Full disclosure: I’m not the world’s biggest Lucha Libre fan, so I’ll be skipping out on reviewing NJPW’s Fantasticamania shows. Instead, I’ll be catching up on whatever 2018 Japanese wrestling shows up first on the Real Hero drive, starting with my old friend ZEN NIHON PRO-WRESTLING! I’ve seen a few Miyahara and Suwama matches here and there, but I haven’t watched a full All Japan show in ages, so I’m PSYCHED. Let’s get our stream on and see what this new Jun Akiyama-led version of AJPW is all about.
Yusuke Okada vs. Keiichi Sato
Okada’s a one year rookie that also happens to be a dead ringer for 1999 Minoru Tanaka. He’s also an aggressive little bastard that isn’t afraid to forearm Sato right in the mouth or soccer kick the crap out of him for your viewing pleasure. Sato’s been around for a little longer, yet he mostly comes off as a blank slate of a wrestler without much character. Some of the transitions are a bit tentative but Okada still manages to win the crowd over with his feistiness. Sato ends up putting him away with a big Zerosen kick followed by a Darkness Buster-type thingy. A fine little opener. **1/4
Jun Akiyama then comes out to formally introduce Atsushi Maruyama, the former Tigers Mask in Osaka Pro, as All Japan’s latest signee. WHY NOT!
Osamu Nishimura, Yohei Nakajima & Ultimo Dragon vs. Masanobu Fuchi, Dick Togo & Atsushi Maruyama
The 2018 All Japan midcard scene is full-on 90’s WAR-level randomess and I kind of love it. 100 year old Masanobu Fuchi working old man comedy with Ultimo Dragon of all people, Dick Togo randomly showing up and still being awesome, New Japan traitor Nishimura still throwing out European uppercuts like it’s nobody’s business. This barely lasts 4 minutes but DICKMANIA works a great finish with Nakajima, smoothly hooking on his Crossface submission out of a La Magistral kickout. All of this happened. **
Kento Miyahara, Yoshitatsu, Naoya Nomura & Yuma Aoyagi vs. Ryouji Sai, The Bodyguard, KAI & Hikaru Sato
Man, Miyahara is over as hell in Korakuen. This is 7 minutes of super fun fast-paced wrestling with Kento working the crowd like crazy and guys stiffing each other left and right. Ryouji Sai, whom I vaguely remember as a somewhat promising ZERO-ONE upstart, makes a good impression by kicking the shit out of Nomura. With the Triple H comedy gimmick behind him and now part of Kento’s Nextream group, Yoshitatsu seems to have leveled up from terrible to kind of watchable. Kento and Sato work a fun finish together and I’m digging Sato’s BattlARTSian mix of shoot submissions and skull-shattering kicks. Miyahara manages to put him down after a pair of Blackouts. Liked this. **3/4
18-Man New Year Openweight Battle Royal
Half of this is Masanobu Fuchi hitting body slams on people as everyone stands by and watches. It’s not exactly must-see wrestling is what I’m saying. All comedy all the way until KAI picks up the win with the Meteor Impact (Shinsuke’s Landslide) on Maruyama.
Suwama, Shuji Ishikawa & Atsushi Aoki vs. Jun Akiyama, Takao Omori & Koji Iwamoto
Suwama and Ishikawa teaming up as the VIOLENCE GIANTS is a truly awesome thing. They won the RWTL in December and now they’re gunning for Akiyama and Omori’s tag titles. This has a bunch of brawling and beefy heavyweight wrestling and I’m well into it. The Suwama/Omori portion doesn’t exactly light the world on the fire, but Akiyama/Ishikawa is a real blast. Atsushi Aoki is now wearing a weird mask that makes him look like low-rent Kendo Kashin and I have no idea what is going on. Anyway, he does have a fun exchange with Iwamoto for the finish and gets the tap out win with a flying cross armbreaker. A fun match that piqued my interest for the Violence Giants/Wild Burning tag title match. ***
TAJIRI © vs. Kotaro Suzuki – AJPW Jr Heavyweight Title
Old man TAJIRI being All Japan’s junior champion in 2018 is a puzzling thing, but here we are. Kotaro comes out with some epic Japanese super hero entrance gear that would make Kenny Omega blush. He also gets booed a lot, which feels weird. This is one half of a pretty good wrestling match and then a very abrupt ending. There’s a slow feeling out opening and then Kotaro starts going after TAJIRI’s mid-section and the guy just sells his ass off. Seriously, shockingly compelling selling from TAJIRI who just looks in a world of hurt. It’s the best thing about TAJIRI in this match, because his offense doesn’t do much for me.
The WWE-style open-hand punches feel completely out of place in Japan and his constant reliance on ref bumps keeps hurting the match’s pace. They do a good job teasing the EVIL GREEN MIST and there’s a cool spot where they trade off handspring elbows but then the match just ENDS out of nowhere. TAJIRI connects with the mist and finishes off Kotaro with the Buzzsaw kick. I don’t know!? Not a bad match, but it feels very off-brand for All Japan to have TAJIRI doing this stoogey heel shtick championship run in the middle of their recent no non-sense, old-school wrestling-based resurgence. **3/4
Joe Doering © vs. Zeus – Triple Crown
Anyone vaguely familiar with modern New Japan knows that current gaijin wrestling is hugely influenced by the flashier side of American indie wrestling. And amidst the ROH cross-promotion, the Will Ospreay spot-fests and other Kenny Omega 7-star matches: Joe Doering sticks out like a sore thumb, in the best possible kind of way. The guy’s entire shtick is a pure throwback to the Stan Hansen era of gaijin wrestling. There’s absolutely nothing fancy about him, his matches have a real sense of danger and he comes off as a total monster. This match is a great example of that, as there’s this constant looming dread that if Doering gets a hold of Zeus: the guy will get killed.
Last time I saw Zeus, he was an awkward body-builder in Osaka Pro. Now he’s part of one of All Japan’s top tag teams with his bro The Bodyguard and made it all the way to a Triple Crown title shot. They grow up so fast! His performance against Doering falls a bit short at times but he does pull through and comes up with some truly inspired shit when it matters the most. Let’s start with what worked really well: the brutal chop battles and various strike exchanges, Zeus hoisting up the SUPER HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPION into fucking press slams and suplexes, Joe’s CRAZY-ASS flying cross bodyblocks and the whole bit where Zeus slipped out of the Revolution bomb, clocked Joe with the nastiest lariat and then got him up into the Jackhammer for a Korakuen-destroying near-fall. Grade-A heavyweight wrestling.
Now, the two bugs that slightly held the match back for me. Zeus is a guy who doesn’t have the most amazing timing, and a lot of his high-flying bodybuilder offense feels badly telegraphed in this match, with Doering forced to stand around awkwardly for a lot of the setups. Second thing: the match clearly peaked after the Jackhammer near-fall and all of Joe’s near-falls on Zeus before the finish come off as filler before the inevitable Revolution bomb.
But yeah, still an awesome match that has me hooked line and sinker for this Joe Doering Triple Crown reign. Zeus truly did his best out there, but I can’t imagine how great of a match Joe could have with someone like Miyahara. ***3/4
A fun if slightly inessential introduction to 2018 All Japan. Doesn’t quite have the spark and excitement of modern day NJPW, but it already seems miles ahead of the Keiji Muto-era AJPW in terms of presenting a coherent product and pushing forward interesting new faces. The main event should be seeked out by any fan of old-school Hansen/Vader-type heavyweight brawls and WHO KNOWS, I might come back to check out more from Doering, Miyahara, Akiyama and co. in 2018.
