Our last Quarter Final was up next as Joel Hall made his way to the ring to a chorus of apathy from the crowd. Hall’s not shown them anything yet since his arrival in FRONTIER, only getting to this stage in the tournament due to a disqualification last night.
Yamamoto, however, got a great reception. He may have suffered a slump in form recently but last night he proved that he’s back to his best. He’ll be hoping to push on further in this tournament, to prove himself as the King.
The match started with a massive lariat from Yamamoto that almost took Hall out of his boots. Way to start a match, Hall looks dazed already! Yamamoto hoists Hall into the air and drops him head first with a brainbuster. He raises his arm as the crowd chant his name before turning round and waiting for Hall to get back to his feet.
But Hall doesn’t move. The referee checks on him briefly before throwing up an X signal with his hands. Other referees and Scott Mayo rush to the ring as Kenchi looks on in horror. A moment later and there’s a medic on the scene, helping to put Joel Hall on a stretcher before being taken out of the building.
The crowd were stunned, some of them chanted Joel’s name while others remained silent. No-one likes seeing someone get injured like this, it was obviously a head injury and everyone was fearing the worst on the scene, especially Yamamoto. He may be a giant and a monster in the ring but out of it he’s a quiet and respectful man. Causing such harm to an opponent is never in his plans.
Mayo got on the mic and announced there was a suspicion that Hall had been attacked backstage prior to the match, that he wasn’t at 100%. All it took were two big moves from Kenchi to finish him off. Yamamoto advances to a Semi Final encounter with Kevin Hardaway, but anyone can tell from looking at him that he didn’t want it to happen like this.