New Japan BOSJ 2010 Pt. 3

La Sombra v. Gedo 6/4

This was a total blast, Gedo is the absolute truth. The match starts with some really pretty rope running and armdrags. Gedo is an old Hamada UWF dude so he is really great as a rudo base for fancy highflyers. That segment ends with Sombra doing a front flip to the floor as a fake. Gedo gets this big smile on his face applauding Sombra for his fancy stuff. He has this totally sincere and appreciative look on his face, and when he kicks the rope into Sombra's nuts it put a huge smile on my face. Sombra looked a little sloppy in the end run, he kind of made Gedo stand around waiting for his spinny finish, but this was just a great rudo performance by Gedo and he is totally the stand out of this tourney so far.

Kushida v. Kota Ibushi 6/4

I didn't care for this. Pretty much a by the numbers book hairless effeminate Japanees young boys juniors match. Starts with a minute of matwork, some rope running, a couple of OK looking dives, a shit ton of mediocre looking elbow smashes and then a long near fall section with lots of dramatic two counts for the sake of dramatic two counts. I liked Ibushi's schoolboy suplex, but outside of that this did nothing to engage me. Most of the stuff looked OK (although Ibushi's standing shooting star press into a second rope moonsault looked John Morrison level shitty), and this was only 13 minutes so it didn't make me want to claw my eyes out the way 30 minute matches like this do. Still this was the kind of match I expected this tourney to be full of, the kind of thing which turned me off watching Japanese wrestling.

Hayato Jr. Fujita v. Tama Tonga 6/4

Fujita seemed to answer the mystery of how to have an interesting match with Tama Tonga. Hayato is indy little so Tonga was doing more power moves, some of which looked pretty great. He did some powerslam thing which was like a Buzz Sawyer Powerslam in reverse. Meanwhile Fujita Jr., would just crack Tonga with Jose Aldo Jr. style kicks to his bad knee. Match ended up having a neat little dynamic. I didn't love the finish, as Fujita is still a little hit and miss with that running knee, but this was pretty solid stuff, it is too bad that Fujita ended up hurting himself, he was having some really fun matches.

AKIRA v. Taji Ishimori 6/4

This is the first I have seen of AKIRA in a really long time, he was coming in with some built up good will from all of the sick bumps he took on the 80's NJ set. He was pretty great here, combining crazy twisty pin combinations with punches and kicks to Ishimori's leg. I especially liked whatever the fuck he pinned Ishimori with. Taji didn't do a ton for me, he did a bunch of the really irritating "Ow my leg hurts, hey I am fine here is a springboard dropkick, ow my leg hurts again" selling which KENTA is so famous for, his offense looked kind of crappy too, although I did like his Magistral variation. Excited to see more AKIRA, less excited for more Taji.