All-Japan ran the penultimate day of the Champions Carnival prelims today in Tochigi.
Today’s event was held at Light Cube Utsunomiya in Tochigi and can be watched on demand on AJPW.TV. (There was no live broadcast)
The announced paid attendance was 670.
Match 1: Xyon beat Shota Kofuji.
Match 2: Kento Miyahara, Rei Saito, Daisuke Sekimoto & Ryo Inoue beat Shotaro Ashino, Hokuto Omori, MUSASHI & Seiki Yoshioka. Saito pinned Yoshioka after a chokeslam.
Champions Carnival Block A::
Match 3: Kumaarashi beat Yuma Anzai by ref stoppage. Only went 114 seconds. More possibly about this at the end.
Match 4: Go Shiozaki beat Kengo Mashimo.
Match 5: Seigo Tachibana, Hyo Ogawa (Independent/Freelancer) & Nobuhiko Kimura (Independent/Freelancer) beat Dan Tamura, Yuma & Atsuki Aoyagi. Tachibana pinned Tamura after Yankee Hammer.
Champions Carnival:
Match 6: Block A: Talos beat Odyssey.
Match 7: Block B: Hideki Suzuki beat Madoka Kikuta (Dragon Gate).
Main Event: Block B: Ren Ayabe beat Ryuki Honda.
Before we continue…
Injury Report: Anzai was injured during yesterday’s event and competed today but it may have factored in his match going less than 2 minutes. Right leg. Out Tuesday which means tournament over. He was to have faced Rei Saito, who will now get a forfeit win. It costs Anzai a chance at advancing, unfortunately. Senor Saito is the replacement and will team with Rei Saito to face Hideki Suzuki & Shota Kofuji in a pre-show match.
Standings, which include the Anzai forfeit for Tuesday:
Block A:
1-Rei Saito, 4-3, 8 pts
2-Miyahara, 3-2-1, 7 pts
3-Shiozaki, 3-3, 6 pts
5-Kumaarashi, 3-3, 6 pts
5-Mashimo, 3-3, 6 pts
6-Talos, 3-3, 6 pts
7-Odyssey, 3-3, 6 pts
8-Anzai, 2-4-1, 5 pts (OUT)
Block B:
1-Suzuki, 4-2-1, 9 pts
2-Ayabe, 4-2, 8 pts
3-Sekimoto, 4-2, 8 pts
4-Yuma Aoyagi, 3-2-1, 7 pts
5-Honda, 3-3, 6 pts
6-Kikita, 3-2-1 NP (No Points), 6 pts
7-Xyon, 2-3-1 NP, 4 pts (OUT)
8-Jun Saito, 0-7, 0 pts (OUT-injured)
The top 2 in each block advance to the Semifinals. The Anzai injury shook up Block A, meaning Saito can only not advance on tiebreakers and taking Anzai out of contention. Saito loses tiebreakers to Miyahara, Mashimo and Odyssey. Miyahara advances with a win against Mashimo. But if Miyahara loses or draws, it will come down to tiebreakers and we’re almost certainly going to need a tiebreaker multi-man match. In Block B. Suzuki is not yet safe as he needs either Ayabe or Sekimoto to lose. If either Ayabe or Sekimoto win, the winner advances. If both win their matches, they both advance and Suzuki is out. Aoyagi must beat Xyon to have a chance to advance, and he needs both Ayabe & Sekimoto to lose. Xwon is officially out. Otherwise, it’s going to come doen to tiebreakers.
The last prelim round event is Tuesday at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo. Live streaming on AJPW.TV will begin at 2:30 AM PT/5:30 AM ET. This will also be a Samurai! TV broadcast in Japan although it’s not clear whether it will be live or taped for broadcast at a later date.