BOSJ B Block: Ryusuke Taguchi def SHO — (0:05, Roll up)
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Taguchi is wearing a bottle of alcohol around his neck and already drinking from a paper cup. He slides in the ring with a mouthful of alcohol and SHO slides out, mimicking the spot from SHO vs YOH yesterday. Guch chases SHO around ringside and through the heel curtain, then backs out with Yujiro following him.
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Now Guch is on to the game. He goes up into the stands to the door where EVIL appeared last night saying “EVIL is in here” and opens it… but the doorway is empty. He steps into the hall and then SANADA in the red boots appears.
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Unlike YOH yesterday, Guch is able to negate the excess House members quickly using some nuts-based offense.
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Both competitors make it to the ring and the bell finally sounds. Guch sidesteps a charge from SHO, sending him into an exposed turnbuckle. Roll up, that’s all she wrote. By all records I, Chris Charlton, and the backstage reporters can find, this is the shortest BoSJ match ever.
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Post-match, SHO is distraught while Guch dances with Yuj’s cane. SHO, then Yuj, then SANADA all try to get into the ring and all get ropes to the nards instead.
BOSJ A Block: Dragon Dia def Clark Connors — (5:32, Reptillian Rana)
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Pre-lockup crowd poll is in favor of Clark, though neither man is exceptionally over.
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During the outside brawl, Wheel-san betrays Clark by bouncing off the ringpost and whacking him in the head. Dia picks Wheel-san up, and like a good pure babyface puts him back home under the ring instead.
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Post-match, Clark is annoyed but there’s his ice pack at Murashima instead of starting a brawl.
BOSJ B Block: YOH def Kevin Knight — (8:24, Bridging Dragon Suplex)
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This was good, but had a few sloppy spots towards the end.
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Post-match, YOH good-naturedly taunts Kevin a little, in his usual unique YOH way.
BOSJ A Block: KUSHIDA def Ninja Mack — (5:53, Back to the Future)
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After an opening sequence, Mack sits on his knees and tells KUSHIDA to do the same. Eventually KUSHI does so, then Mack tells the ref to do so. The two grapple on their knees for a couple minutes, which kind of felt like Mack trying for another viral moment.
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Okay yeah this match was like 80+% viral-bait spots with 70+% of those spots being goofy; and while the crowd was into it, it just felt too forced and didn’t land with me.
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Post-match, KUSHI jokingly walks to the back on his knees and then Mack does the same.
BOSJ B Block: Nick Wayne def Robbie Eagles[w/Hartley Jackson] — (8:12, Wayne’s World)
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Back to black Wayne tonight. I do wonder if he might be doing something with having the two different looks represent his brewing inner struggle about his attitude in AEW.
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Wayne jumpstarts the match by diving on Robbie while the latter is making his entrance.
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This was very good and both were over with the crowd, Robbie notably so.
BOSJ A Block: Robbie X def Yoshinobu Kanemaru — (4;12, X EXPRESS)
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Robbie’s got tape on his left shoulder, no idea if it’s a legit injury or not but unless it getsbad enough to take him out of action it doesn’t matter.
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While Robbie’s making his entrance, Nobu sneak attacks him, starting an outside brawl.
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At one point Nobu took off his boot and used it as a weapon, an echo of the end of last night’s match.
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Another relatively short and very shenanigans-heavy match. At least NJPW were smart and didn’t run them all back-to-back-to-back-to-back.
BOSJ B Block: Titan def MAO[w/Kanon] — (9:20, Llave Inmortal)
- Great lucha/puro mashup match. MAO drifted into a couple of more heel-tinged comedy spots, though it wasn’t excessive or detrimental to the match.
BOSJ A Block: Kosei Fujita def Master Wato — (7:02, Thrill Ride)
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Once Wato’s entrance announcement is finished they immediately start getting forehead-to-forehead, but are separated so Wato can take off his jacket and then again to have a clean start to the match.
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Pre-lockup crowd poll is, surprisingly, 70/30 in favor of Wato to my ears.
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Great match for the time given, as one would expect. Absolutely not the last time we’ll see this one, they do seem to be setting these two up as close-generation rivals.
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Post-match, Wato leaves the ring quickly and briefly sits in an empty seat at ringside. As Wato’s leaving, Fujita throws his ice pack at him, which Wato catches and frustratingly tosses it into the crowd. Wato is so upset that he tries to walk out the heel gate instead of the face one.
BOSJ B Block: Taiji Ishimori def El Desperado — (11:51, Jorge Rivera Special)
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Pre-lockup crowd poll starts 90-10 Despe, then briefly fades to 80-20 Ishimori, then evens out at 75-25 Despe.
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This is a rematch from last year’s finals, which main-evented Dominion. I do find it interesting that these two Korakuen cards were very very similar, with this match being the one notable strength when compared to Despe vs Wayne, but last night sold out and tonight did not.
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Another great match, as expected.
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Post-match, Despe is clearly very frustrated at these last two losses.
BOSJ A Block: Francesco Akira[w/JAY, Callum Newman] def Hiromu Takahashi — (18:17, Ground Tarantula)
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They get forehead to forehead as soon as Hiromu’s entrance is over.
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Pre-lockup crowd poll is 85-15 Hiromu.
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Great main event. Akira definitely won over more of the crowd, though it was still split.
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Post-match promo from Akira. In Japanese tells Hiromu, who’s on his way out, to hold on. Right now Hiromu doesn’t have a faction, so Akira (mockingly) extends him an invitation to United Empire. Hiromu responds with an angry quip and then leaves.
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In Japanese, Akira says that match was awesome and a lot of fun. In English he says he’d previously said he’d stop looking at the past and only look forward, stop thinking about the UE members who’ve left but the ones who are here; who he then lists (and funnily calls HENARE by his first name, “Aaron.”); as well as the fans of the faction. Akira is here to become the best junior heavyweight in the world an tonight he beat one of the strongest. Back to Japanese. Thank you to the fans for today. Akira will do all he can to make his dream come true in Japan.
—Block Standings—
A Block:
Kosei Fujita– 6 points (3-0)
Francesco Akira– 4 points (2-1)
Robbie X– 4 points (2-1)
Dragon Dia– 4 points (2-1)
KUSHIDA– 2 points (1-2)
Master Wato– 2 points (1-2)
Ninja Mack– 2 points (1-2)
Hiromu Takahashi– 2 points (1-2)
Francesco Akira– 2 points (1-1)
Clark Connors– 2 points (1-2)
Yoshinobu Kanemaru– 2 points (1-2)
B Block:
Nick Wayne– 6 points (3-0)
Ryusuke Taguchi– 4 points (2-1)
Titan– 4 points (2-1)
Robbie Eagles– 4 points (2-1)
MAO– 4 points (2-1)
El Desperado– 2 points (1-2)
YOH– 2 points (1-2)
Taiji Ishimori– 2 points (1-2)
SHO– 2 points (1-2)
Kevin Knight– 0 points (0-3)
———
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by EffingKENTA