Yusuke Okada, Atsuki Aoyagi & Dan Tamura vs. Yuki Ishikawa, Takuho Kato & Akira Hyodo
Much to my chagrin, this Yuki Ishikawa is NOT the Father of BattlARTS, but a BJW young boy wearing indie shorts rather than black trunks, possibly meaning he is destined for death matches rather than the Strong division. Anyway, Akira Hyodo was the true revelation in this epic interpromotional warfare opener. A mini-Daisuke Sekimoto brickhouse bruiser that went after Okada like a god damned animal with brutal chest forearms and buckets of hatred. His partner Kato brought the Scott Hall-esque fallaway slam, which I appreciated a lot. Okada was great as the Zen Nihon Defense Team Leader. Loved all of this. ***
Jun Akiyama, Yuma Aoyagi & Ultimo Dragon vs. Masanobu Fuchi, Osamu Nishimura & Hikaru Sato
Equal parts hilarious and very sad, as Ultimo and Akiyama were DONE PLAYING GAMES and went (kinda) hard on poor Fuchi. Aoyagi and Sato seemed to be having the time of their lives doing the Masanobu Fuchi Comedy Match. Understandable. **1/4
Takao Omori, Black Menso-re & Hokuto Omori vs. Jake Lee, Koji Iwamoto & Hellboy
Motherfucking Hellboy is here and he comes out to KICKSTART MY HEART by Motley Crue. Fucking perfect. God bless whoever played him because moving around in the suit seemed completely impossible. The Sweeper lads were clearly having a blast teaming with this legend. Menso-re stepping up to the true Big Red Machine was high quality Pure-O-Resew. **1/4
TAJIRI © vs. Akira Francesco – EWA intercontinental Title
While this wasn’t great or anything, watching TAJIRI try to work a logical match around Akira’s flying highschooler energy was pretty fascinating. Most of the little dude’s offense looks weak as hell considering he weighs about half a ZSJ, but he does have some solid babyface instincts and knows how to play to the crowd. TAJIRI counterbalanced this nicely by cranking up his cranky veteran shtick and kept things simple and well-structured. If Akira gets on a strict all beef diet and chills out with the trendy indie offense, he could turn into a fun little wrestler. Also, I can’t not give him props for taking that TAJIRI superkick right in the face. ***
Dylan James & Kotaro Suzuki vs. Yoshitatsu & Joel Redman
Hell of a showcase for Gentleman Joel Redman who chain wrestled his ass off with real-life Gundam character Kotaro Suzuki and showed great proficiency in wristlock reversals and corner headstands. Giant Dylan James toying with puny humans is always a great time, but I’m once again left puzzled as to why he had to take the fall here. This dude has Top Gaijin written all over him and should be protected at all costs. **1/2
Suwama & Shuji Ishikawa © vs. Zeus & Ryouji Sai – AJPW Tag-Team Titles
As much as I like the people in this match, the action here really took a while to grab me. It just didn’t have the same spark as the best Violence Giants matches from this year. All of the crowd brawling opening and subsequent beatdown on Zeus lacked any kind of palpable hatred, making the first half a bit pedestrian. Zeus actually worked roughly 75% of the match for his team, which was probably for the best considering how uneven Sai can be, but it also reinforced the impression that these guys are an extremely random team and maybe not the best option to end this very good Violence Giants reign. That being said, Zeus is a great human being and shit got very real when he and Big Shuj started destroying each other with lariats and knees. Lots of crazy near-falls with Zeus working his ass off and Sai popping in from time to time to kick someone’s head off. Uneven but solid. ***1/2
Kento Miyahara © vs. Naoya Nomura – Triple Crown
Naoya Nomura will be Triple Crown champion one day. Today was not that day, but this match showed us a glimpse at a future with Nomura as All Japan’s reigning Baby Ace and it was a hugely promising. If his first title shot in March showed he had more fire and personality than anyone ever gave him credit for, this rematch was about him trying his hand at multi-layered main event wrestling. Limb work subplots, callbacks to previous matches, high spot thievery, secret death moves – all the tropes of the modern Japanese epic were on display and Nomura handled them with ease.
Meanwhile, Miyahara was at his best: working in full cocky heel mode and constantly staying one step ahead of Lil Naoya with a shit-eating grin on his face. The character work was right on the money from both guys: I was super invested in Nomura making Kento pay for his dickishness by destroying his ribs and using his own murderous apron German suplex on him. Do not cross this chubby-cheeked little boy.
Full disclosure: I watched this match knowing the result and I was still jumping out of my chair during the last few minutes. The reversals were as sharp as any big New Japan main event from this year and Nomura finally unleashed his FULL PERSONALITY, bursting with rage and desperation while pummelling Kento with his forearm barrages.
Ironically, the best thing about a wrestling match can sometimes be what is left on the table. During the mind-melting ending stretch, after he was unable to put Kento away with his regular finishers, Naoya went for a SPINNING MAXIMUM but couldn’t keep the champ in position and ended up eating the Shutdown German suplex. This is the kind of pro-wrestling insanity that I crave: Nomura might have the KENTO KILLER up his sleeve but we won’t know for sure until he hits it in a potential third match. Can’t wait. ****1/2
