El Desperado & DOUKI will take on Perros Del Mal De Japon in tag team action. YO-HEY & Nosawa Rongai are two time GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions, and are not to be overlooked. Desperado & DOUKI know Perros Del Mal from their time in Mexico, but this will be their first exposure to the Japanese branch. Desperado carries the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship into this match, and as Master Wato showed on January 5th – beating him could grant title chances, and both YO-HEY & Rongai wouldn’t mind some gold.
El Desperado Gets The Win, YO-HEYTries To Trash Talk Into A Title Shot
There would be a chaotic start to this match, as Perros Del Mal threw away the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship. Desperado & Rongai took the ring, and Rongai nailed a low blow while the referee was looking away. YO-HEY & DOUKI took the ring, and showed some speed before a running dropkick to the face. DOUKI would find the knee to the back from Rongai, before being yanked into the ring post – yam bags first.
Desperado would take the ring and nail a spinebuster and look for Numero Dos, but YO-HEY scrambled to the ropes. Perros Del Mal would double team Desperado with a flapjack, but he’d kick out. YO-HEY would hit a dropsault, before DOUKI would be slid right out of the ring. Desperado would look for Pinche Loco, but get caught with an inside cradle for two. Second attempt would land, and that puts NJPW to a 4-1-1 lead on this night. YO-HEY would get into the face of Desperado, seemingly trying to talk his way into a title shot.
KENTA Is Replaced By… Toru Yano
Originally, a match between Suzuki-Gun & Sugiura-Gun had an extra player. KENTA was set to team with the NOAH side, being one of their biggest stars for years. However, injuries from his match with Hiroshi Tanahashi took him out. Now, a mystery man will join the legends of Takashi Sugiura & Kazushi Sakuraba. Suzuki, Taichi and Michinoku are no strangers to NOAH, and Suzuki is a former GHC Heavyweight Champion.
The mystery partner would be Toru Yano, the drinking buddy of Sakuraba. Certainly a downgrade from KENTA – but Yano has had issues with Suzuki recently, and isn’t the worst choice. A brawl would start with Suzuki going after Toru Yano on the outside. Sakuraba would catch a kick from Taichi and apply a kneebar. Taichi got the ropes, and went for a Greco Roman Throat Hold.
Yano would tag in, and expose a corner, before Taichi blocked the toss into the corner – and caught Yano with a kick. The match people wanted to see – Suguira and Suzuki was happening on the floor, with them trading slaps and forearm shots. Instead, the camera would follow Taka Michinoku choking Yano in the ring. Suzuki would get into the ring and abuse Yano with some kicks.
Sugiura & Suzuki would finally get legal in the ring, and a running knee strike into the exposed corner just had Suzuki smiling. Heavy blows would be traded, and it was the best part of the show so far. The Olympic Slam from Sugiura would be blocked, and Suzuki got the running dropkick.
After a tag, Michinoku would manage some nearfalls on Sugiura, before being stiffened with a lariat. Yano held Suzuki back and Sugiura landed that Olympic slam for the win. NJPW still leads 4-2-1, but it’s not as one sided as expected.
Was Toru Yano the right pick for the replacement of KENTA? Let us know what you think in the comment section down below.
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