Dual tournament tour heads to Korakuen hall with junior heavyweight action
After World Tag League in Komatsu Monday, it’s Best of the Super Jr. 27’s turn for tournament action Wednesday in Korakuen Hall.
Main event: Hiromu Takahashi (1-0) vs El Desperado (0-1)
Singles record: 1-1 BOSJ record: 1-0 Desperado
A hotly anticipated clash between Hiromu Takahashi and El Desperado headlines in Korakuen Hall Wednesday. Hiromu Takahashi and El Desperado have an intriguing past and love/hate relationship that stretches back far further than their 2018 Best of the Super Jr. encounter, and it was those deep seated personal feelings that saw Desperado pull out every stop available to him in the same Korakuen venue two years ago, eventually reaping the two point reward against the then IWGP Jr. heavyweight Champion.
A follow up title match for Desperado saw the hooligan luchador push things even farther in an attempt to gain title glory, even allowing himself to be unmasked for a brief period to throw the Time Bomb off his game. A long and storied rivalry seemed set between the two warriors, but when Hiromu was put on the shelf with his neck injury, the feud was put on pause. In 2020, tag team action has connected the two men, but now they finally face off one on one. Takahashi has admitted that at one point he held a lot of hate for Despe, but that hate has now passed; with two points at stake though, there will be certainly no love lost.
Ryusuke Taguchi (1-0) vs Taiji Ishimori (0-1)
Singles record 2-0 Ishimori (BOSJ record 1-0 Ishimori)
Two of Sendai’s favourite sons will face off in the semi main event in Korakuen Hall. In 2019 Taguchi and Ishimori squared off during the New Beginning tour as Taguchi was Ishimori’s first challenger during the Bone Soldier’s first IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship reign. Despite some playful needling on Taguchi’s part as he discovered some embarrassing dancing footage from early in Ishimori’s career, the end result both at New Beginning and during last year’s Best of the Super Jr. was a pair of hard fought and extremely competitive matchups with Ishimori having to work for every advantage before finally putting the Coach away.
Sunday in Aichi saw ‘big match Taguch’ in full effect as he out wrestled El Desperado to his first two points. Could his next tw come at the expense of the junior heavyweight champion?
4th Match: SHO (1-0) vs DOUKI (0-1)
A first time singles matchup between DOUKI and SHO is fourth on the card in Korakuen Hall. DOUKI fell short in Aichi Sunday to Robbie Eagles, but did so after a tremendous match that saw intricate llave work come to the fore for DOUKI. ‘Japones Del mal’ will be looking to go to his Mexican roots through this year’s tournament, but that will clash very auspiciously with SHO’s strikes and jiujitsu training. Will DOUKi’s style, unique among the BOSJ field, through SHO off his gameplan? Or will SHO’s power be enough to put DOUKI away?
3rd Match: Master Wato (1-0) vs Robbie Eagles (1-0)
Another first time meeting in Korakuen sees Master Wato taking on Robbie Eagles. As Wato looks to break through during this tournament and apply the teachings of mentor Hiroyoshi Tenzan, and Eagles looks to show he’s a dangerous force after nine months of inactivity, both men have much to prove. Though impressive in their opening bouts, consistency is key in leagues such as these, and one man’s consistent record will have a blot on it tonight.
2nd Match: Yuya Uemura (0-1) vs BUSHI (0-1)
First BoSJ action of the night will see Yuya Uemura take on BUSHI. Uemura exploded out of the blocks Sunday in Aichi, immediately looking to make his markl on Best of the Super Jr. with an upset to Master Wato; the result didn’t work out the way the Young Lion had hoped, but he certainly made an impression. The question tonight will be whether he can continue that momentum against the decidedly more experienced BUSHI, or whether youthful exuberance will see a price quickly paid.
1st match: Satoshi Kojima & Tomoaki Honma vs Yuji Nagata & Gabriel Kidd
The opening match of the evening sees the familiar faces of Kojima, Honma and Nagata return to action, while Gabriel Kidd continues to get his reps in tag team action. The impressive Kidd is continuing to grow in leaps and bounds, and will benefit from being in the ring with three vetewrans to kick off Korakuen proceedings, even if victory may be hard to come by.
