Kevin Knight, Clark Connors, and Taiji Ishimori take center stage on night two.
AEW's newest acquisition has never won a singles title in New Japan despite being in the company for five years. His first match-up was against Mao and the Junior heavyweights exchanged some chain moves in the early goings of the match. It wasn’t until a hard forearm that saw Knight gain complete control of the match. The 28-year-old is dominant with strikes and various high risk moves. Knight got a strong near fall after a top rope superplex. However, Mao was able to counter a springboard move with a high kick. Knight made one last attempt at a move, but a Michinoku Driver and a superkick got Mao the three count.
Clark Connors star is on the rise as the New Japan talent won his first singles championship earlier this year in DEFY Wrestling. Connors gained control of the match very quickly by beating Master Wato all around the arena. Two running head kicks almost puts Wato out of commission, but Wato is able to make a comeback because of a back suplex. Both men started trading moves; Clark hit a sit out powerbomb for a nearfall. Wato applied his signature Vendeval finisher that almost saw Clark tap out. In the end, Connors connected with his No-Chaser finisher for the three count.
In the main event, past Best of Super Juniors tournament winner Taiji Ishimori fought Ryusuke Taguchi and the early portion started out with the latter’s well-known comedy. Taiji managed to finally get in control of the situation by nailing a slingshot that sent Taguchi into the ring post. Taiji kept him grounded thanks to a hammerlock submission. But Taguchi hit a butt bump to regain control. Then he nailed Taiji with a dive that had both men lying outside of the ring for good period of time.
The match broke down to both men trading submissions. Taguchi applied an ankle lock. Ishimori reversed it into a Bone Lock. When that didn’t work then Taiji pushed the referee into Taguchi and slyly hit his opponent with a low blow, mule kick, and a roll up for a two count. Taguchi was able to re-apply the ankle lock and Taiji finally tapped out.
Check out the full results below for Night Two of Best of the Super Juniors Tournament:
- United Empire (Francesco Akira & Jakob Austin Young) def. Dragon Dia & Katsuya Murashima
- Daiki Nagai & Nick Wayne def. El Desperado & Shoma Kato
- Hiromu Takahashi & Shingo Takagi def. TMDK (Hartley Jackson & Kosei Fujita)
- Best Of The Super Junior 32 Block A Match: Ninja Mack [2] def. Robbie X [0]
- Best Of The Super Junior 32 Block B Match: MAO [2] def. Kevin Knight [0]
- Best Of The Super Junior 32 Block A Match: Clark Connors [2] def. Master Wato (0)
- Best Of The Super Junior 32 Block B Match: Robbie Eagles [2] def. YOH [0]
- Best Of The Super Junior 32 Block B Match: Ryusuke Taguchi [2] def. Taiji Ishimori (0)