Ren Ayabe And Ryuki Honda Advance To AJPW Royal Road Tournament Semifinals

By: Lewis Carlan

The first two competitors have reached the All Japan Pro-Wrestling Royal Road Tournament semifinals.

Ren Ayabe kept his hopes of winning the tournament for the second year in a row alive as he got past Xyon in a second round match to punch his ticket to the final four.

Xyon gave Ayabe all he could handle in a tough bout. Ayabe was able to put Xyon away at the 22:02 mark with his Death Roulette finisher.

Xyon praised Ayabe during his post-match backstage interview as Ayabe thanked Xyon for the match in a great show of respect by both warriors.

Photo Credit: AJPW

In the other second round match, Davey Boy Smith Jr. faced Ryuki Honda. Each combatant fought hard as they both hoped to secure a spot in the semifinals. Smith Jr. nearly pulled out a victory with a sit down powerbomb but Honda kicked out at the very last moment.

The end came when Smith Jr. hit a top rope suplex on Honda who turned the tables by wrapping up Smith Jr. to gain a three count and advance to the semifinals.

Ren Ayabe will face Ryuki Honda in one of the semifinal matches on Sept. 15 at Korakuen Hall.

The remaining second round matches to determine who secures the last two spots in the Royal Road Tournament final four are as follows:

Sept. 6th at Light Cube Utsunomiya:

• Royal Road Tournament -Round 2: Daisuke Sekimoto vs. Odyssey
• Royal Road Tournament -Round 2: Kento Miyahara vs. Naoya Nomura

Here are the full results for the AJPW Royal Road Tournament event on Sept. 3rd at Shin-Kiba 1st RING courtesy of purolove.com:

• Daisuke Sekimoto defeated Ryo Inoue (8:52) with an Argentine Backbreaker.
• HAVOC vs. Hokuto-gun: Shotaro Ashino & Oddyssey defeated Hokuto Omori & Kuma Arashi (9:24) after the Journey’s End of Oddyssey against Omori.
• Jun Saito defeated Seigo Tachibana (9:38) with a jack hammer.
• Kento Miyahara, MUSASHI & Seiki Yoshioka defeated Yuma Aoyagi, Atsuki Aoyagi & Rising HAYATO (14:43) after the Niten Ichiryu of MUSASHI against Atsuki.
• 12th Royal Road Tournament – Round 2: Ryuki Honda defeated Davey Boy Smith Jr. (15:50) via Pinfall.
• 12th Royal Road Tournament – Round 2: Ren Ayabe defeated Xyon (22:02) with the Death Roulette.