Ariya Daivari vs. Akira Tozawa
Daivari cut a promo in what I assume is Persian. He then switched to English and said he’s competed all around the world and there is no better competition than in his home country of Iran. Daivari talked about famous Iranian champions and their history defeating great Japanese fighters, and claimed that he would do the same thing to Tozawa tonight.
Tozawa had his shoulder and chest tapped up after the effects of the last few weeks. He still came out of the gate swinging with rights and lefts, then hit a running senton. Daivari begged off into the corner forcing the ref to get involved, then tried to take a cheap shot only to get kicked in the face. Tozawa dodged a corner splash and went to the top turnbuckle but got caught as Airya pulled his injured shoulder down over the ropes. From there Daivari took total control, throwing his opponent into the corners and off the ring post, focussing completely on the shoulder. He locked in an armbar over the bottom rope until the ref made him break it, but went right back to it as Tozawa screamed out in pain. The assault continued on the outside as he got thrown into the barricades and the ring steps. Daivari wedged his shoulder in between the steel ring steps and lined up to crush him, but Tozawa kicked him in the face to stop it from happening. Akira rolled back into the ring and popped off with a hurricanrana then started throwing elbows with his one good arm. The crowd started his battle cry and Tozawa went flying to the floor to take out his opponent with a suicide headbutt, but probably hurt himself just as much by doing so. They got back into the ring just before 10, and Tozawa climbed slowly to the top rope but once again got caught as Daivari went back to the injury. He looked to put the match away but Akira came out of nowhere with a running knee strike. A rollup attempt got countered into an jumping armbreaker, wrenching the shoulder back. Daivari went to the top and came down with a big splash right on top of the bandages, but Tozawa reversed a rollup with a handful of tights to steal the victory. // Winner: Akira Tozawa
– Daivari was not happy with that decision, and threw Tozawa shoulder first into the ring post after the match.
