Boss Rock

The Wild Samoans approve of this.

Same. Could have still gone the route of Jey of quitting to protect Jimmy without like 15 minutes of that.

This has been going on way too long.

Agreed with the whole vibe of this Bucks-#FTR feud being off. I actually enjoyed the Bucks' antics because they play brats well, but that shouldn't transition right into a feud with a heel team. A Pillmanizer isn't going to cut it. I think Jurassic Express should be the top face tag team.

Yesterday's NEVER Openweight 6-man match was really long, but also really, really good. Officially surpasses the all-Chaos tournament final earlier this year as the best Openweight 6-man title match ever.

That counter knee is one of the greatest moments in a match ever.

Like Migs said, I wouldn't be surprised if both cards are shortened like they've been doing lately as a COVID precaution.

I'm guessing Hiromu wins BOSJ this year as Taiji is champion.

Yeah, Naito-EVIL screams stopgap until EVIL-Jay at WK.

Power Struggle lineup is set. https://www.njpw1972.com/83143 WK is also two nights again. Wonder if one of those nights is Naito-Hiromu and the other is Naito-Ibushi.

I went 4. I still haven't seen the Tana-Naito final from 2013, but this was probably the worst of the Bushiroad era IMO. Still a good final and it breezed by considering the length. For some reason it just felt a bit anticlimactic. I'm glad Ibushi won but he still felt like a dark horse this whole tournament.

SANADA's been extremely hit or miss for me, but the guy is rather over and I know his feud with Okada drew well so I understand why he's getting this push. But I agree in Ibushi needing to be the one to win this. And as much as I really don't want to see another Naito-EVIL match, it would at least be just a stopgap until the Dome.

So the finals are set. I was way off in my predictions, but am pleasantly surprised.

Finished the rest of the A block and it was another great show. Suzuki-Shingo was pretty much what you'd expect with the nice wrinkle of arm work. Ultimately not as good as their Jingu match but still good. Ibushi-Taichi was basically them seeing the Sasaki-Kobashi chop sequence and saying "Yeah, let's do that for 17 minutes but instead of chops, let's do kicks". Very unique match and both guys did a tremendous job selling the damage.

Oh yeah, this was tremendouss. Proof that Ishii can do more than just back-and-forth slugfests.

Only caught the main event and Osprea-Okada, both of which were very good to great. Seems like Jay is turning face, although a face turn just because BC betrays him seems kinda weak. Ibushi advancing was definitely shocking but I'm here for it. I really want him to get his title run even though him vs. Tanahashi seemed a much more likely program.

Jay-Ishii is the A block ME, so it looks likely he wins the block. But stranger things have happened (2016). And Jay-EVIL seems more like a WK program, so it wouldn't surprise me if Jay lost in the finals or even lost the briefcase. Or he could win the whole thing. I guess we'll find out soon enough.

A block yesterday was good. Ishii-Okada was MOTN even if there was a bit too much Money Clip. The Shingo match found the perfect balance. Contemplating skipping B block today but Tana-SANADA sounds good.

Waiting for an Inokiism episode.

Second on the beard doing wonders for him. Also helps that he added a bit more muscle.

One of the rare instances where the overbooking didn't take away from the match and actually added to it. Tanahashi is just such a terrific babyface and KENTA can be a great jerk. Smartly-worked and highly effective. ****

This was probably the weakest show of the tournament thus far. EVIL-Naito, Sabre-YOSHI-HASHI, and Tanahashi-Goto were all pretty good (one of them having a rather surprising result) but hardly essential. Juice-SANADA was fine but rather dull for the most part. And while I usually love Yano, the match with KENTA is probably the worst match of the tournament and honestly one of the worst matches this year. Just an absolute mess. So if you're not a completionist, you can probably skip this one. Rather unfortunate considering how killer yesterday's show was.

OK yeah I did see this one.

Didn't catch that, but very interesting. Overall, easily the best show of the tournament. Jay-Yujiro was an interesting bit of booking and everything else was must-see. Okada-Shingo is my MOTN and the performance we've been waiting for from Okada. Pretty sure everyone collectively said "FINALLY!" after that one, ha.

Terrific face/heel dynamics in this one. As much as I love Naito, I was just begging for Juice to make him eat shit and win after all the antagonizing.