well. After Scurll was able to snap the fingers on Tiger’s hand twice more back in the ring, the veteran was able to rally with a Tombstone for a nearfall, but the end result was Black Plague being delivered for the win.
5th Match: SHO defeated TAKA Michinoku via pinfall to move to two points.
Michinoku attempted to exploit the damage done to SHO’s elbow during his first match with Shingo Takagi. SHO managed to counter with some effective arm work of his own, including a devastating back cracker transitioned into a cross armbreaker. While his elbow undeniably troubled SHO at points in the match, it wasn’t enough to prevent lariats rocking TAKA, and SHO had sufficient power to lift Michinoku into a Shock Arrow to win the match and get his first two points on the board.
4th Match: Los Ingobernables De Japon (Tetsuya Naito & BUSHI) defeated Ryusuke Taguchi & Toa Henare when Naito pinned Henare.
Henare once again charged at Naito in this bout, at one point driving the Intercontinental number one contender to the mat with an awesome spear. He got a Destino for his troubles, while BUSHI and Taguchi faced off and seemed evenly matched heading into their league bout tomorrow.
3rd Match: Juice Robinson, Ren Narita & Will Ospreay defeated YOH, Rocky Romero & Shota Umino when Robinson submitted Umino.
Young Lions on either side showed their heart against their opposite numbers. Narita eventually brushed off a Romero post match handshake appeal. YOH and Ospreay felt each other out with some athletic displays in the middle of the match, but it was Robinson submitting Umino in the end with the high angle Boston Crab.
2nd Match: Bullet Club (Gedo & El Phantasmo) defeated Bullet Club (Jado & Robbie Eagles) when El Phantasmo pinned Jado.
After initial handshakes and hand gestures suggested some level of fair play was in store, the two Bullet Club sides spent much of the match trying to out cheat one another. Eventually, Gedo distracted Jado with Jado’s own kendo stick while El Phantasmo rolled up the veteran from behind for the win.
1st Match: Suzuki Gun (DOUKI & Taichi) defeated Bandido and Yota Tsuji when Taichi submitted Tsuji.
Both Bandido and Tsuji tested DOUKI and Taichi, Bandido diving to DOUKI on the floor while Tsuji hit some spirited blows to Taichi’s head. An Ax Bomber and Seitei Jujiro from Taichi spelt the end of Tsuji’s night, but post match DOUKI pounded away at Bandido and tore off his mask.
