Three men advanced after Monday’s final set of A Block matches in the round-robin stage with Zack Sabre Jr. clinching first place and receiving a bye to the semi-finals.
Aore Nagaoka was the site of the final A Block round-robin matches, drawing 3,022, and featuring Great O-Khan pinning the IWGP World Heavyweight Champion Tetsuya Naito and securing a spot in the playoffs.
O-Khan survived the Destino and blocked a follow-up attempt before using a flatliner and hitting the Eliminator for the pin after 19 minutes.
The win left O-Khan with a record of 5-4 and a spot in the playoffs.
His opponent in the quarterfinals will be Shingo Takagi, who beat Jake Lee to punch his ticket to the next round. Takagi beat Jake Lee on Monday after hitting a Pumping Bomber and holding Lee for the pin. Takagi also ended the round-robin portion with a 5-4 record and ten points.
O-Khan and Takagi each had wins against Tetsuya Naito and EVIL, thus, beating both in tiebreaker scenarios.
EVIL was officially eliminated on Monday after being pinned by Shota Umino, who overcame the entire House of Torture contingent and was aided by Hiroshi Tanahashi.
Zack Sabre Jr. dominated the block, beating SANADA in Nagaoka with the Zack Driver and secured first place with a 7-2 record and fourteen points.
ZSJ will face the winner of Takagi vs. O-Khan this Saturday at Sumo Hall.
RESULTS:
*A BLOCK: Great O-Khan (10) over Tetsuya Naito (10) in 19:00
*A BLOCK: Shota Umino (8) over EVIL (10) in 19:46
*A BLOCK: Shingo Takagi (10) over Jake Lee (8) in 13:50
*A BLOCK: Zack Sabre Jr. (14) over SANADA (8) in 15:45
*A BLOCK: Gabe Kidd (8) over Callum Newman (4) in 4:52
The final round-robin matches in the B Block are scheduled for Wednesday, with many potential outcomes and players still alive.
Yuya Uemura will forfeit his match with Oleg Boltin due to injury and both will end the tournament with 4-5 records and eight points each.
Wednesday’s lineup will feature Konosuke Takeshita (4-4) vs. Ren Narita (5-3), Jeff Cobb (5-3) vs. Yota Tsuji (4-4), Hirooki Goto (4-4) vs. HENARE (3-5), and El Phantasmo (3-5) vs. David Finlay (5-3).
Bruce Lord & Eric Marcotte will have a review of Nights 14 & 15 today at POSTWrestlingCafe.com
