We’ve reached Day 2 of this impromptu Junior Tag title tournament! Ass Masters and LIJ have an early lead, but conventional wisdom will tell you that won’t last. Not only because they face each other today, but because it would be a little odd to have an established team like the Suzuki-Gun duo come up short given their actual team experience.

So with that, I figure that Suzuki-Gun will go 2-0, beating Bullet Club and LIJ on Wednesday, to tie LIJ and run back the match as the finals on Friday. Yes, that also means I see Bullet Club being effectively out of the tournament, but they will play spoiler and ruin Wato’s chances.

Who knows, maybe I’m in store for a shock. Let’s find out!

Ratings:

• Yuya Uemura vs Yuji Nagata: Nagata wins via Nagata Lock #2 – ** ¼
• CHAOS (SHO, Toru Yano & Kazuchika Okada) & Yota Tsuji vs CHAOS (YOSHI-HASHI, Tomohiro Ishii & Hirooki Goto) & Gabriel Kidd: HASHI wins via Butterfly Lock – ***
• Suzuki-Gun (DOUKI, Minoru Suzuki, ZSJ & Taichi) vs Kota Ibushi, Hiroshi Tanahashi, Tomoaki Honma & Satoshi Kojima: ZSJ wins via Manjigatame – ** ½
• Darkness Club (EVIL, Jado & Yujiro Takahashi) vs LIJ (Shingo Takagi, SANADA & Tetsuya Naito):  SANADA wins via Japanese Leg Clutch – **
• Suzuki-Gun (El Desperado & Yoshinobu Kanemaru) vs Bullet Club (Gedo & Taiji Ishimori): Desperado wins via Pinche Loco – ***
• LIJ (BUSHI & Hiromu Takahashi) vs Ass Masters (Ryusuke Taguchi & Master Wato): LIJ win via LAT – ****

Results:

 Yuya Uemura vs Yuji Nagata

This was a basic Young Lion match, with no cute layers like the Kojima one from yesterday. Nagata came in, controlled the pace, but Uemura got some solid offense in. It was never really in the cards to believe that Uemura could win, but he put in good effort.

Blue Justice prevails!

CHAOS (SHO, Toru Yano & Kazuchika Okada) & Yota Tsuji vs CHAOS (YOSHI-HASHI, Tomohiro Ishii & Hirooki Goto) & Gabriel Kidd

Hey look! Tsuji’s awake!

So we get a few more tangible story threads. SHO is going right after Ishii as a power battle. This works really well since Ishii is actually shorter than SHO, he’s just build like a tank. That helps the Junior/Heavy distinction since SHO isn’t notably smaller than most in the match.

We all see a continued question mark with Yano and Okada. Yano loves to trip and pull people to the outside, but that visibly throws off Okada. However, Okada called for Yano to come in for some multiman offense with him and SHO. So this feels like Okada is trying to overlook things and be a good leader and call for solidarity.

Tsuji looked really good in this match, blending well with the Okada squad. They set him up for great power displays and Tsuji is definitely ready for excursion whenever travel is normal again. Even though Tsuji eats the submission (Young Lion, remember?), the story doesn’t end there!

SHO and Ishii keep brawling on the outside, and the first one there is Okada to try and break it up, but Ishii actually swings on Okada and keeps trying to get SHO. Yano keeps his distance, as does HASHI and Goto. Families fight, but Ishii and Yano are both no strangers to betrayal…and have a tag team past. So if things go how I’d like, SHO & Okada versus Yano & Ishii, that’s a match I would like to see.

Suzuki-Gun (DOUKI, Minoru Suzuki, ZSJ & Taichi) vs Kota Ibushi, Hiroshi Tanahashi, Tomoaki Honma & Satoshi Kojima

Now there are some threads to still tug at, but they’re also the same ones that we’ve been playing with for a few months. Taichi and Ibushi is building into a nice strike based feud where it seems like Taichi really wants to prove he’s the better striker. Suzuki is just killing people. ZSJ is doing ZSJ stuff and DOUKI is happy to be there.

Since Honma ate the submission, there’s nothing to really play with on the other side. ZSJ and Taichi are still continuing the narrative of Tanahashi is a joke and Ibushi made the wrong choice, but it’s fairly anti-climactic. I am however somewhat interested in Kojima maybe getting a NEVER title match. Suzuki versus Kojima one more time could be really fun.

Darkness Club (EVIL, Jado & Yujiro Takahashi) vs LIJ (Shingo Takagi, SANADA & Tetsuya Naito)

Oh great, we’re running back the match I didn’t care about yesterday! Excuse me while I go get food.

A few quick takeaways are that, Jado, even though he can barely move, still gets it. I did enjoy when he put on the LIJ jacket, teased a Kokeshi, just to walk over and then do the Naito pose. He gets being a heel, just wish he could actually perform. Also, I’m enjoying that EVIL’s group tends to focus heavily on Naito, and it’s up to Shingo and SANADA to win the match.

Shingo has a great clearing spot with King Kong Lariats, Noshigami and impressive power. Where SANADA dodges the Kendo Stick, and rolls up Jado in a smooth and not very flashy way, that only SANADA can do.

These matches have done well to continue to build SANADA and Shingo leading towards the G1, but they’re too damn predictable. Let’s hope a Bullet Club member returns at some point to mix up this rather lame dynamic.

Suzuki-Gun (El Desperado & Yoshinobu Kanemaru) vs Bullet Club (Gedo & Taiji Ishimori)

So this match wasn’t so much good, as it was entertaining. This was nearly a mirror match, but Desperado was the more empathetic wrestler in the whole thing. He wanted to tangle with the Junior champion, and Gedo played on that desire and kept it from him whenever possible.

Early on by switching spots, then taking a cheap shot at Despy. But the match was very similar to the match against the LIJ duo where Taiji sticks to real offense and looks damn good, and Gedo does heel stuff while bumping like a madman. I still give Gedo a ton of credit for being able to make that calling backwards low blow look perfect. For context, Kanemaru hopped to the second turnbuckle for Deep Impact, he jumps and Gedo “falls back” with a leg conveniently raised, and the knee going right into the yam bag.

The tradeoff of cheating between both teams was hilarious as well. One would cheat and go for the liquor bottle, Gedo would cheat and go for the brass knuckles. Like I said, felt like a mirror match. Despy going over is correct since the Suzuki-Gun duo is a real team, so you have to assume they’ll go 2-0 in their last two matches to tie with LIJ (assumption since that match is next).

Also Despy has had a pretty solid year with the limited roster.

LIJ (BUSHI & Hiromu Takahashi) vs Ass Masters (Ryusuke Taguchi & Master Wato)

So Wato decides to start and Hiromu gladly takes the challenge. This works since Hiromu is never one to back down, and it’s a match between two former CMLL World Lightweight champions. So maybe Hiromu sees a little of himself in Wato, with the similar excursion experience.

LIJ plays the heel roll in this match, and we all know it works perfectly. BUSHI takes a shortcut, uses his shirt to choke Wato, and then Hiromu comes back in and starts mocking Tenzan’s Mongolian Chops. Tenzan may have taken Wato under his wing a little, but now he’s getting a bit offended by Hiromu’s japes. Taguchi however uses the Mongolian Chop to break up a submission, and Tenzan nods and claps approvingly.

Wato fights off both Hiromu and BUSHI at different points to finally tag in Taguchi, and we get a mostly serious time save for two spots. One where BUSHI and Hiromu saw the Hip Attack coming, so they nonchalantly part and Taguchi’s ass goes crashing. Then Taguchi hits a Drop Toe Hold sending Hiromu head first in BUSHI…mostly where you’d expect that to land if it’s funny.

Taguchi did a really good job at trying to keep Wato grounded and buy him time, but BUSHI and Hiromu have such great chemistry and timing, they’re saves and distractions proved a little better. Wato and Taguchi show off a tandem move, Taguchi does a Wheelbarrow Facebuster and Wato comes off the top with a Bulldog; simple but effective, yet only a 2 count.

Wato and Taguchi get an opening to go for the RPP, but BUSHI shakes off Taguchi and slows down Wato just enough to make sure the RPP misses. A little more LIJ domination and we see the Tandem Facecrusher once again, now referred to as the LAT.

Overall Score: 7/10

Very similar to how the last show went, but this one just felt like it flowed better. It also helps that the last two matches were more entertaining than yesterday. Ass Masters and LIJ was a legitimately really good match, with a lot of shine for the future. New Japan has done a great job at making Wato look competent and still elevated even during losses.

One of my biggest interests is the whole NEVER 6 Man situation. Not because I care about the belts, but because the Okada thread is intriguing. We could see Ishii and Yano try to break out of the CHAOS bubble, SHO and Okada seem to have grown closer and there’s just a lot. Plus, I’m not gonna lie…it’s going to be a little silly if the first New Japan title that Okada holds, that isn’t the IWGP Heavyweight, is the NEVER 6 Man.