Happy post-Thanksgiving, or if you’re in the shopping mood, happy Black Friday! New Japan returned this morning with more World Tag League action, this time taking place in Hiroshima at the Green Arena.
Non Tournament Results:
Sho Tanaka, Yohei Komatsu & Ryusuke Taguchi defeated Jay White, David Finlay and Tiger Mask IV.
Kingdom, Gedo and Toru Yano defeated Juice Robinson, Jushin Thunder Liger, Kushida and Mascara Dorada after Robinson was pinned via spike piledriver by the Kingdom.
Doc Gallows, Karl Anderson, Cody Hall, Bad Luck Fale and Tama Tonga defeated Katsuyori Shibata, Captain New Japan, Hirooki Goto, Yuji Nagata and Manabu Nakanishi when Karl Anderson pinned Captain New Japan following the Magic Killer.
B Block: Tencozy vs. Evil and Tetsuya Naito
BUSHI has a new Day of the Dead themed second mask to go with him joining Los Ingobernables. It felt fine, but kinda long. There was one spot where Naito grabbed his shirt and pretended like he was a matador while Tenzan lay prone on the floor. Evil laid out Tenzan with an STO but Tenzan came back and literally lariated Evil in the face, sending him reeling to the outside. Naito shoves the ref down which allows BUSHI to enter the ring and spray Kojima with green mist, which allowed Naito to pin him with Destino.
A Block: Tomoaki Honma and Togi Makabe vs. Michael Elgin and Hiroshi Tanahashi
Pretty good match. Elgin and Tanahashi really shine as a tag team, they just compliment each other very well. They did a cool spot where Elgin had Tanahashi in a electric chair position and ended up doing a reverse Alabama Slam on their opponent. Tanahashi was taken out as Elgin was beating up on both Makabe and Honma. Numbers game was too much and got taken out by not only a top rope kokeshi by Honma but also the King Kong Knee Drop by Honma. Homna pinned Elgin to win the match for their team in something of an upset.
A Block: The Addiction vs. Kazuchika Okada and Yoshi-Hashi
Simple match, but it was worked really well as all four guys are really good. Heels worked on Okada for a lot of the match. Yoshi-Hashi came in and did some great back and forth with Daniels. Okada tried to go for a flash Rainmaker but Kazarian blocked him and they hit the high low to take him out. They quickly followed that with the Celebrity Rehab on Y-H for the win.
B Block: Tomohiro Ishii and Shinsuke Nakamura vs. AJ Styles and Yujiro Takahashi
This was put in the main event slot to build intrigue between Styles and Nakamura for their big WrestleKingdom 10 match. Yujiro’s lady this week was dressed up like Chun Li from Street Fighter. Nakamura and AJ looked good whenever they were in. Everyone got to work with one another and turned out to be a pretty fun match. Ishii and Styles were going back and forth, Ishii nearly got a pinfall with a lariat but it didn’t work. He tried to do something off the top rope, but Styles caught him, sending him crashing to the floor. Styles then pinned him with the Styles Clash.
Current Standings:
Block A:
Hiroshi Tanahashi and Michael Elgin- 4
Kazuchika Okada and Yoshi-Hashi- 4
Christopher Daniels and Kazarian- 4
Kazushi Sakuraba and Toru Yano- 2
Manabu Nakanishi and Yuji Nagata- 2
Togi Makabe and Tomoaki Honma- 2
Bad Luck Fale and Tama Tonga- 0
Block B:
Evil and Tetsuya Naito- 6
Hirooki Goto and Katsuyori Shibata- 4
Hiroyoshi Tenzan and Satoshi Kojima- 2
Doc Gallows and Karl Anderson- 2
AJ Styles and Yujiro Takahashi- 2
Matt Taven and Michael Bennett- 0
Shinsuke Nakamura and Tomohiro Ishii- 0