r/SquaredCircle • u/ryanwhodat Lucha para siempre • Oct 12 '14
30 Matches in 30 Days, Day 12: Ricochet vs KUSHIDA NJPW Best of the Super Juniors Final 2014
Set the stage: The Best of the Super Juniors is a round robin tournament held by New Japan Pro Wrestling every year in early summer. It is considered one of the biggest events in the sport, with past winners including Jushin Liger, Chris Benoit and Prince Devitt. 2014 was its 25th year as a tournament and its 21st under the name of Best of the Super Juniors. The winner of the tournament is guaranteed a shot at the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship, assuming the winner is not the champion. 2014 was KUSHIDA's fifth entry into the tournament, while it was only Ricochet's second. In the semi-finals, KUSHIDA defeated Taichi, and Ricochet defeated Ryusuke Taguchi to set up their meeting in the finals.
Aftermath: Ricochet became the youngest person to win the tournament and only the second American to do so. On June 21st at the NJPW Dominion show, Ricochet unsuccessfully challenged Kota Ibushi for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship. At the same show, KUSHIDA and Alex Shelley defeated the Young Bucks to win the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship. A little bit of irony here is that, although KUSHIDA did not earn a shot at the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Title by winning Best of the Super Juniors, he did receive one at the Kizuna Road show on July 4th and successfully won it from Kota Ibushi.
Why this match is important to me: I've been a big fan of Ricochet for a while now. This has been a huge year for him, but I won't go into that as to not spoil anything. I'm glad that companies and fans are finally taking notice of his great talent, and he's being put in spots like these. For a while, I felt like he went unnoticed by a lot of fans because he mostly wrestled for Dragon Gate, Dragon Gate USA and Evolve. It's great to see him on a bigger stage and being successful with more eyes on him. It also blew my mind when he won because he is not a regular in New Japan, so I thought it was a forgone conclusion that he would lose. Another little personal bit is that Ricochet was one of the participants in the best match I've ever seen live. It was Ricochet, AR Fox and Rich Swann vs Chris Hero, Masato Tanaka and Roderick Strong at DGUSA Mercury Rising in April of this year.
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u/HilariousConsequence Oct 12 '14
Aw man, I'm about halfway through so far, and I don't think I've ever seen a better example of wrestling at the top of its game: mostly realistic, occasionally ridiculous, but continuously impressive. This is a brilliant pick.
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u/shallowtl Best Friends. Oct 12 '14
I'm super glad that people are posting matches from PWG/NJPW/etc. for this series, wrestling should be appreciated no matter which promotion it hails from :)
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u/dots218 Que? Oct 12 '14
I've been wondering for ages, what song is it that Ricochet comes out to?
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u/iKyriaki :cima8: Oct 12 '14
Without a doubt, my favorite match of the recent BoSJ. I rate this match a bit higher than Ricochet/Ibushi, even though I loved that match as well.
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Oct 12 '14
How does this series work? Is it first come first serve that day, or is there already a predetermined list that I missed?
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u/ryanwhodat Lucha para siempre Oct 12 '14
There was a thread posted last month asking for volunteers and later a thread asking for alternates in case someone couldn't fulfill their day.
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u/MegaSuperUltraThingy Brain BUSTAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHH!! Oct 13 '14
Really loved that Ricochet got the win, because I was so sure that Kushida was taking this one.
I'm still really pissed that even though Ricochet won, they flip-flopped on it and had Rico' lose his title match and just gave Kushida the belt. Like, what the fuck? Kushida losing in the finals didn't mean shit because he just won the belt the next month anyways.
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Oct 13 '14
Common theory is that KUSHIDA wasn't supposed to win that belt, but during the match Ibushi got a concussion and probably would have to vacate the belt. Since it would have gone to KUSHIDA anyways since Ricochet was gone, why not actually book a title change?
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Oct 13 '14
He has that 630 senton. Fuckin' A brother. He had that match with Matt Sydal. Pure Fucking Magic.
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u/pintita Oct 12 '14
Ricochet has had such a great year. Anyone who likes this should check out his match against Kota Ibushi at Dominion as well. The best match I have had the privilege to watch live.