Francesco Akira vs. Baliyan Akki
All Japan’s willingness to embrace the indie sleaze never ceases to amaze me. Akki hails from Gatoh Move, the cult apartment wrestling promotion that frequently pops up on your Deep Puro timeline in the form of charmingly weird GIFs. Baliyan left the shenanigans on Twitter and had a straight-forward match with my favorite Italian Warrior Child, complete with angry forearm exchanges and fairly compelling chain wrestling. Akira worked his underdog magic and made the mother of all comebacks by busting out the old school Satoru Sayama FLYING CROSS CHOP! You know TAJIRI’s been showing him some classic Tiger Mask tapes. The boy also seems to have a new Angel’s Wings-esque finisher (shades of Christopher Daniels), which he setup nicely with an Ospreay-esque twirly thing. I’ve already exceeded my namedrop limit and we’re one match into this review. Fuck. **1/2
Yoshitatsu, Yusuke Okada & Ryuji Hijikata vs. Kuma Arashi, Yusuke Kodama & Hokuto Omori
HIJIKATA! I missed this man’s entire WRESTLE-1 run but supported him wholeheartedly when he was having opening match bangers with Takeshi Ono in BattlARTS. To no one’s surprise, seeing him kick the shit out of young Hokuto was a real good time. The whole match was a blast actually. The first half felt like a house show crash course in referee distraction: Omori leaning into the newfound Enfants Terribles heelishness – slowly but surely learning to Cheat 2 Win. Then Kuma and Okada worked a wild crowd-popping finish, Yusuke taking a full-on paralyzing neck bump for the big bear’s killer lariat amongst other fun highlights. **3/4
Jake Lee & Koji Iwamoto vs. Takao Omori & Black Menso-re
These guys had a super fun All-Asia tag title match earlier this year before COVID took over the world by storm. This was a much more expedited version of the match, but the chemistry was still there. Menso-re eye poke action, a bunch of solid wrasslin between Jake and Omori, a very clever rollup finish between Iwamoto and Menso-re. Check, check and check. Jake doing the giant leap frog into giant cross body was also very pleasing. Kuma Arashi rubbing off on him? **1/2
Yuma Aoyagi, TAJIRI & Atsuki Aoyagi vs. Zeus, Izanagi & UTAMARO
The upcoming TAJIRI/UTAMARO EWA title match is a real tough sell, so I appreciate TAJIRI trying to put over his shlob of an opponent as a major threat, but the way he went about it was nothing short of bizarre. He literally played dead during the entire Purple Haze beatdown and it made the thing feel like a complete drag rather than a gripping Southern wrasslin’ throwback. Thankfully, everything picked up big time on the other side of the hot tag as the Aoyagi Brothers saved the day with their glorious babyface offense. The ending felt more profoundly evil than anything else in the match: Izanagi forcing TAJIRI to watch UTAMARO’s horrifying HOMAGE TO YUJIRO Pimp Juice finish. A true vision of terror. **1/4
Shotaro Ashino vs. Hikaru Sato
The Enfants Terribles booking going into the upcoming Champ Carnival has been really strong and this was another step in the right direction. 12 minutes of tense grapplefuckery with Ashino coming off as a badass for going full-UWF with a legit Pancrase ass kicker. Both guys were working hard to snatch that fateful ankle lock but Ashino was able to get ahead thanks to his degree in SUPLEX MASTERY. The rare case of old man Wada enhancing the atmosphere of a match with his aggressive rope break enforcing. ***
Suwama, Shuji Ishikawa & Dan Tamura vs. Kento Miyahara, Jiro Ikemen Kuroshio & Rising HAYATO
What a fun main event this was. Not just an enticing lead-in for the upcoming tag title match at Korakuen, but also a pretty great showcase for EVOLUTION DAN TAMURA. The boy is more aggressive than ever and you can tell he’s trying to make a big impression on the Giants. He beat the shit out of HAYATO, unleashed a new Powerbomb finisher and even cut the post-match promo. YOU GO DANIEL. The other big highlight here was the interactions between Suwama/Ikemen, which started off as comedy but gradually became more intense as Suwama was refusing to sell the dreaded JACKET PUNCHES. Putting an old grump who won’t play along with Ikemen is definitely the most interesting dynamic for him at this point. Kento and Shuji also got to run through a few of their epic Big match sequences so I’m sure their chemistry will be on point in the 30th. Many things were accomplished here and a good time was had by all! ***1/4
