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Alas, poor Best of the Super Jr. lineup, we hardly knew ye.
New Japan Pro Wrestling announced today that B Block is undergoing a shuffle— El Desperado is out after breaking his jaw in a match against deathmatch legend and general madman “Crazy Monkey” Jun Kasai at TakaTaichi Mania 2 this past Tuesday (May 7), and Flip Gordon is out due to his visa not being issued in time.
The good news is their replacements seem very much up to the task— Replacing Gordon is standout Young Lion Ren Narita, who alongside Shota Umino has been on a real tear in the undercard tags over the past year or so. He’s a known quantity, a safe choice, and it’s going to be great to see him up against the vets.
Replacing Despy, however, we get a more intriguing name— DOUKI. Now, I hadn’t heard of the guy before either, and New Japan’s announcement simply bills him as a “hired gun” brought into Suzuki-gun by Taichi, but here comes luchablog (who, as always, you should follow on Twitter if you have any interest in lucha libre at all) to the rescue with a Twitter thread explaining exactly why you should be excited.
Desperado is "half Mexican/half Japanese dude who wrestled on the Mexico indies before coming to NJPW."
— luchablog (@luchablog) May 10, 2019
There's no more fitting replacement than Douki, a Japanese man adopted by the Mexican indie scene for this last decade.
Douki (pronounced DOW-kee) has Skayde & Negro Navarro training. He's wrestled everyone from Dick Togo to Super Oprah to Zeus to Fenix. He likes a Dragon Suplex to win. Head kicks and brainbusters too. He's a good reflection of the high impact suicidal Mexican indie style.
— luchablog (@luchablog) May 10, 2019
And here's the suicidal senton dive Douki uses. You have seen Hirmoku Takahashi use it, but he got the concept from Douki. pic.twitter.com/sp67lkPecc
— luchablog (@luchablog) May 10, 2019
Well, I’m sold!
There you have it, folks
It’s a bummer to see Desperado and Flip out of the tourney, but are you excited for their replacements, Cagesiders?