Hikaru Sato & Yusuke Okada vs. Koji Iwamoto & Hokuto Omori
Let it be known that the boy Yusuke Okada is turning into a total stud with his new blonde hairdo. Match itself was straight to the point, harmless opening match professional wrestling. Omori getting in some young boy hope spots and Okada comically miscalculating the distance on his diving headbutt were two things that kept me entertained. **1/4
Takao Omori, Masanobu Fuchi, Black Menso-re & Dan Tamura vs. Osamu Nishimura, Yutaka Yoshie, Atsushi Maruyama & Atsuki Aoyagi
Nishimura and Yoshie are here to resurrect the spirit of 2003 New Japan Pro-Wrestling and today they face a threat much greater than any member of the Makai Club. Yes, I’m referring to closed fist enthusiast Masanobu Fuchi. Seems like the honorable Dan Tamura didn’t get the memo this was supposed to be a throwaway match because he was going super hard against Yoshie and it was a beautiful thing! Clear highlight of the match. **1/4
Joe Doering & Jun Akiyama vs. Daisuke Sekimoto & Tsugutaka Sato
Don’t know much about this Tsugutaka Sato youngster other than he’s a former W-1 trainee and he seems to be very passionate about camo. Magic happens whenever Doering and Sekimoto get in the ring together and this was no exception – holy shit at Joe SHOOT TACKLING Big Daisuke out of his boots. I thought the W1 kid would get straight up murdered by the veterans, but they actually gave him a surprising amount of offense. Also, Joe Doering gets my eternal respect for using that leaping cross body as a finish. **3/4
Yoshitatsu & Joel Redman vs. Takashi Yoshida & Gianni Valletta – Real World Tag League
Could be because I’m an open Takashi Yoshida mark, but this totally worked for me. The tournament’s most earnest babyfaces clashing with the cartoonishly evil chain-wielding villains in a match with no crowd brawling filler and a couple of actually impressive pro-wrestling sequences – I AM HERE FOR IT! And yeah, it’s time to accept how great Yoshida is. If he would strictly limit himself to screaming SHADDAP while throwing throat thrusts, I would still love him, but the guy’s a genuinely capable pro-wrestler on top of being a hilarious character. Redman was selling the shit out of all the gouging and biting in this one. Good lad. ***
Zeus & Ryouji Sai vs. Parrow & Odinson – Real World Tag League
I keep flip flopping on The End, but they did allright here and didn’t need to be carried from A to Z. Parrow has no mobility whatsoever but he knows how to project a decent monster aura and Odinson took care of all the NXT-ready Athletic Viking spots. They were both a good fit for Zeus and his beefy brand of wrestling, that’s for sure. A pretty decent match that was boosted to another level thanks to some crazy Korakuen heat. ***
Kenta Miyahara & Yuma Aoyagi vs. Jake Lee & Naoya Nomura – Real World Tag League
Sweet Mother of Giant Baba, this was fucking wild. On top of being a perfect showcase for All Japan’s 4 Pillarz of the Future, this added another juicy layer of pure hatred to the Kento/Jake blood feud of 2019 AND continued the tag league elevation of your boy Yuma Aoyagi, spotlighting him as a total showstealer and reliable Big Match Guy.
Kento and Jake have watched all of the early 90’s AJPW TV tapes and know that the best way to heat up a rivalry is to continually boot your nemesis off the apron during tag matches. This is actual science – look it up. The constant shots these two maniacs were taking at each other added a delightful element of pure freakin’ chaos to the match, raising the tension and making it all feel like much more than just A Very Good Wrestling Match Between Four Good Wrestlers.
Miyhara’s assholery and Aoyagi DARING to steal the Gentleman Pose lit a serious fire under Jake, helping him come across as the Ace-level ass kicker he needs to be at all times. Meanwhile, it felt like Aoyagi was able to seize all of the big moments in this thing, what with the ridiculous GERMAN SUPLEX OUTTA’ NOWHERE and wild springboard dropkick of death. More than just a thrilling tag team wrestling match, this thing accomplished the minor miracle of making me actually-excited for January’s bizarrely-hotshotted Kento/Jake rematch. TAKE ALL OF THESE STARS! ****1/4
Suwama & Shuji Ishikawa vs. TAJIRI & KAI – Real World Tag League
Plot twist: all of the FBI intel was wrong. Instead of sparking incel shootings across the United States, Todd Philips’ Joker movie went on to fuel the HEEL SHENANIGANS of TAJIRI and KAI in All Japan Pro-Wrestling’s annual tag team tournament. We all should’ve seen it coming and truth be told, I am still reeling from the cultural shockwaves. I mean, look. The match wasn’t much but Suwama CHOKING THE MIST out of TAJIRI might have been one of the best finishes I’ve ever seen. *3/4
Suwama & Shuji Ishikawa vs. Jake Lee & Naoya Nomura – Real World Tag League Finals
The word ‘epic’ gets overused to the point it loses all meaning but I don’t know how else to describe this match. This presented the very real, visceral story of two young guys, battered and bruised from an all-out war with their generation rivals, pulling double duty and having to fight for their RIGHT TO PARTY against the deadliest team in All Japan (barely phased from their short match against two Joker stans). And all four guys here sold the shit out of this story, using the universal language of Pure-O-Resew to build up the Ultimate Uphill Battle.
As urgent and exciting as this all was, I loved the realistic attention to detail. Stuff like the weakened Lee/Nomura having to struggle for every move early on while the fresher Suwama/Ishikawa were easily able to toss them around right off the bat. Stuff like Jake having to repeatedly save Nomura’s ass due to all the accumulated damage. Speaking of Lil Naoya – while he was mostly a supporting character in the semi-finals, he was the clear protagonist of this match and all of his glorious potential was on full display.
The kid has a contagious fighting spirit and Korakuen Hall was 100% behind him for the frenzied last minutes of the match. Said ending stretch was a clear Shuji Ishikawa Production, as in: it had two or three near-falls too many, but Nomura’s underdog charisma and the insane heat from the crowd made it all work somehow. Watching Naoya go down for the count was heartbreaking but the quality of this match remains undeniable. Missed opportunity or not, I’m struggling to think of a more dramatic wrestling match in 2019. ****1/2
