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Road to Wrestling Dontaku, Korakuen Hall, April 22
Hirai Kawato defeated Shota Umino. This was the Korakuen debut for Umino, who is the son of referee Red Shoes. This was a very basic match, but it was fine for what it was. Kawato is the more experienced of the two and carried the action. He won with a Boston Crab.
YOSHI-HASHI defeated Tomoyuki Oka.m This match never really seemed to get into fifth gear. YOSHI controlled most of the match, until Oka started getting into it by hitting some power moves and showing some of that young lion fire. YOSHI's matches usually have that explosive finish, but we didn't really get that. We had Boston Crab attempts from both guys until YOSHI got the submission win with the Butterfly Lock.
TAKA Michinoku & Takashi Iizuka defeated Jado & Toru Yano. This wasn't much of a match. It was exactly what you'd expect. Cheating, low blows, eye rakes, chair shots, and every other diversion you can think of. TAKA pinned Jado after Iizuka struck him with the iron fingers.
Yujiro Takahashi, Tama Tonga, Tanga Loa & Chase Owens defeated Katsuya Kitamura, Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Satoshi Kojima & David Finlay. Kitamura is a monster! His chops on Owens echoed throughout Korakuen. Finlay Played the babyface in peril brilliantly as he was worked over by the Bullet Club team. He tagged Kojima, who was phenomenal. GOD have a new look with new gear and it was really helped them. The combat pants didn't do it for me. Kitamura & Loa had a great exchange as the two strongest men in the match. Kitamura won the battle with a big suplex. His selling still needs some work, but he's on the fast track to big things. Yujiro pinned him after the Pimp Juice DDT.
Will Ospreay, Hirooki Goto, Beretta & Rocky Romero defeated El Desperado, Minoru Suzuki, Taichi & Yoshinobu Kanemaru. This was great. Lots of intensity in this one with lots of brawling in the early going. Beretta stole Taichi's hammer and tossed it into the crowd, which was funny. Suzuki & Goto beat the hell out of each other with slaps and forearms. They were the focus of the match with their NEVER title match coming up soon. Lots of great action in the last few minutes with Romero interrupting Suzuki's submission attempts. The finishing stretch between Ospreay & Desperado was very good with Ospreay getting the pin after the OsCutter.
SANADA, EVIL, Tetsuya Naito, BUSHI & Hiromu Takahashi defeated Yoshitatsu, Ricochet, Hiroshi Tanahashi, Ryusuke Taguchi & Juice Robinson. Tatsu is back from Mexico and is still hunting Bullet Club apparently. Nothing has changed with him. This was a really entertaining match. We saw Tanahashi & EVIL preview their upcoming match. Takahashi looked like a maniac when he brought two figures to the ring with his and Ricochets names on them. Naito kicked the IWGP IC title all the way to the ring, which was oddly captivating. The finish of this saw LIJ gang up on Tatsu before SANADA finished him with Skull End. After the match LIJ continued the beat down on anyone they could get their hands on.
Bad Luck Fale & Kenny Omega defeated Kazuchika Okada & Tomohiro Ishii. This was an excellent main event. This previewed two major matches coming up at Dontaku. Ishii was worked over by Bullet Club for a large part of the match. Okada got the hot tag, and slammed Fale, which always gets a big reaction from the crowd. Omega hit a double facebuster on both CHAOS men, which looked great. Omega & Ishii had an outstanding exchange with several big near falls and big counters. Okada & Omega went at it briefly before the focus went to Okada & Fale. They went back and forth until Fale dropped him with The Grenade and pinned him after a Tombstone, which was a huge statement from The Underboss. After the match Bullet Club continued the beat down. Omega said that Bullet Club were done playing by the rules.
Fale needed this win, as it's very hard to buy him as a guy the can actually beat Okada. This was a good main event to end a very fun show.
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