It was announced that due to an injury, Taiji Ishimori is off tonight’s show. The opening tag match is now a singles bout between Yota Tsuji and Robbie Eagles.
Robbie Eagles defeated Yota Tsuji
Eagles was in control for a lot of the match. The size difference was real — Tsuji definately has size. Tsuji cut off Eagles with a dropkick. He fired back with punches, but Eagles grabbed him and pinned him with what I would describe as a snapmare into a falcon arrow. Okay match.
Jushin Thunder Liger, Tiger Mask and Tomoaki Honma defeated Volador Jr., Soberano Jr. and Ren Narita
This turned into a pretty good match. Narita worked a lot of the match, either being in control or selling and looked good in doing both. He and Honma worked a lot of the match together. Narita rolled up him for a big near fall, but Honma took him down and applied an STF for the submission win.
Yoshinobu Kanemaru and El Desperado defeated ACH and Shota Umino
Much like the previous match, Umino worked a lot of this bout. Maybe it was because he was working Desperado and Kanemaru here, but he seems to be a bit bigger than usual. Umino managed to escape from a Kanemaru camel clutch. ACH finally made a hot tag, then tagged back in Umino, who scored several nearfalls but fell to a stretch muffler.
Shingo Takagi and BUSHI defeated Ryusuke Taguchi and Ayato Yoshida
Tetsuya Naito arrived with the LIJ pair and observed the bout in the crowd. Taguchi worked a lot of this match and looked great. Yoshida came in and worked with Takagi. Takagi hit a lariat and a gory bomb for a nearfall. Takagi then finished off Yoshida pumping bomber for the win. Pretty much the same formula as the other matches on the card so far.
Naito left the crowd and joined up with both BUSHI and Takagi after the match.
Tomohiro Ishii and Rocky Romero defeated Minoru Suzuki and Taka Michinoku
Ishii and Suzuki continued the brawling they’ve done all tour outside of the ring while Romero and Michinoku worked in the ring. Ishii and Suzuki continued to brawl around the arena and finally found themselves in the ring. This match is gonna be wild on Saturday. Suzuki went for the Gotch piledriver. Ishii escaped and countered with a side suplex.
Michinoku and Romero were tagged back in, where they traded near falls until Romero countered a crossface with a la magistral cradle for the surprise win. This was fun.
Once again, Ishii and Suzuki had to be seperated from one another after the match.
Chase Owens and Yujiro Takahashi defeated Hiroshi Tanahashi and Toa Henare
One spot during the match had Owens going to the top rope, teasing he was going to do the high fly flow, but Henare caught him with a boot instead as he jumped off the top rope. Heels continued to get heat on Henare. Tanahashi did get a hot tag, but this crowd was dead for most of the show and the match never really got going except for the last few minutes of the match. Henare tagged back in and eventually fell to the package piledriver by Owens.
SHO & YOH defeated KUSHIDA and Chris Sabin
KUSHIDA and YOH started things off with some chain wrestling. SHO entered but was also taken down by KUSHIDA. Both he and Sabin worked on SHO’s arm. YOH is tagged in and starts to gain the upper hand, but gets cut off by the other team’s, well, teamwork, being taken out with a doomsday device dropkick.
SHO starts taking Sabin out with German suplexes but KUSHIDA catches him. Both he and Sabin kick SHO while his feet were resting on the referee with a cool spot. KUSHIDA misses a moonsault and somehow all four men are down. Sabin starts attacking both but out of nowhere they manage to connect with the 3K, YOH pinning Sabin for the win. This was fine but had no real heat at all. Never felt like it really went to the next level either.
So that makes it a three way tie between Roppongi 3K, Desperado & Kanemaru and BUSHI & Shingo Takagi. After some initial confusion, the announcer said that it would be a three way match at Power Struggle. The other two teams made their way to the ring. Desperado ran down both teams after the match. He promised to win clean.
BUSHI took the mic after, saying they’ll get payback for their loss. Romero then promised that 3K would beat up both teams at Power Struggle.
Jay White, Bad Luck Fale, Tama Tonga, Tanga Loa and Gedo defeated Kazuchika Okada, Hirooki Goto, Toru Yano, Beretta and Chuckie T
Bullet Club worked on Beretta for a good while, teasing a tag to Okada until he finally escapes and tags him in. Okada used the dragon screw on Fale, which is interesting given Okada and Tanahashi’s recent relationship change. Best Friends and Yano get their shine in. Okada comes in and bodyslams Fale and dropkicks Tama Tonga.
Chuckie T came in and missed a moonsault. He and White fought as he blocked a low blow. Gedo came in and blasted Chuckie with brass knuckles. White connected with the bladerunner, and that was it. A solid main event.
White and Okada went at it after the match, eventually being seperated. White mouthed off and walked to the back, but Okada ran after him and brawled in the aisle. White beat up some young lions then leaves. Okada grabbed the mic and promised that White would meet a rainmaker at Power Struggle.