New Japan Best of the Super Juniors Night 3 results: Kushida vs. Rocky Romero

Day 3 results of the Best of the Super Junior tournament are in. Here’s what went down this morning in Niigata, all Block A matches:

Kushida vs. Rocky Romero

They did some mat wrestling early. Kushida was out of the ring and Romero opened the ropes. So like a true dope, Kushida enters and Romero jumps him. New Japan faces are really dumb at the cheap heel heat bait sometimes. Kushida made a comeback and hit the sliced bread but Romero kicked out. Romero made a comeback of his own and won with his running knee strike. Last half of the match was very good.

Ryusuke Taguchi vs. David Finlay

Today’s Taguchi costume was him wearing an eggplant hat. I’ll leave it to you, the reader, to figure out what he’s trying to convey here. This was solid. Finlay looks good and will probably benefit a lot from working a lot of the guys on his block. He made a good comeback and traded some good near falls with Taguchi. Cool finish as Taguchi went for a hip attack, he countered looking like he was going for a German suplex but Taguchi floated over and snapped on an ankle lock for the submission.

Kyle O’Reilly vs. Gedo

Pretty solid match. Gedo is so great in his style. He never does anything flashy but everything looks good and executes stuff really well when it matters the most. They traded submissions on one another throughout; Kyle worked on the arm, Gedo had a crossface in at one point. Kyle landed some stiff shots followed by a brainbuster, but Gedo kicked out. Kyle responded by immediately sinking in an armbar which got him the submission victory.

Matt Sydal vs. Bushi

Kind of just there as a match. Nothing wrong, just overly solid, if that makes any sense. They traded some back and forth offense. Some of the near falls toward the end were pretty good. Sydal won with the shooting star press, so Bushi (who is a favorite heading into this year’s tournament) has now lost twice in a row. One of the big themes of these tournaments is the slow rise towards victory, though, so we’ll see.

Current tallies:

Block A:

  • Rocky Romero – 4
  • Ryusuke Taguchi – 4
  • Kyle O’Reilly – 4
  • Gedo – 2
  • Matt Sydal – 2
  • David Finlay – 0
  • Kushida – 0
  • Bushi – 0

Block B:

  • Baretta – 2
  • Chase Owens – 2
  • Jushin Thunder Liger – 2
  • Ricochet – 2
  • Bobby Fish – 0
  • Tiger Mask – 0
  • Volador Jr. – 0
  • Will Ospreay – 0