10 Best Wrestling Matches Of The Week (July 22)

7. KUSHIDA Vs. Taiji Ishimori - Super J Cup - 20/7/16

Seth Rollins Dean Ambrose
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I'm not sure why my expectations of the first round were so high, but the opening night of the 2016 Super J Cup must rank as something of a disappointment. The first seven matches (with the exception of Taichi vs. Yuma Aoyagi) were good, but all felt a little flat at the same time.

There was also some disappointing booking, with Jushin Thunder Liger beating Eita for some reason and Ryusuke Taguchi picking up a win over Daisuke Harada. Don't even get me started on BUSHI losing yet again, either.

Luckily, the main event of the show was more than worth watching the whole thing for. KUSHIDA, the current NJPW Jr. Heavyweight Champion and clear ace of the division, overcame Taiji Ishimori of NOAH, and proved further why he may well be the best junior in the world today.

KUSHIDA's work is crisp as crisp throughout, and his usual attacks on the arm came across as vicious as they usually do. Ishimori more than held his own too, but he was unable to escape KUSHIDA's clutches and eventually succumbed to the Hoverboard Lock.

Night two of the competition should blow this out of the water, with Will Ospreay taking on Matt Sydal in what should be an absolute riot.

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Born in the middle of Wales in the middle of the 1980's, John can't quite remember when he started watching wrestling but he has a terrible feeling that Dino Bravo was involved. Now living in Prague, John spends most of his time trying to work out how Tomohiro Ishii still stands upright. His favourite wrestler of all time is Dean Malenko, but really it is Repo Man. He is the author of 'An Illustrated History of Slavic Misery', the best book about the Slavic people that you haven't yet read. You can get that and others from www.poshlostbooks.com.