5-Star Match Reviews: Master Wato vs. Titán – NJPW Best of the Super Juniors 2023

It’s been a while since I watched a modern NJPW junior heavyweight match and this one came highly recommended to me. I’ve heard that the company managed to bounce back from losing Will Ospreay and they’ve pivoted from relying on Hiromu Takahashi to carry the entire division on his surgically-repaired neck. So now that I’ve watched these two guys let’s see if they’re worth your time as well.

The Story

I don’t know too much about these guys. Titán is a masked wrestler who joined the Los Ignobernables de Japón stable about two years ago while Master Wato is former NJPW Young Lion Hirai Kawato under a new persona. I’m not entirely sure what his gimmick is supposed to be, though based on his attire and odd poses he looks like some live-action anime character.

Anyways, both guys competed in the same tournament but in different blocks. Wato and Titán were in opposite tournament blocks but both ended up in the same position, as runner-up in his respective block. But once the round-robin part ended, the first and second place wrestlers in each block faced each other to advance to the finals. And sure enough, Wato beat “Speedball” Mike Bailey and Titán beat El Desperado to advance to the finals.

The Match

This took place on May 28, 2023.

A basic chain grappling sequence starts things off. Both men trade holds on the mat with Wato attempting a cross armbreaker. Titán almost gets a sharpshooter out of a headscissor but Wato escapes, leading to a stalemate. That’s followed by an arm drag exchange and a Ricochet-inspired athletic exchange. Titán teases a Greco-Roman knuckle lock but then lands a sole butt to Wato’s stomach. Wato reverses a corner whip and chases Titán into a corner but Titán backflips out, cuts Wato off, and hits an acrobatic but somewhat nonsensical rope-walk armdrag. Wato handsprings out of that, both guys try misdirecting each other, and then Wato lands a running headscissor. Wato stops short of a running dive and hits a plancha onto Titán on the floor.

Wato drags Titán back into the ring and applies a neck crank until Titán gets a ropebreak. He gets a quick one-count, lands some kicks to Titán’s chest, and then charges the ropes…at which point Titán dropkicks his left knee as hard as he can. Titán follows with a modified Figure-4 leglock but Wato gets a near-instant ropebreak so Titán applies a different leglock variation targeting the same knee. Wato gets another ropebreak and holds onto the ropes to avoid getting sent off with an Irish whip. Wato reverses said whip and goes for a dropkick but Titán holds onto the ropes. That jump hurts Wato’s knee so Titán dropkicks it again. Wato blocks a corner charge with some kicks with his good leg and goes for a running bulldog. But Titán handstands out of that and lands a basement dropkick to Wato’s face. Titán charges for a dive to the floor but Wato cuts him off on the apron with another kick to the head. Then Wato, bad knee and all, fires up and lands a suicide dive of his own to the floor.

Wato recovers, shoves Titán back into the ring, and lands a springboard for another one-count. He applies a Koji clutch but Titán quickly drags them both to the ropes. Wato applies an abdominal stretch but again Titán gets to the ropes so Wato knees him in the face. Titán blocks an attack on the apron and then headscissors Wato over the top rope and to the floor. Interestingly the crowd seems to behind Titán more than Wato. Then Titán hits a perfectly smooth top-rope quebrada to the floor. Titán returns to the ring and hits Wato with a suicide dive.

Titán drags Wato into the ring and covers for another two-count. Titán hoists Wato onto his shoulders but Wato escapes and roundhouses his head. Titán hits back with a strike blitz and teases charring the ropes. Wato pulls him back and kicks his gut. Titán does the Matrix duck to avoid a lariat and hits a jump kick. Wato staggers but then ducks another attack and hits a Ziggler-style Zigzag. Titán kips up instantly and lands an enguigiri. Both men collapse.

Both guys recover and we get the token Strong Style forearm exchange. Their strikes get increasingly stiff until Titán hits another blitz and goes for a rope-assisted torado DDT. But Wato holds onto the ropes and then counters a charge with a crucifix pin into a crucifix driver. One, two, Titán kicks out. Wato locks in the Koji Clutch again. Titán struggles to roll over into a pinning position so again he drags his and Wato’s weight to the ropes for a break.

Titán resists a German suplex, counters a waistlock, and then counters again to complete his Tornado DDT. Titán follows with a torpedo lariat into corner that sends himself flying to the floor. Unscathed, Titán rushes back to the ring and hits a springboard double foot stomp to Wato’s back. One, two, Wato survives. Titán applies an inverted Figure-4 leglock. Right in the middle of the ring. Wato has nowhere to go so he writhes in pain. He starts crawling to his mentor Hiroyoshi Tenzan. As this is happening Titán transitions into a Muta Lock. Wato moves around to avoid full application of that hold while still inching towards the bottom rope until he finally gets it.

Titán signals the end and goes for an overhead gutwrench. Wato escapes and lands a Chaos Theory into a high-angle German suplex. And by “high angle” I mean “pretty much over his shoulder” German suplex. Sick finisher. One, two, Titán kicks out. Wato goes for another finisher. Titán counters with a headscissor into a prawn hold for another near-fall. Wato rushes Titán again. Titán drops him with a kick combo. Titán flips himself onto the top rope and lands a diving double foot stomp…for another two-count. Titán goes for another leglock. Wato counters with a cradle for two. Both guys fight to their feet and trade kicks. Wato lands his insane-angle German suplex again. But this time he doesn’t bridge; instead he follows this with his Recientemente II second finisher. One, two, and three! Wato wins the tournament!

Winner of the 30th NJPW Best of the Super Juniors Tournament after 24:48: Master Wato

Review

This was a fun match but that’s about it. It wasn’t particularly novel, standout, or groundbreaking in any way. I’ve seen many matches like this from guys like Will Ospreay, Ricochet, Hiromu Takahashi, and a slew of other guys in New Japan elsewhere. Both guys deserve credit for doing their best to make this match exciting but there’s nothing here that most of us haven’t seen before. A passerby or first-time viewer could easily confuse Master Wato for Hiromu based on his actions in and around the ring. As for Titán, he moved and wrestled like every other smaller lucha guy crossing over to New Japan: lots of sprinting, some big head-spiky moves out of nowhere, and some technical matwork to show that he wasn’t a one-trick pony. These elements were all fine together, but I just don’t this as a match worth going out of your way to see.

The match followed the typical NJPW match structure: slow start filled with chain grappling and hold exchanges during their opening minutes, flips and big dives to setup the wear-down middle portion, and a sprint for a closing third act. I’ve seen this formula used many times over and these guys did a solid job following it. They wowed the audience with some cool athletics and acrobatics, and there was even a small story with Titán going after Wato’s legs to try and ground him. And yet despite these attempts at telling a unique story the match had an overwhelming sense of “if you’ve seen one you’ve seen them all”. If you had followed NJPW at any point between, say, 2016 and 2021, with the likes of Ospreay, Hiromu, KUSHIDA, and others involved, then you’ll recognize this sort of match almost instantly. And unfortunately that sense of familiarity worked to these wrestlers’ detriment. They usually wrestle in shorter matches but went longer here because, tournament finals. A lot of the action felt redundant thanks to inconsistent selling and a lack of focus, especially with the leg. Wato seemed to be the favorite but the crowd sounded like they were in Titán’s corner more often than not.

And sure, the match was competitive down to the very end yet it there was no psychology or heat for any guy. It felt like more of an exhibition without a story, and while there’s certainly a place for that kind of match a tournament final needs something more substantial for audiences to sink their teeth into.

Final Rating: ***1/2

There’s some solid action and a rather tense final eight minutes or so, but other than that this match is rather paint-by-numbers and forgettable. I’ve seen this same match from other wrestlers and those others have done it better. Some have done a better job of making the matwork and limbwork meaningful to the entire match rather than something to be forgotten and returned to only when convenient. Others shown more daredevilry and more innovation, which is usually what most have come to expect out of junior heavyweights. And some are flat out faster, cleverer, and better suited to taking ludicrous and reality-defying bumps, which is another defining aspect of the post-2016 NJPW juniors scene.

As such, this match has some merits of its own but isn’t really going out of your way to see, especially when other wrestlers outclass it in pretty much every conceivable way.

Thanks for reading.