A BUSHI win paired with a Kyle O’Reilly loss kept Los Ingobernables’ thin hopes alive.

5/31 Day 9:

BOSJ matches:

A Block

-BUSHI (2-3) def. David Finlay (1-4)

-Matt Sydal (4-1) def. Rocky Romero (2-3)

-KUSHIDA (3-2) def. Gedo (1-4)

-Ryusuke Taguchi (4-1) def. Kyle O’Reilly (3-2)

Notes:

• BUSHI climbed out of the basement at Finlay’s expense but it was probably too little too late at this juncture.
• After a strong start, Rocky Romero has flamed out with 3 straight losses.
• I enjoy the little details that make pro wrestling seem more like a real sport. Even though he won, KUSHIDA still complained to the ref after the match that Gedo had hit him in the nuts. Also, O’Reilly tapped out to an ankle lock and carefully removed his boot before putting an ice pack on the injury.

The Road to Victory:

With only two matches to go for each wrestler, the A Block overall picture is beginning to crystallize.

1. Ryusuke Taguchi is in the driver’s seat at 4-1 with a victory over Matt Sydal, the other 4-1 competitor. His easiest path is to just win, baby. That means defeating BUSHI and Gedo. Not terribly unrealistic goals.
2. Matt Sydal is tied with Taguchi at the top but lost to him straight up on Day 1. He needs to beat KUSHIDA (tough) and David Finlay (less tough) and hope BUSHI or Gedo can upset the Funky Weapon.
3. Kyle O’Reilly sits at 3-2 with a 2 match losing streak. The worse news for him is that those 2 losses were to the gentlemen sitting above him in the block. He needs to defeat David Finlay and Rocky Romero (easiest schedule left, in my opinion), then hope for four shocking upsets of the guys ahead of him or to finish in a messy multi-man tie at 5-2 and hope his win over KUSHIDA can help him. I don’t even know how they would break multi-man ties so it’s most likely not going to be booked that way.
4. KUSHIDA is also 3-2, and despite losing to O’Reilly on Day 1, he’s actually in better shape. First he has to get to 5-2 by beating Matt Sydal and BUSHI. If he does that, he would hold head-to-head tiebreakers over both guys currently at the top and would only need Taguchi to drop one to BUSHI or Gedo.
5. BUSHI has been in critical condition ever since his disastrous 0-3 start but like those 7-8 NFL teams in a bad conference in Week 17, he is still mathematically alive.  BUSHI needs to get to 4-3 by winning against Taguchi and KUSHIDA (toughest remaining schedule), and hope he finishes tied with just those guys. The worst part of this plan is that it requires both O’Reilly and Sydal to lose to David Finlay AND Taguchi losing to Gedo.
6. Rocky Romero is also not dead yet but he’s like the mathematically alive 6-9 NFL team in the last week. He needs to beat Gedo and Kyle O’Reilly. Then he needs to hope there is a 6 way tie at 4-3 and that his wins over KUSHIDA, BUSHI and O’Reilly help him more than his losses to Taguchi and Sydal hurt him. Again, no idea how that tiebreaker would work, so it almost certainly won’t happen.
7. David Finlay is eliminated at 1-4 but if Gedo loses out, he won’t finish in the basement, which is quite an accomplishment for a Young Lion. He could still play spoiler for O’Reilly and Sydal.
8. Gedo is eliminated but could play spoiler for Rocky Romero and Taguchi.