Promotions Watched: AJPW, NOAH, DDT, Dragon Gate, Ganbare Pro
In order to ease us into Japan’s dreadful return to empty arenas, April gave us a whole bunch of great wrestling. Both with crowds and without. The 2021 Champ Carnival took up most of my reviewing time and proved to be one of the most painless tournaments in recent memory. No weak participants, reasonable match lengths all over and top-tier performances from the usual suspects. If All Japan can maintain this kind of momentum through the state of emergency/empty arena period, they’ll be in a pretty exciting place when the crowds return.
The big surprise of the month came from GanPro, who knocked it out of the park with a Show of the Year-level Korakuen stacked with a ton of bangers. The must-see Sasaki/Ohka death match odyssey grabbed the #1 spot, but you should just check out the entire show and immerse yourself in the Ganbare world. Probably the most underrated promotion going right now.
I am starting to drag my feet with both Dragon Gate and NOAH. The Ark managed to sneak in at #2 via the Sugiura/Kazzer slug-fest, but I’m not loving the direction of the company at the moment. Meanwhile, DG chugged along with their recent trend of efficient stories but slightly-inessential wrestling. You could likely skip this entire month of DG Network content and head straight for Dead or Alive without much consequences.
The Top 10
- Takashi Sasaki vs. Ken Ohka – Fluorescent Light Tubes Death Match (GanPro 4/7/2021)
- Kazuyuki Fujita vs. Takashi Sugiura – GHC National Title (NOAH 4/29/2021)
- Suwama vs. Kento Miyahara – Champion Carnival (AJPW 4/25/2021)
- Kento Miyahara vs. Yuma Aoyagi – Champion Carnival (AJPW 4/29/2021)
- Jake Lee vs. Yuma Aoyagi – Champion Carnival (AJPW 4/18/2021)
- Suwama vs. Zeus – Champion Carnival (AJPW 4/11/2021)
- Kento Miyahara vs. Zeus – Champion Carnival (AJPW 4/9/2021)
- Suwama vs. Yuma Aoyagi – Champion Carnival (AJPW 4/24/2021)
- Keisuke Ishii & Shota vs. Yuki Ueno & Shunma Katsumata (GanPro 4/7/2021)
- HARASHIMA & Yuji Okabayashi © vs. Jun Akiyama & Makoto Oishi – KO-D Tag Team Titles (DDT 4/18/2021)
Honorable Mentions
1. Shinjiro Otani vs. Yuma Aoyagi – Champion Carnival (AJPW 4/9/2021)
2. CIMA vs. Hikaru Sato – AJPW Jr. Heavyweight Title (AJPW 4/25/2021)
3. Suwama vs. Shotaro Ashino – Champion Carnival (AJPW 4/29/2021)
4. Asuka, Hagane Shinno & Shinichiro Tominaga © vs. Shigehiro Irie, Yumehito Imanari & Yuna Manase – GWC 6-Man Tag Team Titles (GanPro 4/7/2021)
5. HARASHIMA vs. Baliyan Akki (DDT 4/4/2021)
