After the first two nights of the Road to Power Struggle in Korakuen Hall saw four matches each in the Super Junior Tag League, extra matches will take place on each stop at live events throughout the tour. You can watch EVERY league match on demand at NJPW World, and we’ll give you tournament analysis throughout!
After October 18’s Nagano event sadly had to be canceled as a result of Typhoon Hagibis, October 19 will see two league matches in Tainai.
Tiger Mask & Yuya Uemura (0-2) vs Taiji Ishimori & El Phantasmo (1-1)
First tag meeting
Tiger Mask and Yuya Uemura were always going to have an uphill battle in this tag league. Both members expected as such, and Tiger Mask, explaining that he’d spent seven years with Jyushin Thunder Liger ‘leading him’ through the tournament has this year taken on the task of teaching Uemura.
The Young Lion has shown admirable grit in the face of tough offense from Ryusuke Taguchi, Rocky Romero, Volador Junior and Titan in the first two matches of the league, but he and Tiger Mask have their tallest task to date when taking on the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions. In Korakuen Hall on October 17, ELP and Ishimori were out cheated to victory by El Desperado and Yoshinobu Kanemaru; Tiger Mask and Uemura will doubtless fight more cleanly, but can they pull off the biggest of upsets in Tainai?
Birds of Prey (Will Ospreay & Robbie Eagles) (0-2) vs Volador Junior & Titan (2-0)
Expectations were high for Birds of Prey going into the Super Junior Tag League. That said, facing the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions in their first match, and the reigning Junior Tag League winners in their second, Birds of Prey had a difficult draw to contend with. Add to that Ospreay’s struggles with food poisoning during the second Korakuen Hall date on October 17, and it’s understandable that B.O.P are winless at this point. Understandable, but disappointing and worrying all the same. Three losses in this eight team, seven match league may be very difficult to come back from, and the Anglo/Australian connection will doubtless desperately seek their first two points against a team that has yet to drop one in Volador Junior and Titan.
