3 Tournament matches to review today so let’s get right into things:
The Addiction (Frankie Kazarian and Christopher Daniels) defeated Tama Tonga and Bad Luck Fale in 11:40 via pinfall:
After working as heels for their first matches, the Addiction are more or less faces here. but then, against the hated Bullet Club, everybody is more or less a face. Another rather average match from Daniels and Kazarian who certainly have accustomed us to better. Some good stuff from Tonga (as usual) and Fale wasn’t too bad in his big monster heel role. Double team moves from the Addiction took care of Fale before Tonga fell to the Celebrity Rehab. Can’t say this was bad, but, as noted, we’ve come to expect more from Daniels and Kazarian.
Doc Gallows and Karl Anderson defeated The Kingdom (Matt Taven and Michael Bennett with Maria) in 9:22 via pinfall:
While watching this, it suddenly struck me why I prefer The Kingdom in ROH. Simply because they are heels over there,while in Japan, due partly to the popularity of Maria’s “moves” and partly because they are almost exclusively pitted against the Bullet Club (see above), they play faces. I think everybody will agree that The Kingdom works much better as dastardly and cocky heels. This was rather inoffensive but also nothing we haven’t seen before. Maria danced. Anderson danced with her. Anderson then turned around and walked right into a Bennett superkick. That sort of things. Still it was rather fun. Magic Killer on Taven to end things and the Tag team Champions earn their first victory.
Kazuchika Okada and Yoshi-Hashi defeated Manabu Nakanishi and Yuji Nagata in 12:04 via pinfall:
I honestly think Okada creates a riot every-time he walks into a store. He’s THAT popular. Very fun main event with rather smart storytelling. The problem here was always gonna be Nakanishi as he can’t do much in a ring anymore. So they simply used that for the story of this match. YOSHI-HASHI and Okada first unsuccessfully attempted to move Nakanishi from his most favorite spot in the world (center of the ring, no-selling everything that’s thrown at him) and when that didn’t work they made him chase them which proved to be the veteran’s downfall. Between those spots, Nagata proved once again that he can still go with some very energetic exchanges against Okada and YOSHI HASHI. Rainmaker on Nakanishi to end things and the crowd roared its approval. Fun stuff.
Standings (number of matches/points):
Block A:
Hiroshi Tanahashi and Michael Elgin (2-4)
Kazuchika Okada and Yoshi-Hashi (3-4)
Kazushi Sakuraba and Toru Yano (1-2)
Manabu Nakanishi and Yuji Nagata (2-2)
Christopher Daniels and Kazarian (2-2)
Bad Luck Fale and Tama Tonga (2-0)
Togi Makabe and Tomoaki Honma (2-0)
Block B:
Evil and Tetsuya Naito (2-4)
Hirooki Goto and Katsuyori Shibata (2-4)
Hiroyoshi Tenzan and Satoshi Kojima (1-2)
Doc Gallows and Karl Anderson (3-2)
AJ Styles and Yujiro Takahashi (1-0)
Matt Taven and Michael Bennett (2-0)
Shinsuke Nakamura and Tomohiro Ishii (1-0)
Matches for Day 5:
B Block – Satoshi Kojima and Hiroyoshi Tenzan vs. EVIL and Tetsuya Naito
A Block – Michael Elgin and Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Tomoaki Honma and Togi Makabe
A Block – YOSHI-HASHI and Kazuchika Okada vs. Frankie Kazarian and Christopher Daniels
B Block – Tomohiro Ishii and Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Yujiro Takahashi and AJ Styles
