Jakob Austin Young, Francesco Akira def Katsuya Murashima, Dragon Dia — (7:41, Fireball)
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I forgot to mention it yesterday, but Dia has a slightly different presentation this year; a little more serious, which matches the fact that he was actually invited as opposed to being a fill-in. Still the same banger theme, though.
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Dia and Akira start off. This tourney match isn’t for quite a few more shows (20th), but this is how the cards shook out. On our next show on the 14th, Dia faces Wato while Akira faces Mack.
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Akira and JAY work slightly more aggressive and maybe a little heelish here.
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Post-match, Akira and Dia have a short and uneventful stand-off.
Daiki Nagai, Nick Wayne def Shoma Kato, El Desperado — (8:01, Prodigy Plex)
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Nick Wayne is in black today. Hopefully these tights fit him better.
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Wayne stares at Despe the whole time he’s making his entrance. They first met on a GCW show they both worked, where Despe had high praise for both Nick and tag partner Jordan Oliver.
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Nick and Despe in to start. This is an immediate preview of the next show’s semi-main event.
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Post-pin, Despe chuckles while watching from the outside. He gets up on the apron and he and Nick hold up their respective belts and have a friendly chat.
Shingo Takagi, Hiromu Takahashi def Hartley Jackson, Kosei Fujita — (7:52, Pumping Bomber)
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The crowd makes a bit of a noise when hearing “unaffiliated” instead of LIJ in Shingo’s entrance announcement. It is exceptionally weird to not have them repping LIJ.
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Hiromu gets forehead-to-forehead with Fujita, and after separating to check in with their tag partners they start the match.
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Hiromu and Shingo work well and even “kitakitakita” together.
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Post-match, Fujita starts to help Grandpa Jag walk out but then goes up on to the apron instead. He and Hiromu exchange words, then Hiromu extends a hand which Fujita leaves hanging. This is the main event of the next show, in Korakuen Hall.
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Shingo and Hiromu do a “kitakitakita” and “motto motto motto” routine before leaving. No more LIJ fistbumps.
BOSJ A Block: Ninja Mack def Robbie X — (7:48, Shuriken Kick)
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In the opening moments Robbie pulls out the overmask he stole from Mack last night and tries to rip it up again, then tosses it up and attacks Mack while he’s distracted trying to catch it.
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Even if you don’t watch this full match, which I would loosely recommend, watch the first ~3 minutes. You’ll know why when you see it; if you haven’t already seen it on Twitter (already has 650+ likes as of this writing).
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Aside from the opening bit, Robbie worked pretty much face here.
BOSJ B Block: MAO def Kevin Knight — (9:34, Iai Kick)
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During entrances MAO is far and away more over than Kevin, which is to be expected in any smaller town but especially in his home prefecture.
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You can take MAO out of DDT but you can’t fully take the DDT out of MAO; though he does work mostly seriously here.
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Post-match, they bow to each other then shake hands and bro-hug.
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MAO makes heart hands to the crowd, who popped big for his win, as he leaves.
BOSJ A Block: Clark Connors def Master Wato — (10:35, No Chaser)
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Clark has a new jacket and shirt and very little reaction from the crowd; though there are a couple people with War Dogs towels.
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Wato also doesn’t get a big reaction, though it’s still more than Clark’s… and now I’m realizing it might be the sound mix during entrances because the crowd got louder pretty much immediately after the match started.
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Second Bullet Club match but our first big outside brawl of the night. Clark’s new jacket and shirt are racing themed, and he ends up producing a legit rimmed car tire from under the ring to do a couple spots with.
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Post-match, Clark looks around ringside for his tire and asks everyone where it’s gone.
asks “where’s my title,” in reference to the fact that he just pinned a Junior Tag Champ, not to his own DEFY belt.(Props to the person in the comments who clocked that I’d misheard this and let me know.)
BOSJ B Block: Robbie Eagles def YOH — (15:02, Ron Miller Special)
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YOH’s gear is patterned to look like it’s made of Ziploc bags (they’re claiming it’s made out of them but I don’t think it actually is); at the press conference he did a bit where he compared wrestlers to food that’s expiring and said he will be at “peak freshness” during the tourney. Like MAO, this is his home prefecture.
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In the opening section of the match especially they do some kiss-based comedy, which has been going on between YOH and the sweet boys since the WK Backstage Comments.
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This was very good, as one would expect.
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Post-match, Robbie stares down and taunts YOH a little.
BOSJ B Block: Ryusuke Taguchi def
Taiji Ishimori — (16:48, Oh My & Gar Ankle)
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Taguchi is from this city (Iwanuma) and is also currently a PR ambassador for it. Meanwhile Ishimori is from the same prefecture, but a bit more north.
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Guch is decked out in Iwanuma themed gear including a custom title belt that features himself and the town mascot Chief Clerk Iwanuma; who is in attendance tonight.
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Main Event Guch understood the assignment, but this is a 2025 Taguchi match so was not free of tomfoolery. It is also a Taguchi vs Ishimori match, meaning big Guch has to remind Ishimori of his Sailor Boys past.
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Meanwhile Ishimori worked the most heel of anyone tonight.
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Honestly I’m spoiler tagging the result of the match because you really should just go watch it blind if possible.
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We close with a victory promo from Taguchi. Mostly serious, thanking the crowd and town and talking about the power of pro-wrestling. Mentions all the wrestlers from Miyagi prefecture that were on the card, but confesses that the Saito Brothers (All Japan) might be the most famous. He cribs Goto’s style and says the T in Best of the Super Juniors stands for Taguchi, and he loves Iwanuma. The Funky Weapon closes by dancing to his music for the first time in a long time.
—Block Standings—
A Block:
Hiromu Takahashi– 2 points (1-0)
Kosei Fujita– 2 points (1-0)
Dragon Dia– 2 points (1-0)
Ninja Mack– 2 points (1-0)
Clark Connors– 2 points (1-0)
KUSHIDA– 0 points (0-1)
Master Wato– 0 points (0-1)
Francesco Akira– 0 points (0-1)
Robbie X– 0 points (0-1)
Yoshinobu Kanemaru– 0 points (0-1)
B Block:
El Desperado– 2 points (1-0)
Robbie Eagles– 2 points (1-0)
Nick Wayne– 2 points (1-0)
MAO– 2 points (1-0)
Ryusuke Taguchi– 2 points (1-0)
Taiji Ishimori– 0 points (0-1)
YOH– 0 points (0-1)
Kevin Knight– 0 points (0-1)
Titan– 0 points (0-1)
SHO– 0 points (0-1)
———
Reminder: If you see another basic full results post after this one (especially one from a website trying to shill their zero-effort content) it is considered a repost and should be reported as such.
Also please report any posts that are either direct links to pirated versions of recent NJPW shows, or that link to Abema blogs that exist solely to distribute pirated content. Breaks r/NJPW Rules” -> “Custom” -> write in the text box that it’s copyrighted content. We do not need TV Asahi on our butts.
by EffingKENTA