Dylan James vs. Atsushi Maruyama, Atsuki Aoyagi, Hokuto Omori & Dan Tamura – Handicap Match
A handicap match is one of wrestling’s most criminally underused booking tools. It’s such an easy way to get a monster hoss over – and is there a more compelling visual than one guy fighting off multiple dudes? This hit all the right notes of handicap squashage and All Japan undercard comedy, except for the ending. What the hell, man. James should 100% have gone over these guys. This man should be protected more. **1/4
White Menso-re & Black Menso-re vs. Takao Omori & Masanobu Fuchi
‘’Keep your friends close and your enemies closer’’ – Jun Akiyama, donning the mask of White Menso-re in All Japan’s dimly-lit locker room before the match. What a spectacular new twist to the blood feud between Akiyama and Mensore. Did Paul Heyman take over AJPW as well? Illegal closed fists were thrown and masked men were body slammed across Korakuen Hall. SHA! **
Hikaru Sato, Joel Redman & Osamu Nishimura vs. Jake Lee, Naoya Nomura & Koji Iwamoto
Joel Redman is back and I’m still not sure about this guy. Seems like a perfectly nice man, but the slow motion Johnny Saint spots in this match didn’t really help his case. And that’s it for the whiny section of this review, because the rest of this match was quite rad. Nishimura getting to wrestle other people than the Masanobu Fuchi 2nd Match Squad is always great and Iwamoto/Sato tore it up for the finish. Also, holy shit at Jake and Iwamoto’s rope-assisted neck screw/big knee strike combo. **3/4
AJPW has a new president AND THINGS ARE ABOUT TO CHANGE AROUND HERE! The Wild Card Rule will be instilled starting next Monday and all new storylines shall now be kickstarted on social media.
Some days you get caught in Twitter’s endless spiral of bullshit and think to yourself ‘’God damn, pro-wrestling is actually trash’’. Thankfully, for every garbage Janela/Enzo stunt, there’s stuff like the KENTO MIYAHARA SUPERFAN CONTEST to bring a smile to my face. Kid Kento obviously deserved to win the Break Heart necklace, but I had a soft spot for Sexy Kento. What a tremendous segment.
Kento Miyahara, Yoshitatsu & Yuma Aoyagi vs. Suwama, Shuji Ishikawa & Yusuke Okada
A proper blast of house show multiman wrestling fun. Aoyagi is always efficient as the babyface in peril getting crushed to pieces by the Violence Giants, but the real highlight of this match was FUTURE ACE YUSUKE OKADA going after Kento like a man possessed. This kid has watched a shitload of Toshiaki Kawada tapes and he knows that when the Ace is standing right there on the apron, you have to take a shot at him at all times. Japanese Wrestling 101. Loved the ending stretch that they put together with Miyahara pulling a great Psycho Kento face when he decided he had enough of Okada’s shit. Kid Kento celebrating with Real Kento after the match is what dreams are made of, baby.***
Zeus vs. Ryouji Sai – Triple Crown #1 Contendership
The new All Japan president’s first order of business should be to organize a roundtable discussion between Sai and Yoshitatsu on Spiderman: Far From Home. Before getting to this momentous occasion, we had to get through this here match and it wasn’t always the easiest task. Admittedly, the crowd was a bit drained from the previous two KENTO-CENTRIC segments, but also Ryouji Sai has the weirdest fucking pacing in wrestling. This man will slow a match down at all the wrong moments but will also get the crowd to go into instant panic mode by kicking the absolute dog shit out of Zeus.
And that’s about how the whole match went: an uneven mix of ‘’ok what are you guys doing’’ and brutal chop/lariat throwdowns. For every bizarre crowd exploration segment that didn’t really go anywhere, there was a cool moment like Sai selling the hell out of his own Superplex or Zeus busting out the ZEUS FROG SPLASH. Maybe these guys just don’t have the best chemistry, I don’t know. A good enough match, but not up to 2019 Zeus Standards. ***1/4
