Mauro Ranallo and Daniel Bryan welcome us to the second round of the Cruiserweight Classic tournament. Bryan mentions his favorite part of the first round was the great battle between Tommaso Ciampa and Johnny Gargano.
Corey Graves welcomes us to the next round as well, and after putting over the first round, shows us the two matches taking place tonight.
Gran Metalik defeated Tajiri
The same Gran Metalik video from a few weeks ago was shown, followed by a new Tajiri video. Tajiri mentions that he’s been wrestling maybe longer than some of these guys have been alive. He says that age is a disadvantage, but before he retires he wants to do something great.
Fun television match. Both guys looked really good. Metalik has slowed it down some in NXT but is still really good, especially with the mat wrestling which I haven’t seen too often from him.
I’ve heard conflicting reports on Tajiri since he’s left WWE but he looked really good here; with his experience in Mexico they gelled really well.
They did some good mat wrestling and traded submissions, with some cool transitions in between. Metalik came back with a huge senton from the top rope that leveled Tajiri. Tajiri made a comeback and did a running dropkick to Metalik in the tree of woe position.
Tajiri trapped Metalik in a submission but Metalik kicked Tajiri’s face to free himself and hit the (formerly known as) Dorada Screwdriver for the win.
In the next round, Gran Metalik will face the winner of the Jack Gallagher vs. Akira Tozawa match.
Kota Ibushi defeated Cedric Alexander
Cedric Alexander says he’s had many people tell him he couldn’t make it, but he’s going to make them eat their own words and will prove he’s one of the best today. This is the apex of the industry, and he says he will make it here.
Kota Ibushi’s motivation is to make people happy. He’s wrestled all over the world, and now he will wrestle in front of the world.
Incredible match, easily the best of the tournament so far. Both guys were on point. Ibushi looks to not have missed one step at all since his return from injury, and this is easily the best I’ve seen Alexander look.
In my mind, Alexander went from someone who has a ton of potential to someone who is a can’t miss superstar based on this match alone. Just tremendous and a must watch.
Some great high flying back and forth to start. They had a pretty even match until Ibushi planted him with a big kick. He went for the middle rope moonsault to the floor but Alexander dodged, entered the ring, and hit a senton to the floor. Crazy.
They came back in and Ibushi LEVELED Alexander with a crazy dropkick. Ibushi sent him to the outside with an exploder and hit an Asai moonsault to Alexander on the floor. Ibushi went for a top rope rana but Alexander landed on his feet and there were some more crazy back and forth spots.
Alexander picked up a ton of near falls as the crowd went bonkers for this match. Alexander missed a double footstomp which allowed Ibushi to make his comeback and hit the press powerbomb for the win.
A clearly emotional Alexander stood in the aisle to a roaring “Thank you” chant from the crowd. The crowd then started chanting “Please sign Cedric.”
Triple H came out and shook Alexander’s hand, escorting him to the back as he gave a thumbs up to the crowd. They cheered and started doing the “Yes” chant as the show went off the air.
Final Thoughts: Obviously the main event is the match to see, but the show overall was fun, with Tajiri vs. Metalik also being a very good match. Check the show out as a whole.
