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5/19 NEW JAPAN PRO WRESTLING BEST OF SUPER JUNIORS DAY SIX REPORT

By Matthew Macklin on 2019-05-20 07:14:00

Best of the Super Juniors Day 6, May 19th:

B Block


Rocky Romero defeated Ren Narita.  This was a fun match. Some basic wrestling early on as Rocky felt out The youngster. Rocky began to target the left arm, but not the injured right arm out of respect for Narita. Narita hit a belly to belly, but his arm injury didn’t allow the full throw. Narita almost caught him with some roll ups and the hit the belly to belly properly, but Rocky kicked out. Narita fired up as Rocky kicked his arm. Narita used his sharpshooter variation, but Rocky got to the ropes. Rocky got the win when he locked on an armbar.

Bandido defeated DOUKI.  This was the best Bandido has looked so far in this tournament and by a long margin. There was a story going in, as DOUKI had attacked Bandido after their tag match on yesterday’s show and again backstage. All stemming from DOUKI being bitter at Bandido after he helped him settle into Mexico many years ago. That meant there was a grudge and Bandido was wrestling with a fire and intensity. He started this with an insane suicide dive. DOUKI ran him into the ring post and took control. Bandido started to take the the air. He hit a corkscrew cross body and a huge dive.  His striking looked more crisp. He nailed DOUKI with a big running dropkick. DOUKI used the neck tie submission and Bandido did a great head scissors into an armbar, but he got to the ropes. There was some very good fast paced back and forth in the final minutes until Bandido was able to hit 21-Plex and get his first win of the tournament.

El Phantasmo defeated Robbie Eagles.   This was an all Bullet Club battle. They started friendly, but ELP ran Eagles into a ring post to take control. This made Eagles the babyface of the match, and it saw him do a lot more high flying than he has done so far in his New Japan run. There was some great stuff from him, as well as his striking, it showed how versatile he is. Eagles hit a great reverse rana and a 450 Splash for the near fall of the match. ELP pulled Eagles bandana over his eyes, which allowed him to hit a superkick and CR2 to finish the match. This was the first match where Eagles didn’t go after a knee and it cost him. 

Will Ospreay defeated YOH.   This was the best singles match YOH has ever had and was one of the best matches of the tournament so far. It’s impossible to recap all of this, because they went for at least 25 minutes and it was jammed with amazing wrestling. The story was the knee of Ospreay. YOH went after it early, but it wasn’t until Ospreay made a mistake and hurt it that YOH was really able to zone in on it.    YOH was amazing here. He sometimes gets lost in the shadow of SHO, but he showed what he is capable of on his own.  YOH used submission holds on the knee, mostly the Calf Crusher. Ospreay tried the run up moonsault on YOH, but hurt his knee when he landed. He went to land on his feet off a 450, but again hurt the knee. Ospreay’s selling was sensational and it played into every single thing he did. There were some amazing false finishes. The best of which was when Ospreay had everyone convinced that he was going to submit to a second Calf Crusher late in the match. At one point YOH dragon suplexed Ospreay into the corner. Ospreay landed on his feet out of a second one and gutted through the pain to hit a series of kicks and finish the match with Stormbreaker. Everyone needs to see this one. 

Ryusuke Taguchi defeated BUSHI.  This was an forgettable main event that had no chance of following the previous match. Taguchi is Taguchi. He’s the comedy guy and really shouldn’t be main eventing these shows ahead of the likes of Ospreay. BUSHI spent most of the match working over Taguchi’s ass. Taguchi made the comeback and was cut off when BUSHI misted him. Taguchi went for an ankle lock, but BUSHI escaped. Taguchi got a good near fall with Dodon. BUSHI got one with a backslide. Taguchi got the submission win with the ankle lock. Not much to see here. 
 

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