NJPW BOTSJ: Four men tied for first place in Block A

Another day of Best of the Super Junior Block A matches was on the card for NJPW this morning.

TJP defeated Kosei Fujita, Clark Connors beat BUSHI, and HAYATA scored the victory over Blake Christian. The main event saw El Desperado defeat Yoshinobu Kanemaru to move into a tie for first place.

Those were all great matchups, but the match that drew my attention was the battle of high-flyers. Titan and Kevin Knight, tied at 6 points heading into today, would face off.

The match was off to a fast start with both men flying across the ring with reversals. Titan caught Knight with a flipping kick to send him off the apron and then bounced off the ropes, but he ran into a springboard clothesline from Knight. Now Titan rolled to the outside and Knight flew to the outside onto Titan with a plancha. The action was back in the ring and Knight dropped a standing frog splash.

Knight then locked in an abdominal stretch, but Titan broke the hold to a superkick and a sidekick. It seemed like he was regaining momentum, however, Knight caught him with a dropkick that sent him to the floor. He then looked for another plancha, but Titan moved out of the way and dove through the ropes hitting Knight with the Titan Suicida. Titan looked to continue with his aerial offence and dove from the top rope, however, Knight moved out of the way before driving Titan into the mat with a spine buster.

A spinning kick from Titan. Credit: NJPW

Both men were exchanging chops in the middle of the ring until Titan hit Knight with a spinning kick. He then attempted the springboard tornado DDT twice and both times it was reversed. Knight capitalized on the reversals by dropping Titan with a Death Valley Driver. He then went for his signature spike DDT, but Titan flipped him over and delivered a flurry of kicks. Titan now took a run at Knight, but Knight hit him with a Pelé kick and followed that with an avalanche hurricanrana.

Knight went for another Death Valley Driver, but this time Titan blocked and spiked Knight into the mat with the springboard tornado DDT. Titan kept Knight in his grasp to then hit a facebuster and a devastating super kick. He now went to the top rope and dove off dropping the double stomp on Knight’s chest. Titan then locked Knight into the Llave Inmortal and he had no choice but to submit.

Titan gets the win to move to 8 points, A Block has four men sitting at that. Blake Christian, El Desperado, Clark Connors and Titan all are tied at the top of the block.