[Spoilers] Road to KOPW – Night One (10/4) Results

Tatsuya Matsumoto, Katsuya Murashima def Zane Jay, Masatora Yasuda — (7:58, Boston Crab)

• Both the newest YL have let their hair grow in, which I think benefits Zane particularly.

• Pre-bell they get in their respective contemporary/juniors face; Matsumoto and Zane end up starting.

• Post match, Yasuda helps Zane up and they do some kind of secret handshake.

Shota Umino def Daiki Nagai — (9:41, Lariat)

• Nagai isn’t quite in his hometown, but close enough.

• Decent amount of fanservice from Shota during his entrance. (His hair is so fried to shit that he kinda looks like he’s balding.)

• Pre-lockup, Nagai chants break out; which he encourages.

• In the background during this match we could see street clothes Tsuji (and I believe ring announcer Watanabe, who’s one of Shota’s BFFs) casually watching from a doorway in the stands; which I’m not sure if we were supposed to be able to see.

• Definitely worth watching. Umino’s nose ended up a little bloody but I didn’t see an obvious spot where it happened.

• Post match, Shota goes over and pats the still fallen Nagai on the chest, then covers his mouth so we can’t see him talking to Nagai. He then offers a fistbump, Nagai just throws his ice pack at Shota then rolls out of the ring.

• More fanservice from Shota as he leaves.

Yoshinobu Kanemaru, SANADA^{[t-shirt version]} vs Clark Connors, Drilla Moloney — (Double Countout, 5:02)

• SANADA’s new shirt is a version of the old skull guy ones from when he was in LIJ, with him smashing a guitar over an anthropomorphic dog’s head.

• Drilla is wearing a “memorial” shirt with a picture of young boy Seiya Sanada and death year of 2025. (Nitpicky, but I would’ve used a non-young boy picture because as it is, this just reminds me of the AJPW trainee who tragically passed away last month.)

• The Dogs stop to pose in the aisle then run in to start what turns into an outside brawl; during which Wheel-san made an appearance.

• Eventually Clark brings Nobu into the ring to officially start.

• HoT Shenanigans level: mild, in comparison to BC’s rowdiness.

• Eventually Drilla and SANADA end up brawling on the outside again and ignore the ref’s count. They’re separated by YL multiple times and Drilla ends up chucking a chair in SANADA’s direction before they leave; Clark also steals SANADA’s glasses as they do.

• Drilla looks to finally get revenge on SANADA in their singles match at KOPW (13th).

Jado, El Phantasmo def Shoma Kato, Hiroshi Tanahashi — (10:02, Thunderkiss ‘86)

• We’re in a town that isn’t visited often, so this is Tana’s last match here.

• Post entrances, Tana goes over to check out the TV belt, ELP puts it on Tana’s shoulder and walks away. Tana challenges for the title at KOPW.

• ELP tries to get a pre-match crowd poll going on but it’s doesn’t really work. He then very briefly tries to get the ever-unsuccessful “Jaaaaaadoooo” chant going.

• Tana elects to start, as does ELP. The natural pre-lockup crowd poll was around 75/25 in favor of Tana.

• After a brief sequence, ELP has a little better result doing the Yano-To-Ru type pose to encourage the chants; though the Tana chants overtake them pretty quickly. They then do some air guitar comedy.

• Post match, ELP and Tana have a friendly face off and fistbump. ELP and Jado go out into the crowd to do some fanservice.

Tiger Mask, KUUKAI, El Desperado, Toru Yano, Boltin Oleg def Dick Togo, SHO, DOUKI, Don Fale, EVIL — (9:23, Canción de Cuna [“lullaby”])

• Once again, SHO steals the mic during the entrance announcements and proclaims DOUKI the Junior Champ, then EVIL the NEVER Champ. (DOUKI challenging Despe is on the next show [6th], EVIL challenging Boltin is on KOPW).

• KUUKAI and Despe come out to the latter’s music, then everyone else comes out to Oleg’s.

• Post-entrances, SHO gets the mic again and talks down everyone; the guys on the face team wrongfully holding belts, the hicks in this town, and that stranger who came out with Despe.

• We get a clean start between DOUKI and Despe, which lasts for maybe a minute before SHO interferes.

• HoT Shenanigans level: moderate, generally normal heel stuff instead of the outlandish House style; though Dick still got some dick.

• Post winner announcement, HoT attack and beat down the faces, and kidnap the two belts they’ll be challenging for.

• Despe/KUUKAI challenging DOUKI/SHO for the Junior Tags is on the final Road to (11th).

Knock Out Brothers (OSKAR, Yuto-Ice) def Tomoaki Honma, Yuya Uemura — (14:07, Referee Stoppage [sleeper hold])

• Once he’s in the ring Yuto immediately gets nose-to-nose with Yuya, and doesn’t leave until OSKAR comes over and pats him on the shoulder.

• Yuto decides to start, as does Yuya; and they’re immediately back nose-to-nose. The crowd poll starts out Yuya but then sways heavily to Ice.

• Bomboclaat level: 3

• This was pretty good and worth watching. Yuto being so aggressive that he gets under Yuya’s skin is a nice wrinkle to things. Not yet sure how I feel about OSKAR’s finisher being a sleeper.

• Post match, OSKAR tells the camera that Umino is going to sleep on Monday.

• Yuto starts brawling with Yuya on the outside and has to be dragged away by YL. Yuya then comes over and they start brawling again, the YL drag them apart again. Then Yuto gets free and the brawl is back on, the YL finally just drags him to the back.

• OSKAR tells the camera to let them fight, and that Yuto is going to kill Yuya.

• The tag title match is on KOPW (13th) but we’ve got the preview matches of Shota vs OSKAR and Yuya vs Yuto on our next show.

Titan, Hiromu Takahashi, Shingo Takagi, Yota Tsuji def Gedo, Taiji Ishimori, David Finlay, Gabe Kidd — (13:22, Gene Blaster)

• Gabe goes out into the crowd during his entrance.

• Post-entrances, Yota and Gabe kneel/squat across the ring from each other and have a staredown. Meanwhile there’s a little kerfuffle between Hiromu, Titan, Ishimori and Finlay; I believe over Finlay’s shirt which ended up getting thrown into the crowd.

• Titan and Gedo start.

• This was fine. Gabe channeled Naito a bit.

• Post match, Tsuji and Gabe have a staredown; which ends without incident. Tsuji challenges for the Global at KOPW.

• Nagai comes in and the Unaffiliated crew is all together for the first time.

• Tsuji gets a mic: Reminds Gabe how on Tsuji’s excursion he used to live together, and they used to talk a lot about the future. When they fought in February they made a promise while in the ring. Whatever ring Gabe stands in, Tsuji doesn’t care, he knows Gabe believes the cerulean blue is the most important of all of them. But the one man who can carry the IWGP brand is Yota Tsuji. All the energy Gabe wasn’t able to put in the G1, Tsuji wants it in Ryogoku.

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