The current stretch of road shows come to an end as Suzuki-gun looked to reclaim a share of the lead in the Super Junior Tag League.
New Sunpia Takasaki in Gunma hosts Saturday’s sole match…
Super Junior Tag League 2019 – Suzuki-gun (El Desperado & Yoshinobu Kanemaru) vs. Volador Jr. & Titan
The early leaders, Desperado and Kanemaru could slip into the middle of the pack with a defeat here.
Despy and Volador start at a fast pace, trading takedowns and escapes for a spell, before Desperado blocked some headscissors, forcing Volador to fight out of a powerbomb as my VOD stalls. It’s back as Volador hit the headscissors at the second attempt, then faked out a dive as Desperado bailed.
Tags followed as Kanemaru and Titan came in, but it’s the luchador who struck first with some headscissors, taking Kanemaru outside ahead of a Sasuke special… only for Desperado to attack him from behind on the outside. That’s the cue for some crowd brawling, which we eventually pick up as Desperado looked to bury Volador under chairs, while Kanemaru took Titan back into the ring to try and unmask him. That doesn’t work, so Titan’s hung in a Tree of Woe, with boots from Despy and Kanemaru adding to his discomfort. Desperado rips apart Titan’s mask, as the New Japan World editors try to cut to as long a shot as possible to avoid exposing Titan’s face… Titan recovers with a dropkick, then got the tag out to Volador, who’s long since needing to worry about masks.
A springboard clothesline from Volador takes him into the ring as he proceeded to nullify a double-team… then superkick Despy for a near-fall. Desperado’s back with a spinebuster for a near-fall, before he rolled Volador into a Boston crab, but of course there’s a rope break after Volador dragged himself to the ropes. He followed that up with a handspring double back elbow, before shoving Desperado into Titan’s headscissors, taking him outside as Volador flung himself into the pile with a tope con giro.
Titan adds to it with a springboard moonsault off the apron, before they all returned to the ring to beat the count. A tag brings Titan back in, ripped mask and all, as he kipped up to hit an overhead kick on Kanemaru on the top rope, before avoiding a Deep Impact DDT. The Matrix sees Titan avoid a clothesline too, as he proceeded to charge Kanemaru unto the corner ahead of a Samoan Driver for a near-fall.
From there, Titan rolled to the apron for a springboard stomp, but Kanemaru rolls away as Despy runs in with a spear before helping out with a dropkick-assisted sidewalk slam that almost wins the match. Kanemaru’s reverse DDT gets them a little closer as Suzuki-gun looked set for victory, only for Titan to catch him out with an O’Connor roll for the win out of nowhere! This was fine, but seemed to lack any real spark – and I got the sense that Titan’s mask tearing as much as it did threw plans off somewhat. ***
So that loss for Suzuki-gun leaves the early leaders down in fifth place – and with a distinct lack of momentum going into the pair of Korakuen Hall shows.
1. Bullet Club (El Phantasmo & Taiji Ishimori); Rocky Romero & Ryusuke Taguchi; Volador Jr. & Titan (3-1; 6pts)
4. Roppongi 3K (SHO & YOH) (2-1; 4pts)
5. Birds of Prey (Will Ospreay & Robbie Eagles); Suzuki-gun (El Desperado & Yoshinobu Kanemaru) (2-2; 4pts)
7. Tiger Mask & Yuya Uemura (0-3; 0pts)
8. TJP & Clark Connors (0-4; 0pts)
Tiger Mask and Yuya Uemura’s had a match less than everyone else, but let’s be honest, they’re likely to finish on nil point anyway. Sunday sees New Japan return to Korakuen Hall for a quartet of tournament matches, topped off with Roppongi 3K taking on their coach Rocky Romero’s team.