Tag: Sanada

New Japan Cup night four results: Hirooki Goto vs. SANADA

Posted on by Ethan Renner

Night four of the 2019 New Japan Cup was held today in Kagawa, with the final four matches of the first round taking center stage. 

After a wild night three, which featured the standout matchup of the first round between Kota Ibushi and Tetsuya Naito, Monday’s show featured less star power on top, with Hirooki Goto and SANADA headlining. 

The tag team action on the undercard was strong, perhaps planned that way, given that two of the tournament matches later were short bouts with a comedy focus. 

Full results and recaps are below:

TAIJI ISHIMORI, BAD LUCK FALE, HIKULEO & CHASE OWENS DEFEATED JUICE ROBINSON, YOSHI-HASHI, MICHAEL ELGIN & YUYA UEMURA 

Everyone looked good here. YOSHI-HASHI looks much better on this tour than he did on the last. Ishimori got the win for his team, tapping out Uemura with a LeBell Lock.

Bullet Club beat down YOSHI-HASHI after the match. Owens and YH face off on Wednesday in a New Japan Cup match. 

TETSUYA NAITO, EVIL, BUSHI & SHINGO TAKAGI DEFEATED HIROYOSHI TENZAN, YUJI NAGATA, MANABU NAKANISHI & REN NARITA 

Naito was only in a little, but he showed no ill effects from his war with Ibushi last night. Takagi and Nagata had a nice sequence. Narita showed great heart, but eventually tapped to a very sloppy crab from BUSHI.

KOTA IBUSHI & TOMOAKI HONMA DEFEATED ZACK SABRE JR. & TAKA MICHINOKU 

This might have been Honma’s best match since his return. They deviated from the typical patterned Honma tag match. Sabre and TAKA worked over Ibushi’s neck, which took a lot of damage against Naito on Sunday.

The finishing sequence saw Ibushi go for a Kamigoye on TAKA. Sabre cut him off and slapped on an armbar. Honma broke up the armbar with a Kokeshi. Ibushi then nailed TAKA with the Kamigoye and got the pin. 

WILL OSPREAY & TOMOHIRO ISHII DEFEATED LANCE ARCHER & TAICHI 

A preview of two second round matches here. Good action. Archer picked up a couple of close near falls near the finish, but Ospreay used a crucifix to roll him up for the pin.

Archer laid out Ospreay with a Blackout immediately after the flash pin, while Taichi attacked Ishii with the mic stand. 

MIKEY NICHOLLS, TOA HENARE & RYUSUKE TAGUCHI DEFEATED SHOTA UMINO, HIROSHI TANAHASHI & KAZUCHIKA OKADA 

Tana and Taguchi began with some comedy. Henare and Umino tagged in, and Henare’s team quickly gained the advantage. They worked over Umino, until the Young Lion was able to connect with a dropkick, then tag Okada. 

Okada hit some trademark spots on Henare. Henare hit a Samoan drop and tagged Nicholls. Nicholls got a near fall on Okada, his second round opponent. Nicholls avoided a Tombstone, then ducked a Rainmaker, hitting a spinebuster. 

Umino hit a missile dropkick on Nicholls and made a cover, but Taguchi and Henare broke it up. Nicholls hit a sliding lariat, the setup for his Mikey Bomb, and got a two count on Umino. He then connected with the Mikey Bomb to get the pin. 

NEW JAPAN CUP FIRST ROUND MATCH: TORU YANO DEFEATED DAVEY BOY SMITH JR. (5:30)

A total Yano comedy match. Smith is super impressive looking, but it just seems like they’re never going to do anything with him, certainly as a singles wrestler. Even as a tag team with Archer, they’re never pushed past a certain level. 

Smith chased Yano around the building before the bell. He caught up to him in the ring, and the bell sounded, but the action went back outside right away. 

Smith used a chair on Yano. Yano untied a corner pad from the floor and tried to choke Smith with a roll of tape he pulled from his tights, but Smith sent him into the barricade. Smith attacked Yano’s knee, first with a kick over the barricade, then slamming it onto an announcer’s table. 

They traded inside cradles. Yano then used a schoolboy for the pin. 

NEW JAPAN CUP FIRST ROUND MATCH: COLT CABANA DEFEATED TOGI MAKABE (7:26)

This didn’t have a lot of time to build, and they got into the near falls almost right away. Two solid pros had a solid outing here. 

Cabana tried to score a quick victory with some underhanded tactics at the outset, tripping Makabe. They did some comedy, before things got more serious, as Makabe started working over Cabana’s legs. 

Cabana used a delayed splash off the top and picked up a near fall. Cabana blocked a northern lights suplex, but Makabe got a near fall off a powerslam. Cabana blocked the spider German, then missed a moonsault off the top. 

Makabe hit a DVD, but missed with the King Kong Kneedrop off the top. Cabana used a diving Superman cover, trapping Makabe’s legs, and got the pin. 

NEW JAPAN CUP FIRST ROUND MATCH: MINORU SUZUKI DEFEATED SATOSHI KOJIMA (13:43)

This was a very good, perfectly-paced match between two veterans. 

Kojima went right at Suzuki and scored some early offense. Suzuki took control of the match after applying an armbar over the ropes. Suzuki hit a PK on the apron. They brawled into the crowd, where Suzuki broke a chair over Kojima’s head. Kojima beat the count back inside at 19. 

Kojima caught a PK, then hit a DDT. Kojima hit his machine gun chops in the corner. Suzuki no-sold them, then connected with a series of strikes in the corner. Kojima no-sold those, then went back to the machine gun chops. They repeated that spot, but this time Suzuki sold the chops. 

Kojima went to the top for his elbow drop, but Suzuki cut him off and hit a kick in the corner. Kojima got a slam and went back to the top, this time connecting with the elbow. Suzuki kicked out at two on the ensuing cover. 

They traded strikes. Suzuki blocked a Koji Cutter, then applied a sleeper. Kojima countered an attempt to transition to the Gotch-style piledriver, and hit a Koji Cutter. Kojima hit a brainbuster and made a cover, but Suzuki kicked out. 

Suzuki hit a series of palm strikes. Kojima backdropped out of another Gotch attempt, then hit a lariat. Kojima connected with a second lariat, and Suzuki kicked out at two.

Kojima went for a third lariat, but Suzuki side-stepped. Suzuki slapped on a rear naked choke, then transitioned to the Gotch, hit the piledriver, and got the pin. 

NEW JAPAN CUP FIRST ROUND MATCH: SANADA DEFEATED HIROOKI GOTO (20:47)

I was skeptical that these guys would be able to rise to the occasion, as they are both just a notch below the top guys in the company when it comes to charisma. I was wrong. They proved to be up to the challenge of main eventing. Goto more than held up his end, and SANADA was excellent here, especially with the subtle sell of his right arm. 

Goto started off working the left arm, then hit a mid kick. Goto used a chinlock. SANADA caught a second mid kick and went for the Paradise Lock, but Goto escaped. SANADA low-bridged Goto to the floor, then hit a senton off the apron to the floor. 

Goto got whipped into the barricade. SANADA tossed him back inside and got a near fall. SANADA used a chinlock. Goto avoided a standing moonsault, but SANADA used a dropkick to a seated Goto to pick up a one count. 

They exchanged strikes. After a misdirection spot, Goto hit a short clothesline. He connected with a spinning wheel kick in the corner, then hit a Saito suplex for a two count. Goto teased the Ushigoroshi, but SANADA slipped out, hit his leapfrog dropkick, then a plancha. 

They exchanged forearm shots to the neck area, playing off the idea that both guys use finishers that target the neck. They traded more hard shots to the neck in the corner. SANADA took his corner flip bump and went for a springboard attack. Goto cut him off and went for the Ushigoroshi, but SANADA reversed, and hit the Ushigoroshi himself. 

SANADA applied the Skull End, but gave up the hold. He went to the top for a moonsault, but missed. Goto hit a lariat. They did a series of counters and reversals, ending with SANADA using a cradle for a two count. 

Goto hit Ushigoroshi, then a mid kick. Goto went for the Shouten Kai, but SANADA countered, using a draping neckbreaker. SANADA went for Skull End, but Goto reversed it into an inverted GTR for a near fall. 

SANADA got Skull End applied a second time, and again gave up the hold. He went up top, hit a moonsault, and picked up the pin, advancing to the second round. A really good main event. 

NJPW crowns 2018 World Tag League winners

Posted on by Bryan Rose

EVIL and SANADA have won the World Tag League for the second year in a row.

The duo managed to defeat Tama Tonga and Tanga Loa, the Guerrillas of Destiny, after EVIL landed the Darkness Falls on Tama Tonga, with SANADA finishing things off with the moonsault. This likely means that they will face the Guerrillas of Destiny, the IWGP tag team champions, at Wrestle Kingdom 13 for the titles. 

But right after they won, The Young Bucks then came out in a surprise. They said that EVIL and SANADA are the best tag team in the tournament, but they are the best in the world. Matt mentioned they never got the rematch from when the Guerrillas of Destiny defeated them back at Fighting Spirit Unleashed. He suggested that they get the next title shot.

After everyone had left, EVIL mentioned that they are willing to take on both at the same time, leaving the door open for a possible triple threat match at Wrestle Kingdom.

NJPW World Tag League Finals live results: Guerrillas of Destiny vs. LIJ

Posted on by Ethan Renner

Iwate is home to this year’s World Tag League Finals.

Guerrillas of Destiny and the team of EVIL and SANADA will battle tonight in the main event, both getting to 20 points and advancing to the finals. If EVIL and SANADA manage to defeat Guerrillas of Destiny, they’re practically a lock to challenge the champions at Wrestle Kingdom 13. If the champions themselves win, which doesn’t happen often, they will be able to name their future challengers.

Meanwhile, Hirooki Goto and Kota Ibushi will battle for the NEVER title. Goto threw the challenge to Kota Ibushi and after initially refusing the match, eventually accepted.

But what is more interesting is that there will be a number one contender’s match that will take place tonight, with the winner getting a title shot likely at Wrestle Kingdom 13. The former champion, Taichi, will challenge Will Ospreay, who has been out of action since October 14 after injuring his ribs in a match.

The Young Bucks also return to New Japan tonight, They will team up with Marty Scurll and Kenny Omega to take on Hiroshi Tanahashi, Juice Robinson, David Finlay and Ryusuke Taguchi.

Join us for live coverage starting at 1 a.m. Eastern time. Kevin Kelly and Excalibur will be on commentary.

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SATOSHI KOJIMA, HIROYOSHI TENZAN, YUJI NAGATA & MANABU NAKANISHI DEFEATED TOGI MAKABE, TOA HENARE, AYATO YOSHIDA & SHOTA UMNO (8:27)

Standard opener, with all the veterans hitting their trademark stuff. Double lariat from Makabe. Mongolian chops from Tenzan. Diving tackle from Henare. 

Kojima hit Yoshida with a DDT, machine gun chops, and a Koji cutter. Yoshida got a nearfall off a backslide, but Kojima nailed him with a lariat for the pin. 

MINORU SUZUKI, TAKASHI IIZUKA, LANCE ARCHER & DAVEY BOY SMITH JR. DEFEATED BERETTA, CHUCKIE T, MICHAEL ELGIN & JEFF COBB BY DQ (10:12)

Suzuki-gun jumped before the bout. While six guys brawled outside, Smith and Elgin had a really nice exchange in the ring. Smith hit a knee strike and a kip-up. Smith hit a top rope superplex. 

Cobb and Archer tagged in and exchanged blows. Cobb hit an Angle Slam into a double down, then Chuckie and Suzuki tagged in. 

Chuckie traded strikes with Suzuki. Well, he tried to. Suzuki laid him out, then tagged Iizuka, and removed his muzzle. Chuckie hit soul food, then tagged Beretta. 

Suzuki-gun cleared the apron, then assaulted Beretta 4-on-1. Elgin jumped in to break up a pinfall. Iizuka grabbed the iron glove, but Chuckie jumped in with a chair, went nuts, and attacked everyone, including his own teammates. 

SHO, YOH & TOMOHIRO ISHII DEFEATED EL DESPERADO, YOSHINOBU KANEMARU & ZACK SABRE JR. (11:12)

Good match. This was a tease for Sabre and Ishii at the Tokyo Dome for the Rev Pro title. 

Ishii and Sabre kicked thinigs off. Ishii trapped Sabre’s left arm, then tagged SHO. Sabre didn’t deal with Ishii’s grappling, but quickly reversed SHO’s attack, and tagged Desperado. 

SHO and YOH hit some tandem offense on Desperado. SHO hit the ropes, but Kanemaru grabbed his legs from the outside and pulled him to the floor. Kanemaru hit a legdrop on SHO over the barricade. Suzuki-gun left all three members of CHAOS laying on the floor. 

Back inside, Kanemaru worked over SHO with stomps. Kanemaru hit a DDT for a nearfall, then tagged Desperado. SHO hit a suplex, but Kanemaru jumped in for the double team. SHO hit a spear, but Sabre jumped in to cut him off. 

SHO finally made a tag to YOH. YOH hit a back elbow on Desperado, and a dragon screw on Kanemaru. YOH hit a neckbreaker, then a low dropkick on Desperado for a nearfall. 

Desperado hit a spinebuster into a double down, and Sabre and Ishii got tags. Ishii had a counter for all of Sabre’s offense, and hit him with a brainbuster. Sabre hit a northern lights suplex, sent him into the corner, then tagged out. 

Suzuki-gun tripled up on Ishii. Kanemaru hit deep impact, but SHO made the save. SHO hit a lariat on Desperado. Sabre jumped in and beat up SHO, then went after Ishii. 

Kanemaru tried to spit whiskey at Ishii, but Ishii ducked it. SHO and YOH hit stereo planchas to take out Sabre and  Desperado. Ishii hit Kanemaru with a brainbuster, and got the pin. 

TETSUYA NAITO, SHINGO TAKAGI & BUSHI DEFEATED HANGMAN PAGE, YUJIRO TAKAHASHI & CHASE OWENS (8:53)

Another good match. All action. 

Owens and BUSHI began, with Owens getting the best of the exchange. Owens hit a backbreaker. Yujiro and Naito got tags. BUSHI jumped in for an assist, and Naito hit a dropkick on Yujiro. 

Shingo got a tag, and hit a shoulder block. LIJ tripled up on Yujiro. BUSHI choked him with his t-shirt. Shingo used a front facelock. Yujiro fired back with strikes, and hit an inverted DDT. 

Page tagged in. He hit a springboard lariat on BUSHI, a pescado to Naito. He missed a buckshot lariat on Shingo, but hit a regular lariat. Shingo went for a release german, but Page landed on his feet. Page blocked one pumping bomber, but Shingo hit him with a second. 

Owens and BUSHI tagged in. Naito jumped in for a double team, but Owens slammed BUSHI onto Naito with a uranage. Shingo broke up a package piledriver attempt. Naito hit a swinging DDT. 

Owens blocked a destino, but Naito hit a flying forearm, then hit destino for the pin. 

SWITCHBLADE JAY WHITE, BAD LUCK FALE & TAIJI ISHIMORI DEFEATED KAZUCHIKA OKADA, TORU YANO & KUSHIDA (11:01)

Good match, similar to all of the Okada tags on this tour, like a house show main event. The post-match was interesting, with Makabe making the save for CHAOS. 

Okada and KUSHIDA cleared the ring of the Bullet Club at the opening bell. KUSHIDA hit a cartwheel dropkick. When the dust settled, KUSHIDA and Ishimori ended up the legal men. KUSHIDA worked over Ishimori’s left arm. 

Ishimori came back with a seated senton on KUSHIDA, while White and Okada fought on the ramp. White applied a single-leg crab, leaving Okada on the ramp. 

Back in the ring, the Bullet Club worked over KUSHIDA. They cut the ring in half and went to work in their corner. KUSHIDA made a comeback, and Ishimori and KUSHIDA tagged out to White and Okada. 

White hit a suplex on Okada, right into the corner pad. White hit a Saito suplex, then tagged Fale. Okada hit Fale with a dragon screw, then tagged Yano. Yano untied a corner pad, and used it as a weapon on Fale. Fale whipped Yano into the exposed buckle. 

Fale cleared the apron, then the Bullet Club went three on one against Yano. Fale hit a splash, but KUSHIDA broke up the pinfall. 

The match broke down. Okada missed a dropkick, escaped a blade runner, then hit an air raid crash on White. Yano used a backslide for a nearfall, but Fale recovered, and hit Yano with a grenade for the pin. 

After the match, Okada hit White with a dropkick, but White laid him out with a suplex, dropping him right on his head. Ishimori hit a bloody cross on KUSHIDA. Makabe ran in to make the save with a chain, and cleared the ring. 

KENNY OMEGA, THE YOUNG BUCKS & MARTY SCURLL DEFEATED HIROSHI TANAHASHI, JUICE ROBINSON, DAVID FINLAY & RYUSUKE TAGUCHI (13:12)

A really good match. A nice mix of comedy and serious stuff with Tana and Omega teasing their title match. 

Taguchi and Scurll started off with some comedy. Nick Jackson and Finlay tagged in. Juice jumped in for a double team, and they hit a double bulldog. Matt Jackson came in, but ate a double hip toss. 

Taguchi’s team hit their clothesline train spot in the corner on Nick. They teased a quadruple dropkick, but Nick hung on to the top rope. Taguchi’s team went for stereo planchas, but they all missed, and The Elite took over the match. 

Omega hit a kotaro krusher. The Bucks worked over Finlay with tandem offense. Scurll stomped on Finlay’s left arm. The Elite cut the ring in half and worked Finlay over in their corner. Finlay came back with a backbreaker over the knee on Omega, then tagged Tana. 

Tana hit a dropkick to Omega, then a dragon screw. The Bucks hit Tana with stereo superkicks. Tana escaped a double enziguri, and The Bucks hit Omega. Tana blocked a v-trigger, but Omega hit a snap dragon suplex into a double down. 

Juice hit everyone with a series of jabs. Scurll cut him off, but Taguchi jumped in and hit everyone with hip attacks. Juice hit a cannonball on Matt. Omega hit a rana on Taguchi. Tana hit Omega with slingblade, then hit a plancha. Scurll ran into a double flapjack. The Bucks hit a double dropkick. The Elite hit a four-way superkick on Taguchi, but Tana broke up the pinfall. 

Tana ran into a v-trigger, and Taguchi ran into an indytaker for the pin. 

NUMBER ONE CONTENDER MATCH FOR THE NEVER OPENWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP: WILL OSPREAY DEFEATED TAICHI (17:03)

The story here was Ospreay making his comeback after the rib injury. It was a slower match focused on Ospreay’s selling. His selling was excellent, but the people didn’t seem to be into the match until the last couple of minutes. 

Taichi jumped Ospreay with his mic stand before the bell. Taichi stomped on Ospreay’s taped ribs. Ospreay hit a monkey flip, and Taichi rolled to the floor. Ospreay hit a springboard elbow off the barricade. 

Ospreay hit a suicide dive, and the action spilled to the ramp. Back inside, Ospreay went for a springboard attack, but Taichi whipped the referee into the ropes, knocking Ospreay off. Taichi dropped Ospreay over the barricade. 

Taichi ripped off Ospreay’s tape and used an abdominal stretch. Ospreay came back with a handspring kick, an enziguri, a 619, and a springboard forearm for a two count. 

Ospreay teased a storm breaker, but his ribs gave way, and he couldn’t lift Taichi. Taichi hit a pair of kicks, dropping Ospreay. They exchanged strikes, and Taichi dropped Ospreay with a mid kick. Ospreay caught another kick, but Taichi hit a buzzsaw kick for a nearfall. 

Taichi took his pants off. Ospreay hit a side suplex, then went to the top. Opsreay went for a shooting star, but Taichi got his knees up, then used a Gedo clutch for a nearfall. 

Taichi hit an axe bomber for a nearfall. Taichi went for a last ride, but Ospreay escaped. He went for an Oscutter, but Taichi blocked. Ospreay hit the Robinson special, then went for another Oscutter, but Taichi turned it into a high angle suplex. Taichi hit a last ride for a nearfall, as the crowd started getting into the match. 

Ospreay hit a Canadian destroyer for a nearfall. He went for the storm breaker, but Taichi blocked it. Ospreay went for it again, but Taichi slipped out. Ospreay hit a standing spanish fly. Ospreay hit a kick, then hit the storm breaker for the pin. 

NEVER OPENWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH: KOTA IBUSHI DEFEATED HIROOKI GOTO TO WIN THE NEVER OPENWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP (16:54)

Excellent match. 

They shook hands at the opening bell. Goto used the handshake to go for an ushigoroshi, but Ibushi blocked it. Ibushi hit a mid kick and Goto went down. Ibushi hit a snap rana, and Goto rolled to the floor.

Goto jumped back inside and hit a lariat, and Ibushi dropped on the apron on his head and neck. 
Goto went after the neck, hitting a hanging neckbreaker off the top. Ibushi used a rope break to stop a pinfall. Goto used another neckbreaker. Goto applied a headscissors, but Ibushi forced a rope break.

Goto used a leg sweep, then applied an octopus on the mat. Ibushi reached the ropes, forcing a break. 
Ibushi hit a dropkick, and Goto rolled to the floor. Ibushi hit a golden triangle. Back inside, Ibushi hit a standing moonsault for a close two count. Goto hit a high kick, then used a suplex for a nearfall. 

Goto hit a leg lariat, then went to the top rope. Ibushi cut him off, and they traded shots on the ropes. Goto went for a code red off the top, but Ibushi flipped out of it. Ibushi hit a big lariat, into a double down. 

Ibushi was first up. Goto blocked a last ride, but Ibushi hit a high kick. Goto blocked a kamigoye, and hit an ushigoroshi. Goto used a sleeper. They traded cradles for nearfalls. After a series of GTR attempts and reversals, Ibushi hit a headbutt. 

Goto blocked a straight jacket suplex attempt, but Ibushi hit a knee strike, a headbutt, and hit the kamigoye for the win. 

Ospreay came out after the match and cut a promo. He challenged Ibushi to face him in a dream match for the title at Wrestle Kingdom. They shook hands. 

2018 WORLD TAG LEAGUE FINAL: EVIL & SANADA DEFEATED TAMA TONGA & TANGA LOA TO WIN THE 2018 WORLD TAG LEAGUE (27:01)

A really good tag team main event. 

Jado hit EVIL with a kendo stick before the opening bell. They fought into the crowd. Tonga sent SANADA into the arena wall. Loa stomped on EVIL, and slammed him on the floor. Tonga and SANADA beat the count back inside at 19. 

SANADA missed a standing moonsault, and Tonga hit a back elbow. Tonga and Loa worked SANADA over in their corner, while EVIL was still out on the floor. Loa hit a running powerslam for a two count. 
SANADA missed with a dropkick, and Loa hit an elbow drop for two. SANADA hit a dropkick off the second on Tonga, but Tonga was able to tag Loa, and keep the pressure on SANADA. 

SANADA finally got a tag to EVIL, and EVIL ran wild. He hit a bulldog and a senton on Loa for a nearfall. EVIL went for a fisherman buster, but Loa countered into a suplex. Loa hit a superplex. SANADA jumped in to help out, and dropkicked Tonga off the apron. 

Tonga broke up a magic killer with a spear. Tonga hit a gun stun and Loa covered EVIL for a nearfall. Loa sent EVIL outside, and Jado nailed him with the kendo stick. Loa whipped SANADA into the barricade. 

Back inside, Tonga hit a jumping elbow drop for a two count. Tonga worked EVIL over with right hands. Tonga hit a standing frog splash for a nearfall on EVIL. 

Loa got a tag. EVIL backdropped out of a powerbomb attempt. He went for a tag, but Tonga jumped in and knocked SANADA off the apron. Tonga and Loa hit guerrilla warfare. Tonga and Loa went to the top rope. SANADA cut off Tonga, and Loa missed a diving headbutt. 

They did a stacked up superplex spot, and all four men ended up down in the ring. Loa covered EVIL for a two count. EVIL blocked one lariat. Both hit simultaneous lariats. They did a misdirection spot, and EVIL hit a lariat, enabling both men to tag out. 

SANADA took out Jado with a plancha, then hit planchas on both Tonga and Loa. SANADA and Tonga botched a moonsault spot. SANADA used skull end, but Tonga used a standing switch. SANADA hit the ropes, and Loa tripped him. 

Loa and Tonga hit SANADA with an assisted neckbreaker, but SANADA kicked out. SANADA escaped a magic killer, but ran into a kendo stick shot for a nearfall. Tonga and Loa hit a magic killer, and EVIL jumped in to break up the pinfall. 

EVIL ran into a spear from Loa. Tonga hit a splash in the corner. They went for a super powerbomb, but SANADA countered with a rana. EVIL jumped in, and they went for the magic killer. Tonga kicked SANADA off into the ref, who took a bump. 

Jado jumped in with the kendo stick, but got hit with a magic killer. SANADA reversed a Tongan twist into skull end. Loa broke up the submission attempt. 

EVIL hit Loa with everything is EVIL. Tonga went for a gun stun, but EVIL blocked it. They hit Tonga with a magic killer, but Tonga kicked out. 

EVIL hit darkness falls on Tonga, and SANADA hit a moonsault, then covered Tonga for the pin. 

The Young Bucks came to the ring after the match. Matt Jackson said EVIL and SANADA were the best team in the tournament, but that The Bucks are the best team in the world. Matt said they never got their rematch after losing the titles, and that they should be the next challengers. 

EVIL said how about a three way at Wrestle Kingdom? The Bucks left without official word, but that certainly appears to be the match at the Tokyo Dome. 

NJPW World Tag League live results: Cobb & Elgin vs. EVIL & SANADA

Posted on by Ethan Renner

More World Tag League action continues tonight inside Korakuen Hall.

A World Tag League match main events, as the team of Jeff Cobb and Michael Elgin take on the team on SANADA and EVIL. Other tournament matches tonight include Tomohiro Ishii & Toru Yano vs. Zack Sabre & Taichi and Minoru Suzuki & Takashi Iizuka vs. Killer Elite Squad in a Suzuki-gun battle.

The undercard will feature a CHAOS vs. LIJ six man tag team match, with Kazuchika Okada and Roppongi 3K taking on Tetusya Naito, BUSHI and Shingo Takagi. There will also be a CHAOS vs. Elite six man match with Hirooki Goto, Beretta and Chuckie T vs. Hangman Page, Yujiro Takahashi and Kota Ibushi.

More matches in the undercard include WTL teams that aren’t competiting in tournament matches tonight, which include David Finlay and Juice Robinson, Guerillas of Destiny and more.

Join us for live action starting at 4:30 a.m. ET. There will be English commentary.

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JUICE ROBINSON & DAVID FINLAY DEFEATED YUYA UEMURA & YOTA TSUJI (5:58)

A quick match with a couple of cool spots. Tsuji and Uemura got a lot of offense. 

The Young Lions scored some early offense on Juice. Juice reversed an irish whip, and Finlay and Juice took Tsuji down with a double dropkick. Each hit Tsuji with a senton. Tsuji missed a dropkick, but hit one on his second attempt, and was able to tag Uemura. 

Uemura used a back elbow and a scoop slam on Finlay. Tsuji knocked Juice off the apron, and Tsuji and Uemura each took one of Finlay’s legs, applying a double crab. Juice broke it up with a dropkick. 
Juice and Finlay hit a double flapjack on Uemura, and Finlay used a brainbuster on his knee to pin Uemura. 

THE GUERILLAS OF DESTINY DEFEATED TOMOAKI HONMA & REN NARITA (8:23)

The crowd was into Honma. The match itself was just kind of there. Honma tried to do a little bit more than he has since his comeback, but there isn’t a lot he can do aside from selling. 

Guerillas of Destiny went on the attack a few seconds before the bell. Jado accompanied them and used an air horn to signal them to attack. While Narita was sent to the floor, Honma made a comeback. He went for a kokeshi on Tonga, but Jado hit him with a kendo stick from the floor, cutting him off. 

The Guerillas worked over Honma. Tonga hit a splash in the corner. Loa used a knee drop. Honma sold as though he was knocked out and unable to run the ropes. Tonga went for a kokeshi, but Honma moved. Honma went for a kokeshi, but Tonga moved. Honma hit a slow-motion DDT, then tagged Narita. 

Narita hit a dropkick out of the corner, and followed with two more shotgun dropkicks. Honma hit a diving kokeshi on Loa, and Narita used a slam for a nearfall. Narita used a crab. Kado jumped on the apron. Tonga jumped in, but ate a kokeshi. 

Narita used an O’Connor roll into a bridging cradle for a two count. Loa recovered and hit a lariat for a nearfall, then hit apeshit for the pin. 

SATOSHI KOJIMA, HIROYOSHI TENZAN, TOA HENARE & TOGI MAKABE DEFEATED MANABU NAKANISHI, YUJI NAGATA, SHOTA UMINO & AYATO YOSHIDA (10:11)

Of the veterans in the match, Kojima, Makabe and Nagata can still go. Nakanishi and Tenzan, not so much. The match picked up in the last couple of minutes, but it was tough when the slower guys were in. 

Henare and Nakanishi started off. Henare went for a backbreaker, but Nakanishi blocked it, forcing a tag. 

Kojima and Yoshida tagged in. Yoshida dropped Kojima with a forearm, then hit a big PK. Yoshida missed a charge into the corner, allowing Kojima to hit his series of chops. Kojima hit a DDT, then tagged Tenzan. They hit some tandem offense. Tenzan used a vertical suplex for a two count. 

Makabe tagged in and continued to work over Yoshida. Yoshida hit a kick to the stomach and tagged Nagata. Nagata hit Makabe with a series of kicks, then a boot in the corner. Nagata hit an exploder, but Makabe popped right up and hit a lariat, into a double down. 

Umino and Henare got tags. Umino ran wild, then triple-teamed Henare with help from Nakanishi and Yoshida. Kojima broke up a pinfall attempt. Umino hit a dropkick. Henare hit a rugby tackle, then Yoshida broke up a pinfall attempt on Umino. 

Everyone jumped in and hit a big move, then cleared the ring, leaving Henare and Umino the legal men. They traded strikes. Umino hit the ropes, right into a Samoan drop for a two count. Henare then used a uranage for the pin. 

KOTA IBUSHI, HANGMAN PAGE & YUJIRO TAKAHASHI DEFEATED BERETTA, CHUCKIE T & HIROOKI GOTO (9:58) 

Goto challenged Ibushi to start the match with him, but Ibushi declined, teasing that Ibushi doesn’t think Goto is a worthy opponent. This would play into the post-match. 

Good match. It would have been even better with about five more minutes, as it felt like they crammed a lot into their allotted time. 

Yujiro hit Beretta with a boot to the face. Beretta came back with a sunset flip off the second. 
Page tagged in and went crazy, hitting a springboard lariat, a pescado, and a suicide dive. Beretta quickly cut him off, then the CHAOS team went to work on Page. 

Page went for a springboard move, but Beretta caught him and hit a bridging suplex for a two count. Chuckie worked Page over with a chinlock, hit a dropkick, then went back to the chinlock. Beretta got a tag, took his flip into the corner, then ran into a lariat. 

Goto and Ibushi got tags. Ibushi hit a standing moonsault, a snap rana, then a slingshot splash for a two count. Goto hit an ushigoroshi, then tagged Chuckie. Chuckie hit a corner clothesline and a pop-up powerbomb for a two count. 

Ibushi was able to tag Yujiro. Chuckie and Beretta hit stereo pescados. Yujiro hit a dropkick. Ibushi hit Goto with a missile dropkick. Page hit a buckshot lariat on Chuckie, and Yujiro followed with pimp juice for the pin. 

After the match, Goto asked Ibushi if he wants the next shot. Ibushi was non-committal. Goto said fine, no shot for you. Then Ibushi changed his mind, and accepted the challenge for the NEVER title. 

KAZUCHIKA OKADA & ROPPONGI 3K DEFEATED SHINGO TAKAGI, BUSHI & TETSUYA NAITO (11:11) 

They had a really good six-man. There was a palpable buzz every time Okada and Naito faced off. 

Okada and Naito started off. They traded quick cradles, then Naito hit his tranquilo pose. Shingo and YOH tagged in, locked up, then traded strikes. SHO jumped in and they doubled up on Shingo. BUSHI and Naito jumped in to even the odds, and the match broke down into a ringside brawl. 

SHO got whipped hard into the security fence, which nearly impaled him. Back in the ring, Naito and Shingo worked over YOH. Naito used a weird-looking single-leg crab thing on YOH. Shingo used a brainbuster. He tried to use a dragon screw, but YOH reversed and hit one himself. 

SHO got a tag and ran wild on Shingo. He hit a low dropkick and took BUSHI off the apron. SHO used a knee lift. SHO and Shingo traded strikes. Shingo went for the pumping bomber, but SHO ducked and hit a spear. 

Shingo hit a haymaker and a lariat, then tagged BUSHI. BUSHI hit a missile dropkick and a DDT. BUSHI hit an enziguri and a backstabber, forcing Okada to break up a pinfall. Okada then sent Naito into the barricade on the floor. 

SHO and YOH hit a suplex on Shingo, then tagged Okada. Okada hit a neckbreaker on BUSHI for a nearfall. Naito jumped in and traded shots with Okada. SHO and YOH hit stereo knees on Naito and Shingo, then stereo pescados to both. 

Okada hit BUSHI with a dropkick, then hit the rainmaker for the pin. 

WORLD TAG LEAGUE MATCH: DAVEY BOY SMITH JR. & LANCE ARCHER DEFEATED MINORU SUZUKI & TAKASHI IIZUKA (11:25)

They had the crazy brawl that you would expect from two Suzuki-gun teams. 

Suzuki and Iizuka tried to get the jump on Smith and Archer before the bell. Suzuki fared better, as he applied a heel hook over the barricade on Archer. In the ring, Smith used a delayed vertical suplex on Iizuka. All four men went to the floor, and Suzuki and Iizuka used chairs. 

Back inside, Suzuki and Smith were declared the legal men. Suzuki went for the Gotch on Smith, but Smith backdropped him over the top to the floor. Smith sent Iizuka into the railing, then Smith and Archer double-teamed Suzuki. They brawled into the crowd, and Smith used a chair on Suzuki. 

Archer and Iizuka continued to brawl outside. Suzuki hit Smith with a boot in the corner, then a series of PKs. Smith demanded more. Suzuki hit three, then picked up a nearfall. Suzuki hit a knee to the chest, then used a rear naked choke. 

Suzuki went for the Gotch again, but Smith blocked it. Suzuki used a guillotine, but Smith suplexed out of it, then tagged Archer. Archer taunted Suzuki, then traded palm strikes with him. Suzuki slipped out of a chokeslam, then tagged Iizuka.

Suzuki took Iizuka’s muzzle off, and he bit Smith and Archer. Suzuki took the ref, allowing Iizuka to use a rope to choke Archer. Iizuka grabbed the iron glove. Smith and Archer took Suzuki out. Iizuka bit Smith and Archer again. 

Archer hit Iizuka with a pounce, then Smith and Archer hit Iizuka with the killer bomb, and Archer pinned Iizuka. 

WORLD TAG LEAGUE MATCH: ZACK SABRE JR. & TAICHI DEFEATED TOMOHIRO ISHII & TORU YANO (16:29)

This was excellent when Sabre and Ishii were in. The Taichi and Yano comedy worked pretty well, but Taichi’s regular offense doesn’t look very good. 

Taichi and Yano started off, but neither wanted to lock up. They stalled for almost two minutes. Sabre tagged in, Yano escaped a chain wrestling sequence with his life, then immediately tagged Ishii. 

Ishii and Sabre exchanged strikes, and Ishii dropped Sabre with a forearm. Sabre and Ishii had a nice sequence of moves and reversals, ending when Sabre cranked on Ishii’s neck with his feet. Sabre continued to work over the neck and the right arm of Ishii, while Taichi took Yano to the floor, then brawled into the crowd with him. 

Taichi and Sabre continued to work over the right arm. Sabre then attacked the left arm. Taichi got a tag and stomped away at the right arm. Ishii threw chops with the right arm, but sold them. Ishii hit a powerslam, then tagged Yano. 

Yano untied a corner pad, then another. Taichi used a pad as a weapon, knocking Yano down. Taichi raked the eyes, but Yano sent him into the exposed buckle. Yano took Taichi’s pants off, shoved him into an exposed buckle, then used a roll-up for a nearfall. 

Ishii tagged in, and chopped away at Taichi. Ishii missed a charge into the exposed buckle. Taichi used a series of kicks on Ishii’s left leg. Ishii hit a headbutt, but ran into a lariat, allowing Taichi to tag Sabre. 

Sabre cranked on the right arm of Ishii, then stomped on it. Ishii blocked a PK, then dropped Sabre with a forearm. Ishii got sent into the buckle. Sabre applied an octopus, while Taichi kicked at Ishii’s head. Ishii fought for the ropes, then finally made it. 

Yano jumped in and hit a fireman’s carry on Taichi, then one on Sabre. He used an inverted atomic drop on Sabre. Ishii went for the sliding lariat, but Sabre caught him and applied a double wristlock. Yano broke up the hold. 

Sabre hit a PK, teased a Zack driver, but Ishii slid out and hit a standing lariat, then a sliding lariat for a great nearfall. Ishii went for the brainbuster, but Sabre turned it into a triangle. Ishii tried to power out, but he kept the hold. 

Yano jumped in to break the hold, but Taichi cut him off, nailing him with the mic stand. Ishii refused to tap out, but the referee called for a stoppage, giving Taichi and Sabre the win. 

WORLD TAG LEAGUE MATCH: EVIL & SANADA DEFEATED MICHAEL ELGIN & JEFF COBB (17:40)

A really good main event with some great nearfalls. 

Cobb and SANADA started out with some mat work. Cobb hit a huge throw on SANADA, then tagged Elgin, and they hit a double backbreaker, picking up a quick two count. 

SANADA hit Elgin with a low dropkick to the knees, then tagged EVIL. Elgin used a delayed vertical on EVIL, then tagged Cobb, who took hold of EVIL and continued it. Cobb tagged Elgin, who then finally delivered the suplex. 

Elgin used an O’Connor roll, but EVIL kicked him off, right into a dropkick from SANADA from the apron. The match spilled to the floor. EVIL placed a chair around Elgin’s neck, then sent him into the post. 

Back inside, SANADA hit a snap suplex on Elgin for a two count. EVIL and SANADA hit a double back elbow, then EVIL hit a senton for a nearfall. Elgin hit a couple of short elbows, but EVIL raked his eyes. SANADA jumped in. Elgin made his own comeback, including using EVIL as a springboard while he hit SANADA with a DDT. 

Elgin hit a dropkick on EVIL, then tagged Cobb. Cobb hit an overhead belly to belly, then a side suplex. He went for a standing moonsault, but EVIL got his knees up, then tagged SANADA. 

SANADA hit his leapfrog dropkick on Cobb. SANADA took the Flair corner flip, missed a springboard dropkick, then Cobb hit a throw. Elgin tagged in and hit discus forearms on SANADA, then a tope to EVIL. 

They nearly botched it, but Elgin is a stong dude, and he eventually hit a gutwrench backbreaker on SANADA, who sold it as though he was broken in half. EVIL broke up a buckle bomb attempt. SANADA flipped out of a brainbuster attempt and used skull end on Elgin. EVIL used a choke on Cobb, who then threw EVIL into SANADA, breaking the hold. 

Cobb lifted SANADA as if he was going to hit a last ride, but instead, Elgin jumped up and hit SANADA with a backstabber. EVIL broke up the pinfall. SANADA hit a dropkick, then used skull end. EVIL and SANADA used a magic killer, but Cobb broke up the pinfall attempt on Elgin. 

SANADA missed a moonsault, and both Elgin and SANADA made tags. EVIL and Cobb exchanged strikes, and Cobb dropped EVIL with a lariat. Cobb hit a modified bossman slam for a nearfall. Cobb and Elgin hit EVIL with forearms in the corner. Elgin used a superplex into a standing moonsault from Cobb, who picked up a nearfall on EVIL. 

SANADA nailed Elgin with a missile dropkick. Cobb went for tour of the islands on EVIL, but SANADA broke it up. EVIL and SANADA hit a second magic killer on Cobb, then EVIL hit everything is EVIL, and got the pin. 

CURRENT STANDINGS 

EVIL & SANADA 2

YUJI NAGATA & MANABU NAKANISHI 2

JUICE ROBINSON & DAVID FINLAY 2

BERETTA & CHUCKIE T 2

TAMA TONGA & TANGA LOA 2

DAVEY BOY SMITH JR. & LANCE ARCHER 2

ZACK SABRE JR. & TAICHI 2

MICHAEL ELGIN & JEFF COBB 0

TOMOHIRO ISHII & TORU YANO 0

MINORU SUZUKI & TAKASHI IIZUKA 0

HANGMAN PAGE & YUJIRO TAKAHASHI 0

AYATO YOSHIDA & SHOTA UMINO 0

TOGI MAKABE & TOA HENARE 0

HIROYOSHI TENZAN & SATOSHI KOJIMA 0

ROH Global Wars results: The Young Bucks vs. Naito & SANADA

Posted on by F4W Staff

By Justin M. Knipper

The Takeaways —

  • ROH CEO Joe Koff “fired” Bully Ray.
  • Kaitlyn Diamond vs. Karen Q was announced for the Global Wars: Toronto show. It will be a Women of Honor qualifying match for a chance to participate in Final Battle.
  • The NJPW wrestlers and SCU were the obvious stars. The loudest reactions were for Tetsuya Naito and The Young Bucks.
  • This card was all over the place in terms of quality. There were three or four top-notch matches mixed in with around 90 minutes of mediocre to not-so-good wrestling.  
  • The announce team hammered home Twitter hashtags all night, more so than they have recently.

Show Recap —

The venue was filled for Friday night’s Global Wars: Buffalo show; standing-room only. Ian Riccaboni, Caprice Coleman, and Colt Cabana were on commentary.

Christopher Daniels and Frankie Kazarian came down to the ring while people chanted “SCU.” Daniels was accidentally hit in the face with a streamer roll.

Kazarian grabbed the microphone and explained that Scorpio Sky wasn’t in tonight because he was at a wedding. Kazarian read a text from Sky that read “This is the worst town I’ve ever been in” and it got a good reaction.

Daniels continued on and spoke about the Thousand Oaks tragedy this week. He had the crowd scream “SCU” in support of the city. It was very classy.

The Kingdom (Matt Taven & Vinny Marseglia) went to a no contest with The Boys

Taven is claiming he’s the “real” ROH World Champion these days and has a replica belt with him. Taven stared the Boys down for a long while and then jumped them, all before the bell.

Taven is going through an interesting character transformation ever since he had his head shaved at the CMLL 85th Anniversario. His ring gear is different, all black, he has the mohawk, and even his facial expressions are more nuanced and serious. He really only punched and stomped the Boys repeatedly, plus whipped them with his own belt.

The Kingdom threw the Boys to the floor and continued to beat on them. Marseglia suplexed a Boy onto the concrete. The match still hadn’t officially started yet and the announcers put it over as despicable.

Taven lawndart’d a Boy into a chair in the corner of the ring. Taven grabbed the mic and said they wouldn’t stop beating on the Boys until Dalton Castle came out. He called the crowd a bunch of “melvins.”

Castle finally came out. He stood at the top of the ramp and screamed at the Kingdom. Taven said he wanted the respect he deserved, and that Castle has disrespected the ROH title. This elicited boos. He challenged Castle to a title match even though he’s not the ROH Champion.

TK O’Ryan blindsided Castle on the stage. Marseglia joined in and they beat down Castle until security got involved. 

Dalton Castle defeated TK O’Ryan

The opening segment just before dragged for more than 20 minutes, so the crowd sounded ready for action. They chanted for Castle, who wrestled in a sweater. Castle is still wrapped up around his left thigh and back.

On commentary, Coleman compared TK O’Ryan to a young Barry Windham. Yeah, that caught me off guard too.

The crowd died a few minutes into this match. They realized this and politely began chanting for Castle.

Castle tried a Bang-a-Rang but sold it like his back wasn’t strong enough to pull it off. He later used a nice looking back suplex on O’Ryan, which is often Castle’s strong suit.

Castle finally used a Bang-a-Rang for the win. Ryan got a bit of heel heat throughout this one, but it sounded like it was more because the New York crowd wanted to get behind the local guy. 

Castle cut a promo on how he broke his back and nothing but the tape on his body is holding him together. He claimed Taven lit a fire in him and he accepted Taven’s challenge for the fake belt.

Castle is effective on serious promos and probably doesn’t need to be tuned up all the time, using all the silly facials. While the match itself was nothing — the entire segment with the Kingdom and this match lasted 30 minutes — but I think Castle and Taven could have a good match at Final Battle.

Kenny King defeated Cheeseburger

King trashed the Buffalo Sabres hockey team and said that this was going to be his warmup match for Jay Lethal at Final Battle. Cheeseburger came out with Eli Isom and Ryan Nova. The crowd threw streamers in the ring for him and chanted his name.

King made fun of the Buffalo Bills and Cheeseburger’s “stick,” or “shtick” as I think he meant. Cabana corrected him on commentary. 

They brawled a bit on the outside. The crowd chanted a lot for Cheeseburger as King mostly dominated. Cheeseburger used a cool diving knee strike off the second rope. 

King finished Cheeseburger with the Royal Flush. This was better than the opening segment, but not that good either. King shouted “Where’s Jay Lethal?!” as the crowd booed him to the back.

Madison Rayne defeated Kelly Klein

Rayne got a mild reaction on her way to the ring. Riccaboni announced that this Sunday in Toronto there’ll be another Women of Honor qualifying match for the Final Battle four corner survival title match; Kaitlyn Diamond from Stardom will wrestle Karen Q.

The two chain-wrestled in the opening of the match. There were a handful of nice exchanges here at the start, all fast, even to a point where referee Paul Turner was late on some calls to break holds.

Women of Honor World Champion Sumie Sakai came out to watch the match on the stage. Her dour expression and the poorly lit shot made it all quite awkward.

Klein was fine but didn’t wrestle with confidence or conviction. Whenever she was in control of the match she’d sometimes look lost, like when she just stood in the ring for forever as Rayne sold outside, nothing moved forward in the match. She just stood there.

There was a bit more back and forth between the two with Klein mostly dominating. Rayne made a comeback, which included a “medium crossbody” block according to Cabana. Klein stole the pin by using an O’Connor roll with a bridge.

This was mediocre. Klein came off as green and Rayne had to carry this, which hindered the quality. The crowd was desperately polite throughout.

KUSHIDA defeated BUSHI, Jonathan Gresham, and Flip Gordon in a four corner survival match

Rhett Titus came out and flexed in his speedos, but referee Todd Sinclair ran out and covered Titus with a towel. Cabana called Sinclair a hero.

BUSHI got a good reaction with streamers. KUSHIDA got a bigger reaction here than he seems to get in Japan. I don’t know why, but it feels strange that KUSHIDA is IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion again. 

BUSHI reneged on the four-way handshake before the bell. It was tornado-style rules for this match, so all four went at it as the match started. There was a rapid pace between all four. 

Gresham is so good and has paced himself in every match on this short tour. BUSHI did a BUSH-a-roonie and got lots of cheers for this. He, too, seems to be more popular here than he is on NJPW house shows.

BUSHI used a lot of heel offense in the middle of this match: rear chinlocks, stomps, and T-shirt strangulations. 

KUSHIDA got into the zone and almost accidentally hip-tossed Todd Sinclair. He quickly apologized for the kayfabe gaffe. 

Gordon got loud reactions for a dive and some of his signature flipping. Gresham did a double bulldog dropkick spot and flexed. 

BUSHI did that killer variation of the backslide he does, where he extends it into a leaf bridge.

KUSHIDA landed Back to the Future on BUSHI for the win. This was by far the best match to this point where, ironically, KUSHIDA was the weak link despite his crowd reaction. Gresham shined again, and Gordon has been on fire recently. Even BUSHI was tolerable.

ROH TV Champion Jeff Cobb defeated EVIL in a non-title match

Riccaboni mentioned that EVIL was a successful amateur wrestler in Japan in his school days, which I didn’t know. 

The crowd was surprisingly not split and fully behind EVIL for much of this. Cobb’s light flying (leapfrogs, dropkicks, and bumps into the guardrail) looked great and made it hard not to cheer for him. The two had a great chop battle that ended with EVIL gouging Cobb’s eyes and then pancaking him with a standing senton. 

Cobb used a tremendous delayed superplex onto EVIL and got a huge reaction. The ring turned into a trampoline for a split second when EVIL used Darkness Falls on Cobb. The crowd finally came on for Cobb and cheered him.

There was an extremely close two-count after Cobb used a standing moonsault. EVIL used referee Paul Turner for an assisted Magic Killer and an equally close two-count. 

After a few tries, Cobb used Tour of the Islands to win the match. Riccaboni really wanted to say “Aloha means goodbye!” but had, like, four false starts. It was charming.

Excellent match. It’d be in both ROH and NJPW’s best interest to put these guys on the Tokyo Dome or MSG show, because tonight they delivered a really fresh take on the hoss match style. Go out of your way to watch this one if you haven’t already.

Juice Robinson defeated Silas Young by DQ

“The Flamboyant” Juice Robinson wore his Macho Man Glam Jesus outfit to the ring. Young made fun of a guy in the front row for a while. Robinson shook a number of hands in the front row before the bell. This had a unique chemistry between the two from the beginning. 

They did more comedy before starting the actual wrestling part of this match. Robinson missed a pescado to the floor and bellyflopped hard on the mats.

The announce team put over that they sold the venue out and that it was standing-room only. I heard a few chants of “Boring” during the middle of this match; Young spent much of the middle slowly working over Robinson’s back and saying “easy-peasy.”

I’m not sure when it happened, but during Young’s assault Robinson must have slammed into the guardrail really hard once because he had a large red welt on his back. 

Robinson got beat up for much of this match, but later led a comeback with a nice spinebuster. He used a pretty high crossbody block for two. 

Young later used a backbreaker on Robinson that looked so cartoonish in how floppily Robinson folded over Young’s knee. GIF-worthy, you might say.

Bully Ray walked out and kicked Robinson in the groin, so Robinson won by DQ. The crowd chanted “ECW.” Bully Ray started yelling at Young for pushing him away in Lowell. Flip Gordon came out with a chair but Young low-blowed Gordon. 

Joe Koff came out and told Bully Ray off. He said he hated Ray and that all the fans hate Ray so he’s “fired.” Koff slammed the mic into Ray’s chest and stormed off.

This was as good as it could have been, which means it was just slightly above average, toeing the “Good Zone” waters. The finish sucked, and the angle following was decent, and short, if anything.

The Young Bucks defeated Tetsuya Naito & SANADA

The pop for Naito upon his entrance was huge. Women screamed and the announcers claimed the floor was shaking. This was the biggest reaction of the night so far. The Bucks came out to an equal pop, but not much bigger than Naito’s. There were tons of streamers inside the ring before the match. 

Naito and Matt Jackson started it off. They talked trash and had an intense lucha-style exchange of moves. Naito made fun of Jackson by doing the Young Bucks flex pose. 

Nick Jackson and SANADA were in next and were even faster somehow. The crowd woke up for this one the more the teams wrestled.

Things slowed in the middle of the match, but only by a hair. Matt Jackson was stuck in SANADA’s Paradise Lock. He locked Nick up and dropkicked them both in the posterior.

Nick Jackson went on a tear and shined with a billion moves crammed into a minute of the match. Naito and Nick have scary good chemistry together and could be a serious singles program to consider for the future. The Bucks locked on double sharpshooters and the crowd screamed for LIJ to tap. 

LIJ thought they were robbed of a three-count on Matt from referee Paul Turner — and it got a big reaction. The two teams exchanged even crazier spots both in and out of the ring. The Bucks wrestle like water. They used the 5-Star Meltzer Driver for a close two-count and the crowd was on fire. Matt eventually caught SANADA in a victory roll for a surprise win.

This was excellent. It was like what you’d see on an NJPW card, just here with more grit based on the setting. Both teams delivered, and I’m sure if LIJ won that the crowd would have been just as satisfied.

ROH World Champion Jay Lethal went to a 15-minute draw with Chris Sabin in a Proving Ground match

There were some great chain wrestling and rope-running sequences between the two at the beginning of this match. They stalled a lot to run the clock out. 

The crowd decided that they were behind Lethal after a few minutes. He did the Jericho springboard dropkick to Sabin, knocking him off the apron. 

Coleman mentioned that Sabin wrestled “night in and night out,” which confused me since I thought that’s what most wrestlers do. 

They did a lot of submissions and stretched out a count-out spot.

There was a point in the match where Lethal obviously whiffed on a chop and a fan clearly shouted “weak!” at them.

Sabin used a diving swinging DDT on Lethal and got a two-count. Lethal did a Savage flying elbow drop and then a Flair figure-four leg lock as the 15-minute time limit expired. The crowd chanted for five more minutes. Lethal got on the mic and said he felt good and that he’d do 10 minutes, and that it’d be for the ROH title. The crowd went nuts and the bell rang. 

The two did a Frye-Takayama punching spot — but Kenny King did a quick run-in. This received a loud wave of boos. King gave Lethal a spinebuster. He was upset that Sabin was getting the title shot before himself. 

This was a good match but was probably better in person. If the two went another 10 minutes I think they may have been able to put on something special, but the angle was fine nonetheless. 

Best Friends (Beretta & Chuckie T) defeated The Briscoes and Hangman Page & Cody Rhodes in a three-way tag match

I’d argue that Cody received the highest volume of streamers into the ring at once. The weird thing is that following Cody getting covered in streamers, the crowd started chanting “Best Friends.” 

Best Friends and Elite Club shook hands as the Briscoe Brothers stayed aloof beforehand. People are crazy for Cody, really. He threw his T-shirt to a happy little kid. On Twitter, Cody noted that he will have to miss his match at Global Wars: Toronto and will undergo an MRI after hearing a loud pop in his knee when “going from one side of the crowd to the other last night, teasing a t-shirt toss of all things.”

The Briscoes broke up a hug between Chuckie T and Beretta. Best Friends later did a super four-way hug that got a loud reaction. Best Friends double-crossed the Elite and pinned them for two.

Brandi Rhodes tried to distract Beretta. The Briscoes then yelled something vulgar at Brandi and requested to the ref that she leave the match. Lots of boos for this. 

This was nonstop action. Hangman Page almost killed himself using a shooting star shoulder block. Cody used Cross Rhodes on Jay — but Mark broke up the pin with a Froggy Bow.

Beretta and Cody traded moves until Beretta accidentally took out ref Paul Turner with a Claymore Kick. Mark Briscoe stepped in and smashed Cody in the face with Cody’s IWGP US title. Beretta considered hitting Cody with the belt, too, but Jay Briscoe hit him with a chair.

Frankie Kazarian and Christopher Daniels came out and beat on the Briscoes, then Beretta and Chuckie T used an assisted Dudebuster for the logical win. Cody and Beretta talked trash ahead of what was supposed to be an IWGP US title match between them in Toronto.

Again, this was all action, all exciting in-ring. Each wrestler brought their best to the table tonight.

ROH Global Wars results: Lethal, Gresham, KUSHIDA & Sabin vs. LIJ

Posted on by F4W Staff

By Justin M. Knipper

Ring of Honor’s Global Wars tour began in Lewiston, Maine on Wednesday night.

The Big Takeaway —

This was a low-stakes house show. The gymnasium was clearly half-empty on camera, but the crowd was enthusiastic throughout the night. Only the Matt Taven-Dalton Castle angle was furthered to build Final Battle.

Two of the matches (The Briscoes vs. Cody & Hangman Page and Silas Young & Bully Ray vs. The Young Bucks) were interrupted by streaming issues and/or power outage issues in the town of Lewiston, according to Ian Riccaboni. Viewers were not able to see the finish of the Young & Ray vs. Young Bucks match

Show Recap —

A small but excited crowd were on their feet at the start of this show. Ian Riccaboni and Colt Cabana were on commentary tonight. They introduced the card.

Flip Gordon defeated Eli Isom

Rookie Eli Isom came out with Cheeseburger and Ryan Nova. Gordon got a noticeable pop from this Wednesday night crowd. Cabana brought up the “bird incident” from the Jericho Cruise last week.

Gordon and Isom began the match with a smooth set of chain wrestling and rope-running sequences. Gordon hit a great looking dropkick to Isom in the corner. He followed up with his nip-up Pele kick spots, finishing the sequence with a tope con giro.

Back in the ring, the two traded chops. Gordon’s one-foot dropkick is real pretty. Isom was pushed on commentary as a promising rookie. He didn’t look bad here. Isom hit a nice backdrop suplex onto Gordon. They did a wild spot that consisted of Gordon nipping up off the apron, a jump enzuigiri kick, and them rolling back into the ring for another kicking sequence. It was all at lightning speed, and the crowd was on their feet after this.

Isom’s suplexes are solid; he used a nice wheelbarrow German suplex for two at one point. Gordon responded with a Falcon Arrow, and later a springboard spear, before finally hitting a Flip 5 for the win. The two shook hands and posed afterwards.

A quick but satisfying opening match. These guys had great chemistry together, but Gordon was the obvious star meant to shine here. 

ROH Tag Team Champions SoCal Uncensored (Scorpio Sky & Frankie Kazarian) defeated The Bouncers (Beer City Bruiser & Brian Milonas) in a non-title match

The New Age Out–I mean SoCal Uncensored came out and did their pre-match promo work in the ring. They were very over with the crowd. The gymnasium looked empty on some camera shots but the fans down in front were enthusiastic, mitigating any embarrassing camera work. 

The match itself was mostly fun old school-styled tag team wrestling. The Bouncers played big bully heels, and Beer City Bruiser did a few high spots to the outside.

There was a mildly funny moment where the ref accused Bruiser of biting. The camera zoomed in just as he said “I don’t have no teeth!”

Cabana said “Oh, mylanta” at one point during this match. 

The Bouncers abused Kazarian for a long while. Sky broke up a number of near falls. The pace was slowed toward the end of this match because the Bouncers aren’t athletic. It weighed the match down. Milonas is impressive to a point but is very slow.

Sky and Kazarian powerbombed Milonas off the top rope to win the match. The teams shared beers afterwards.

ROH TV Champion Jeff Cobb defeated Cheeseburger in a non-title match

Cheeseburger came out with Ryan Nova and Eli Isom. The two shook hands before the bell.

The story was clear from the start of this bout: Cobb is massive and strong, Cheeseburger is wily, scrawny, and tenacious. Cobb rag-dolled Cheeseburger around the ring and it felt more like an exhibition than a contest for a lot of it.

A big, long bear hug spot, a bigger dropkick, and an insane dangling vertical superplex from Cobb to Cheeseburger all got just two. 

Cheeseburger countered a few of Cobb’s moves and was able to use a Shotei in the corner, then a springboard cannonball senton for a pity two-count.

Cobb used a tremendous spinning backdrop suplex, then hit Tour of the Islands for the win.

 A fine match that was more like an enhancement match for Cobb. The crowd seemed to enjoy it.

ROH Six-Man Tag Team Champions The Kingdom (Matt Taven, Vinny Marseglia & TK O’Ryan) defeated Dalton Castle & The Boys to retain their titles

Rhett Titus came out before the match. He posed, then joined Ian Riccaboni and Colt Cabana on commentary.

It sounded like it was a surprise to the announce team that this had been scheduled to be for the Six-Man titles. Bobby Cruise announced it as such, though. 

The crowd was into Castle and chanted for him before the match started. Marseglia attacked one of the Boys before the bell. While Castle screamed about the Boys’ bags to the referee, Taven and O’Ryan attacked. The bell finally rang.

This was chaotic from the start. Taven and company pounded on Castle with flurries of punches and kicks in the corner. O’Ryan worked over Castle’s injured back. Castle is still taped up around his left thigh, has a weight belt, and has some other serious looking knee compression gear. 

O’Ryan did a cool running spot with the Boys. He carried one Boy in powerslam position and swung one Boy at the other. 

The Boys did a flashy double stomp spot, then a wild nonstop sequence of “topes” that were basically just Castle taking the guys by the hair and repeatedly tossing them over the ropes onto The Kingdom.

Three red balloons flew up in the air at this point in the match.

Castle used a Bang-a-Rang on Marseglia for a near fall. Later, Taven countered out of another Bang-a-Rang attempt and booted Castle hard in the face.

One of the Boys came back into the ring wearing a rugby sweater. He was acting like Freddy Krueger and started back-raking Marseglia with his “claw.” He did a number of cool spots, like a standing Sliced Bread, and then Castle screamed “What have you become?” at the Boy, who then snapped out of it.

Taven and Castle squared off and did a Frye-Takayama punching spot all the way to the floor. The two other Kingdom members did a special tag team finisher — a modified double powerslam thing — on one of the Boys for the win here.

Taven cut a good promo on Castle. He claimed he owns this Kingdom of New England, and that he’ll get to him at Final Battle soon. The crowd booed without fire. 

This match did its job. It built Taven and Castle for Final Battle, which could be better than people may expect.

The Briscoes defeated Hangman Page & IWGP United States Heavyweight Champion Cody (w/ Brandi Rhodes)

The camera got an excellent shot of a very excited Briscoes fan, someone’s mother, I imagine, hopping up and down before the match. 

Mark Briscoe tossed a chair into the ring for no apparent reason. The crowd woke up for this.

Mark and Page started off the match. There was a presence that all four wrestlers carry with them into this match that is very different from the wrestlers I watched in the matches before. Their body shape and size stood out, along with the conviction in the way they got into each other’s faces and locked heads. 

The way Cody would rile the crowd up was something worth mentioning. His ring instincts are so attuned to the crowd regardless of what the plan is. 

The ROH feed cut out in the middle of this match. The ROH logo spun around for a few minutes until it came back to the match. Riccaboni explained that the power in the building went out and that’s why the stream went out.

The match stayed on track in the building, with the crowd fiercely behind the newly-anointed Elite members (Elitists?). When the stream came back, Cody was in the middle of a hot high spot sequence inside the ring. It was eventually slowed to a halt, with both Jay and Mark Briscoe showcasing their unsung talent as vicious heels who are mostly always exciting to watch.

Page got a hot tag into the match later on. He and Jay traded a lot of punches and elbows and they really laid them into each other. 

Page used a Shooting Star shoulder block off the apron, essentially out of nowhere, onto Mark on the floor. He hopped back into the ring and German suplexed Jay for only two.

Jay and Page brawled on the outside, and Cody and Mark got into the mix. Back in the ring, the Briscoes used the Redneck Boogie powerbomb/neckbreaker combination on Cody for a two count.

They exchanged uppercuts and straight right punches. Brandi Rhodes stood on the apron and was quickly knocked off it by Mark. There was some chaos outside the ring, which was capped off by a huge moonsault from the top turnbuckle to the outside. 

This turned into a wild, fast-paced brawl in and outside the ring. Jay used the Jay Driller and then Mark smashed Page with a Froggy Bow for the win.

Despite the technical difficulties in the middle of this match, this was very much worth the watch. The Briscoes are having an under-the-radar type year of very good to excellent matches in various promotions. They are a great heel matchup with any of the Elite members, and this was all without a real storyline.

If there was a just a hair of narrative between these two teams, aside from the lightly touched upon history Riccaboni mentioned over the broadcast, it could make for a very hot two to three month program in either the United States or in Japan. Keep an eye out for matches featuring any combination of these four.

Juice Robinson defeated Christopher Daniels

Riccaboni put Robinson over as an international star. The wrestlers shook hands before the match started. The crowd seemed split over Daniels and Juice. I’d say 60/40 in Robinson’s favor.

This was a well-paced match, organic and smooth in every exchange. Daniels slowed things down for a while for a chinlock, but not to the levels of stagnancy often seen in some WWE matches. Daniels later used an Arabian press on Robinson for two.

People sounded to have sided more strongly with Robinson as the match went on. They did more back and forth, with one sequence of Robinson firing up. They fought to a double knockdown spot until Robinson headed to the top turnbuckle and Daniels crotched him onto the ropes.

After a long-ish lull in the match, Robinson started doing the Terry Funk/Dusty Rhodes cowboy punches. He tried Pulp Friction a few times and eventually landed it for the win.

This was good but not great, everything the sixth match on a Wednesday night card should probably be.

Silas Young & Bully Ray defeated The Young Bucks

Bully Ray came out to only boos. He screamed at ring announcer Bobby Cruise to shut up and was generally bully-ish. As he should be. He and Matt Taven were the most loudly booed wrestlers of the night so far.

People threw ribbons in the ring for the Bucks before the match. Bully Ray was very, very loud. He did a lot of crowd work here; he screamed “Your heroes SUCK!” at someone in the crowd. It was all very house show-ish, charming in its aesthetic.

The Bucks finally were able to tope their way onto the offense. Young was the pawn in the match, the way to let the Bucks shine without devaluing Ray as a heel.

As the match slowed, the heels took over. The crowd began chanting “Yankees suck!”

Matt Jackson used a spear on Bully Ray. Young put Matt into a Boston crab, working his storyline-injured back. Nick came into the ring with energy and made a few attempts to connect with the crowd after doing some of his signature moves to Young.

Young used a handful of power moves on Nick Jackson, including an Anarchy suplex. Nick was able to turn things around quickly with a couple of superkicks and a moonsault from the apron onto Bully Ray outside of the ring. 

More superkicks inside the ring, and just as things were getting exciting, the stream went out again. The ROH logo spun around Windows 98 screensaver style for a couple of minutes until the feed came back and, apparently, Silas Young pinned one of the Bucks to win the match for his team.

Los Ingobernables de Japon (Tetsuya Naito, EVIL, SANADA & BUSHI) defeated Jonathan Gresham, Chris Sabin, IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion KUSHIDA & ROH World Heavyweight Champion Jay Lethal

Between the matches, Riccaboni explained that there may have been a power outage issue in Lewiston tonight and apologized for the other stream outage.

LIJ were introduced one by one, each of them in full character garb. The crowd roared for Naito. They looked like absolute superstars tonight, with a visual charisma that carries across the screen in an almost jarring way. 

His name is “Constellation” Chris Sabin now. Colt Cabana was as surprised as you and I were about this because he found out when we did. “Constellation’s” hair is in currently at AJ Styles soccer-mom length.

Gresham and Naito started the match. Naito looked gigantic compared to Gresham. He quickly tagged out, rudo style, allowing for SANADA to enter.

The crowd started chanting “Sa-Na-Da!” He had a fun but forgettable exchange with Gresham. EVIL and Sabin had it out for a bit in the ring. EVIL was popular with the crowd and received loud chants. 

Sabin and KUSHIDA did some good tag work to EVIL. Lethal and Gresham double-teamed EVIL for a while and showed off some of the offense they’re using together these days as a semi-regular tag team. Gresham worked over EVIL’s arm and elbow. 

Naito stepped in by tripping KUSHIDA, allowing for SANADA to dropkick KUSHIDA in the face. LIJ dominated from here, using a strategy of two wrestlers standing on the apron and two seemingly guarding the area around the ring, something we see much more in Japan than in the States.

Naito and later BUSHI finally showed up in the ring. A BUSHIroonie happened. Fans rallied behind KUSHIDA minutes later, but he wasn’t able to escape SANADA’s Paradise Lock and shotgun dropkick to the posterior.

KUSHIDA fired up and used a handspring back elbow. He was able to tag Lethal back into the ring. Lethal cleaned house and soaked in some of the louder crowd reactions of the night.

The ROH/NJPW team did a triple plancha spot. SANADA did a slingshot swinging neckbreaker suplex to Lethal.

BUSHI and Gresham worked well together. I found it fresh since BUSHI was the big guy. He’s usually a few kilos lighter than whomever he’s in the match with in NJPW matches, so this matchup felt like it could lead to something new or interesting. 

The finishing sequence consisted of Lethal hitting a Lethal Injection on BUSHI, then EVIL using Darkness Falls on Lethal, and finally Naito using Destino on Gresham for the win.

This was a good match but, again, not a great one. It felt like a warm-up match, a match where some of the guys who haven’t worked with each other much before (BUSHI and Gresham, for example) can feel each other out and plan a tighter set for the bigger shows this weekend.

ROH TV results: Young Bucks vs. LIJ vs. Best Friends vs. SCU

Posted on by Dan Velten

Ian Riccaboni, Caprice Coleman, and BJ Whitmer called the action from Las Vegas.

A recap aired of the finish of the ROH World Championship match between Jay Lethal and Will Ospreay from Death Before Dishonor, which ended with Lethal retaining. Lethal’s celebration was cut short as The Kingdom, featuring Matt Taven’s new haircut, laid him out.

The Kingdom came to the ring with what they were claiming to be the real ROH World Championship belt. Taven stood stoically, sporting an amazing sparkly purple robe and a crown.

TK O’Ryan screamed at Bobby Cruise and Todd Sinclair to stand still while he spoke. O’Ryan made Cruise read a list of all of Taven’s accomplishments, including a declaration that Taven was the real ROH World Champion.

Before the first match, a video package of Jeff Cobb’s reign of terror so far in ROH aired to hype up him challenging Punishment Martinez for the ROH Television Championship on next week’s show.

Kenny King defeated Chase Owens

The announcers reminded us that King has been on a winning streak, but lately has chosen to use nefarious means to get his wins. King greeted Owens with some technical offense — ending with a fancy Japanese arm drag and a few kip ups.

After the break, Owens was in control and was working over the neck of King. That didn’t last long as King managed to get the advantage by landing a spinning dive onto Owens. He followed that up with a high crossbody block off the top turnbuckle.

Owens regained the upper hand with a Shining Wizard knee. A unique neckbreaker earned Owens a two count. He then went for a package piledriver, but King fought out. Owens went for a slingshot belly-to-back suplex, but King landed on his feet and appeared to have injured his knee. However, it was a ploy to get Owens to lower his guard, which allowed King to roll him up for the win.

Backstage, Coast 2 Coast were talking about being undefeated in 2018. They looked forward to their ROH Tag Team Championship match against The Briscoes next week.

They replayed the angle with Riccaboni getting involved to assist Colt Cabana in an attempt to silence Bully Ray.

Shane Taylor vs. Flip Gordon didn’t happen

Before this could get started, Gordon grabbed a microphone and addressed Bully Ray putting Cabana through a table at Death Before Dishonor. Gordon explained that Ray cheated during their match and that he should have been declared the winner.

Ray came out to trash talk, and during the exchange, Silas Young slid into the ring and delivered a low blow to Gordon. Taylor then blasted Gordon with a chair. For good measure, Young landed Misery on Gordon.

The Young Bucks defeated Los Ingobernobles de Japon (EVIL & SANADA), Best Friends (Beretta & Chuckie T), and SoCal Uncensored (Christopher Daniels & Frankie Kazarian) in a four corners tag match

This started off as a melee. The match had not yet even begun and The Young Bucks were already hitting dives. Nearly everyone hit a crazy dive in a sequence that ended with Nick Jackson wiping everyone out from the top rope to the floor. After that, Best Friends recovered and finally had time to hug each other before they hit stereo cannonball dives. Then, the bell finally rang.

SANADA and Daniels officially started the match. SANADA used the Paradise Lock on both members of SoCal Uncensored and tagged in EVIL. He went to work on the rear end of Daniels, which included EVIL catching a boot from Daniels and handing it off to the referee. That allowed EVIL to superkick Daniels in the bum. Daniels eventually fought out of it and returned the favor — doing the same thing back to EVIL.

Best Friends decided that they needed to strut around while wearing their sunglasses. They both got in and found themselves on the wrong end of a Nick Jackson lucha head scissors maneuver and a reverse Code Red.

After the break, EVIL continued to use the referee to assist him with the Magic Killer as SANADA had been indisposed at the moment. A parade of kicks and strikes left the Best Friends standing alone again. They landed a spike Dudebuster on Matt Jackson, but Nick broke it up with a Swanton.

An exchange of finishers created total chaos until the Bucks hosted a superkick party that laid waste to everyone. They isolated Beretta and landed the Five Star Meltzer Driver on him for the win.

EVIL & SANADA, Juice Robinson set for ROH Global Wars tour

Posted on by Joseph Currier

ROH has announced the next three wrestlers for this year’s Global Wars tour.

After announcing Tetsuya Naito for the tour yesterday, ROH has confirmed that Los Ingobernables de Japon members EVIL and SANADA will be in action on the Global Wars shows. Former IWGP United States Heavyweight Champion Juice Robinson is also set for the tour.

EVIL and SANADA wrestled for ROH at their post-Death Before Dishonor television tapings last month. They took part in a four-way tag match that included The Young Bucks, Beretta & Chuckie T, and Christopher Daniels & Frankie Kazarian.

Robinson hasn’t appeared for ROH in the United States since facing Marty Scurll at a set of TV tapings in January 2017.

The Global Wars tour will begin in Lewiston, Maine on November 7. There are also stops in Lowell, Massachusetts on November 8, Buffalo, New York on November 9, and Toronto, Ontario, Canada on November 11.

SANADA added to next month’s ROH TV tapings

Posted on by Joseph Currier

Another member of the NJPW roster has been added to ROH’s post-Death Before Dishonor television tapings in Las Vegas.

ROH has announced that SANADA will be making his return to the promotion at their tapings at the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas on September 29th. EVIL (SANADA’s Los Ingobernables de Japon stablemate) and KUSHIDA are also set for the tapings.

SANADA, EVIL, and KUSHIDA haven’t been announced for the Death Before Dishonor pay-per-view.

SANADA last wrestled for ROH in June. Los Ingobernables de Japon (SANADA, EVIL & BUSHI) lost a Six-Man Tag Team title match against The Kingdom at Best in the World before defeating SoCal Uncensored (Christopher Daniels, Frankie Kazarian & Scorpio Sky) and The Young Bucks & Hangman Page in a three-way match at a set of tapings.

Death Before Dishonor is taking place in Las Vegas on Friday, September 28th, the post-PPV tapings are on the 29th, and NJPW’s Fighting Spirit Unleashed show is being held in Long Beach, California on the 30th.

NJPW G1 Climax 28 night 16 live results: Naito vs. SANADA

Posted on by Bryan Rose

While the tournament itself is winding down, B Block action is still in full effect tonight in Kanagawa.

Tonight’s main event will be a most interesting battle between Los Ingobernables de Japon stablemates as Tetsuya Naito battles SANADA. Naito, still alive to win the tournament, needs to win this match tonight. It’ll be interesting to see just how much they intend to bring to the table in what will surely be a most memorable clash.

Kenny Omega doesn’t need to beat Toru Yano tonight, but probably should if he wants to dash Naito’s hopes and keep his momentum strong ahead of the deciding matches this weekend. Knowing how matches against Yano could go, Omega should do everything in his power to ensure Yano’s tricks won’t be a factor in tonight’s result. Same goes for Ibushi, as beating Tama Tonga tonight will help his chances of survival in case Omega and Naito win their matches tonight.

Other matches include Hirooki Goto taking on Zack Sabre Jr., while Tomohiro Ishii will go against Juice Robinson.

Check in this morning at 5:30 a.m. EDT for live coverage. There will be English commentary.

*********

Togi Makabe and Toa Henare defeated Michael Elgin and Shota Umino

Kevin Kelly on commentary noted that Elgin’s bicep isn’t torn, but likely strained. Usual tag match that ended when, after some good near falls, Umino fell to Henare’s uranage.

Hangman Page and Chase Owens defeated YOSHI-HASHI and SHO 

This didn’t last long. A good showcase for Page and Owens. Owens hit the jewel heist on SHO, then Page rolled through, grabbed him and landed the rite of passage for the win.

Bad Luck Fale and Tanga Loa defeated Minoru Suzuki and El Desperado

They did a long brawl all over the building. Suzuki tried to get Fale in the Gotch piledriver but proved to be too big. Loa got the win with the sitout piledriver on Desperado.

Fale brawled with Suzuki around the arena after the match, eventually finding their way outside.

EVIL and BUSHI defeated Jay White and YOH

They continued a storyline that they’ve been doing on the tour where White seems disinterested in helping YOH, who worked most of the match. White brought in a chair but EVIL chased him off. BUSHI cut off YOH and hit the MX for the win.

EVIL had YOH after the match and was set to strike YOH with a chair while another chair was on his neck. White opted not to save him and left while EVIL did the deed.

EVIL and BUSHI defeated Jay White and YOH

They continued a storyline that they’ve been doing on the tour where White seems disinterested in helping YOH, who worked most of the match. White brought in a chair but EVIL chased him off. BUSHI cut off YOH and hit the MX for the win.

Hiroshi Tanahashi and David Finlay defeated Kazuchika Okada and Gedo

Of course the people were super into the idea of Okada and Tanahashi. A pretty good match that ended when Finlay pinned Gedo with the stunner.

After briefly coming to blows after the match, both Okada and Tanahashi stood on top of commentary tables and looked for applause. It looked with Tanahashi drew the bigger response. 

B Block:

Tomohiro Ishii defeated Juice Robinson

Story early on was that Juice wasn’t getting anything done while Ishii wasn’t being phased by any of his offense. Juice took off the cast and started to build some momentum, connecting with the cannonball. 

Ishii backdrops Juice as they exchange chops. Ishii took Juice and landed a strong superplex, but they continued to exchange some back and forth until Juice power bombs Ishii. He struck Ishii with his injured hand then connected with a lariat.

Juice went for pulp friction but Ishii escaped and struck with the sliding D. Ishii starts to build momentum but Juice strikes Ishii with a headbutt. Ishii lands an enziguri and connects with the brainbuster for the win. A very fun match with a great finish.

Zack Sabre Jr. defeated Hirooki Goto

Goto starts out hot early, but Sabre manages to slow him down on the outside, then brings him in and starts pelting him with kicks. Goto catches him and sends him down with a clothesline. Goto goes for an elbow off the top rope, but Sabre traps him with an armbar. 

Sabre then traps him in the octopus hold but Goto gets him up and lands the ushigoroshi. He looks for the GTR, but then wraps him up in the European clutch and gets the quick win. This felt pretty short, but was good while it lasted. This likely sets up a NEVER title match in the fall, especially since Sabre grabbed the belt and posed with it after the match.

Tama Tonga defeated Kota Ibushi

Tama Tonga (who, in a change, wasn’t accompanied by anyone here) snuck through the crowd and jumped Ibushi from behind as he made his entrance. Tonga beat on him for a good while until Ibushi finally had enough and started to make a comeback. 

Tonga caught Ibushi trying to go for the golden triangle moonsault and took him into the crowd. Ibushi cuts him off and goes through a door…and enters through the top section of the arena. He leaps off the top of the railing all the way back to the floor with a huge moonsault that wipes out everyone in sight in a really cool spot.

Ibushi takes him back to the ring and went to the top rope when Tanga Loa came in for his obligatory run-in. Ibushi dispatched him but Tama Tonga hit a neckbreaker. Ibushi blocked the gun stun and went for the kamigoye but Loa grabs Ibushi’s foot. Tonga went for the gun stun again, but Ibushi bumped into the ref.

That, of course, brought out Fale. But that also brings out Kenny Omega, who takes out Fale. Ibushi takes out Loa and hits Tonga with a lariat. Ibushi went for the kamigoye, but Tonga rolled out of the way then hit a pop-up gun stun for the win. Pretty good match, though it was mostly the Kota Ibushi show.

That very much complicates things for Ibushi — he needs to hope Omega loses tonight in order to survive.

Fale powerbombed Omega after the match, which is a problem for him considering he has a match, like, right now. In fact, Yano came out to start the next match…

Toru Yano defeated Kenny Omega

A quick pinfall attempt to the prone Omega did not prove fruitful for Yano. He still undid two turnbuckles and whipped Omega into them repeatedly. He undid all of them, but Chase Owens blocked one of the shots, then the tides turned as Omega whipped Yano into the exposed turnbuckles.

Yano suplexed Omega on top of the turnbuckles, but they had no effect as they’re soft, I guess. They hit each other with the turnbuckles right in front of the ref, so I guess it’s not a DQ. I don’t know about these New Japan refs anymore, guys. Yano did a dragon screw with the turnbuckle that sent Omega out of the ring. 

Yano takes out the tape and tries to tie Omega to the barricade. Using Ren Narita as an anchor over the other side of the ring, he ties Omega up and enters the ring as the count starts. Even with Narita tied to him, they both manage to enter the ring at 20.

After some back and forth, including some close near falls, Omega connects with the snap dragon suplex. The referee gets into the mix as Yano low blows then both. But guess what? The Tongans are back. They beat up all of Bullet Club on the outside, then Tonga laid out Omega with the gun stun. Tonga puts Yano over Omega as Yano scores the three count. Fun match while it lasted.

That means Ibushi is still alive in the tournament.

Tetsuya Naito defeated SANADA

Naito wanted to to the fist bump at the start of the match, but SANADA saw through it as the two started off. SANADA controlled early until Naito cut him off and took him to the outside. At one point, Naito spat at SANADA, and SANADA returned the favor.

SANADA connects with a pescado to the outside. Naito cuts off a springboard attempt, but SANADA eventually does connect with a dropkick. Naito fights back with Gloria then follows with a Destino attempt but SANADA holds him in the cold skull submission. Naito escapes and goes for another Destino, but this time SANADA counters with an ego trip on the top rope.

SANADA connects with another missile dropkick and hits a tiger suplex. He follows with a skull end, but Naito floats over and tries for the Destino. SANADA deadlifts him on his shoulders but Naito hits the Destino anyway. SANADA kicked out, then blocked another attempt with a Destino of his own for a cool nearfall.

Naito tries to fight out of the skull end, but is unable to make it to the ropes as he fades away. SANADA tries for the moonsault, but Naito rolls out of the way. Naito connects with a flying forearm but SANADA blocks the Destino attempt. After a series of back and forth counters, SANADA lands a bridging roll-up but SANDA kicks out. 

SANADA was thrown head first into the turnbuckle then was planted with a German suplex. He looked to go for a DDT, but Naito blocked it and hit the Destino again for the win. A great main event filled with cool counters. The match also had a great aura to it, and the crowd was definitely into it.

EVIL, BUSHI and Hiromu Takahashi’s jacket come to the ring. After cutting a promo and mentioning Takahashi, they all reconcile and do the fist bump.

At this point, Omega needs to win his match with Ibushi or he’s out. Same thing for Ibushi. For Naito to win, he would need to beat Zack Sabre Jr, then hope Omega/Ibushi goes to a draw. That would give him 14 points to Omega’s 13, making him the winner.

Another scenario could also have Ibushi win his match, but also have Naito win his. In that case, Naito would edge out Ibushi and win the block.

B BLOCK STANDINGS:

  • Kenny Omega 12
  • Tetsuya Naito 12
  • Kota Ibushi 10
  • Zack Sabre Jr. 10
  • SANADA 8
  • Tomohiro Ishii 8
  • Hirooki Goto 6
  • Tama Tonga 6
  • Juice Robinson 4
  • Toru Yano 4

NJPW G1 Climax 28 night ten live results: Kenny Omega vs. SANADA

Posted on by Ethan Renner

A night of fascinating bouts headlines the tenth night of G1 Climax 28 action, with tonight hosting more B Block action.

SANADA will be taking on IWGP Heavyweight champion Kenny Omega in the main event. Omega has yet to be beaten, and at this point anyone and everyone is looking for a mistake. SANADA scored a big win over Kota Ibushi a couple of days ago, and could be looking to score a massive win (and perhaps a future title match) if he can knock off Omega tonight.

Other matches include Tetsuya Naito vs. Hirooki Goto, Kota Ibushi vs. Tomohiro Ishii (which promises to be very hard hitting based on previous encounters), Juice Robinson looking to outwit Toru Yano and Zack Sabre Jr. will be the one tonight to try and avoid Tama Tanga and the constant interference.

Join us for live coverage starting at 5:00 a.m. EST. There will be English commentary.

**********

BAD LUCK FALE & TANGA LOA DEFEATED TOGI MAKABE & TOA HENARE (6:04) 

Makabe and Henare withstood an assault from the Bullet Club OG’s at the opening bell, and Makabe sent Fale into the fence on the outside. Henare was quickly overcome, and Loa and Fale worked him over. 

Makabe got a tag and hit Fale with punches in the corner, and got a nearfall off a lariat. Fale got to his feet and hit a shoulder tackle, and the two made simultaneous tags. 

Henare hit Loa with a shoulder tackle, a Samoan drop, and a tackle off the top. He went for an uranage, but Loa slipped out, hit a lariat, and then hit apeshit for the pin. 

A standard tag opener. Henare got a little bit more offense than you might expect. 

HANGMAN PAGE & CHASE OWENS DEFEATED SWITCHBLADE JAY WHITE & YOH (6:22)

They had a nice match and fit a lot into six minutes. 

White played total opportunist heel, begging off from Page, and tagging in YOH. White jumped back in and attacked Owens, and took him to the floor, where he sent him into the ring frame and the barricade. 

White tagged in as the legal man. Owens went for a side effect, but his back gave out, damaged from the earlier attack. He got the side effect on the second try, and tagged in Page. 

Page hit a dropkick on YOH into a standing moonsault on White for a nearfall. White recovered and hit a Saito suplex, before tagging YOH. YOH hit a slingshot stomp to Page’s back, then hit a neckbreaker. Owens jumped in for the save, but White took him to the floor, leaving Page and YOH. 

Page went for the rite of passage, but White blocked it from the apron. White held Page for YOH to attack, but Page ducked, and YOH hit White. Page hit YOH with the rite of passage, and made a cover. White had the opportunity to break up the pin, but didn’t, furthering the White/CHAOS storyline. 

After the match, White attacked Owens on the floor, before running away. 

MINORU SUZUKI & EL DESPERADO DEFEATED EVIL & BUSHI (7:11) 

I know I’m not breaking any news here, but Suzuki is such a special performer. He did more here than you might expect in an undercard tag. 

Did you know that Suzuki-gun wrestlers often jump their opponents just seconds before the opening bell? They did that here. They brawled all over the arena. Suzuki hit EVIL with a chair and laid him out in the crowd. Desperado worked over BUSHI in the ring, and choked him with his t-shirt. 

Suzuki nailed BUSHI with hard forearms and laughed, but BUSHI was able to make it to his corner and tag EVIL. EVIL hit a neckbreaker on Suzuki for a two count, and the two traded forearms and chops. 

They had an awesome sequence where EVIL went for everything is EVIL and Suzuki went for the Gotch, but both slipped out. BUSHI got a tag and ran wild on Suzuki, and got a nearfall off knees in the corner. 

BUSHI hit a missile dropkick, but Suzuki got a rear naked choke. EVIL made the save briefly, but BUSHI pulled hi to the floor. Suzuki got the choke again, then hit the Gotch, and pinned BUSHI. 

Suzuki and EVIL had a pull-apart after the match. 

YOSHI-HASHI & SHO DEFEATED HIROSHI TANAHASHI SHOTA UMINO (7:49) 

This was a lot of fun. SHO didn’t look as good or explosive as usual, perhaps because Umino’s continued rise was the focus of the match. 

YOSHI-HASHI got some offense on Tana, but The Ace hit a crossbody off the second rope, pausing the action, and allowing both to tag out. SHO and YOSHI-HAHSI then doubled up on Umino. YOSHI-HASHI hit a vertical suplex for a nearfall, but Umino came back and hit a missile dropkick. 

Umino tagged Tanahashi, who hit a dragon screw and a senton on YOSHI-HASHI. YOSHI-HASHI hit Tana with chops and a headhunter, before tagging SHO. SHO hit some forearms on The Ace, before falling to twist and shout. 

Tanahashi tagged Umino, who ran wild with forearms and a missile dropkick on SHO. Umino used a crab on SHO. YOSHI-HASHI came in for the save, but Umino hit him with a dropkick. SHO was able to get an armbar on Umino, but Tanahashi saved. 

Umino got a pair of nearfalls on SHO, including with a la magistral cradle, but could not put him away. SHO hit a lariat for a nearfall, then hit the five star clutch for the pin, while YOSHI-HASHI kept Tanahashi at bay on the floor. 

Tanahashi and YOSHI-HASHI had a staredown after the bout. 

MICHAEL ELGIN & DAVID FINLAY DEFEATED KAZUCHIKA OKADA & GEDO (9:06) 

Okada and Elgin clearly saved their best stuff for their singles match tomorrow, but they did enough teases that it left me wanting to see that match. 

FInlay and Elgin did some comedy with Gedo’s beard, and worked him over. Okada made the save, and Okada hit Finlay with a slingshot senton. Okada and Gedo then grabbed Finlay’s beard, and went to work. 

Okada used a chinlock, and Finlay escaped, hitting a belly-to-back. Elgin tagged and hit a back elbow off the middle rope, and hammered Okada with a clothesline. Elgin hit a bridging belly-to-belly for a two count, then went for the falcon arrow off the top, but Okada blocked it. 

Okada hit scooby dooby doo off the top for a two count. Elgin hit a hard elbow, but Okada hit him with a flapjack. Okada went for a tombstone and a rainmaker, but Elgin slipped out and hit a powerslam, leading to a double down. 

Both men made tags, and Finlay ran wild on Gedo. Finlay went for a cutter, but Gedo slipped out. Gedo went for the Gedo clutch, but Elgin pulled him off and hit a suplex. 

Okada jumped in for the save, but Elgin threw him to the floor, allowing Finlay to hit a stunner on Gedo, picking up the win. 

B BLOCK MATCH: ZACK SABRE JR. DEFEATED TAMA TONGA (11:00) 

This was a clash of styles to say the least. The parade of DQ finishes in the Bullet Club OG’s matches continued here. 

Tonga briefly tried to wrestle with Sabre, but Sabre clearly had the technique advantage, so he turned it into a brawl. Their seconds, Loa and TAKA got involved and took bumps on the floor. 

Tonga worked very methodically, taking the first five minutes on offense. Sabre finally mad a comeback, and got a nearfall off a bridging clutch out of the corner. Tonga got a nearfall off a rollup, but TAKA nailed him from the outside coming out of it. 

Tonga went for a gun stun, but Sabre turned it into an armbar. Tonga hit the ref while swinging his arms in the hold, and he took a bump. With the referee out, the GOD doubled up on Sabre. Tonga went for a gun stun, but accidentally hit Loa. 

Sabre used a triangle and Tonga tapped, but there was no ref. Tonga hit a gun stun as the ref recovered, but Sabre turned it into an armbar. Tonga looked as though he was ready to tap, but Fale lumbered in and hit Sabre for the DQ. 

B BLOCK MATCH: JUICE ROBINSON DEFEATED TORU YANO (8:30) 

This was a total comedy match. 

Both broke cleanly on the ropes in their opening exchange, but Yano’s vow to turn over a new leaf continued to go out the window. He got frustrated and kicked Juice, who countered with jabs and sent him to the floor. 

On the outside, Yano taped Juice to the security fence and hit his broken hand with a chair. Yano untied one corner pad, then another. They did some comedy spots with both pads, and Juice used an airplane spin on Yano, leading to more comedy. 

They traded forearms, until Juice hit a suplex and a standing senton for a two count. Juice sent Yano into an exposed buckle, but Yano countered with an inverted atomic drop, and sent Juice into the exposed buckle. 

Yano got a pair of nearfalls off cradles, but Juice fired back with jabs. Juice removed the cast from his broken hand, and after a series of reversals, hit pulp friction and got his first win of the tournament. 

B BLOCK MATCH: KOTA IBUSHI DEFEATED TOMOHIRO ISHII (16:14) 

This was absolutely insane. I think this was the best match of the tournament so far. Both are masters of their craft, and far be it from me to claim to know what was real and what was just selling, but it was jarring just how brutal this was and how many hard shots to the head and neck both men took. 

They went after each other right at the opening bell, and had an intense exchange of strikes and tackles. Ishii got the better of the exchange, and demanded more from Ibushi. Ishii no-sold all of Ibushi’s strikes, and knocked Ibushi down with a chop. 

Ibushi came back with a dropkick, and Ishii was taken off his feet for the first time. Ibushi hit a snap rana, and Ishii rolled to the floor. Ibushi hit a plancha, but overshot it a bit, and Ishii took the move on his head and neck, right on the floor. 

Ibushi took the fight into the crowd, and hit a rana on the floor, before climbing to the second level of seats, where he hit an insane moonsault to the floor. Back in the ring, Ibushi hit a slingshot dropkick, and a bridging german, earning a nearfall. 

Ishii no-sold a kick to the chest, and dropped Ibushi with a forearm shot. Ishii hit a delayed vertical suplex from the second rope, but Ibushi no-sold it. Ishii hit two more suplexes on the mat, and Ibushi no-sold both, before hitting an enziguri. 

Ibushi no-sold a series of forearms, and knocked Ishii down with a palm strike to the chest. Ibushi lawn-darted Ishii into the turnbuckle pad, then taunted him with short kicks. They had a slap fight, and Ibushi knocked Ishii down again. He hit a series of kicks to the head and neck, and Ishii fired back with chops to the throat, and slaps to the head. 

Ibushi fired back with closed fists to the chest, which were sold as throat strikes. Ibushi hit a last ride for a nearfall. He pulled the kneepad down, then hit a straightjacket suplex, dumping Ishii right on his head. 

Ishii recovered and nailed Ibushi with a kamigoye and a jackknife last ride for a nearfall, then inside-outed him with a lariat for another nearfall. 

Ishii went for the brainbuster, but Ibushi reversed and hit one. Ishii no-sold it. Ibushi hit a diving knee to the face, but Ishii kicked out at one. 

Ibushi hit a series of strikes, then hit a kamigoye, and got the pin. 

B BLOCK MATCH: TETSUYA NAITO DEFEATED HIROOKI GOTO (13:27) 

This was good, their work was solid, but they never found a higher gear, and they had the unenviable task of trying to follow the previous match. 

Naito teased a clean break on the ropes, but then kicked Goto, and they traded shots. Naito teased a dive, Goto jumped back inside. Goto went back outside, Naito teased again, and Goto jumped back in and dropped Naito with a shoulder tackle. Goto worked a chinlock. 

Naito clotheslined Goto with the top rope, then dropped him with a neckbreaker on the apron. Naito sent Goto into the barricade, and Goto just beat the count back inside. 

Naito hit a swinging neckbreaker. They traded strikes. Naito spit on Goto, and went for an irish whip into the corner, but Goto reversed and hit a clothesline. Goto hit a leg lariat in the corner, then hit a Saito suplex for a two count. 

Naito hit an inverted DDT, a kick to the back, then hit his slingshot dropkick in the corner. Naito hit a top rope rana for a two count. After a misdirection spot, Goto hit a lariat and an ushigoroshi for a nearfall. 

Goto teased the GTR, but Naito floated over and hit a german. Naito hit a flying forearm. He went for destino, but Goto countered with an inverted GTR. He could not make a cover, and after struggling to his feet, hit a kick. 

Goto went for the GTR, but Naito hit a snapmare. Naito went for destino, but Goto hit a pair of headbutts. He went for the GTR again, but Naito hit destino for a nearfall. Naito hit a second destino, and this time, it was enough to get the victory. 

B BLOCK MATCH: KENNY OMEGA DEFEATED SANADA (20:12) 

On any other show, this would have been talked about as the best bout of the night. An excellent, excellent main event. Ibushi and Ishii were just impossible to follow tonight. 

They started simply, both working the left arm, with Omega perhaps earning a slight edge in the opening exchange. SANADA sent Omega to the floor, and teased a dive, but Omega backed off. SANADA opened the ropes to allow Omega back inside cleanly, and Omega used the opportunity to attack SANADA’s left leg. 

Omega sent SANADA into the railing, then dropped him knee-first on the apron. Back inside, Omega pulled the hair, and stomped on the injured leg. They traded strikes, but Omega went back to working the leg. SANADA was able to counter with a shotgun dropkick off the second rope, but immediately went back to selling the damage to his leg. 

SANADA hit his leapfrog dropkick spot, into a plancha to the floor. SANADA went for a TKO, but Omega hit you can’t escape. On the landing, though, he hit SANADA’s knees, and briefly sold his legitimate heel injury. SANADA rolled to the floor, and Omega hit the terminator dive. 

Omega hit the kotaro krusher. SANADA side-stepped a v-trigger, did the Flair flip into the corner, but then slingshotted off the ropes right into a powerbomb. Omega went up top and hit a missile dropkick to the back of a kneeling SANADA. Omega hit a snap dragon, and cradled SANADA for a nearfall. 

Omega hit a huge v-trigger, then another. SANADA blocked a third, landed a series of strikes, then ate another knee. SANADA was able to recover and hit a tiger suplex, but Omega kicked out of the bridge. 

Omega hit another v-trigger, then hit a jay driller for a close nearfall. Omega hit another v-trigger and went for the one-winged angel, but SANADA turned it into skull end. Omega backed away from a moonsault, then missed a v-trigger into the corner pad. 

SANADA applied skull end, and as Omega faded, released the hold. He went for another moonsault, but missed again, and sold the knee. They exchanged a series of forearm shots, and Omega finally buckled. 

SANADA hit a knee, then skull end into a moonsault, but Omega turned it into a spike piledriver. Omega hit another v-trigger. SANADA slipped out of a one-winged angel, but Omega maintained control of his wrists, and was finally able to hit his finisher. Omega covered, and got the pin to go to 5-0. 

B BLOCK STANDINGS 

Kenny Omega 10

Tetsuya Naito 8

SANADA 6

Kota Ibushi 6

Zack Sabre Jr. 6

Hirooki Goto 4

Tomohiro Ishii 4

Tama Tonga 2

Toru Yano 2

Juice Robinson 2

NJPW G1 Climax 28 night eight live results: Kota Ibushi vs. SANADA

Posted on by Bryan Rose

After a few days of rest, the G1 returns tonight with more B Block action.

Two premiere athletes headline tonight’s show as Kota Ibushi battles LIJ member SANADA. Ibushi’s story in the tournament thus far is that he’s been dishing out every kind of amazing maneuver he can muster against his opponents. SANADA will be looking to ground Ibushi and score two more points to make it to the next round.

Other matches set for tonight include a big Kenny Omega/Juice Robinson confrontation. Robinson has been on a tear as of late, but so has new IWGP champion Omega, making this match a battle of momentum. A big bout between Tomohiro Ishii and Zack Sabre Jr. is also set, while Tetsuya Naito vs. Tama Tonga and Hirooki Goto vs. Toru Yano in a battle of CHAOS members rounds out tonight’s action.

Join us tonight at 5:30 a.m. EST for live coverage. There will be English commentary, with Kevin Kelly and Rocky Romero calling the action.

**********

Minoru Suzuki and El Desperado defeated Michael Elgin and Ren Narita

Suzuki and Elgin brought it to one another with stiff shots. Typical opener. Suzuki distracted Elgin on the outside by wrapping his hand around the barricade. Narita got some nice nearfalls before planting him with a modified angel’s wings for the win.

EVIL and BUSHI defeated Hangman Page and Chase Owens

This was designed to get Page and EVIL over for tomorrow. Owens unleashed some offense then went for his Jewel Heist finish but instead walked right into EVIL’s Everything is Evil STO for the win.

Bad Luck Fale and Tanga Loa defeated Jay White and YOH

White did not want to get in the ring with Fale. He eventually did get his hands on White and brawled with him into the crowd. White was running away from Fale again as Loa pinned YOH with the sitout piledriver. That’ll probably tbe the story of tomorrow’s match.

YOSHI-HASHI and SHO defeated Kazuchika Okada and Gedo

Yep, you know the story. Interesting battle here between four CHAOS stablemates. YOSHI-HASHI showed some great fire against Okada, as well as SHO against Gedo. SHO got the win for his team, pinning Gedo with the shock arrow.

B Block:

Hirooki Goto defeated Toru Yano

Yano scored big nearfalls early by taking out the turnbuckle pad before the bell and threw Goto into the exposed turnbuckle. Goto was eventually able to cut him off, hit the ushigoroshi and pinned him with the GTR. Yes, that’s pretty much the match!

Tetsuya Naito defeated Tama Tonga

Like with most of Tonga’s matches so far, Tanga Loa got involved early.Tonga suplexed Naito on the floor. Tanga Loa freely interfered while Tonga distracted the referee.Things eventually do pick up in the ring after some back and forth as Naito connected with the satellite DDT. 

Tonga connected with a gun stun on the apron. Loa grabbed him while he was stunned, powerbombed him on the ramp and threw him back into the ring where he kicked out. Naito fired back and went for the Destino, but shock of shocks there’s a ref bump. EVIL comes back to take out Loa, but Fale comes out. BUSHI follows and mists Fale. 

Naito went for the Destino but Tonga low blowed him. He tried to follow with the gun stun, but Naito cut him off, low blowed him and connected with the Destino for the win. Fine for what it was.

Zack Sabre Jr. defeated Tomohiro Ishii

Sabre starts off tentatively, then struck him with a big uppercut. Sabre kept piefacing Ishii until he retaliated with huge chops. Sabre countered by taking him down and working on his wrist.

Sabre continued the assault, torking and wrenching Ishii’s injured arm. Ishii grabbed one of Sabre’s leg, cracked it with his head, and sent him to the ground and countered Sabre’s attempts at offense with a Boston crab. Sabre connected with a penalty kick, but injured his bad leg in the process.

The two fought in the middle of the ring as Sabre took down Ishii with his injured arm. He grabs the fingers and hyperextends the arm and grabs one of his legs as well. Ishii came back, blasting Sabre with a suplex and hit the sliding D. Sabre came back with the octopus hold then transitioned into a pinning combination for 2. 

Sabre went for an inside crable but Sabre escaped. Ishii connected with a pop-up headbutt but Sabre comes back and traps Ishii in a triangle. Ishii went for a deadlift but Sabre grabbed the injured arm, countered with an armbar and Ishii immediately submitted. Great match with an excellent finish. Ishii doesn’t submit like that too often, and the way the finish was applied made you feel like it hurt like hell.

Kenny Omega defeated Juice Robinson

They start out slow, with some good back and forth. Omega sent Juice to the outside and went for the rise of the Terminator but Juice came back with a spear through the middle rope. On the outside, they teased barricade shots before Juice suplexed Omega on the floor. 

Juice followed with a rolling senton as he tried to build momentum in the ring. Omega avoided a rolling cannonball, but Omega dodged. Juice cut him off and hit the cannonball. Omega started to gain momentum by working on Juice’s hurt wrist.

Juice went for the Pulp Friction but Omega threw him to the ground and hit a v-trigger, then another. Robinson connected with a roll-up, but Omega kicked out, hit a v-trigger, then pinned Robinson. This was pretty good, but didn’t feel like it reached the level I thought it would reach, if that makes any sense.

SANADA defeated Kota Ibushi

Things start out even. Ibushi went for the golden triangle moonsault, but SANADA blocked it, grabbed him and teased like he was going to go for something on the ramp, but didn’t. He takes him back to the ring instead and finds and opening by targeting his left leg.

SANADA went to the top rope but Ibushi cut him off with a kick and hit a giant hurricanrana off the top rope. They make it to the outside, where Ibushi wipes out SANADA with an Asai moonsault off the middle rope. Ibushi went for the Last Ride powerbomb but SANADA escaped and connected with a missile dropkick.

They both countered German suplex attempts as SANADA tried for the Skull End, but Ibushi escaped and connected with a kick to the temple. SANADA avoids the kamigoye and looks to lock in the skull end but Ibushi counters and lifts him up. SANADA gets to his feet, lifts Ibushi and lawn darts him into the turnbuckle.

SANADA goes up top, makes it to his feet after Ibushi dodges but doesn’t see Ibushi coming down with a double foot stomp. The two strike one another before Ibushi unloads with a lariat. Last Ride powerbomb doesn’t get the job done. SANADA comes back with an ego trip neckbreaker for a near fall and connects with the skull end. 

SANADA lets him escape and connects with the moonsault, pinning him to with the match. This told a great story about two guys who wanted to go out and have a great match while mirroring each other move for move, and they did just that. A fantastic match with great heat and lots of cool spots.

SANADA grabs the microphone after the match, which got a huge pop since he doesn’t talk much. He put over Nagaoka. “Nagaoka, see you next time” he said in English as he made his exit.

New Japan Cup night 8 results: Zack Sabre Jr. vs. SANADA

Posted on by Bryan Rose

Here are quick results and a recap of the last semifinal match of the New Japan Cup that took place today in Hamamatsu.

  • Shota Umino defeated Ren Narita by submission with a Boston crab.
  • Tanga Loa, Yujiro Takahashi, & Bad Luck Fale  defeated Togi Makabe, Toa Henare, & Tomoyuki Oka when Takahashi pinned Oka with a Pimp Juice DDT.
  • Tomohiro Ishii and Toru Yano defeated Taichi and Takashi Iizuka by disqualification after Taichi kicked the ref to break up a count.
  • Michael Elgin and Juice Robinson defeated Kota Ibushi and Chase Owens when Robinson pinned Owens with the Pulp Friction.
  • Killer Elite Squad defeated Hirooki Goto and YOSHI-HASHI when Lance Archer pinned YOSHI-HASHI following the Killer Bomb.
  • Tetsuya Naito, BUSHI and Hiromu Takahashi defeated Minoru Suzuki, Yoshinobu Kanemaru and El Desperado when Naito defeated Desperado with the Destino.
  • HIroshi Tanahashi and David Finlay defeated Kazuchika Okada and Chucky T when Finlay pinned Chucky after a backslide.

New Japan Cup semifinal bout:

Zack Sabre Jr. defeated SANADA

This was a great match that continued to highlight Sabre as a submission machine that is a force to be reckoned with in this tournament. Much like in his previous matches, Sabre was the aggressor in the match and repeatedly had SANADA’s number on multiple occasions until SANADA was finally overwhelmed and could take no more. Brilliant match in terms of storytelling, and excellent booking in terms of making Sabre look like a threat.

They start off with a feeling out process, then start to grapple on the mat. SANADA is able to transition and gain control on multiple occasions. Sabre bails out of the ring as he’s overwhelmed.

SANADA sends Sabre to the outside where he comes off with a dive. Back in the ring, he goes for the paradise lock and the skull end but Sabre escapes by working on SANADA’s right arm. SANADA tries to find a comeback, but Sabre wraps him in the octopus hold as people started to get behind him.

They take turns reversing the hold until SANADA hits a side suplex. SANADA went for a moonsault, but landed on his feet and took a tackle from Sabre, who followed that up with a penalty kick. SANADA countered with a springboard dropkick, but Sabre counters by focusing on SANADA’s arm again.

SANADA tries to go for the cold skull but Sabre repeatedly escapes until SANADA catches him…or doesn’t, as Sabre escapes again and transitions into a pinning position for a nearfall. Sabre takes him down into a triangle position but SANADA deadlifts him and nails the TKO.

Sabre catches SANADA after a moonsault attempt and wraps him in a double arm chicken wing. SANADA tries to get his feet on the ropes, but Sabre grabs his leg. He repeatedly headbutts SANADA until he verbally submits, putting him in the New Japan Cup finals.

This makes it Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Zack Sabre Jr. in the finals of the New Japan Cup, which will take place March 21.

New Japan Cup night six results: Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Kota Ibushi

Posted on by Ethan Renner

Zack Sabre, Jr. and SANADA punched their tickets to the semifinals of the New Japan Cup tournament Thursday in Tokyo’s Korakuen Hall.

Both won their quarterfinal bouts on night six of the current tour, setting up a showdown between the two of them on Sunday’s show in Shizuoka. The winner of that bout will go on to face the winner of Friday’s Juice Robinson vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi match.

For start times and more details, you can check out Bryan Rose’s post here.

Predicting winners in this tournament has been an exercise in futility, and that trend continued with Sabre’s win over Ibushi.

Below are the results of Thursday’s show in Tokyo.

Prelim bouts:

David Finlay & Ren Narita defeated Tomoyuki Oka & Shota Umino

YOSHI-HASHI & Hirooki Goto defeated Toa Henare & Togi Makabe

Lance Archer, Davey Boy Smith, Jr., Takashi Iizuka & Taichi defeated Chase Owens, Tanga Loa, Yujiro Takahashi & Bad Luck Fale

Minoru Suzuki, Yoshinobu Kanemaru & El Desperado defeated BUSHI, Tetsuya Naito & Hiromu Takahashi

Juice Robinson, Hiroshi Tanahashi & Michael Elgin defeated Chuckie T, Kazuchika Okada & Tomohiro Ishii

New Japan Cup Quarterfinal Matches:

SANADA defeated Toru Yano

SANADA attacked Yano before the bell, and pulled his shirt over his head. He rolled him around the ring, and got a nearfall.

SANADA used the Paradise Lock near the ropes, before kicking Yano to the floor. They brawled on the floor, and SANADA tried to tie Yano’s feet with camera cables, but Yano kicked him off into the crowd, and raced back to the ring. They teased a countout, but SANADA made it back in at 19.

Yano choked SANADA with his shirt, but SANADA used a flying headscissors and a plancha to the floor. Yano posted SANADA and went to hit him with a chair, but SANADA moved and Yano hit the post.

They teased another countout. Yano made it back inside and tried to cradle SANADA by his mohawk. Yano untied the turnbuckle pad, but missed a charge into the corner, hitting the exposed buckles. SANADA missed a charge into the exposed buckles, which didn’t look particularly good.

Yano went for Skull End on SANADA, missed, but cradled him for a nearfall. Yano hit an inverted atomic drop and a slingshot into the exposed buckle. Yano went for a Last Ride, but SANADA turned it into a Code Red for another nearfall.

Yano hit a low blow and cradled SANADA again, but SANADA caught Marty Asami’s hand before it could hit the mat the third time. While Asami sold his arm, SANADA hit a low blow, and locked on Skull End for the submission. This wasn’t great pro wrestling, but it had good heat.

Zack Sabre Jr. defeated Kota Ibushi

Sabre out-wrestled Ibushi on the mat for the first quarter of the match. The first time that Ibushi successfully reversed a hold, Sabre turned to striking, but Ibushi quickly established himself as the better striker, landing forearms and kicks. Sabre grabbed a heel hook, grapevine the leg, then transitioned to an armbar, but Ibushi reached the bottom rope, forcing a break.

Sabre continued working over Ibushi’s legs on the mat, trying to eliminate his kicks and flying ability, but Ibushi made it back to his feet, and commenced kicking. Sabre grounded Ibushi again, this time choosing to work on his arms. Ibushi reached the ropes, made it to his feet, and Sabre missed a charge into the corner, allowing Ibushi to hit a hurracanrana and a kick to the chest. That was the perfect time to do that spot, just as things started to hit a lull.

Ibushi hit more kicks, and a standing moonsault for a nearfall. Sabre kicked out and applied an abdominal stretch. Ibushi forced a break, and they traded strikes. Ibushi hit a snap dragon suplex, and bridged into a nearfall. Sabre countered into a bridging pin attempt of his own, before returning to work over Ibushi’s arms again.

Sabre countered a Kamigoye attempt into a roll-up attempt, and they traded nearfalls. They exchanged some slaps to the face, which didn’t appear to be too stiff on the New Japan scale, before Sabre kicked Ibushi in the side of the neck. Ibushi got the better of a strike exchange, and hit a big lariat. Ibushi hit a powerslam, and went for a moonsault, but Sabre caught him in a triangle choke on the landing.

Ibushi tried to turn the triangle into a Last Ride, but Sabre applied an octopus hold. Ibushi slipped out and teased throwing Sabre into the corner like a dart, but Sabre escaped. He charged Ibushi, who went for the Kamigoye, but Sabre forced him to turn it into a bridging suplex nearfall.

Ibushi was spent, and Sabre took his back, tied him up, and hammered him with strikes. With Ibushi unable to defend himself, Red Shoes called for the bell.

Sabre is a master of his craft and Ibushi is an artist. Together, they put on a fine show.

The 2018 New Japan Cup semifinals are set

Posted on by Bryan Rose

The semifinals for the New Japan Cup have been set. 

Juice Robinson and Hiroshi Tanahashi fill the first two slots. Robinson defeated Michael Elgin to advance on March 14, while Hiroshi Tanahashi defeated Bad Luck Fale by countout to advance. Hiroshi Tanahashi and Juice Robinson will now headline tomorrow morning’s New Japan Cup show, with the winner advancing to the finals.

SANADA and Zack Sabre Jr have advanced to the semifinals as well. SANADA outwitted Toru Yano on this morning’s show to advance. Meanwhile, Zack Sabre Jr. pummeled Kota Ibushi bad enough that the referee stopped the bout and ruled Sabre the winner. These two will square off on March 18.

Once the two semifinalists make it to the final round, they will face off on March 21. The winner will have the right to challenge for the IWGP title, the NEVER title, or the Intercontinental title.

The show on March 16 will start at 5:30 a.m. EDT. The last two shows will start at 2:30 a.m. EDT. All three shows will have English commentary.