The Junior Heavyweights take over the summer!

The summer is only heating up and the struggle continues! NJPW’s Junior Heavyweight tag team tournament returns on the road to MetLife!

NOTE: NJPW no longer wants to feed AXS TV now that it is with Anthem and Impact Wrestling. But never fear, I will cover NJPW in the spirit of AXS in providing the most important matches of the show.

OFFICIAL RESULTS

• Super Junior Tag League 2021: Tiger Mask & Robbie Eagles VS Gedo & Dick Togo; Tiger Mask & Robbie Eagles win.
• Super Junior Tag League 2021: Ryusuke Taguchi & Master Wato VS El Desperado & Yoshinobu Kanemaru; Desperado & Kanemaru win.
• Super Junior Tag League 2021: Roppongi 3K VS El Phantasmo & Taiji Ishimori; ELP & Ishimori win.

MY THOUGHTS

Firstly, apologies. I had been looking forward to this since Monday, but things pile up and I no longer had the time or energy to do full Play By Play for even these three matches. But wouldn’t you know? NJPW World made today’s event free for everyone, so if you really, really, really want to see this event, you can! That all said, here’s my review of the Summer Struggle edition of Super Junior Tag League!

Naturally Tiger & Eagles VS Bullet Club starts with Bullet Club getting the jump on their opponents. Tiger and Eagles had great teamwork, and there was a hilariously long argument between Gedo, Tiger Mask and the ref about Gedo and Dick being away from the ring. Dick & Gedo already felt like the team meant to just take losses just looking at the tournament pool, but they did give Tiger & Eagles quite a match. At the same time, Gedo is a four-time IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion, this was like a glimpse at his former glory.

First, a hilarious detail in how Ryusuke Taguchi changed his team name with Master Wato: Wato wanted “One or Eight,” Taguchi made it “Six or Nine.” And it seems Taguchi is poking even more fun at Shinsuke Nakamura now with wearing his own costume crown. We get a parallel to Gedo & Dick as Suzuki-Gun’s Junior Heavyweight team, the Rogue Luchador and Heel Master, attack Taguchi & Wato before the bell. There were great combo moves between Wato and Taguchi where the major component (or more the punchline) was of course Taguchi’s butt. And also rather naturally, Wato & Taguchi gave Suzuki-Gun a great match for this opening round.

But given Desperado’s promo to RPG3K earlier in the week, he and Kanemaru were already contenders for the finals as I see it, hence the win. And also because of that promo, it makes all the sense in the world for RPG3K to lose the opening round. And even without Desperado’s scathing promo from before, RPG3K was against the tag champions, and the champions can’t lose the opener. Plus, they have merch shirts now. And the match itself was great stuff, with ELP & Taiji being extra obnoxious at times. They also had a great camera shot where ELP was counting the pin, thinking Bullet Club won, but Sho breaks the pin behind his back, in full view of the camera.

And naturally, ELP & Taiji mock RPG3K in the closing promo. It wasn’t as aggressive as Desperado’s, but it was just as biting with ELP bringing up the outside interests Sho & Yoh have. With the way this went, the champions keep their confidence that they’ll win the whole thing, and RPG3K must now fight from the bottom. The second round is already happening tomorrow, and I will hopefully be able to do full PBP for it, because it’s gonna be good.

My Score: 8.9/10

Here are the current Super Jr. Tag League standings:

Tiger Mask & Robbie Eagles: 1-0, 2 points
El Desperado & Yoshinobu Kanemaru: 1-0, 2 points
El Phantasmo & Taiji Ishimori: 1-0, 2 points
Roppongi 3K: 0-1, 0 points
Gedo & Dick Togo: 0-1, 0 points
Ryusuke Taguchi & Master Wato: 0-1, 0 points