LIJ victorious ahead of Hiroshima
April 23 saw the Road to Dontaku hit Osaka, and a sold out crowd in the EDION Arena #2 watching an eight man main event between the Just5Guys side of SANADA, Taichi, Yoshinobu Kanemaru and DOUKI, and Tetsuya Naito, Shingo Takagi, BUSHI and Hiromu Takahashi of Los Ingobernables De Japon.
Kanemaru and Hiromu opened the proceedings, the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion earning the early advantage for his team and follow-up tags seeing every member of LIJ enter the ring to wear down his Hiroshima challenger. The action quickly broke down, all eight men brawling on the outside of the ring with SANADA taking aim at his future title challenger in Hiromu and hurling him into the steel barriers. Back in the ring Taichi continued the damage to Hiromu, locking him into a submission whilst the rest of Just Five Guys wisely kept LIJ at bay. With SANADA tagged in a battle of chops ensued, Hiromu using his junior flying ability to create space and looking for a tag after suffering for the majority of the match so far, but Just Five Guys were quicker to the punch and cleared LIJ off the apron, once again leaving the Time Bomb isolated.
A dragon screw finally allowed the tag and Shingo entered the ring fired up, immediately clashing with his KOPW challenger Taichi and a King Kong lariat combo earning a two count for the champion. A quick exchange of bombs left both men floored, Taichi’s dangerous high kick and Shingo’s lariat forcing both men to make a tag and allowing DOUKI to enter the fray at the same time as Naito. The LIJ man devastated DOUKI with Esperanza out of the corner, but as he looked primed to fly with Destino he was instead met by Just Five Guys making the save and allowing DOUKI to lock in the Italian Stretch #32. With Naito in peril BUSHI was quick to break up the submission, a rapid-fire Code Breaker from BUSHI was smoothly transitioned into a Naito pin but only for a two count.
The swift action not slowing down, DOUKI drove Naito into the mat with a deadly Daybreak but his follow up Suplex De La Luna attempt was countered into a sneaky pin from Naito, catching DOUKI by surprise long enough to earn the three count and a win for LIJ.
Still, the final bell didn’t stop the fighting. DOUKI choked Naito in anger and Hiromu would catch Kanemaru out ahead of their respective matches set for April 27 in Hiroshima. Hir0omu said that he would get past his biggest weakness in Hiroshima to live his dream of the heavyweight gold in Fukuoka. Meanwhile Shingo Takagi and Taichi had business to discuss when it came to April 29 in Kagoshima. Takagi demanded Taichi showed his drive to win; the Holy Emperor would praise Shigno for raising the KOPW title from a ‘rubbish trophy to a gorgeous belt’, but admitted that it was his third challenge, and that he had no right to pick the rules. Taichi left it to Takagi to pick the rules ‘and in your choice of match, I’ll win.’
Takagi said that it was now official that the two would clash for the KOPW, and promised that his choice of rules would surpass his recent bout with Henare. Takagi proposed a Takagi Style Triad Match wherein the winner must win any three out of pinfall submission KO, stoppage and countout. Taichi promised victory as the match seemed to be set.
