New Japan Pro-Wrestling - Best Of The Super Juniors XXII Review (Full Tournament)

A look back at every match from the 2015 Edition of New Japan's Best Of The Super Juniors Tournament, including an incredible Finals!!

This review is going to be a little different. Much like the review I posted a few months ago for the 2015 New Japan Cup, I’m going to provide a condensed review of the 2015 Best Of The Super Juniors Tournament (especially since this review is coming about a year after the fact). What I decided to do was list all of the matches in the tournament from the highest quality matches to the lower quality matches. By doing this, I hope to point out what matches from the tournament are worth checking out, and matches that you can get away with skipping. At the very end, I’ll provide my thoughts on the tournament as a whole.

I should note that Alex Shelley suffered an injury in his first match of the tournament, and had to pull out, meaning that all of his previous scheduled matches turned into an automatic two points for whoever he was scheduled to face.

NJPW Best Of The Super Juniors XXII (2015)

Best Of The Super Juniors XXII: Finals (6/7/15) – KUSHIDA vs. Kyle O’Reilly: ****3/4

Best of the Super Juniors XXII: Night 7 (5/30/15) - Block B - Bobby Fish vs. KUSHIDA: ****1/4

Best of the Super Juniors XXII: Night 12 (6/5/15) - Block A - Kyle O'Reilly vs. Gedo: ****

Best of the Super Juniors XXII: Night 10 (6/3/15) - Block B - KUSHIDA vs. Rocky Romero: ***3/4

Best of the Super Juniors XXII: Night 1 (5/22/15) - Block A - Jushin "Thunder" Liger vs. Yohei Komatsu: ***3/4

Best of the Super Juniors XXII: Night 12 (6/5/15) - Block A – Trent Beretta vs. Yohei Komatsu: ***3/4

Best of the Super Juniors XII: Night 1 (5/22/15) - Block B - Mascara Dorada vs. KUSHIDA: ***1/2

Best of the Super Juniors XXII: Night 3 (5/25/15) - Block A - Kyle O'Reilly vs. Jushin "Thunder" Liger: ***1/2

Best of the Super Juniors XXII: Night 12 (6/5/15) - Block B - Bobby Fish vs. IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Champion Nick Jackson (with Cody Hall): ***1/2

Best of the Super Juniors XXII: Night 1 (5/22/15) - Block A - Kyle O'Reilly vs. Trent Beretta: ***1/2

Best of the Super Juniors XXII: Night 1 (5/22/15) - Block A - Gedo vs. Ryusuke Taguchi: ***1/2

Best of the Super Juniors XXII: Night 5 (5/27/15) - Block A - Kyle O'Reilly vs. Yohei Komatsu: ***1/2

Best of the Super Juniors XII: Night 8 (5/31/15) - Block A - Jushin "Thunder" Liger vs. Trent Beretta: ***1/2

Best of the Super Juniors XXII: Night 11 (6/4/15) - Block B - Mascara Dorada vs. IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Champion Nick Jackson: ***1/2

Best of the Super Juniors XXII: Night 4 (5/26/15) - Block A - Barbaro Cavernario vs. Gedo: ***1/2

Best of the Super Juniors XXII: Night 7 (5/30/15) - Block A - Ryusuke Taguchi vs. Kyle O'Reilly: ***1/2

Best of the Super Juniors XXII: Night 1 (5/22/15) - Block B - Bobby Fish (with Kyle O'Reilly) vs. Rocky Romero (with Trent Beretta): ***1/4

Best of the Super Juniors XXII: Night 4 (5/26/15) - Block B - IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Champion Nick Jackson vs. Rocky Romero: ***1/4

Best of the Super Juniors XXII: Night 9 (6/2/15) - Block A - Kyle O'Reilly vs. Barbaro Cavernario: ***1/4

Best of the Super Juniors XXII: Night 7 (5/30/15) - Block A - Gedo vs. Jushin "Thunder" Liger: ***1/4

Best of the Super Juniors XXII: Night 12 (6/5/15) - Block A - Barbaro Cavernario vs. Jushin "Thunder" Liger: ***1/4

Best of the Super Juniors XXII: Night 6 (5/29/15) - Block B - Barbaro Cavernario vs. Trent Beretta: ***1/4

Best of the Super Juniors XXII: Night 5 (5/27/15) - Block A - Chase Owens vs. Jushin "Thunder" Liger: ***1/4

Best of the Super Juniors XXII: Night 4 (5/26/15) - Block B - KUSHIDA vs. David Finlay: ***1/4

Best of the Super Juniors XXII: Night 11 (6/4/15) - Block A - Chase Owens vs. Kyle O'Reilly: ***1/4

Best of the Super Juniors XXII: Night 3 (5/25/15) - Block A – Trent Beretta vs. Chase Owens: ***1/4

Best of the Super Juniors XXII: Night 9 (6/2/15) - Block B - Rocky Romero vs. David Finlay: ***1/4

Best of the Super Juniors XXII: Night 9 (6/2/15) - Block B - Bobby Fish vs. Mascara Dorada: ***

Best of the Super Juniors XXII: Night 2 (5/23/15) - Block B - IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Champion Nick Jackson vs. KUSHIDA: ***

Best of the Super Juniors XXII: Night 12 (6/5/15) - Block A - Chase Owens vs. Ryusuke Taguchi: ***

Best of the Super Juniors XXII: Night 10 (6/3/15) - Block A - Gedo vs. Trent Beretta: ***

Best of the Super Juniors XXII: Night 11 (6/4/15) - Block A - Barbaro Cavernario vs. Yohei Komatsu: ***

Best of the Super Juniors XXII: Night 1 (5/22/15) - Block B - Alex Shelley vs. David Finlay: ***

Best of the Super Juniors XXII: Night 2 (5/23/15) - Block A - Gedo vs. Yohei Komatsu: **3/4

Best of the Super Juniors XXII: Night 12 (6/5/15) - Block B - Mascara Dorada vs. Rocky Romero: **3/4

Best of the Super Juniors XXII: Night 1 (5/22/15) - Block A - Chase Owens vs. Barbaro Cavernario: **3/4

Best of the Super Juniors XXII: Night 3 (5/25/15) - Block B - Bobby Fish vs. Tiger Mask: **3/4

Best of the Super Juniors XXII: Night 4 (5/26/15) - Block A – Trent Beretta vs. Ryusuke Taguchi: **3/4

Best of the Super Juniors XXII: Night 6 (5/29/15) - Block A - Chase Owens vs. Yohei Komatsu: **3/4

Best of the Super Juniors XXII: Night 1 (5/22/15) - Block B - IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Champion Nick Jackson (with Cody Hall) vs. Tiger Mask: **3/4

Best of the Super Juniors XXII: Night 9 (6/2/15) - Block A - Ryusuke Taguchi vs. Yohei Komatsu: **3/4

Best of the Super Juniors XXII: Night 6 (5/29/15) - Block B - "Black Tiger" Rocky Romero vs. Tiger Mask: **½

Best of the Super Juniors XXII: Night 8 (5/31/15) - Block B - KUSHIDA vs. Tiger Mask: **1/2

Best of the Super Juniors XXII: Night 3 (5/25/15) - Block B - Mascara Dorada vs. David Finlay: **1/2

Best of the Super Juniors XXII: Night 6 (5/29/15) - Block B - IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Champion Nick Jackson vs. David Finlay: **1/2

Best of the Super Juniors XXII: Night 5 (5/27/15) - Block B - Mascara Dorada vs. Tiger Mask: **1/2

Best of the Super Juniors XXII: Night 11 (6/4/15) - Block B - Bobby Fish vs. David Finlay: **1/4

Best of the Super Juniors XXII: Night 10 (6/3/15) - Block A - Jushin "Thunder" Liger vs. Ryusuke Taguchi: **1/4

Best of the Super Juniors XXII: Night 2 (5/23/15) - Block A - Ryusuke Taguchi vs. Barbaro Cavernario: **1/4

Best of the Super Juniors XXII: Night 8 (5/31/15) - Block A - Chase Owens vs. Gedo: **1/4

Best of the Super Juniors XXII: Night 12 (6/5/15) - Block B - Tiger Mask vs. David Finlay: **

Final Standings

Block A

Kyle O’Reilly – 12 Points

Ryusuke Taguchi – 10 Points

Trent Beretta – 8 Points

Chase Owens – 8 Points

Jushin “Thunder” Liger – 8 Points

Barbaro Cavernario – 6 Points

Gedo – 4 Points

Yohei Komatsu – 0 Points

Block B

KUSHIDA – 12 Points

Bobby Fish – 10 Points

Mascara Dorada – 10 Points

Rocky Romero – 8 Points

Tiger Mask – 8 Points

Nick Jackson – 6 Points

Alex Shelley – 2 Points (withdrew after Night 1 due to injury)

David Finlay – 0 Points

Overall Thoughts:

This was a very interesting tournament. Going though the matches, I found that there was a pretty distinct dichotomy with regards to the match quality. There were really only a few matches that were either bordering on great, or just flat-out awesome. For me, those are matches that reach, or surpass the ***3/4 barrier, and there were only six matches in this tournament that achieved that. Additionally, when the tournament was over, KUSHIDA vs. Kyle O’Reilly in the Finals was easily the best match of the entire tournament. Not only was it one of the best New Japan matches in 2015, but it was one of the best matches in wrestling in general in 2015. It’s a match that’s absolutely worth checking out. After the Finals, there’s a pretty significant gap to the next best match (Bobby Fish vs. KUSHIDA), so again, the best match of the tournament wasn’t even close.

The rest of the matches in the tournament could be split into two categories, from a match-quality perspective. There was a large group of matches that were in the ***1/4 to ***1/2 range, and then there was another group of matches that were *** or less. Those two groups make up the bulk of the tournament matches. Pretty much anything that’s under *** isn’t really urgent to check out. The tournament as a whole was fine, for the most part, but I feel like this wasn’t the greatest Best Of The Super Juniors Tournament, despite the fact that the Finals between KUSHIDA & Kyle O’Reilly was a legitimate Match of the Year Candidate. It was cool to see the different types of guys in this tournament. I enjoyed watching the usual favorites, like KUSHIDA & reDRagon, and it was cool to see other guys like Liger, Roppongi Vice, and even young lions like Komatsu get the chance to shine. I also got the chance to see more of guys who I either hadn’t seen much of (Mascara Dorada, Chase Owens), or who I hadn’t seen before at all (Barbaro Cavernario). Once again, it was a very interesting tournament, to say the least.