The top two participants in the A Block of the Best of the Super Juniors tournament were determined on Tuesday.
The card from Osaka saw Speedball Mike Bailey and Titan advance to the semi-finals after winning their final round-robin matches.
QUICK RESULTS
*Great O-Khan & TJP over Yuto Nakashima & Oskar Leube in 9:57
*El Desperado & Ryohei Oiwa over Robbie Eagles & Kosei Fujita in 10:50
*Francesco Akira & Dan Moloney over Clark Connors & Gedo in 8:49
*Kevin Knight, YOH & Master Wato over Taichi, Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Taka Michinoku in 9:11
*A BLOCK: Ryusuke Taguchi over KUSHIDA in 12:07
*A BLOCK: SHO over DOUKI in 10:33
*A BLOCK: Speedball Mike Bailey over Lio Rush in 16:43
*A BLOCK: Titan over Hiromu Takahashi in 16:43
Bailey won the block with fourteen points after beating Lio Rush with the Flamingo Driver in one of the most anticipated matches of the entire Best of the Super Juniors.
Both held wins over IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Champion Hiromu Takahashi in the event of a tie.
Takahashi, who won the previous three BOSJ tournaments, was upset by LIJ teammate Titan in the main event after submitting to Llave Inmortal.
The audience let out a big reaction when Takahashi submitted at 16:44 of the main event and thus, ending his chances at continuing his streak of BOSJ wins.
With Takahashi having losses to Titan and Rush, and Titan beating Rush, he advanced with all three having twelve points.
Bailey will face the winner the second-place finisher in the B Block and Titan faces the B Block winner, which will be determined on Wednesday when the block ends. The semi-finals take place on Friday with the final on Sunday at Ota Ward City Gymnasium.
The other A Block matches featured SHO defeating DOUKI after nonstop interference from EVIL and Yujiro Takahashi, ending with a low blow and Everything is Evil to DOUKi while the referee was knocked down.
Ryusuke Taguchi scored his lone win of the tournament against KUSHIDA. After Taguchi’s trunks were pulled down during a Dodon sequence, he applied his ankle lock and submitted KUSHIDA to end with two points.
Taiji Ishimori was forced to withdraw from his final match due to a cervical vertebrae injury sustained on Sunday. TJP was awarded the two points due to the forfeit.
A BLOCK (Final standings): Speedball Mike Bailey (14), Titan (12), Hiromu Takahashi (12), Lio Rush (12), TJP (10), Taiji Ishimori (10), SHO (8), DOUKI (6), KUSHIDA (4), Ryusuke Taguchi (2)
Below are the tournament matches for Wednesday’s final B Block matches:
*El Desperado (12) vs. Robbie Eagles (10)
*Master Wato (12) vs. Kevin Knight (6)
*YOH (12) vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaru (4)
*Dan Moloney (6) vs. Clark Connors (8)
*BUSHI (2) vs. Francesco Akira (8)
