I'm just going to start by saying to go watch today's junior tag league show. That was one of the best new Japan show this year from good to great. No dull matches at all. Anyways after watching the show,I think junior tag division has been one of the most consistent divisions new japan. Since 2022 when Catch 2/2 was born and won the tag titles. We've seen a ton of great tag bouts with Catch 2/2,War Dogs,LIJ, Douki/Kanemaru, Jet Setters, Yoh/Any Partner,etc.
The tag feuds between Catch 2/2 & The War Dogs was easily the best tag feud new japan had since 2020. Unlike the Heavy tag division it feels forgotten compared to the junior division. I'd give the credit to the talent who seem like they put a ton of effort into it. I'm hoping we don't just get a normal tag match for the jr titles at the dome. But a kickass 4 way bout against some teams in the division.
by DeathTriangle720
4 comments
Jr. Division as a whole has been pretty solid all year.
Yeah, it’s because they follow the model of not having such a hard line between singles and tag guys, with basically everyone having a tag partner that allows them to easily build chemistry over time and feuds become deeper by playing on the up to four singles feuds that exist in every 2v2 matchup
Even before 2022, teams like BUSHiromu, Despy/Kanemaru, Ishimori/Phantasmo, and Flying Tiger were great, they just lacked challengers, and then you had RPG3K as the tag aces to bring everything together (although they could have pushed it further by having both SHO and YOH get more singles opportunities)
It’s likely a result of the Jrs only having the two divisions and filling in tag spots throughout the year, but I’ve been hoping since I started watching that the Heavyweights would start to mix in the same formula, and the best heavyweight tag matches for years have always been matches like that (Shingo/EVIL vs Goto/Ishii, EVIL/SANADA vs Suzuki/ZSJ, EVIL/SANADA vs Okada/Goto, Golden Lovers tags, Suzuki/Archer vs ZSJ/Taichi, etc)
Add onto that that there’s an embarrassment of riches for independent/cross-promotional Jr tag teams or singles talent that can be paired and SJTL should stay loaded for a long time. When they first moved to a league instead of an elimination tourney I thought they needed to go in this direction to properly populate the division and it’s great that they’ve managed it
Just need to get Wato and Despy regular tag partners and the division is basically complete
Great matches today. Even DKC/Mack VS Velocities was awesome
I love Catch 2/2