Just 24 hours after the B Block show in Takamatsu, NJPW is back at it with an A Block show in Hiroshima. We’re past halfway now, so eliminations will inevitably begin soon, but nobody in this block is in that sort of danger yet.

A Block: Boltin Oleg (6 points) vs. SANADA [HOUSE OF TORTURE] (4 points)

This starts quickly and ends almost as fast. In the space of about 90 seconds, SANADA tries, I think, four moonsaults, and Boltin catches the last one, hits two powerbombs (the second of which causes SANADA’s head to bounce off the mat in an ugly fashion), and then hits the Kamikaze for the pinfall and the win.

What’s next? Boltin (8 points) wrestles Yota Tsuji on Night 11, which takes place on Thursday at Korakuen Hall, while SANADA wrestles Yuto-Ice on the same show.

A Block: Yuto-Ice [Unbound Co.] (4 points) vs. Jake Lee [United Empire] (4 points)

OSKAR joins Walker Stewart on commentary. Lee is sporting his full-on “silent jester” facepaint tonight. Yuto’s pec isn’t as appallingly bruised as it was yesterday, but it still looks pretty bad. It should be noted that in the preview tag on yesterday’s show, Lee handcuffed Yuto to the guardrail and beat him up.

Lee jumps Yuto during his entrance, and the two brawl through the crowd. Eventually, they get back in the ring and Lee tries to put the handcuffs on Yuto, but only gets them on one hand before Yuto kicks Lee into ref Marty Asami. While Asami is down, Yuto futzes with the handcuffs forever, time stands still, and, with the help of Tetsuya Matsumoto at ringside, he eventually – very eventually – gets the second cuff open and puts it on Lee’s wrist. Yuto beats Lee down for a while, but then Lee hits him low, uncuffs himself, cuffs Yuto’s other wrist, and then beats him down. Lee goes for the Face Break Shot, but Yuto pulls Asami in front of him, kicks Lee low, and then hits Cruella for the win. I’m guessing this level of silliness was necessary because of the severity of the bruising on Yuto’s chest; regardless, this wasn’t good, though it was salvaged to a degree by how much the crowd loves Yuto.

What’s next? Yuto (6 points) wrestles SANADA on Thursday, while Lee (4 points) wrestles his faction-mate, Great-O-Khan, on the same show.

A Block: Shingo Takagi [Unbound Co.] (4 points) vs. Great-O-Khan [United Empire] (4 points)

Great-O-Khan jumps Takagi during his entrance and attacks him with a chair before the match officially begins. They head out into the crowd, to the backstage area and into a bathroom, where Great-O-Khan appears to attempt to give Takagi a swirlie. Ten minutes into the segment, they get back to the ring and the bell finally rings. It settles into a much more typical Great-O-Khan/Shingo Takagi match for a while, but then they head outside and, after some chair shenanigans, Great-O-Khan hits a TTD on the floor, which nearly leads to a count-out. Back in the ring, Takagi manages to counter Great-O-Khan’s attempts at cheating, and Takagi eventually gets the win with Last of the Dragon. Once this got going, it was fine, but this is another example of padding out matches with shenanigans to give guys a minor blow at this point in the tournament, which is understandable, but not ideal for the viewer.

What’s next? Takagi (6 points) wrestles Konosuke Takeshita in Thursday, while Great-O-Khan (4 points) wrestles Lee on the same show.

A Block: Yota Tsuji [Unbound Co.] (6 points) vs. Ryohei Oiwa [TMDK] (6 points)

It’s a battle of terrible new entrance themes. (Well, Oiwa’s, I would say, is just bad; Tsuji’s is terrible.) Oiwa enters with a G1 paddle, for some reason.

The crowd is firmly behind Oiwa, which, again, is interesting. Tsuji’s arm and hand are taped up because he injured himself chopping Yuto 280-some times on Wednesday. Tsuji spends the early going working on Oiwa’s injured ribs, while Oiwa continues to try to win with the side headlock. Midway through the match, Tsuji hits a top-rope hurricanrana and applies the Boston Crab, but he can’t hold it with his injured arm, so he transitions to a scorpion hold instead. Oiwa makes it to the ropes to escape, then finally goes to work on the arm before losing interest, apparently, and going back to the side headlock. They begin to exchange high-impact offense, including a really cool spot where Oiwa counters the Fire Blaster with a Doctor Bomb. Oiwa hits three Germans, including a Chaos Theory, but Tsuji tosses him outside, hits a tope suicida, throws Oiwa back inside and then hits a double stomp off the top for two. Oiwa applies a rear chinlock, but Tsuji counters with Silver Linings for two. Tsuji tries the Gene Blaster, but Oiwa grabs the side headlock. Tsuji tries to get out several times, but Oiwa is like a dog with a bone with the side headlock. Tsuji manages to break it up with a short Fire Blaster, then hits a full-blown Fire Blaster for the win. This was very good, and both guys looked strong, but the psychology seemed a tiny bit off – like, Tsuji’s arm is clearly injured, but Oiwa, who tapped out Boltin Oleg with an armbar earlier in this tournament, just decided not to work on it? It made him look kind of dumb, even moreso than his haircut.

What’s next? Tsuji (8 points) wrestles Boltin on Thursday, while Oiwa (6 points) wrestles Hirooki Goto on the same show.

A Block: Hirooki Goto (4 points) vs. Konosuke Takeshita (8 points)

While OSKAR is generally pretty good at color commentary, he has a bad habit of talking over the intros, and his voice is soft enough that it can be difficult to make out what he’s saying over the ring announcer. Not really a complaint – just an observation.

As you can probably imagine, this match is awesome. They go about 20 minutes, exchanging crisp, high-impact offense from beginning to end, including Takeshita hitting a Hadouken-style strike (slyly referencing Goto’s role in the upcoming Street Fighter movie). Goto hits Shoten Kai and nearly gets the win with the GTW, but Takeshita kicks out at the absolute last possible instant, in a way that he, Okada and Omega do better than anyone else on the planet. Eventually, Takeshita wins with Raging Fire, making him the first of the G1 competitors to reach 10 points.

What’s next? Takeshita (10 points) wrestles Takagi on Thursday, while Goto (4 points) wrestles Oiwa on the same show.

So, with three block matches left, your A Block point totals look like this:

• 10 points: Konosuke Takeshita
• 8 points: Boltin Oleg, Yota Tsuji
• 6 points: Shingo Takagi, Yuto-Ice, Ryohei Oiwa
• 4 points: Hirooki Goto, Jake Lee, SANADA, Great-O-Khan

Nobody is eliminated yet, but everyone with four points has to win out. As such, the match on Thursday between Jake Lee and Great-O-Khan will certainly result in at least one elimination. Also, if Takagi loses to Takeshita on Thursday and there’s a winner between Boltin and Tsuji, Takagi will be eliminated. Yuto-Ice is also in a very precarious position, since he’s already lost to Takeshita, Boltin and Tsuji, so he needs to win out and for the three guys on top to lose as much as possible to stay in it.

At the top, tiebreakers will almost certainly play a role in the final standings, so it’s important to note that Tsuji has the tiebreaker over Takeshita and Takeshita has the tiebreaker over Boltin. Needless to say, the Tsuji/Boltin match on Thursday is hugely important.

I’ll be back with the B Block show from Fukuoka tomorrow. See you then!