Csonka’s New Japan Pro Wrestling BOTSJ Night One Review 5.22.15

Introduction
As a reminder, this will not be another traditional recap, but instead it will be a mash up of the Rs, Instant Analysis and my usual Twitter ramblings I would do during the shows; completely uncensored and as the ideas flow unfiltered to the old keyboard. Remember, this is a review; and I am here to review the show. As always, I encourage discussion and even disagreement, just do so in a respectful manner. I will be doing the review for Raw and most PPVs and iPPVs going forward.

New Japan Pro Wrestling BOTSJ Night One 5.22.15

OFFICIAL RESULTS
* BOTSJ Block A Tournament Bout: Jushin Thunder Liger defeated Yohei Komatsu via pin [***½]
* BOTSJ Block B Tournament Bout: Tiger Mask IV defeated Nick Jackson via pin [**½]
* BOTSJ Block B Tournament Bout: Alex Shelley defeated David Finlay via pin [**]
* BOTSJ Block A Tournament Bout: Barbaro Cavernario defeated Chase Owens via pin [**½]
* Hirooki Goto, Togi Makabe, Hiroshi Tanahashi, Katsuyori Shibata & Tomoaki Honma defeated Shinsuke Nakamura, Tomohiro Ishii, Toru Yano, Kazushi Sakuraba & YOSHI-HASHI via pin [***]
* BOTSJ Block B Tournament Bout: Bobby Fish defeated Rocky Romero via submission [***]
* BOTSJ Block A Tournament Bout: Kyle O’Reilly defeated Beretta via submission [***½]
* BOTSJ Block B Tournament Bout: KUSHIDA defeated Mascara Dorada via submission [***]
* BOTSJ Block A Tournament Bout: Gedo defeated Ryusuke Taguchi via pin [***]

>Jushin Thunder Liger defeated Yohei Komatsu: Komatsu has been impressing, and has shown a lot of improvement as a performer. I have a feeling that he could have a standout tournament. The young lion attacked Liger before the bell could sound, and worked a nice and aggressive style. This really felt like the young lion trying to take out the king so that he could take over ruling the pride. Liger was working hard since this was a singles, gave Komatsu a lot and Komatsu even survived two brain busters. Liger eventually hit a third brain buster and scored the win. I love when Liger turns it up, he still can go and was doing that here and watching Komatsu deliver and evolve has been very enjoyable. This was a great way to kick off the show.

Nick Jackson defeated Tiger Mask IV: Nick Jackson paid tribute to Prince Devitt and rode to the ring on Cody Hall’s shoulders. This was a match featuring Nick using Young Buck spots as much as possible, and Cody Hall shenanigans on the outside. It was a junior heavyweight singles version of a Bullet Club match, so you know what you’re getting here. Nick hit Hall with a superkick by accident, leading to the tiger driver from Tiger Mask for the finish. It was solid action and about what you’d expect from the match but was an obvious step down from the opener.

Alex Shelley defeated David Finlay: This was a very bland outing for young David Finlay. I would not say he did anything wrong, he seemed technically fine, but did nothing to make me care about him. This felt like a match where a star gives an enhancement talent a lot of shine, but you still never care about the enhancement guy. I know Finlay’s here to gain experience, and maybe he was just nervous; but it was not memorable at all. Shelly wins clean with the automatic midnight. Hopefully Shelly can have a great outing this year and stay healthy.

Barbaro Cavernario defeated Chase Owens: Chase Owens vs. Barbaro Cavernario wasn’t a match you think about due to the potential styles clash, and while the finish product was solid, it lacked. They had some communication issues, nothing horrible but enough that it distracted and took away from the overall quality. I did like the finish though, as Cavernario was able to escape a package piledriver attempt and then scored the win wit the la Cavernaria submission. This was a good ending to a solid match.

Hirooki Goto, Togi Makabe, Hiroshi Tanahashi, Katsuyori Shibata & Tomoaki Honma defeated Shinsuke Nakamura, Tomohiro Ishii, Toru Yano, Kazushi Sakuraba & YOSHI-HASHI: This was every multi-man tag that they run on shows like this. We have the stars in there and this is designed to break up the tournament bouts. They worked a very basic, but clean tag match and then amped up for a really fun finish. HASHI was the victim of Goto and Shibata’s violence, eating the neck breaker, penalty kick and shouten kai to their team the win. It became a lot of fun and was another good match. This was exactly what it should have been.

Bobby Fish defeated Rocky Romero: They actually worked a bit of comedy early around Romero’s eye patch, which actually worked since the card wasn’t littered with it. They had good heat, Fish worked the leg, and finished off Romero with a leg lock. This was another quality match.

Kyle O’Reilly defeated Beretta: They went right into O’Reilly vs. Beretta, playing off of the tag feud, which I appreciated. They worked really well together, as expected, and kept up the overall match quality of the show. Beretta continues to do really good work, and I am excited to see what he can do during the tournament. I have been a big fan of his post WWE run. They worked a fun back and forth match, lots of quality work here with O’Reilly finally sinking in the arm bar for the submission victory. This was a good night for reDRagon.

KUSHIDA defeated Mascara Dorada: After a more methodical beginning, they traded dives and then picked up the action from there. They worked a nice mix of pacing overall, and were really trying to keep things fresh, which can be a difficult on a show like this. It felt too short, as I thought they were really getting going when KUSHIDA locked in the hover board lock for the win. I think they have a much better match in them, but they just didn’t have the time to get there. I also wasn’t a big fan of the layout, as we had three submission finishes in a row. I thin they should have broken that up a bit.

Gedo defeated Ryusuke Taguchi: Gedo was over huge here as a baby face, even though he attacked Taguchi at the bell and DDT’d him on the floor. They loved the guy, and when push comes to shove he can still work when the time comes. He’s mostly a background guy to his role as booker, and makes sure that he doesn’t over shine the others, but some complained that he won here. I have no issue with it because he has to win sometime to keep him believable as any kind of threat. This was another good match, but felt a little under whelming in the main event spot. Personally I think that KUSHIDA vs. Mascara Dorada, with more time, should have main evented. But they worked a good match, with a nice pace and good layout. I am interested to see what Gedo (at age 46) can bring in this year’s tournament. Gedo won with the Gedo clutch in an out of the blue finish.

BLOCK A
* Bárbaro Cavernario (1-0)
* Gedo (1-0)
* Jushin Thunder Liger (1-0)
* Kyle O’Reilly (1-0)
* Baretta (0-1)
* Chase Owens (0-1)
* Ryusuke Taguchi (0-1)
* Yohei Komatsu (0-1)

BLOCK B
* Alex Shelley (1-0)
* Bobby Fish (1-0)
* Tiger Mask IV (1-0)
* KUSHIDA (1-0)
* David Finlay (0-1)
* Máscara Dorada (0-1)
* Nick Jackson (0-1)
* Rocky Romero (0-1)

* End scene.

* Thanks for reading.