A big opportunity for Takaiwa in this tournament as I forgot he was even entered. Crowd again is hot as shit for the closing moments here and we cut right to Takaiwa utilizing a DVD from the top rope. Chono is working with more viciousness here as he locks on his leg sub stuff. Takaiwa really has the crowd going on a DVD > lariat ccombo. Chono blocks another lariat with a Yakuza kick and then fights out of a DVD attempt. A piledriver from Chono puts Takaiwa into bad shape and then he locks on a submission that almost looks like a Rings of Saturn. One more Yakuza kick and that leads right into the STF for the victory. This match went 14 minutes overall and looked to be good based on the finishing run and Chono applying holds with more purpose than he does when he is in lazy mode. NR

Love these junior/heavy matchups and Takaiwa has a soft spot in my heart. Maybe a tad bit overkill with Takaiwa utilizing the top rope death valley driver and then getting an even hotter nearfall off the death valley driver to lariat combo. And this was an awesome lariat. Chono takes it and you can see him just absorb the impact in his upper body and crumple to the mat. Great stuff. Takaiwa admirably fights off Chono but gets shut down and sent away by the STF.