New Japan ran Day 12 of the World Tag League today, the penultimate day of Block B.
Today’s event was held at Kochi Prefectural Gym in Kochi and can be watched on demand on New Japan World.
The announced paid attendance was 801.
Pre-show Match: Master Wato beat Katsuya Murashima.
Match 1: Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Sho beat BUSHI & Shingo Takagi. Kanemaru pinned BUSHI with Samson Clutch.
Match 2: Boltin Oleg, Toa Liona & Bishop Kaun beat Oskar Leube, Ryohei Oiwa & Kaito Kiyomiya. Liona pinned Leube after Fall From Heaven.
Match 3: Callum Newman, HENARE & Great-O-Khan beat Tomoaki Honma, Toru Yano & Tomohiro Ishii. HENARE beat Honma with Ultima.
Match 4: Dick Togo, Yujiro Takahashi & EVIL beat Ryusuke Taguchi, Ren Narita & Shota Umoni. EVIL beat Taguchi with a scorpion deathlock.
Match 5: Taiji Ishimori, Gabriel Kidd & Alex Coughlin beat Kosei Fujita, Shane Haste & Mikey Nicholls. Ishimori beat Fujita with Bone Lock.
World Tag League:
Match 6: Jack Bonza & Bad Luck Fale beat Yuya Uemura & Taichi. Fale pinned Uemura after Bad Luck Fall.
Match 7: El Phantasmo & Hikuleo beat Soberano Jr. & Atlantis Jr. Phantasmo pinned Soberano after Super Thunder Kiss 86.
Match 8: YOSHI-HASHI & Hirooki Goto beat Minoru Suzuki & Yuji Nagata. Goto pinned Nagata.
Main Event: Zandokan Jr. & Yota Tsuji beat Alex Zayne & Lance Archer. Tsuji pinned Zayne after Gene Blaster. Tetsuya Naito was a guest on commentary for the main event.
Standings:
1-Hikuleo/Phantasmo, 4-2, 8 pts
2-Taichi/Uemura, 4-2, 8 pts
3-Archer/Zayne, 4-2, 8 pts
4-YOSHI-HASHI/Goto, 3-3-1, 7 pts
5-Zandokan/Tsuji, 3-4, 6 pts
6-Soberano/Atlantis, 2-4-1, 5 pts (OUT)
7-Bonza/Fale, 2-5, 4 pts (OUT)
8-Suzuki/Nagata, 1-6, 2 pts (OUT)
The Top 2 advance to the Finals. It’s a little more open here than in Block A but not too complicated. It’s actually simple-the Hikuleo/Phantasmo-Zayne/Archer winner next time out advances. Same for the Taichi/Uemura-YOSHI-HASHI/Goto winner…BUT…if Hikuleo/Phantasmo-Archer/Zayne is a time limit draw and Bishamon win, YOSHI-HASHI/Goto would lose the tiebreaker as they lost to both other teams. Also, Zandokan/Tsuji still have a chance thanks to tiebreakers. They must win their final match (Atlantis/Soberano) AND Hikuleo/Phantasmo-Archer-Zayne MUST END IN A NO CONTEST/DOUBLE DQ. Something that means no points for both…AND Bishamon must win. If all that happens, Tsuji/Zandokan have a chance. They do lose tiebreakers right now to Archer/Zayne though.
The next event is Wednesday at Karatsu Athletic Stadium in Saga for the final day of Block A. Live streaming on New Japan World will begin at 1:30 AM PT/4:30 AM ET.
The promotion has also announced that, due to ongoing bug fixes/improvements since the New Japan World update/relaunch, Sunday’s Finals live broadcast will be in Japanese only with English on demand as soon as possible after the event. The plan was Japanese and English live but that won’t happen now.
