Only two matches to cover today as AJ Styles was once again pulled out of the event, therefore giving The Kingdom a win by forfeit. There is still no official word about AJ’s status in this tournament but i deem it unlikely that he returns before the final. It’s just not worth the risk. The work to hype up his match against Nakamura at WK 10 has already been done for the most part, they can always have him appear at the December 9th final and have him do a couple tag team matches against Nakamura and his CHAOS buddies during the Road To Wrestle Kingdom. It’s better if Styles just takes some extra days of rest so he can be fit for the big matches. That all being said, let’s look at today’s remaining matches:
A Bock – Bad Luck Fale and Tama Tonga defeated Manabu Nakanishi and Yuji Nagata in 9:32 via pinfall:
Nagata and Tonga did what they could I guess, but when you’re lumbered with two guys who operate at about the same speed (and I use the word loosely) as The Big Show, there is only so much you can do. Most fun spot of the match was Nakanishi somehow getting Fale in the torture rack, proving he can still do stuff, as long as he doesn’t have to move away from the center of the ring. Nagate got taken out and that left Nakanishi in a 2 on 1 situation which ended when Fale speared him. Not much else to say about this one, really.
A Block – Kazuchika Okada and Yoshi-Hashi defeated Kazushi Sakuraba and Toru Yano in 12:31 via pinfall:
One of the fun things with Yano antics if that you’re prepared to accept he can “steal” a win from just about anyone. That was certainly part of what made this match rather fun to watch as Yano managed to sell the fact he could score a surprise win even over his CHAOS leader, Okada. And he used all of his tricks to try and pull it off, from low blows, to ref bumps and to countering finishers into surprising pin attempts. He also had Sakaruba providing support with his MMA based offense, but in the end, the IWGP Champion proved to strong to overcome and ended things with a Rainmaker on Yano. Fun stuff.
Standings:
Standings (number of matches/points):
A Block
Hiroshi Tanahashi and Michael Elgin (4-6) Togi Makabe and Tomoaki Honma (5-6)
Kazuchika Okada and Yoshi-Hashi (5-6)
Christopher Daniels and Frankie Kazarian (4-4) Yuji Nagata and Manabu Nakanishi (5-4)
Kazushi Sakuraba and Toru Yano (3-2)
Tama Tonga and Bad Luck Fale (4-2)
B Block
Tetsuya Naito and Evil (4-6)
Hirooki Goto and Katsuyori Shibata 4-6)
Doc Gallows and Karl Anderson (4-4) Shinsuke Nakamura and Tomohiro Ishii (4-4)
Satoshi Kojima and Hiroyoshi Tenzan (4-4)
A.J. Styles and Yujiro Takahashi (3-2)
Michael Bennett and Matt Taven (3-2)
A Block – Kazushi Sakuraba and Toru Yano vs. Frankie Kazarian and Christopher Daniels
B Block – Katsuyori Shibata & Hirooki Goto vs. Michael Bennett & Matt Taven
B Block – EVIL and Tetsuya Naito vs. Yujiro Takahashi and AJ Styles
