Yoshitatsu & Oji Shiiba vs. Hokuto Omori & Yusuke Kodama
These men completed the task at hand and opened this show with a professional wrestling match. We last saw Shiiba in the Champions Night 4 opener where I revealed his back story as a lost Dragon Gate trainee. Please note that his background has NOT changed since then. Tatsu’s special Osaka gear is now officially canon thanks to Hokuto loudly calling him ‘’OSAKA VERSION YOSHITATSU’’. That’s big facts. **1/4
Kuma Arashi vs. Black Menso-re
A savage No Mercy N64 style brawl around Osaka Tsurumi Ryokuchi Hanahaku Memorial Park Dogwood Hall. By gawd. The architecture of this venue is 100% bonkers so I can’t blame these two for wanting to explore. PS – Remember when Kuma beat Kento during the Carnival!? Shit was wild. Perhaps we’ll see more of this friendly bear once the Yuji Nagata booking fees are all paid up. **1/4
Jake Lee, Takao Omori & Cyrus vs. Shuji Ishikawa, Kohei Sato & Ren Ayabe
Royal Road Tournament previews galore, as we got sneak peeks at two first round matches in Jake/Ayabe and Ishikawa/Cyrus. The dynamic between Lee and JTO’s gentle giant is very good – a proper Clash of Tall Men that should get Jake’s mind off losing the Triple Crown. Meanwhile, Cyrus continues to be an acceptable Vader analogue. It is safe to presume that the match with Big Shuj will feature much meat consumption. **1/2
Zeus, The Bodyguard, Yuma Aoyagi & Atsuki Aoyagi vs. Yuji Nagata, Hikaru Sato, Dan Tamura & Ryo Inoue
Bald Zeus is freakin’ loose. The Osaka Pro President came back to bless AJPW with this fun house show romp and life was good. Big Guns reunited, Aoyagi Bros muscle shenaniganz, old man Nagata doing his thing. What more do you need from your AJPW house shows? **3/4
Kento Miyahara & Rising HAYATO vs. Suwama & TARU
It’s somewhat hilarious that the big Voodoo Murders Try To Recruit Kento Miyahara angle was kickstarted in a match that Kento treated as a full on comedy showcase. There was a spot where TARU literally tried to murder Kento by tossing him off a balcony, but Miyahara kept working the match in Jim Carrey mode. I’m a big Jim Carrey fan. **1/4
Tiger Mask © vs. Izanagi – AJPW Jr. Heavyweight Title
Finally, the ultimate dream match – Tiger Mask vs. Tigers Mask. It took them a while to figure out where they wanted to go, but thanks to Izanagi’s natural babyface energy and Tiger’s murdery big match offense, they ended up in a pretty decent place. The execution felt a tad sharper than in TM’s previous two defenses and Izanagi took that Millenium suplex like a god damned pro. Who will be Tiger Mask’s next challenger? It is I, Captain Lou. No wait, it’s Hokuto Omori. ***
Shotaro Ashino & Ryuki Honda © vs. T-Hawk & Shigehiro Irie – AJPW Tag Team Titles
Beach shirts. Sunglasses. The battle for summer supremacy is ON. This followed the usual Ashino/Honda layout – the cinematic experience known as Ryuki Honda Getting The Shit Kicked Out Of Him For Your Viewing Pleasure. Irie was absurdly vicious in his beatdown, just elbowing the daylights out of your favorite marshmallow warrior.
Elsewhere, Ashino got to renew his vows with his two best opponents from the Champ Carnival. You know this man enjoys slapping meat with T-Hawk. I would’ve taken a longer ending stretch, but at least the champions brought back the freshly-minted double team destruction that they introduced in Korakuen Hall. No non-sense protein-based wrasslin’. ***1/2
