NJPW Road to Power Struggle results: Junior Tag League day 10

NJPW returned to Korakuen Hall this morning for the latest in the Super Jr. Tag League tournament. This morning’s main event featured the Birds of Prey, Will Ospreay and Robbie Eagles, taking on the team of Rocky Romero and Ryusuke Taguchi.

Prelim matches:

Karl Fredericks defeated Yota Tsuji

– Fredericks submitted Tsuji with a half Boston crab.

Tetsuya Naito, Shingo Takagi, BUSHI and SANADA defeated Taichi, DOUKI, Zack Sabre Jr. and Minoru Suzuki

– Naito pinned DOUKI with the Destino.

Jay White, Gedo, Yujiro Takahashi and KENTA defeated Toa Henare, Tomoaki Honma, Tomohiro Ishii and Hirooki Goto

– White pinned Henare with the bladerunner.

Super Junior Tag League 2019:

El Desperado & Yoshinobu Kanemaru defeated Tiger Mask & Yuya Uemura

Uemura fended off Desperado and Kanemaru early on, avoiding a beat down on the outside. Of course, nothing will stop them from doing spots on the outside, so Kanemaru raked him in the eyes and took him into the crowd, beating him with chairs. They spend a long time working on Uemura. Tiger Mask came in for the save, but Desperado took down Tiger Mask and tore his mask up badly, revealing much of his face.

Tiger Mask gets a second mask and is tagged in, going after Kanemaru’s arm. Desperado breaks it up and goes after his mask again, but the referee sends him away. Kanemaru used the referee and shoved him into Tiger Mask. Desperado tagged in and remains on offense. Tiger Mask cut him off and hit the Tiger Bomb as Uemura is tagged in again.

Uemura landed a dropkick on Desperado as Tiger Mask comes back in, hitting a butterfly suplex on Desperado. Uemura sinks in the Boston crab, but Kanemaru comes back with a dropkick. Uemura is able to get it in again, but Desperado escapes and cuts off Uemura with a spinebuster.

Desperado then applied the stretch muffler as the referee is distracted yet again as Kanemaru put a chair in the ring, which somehow distracted the referee long enough for Kanemaru to mist Tiger Mask on the outside. Uemura ended up tapping out in the ring.

This was fine, but man the referees are so dumb in this promotion, it’s getting to the point where it’s just frustrating. Uemura looked good here though, and the crowd was into him trying to get that win.

ELP & Taiji Ishimori defeated TJP & Clark Connors

Connors and TJP immediately went on the offensive, taking both men out to the floor. Heels soon gain control, however, and work on TJP, doing things like backrakes and pulling out armpit hair (seriously). TJP took out ELP with a tornado DDT and tagged in Connors, who is immediately taken out with a big boot. Ishimori puts him in a tree of woe position and puts his foot on Connor’s netherregions. 

Connors fired back with a powerslam and tagged in TJP, who made a great comeback taking out both men. He did a cool spot where he tied up ELP’s legs, put Ishimori in an abdominal stretch then hit a northern lights suplex into a pin on Ishimori for a cool two count.

Connors is tagged in again, sinking in a Boston crab on ELP. TJP took down Ishimori with a submission, but Ishimori countered and threw TJP into Connors to break it up. Ishimori stomped Connors as he was in midair, allowing ELP to hit a big splash off the top rope for the win. Good stuff.

SHO & YOH defeated Volador Jr. & Titan

SHO and Volador has a good exchange to start things off. Titan and YOH followed. Titan took out YOH and hit what I would call a rolling Sasuke special to the floor, but missed YOH. YOH whipped him into the corner and tagged in SHO as they started work attacking Titan’s leg. Titan cut them off and tagged in Volador who went after both SHO and YOH, taking them to the outside and hitting stereo tope con hilos.

Volador and SHO strike each other as they tag out to their partners. Titan hit a big clothesline to the corner. He went for a double stomp, but landed on his bad knee. SHO and YOH kept working on him until Volador Jr. wiped out SHO with a big tope suicida. 

Titan hit the la mistica and rolled up YOH for a near fall. YOH landed some uppercuts, landed a superkick and hit a big German suplex for another near fall. A dragon suplex sealed things up for SHO & YOH. Really fun match.

Will Ospreay & Robbie Eagles defeated Ryusuke Taguchi & Rocky Romero

Taguchi and Romero initially were in control, but things quickly went in the Birds of Prey’s favor as they took both men out with double crossbodys to the floor. The Korakuen Hall crowd actually sang happy birthday to Romero as Will Ospreay chopped him.

Both Ospreay and Eagles worked over Romero as they went for a double superplex. Romero fought them off as he fell to the floor and tagged in Taguchi, who hit everyone with hip attacks. Eagles tried to cut off Taguchi with a backpack, but then fell to a Taguchi dropkick. 

Ospreay and Romero are in as they exchange some lightning quick offense. Eagles was tagged back in, but Romero quickly took him down and hit a dropkick off the top rope, hitting Eagles who was draped on the middle rope. Ospreay saved Eagles as the two ran wild on both Taguchi and Romero.Ospreay hit a shooting star press, but Taguchi broke it up.

Eagles took Taguchi to the floor as Ospreay went for a superkick and the stormbreaker, but Romero countered with a hurricanrana for a near fall. Romero went for a sliced bread, but Ospreay went for the stormfront. Romero escaped as Taguchi came in and a double hip attack.

Taguchi back body dropped Eagles to the floor as Romero picked up steam against Ospreay. He planted Ospreay on the floor and sunk in an armbar. Ospreay lifted and powerbombed Romero in response. Ospreay started to strike, but Romero fired back with some of his own. Ospreay got the better of it, striking Romero with kicks. Romero, however, walked right into the backpack by Eagles and Ospreay hit the Oscutter. 

Taguchi broke up the pin, but Eagles subdued him as Ospreay struck the hidden blade on Romero then pinned with the stormbreaker. This was excellent, absolutely the best match on the show. If Eagles & Ospreay teamed more during 2019 they’d be top contenders for tag team of the year, they have off the charts chemistry. 

Eagles took the mic and thanked everyone for supporting them. They have two more points on the board and have one final match on Friday. Ospreay asked the crowd in Japanese if they were having fun. He thanked Romero and Taguchi. He promised that the Birds of Prey would be the tag team tournament winners.

In the post-match interview backstage, BUSHI walked up to Will Ospreay and challenged him to an IWGP Jr. title match. Ospreay accepted, but said he would do it after Power Struggle when they win the Super Junior Tag League tournament.