Tournament season continues in Japan as all the major promotions now have tournaments ongoing or starting up. All-Japan joins that trend today with the opening of the 9th Royal Road Tournament, a single-elimination singles tournament noteworthy in that it features New Japan Pro Wrestling participation as Yuji Nagata represents the rival promotion in the tournament, although he is in non-tournament action today. NJPW star and current All-Japan World Jr. Heavyweight Champion Tiger Mask will also be in action. 4 Tournament matches are scheduled for today’s event.
Today’s event will be held at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo and can be watched LIVE on AJPW.TV. It is not known if there will be commentary, if there is it will be in Japanese. I anticipate the event having a total running time of 2 1/2-3 hours so it may not be done until shortly after the New Japan event begins at 10 PM PT/1 AM ET.
There was a late change to the card as Izanagi, who was scheduled to be in an 8-man tag match, is now off. Fever. Not known if coronavirus yet.
Today’s lineup (match order TBA):
Suwama, KONO & Toshizo vs. Yuji Nagata, Dan Tamura & Hikaru Sato
Shotaro Ashino, Ryuki Honda & Cyrus vs. Shuji Ishikawa, Yoshitatsu & Takao Omori
Tiger Mask, Tajiri, Rising Hayato & Yusuke Kodama vs. Hokuto Omori, Black Menso-re, Ryo Inoue & Fuminori Abe
Royal Road Tournament:
Atsuki Aoyagi vs. Takuya Nomura
Jake Lee vs. Ren Ayabe
Kento Miyahara vs. TARU
Refresh the page occasionally for the latest results.
Updates below will begin at 10:30 PM ET/7:30 PM PT.
We are LIVE from Korakuen Hall in Tokyo, Japan. Audio is muted momentarily for opening music as the Royal Road trophy is placed in the ring. Japanese commentary begins as the tournament entrants are introduced.
The paid attendance will be announced after the match but 2/3 of the opposite hard-camera bleacher sections are virtually empty. Hard camera side is mostly empty too. Crowd may still be coming in but this looks like a small crowd even with capacity limits, maybe around 300.
Proceedings briefly interrupted by Triple Crown Champion Suwama.
Match 1: Tiger Mask, Tajiri, Rising Hayato & Yusuke Kodama vs. Hokuto Omori, Black Menso-re, Ryo Inoue & Fuminori Abe. 30 minute time limit
Result: Hokuto Omori, Black Menso-re, Ryo Inoue & Fuminori Abe. beat Tiger Mask, Tajiri, Rising Hayato & Yusuke Kodama. Omori pinned Hayato.
Match 2: Shotaro Ashino, Ryuki Honda & Cyrus vs. Shuji Ishikawa, Yoshitatsu & Takao Omori. 30 minute time limit
Result: Shotaro Ashino, Ryuki Honda & Cyrus beat Shuji Ishikawa, Yoshitatsu & Takao Omori. Honda pinned Ishikawa.
Match 3: Suwama, KONO & Toshizo vs. Yuji Nagata, Dan Tamura & Hikaru Sato. 30 minute time limit
IResult; Yuji Nagata, Dan Tamura & Hikaru Sato beat Suwama, KOZO & Toshizo by DQ. Suwama DQ’d.
Nagata, TM 4 & Minoru Suzuki are announced for 9/15 as is TM 4 & Kento Miyahara vs. Suwama & Black Tiger. AEW’s Christopher Daniels is announced for 9/19, as is Impact Wrestling’s Joe Doering. 9/18 at Nippon Budokan will be the promotion’s 50th Anniversary event and feature a 6-man tag with Atsushi Onita, Shiro Koshinaka, Masao Inoue, Masanobu Fuchi, The Great Kojika & Yoshiaki Yatsu.
Match 4: Royal Road Tournament Round 1-Jake Lee vs. Ren Ayabe. No time limit
Result: Jake Lee beat Ren Ayabe. As a result, Lee advances to the Quarterfinals.
Match 5: Royal Road Tournament Round 1-Atsuki Aoyagi vs. Takuya Nomura. No time limit
Result: Takuya Nomura beat Atsuki Aoyagi. As a result, Nomura advances to the Quarterfinals.
Match 6: Royal Road Tournament Round 1: Yuma Aoyagi vs. Naoya Nomura. No time limit
Result: Naoya Nomura beat Yuma Aoyagi. As a result, Nomura advances to the Quarterfinals.
Main Event: Royal Road Tournament Round 1: Kento Miyahara vs. TARU. No time limit
Result: Kento Miyahara beat TARU. As a result, Miyahara advances to the Quarterfinals.
The next event is Thursday at Nagoya Congress Center in Nagoya with the second half of Round 1. Live streaming on AJPW.TV will begin at 3 AM PT/6 AM ET.
Post-show UPDATE: The announced paid attendance was 610. It didn’t look anywhere close to that.
