New Japan ran the penultimate day of the World Tag League today, with 5 teams still with a chance to make the Finals and one team being able to lock up a spot.
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 942.
Match 1: Bad Luck Fale beat Yuto Nakashima.
Match 2: Aaron Henare & Great-O-Khan beat Oskar Leube & Ryohei Oiwa. Henare pinned Leube after Rampage.
Match 3: Kevin Knight, KUSHIDA, Master Wato & Tomoaki Honma beat Gedo, Chris Bey, Ace Austin & Taiji Ishimori. Knight pinned Gedo after a high angle DDT.
Match 4: Titan, Hiromu Takahashi & Shingo Takagi beat DOUKI, Yoshinobu Kanemaru & El Desperado. Takagi beat DOUKI with STF.
World Tag League:
Match 5: YOSHI-HASHI & Hirooki Goto beat Gabriel Kidd & Alex Coughlin. YOSHI-HASHI pinned Kidd after Shoto.
Match 6: Yujiro Takahashi & EVIL beat Toru Yano & Hiroshi Tanahashi. EVIL pinned Tanahashi after EVIL.
Match 7: Shane Haste & Mikey Nicholls beat Aussie Open. Nicholls pinned Kyle Fletcher after Tank Buster.
Main Event: SANADA & Tetsuya Naito beat Lance Archer & Minoru Suzuki. Naito pinned Suzuki after Destino.
Aussie Open remains the leaders but their preliminary tournament is done as they were one of the teams to get a free win because of the Fale/Chase Owens withdrawal. The top 2 make the Finals and 4 teams still have a chance, but not all will qualify because two of the teams tied for 2nd, Haste/Nicholls and Goto/YOSHI-HASHI, meet on the final day. Naito/SANADA must beat Yujiro/EVIL to have a chance. If there is a 3-way tie, if head-to-head results determine the final then it gets very messy outside of Aussie Open needing Goto/YOSHI-HASHI to win. Best-case for them is Haste/Nicholls-Goto/YOSHI-HASHI going to a draw, if there is a winner either way it costs Aussie Open a potential tiebreaker (they lost to both).
The final day is Sunday. The next event is tomorrow at Uwajima City Overall Gym in Ehime with the final day of the Super Jr. Tag League. Live streaming on New Japan World will begin at 12:30 AM PT/3:30 AM ET.
