Lio Rush Emerges As Early Leader
‘The Bad Child’ has been doing, well, quite good
No more ties. For now, at least. Lio Rush has emerged atop the A-Block for New Japan Pro Wrestling’s (NJPW) 30th Best of the Super Junior (BOSJ) tournament, making him the first wrestler this year to lead one of the two packs.
This also makes Rush the last wrestler to keep his record undefeated in the tournament. He picked up his fourth consecutive victory in Tuesday’s main event from Akita, working a near-17 minutes against Taiji Ishimori. Their bout saw Rush spring into life late, putting together a quick combination of moves to run away with what was a pretty close match for most of the time. Rush initially hurt Ishimori by escaping a move and hitting a hurricanrana that planted his opponent’s head on the mat. He then connected with Rush Hour, his move that sees him fly back-first off the bottom rope into a stunner, then finished the bout with a clean top-rope frogsplash that he dubs the “Final Hour.”
This BOSJ run from Rush, which remains undefeated at least for now, puts a deserving spotlight on him. Rush has been highly involved in NJPW’s junior division for some time now. In the winter, he impressed many by winning the Jr. Tag League alongside YOH. After losing to Catch-22 at Wrestle Kingdom in January, Rush appeared sporadically as a singles wrestler. He most notably met Takahashi in a title match two months back, putting together a 21-minute performance that I described at the time as “nothing short of a classic.”
Heading into the main event Tuesday, it was quite predictable that Rush would be the name that would emerge victorious. Despite both Rush and Taguchi being tied for first with six points in the A Block before Tuesday, Rush has certainly been the more notable wrestler both in the tour and in recent months.
Taguchi’s start to the tournament — like he has comparatively been over the last few months with Rush — has been relatively quiet. He overcame a trio of thus-far unsuccessful names (Ryusuke Taguchi, Titan and DOUKI) with none of those victories taking more than 10 minutes to attain.
Rush, on the other hand, had a big spotlight on him coming into Tuesday, riding the momentum of an 18-minute win against Hiromu Takahashi that closed out the opening weekend of the tour.
As noted after the third BOSJ show wrapped up on Sunday, we are still too early to know how the booking will go. Current champion Takahashi is fifth place in Block A with just two wins thus far (the second of which he earned today with a goofy victory over SHO, who attempted to orchestrate a disqualification win through faking that Takahashi had an injury and couldn’t compete). Takahashi will likely get back into the battle up top over the course of this week’s events and become a part of the conversation more down the stretch. And the B Block continues to be quite close, with a three-way tie between El Desperado, Francesco Akira and Robbie Eagles at the top.
While it’s hard to predict that Rush will win the tournament, one can at least hope that they will keep him near the top of his block as the BOSJ round robin continues. He has consistently put on solid matches since coming aboard the promotion and is an easy to like babyface. He’s known as the “Bad Child,” but he’s quite the wholesome character on-screen. After his match Tuesday, he pointed out two children in the crowd and compared them to his family at home whom he wrestles for, and a younger version of himself who got inspired to wrestle.
Rush is certainly a good name to have in the spotlight currently. He’s known to the NJPW fanbase and has put together a solid body of work in the promotion thus far. He has charisma and is able to put on main event performances. And after beating Takahashi clean on Sunday, he’s certainly established himself as a viable contender for the title. He might not end up winning this entire tournament, but I wouldn’t be mad if he did.
NJPW Best of the Super Junior 30 Night 4 Results
YOH def. Clark Connors (NJPW Best of the Super Junior Block B Match) (6:44)
Titan def. Ryusuke Taguchi (NJPW Best of the Super Junior Block A Match) (9:22)
Robbie Eagles def. BUSHI (NJPW Best of the Super Junior Block B Match) (9:09)
TJP def. DOUKI (NJPW Best of the Super Junior Block A Match) (8:22)
Francesco Akira def. Dan Moloney (NJPW Best of the Super Junior Block B Match) (8:28)
KUSHIDA def. Mike Bailey (NJPW Best of the Super Junior Block A Match) (9:28)
El Desperado def. Kevin Knight (NJPW Best of the Super Junior Block B Match) (8:42)
Hiromu Takahashi def. SHO (NJPW Best of the Super Junior Block A Match) (7:49)
Master Wato def. Yoshinobu Kanemaru (NJPW Best of the Super Junior Block B Match) (9:38)
Lio Rush def. Taiji Ishimori (NJPW Best of the Super Junior Block A Match) (16:56)
NJPW Best of the Super Junior 30 Block A Standings
Lio Rush (8)
Taiji Ishimori (6)
Mike Bailey (6)
Titan (6)
Hiromu Takahashi (4)
TJP (4)
SHO (2)
KUSHIDA (2)
DOUKI (2)
Ryusuke Taguchi (0)
NJPW Best of the Super Junior 30 Block B Standings
El Desperado (6)
Francesco Akira (6)
Robbie Eagles (6)
Master Wato (4)
Yoshinobu Kanemaru (4)
Dan Moloney (4)
YOH (4)
Clark Connors (4)
Kevin Knight (2)
BUSHI (0)
Tuesday Notebook
One thing worth noting: Mike Bailey suffered his first BOSJ loss today, taking a pinfall against KUSHIDA. This is sort of an upset but also not? Let me explain: Bailey was undefeated and KUSHIDA was winless. However, KUSHIDA has a junior tag belt and Bailey is coming into this tournament as somewhat of an underdog. This was sort of a surprising outcome to me — part of me wonders if they wanted Bailey to lose tonight so that they could make way for Rush to lead the A Block.
So today’s card had some interesting screwery. House of Torture’s SHO came to the ring today and announced that opponent Hiromu Takahashi was injured and couldn’t compete. Since SHO is a notorious cheater, everybody knew something was up. Surely a forged note. Just before SHO and henchman EVIL were about to leave, a tied-up Takahashi stormed to the ring and forced the match to start. Unsurprisingly, Takahashi picked up the win.
I know people hate House of Torture, but I’m at least happy that they’re making their heel tactics at least a little interesting currently.
Ryusuke Taguchi and BUSHI are still winless. Rough.