Tanahashi and Okada square off one more time - only now, it's for Tana's case and a chance at the Wrestle Kingdom main event. The young lions dart down for their match and they're both ripped. Lots of matwork and Kevin talks about Tsuji and Uemura always going to 10 minute time limit draws - so they have no wins or losses against each other. Both men hit great strikes, but a submission is what ended it... via time limit draw.
Roppongi 3K faces a pair of young lions in Umino and Narita. Rocky is such a great hype man with his wacky mannerisms. Forearm exchanges with Sho and Umino. Yoh hits a falcon arrow to end it. Tiger Mask and Liger face Kanemaru and Desperado. The legends are jumped and Liger eats a chair to the back before the bell. Liger lands a super rana and he goes for a Liger bomb on Desperado, but Kanameru attacks him to nix that. Heel miscue leads to Liger getting a tilt a whirl and a tag, but TM eats a spinebuster. Deep Impact leads to a kick from Tiger and a crucifix ends it - short, but fun.
Tencozy, Nagata, and Nakanishi face Homna, Makabe, Taguchi, and Yoshida. I'm amazed that Tenzan can even move with his ankles all messed up. Kevin Kelly gets in a Bread Club reference for Kojima. Honma and Kojima start off with a slew of chops. Nakanishi acts as a corner base for everyone to run into. Taguchi and his iron ass are met with a big sledgehammer shot and that's JUST TOO MUCH FOR THE FUNKY WEAPON and he does a flip. Nagata and Makabe have a fun HIT EACH OTHER HARD exchange. Nagata and Yoshida elbow each other to death. Nagata hits the high angle backdrop driver to win. This was a bit of a mess, but a ton of fun.
Chuck and Trent face Davey and Lance Archer in a crazy match. Davey's new white, blue, and red gear is fantastic - he actually looks like a star now. Giant northern lights gets 2 for Davey. Trent avoids a chokeslam with a dropkick to the knee and the Best Friends double suplex him down. Saito suplex into a giant chokeslam gets 2.9 on Trent! Killer Bomb hits, but Trent gets a crucifix out of it and pins Lance!
Switchblade, Ospreay, and Yoshi-Hashi face Juice, Henare, and Finley. Juice is so great and charismatic. This is a fun battle with a slew of chops and suplexes. Jay wins with a blade runner on Henare, but Chaos had issues throughout to tease a breakup. Ospreay hit a slew of dives while he was in and shined the brightest of anyone. Naito, Sanada, and Evil face Suzuki, ZSJ, and TAKA! Suzuki and Naito had a lot of fun stuff in there, but EVIL landed the STO to TAKA and won.
BUSHI comes out looking badass in a silver suit. They have a really slow-paced match given the division, but it was a very mat-heavy match - definitely a nice change of pace. BUSHI hits a big suicide dive, but KUSHIDA locks on a Fujiwara armbar as a counter! BLACK MIST TO THE FACE leads to a jackknife backslide for 2.9. ROLLING BACK TO THE FUTURES end it for KUSHIDA and he advances to the finals of the Jr. Title tourney!
Tana's case win is recapped before he faces Okada in yet another classic. Tana's arm covering really does add to his look - shame he's disfiguring himself for life for a great year in NJPW. Tana's hair is astonishing. The match starts off with a lot of stalling and big GO ACE chant.
Things start off slow, but quickly amp up with work on the apron and floor. Tana hits a goddamn dropkick of his own to send Okada to the floor and then a tope. Tana comes up selling the leg and Okaada works it over. Okada locks on a modified kneebar and Tana's selling is off the charts.Tana gets to the rope and gut shots him, but Okada no-sells it all. DRAGON SCREW AND A CHOPBLOCK!
Okada lands the spike DDT! Krunch to the knee! Okada DROPKICKS HIM UP TOP AND TANA TREE OF WOES THE KNEE ON THE OUTSIDE! Okada locks on a figure four and wrenches away at the knee for a long time before Tana gets to the rope again. Okada works on the knee and goes for a tombstone, but TANA COUNTERS AND TOMBSTONES HIM ON THE FLOOR!
STANDING HIGH FLY FLOW TO THE FLOOR! Rainamker countered into the twist and shout! SLINGBLADE FOR 2! High fly flow to the knees! They fight over a tombstone which neither gets, so we get a forearm exchange that Okada wins before doing some cocky kicks to the face. Tana collapses off of an Irish whip. Tana gets 2 off a sunset flip counter to a knee breaker. BASEMENT DRAGON SCREW! Tana slap counters a Rainamker AND GETS A SLINGBLADE! HIGH FLY FLOW HITS FLUSH! BUT THE KNEE BUCKLES! He eventually covers, but only gets 2!
Standing high fly flow is met with a dropkick to the gut! They trade Rainmaker teases before a discus Rainmaker hits! Rainmaker leads to a dragon suplex counter for 2.99! They fight up top for a super tombstone, but Tana fights it off.before also avoiding a super gutwrench and then slapping him before shoving him and thankfully perfectly-timing a high fly flow. Kneeling high fly flow hits! HIGH FLY FLOW HITS AND ENDS IT! Tana retains the case!
Switchblade comes out and beats up young boys and Okada! GEDO CHAIRSHOTS OKADA! Gedo is now giving Switchblade his seal of approval, and YH comes down, but gets beaten up too. It appears that Jay will be challenging Tana for the case - and I'm hoping Tana wins that, because Switchblade is still nowhere near ready for a third from the top WK match, let alone the main event.
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