Yusuke Okada vs. Dan Tamura
Considering his level of experience, Okada is already so strangely good at playing grumpy veteran. Here he gave Dan The Man just the right amount of offense, made a lot of appropriately irritated faces for having to deal with Dan’s strikes and busted out a supremely well-timed kitchen sink cutoff that gave me serious Jumbo Tsuruta vibes. Simple wrestling is the best wrestling. Always. **1/2
Jun Akiyama, Osamu Nishimura & Atsushi Maruyama vs. Takao Omori, Masanobu Fuchi & Black Menso-re
This truly was the apex of Masanobu Fuchi midcard comedy wrestling. There was ultraviolence: Maruyama and Menso-re both getting viciously body slammed in the crowd. There was Meltzer-worthy 90’s All Japan learned psychology with Fuchi finally anticipating Akiyama would avoid his dropkick. There was Osamu Nishimura throwing European uppercuts. Years of midcard comedy wrestling have led us to this match and it was glorious. **
Kotaro Suzuki & Gianni Valletta vs. Yuma Aoyagi & Atsuki Aoyagi
THE AOYAGI BROTHERS ARE HERE. The commentator is selling them as the next great Brother Tag-Team and makes direct references to the Mascaras and Steiner brothers. GET EXCITED, BABY. They were the perfect fodder for Kotaro and Gianni’s grizzled vet onslaught and all 5 minutes of this match were brilliant. Atsuki played his role perfectly, getting over massively with his legit impressive chain wrestling skillz against Kotaro and then dying instantly at the hands of Valletta. **3/4
Koji Iwamoto & Hokuto Omori vs. Hikaru Sato & Takuya Wada
What a blast this was. Wada is a former Pancrase fighter like Sato and although his strikes looked weirdly terrible in this match, his mat game is next level stuff and watching him tie Hokuto into knots was all sorts of fun. Speaking of the little guy, this was a super inspired performance from Hokuto who stood up to the shooters and managed to rally all of Korakuen behind him for his bloody-mouthed showdown against Sato. Iwamoto was the perfect tag partner, letting Hokuto get all of the shine and only stepping in to Ipponzei the absolute fuck out of whoever stood in his path. Not a dull moment in sight. ***
Zeus, Dylan James & Nobe Bryant vs. Jake Lee, Ryouji Sai & Naoya Nomura
Another homerun 10 minutes of rock-solid AJPW midcard tag wrasslin’. Loved all the little stories running through this one. Sai and Zeus hate each other’s god damned guts! Nomura and Jake could be a force to be reckoned with if only they healed their friendship (AND THEN THEY DID)! Nobe Bryant has a sweet dropkick and will fearlessly dive over the top-rope for your sins! Then you had James chopping the shit out of everyone and that lovely post-match angle where Naoya and Jake finally shook hands. All good. ***
Suwama & Shuji Ishikawa © vs. Parrow & Odinson – AJPW Tag-Team Titles
Welp, this was kind of a miracle? The End absolutely look and act the part, but I’ve not been 100% convinced by their actual wrestling. Parrow in particular works kinda light for an All Japan hoss monster. That being said, Violence Giants took them by the hand for this match and they had a total car crash Korakuen banger.
Beefcake tag team action all the way with a truckload of epic spots including a brand new Superplex/Powerbomb combo from the Giants that Suwama sold brilliantly until the end of the match. Odinson walks the line between doing too many European uppercuts and doing just enough European uppercuts. I really dug his 2nd-rope flying variant.
Ishikawa unloading his entire god damned move-set on Odinson during the last minutes bordered on overkill for me, but it definitely got the crowd going. I still can’t say I’m fully on board with The End but the fan reaction is undeniable, so might as well do something with them. ***3/4
Kento Miyahara © vs. Yoshitatsu – Triple Crown
Yoshitatsu has gone from New Japan young lion, to WWE jobber, to Bullet Club Hunter (!?) to grown man wearing Spiderman-themed tassle-pants with half Great Muta makeup main eventing Korakuen Hall for the Triple Crown. It’s a wonderful pro-wrestling story, and this was a wonderful pro-wrestling match.
I had my doubts, but the All Japan faithful have accepted this man as the cornball that he is and he came off as an actually credible challenger for Kento. It also helped that the wrestling on hand was really, really fucking good. Miyahara has the most bulletproof formula in wrestling right now and on this fateful day in Korakuen, it made WORLD FAMOUS Yoshitatsu look like a million bucks.
Seeing Yoshitatsu step way up and work at such a high level was tremendous, but my favorite thing about the match was Kento leaning into his assholery and almost going full heel, turning Yoshi into a god damned hero in the process. The shit-eating grin while he was headbutting Yoshi into oblivion on the floor, the repeated BEEEEEEH psycho tongue faces, the muscle poses: all fantastic.
They went for some pretty complex modern NJPW-ish counter graps and I was shocked by how well Yoshitatsu was keeping up with all of it. The Codebreaker sequence that they pulled smoked anything from Chris Jericho’s recent output and now I just want to see what they would do with THE JUDAS EFFECT, baby.
This was a Kento Miyahara match, so the ending could’ve used a little less Blackouts and German suplexes, BUT I did like how they made the Yoshitatsu Fantasy seem like a semi-big deal. Make sure you stick around for the post-match Kento promo to fully appreciate the star power and incredible comedic timing of this man. ZEN NIHON SAIKO! ****1/4
