Zack Sabre Jr is starting to find his groove.
The IWGP World Heavyweight Champion had one of the worst tournament starts in the company’s history. In the span of three nights, Zack only had one win and that’s due to Gabe Kidd forfeiting his match due to injury.
On Night Eight, he fought Konosuke Takeshita, who used his strength early on to get the better of the IWGP World Heavyweight Champion. That all changed when Zack dropkicked Takeshita’s knee and started to work on it. Takeshita would use his strength to make comebacks, but his power diminished over time due to Zack’s work on the knee.
The tide changed when he nailed a brainbuster onto the thin mat outside. Takeshita brought Zack back into the ring and connected with a German suplex. But that wasn’t enough. Takeshita hit a clothesline that resulted in a strong nearfall. Zack went back to his technical prowess to work on the ankles, but Takeshita got out of it and hit a roundhouse kick.
Both men were down. Takeshita got back up and nailed a Piledriver and wheelbarrow German suplex. Zack managed to get a roll-up, but Takeshita was able to counter it with another roll-up. Takeshita got another nearfall after a devastating Blue Thunder Bomb at the 17 minute mark. Zack came back with the Zack Driver that resulted in a nearfall for him.
In the end, Zack applied a rear-naked choke and Takeshita tried his hardest to fight out of it. The crafty world champion managed to lock in the move for a good period of time, which forced Takeshita to tap.
The rest of the night saw Shingo Takagi get his win back by beating Shota Umino and Drilla Moloney getting the better of Ren Narita.
Check out the full results for night eight
- Yota Tsuji & Daiki Nagai def. Taichi & Masatora Yasuda
- Yuya Uemura & Shoma Kato def. Hiroshi Tanahashi & Katsuya Murashima
- SANADA & Yoshinobu Kanemaru def. Callum Newman & Jakob Austin Young
- Ryohei Oiwa & Hartley Jackson def. EVIL & Dick Togo
- Boltin Oleg & Toru Yano def. David Finlay & Gedo
- Great-O-Khan def. El Phantasmo (B Block)
- Drilla Moloney def. Ren Narita (B Block)
- Shingo Takagi def. Shota Umino (B Block)
- Zack Sabre Jr. def. Konosuke Takeshita (B Block)
A Block standings
- Yota Tsuji (8)
- Yuya Uemura (6)
- Boltin Oleg (6)
- Ryohei Oiwa (6)
- EVIL (6)
- Hiroshi Tanahashi (4)
- Taichi (4)
- Callum Newman (4)
- SANADA (4)
- David Finlay (2)
B Block standings
- Drilla Moloney (8)
- Ren Narita (8)
- YOSHI-HASHI (8)
- Great-O-Khan (8)
- Zack Sabre Jr. (6)
- Konosuke Takeshita (6)
- Shota Umino (6)
- Shingo Takagi (4)
- El Phantasmo (4)
- Gabe Kidd (0)*