Everyone completes their fourth round of matches today as the “house show” portion of the Super Junior Tag League continued.
We’re still on a fixed camera, this time from Tottori’s Prefectural Industrial Gym. There’s no commentary, but you’re not shocked by that anymore, right?
Super Junior Tag League: Bullet Club OG (Taiji Ishimori & Robbie Eagles) vs. Suzuki-gun (El Desperado & Yoshinobu Kanemaru)
We’ve got no jump start in the aisle today… so there IS honour among thieves!
Instead, what we do get is the old-school jump start, as Robbie Eagles was targeted from the off, as the Suzuki-gun team tried to avoid a third loss in the league. Eagles manages to evade the pair of them, before Ishimori flew in with a springboard ‘rana as the Bullet Club tandem found their footing.
A quick camel clutch/low dropkick has Kanemaru in trouble, but Desperado’s on hand to cheat as he pulls Eagles to the outside, and then took him into the crowd as the Australian was thrown deep into the seating. Our mobile cameraman follows the pair as Desperado smashes a chair onto his leg, before posting the Aussie to help him beat the count-out.
The Suzuki-gun tandem continue to isolate Eagles, who’s dumped with a big back body drop before Desperado splashes the knee. Kanemaru’s in with a Boston crab to Eagles as Ishimori’s restrained on the floor by Desperado, but Eagles is able to make it to the ropes as the match continued. A whip into the corner follows, but Eagles manages to flip by Kanemaru and trip him ahead of a clothesline to the back, as he finally gets that tag out to Ishimori.
Ishimori’s straight in with that misdirection ahead of the springboard seated senton to Kanemaru. There’s a handstand kick to Desperado, who comes in later and takes a DDT/reverse DDT combo as Ishimori surged ahead. Kanemaru tries for a tornado DDT but instead has to make do with a low dropkick as the Bone Soldier was suddenly on the back foot, quickly rebounding with a handspring enziguiri to Desperado.
Eagles pulls himself back onto the apron and tags in, knocking down Despy with a springboard dropkick before unleashing some kicks to the chest. One of them’s caught, but Eagles still comes back with a Sliced Bread off the ropes, as Desperado’s left helpless in the corner for some double-knees and a dropkick that nearly ends the match.
Eagles comes even closer with the backpack Falcon Arrow deal, before he headed up top and went for a 450 splash. That misses, but he’s back to his feet and ends up taking the whiskey mist from Kanemaru as Desperado snatched the win with a lucha roll-through. Unremarkable, but there was little wrong with this match. Not one you’ll be sticking in any kind of highlight reel. **½
Super Junior Tag League: ACH & Ryusuke Taguchi vs. Chris Sabin & KUSHIDA
Both these teams are currently languishing at the bottom of the league – and while neither are perhaps pegged as favourites to make it to the final, you’ve got to expect they don’t want to be propping up the table.
ACH and Sabin start us off with some good mat work that quickly went airborne as ACH cartwheeled past Sabin… then began to trade some near-falls for the appreciative crowd. Taguchi and KUSHIDA are next, but they too fail to make much headway, at least until KUSHIDA mocks Taguchi with hip attacks. ACH returns to turn it around… and do some cardio as Taguchi plays the coach, sending ACH charging into the corner with clotheslines until he ran out of gas.
That allowed KUSHIDA back in with a dropkick to Taguchi, using ACH as a step-ladder, as the “Time Machine” duo found themselves in charge briefly, with KUSHIDA taking ACH into the ropes with a cross armbreaker. Sabin keeps up on ACH’s arm, as it’s pretty clear what KUSHIDA’s going to be gunning for. An armbar from KUSHIDA has ACH scrambling into the ropes, but a front facelock keeps ACH down as Taguchi was left a distant spectator on the apron.
Sabin’s back in and chokes ACH in the corner, but ACH gets free and tags in Taguchi, who’s all about the hip attacks as Sabin and KUSHIDA take a bunch of them in the ropes, including a leaping hip attack off the floor to Sabin for a near-fall. Taguchi scores with a reverse DDT/DDT of his own, but he doesn’t go for the cover as he instead charges into a cornered Sabin with Colt Cabana’s flying asshole.
More hip attacks end up backfiring as Sabin bites Taguchi’s arse, before Sabin and KUSHIDA returned and double teamed ACH out of the ring. Taguchi’s up next as he takes a pair of kicks in the corner, but he avoids the neckbreaker/moonsault finisher, instead throwing Sabin to the outside before catching KUSHIDA low with a claw. ACH tags back in and goes back after KUSHIDA with a low dropkick and a stomp, before a flying seated senton off the apron took care of Sabin on the outside.
ACH returns to KUSHIDA with a hiptoss and a hip attack for the first of several near falls as the match looked like it was heading to a climax. There’s a Muta lock/low dropkick for ACH as there’s more double-teaming, ahead of the neckbreaker/moonsault combo that would have ended it… had Sabin effectively been watching Taguchi. Not that it mattered though, as KUSHIDA manages to catch ACH in a Hoverboard lock for the eventual tap. Much like the prior match, this was okay, but it felt like an exhibition outing that played out at a snail’s pace. Your typical “house show match”, I guess. **¾
Four matches deep into the tournament, and we’ve got the usual log jam – with LIJ and Roppongi 3K topping the table, but with the top two going through to the finals next weekend, there’s plenty to play for.
Los Ingobernables de Japon (BUSHI & Shingo Takagi); Roppongi 3K (SHO & YOH) (3-1; 6pts)
Bullet Club OG (Robbie Eagles & Taiji Ishimori); Jushin Thunder Liger & Tiger Mask; KUSHIDA & Chris Sabin; Suzuki-gun (El Desperado & Yoshinobu Kanemaru) (2-2; 4pts)
ACH & Ryusuke Taguchi; Soberano Jr. & Volador Jr. (1-3; 2pts)
This wasn’t a good pair of matches, with both outings being rather lackadaisical and otherwise unremarkable. There’s two days off before the tour resumes in Tokyo with a pair of shows at Korakuen Hall – both of which will be streamed in full on New Japan World.