2014.02.22

[Kevin Elliott]

Pacific Jr. Heavyweight Grand Prix - Night Four
2014.02.22
Soka Sports Gymansium
1,280 Fans (No Vacancy)

1.  Jr. Grand Prix Block A - Kotaro Suzuki [2] defeated Atsushi Kotoge [0] with the Blue Destiny

2.  Jr. Grand Prix Block B - Minoru Tanaka [2] defeated Atsushi Aoki [0] with the Fireball Splash

3.  Special Tag Team Match - Hiroshi Tanahashi, KAI, and Seiya Sanada defeated Katsuyori Shibata, Kyle O'Reilly, and Tetsuya Naito when Sanada used the This Is It on Naito

4.  Special Singles Match - Samoa Joe defeated Kazuchika Okada with the Muscle Buster

5.  Kota Ibushi Challenge - Kota Ibushi defeated Rocky Romero with the Golden Star Press

6.  Jr. Grand Prix Block A - KENTA [4] defeated Shuji Kondo [4] with the Go To Sleep

7.  Jr. Grand Prix Block B - BUSHI [5] wrestled Naomichi Marufuji [5] to a time limit draw

8.  NWA World Heavyweight Championship Tournament Round One - Hirooki Goto defeated Mike Mondo with the Shouten Kai

The fourth night of the Jr. Heavyweight Grand Prix took place at the Soka Sports Gymnasium, which is the second time Kenshiki has visited the venue, possibly making it the promotion's "second home" after the Korakuen Hall.  The night started off with a Block A and Block B match in the Grand Prix that had little bearing on the final standings.  Kotaro Suzuki and Minoru Tanaka picked up their first victories of the tournament, defeating the winless Atsushi Kotoge and Atsushi Aoki, respectively.

Hiroshi Tanahashi took part in a surprise undercard tag team match.  His team of KAI and Seiya Sanada were victorious over Tanahashi's World Heavyweight Championship Tournament round one opponent, Mike Mondo, and Mondo's tag team partners Katsuyori Shibata and Tetsuya Naito.  Sanada finished Naito off with the This Is It to win the contest.  Tanahashi challenges Mondo tomorrow night in their first round match.

Prior to the fourth match of the evening, the entire Kazuchika Okada versus Samoa Joe match that took place in NWA Hybrid Pro just hours ago.  Okada nearly had the match won, hitting Joe with the Rainmaker, but "the Samoan Submission Machine" was able to kick out.  Okada later missed a second Rainmaker attempt, was hit with an Enziguri, and finished off with the Muscle Buster, allowing Joe to make it to the second round.

The fourth edition of the Kota Ibushi Challenge saw the 3-0 Ibushi defeat NWA UK's Rocky Romero, who had his Forever Hooligans tag team partner Alex Koslov in his corner.  Ibushi finished Romero off with the Golden Star Press in an exciting match.  On tomorrow's show, if Ibushi can defeat NWA Southwest's La Sombra, Ibushi will be the number one contender to the NWA Pacific Jr. Heavyweight Championship.

The night's final two matches of the Jr. Heavyweight Grand Prix were both excellent and full of drama and intrigue.  The 1-1 KENTA defeated the 2-0 Shuji Kondo, leaving both men tied for second place.  Should the two win their final matches tomorrow (KENTA challenges the 1-2 Kotaro Suzuki; Kondo challenges the 3-0 Katsuhiko Nakajima), we will have a three way tie for first place in Block A.  Block B proved to be just as interesting, as BUSHI wrestled Naomichi Marufuji to a time limit draw.  Both men had excellent chances to put the contest away and each time both men came up short.  Both men sit tied for the block lead heading into the final night with five points.

Finally, it was the main event.  It was a first round match in the NWA World Heavyweight Championship tournament, featuring Hirooki Goto and NWA Ohio Valley's Mike Mondo.  The two had faced each other in special tag team matches throughout the tour, but none of that mattered tonight.  It was one fall to the finish with no excuses.  The hard fought match ended with Goto using the Shouten Kai to advance to the second round.  After the match, Goto and Mondo shook hands, with Goto welcoming him back to Japan any time.

Block A	Points	Block B	Points
Katsuhiko Nakajima (3-0)	6	BUSHI (2-1-0)	5
KENTA (2-1)Shuji Kondo (2-1)	4	Naomichi Marufuji (2-1-0)	5
Shuji Kondo (2-1)	4	El Desperado (2-1)	4
Kotaro Suzuki (1-2)	2	Minoru Tanaka (1-2)	2
Atsushi Kotoge (0-4)	0	Atsushi Aoki (0-4)	0

Tomorrow night, we return to the Korakuen Hall for the final night of the tour.  In addition to featuring NWA World Jr. Heavyweight Champion Daniel Bryan, the remaining card looks as follows:

2014.02.23
Korakuen Hall

1.  Jr. Grand Prix Block A - KENTA [4] vs Kotaro Suzuki [2]
2.  Jr. Grand Prix Block B - El Desperado [4] vs Naomichi Marufuji [5]
3.  Jr. Grand Prix Block B - BUSHI [5] vs Minoru Tanaka [2]
4.  Jr. Grand Prix Block A - Katsuhiko Nakajima [6] vs Shuji Kondo [4]
5.  Kota Ibushi Challenge - Kota Ibushi vs La Sombra
6.  NWA World Heavyweight Championship Tournament Round One - Hiroshi Tanahashi vs Kyle O'Reilly
7.  NWA Pacific Jr. Heavyweight Championship - Block A Winner vs Block B Winner

[cdw]

This was a good show. I really liked the main event. I think that this was a great tour.