Two teams have emerged out of the A Block to advance to the playoff stage of New Japan’s World Tag League.
The final set of round-robin matches occurred on Monday in front of 1,565 fans at Hiroshima Sun Plaza Hall.
Three-time Tag League winners Bishamon of Hirooki Goto & YOSHI-HASHI finished first in the block, after defeating Shingo Takagi & Drilla Moloney.
Goto survived the War Dragon when YOSHI-HASHI dove for the save. Bishamon returned fire and double-teamed Moloney while Takagi was taken out and hit Shoto for the win.
They will advance to the semi-finals later this week, along with Gabe Kidd & Yota Tsuji, who finished second based on a tiebreaker with Bishamon, and each team ended the round-robin portion with ten points.
Kidd & Tsuji defeated Satoshi Kojima & Taichi to move to ten points with the story that Kidd and Tsuji are not on the same page. Rather than work together, Kidd finished Kojima with a knee strike and Drill-a-Hole piledriver as Tsuji watched on. Tsuji was annoyed and walked to the back on his own as the pair will face the first-place team in the B Block this week.
Oleg Boltin & Toru Yano tried to stay alive, defeating and eliminating House of Torture’s EVIL & Don Fale. Boltin and Yano were handcuffed to the guardrail at the beginning of the match, but Yano had a spare key in his trunks to escape; however, Boltin was still locked to the rail until YOH showed up to free him. YOH was the difference-maker as he yanked the referee out to break a cover, spat whiskey into the face of Fale, and led to a double pin by Yano & Boltin. EVIL was handcuffed to the rail as the winners exited.
The first tournament match of the show featured El Desperado & Shuji Ishikawa beating Chase Owens & Yujiro.
Desperado avoided a cane shot by Yujiro, took the cane away, and proceeded to kick powder into the eyes of Owens. Yujiro was shoved into his partner and pinned by Desperado with a schoolboy to end the block with eight points.
The final set of B Block matches will take place on Tuesday in Iizuka, where six of the eight teams are mathematically alive and the top two advance.
Tuesday’s lineup includes Shota Umino & Yuya Uemura vs. OSKAR & Yuto-Ice, David Finlay & Hiromu Takahashi vs. Great O-Khan & Callum Newman, Zack Sabre Jr. & Ryohei Oiwa vs. Lance Archer & Alex Zayne, and Hiroshi Tanahashi & El Phantasmo vs. SANADA & Ren Narita.
Full results
- World Tag League A Block: Hirooki Goto & YOSHI-HASHI over Shingo Takagi & Drilla Moloney in 21:30
- World Tag League A Block: Oleg Boltin & Toru Yano over EVIL & Don Fale in 9:26
- World Tag League A Block: Gabe Kidd & Yota Tsuji over Taichi & Satoshi Kojima in 10:30
- World Tag League A Block: El Desperado & Shuji Ishikawa over Chase Owens & Yujiro Takahashi in 9:14
- OSKAR, Yuto-Ice & Daiki Nagai over Shota Umino, Yuya Uemura & Shoma Kato in 8:20
- Great O-Khan, Callum Newman & Jakob Austin Young over David Finlay, Hiromu Takahashi & Gedo in 6:37
- Zack Sabre Jr., Ryohei Oiwa & Hartley Jackson over Lance Archer, Alex Zayne & Zane Jay in 7:36
- SANADA, Ren Narita & Yoshinobu Kanemaru over Hiroshi Tanahashi, El Phantasmo & Katsuya Murashima in 7:43
World Tag League standings
A Block
- YOSHI-HASHI & Hirooki Goto (10 points)
- Gabe Kidd & Yota Tsuji (10 points)
- Shingo Takagi & Drilla Moloney (8 points)
- EVIL & Don Fale (8 points)
- Oleg Boltin & Toru Yano (8 points)
- El Desperado & Shuji Ishikawa (8 points)
- Satoshi Kojima & Taichi (2 points)
- Chase Owens & Yujiro Takahashi (2 points)
B Block
- Shota Umino & Yuya Uemura (8 points)
- Great-O-Khan & Callum Newman (8 points)
- Yuto-Ice & OSKAR (6 points)
- Ren Narita & SANADA (6 points)
- Zack Sabre Jr. & Ryohei Oiwa (6 points)
- Lance Archer & Alex Zayne (6 points)
- David Finlay & Hiromu Takahashi (4 points)
- Hiroshi Tanahashi & El Phantasmo (4 points)
