superkix

Backlund's such a goober -- such a pro-wrestling caricature. The way he sells Funaki’s kicks, whoa-ing and scuttling around. He’ll fling Funaki off with this “gee, what’d I get myself into here?” expression on his face, only for Funaki to continue pelting him with kicks. His takedowns are erratic and somewhat impulsive, the strike exchanges are chaotic between the wild misses and hard wallops. No-nonsense Funaki is especially vicious with his feet, stomping his way out of holds and high kicking Backlund in the head. Pissed off Funaki is so much fun.

Nishimura is a fantastic conveyor of struggle and exhaustion and I think against a brusier like Hiro Saito, it works so well. Saito's armwork is real grunty and I like how he uses his head and knee to exert more pressure on Osamu. The standing surfboard escape sequence was fun and when Osamu's finally able to reverse it, Saito just walks over into the ropes to break the hold. Osamu's alternating side headlock wrenches are great and he makes really smart use of the Irish whip to get Saito back into the headlock. Osamu goes after the leg with some awesome elbow strikes to the knee and the final few minutes of the match see him cranking away on Saito, using a sickle hold and these cool falling elbow strikes. Saito's in the moment selling was terrific here. On the first German suplex hold, it looks like Saito's injured leg gives out so he's got to deliver the second and maintain the bridge for the three count. A cool touch. This was definitely a great "less is more" type match and the crowd was into it.

I really liked this but I thought the finish was on the weaker side and Zack has some of the worst stomps I've seen. He at least sold his own strikes against Ishii because Ishii's made of stone and the best word to describe Zack is "lithe". I liked that Zack was persistent with the armwork, staying on it like a mosquito that Ishii keeps swatting away. The Minoru Special II was a cool spot and the submission sequence with Zack grabbing all of Ishii's escaping limbs. Fun stuff.

Matches like this are my favorite thing about current NOAH: sub-fifteen minute licks of spitfire and aggression. Kaito Kiyomiya is already such a good, fiery babyface and I really enjoy him in these matches where he's getting his ass kicked but he keeps on bringing it. Tons of hard slaps and kicks, with Kiyomiya constantly getting in Kenoh's face only to keep getting shut down. He gets some time to shine, hitting a big top rope dropkick and a fisherman suplex hold but Kenoh's able to avoid the German suplex attempts, at one point taking him down with a swank transition into the ankle hold. There's a great moment where Kenoh's dishing out the slaps and Kaito just smacks him hard and small packages him for a nearfall. Then Kenoh destroys him with some brutal chest kicks leading to the finish. A hell of an opener.

Here's what I wrote about this match at SUPERDUPERPLEX:

This was a really good, post-champ Miyahara match, who worked largely out of his ace mode and more as the aggressor, working over Suwama's injured right arm. I thought the arm work played a pivotal role in the match and Miyahara was able to squash a lot of Suwama's comebacks by going back to the arm. The bicycle kick counter to the rolling lariat was an especially cool spot. Suwama's selling was good -- I liked when he was backed into a corner and trying to boot Miyahara away. It's rare you see him on the rocks this much. When Miyahara keeps kicking at the injured right arm, Suwama switches things up and levels him with a left-arm lariat. Good stuff.

This was a pretty great "big boy" tag team match with plenty of clunky, hard-hitting blows and Nakanoue especially standing out with his interactions with Okabayashi. He's a guy who makes the most out of a simple set of moves. He does a terrific job of selling the double chickenwing struggle and the crowd eats it up. Okabayashi's hot tag charisma is always off the charts and the chemistry between he and Hama never gets old. Hama makes one of the best "out of nowhere" saves and the finishing stretch saw some real hard elbows from Nakanoue before he falls to Yuji's Golem Splash. Just a really good tag match from bell to bell and one of the better Japanese tag matches of the year, barely behind Strong BJ's title defense against Twin Towers in January.

YES to Ishikawa/Miyahara. Thoughts here.

I'm not a big comedy match guy but I haven't unintentionally laughed this much in a pro wrestling context. Suzuki's comedic timing is so awesome, between his looks, the little smirks, and his pissy interactions with everyone around him, real and imagined. I don't think I can rate this as a match but as a collection of moments, this was incredible. Here's a few gems: Suzuki's imaginary ring entrance complete with kicking at an imaginary young boy. Suzuki trying to hide his smirk during Aja Kong's entrance. Both guys playing to a crowd that doesn't exist. The interactions between Suzuki and Gota Ihashi The look Suzuki gives Ladybeard. Jun Kasai moonlighting as a janitor. The random encounter kickboxer in the corridor and Suzuki's escape. The way fake Nakamura bumps against the door. Tenryu fistbumping Suzuki and Suzuki's giddy reaction. A straight-faced Meiko Satomura trying to pitch a baseball and failing miserably. Takagi's missed lariat from the outfield wall.

I thought this was the best Will Ospreay match I've seen. Take that for what you will. It had a plenty of the things I dislike about Ospreayr -- the obnoxious scream selling, the ridiculous two count bewilderments, lots of thigh slaps, and the forced high spot set-ups, but he worked with more hostility and it was the first time I bought him as a pro-wrestler. The first time he looked kind of tough. KUSHIDA's just so much more believable -- I felt like he really wanted to win the match. KUSHIDA/O'Reilly is still my favorite BOSJ final of recent years but this was surprised me.

Had I not been spoiled by the result prior to watching, this would've been extra special. That being said, this was still a great Triple Crown match -- probably the best of the year. This was Shuji Ishikawa at his best and the first time in a long time that Kento looked like he was up against a true monster challenge. His "in the moment" selling is good and he has such terrific facial expressions throughout as Shuji keeps beating him down. I liked the early backwork from Ishikawa, which is hard enough to sell well, but the final half of the match was big time offense and the champ grasping at straws with his desperate knee strikes. Really liked the rana counter to the Splash Mountain Bomb attempt, which leads to Kento getting a nice run of offense before trying to trap Ishikawa's arms for the shutdown German. Even when Ishikawa is breaking out, Miyahara keeps control of the arms, forcing Shuji to fight harder. Ishikawa hits just about everything in his arsenal and his presence in general is second-to-none. Really good match.

Nominating - Hideki Suzuki vs. Hideyoshi Kamitani (BJW, 5/25/17). My thoughts are here.

Hideki Suzuki as BJW World Strong Heavyweight champion has been my favorite thing in 2017 and this match brought out the best iteration of Hideyoshi Kamitani -- the fired the fuck up baby-faced underdog. This was easily Kamitani's best singles performance since his awesome match against Okabayashi last year. The way he waylays Suzuki with his big boy weight early on and when Suzuki's finally able to counter something with his Billy Robinson-style backbreaker, it feels huge. The overall sense of struggle in this match is fantastic and there's such a raw, brutish aesthetic to the exchanges. The way Suzuki traps limbs, bending and laying into the holds with all his weight. There's a great visual of an exhausted Kamitani hanging onto Suzuki's waist, trying to lift him or fired off tired strikes, only for Suzuki to keep beating him down. Suzuki's striking in this match is unreal -- some of the best European uppercuts and elbows I've seen thrown in a pro-wrestling match. At one point, he hits a running elbow that looks like a baseball player swinging a bat. Again, this match has the little Suzuki nuances that makes him such a cool champion -- the little knees here and there, the nasty counter to the stretch plum, slipping into an octopus hold when he notices Kamitani struggling to stand. Kamitani's unable to deliver the backdrop hold but he does improvise and hits rolling uranages, which was cool to see. He doesn't have enough in the tank to finish off Suzuki and Suzuki's submission finish was unexpected but really neat. A brutal battle and easily one of my favorite matches of the year.

Yeah, I agree. This was my favorite match of the tournament. They managed to put together a really energetic match-up without being overly bombastic or mindlessly spot-tastic. Some of the submission swapping was a little silly but it, more or less, played into the competitive nature of the match. I really enjoy when KUSHIDA is working the more grounded "arm killer" role and some of his takedowns and counters were silky smooth. His frustration at Taguchi being able to keep pace played a fun role in the match with him being more aggressive with the armwork and pulling off dick moves like hand stomping. Taguchi had his big boy boots laced tight and I loved their slap exchange with them getting cheap shots in to the injured limbs. It didn't drag on, wasn't overkilled, and once again established KUSHIDA's new finish as the "Game Over" screen.

You can't ask for a much better opener than this. Fast-paced and concise with a well-established story and terrific selling from Togo. Miyamoto is one of the most underpraised wrestlers today and he unfortunately gets overshadowed by his tag partner Kodaka but he's definitely the more versatile of the two. He's silky smooth and focused on the mat or with his counters and transitions. He works the leg here and Togo really does a lot to add depth to a simple story, like the buckling on the suplex escape or injuring himself on the Pedigree. One of the things that Togo does so well is convey a sense of struggle when he's in a submission hold. He's trying to find a counter or fight his way out instead of just laying there and absorbing the punishment. The way he takes that Fire Thunder Driver was gnarly and I loved how him using the knees to block the moonsault press felt like a real sacrifice. I'll take a simple story with great care for small details, rather than something so ridiculously convoluted that it takes you out of the match entirely.

YES to Okabayashi/Suzuki. Thoughts here.

The power vs. technique dynamic is one of my favorite match types in all of pro-wrestling and Big Japan pulls it off better than most. As much as I like Suzuki's matches against Sekimoto, Okabayashi conveys so much more emotion to his matches. He was fantastic against Suzuki, hossing his way out of Suzuki's fingertips as the champ tries to bend him to his will. Suzuki's armwork was brutal and he does such a good job of staying on it, even with Yuji trying to shake him. One of the best spots of the match came when Yuji puts Suzuki in a camel clutch -- Suzuki is trying to snap his fingers while Okabayashi wrenches back with a one-handed variation. Yuji's able to avoid the double arm suplex throughout the match but in the end, he gets trapped in a modified octopus hold and has no choice but to submit. Great match, terrific selling from Okabayashi, and plenty of Suzuki's no-nonsense awesomeness.

I thought this was Jake Lee's best singles match to date. He looked fired up in there against the champ and really threw his weight into his offense. I liked Kento snapping on Jake and being a prick before the match it settled nicely into Kento's ace formula to finish it out. A fun way to kick off the tournament.

Yeah, this felt like a really solid TV show main event. Juice looks/acts like a dweeb, so it's hard for me to take him too seriously, but he plays a good, wild-eyed babyface with fiery comebacks. His offense was the most impactful I've seen from him but he also had a great dance partner in Naito, who played the pooper to Juice's party, exploiting the injured leg whenever he could. I love Naito's nonchalant legwork and Juice does a good job selling it -- that leg clip spot looked especially nasty. I liked the finish too, with Naito having Juice's finisher scouted and thwarting each attempt. The best Juice Robinson match yet.

This was a blast. I like when Suwama is playing the bully in his matches and he was a lot of fun with his pissy sleeper hold on the ropes and ragdolling Mashimo with suplexes. Mashimo's so good at working a body part and here, he chooses the leg and works it over to set up the finish. Terrific selling from both guys, and I especially liked how Suwama used suplex throws for recovery time. His lariats looked extra gnarly and I thought the finish was neat, with Suwama trying to boot his way out of an Achille's tendon hold and Kengo trapping the leg, forcing him to submit. One of the better matches in otherwise meh tournament.

A 30-minute Ultimate Submission match featuring Dick Togo. What else do you need to know? Togo puts on one of his best performances since returning to wrestling, at least from what I've seen, with Sasaki's weasel heel shtick kept to a minimum. Both men were terrific but Togo really shined here as he largely fought from underneath, selling the leg and working in some hot comebacks to take the champ to the limit. There's a great visual of Togo scooting around on the mat to avoid Sasaki. There are plenty of fun crossface teases and a few good punch exchanges. Sasaki's an underrated Naito-lite with his legwork and cool transitions. I love his diving elbow drop into the figure-four leglock. Heading into the final minutes of the draw, they struggled to get something locked in and Togo finally slaps on a cross armbreaker but it's too little, too late. Really good match.

I probably liked this match more than most based on who's involved in the match but here's what I wrote about it:

Easy YES to Shibata/Okada. Wrote about it here.

This was a condensed version of their time limit draw from earlier in the month, with the same sense of struggle and sluggishness in the back half. Suzuki once again displays his awesome in-ring awareness. I love the way he manipulates Sekimoto's fingers in order to lock him in the stretch plum. Even when Sekimoto manages to escape, Suzuki stays on him with a cravate, holding onto it after Daisuke tries to slam his way out, and then working that into a neckbreaker. He does such a good job of staying on top Sekimoto, not giving him much room to breath if any. Sekimoto was pretty great here too, selling Suzuki's strikes so well. I really like how he uses a sleeper to distract Suzuki long enough to hit the German suplex hold. I can't wait to see what Suzuki does with the belt. He feels like such a special attraction and when he's wearing the purple trunks, you know he's got his working boots on.

This is a low-burning match that really heats up in the home stretch. Overall, it felt very "wild" in the sense that they're flying all over the place offensively and there's this wick of bitterness that flares up every now and then. Takada comes at Koshinaka with the stiff kicks and spends a lot of time on the ground trying to set-up the chickenwing. Takada's dragon suplex bridge is nuts.He blows off some of Shiro's offense but his selling toward the finish was great. Koshinaka was terrific in this, between his selling, his fun runs of offense and smart defense. I loved the finish, with Koshinaka attacking the fingers as a counter to the chickenwing and working the shit out of Takada's hand to set-up the submission finish. A buzzing atmosphere and a really good match with an odd pace and/or structure.